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Admin

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  1. Admin

    Apple M3... a worthy upgrade for Intel'ers?

    By Admin,


    Mac & Macbook
    Apple broke with tradition yesterday, and held their first ever ‘Evening’ product launch event. There were a decent amount of rumours swirling around as to why they’d break with their morning precedent, ranging from the more left-field “they’ll be focusing heavily on gaming so it’s to align with the Japanese time-zone” to the more muted “it’s Prime Time, so it may lean on their TV presence”. It turned out to be neither, I think it’s safe to say that the evening slot was simply to differentiate it from the more ‘major’ launches and dare I say, to add a unique spin to an otherwise iterative and dull product update.
     
    Now don’t get me wrong, the announced M3 series of Apple Silicone chips are certainly exciting from both a performance and efficiency perspective, hower for those that had expectations of new iPad Minis, or even the long-overdue 27 or even 32 inch iMac launch, it was a bit lacklustre.
     
    So what was announced… In a nutshell, new MacBook Pro’s and a new 24” iMac.
     
    The new MacBook pro’s come in a 14” or 16” form-factor, much like the generation before. There’s notably no 13” MacBook Pro available anymore, so for that size you’ll need to be looking at the MacBook Air. The base-level 14” MacBook Pro, with the M3 chip starts at $1,599 USD and the M3 Pro and Max models (only available in the 16” size) start at $2,499 and $3,499 respectively.
     
    Given that the form factor is unchanged from the previous generation, Apple have opted to release a new colour to tempt those on the fence about upgrading. It’s called Space Black, and it does look awesome. Apple claims to have anodized it in a way that reduces finger-prints. However this is apparently only on the lid, and not the inner part of the device (around the keyboard and trackpad). 
     
    There’s already some controversy around these new MacBook Pro’s - but they can be broken down to these 3 main issues:
    The base model M3 starts with only 8GB of RAM (compared with 16GB for the last generation’s equivalent). In 2023, for a ‘Pro’ spec’d device, this is simply not good enough. 
    The base ‘M3’  equipped models only support a single external display - again, for a 2023 device marketed at ‘Pro’s and for this cost, is unacceptable.
    Finally, and you might be sensing a theme here, but the entry-level model also sports two Thunderbolt 4 port/USB 4 ports (versus the three found on the M3 Pro & M3 Max models).
    Now there may be some out there but say, all of these issues should be expected for the cheapest, entry-level device but to that I’d say, this is the Pro level MacBook. Even the lowest spec’d Pro device should start with 16GB of RAM and the ability to connect to multiple external devices. All of these gripes could be forgiven without the ‘Pro’ moniker.
     
    Grievances aside, there’s still a lot to celebrate with the new 3rd generation of Apple Silicone. In typical Apple fashion, we were shown lots of very simple-looking graphs demonstrating the performance, and relative performance-per-watt that the M3 series is capable of pumping out. And if they’re to be believed, these chips put out some serious, energy efficient power.
     
    The boldest of the performance claims was that the top-tier M3 Max chips is up to 11x more powerful than, and this is the important part, the most powerful Intel-based MacBook ever made. It’s a safe assumption that this refers to the 9th Gen  Intel Core  i9 found in the 2019 MacBook Pro’s which was no slouch. If we can imagine that this isn’t just Marketing and that there’s some validity to this 11x  performance increase, then the M3 series is a worthy upgrade contender for anyone still driving an Intel-based MacBook (yours truly included).
     
    And that wasn’t the only time Intel was referenced. There were a few comparisons vs. the Intel MacBooks performance and this could be simply due to it providing the best ‘marketing figures’ to pump the improvement numbers against, or, more likely, because that’s the demographic Apple are trying to reach and convince to upgrade.
     
