Apple Discussion Thread

[Angry the Clown 4,181]

39 minutes ago, JFo said:

 

Would it even be possible to switch the RAM out of a Mac after the Apple Silicon transition? Would there be any RAM sticks you could buy that would be compatible with the new hardware?

 

I'd hope the physical application of ram to the system would not change. I really don't want to pay the Apple tax on 64 or 128GB or memory some day. It's a concern though, because I know how they'll probably want to use the benefit of their own silicon SOC to further their obsession with thinness. I'd hate to see ram access go from the larger iMac (and I don't like that you really have to carefully take the Mini apart to get to the RAM slots). 

 

I like the possibility that Apple silicon could finally allow performance parity between a Mac Mini and iMac though. I hope that's the route they go down, but I am still hoping they develop their own external displays (ideally with face id cameras built in), as two of those hooked up to a new Mini would be wonderful.

[AlbertA 696]

34 minutes ago, JFo said:

 

Would it even be possible to switch the RAM out of a Mac after the Apple Silicon transition? Would there be any RAM sticks you could buy that would be compatible with the new hardware?

 

 

These days a lot of it is soldered to the mainboard - but in any case yeah they still use DDR4 (which is a standard), so unless they drop that standard (doubtful) it should be possible (bar BIOS blacklisting/whitelisting, etc).

[Graeme 937]

4 hours ago, JFo said:

Interesting to see his thoughts on where the Mac Pro goes next.

So don’t forget to subscribe below!

[JFo 1,750]

3 hours ago, Angry the Clown said:

I'd hope the physical application of ram to the system would not change. I really don't want to pay the Apple tax on 64 or 128GB or memory some day. It's a concern though, because I know how they'll probably want to use the benefit of their own silicon SOC to further their obsession with thinness. I'd hate to see ram access go from the larger iMac (and I don't like that you really have to carefully take the Mini apart to get to the RAM slots). 

 

 

3 hours ago, AlbertA said:

 

These days a lot of it is soldered to the mainboard - but in any case yeah they still use DDR4 (which is a standard), so unless they drop that standard (doubtful) it should be possible (bar BIOS blacklisting/whitelisting, etc).

 

Yeah, I should probably clarify that I do not expect memory upgrades to return to Apple’s laptops any time soon along with upgradable storage and user-replaceable batteries. That ship has sailed and is not coming back.

 

The iMac — specifically the 27” model — is a different story, however. I was very happy to upgrade the memory in mine to 32GB for a fraction of the price Apple would charge. If third-party memory sticks are compatible with Apple’s silicon, I think there’s a chance Apple leaves it in the larger iMac as a means of appealing to pro users who may want the option to upgrade down the road.

 

8 minutes ago, Graeme said:

So don’t forget to subscribe below!

 

Welcome to YouTube!

[Angry the Clown 4,181]

7 hours ago, JFo said:

The iMac — specifically the 27” model — is a different story, however. I was very happy to upgrade the memory in mine to 32GB for a fraction of the price Apple would charge. If third-party memory sticks are compatible with Apple’s silicon, I think there’s a chance Apple leaves it in the larger iMac as a means of appealing to pro users who may want the option to upgrade down the road.

 

Well their current RAM sticks are re-badged as far as I know, so it should't be a problem to use any third party sticks. The only thing known to be different in the Mac Mini devkit is the SoC too, so from that we can probably assume that, yes, traditional memory works just fine with their silicon. I still worry about them taking it away from us though. Apple's behaviour with RAM, and pricing RAM, is the company at its worst and I wish I knew what their excuse was for such absurd markups (they doubled the price of RAM in some recent MBP refreshes too). 

 

Let's hope the memory access door stays on a new 27" iMac. It was removed from the iMac Pro, but that was for the complete re-design of the thermals and airflow which, with an Apple Silicon SoC, is going to be far less of an issue. Sadly I wouldn't be shocked to see them unveil a new iMac so slim that they solder everything into the main board like an MBP/iPad. 

[JFo 1,750]

27-inch iMac gets a major update

 

Major changes include SSDs for all the models in the lineup (including the 21-inch model), higher RAM capacity, updated CPUs and GPUs and a new nano-texture glass option similar to the one offered on the Pro Display XDR.

 

It looks nice, but with all the other tech crap on the horizon (i.e. new consoles), I doubt I will be getting one. This may be the last Intel iMac update, which might mean it’s the last chance to buy one that can run Windows in Boot Camp and double as a gaming PC.

 

Also, it sounds like Phil Schiller is stepping down from his role and Senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing and becoming an “Apple Fellow;” whatever that is. Greg “Jos” Joswiak will be taking over his role. 

