Apple Adds Trash Can Mac Pro, AirPorts, and More to Vintage and Obsolete Products List

[MacRumors]

Apple updated its vintage and obsolete products list to add several Macs, iPads, accessories, and more. The 2013 "Trash Can" Mac Pro was added to the vintage list, 12 years after it was first introduced.

Most products are added to the vintage list much earlier, but Apple sold the 2013 Mac Pro for so long that it wasn't eligible until now. A device is considered "vintage" five years after it was last distributed for sale.

The trash can Mac Pro wasn't discontinued until December 2019, when the redesigned "Cheese Grater" Mac Pro came out. The 2013 Mac Pro was the subject of Phil Schiller's infamous "Can't innovate anymore, my ass," line, which backfired spectacularly when the Mac Pro's design turned out to be unsustainable.

The Mac Pro featured a radical new cylindrical design that was much smaller than the previous-generation Mac Pro, but it didn't end up meeting the needs of pro users. There wasn't space to upgrade internal components like GPUs, which proved to be a major downfall as GPUs expanded in size, power, and thermal requirements. Apple wasn't able to introduce a new version of the Mac Pro due to design limitations, and in 2017, Apple admitted that it had failed with the 2013 Mac Pro. "I think we designed ourselves into a bit of a thermal corner," Apple hardware chief Craig Federighi said at the time.

Along with the 2013 Mac Pro, Apple also added the 2019 13-inch MacBook Air, 2019 iMac, 2018 11-inch iPad Pro, and 2018 third-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro to its vintage products list. The 128GB iPhone 8 also joins the 64GB and 256GB iPhone 8 models on the vintage list. The 64GB and 256GB models were added earlier this year, but the 128GB iPhone 8 was sold for a longer period of time.

Several devices were also transitioned from the vintage products list to the obsolete products list. The second-generation AirPort Express, 2TB and 3TB AirPort Time Capsules, and 802.11ac AirPort Extreme are now considered obsolete.

Devices are moved from the vintage list to the obsolete list after a two-year period. Apple products are typically considered technologically obsolete seven years after they were last available for sale.

For vintage products, Apple retail stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASPs) are still able to offer repairs if the required parts are available. If parts can't be obtained, Apple isn't able to do repairs.

Products that are obsolete are not repaired by Apple Stores or AASPs and Apple does not provide parts. Some Mac laptops are eligible for a battery-only repair period of up to 10 years from when the product was last distributed from sale, though this is subject to parts availability.

Article Link: Apple Adds Trash Can Mac Pro, AirPorts, and More to Vintage and Obsolete Products List

 

[breenmask]

the best form factor of the Mac Pro

 

[MacUserFella]

Enough with the Trash Can Mac Pro jokes! Gosh, it’s like this community only has 5 jokes

 

[cateye]

In what way is "Trash Can Mac Pro" a joke? You know exactly what the article is referring to even without the photo. It's a nickname that stuck for a reason.

 

[Slix]

Long live my 802.11ac AirPort Extreme and my slew of AirPort Expresses!

I hope this means maybe finally we'll see a price decline in used trash can Mac Pros... I've wanted one for a long time but the used prices have barely moved in a couple years.

 

[winxmac]

 

[dustin_]

sad to hear that airports are now obsolete. i wish apple would somehow release an updated version, (maybe through apple tv & homepods, rather than a standalone airport device?).

 

[seek3r]

Long live my 802.11ac AirPort Extreme and my slew of AirPort Expresses!

I hope this means maybe finally we'll see a price decline in used trash can Mac Pros... I've wanted one for a long time but the used prices have barely moved in a couple years.

They're pretty cheap these days, you can pick a base one up for like $150-$200, and tossing in a 12 core CPU and 64GB of RAM (or 128GB if you want it to run slightly slower as the compromise) off ebay is super cheap. The main problem with using them daily is they run *hot*, they're rather power hungry, and even a base M4 Mini will run circles around them on anything except RAM capacity. The one on my desk runs Linux Mint, and it does get use, but I keep it off if I'm not using it.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

Time moves so fast.

I remember when these were announced.

 

[ipedro]

The board arranged in a triangular format with a central tunnel for air pulled from the bottom and exhausted out top was both technically genius and incredibly sexy hardware.

It was unfortunately before its time. Slot GPUs became the more powerful part of a computer and this Mac Pro had no way to use them. Apple Silicon with integrated graphics would’ve solved that problem.

I doubt it’s coming back in this format, but I hope a future Mac Studio or Mac Pro takes another shot at this cylindrical hardware.

 

[benwiggy]

The main problem with using them daily is they run *hot*, they're rather power hungry, and even a base M4 Mini will run circles around them on anything except RAM capacity.

Even 2018 Minis will outperform them on CPU. (GPU, not so much...!)

It was the Cube all over again. A radical, beautiful design, which sadly wasn't practical in the real world. Only a few years later, its ports were outdated (TB 2 and USB 3.0); and its performance wasn't that great.

 

[thefredelement]

I liked and still have my trash can. It looked cool and was fast enough though it was a bad design. I had to get the video cards replaced in 2019, thankfully Apple covered it.