    I think it’s safe to say that few people already rocking Apple Silicone devices are in need of a huge performance boost, so the obvious upgrade market is those still on the pre-2020 Intel models. Not only does this make sense from a Sales perspective, as these users will see the biggest gains and therefore are more likely to upgrade, but it also makes sense from a software development perspective. Apple will want to wind-down their support for the older Intel machines, and today they still have to firmly consider these devices and their relative performance levels when creating and updating MacOS features. So to avoid having to fork the OS too much (think how Stage Manager is only available on certain devices) it would be preferable for Apple to simply ‘force’ or encourage an upgrade super-cycle, get most of the user-base on to Apple M chips and then unlock the full potential of the software with less consideration those older devices.
     
    The question is, will incremental gains of the M2 series, as well as a Matte Black paint job do the trick?
     
    As always, time will tell. Let me know your thoughts down in the comments 
  2. Admin

    New Macs Incoming?

    By Admin,


    Mac & Macbook
    Apple's rumoured October Mac launch reportedly includes an updated 24-inch iMac
     
    Calling all Mac fans! So, there have been some differing rumours about whether Apple's going to have a product launch event this month or not. But now, Mark Gurman from Bloomberg says it's a go! And guess what? We might finally get a new iMac – the 24-inch one. Gurman's got some insider info, and he thinks it's ready to make its debut this month.
    But that's not all – there's more! If we look at the supplies in stores and the shipping dates for some MacBook Pros, Gurman's got a hunch that we might be in for some fresh MacBook Pro models too. Exciting times ahead!
     
    According to Gurman- “Apple retail stores are in short supply of the iMac, as well as the 13-inch MacBook Pro and high-end MacBook Pro — two other models that may be due for a refresh,” It’s interesting to note that there are shipping delays for these models as late as November. Adding to the mystery, Apple's earnings call this year is scheduled for November instead of the usual October. This timing hints that Apple might have something up its sleeve. The last time Apple posted its quarterly results in November was in 2018, and that followed an October 30 launch for new iPads and Macs. Gurman's has a theory that the launch event could happen on either October 30 or 31.
     
    The 24-inch M1 iMac made its debut back in April 2021, and it's had no updates since then. Seems like a prime candidate for a little makeover, right? And it's not just the iMac. The 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro, which hit the scene in June 2022, is also due for some sprucing up. But here's the twist: there was no Mac news during Apple's big iPhone-focused event last month. They were all about iPhones, Apple Watch reveals, and updates for iOS, macOS, and watchOS. Based on past experience with Apple, they often save the Mac news for independent announcements, and they kinda have a thing for doing it in October. So, fingers crossed for some exciting Mac news soon!





     
  3. Admin

    The Mac Pro gets... Pro-er

    By Admin,


    Mac & Macbook
    After years of complaints and concerns that the Mac Pro was lagging behind the rest of the lineup, Apple has finally announced that their top-of-the-range computer will be getting a much-needed upgrade to Apple silicon.
     
    Initially re-launched in July 2019, oddly close to the announcement of the first Apple silicon M1 chip just a year later in 2020, the Mac Pro 'cheese grater’ was conceived at a time of almost immediate obsolescence. Indeed, if you had bought the 2019 model only to find out a year later that Apple had firm plans to ditch Intel and move everything to their new, hyper efficient and performant own silicon, you would be excused for being a bit peeved.
     
    So it was natural I suppose, that Apple had to drag out the lifespan of the dead-on-arrival 2019 Mac Pro, giving it a new lease of life only in June 2023 during WWDC at Apple HQ.
     
    So what’s changed? On the outside, not a lot. In fact, you’d be forgiven for not being able to pick out the 2019 vs 2023 in a lineup. That’s not a bad thing, whilst initially divisive the ‘cheese grater’ design, as it’s colloquially known, has become something of a status symbol. Whether intentional or not, it screams ‘I have at least $6k to spend on a computer’. Personally I love it, and even made attempts to secure a knock-off Windows equivalent case at one point, before the crowd-funder went rogue and splashed all the backers cash on a life in Bali. More on that at another time. The only perceivable change would be to the IO on the rear of the device, which now has 6 thunderbolt ports in its top row, flanked by 2 HDMI 2.1 ports, 2 USB Type-A’s and a 3.5mm audio jack.
     