[Angry the Clown 4,181]

1 hour ago, JFo said:

27-inch iMac gets a major update

 

Major changes include SSDs for all the models in the lineup (including the 21-inch model), higher RAM capacity, updated CPUs and GPUs and a new nano-texture glass option similar to the one offered on the Pro Display XDR.

 

It looks nice, but with all the other tech crap on the horizon (i.e. new consoles), I doubt I will be getting one. This may be the last Intel iMac update, which might mean it’s the last chance to buy one that can run Windows in Boot Camp and double as a gaming PC.

 

Nano texture glass is a 👍.  That's encouraging to think that it would presumably carry over as an option on a future re-designed model (comes in at an eye watering £500 premium to add it here though). So I guess with all the other additions like the SSDs, 10gig ethernet and T2 chip and the addition of a real Super Nintendo Chalmers "OH MY GOOD GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THERE?" 1080p webcam...etc, this will be the final bow for the old form factor, and while several of these new updates should have been added in previous iterations, it's nice to see it go out on a high like this.  Seems to have the microphone tech from the 16" MBP too.

 

A 3.6Ghz 10 core CPU, Nano Texture Glass, 5700 XT GPU, 2TB SSD, 10Gig ethernet and a magic trackpad comes in at £4449 before the cost of third party RAM. That honestly doesn't strike me as too obscene given how long such a system should last. Hard to justify an iMac Pro. I suspect that spec iMac will run might warm though. You'd save on winter heating bills at least.

 

Still, I shall wait. I may be making a heavy investment in some video equipment next year and I think my 2014 MBP can still keep up a little while longer (though that's to be confirmed. At worst I may have to do proxy editing), after which I will need to see where things stand with the Apple silicon Macs and Macbooks (if Apple Silicon Macbook Pros run cool and quiet then I might be convinced to have one again).

 

Whatever they do next year with the iMac, I think today's refresh is a pretty clear indication that they've put as many updates into the old form factor as possible to give it a fighting chance of staying in the iMac lineup for quite some time (honestly doesn't make sense to offer the nano texture, upgraded webcam, mic, speakers...etc if this isn't going to stick around as an option, so good for them for bringing it up to spec, even if a lot of it is so late in the game).

 

 

Quote

 

It looks nice, but with all the other tech crap on the horizon (i.e. new consoles), I doubt I will be getting one. This may be the last Intel iMac update, which might mean it’s the last chance to buy one that can run Windows in Boot Camp and double as a gaming PC.

 

Also, it sounds like Phil Schiller is stepping down from his role and Senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing and becoming an “Apple Fellow;” whatever that is. Greg “Jos” Joswiak will be taking over his role. 

 

I liked Schiller. That's a shame we won't see him at presentations anymore.

[JFo 1,750]

49 minutes ago, Angry the Clown said:

Still, I shall wait.

 

The most Daniel of all sentences. 🙂

 

I continue to be impressed with how well my late-2015 27-inch iMac continues to hold up. It still doesn’t feel slow for most tasks, but given that I ask nothing too intense of it, that’s not surprising. I think once Apple refreshes the form factor and adds Apple Silicon to the internals, I may finally make the transition. But as long as the system continues to feel fast and Apple supports it with the latest software updates, I will likely be in no hurry.

[Angry the Clown 4,181]

18 minutes ago, JFo said:

 

The most Daniel of all sentences. 🙂

 

 

 

Quote

I continue to be impressed with how well my late-2015 27-inch iMac continues to hold up. It still doesn’t feel slow for most tasks, but given that I ask nothing too intense of it, that’s not surprising. I think once Apple refreshes the form factor and adds Apple Silicon to the internals, I may finally make the transition. But as long as the system continues to feel fast and Apple supports it with the latest software updates, I will likely be in no hurry.

 

Right now my mid 2014 MBP is still fine, and I think it feels fine because I don't know any better having nothing modern to hand to compare it to. I hope to defer more tasks to the iPad as and when new apps appear, but those are day to day things really. If I do find my MBP struggling with 4k video then I may try LumaFusion on the iPad but there are some FCPX add ons I'd like to use so would ideally would still prefer to work with the computer (damn shame we don't have Final Cut on iPad, but LumaFusion did add XML support for FCPX earlier this year so I may be able to create a workflow between iPad and MBP if needs be).

[PHiL 166]

Been typing a lot on my iPad pro . So i decided to finally pick up the magic keyboard. I have been using it for a few days now and this thing is awesome. I bought an open box  to save a little on the price and its like it was never used. 

 

In an earlier post i had picked up Powerbeats pro’s and never did the review lol. I used them for a little bit and was very happy with the sound. However wearing a mask most of the day and when I’m out shopping having an over the ear earbud (With the mask straps)is not that comfy. I sold them and used that money to get the Air Pod Pros. The pros sit very well in my ears and half the time i forget i even have them In, Plus the noise cancellation on these things are amazing.