It paired great with an LG UltraFine 5k at the time, I enjoyed that setup for years.

It did make me miss the older Mac Pros, I went from 4,1 to 6,1 to not spending 20k on a computer

 

[Black_Mage]

I want to buy one of these Mac Pros to install Linux on it. They’re still very capable computers.

 

[tomtad]

Was just about ask, who's going to say it 😆

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

The board arranged in a triangular format with a central tunnel for air pulled from the bottom and exhausted out top was both technically genius and incredibly sexy hardware.

the best form factor of the Mac Pro

How?
By their own admission, the hardware was fundamentally flawed because the cooling capacity wasn’t future proofed. You’re taking one heat sink and spreading the capacity across multiple major components, rather than controlling each independently. That’s not good design.

 

[sprihoda]

My 2018 12.9in iPad Pro still has an AppleCare plan?

 

[thefredelement]

How?
By their own admission, the hardware was fundamentally flawed because the cooling capacity wasn’t future proofed. You’re taking one heat sink and spreading the capacity across multiple major components, rather than controlling each independently. That’s not good design.

It wasn't even 'current proof' D700s died all the time in them.

It still looked cool and was a fun idea though.

 

[seek3r]

Even 2018 Minis will outperform them on CPU. (GPU, not so much...!)

It was the Cube all over again. A radical, beautiful design, which sadly wasn't practical in the real world. Only a few years later, its ports were outdated (TB 2 and USB 3.0); and its performance wasn't that great.

On the GPU side you can also easily set up an egpu for the 2018 mini, with a much more powerful GPU than the ones internal to the 6,1 MP (and much less likely to cook themselves). eGPUs harder to do with the 6,1, in general because of TB2 bandwidth and then also because on MacOS kryptonite seems to not to work anymore with newer releases and under other OSes because of some irritating limitations with IRQ conflicts and problems with IOMMU on those machines (ask me how I know lol)

 

[Aero Leviathan]

Not supported any more, my ass.

 

[Slix]

They're pretty cheap these days, you can pick a base one up for like $150-$200, and tossing in a 12 core CPU and 64GB of RAM (or 128GB if you want it to run slightly slower as the compromise) off ebay is super cheap. The main problem with using them daily is they run *hot*, they're rather power hungry, and even a base M4 Mini will run circles around them on anything except RAM capacity. The one on my desk runs Linux Mint, and it does get use, but I keep it off if I'm not using it.

Yeah, but the prices haven't decreased below the $150ish on the low end since they hit that price point like 2-3 years ago. I think it's honestly only because people have been listing them starting at $100 for some time so they never are below $150ish after a couple bids, even with low end specs. People just pay weird amounts of money for used "Pro" Apple stuff years later even if it's outclassed in similarly priced products.

Someday I will buy one for under $100. 🫡

 

[EugW]

I will continue to keep my now obsolete AirPort Extreme 802.11ac setup for the foreseeable future. It Just Works™!

 

[uacd]

I have to confess: in 2013 I was among those folks trolling Apple’s “trash can” Mac Pro. I even remember people replacing trash icon on macOS with this Mac. Looking thru the years I can say, this Mac was actually very cool machine from design standpoint. It stands till this day. Looking at this I really can’t say it looks obsolete.

And PCs? Still look like large ugly rectangular boxes, same as 40 years ago. The only difference might be transparent insides and RGB lights that gamers love.

Apple definitely has style and taste that doesn’t go obsolete

 

[F27]

The board arranged in a triangular format with a central tunnel for air pulled from the bottom and exhausted out top was both technically genius and incredibly sexy hardware.

I agree, it was a very elegant internal design from an engineering and aesthetics standpoint. Unfortunately as is well documented that thermal core couldn't handle the heat of the 3 things attached to it! But it was a moment of true Apple innovation and trying something different for sure.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I didn’t own the 2013 MP until they were really cheap, and the build was an engineering marvel, if you ever took one apart. It would actually be fun to see Apple revive the design with an Apple Silicon version. The design should be more than enough for the current lineup, and it’s not like you can do meaningful upgrades anymore anyway.

 

[seek3r]

How?
By their own admission, the hardware was fundamentally flawed because the cooling capacity wasn’t future proofed. You’re taking one heat sink and spreading the capacity across multiple major components, rather than controlling each independently. That’s not good design.

Minor quibble: *technically* it was, but not for the future that was needed. They bet *hard* on GPGPU workloads with multiple GPUs on the trashcan, and when the industry didnt really go that route for most things Apple didnt have easy paths for either higher TDP single procs or swapping one of the GPUs for a second proc because of heat imbalance. They also bet hard on TB2 and, outside even bandwidth issues on more demanding uses, commercially in the general market TB didnt really start to shine until TB3 really took off, and even then was vastly more expensive than other options for a lot of things.

Also no one really wanted an octopus on their desk. And you needed that because there wasnt another option for anyone who really needed PCIe slots (or other things that started to become super common for workstations like 10GBe)

The studio is basically the trashcan (and the cube) but with tech caught up enough to make it finally work (and with option of a full tower mac pro still available for those that really need those slots)