    On top we still get two thunderbolt ports (making 8, in total), the power button and a convenient carry-handle which doubles as the mechanism to remove the side panels.
     
    Spec and IO
     
    It’s on the inside that the real upgrades exist. The new Mac Pro launches with the also-new M2 Ultra chip. Without boring you with all the technical jargon, the headline figures for the M2 Ultra are that it rocks 24 CPU cores, up to 76 GPU cores for graphics handling, as well as a whopping 192GB of RAM which can be accessed up to a lightning fast 800GB’s every second. All of this together apparently allows the Mac Pro to playback up to 22 streams of 8K Pro-Res video simultaneously. Now, I’m not sure who (if anyone) would ever need to do that, but it’s good to know that you could?
     
    From an IO perspective, the eight thunderbolt ports can allow you to power up to eight 4K displays (at 240hz, no less) which is a phenomenal amount of bandwidth. Again, I’m not sure who needs to be able to do that, so this is definitely aimed at the bona-fide professional crowd, rather than the ‘prosumer’ or enthusiast. The inclusion of 2 HDMI 2.1 ports is welcomed, giving you the flexibility to connect to TV’s that lack DisplayPort or USB-C inputs.
     
    On the inside the Mac Pro 2023 offers 7 PCI-E slots. Frustratingly these are PCI-E 4, not the latest version 5. Interestingly, of all the PCI devices they illustrated on-screen, none were Graphics Cards. Some are speculating this to mean that discrete GPUs will not be compatible with this new Mac Pro, which, if true, would be disappointing. 
     
    Apple is infamous for touting hard-to-verify performance comparisons, using phrases like ‘the most powerful personal computer ever’ but one thing is rarely refuted when it comes to Apple silicon: the performance per watt, or the energy efficiency. You can probably beat the CPU and GPU performance of the M2 Ultra with high-end Intel, AMD and Nvidia chips - but not at the same efficiency as the Apple silicon, which gently sips on Watts whilst pumping out enormous amounts of computing power.

     
    Pricing
    This is where owners of the 2019 Pro might start to feel short-changed. Whilst the base price for 2023 Mac Pro has increased, from $5999 in 2019 to $6,999 in 2023 - it’s on the higher end where there’s a huge reduction. With the 2023, the specs (sans software and peripherals) tops out at around $12,200. That includes the $400 wheels for the case. Whereas the 2019 Intel model could be spec'd all the way up to a truly ridiculous $53,800! And what did you get for the extra 41 thousand dollars? Just 4 extra CPU cores from the Intel Xeon W, the same max-8GB of SSD storage, an Afterburner accelerator card (which, by the way, the M2 Ultra performs to the equivalent of 7-8 of these, according to Apple) and a ton more RAM. It’s the RAM that actually makes up the lion's share of that gaping price delta - the old model offering up to 1.5TB’s (with a ‘T) for a cool $25,000 premium. I can only imagine that Apple's ordering data showed their marketing team that few people chose that option, as they’re quite comfortable with the 2023 variant ‘only’ offering 192GB of shared memory. 
     
    It’s safe to say that, especially with the Mac Studio, that the Mac Pro is aimed squarely at bona-fide professionals. In 2019 I think there was a case for high net-worth enthusiasts to splash on the Pro, but in 2023 with the existence of the Mac Studio (which can also be spec’d to don the M2 Ultra) for an enthusiast, non-professional to spring for the Pro would quite literally be throwing cash away. The only value in the Pro over the Studio is the empty PCI-E slots which professionals may need to add functionality and IO to their machine.
     
    It’ll be interesting to see how this performs, and I’m sure there will be tech reviewers and YouTubers with more money than sense to buy both, top-spec models and run a Studio vs Pro showdown to really give us the low-down. I can’t wait.
  4. Admin

    Finally, Apple joins the AR/VR Market!

    By Admin,


    Apple Vision Pro
    Well, it finally happened. 
     