 

BTW did anyone pick up a skin for Magic keyboard? The all black is kinda boring lol  

I was thinking of getting this Retro Nintendo Skin

[rustyjaw 790]

I'm still rocking my Late 2012 iMac, which I had upgraded to the i7 at the time. And now that I'm working at home, I use it for daily image, video and layout production work and it's remarkably quick still. The writing is on the wall, though. Especially with the upcoming transition, I'm not sure if I want to have the last Intel rev, or hold on for everything to be smooth on the Apple Si end...

[Angry the Clown 4,181]

I'm stupidly shallow with the iMacs I think, and I am holding out more for a re-design than I am the Apple silicon. Again though, I am confident that they do intend to allow the Intel model to stay around for a couple more years given what they added to it yesterday, so when the time comes to make a decision if I feel confident that I'll be able to choose which road to go down. Right now I am most wary of what the hell Apple are planning on the GPU side of things in future Macs and Macbook Pros.

 

I think so long as I am working with a pro res workflow my MBP should be able to handle the video projects I'd like to pursue next year. I downloaded some 4k Pro Res 422 test clips last night and quicktime seems to open them just fine. I got frame drops on Pro Res RAW footage but that didn't surprise me, but I don't anticipate shooting anything in RAW next year but even if I do I can defer to proxies. I really should install the 90 day trial of Final Cut and mess around in there too (I don't know if we ever mentioned that. They've had extended 90 day trial offers available for Final Cut and Logic due to COVID if you download them via the Apple webpages for both).

[Starhawk 1,214]

If you were going to format a large external hard drive for your Mac, what format would you use? APFS, HFS+, or ExFAT?

 

This will be a usable drive for now over USB 3.1 gen 1 and later on the plan would be to relegate it to backing up another faster drive of the same capacity.

 

I don't think I will have to plug this into a Windows computer, and if I transfer to Windows it will probably over a network only, so not sure if there's a reason for ExFAT in that case. 

 

[kelley 776]

APFS

[rustyjaw 790]

Finally was able to look at the new iMac specs. I know it’s a bit backward thinking, but I’m very sad to see spinning disks go. I really like having a capacious internal drive on the iMac. And, to me, the fusion drive really performed much better than a normal drive. 
 

Now, decent internal capacity is a fortune. Oh well. 

[Angry the Clown 4,181]

I'm really not sure how much storage I'd want internally in an iMac. I priced up the new 27" model with a 2TB SSD, which seemed like a safe choice. Everything else I'd offload onto desktop raid storage over thunderbolt I think. A Macbook Pro I might think about differently, depending on what I anticipated doing with it and where I anticipated taking it, as if travelling and doing photo and video work it might be nice to max out storage on a laptop knowing you can offload your media to it (that's basically how I approached my iPad Pro purchase, so I have a little room to dump content from a couple of 64GB SD cards onto it if I need to reuse the cards while away from home).

 

I do worry about RAM on the future iMacs though as I've pretty much convinced myself that Apple are going to take the little access panel away and force people to pay the disgusting prices they charge. I simply do not trust them to do the right thing and let us change it once the desktops have switched to the new silicon. That's going to make things devastatingly expensive. I'm genuinely anxious about that happening. 

 

If the 21" is to move to 24" and become the first desktop model with the new SoC (and the lack of update this week might suggest such rumours are true), then it will be interesting to see if they have the decency to let users access the RAM. Of course, if they didn't on the smaller model it might not necessarily mean they won't on a bigger version down the road since historically the smaller iMacs have always denied such a "feature," so we'll see. I always assumed it was locked out on the smaller models due to the smaller body requiring more things to be soldered down, so now that so much will change internally, particularly on the power and cooling front, that may not be an issue preventing RAM access anymore (the roadblock would most likely be apple's obsession with making everything thin and little else). 

[Angry the Clown 4,181]

What time frame are we putting on Big Sur for launch? Early/mid October? I'm going to prep for a clean install this year as I have a lot of junk files on my drive.

[rustyjaw 790]

Yeah, I suppose I can rethink how I work now. I just don't like having a lot of external devices. I have a 5D Drobo now for all my external storage, I've just gotten used to having 2 storage devices. 3 somehow seems greater than 50% more complicated.

[Angry the Clown 4,181]

It's definitely something I will need to think about whenever I am ready for an iMac. If I owned a place I'd rip up the floors or cut into the walls and wire for 10gb ethernet. That'd be nice someday. 

 

My storage management is a headache with just a Macbook Pro. I don't mind the thought of drives being plugged into a desktop at all (especially those T5 drives that are so light you could just velcro them to the back of the computer out of sight), but drives, and cables all over my desk with a laptop is a mess and I hate a messy workspace. I have two WD drives, which I should probably replace soon as I have had them a long time, plus my 1TB Samsung T5. The WDs are backups, and the Samsung is my working drive. I still only use about 200GB of the 512 internally on my MBP.

[Angry the Clown 4,181]

Nano texture iMac comparison from The Verge:

 

 

Quote

My first two big reservations are, unfortunately, the sorts of things that can’t be resolved with just two days of testing. One is the price: at $500, it’s a super expensive upgrade, and only your tolerance for glare can tell you if it’s worth the price. Another thing that might help you decide if it’s worth is whether the finish is durable. That’s my second reservation: I just don’t know.

 

To explain why, I need to explain what this nano texture finish even is. Instead of just putting a matte coating on top of the glass, Apple is literally etching the glass at a nanometer scale. That process gives the nano texture finish a leg up on traditional matte screens in that images won’t look fuzzified. On matte screens, the light from the pixels gets scattered out. Apple’s finish, the company claims, mainly diffuses the light that hits from the outside and doesn’t scatter the light from the pixels as much. 

 

It’s a very fancy, very expensive solution to the problem. It’s very Apple. Also very Apple: the instructions that come with it that specify that you should only clean it the included microfiber cloth and that doing otherwise could damage the finish. Yikes.

 

A delicate screen on a $5,000 Pro Display XDR used in professional settings by professional adults who know what they have is one thing. A delicate screen on the iMac in the family room where dirt-covered children will paw at it because they rightly assume all screens should be touchscreens is something else entirely.

 

I asked Apple about the durability of the finish. I was told that they don’t want to give anybody the impression that it’s fragile, but that, yes: over time, using something too abrasive could mess up that finish. Unlike other screens, there’s really no coating on top of the nano finish; it’s just etched, bare glass. 

 

I doubt that anybody but Apple has a critical mass of user data on how the texture has fared on the XDR that could inform you whether it’s a responsible thing to pay for on a family iMac. 

 

So, again, I can’t tell you if it’s a good option. But I can tell you that it works great. It fully eliminates glare to the point where, for the first time, I was able to position my computer with a window behind me in my living room. It also doesn’t affect the sharpness of images or text on the screen much at all — but if you truly squint up close, you can see a little fuzziness.

 

 

https://www.theverge.com/21356416/apple-imac-27-new-webcam-nano-texture-screen-impressions-test-hands-on?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4

 

It looks so nice. The only thing that worries me about the nano texture option is Apple's strict insistence that you use their special cleaning cloth and nothing else or risk damaging the display. As someone who's occasionally accident prone I fear I'd develop paranoia over maintaining it.

 

 

[iainl 679]

As someone who would never use anything other than a microfibre cloth with either of my last two televisions or my monitors I'm not too worried about that. But then, I won't use anything else with my glasses either, so I've got tonnes of the things. I'd need some serious persuading to believe that Apple have new microfibre cloth tech.

[Angry the Clown 4,181]

Context: I scratched my pristine Dell monitor while CLEANING IT with a duster when prepping it for photos to upload onto eBay because... me. 

 

 

[iainl 679]

OK, now I'm terrified.

[Angry the Clown 4,181]

I could probably injure myself with a slice of bread rather than the knife I'm slicing it with though, so...

 

Worst thing about the Dell mishap was having to then immediately lower the asking price I had original planned to sell it for. I was at least lucky in that the scratch was RIGHT at the very bottom of the screen, and actually just outside of the pixel display area just above the bezel, but still... 😫

 

I also managed to scratch my Pioneer Plasma with a micro-fibre cloth way back when.

[Angry the Clown 4,181]

iMac reviews seem very good. It's going to be so interesting to see the Apple silicon models of the more powerful computers in the lineup like the 16" MBP and 27" iMac. I'm assuming it's going to take them longer to work on the chipsets for those which is why we're being told to expect Macbook Air 21" iMac (allegedly 24") and possible 13" MBP updates first, so we may not see a new 27" iMac (or what I am hoping will be 30") until 2022. This latest model is interesting as it sets a baseline in performance with both CPU and GPU and Apple would have to match/better in future in comparison to whatever the Intel and AMD offerings are at the time. 

 

GPU performance is the thing I am most curious about on the Apple SoCs. It really looks like the relationship with AMD is ending along with the Intel one, so I am eager to see what Apple have to compete with AMD on the bigger iMacs and 16" Macbook Pro in future, and how much of that power can now trickle down into smaller form factors like the Mini and 13" Macbook Pro. You'd think that those two shouldn't be hampered by lack of space/cooling for a dGPU anymore since everything's going to be on a single chip going forward, but we'll have to see.