    After months of speculation, leaks and rumours, Apple finally unveiled their entry into the AR/VR market. Dubbed 'Vision Pro' the headset looks to upturn the market, and if their previous successes are anything to go by, it could revolutionise the way we consume and interact with our digital lives.
     
    First let's start with the design itself. It looks very similar to leaks, renders and rumours we've seen in the previous weeks and months. More akin to a set of ski goggles than a traditional 'VR" headset (like the Valve, or OG Oculus). In form factor I would say it's closest comparison would be the more recent offerings from Meta, such as the Quest Pro and Quest 3. 
     
    It's a lot of glass and metal, unlike the plastic composites we typically see in this segment. Whilst it makes an attractive looking product, and I'd imagine a sturdy build-quality, my fear would be that it could be a rather weighty unit, perhaps heavier than the competition.
     
    Moving onto the hardware, the Vision Pro is absolutely chock-full of cameras, sensors and even processors. Not only does it include an M2 CPU (that's right, the one that powers their laptops and computers) but it also debuts the new 'R1' chip, which according to Apple is specifically geared up to enable everything to work together near real-time. It also features a plethora of cameras and sensors (17 in total) which enable the Vision Pro to provide the most life-like pass-through of your surroundings than ever before. This combination of regular cameras, depth sensors, LIDAR and more will give the user a stereoscopic (3D) colour, greater-than-4k view of the room they’re in. The only way to get a higher quality view of your environment would be to, ahem, take your headset off. But who wants to do that?
     
    Unlike other iterations of AR & VR that we’ve seen so far, the Apple Vision Pro is the first headset in the space to have a third built-in OLED screen, which is out-ward facing. This could be seen as a two-way pass-through I suppose, where not only does the user have cameras feeding through what the environment around them looks like, but also passing back out to other people what the wearers eyes are doing, and where they’re looking. This feels like an attempt to tackle one of VR’s biggest objections, and that’s the anti-social nature of users closing themselves off the world whilst they’re using their headset. This new outward facing OLED screen would allow friends and family to talk to you and still ‘see’ your eyes, lending a more sociable side to headset usage.
     
    Apple is putting a lot of emphasis on the resolution and clarity of the unit's displays, boasting 23 million pixels per-eye using Micro OLED displays ‘smaller than a postage stamp’, and for good reason. The quality of the visual experience will make or break this headset, and Apple has a reputation to uphold of coming to the market with the best possible product in any given space.
    Personally I think the biggest deciding factor on the Vision Pro’s success will be the quality of the environment recreation. The promotional material almost misleadingly makes it appear as though the Vision Pro overlays the digital content onto the ‘real world’ around you like the XREAL (formerly NReal) glasses however it is in fact a closed-off 'VR Style' headset where you're exclusively looking at screens, with the environment passed through via high-quality cameras.
     
    Since the announcement, it's been discovered that the displays have a 96hz refresh rate, which is comparable with competitors but by no means the fastest available on the market. Typically higher refresh rates are linked to reduced motion sickness, but time will tell how the masses feel when using the Vision Pro.
     
    So, is this the next 'iPod' or 'iPhone' moment? I tentatively think so... it's my personal opinion that AR & VR is undoubtedly the future, however I think the form factor and sense of immersion needs to take some significant leaps before it really hits the mainstream. Right now we're experiencing the battle of the trade-offs: improved immersion at the cost of (actual cost) and bulkier form factors, or at the opposite end of the spectrum you have the XREAL glasses which arguably have a lower immersion factor and direct image quality, with the benefit of being far more user-friendly and less 'intentional' to use. For AR & VR to succeed, we need to be wearing something that's akin to regular sunglasses in size and weight, sub $1,000 in price and with some 'killer apps' that keep you coming back for more. Right now I'd say we've progressed from Alpha to Beta stage, and it's up to the consumer if they want to part with their hard earned cash to ultimately be a product tester for this segment.
     
    Let me know what you think - would you be willing to part ways with over $3.500 for the Apple Vision Pro?
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