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Apple Planning USB-C iMac and Faster Notebooks in 2017, Mac Pro and Touch Bar Magic Keyboard in Question

GeneralChang said:
It's so true, and it really bugs me considering the Mac Pro was, to my eye, a really cool concept that was about two years ahead of it's time. What it really needs is TB3 and, of course, the latest CPU/GPUs. Shipping a PCI TB3 dock to go with it would also be a fantastic idea, but there are some 3rd party options for that out there now.
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It is just mind boggling what happened with that computer. So weird that it has just sat there for three years. And with the Mac Mini also sitting around and gimped, it creates such a hole in the lineup. It is the hole that has been there forever due to lack of the "headless" Mac. But Apple is just letting it get bigger and bigger. Crazy.
 
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Considering you must use a Mac to do iOS development, you would think Apple would consider the Mac an important product line since its developers use it to build the apps that make the iPhone what it is.

Without developers, iOS is nothing. Apple should have every reason to keep developers happy with cool hardware. Developers are almost universally geeks, and geeks like high end, capable hardware.
 
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Cue the outrage??

For me, bump MacBook speeds and I'm all in. The lightweight style, with a bump, would be very attractive.
 
When Apple doesn't touch something for awhile - the writing is on the wall - it dies a slow, painful death. They're slowly becoming a phone company. Virtually all the rumours nowadays are iPhone-related - which bores me to tears. Fact is, despite what their advertising says, I can't and won't get any serious work done on an iPad or iPhone. I predict the MacPro is done. My MacBook Pro and DELL 4K display is so clumsy. If you've never run an Apple Display/Computer combo - you don't know the bliss. My 2005 PowerMac G5 with Apple Cinema Display was the best computer I ever owned - so seamless and slick. I've had three Apple products fail on me this year - one of which was a 8 month old MacBook Pro. I welcome change, but Apple's brave new direction of minimalism both in their product line and the products themselves isn't quite working for me. Never thought I'd say that. The peripherals (displays, networking hardware etc) complete the whole 'Apple experience'.
 
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The classic desktop metaphor is sadly dead.

Years ago I envisioned what could be a return greatness - essentially a 'computer' made of cubes. Each cube would be purpose specific - ie. an I/O cube, a processing cube, graphics cube etc. Each cube would connect to other cubes. Want more processing? Add more processing cubes. Want better GPU performance? Add additional video cubes or upgrade your existing video cube with a faster model.

Users could scale the computer to meet their needs and price points. You could even physically assemble it whatever way made sense to you - a line of cubes, a pizza box type arrangement, one bigger cube etc.

Something like this is what's needed to shake up the industry. Apple putting in a marginally faster CPU in the next iMac isn't going to cut it.
 
echoout said:
I just wanted the new MBP to be faster than my 2012 that still kicks its butt in programs like Cinema 4D. It's not that the processors have hit a wall, performance is decreasing. This is in real-world usage, not in synthetic benchmarks. And it's been noted in many places that performance of popular programs is decreasing in each OS revision.

I don't see any other choices for a motion design professional and college educator but to look at moving on. I'm already being asked for lab configuration for 2020 and I just don't see capable Macs being in the mix. Our labs full of 2013 Mac Pros already seem inadequate to teach where the industry is heading and tools they are using. It's sad.
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Yeah, it all comes back to the Mac Pro not being updated. It creates this huge hole in the lineup for the top end users. And then folks are hoping that a portable machine is going to satisfy their top end processing needs. But what option is Apple leaving folks?
 
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The updates don't even need to be killer, just current specs without being locked down so you can't add ram or a new internal drive. Please Tim, everything doesn't have to be "amazing" I would be happy with current.
 
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Chicane-UK said:
I know a lot of folks on here have been saying the same, but it's hard to look at it any other way. It just seems they're being purely business focussed - the iPhone / iPad has better margins and ships in higher volumes, so why waste time on the Mac? It sucks for those who have invested into the Mac desktop ecosystem and are now being left hanging :(

Really hope they release some killer new desktops in 2017.
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It's funny how "business focused" often translates to bad business. Cook may not see it because the numbers aren't there, but for many of us, the Mac is the indispensable part of Apple and is what keeps us coming back.
 
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"Apple engineers have raised the possibility of moving production back to Asia, where it's cheaper and manufacturers have the required skills for ambitious products"

Gues what, you know who's fault that is, Apple's engineers. The MacPro Texas factory is owned and operated by Apple, so any problems with that factory is squarely on Apple's shoulders, and the engineers for not comunicating with their fellow Apple employees. This tells me that Apple engineers are a bunch of whiny babies who love to point fingers at 3rd party manufactures as the reason they cannot get things done. Well, that excuss falls apart when they are pointing to their own people.

Instead of moving manufacturering back to Asia, I think Apple engineers should be moved to Asia where engineers are cheaper and don't make childish excuses.
 
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I really thought Apple would have been inspired or challenged from a design perspective to do something to wow us after the Microsoft Studio. I am so utterly disappointed by their lack of any sort of inspiration on the imac workstation front. From a business perspective I understand they are following the money and wouldn't be surprised if they torpedoed all but the macbooks and portables, but I still feel let down. The truth is that power users are pretty much irrelevant in today's marketplace or at least as far as Apple is concerned. I do wish they would spin mac off to a niche company with some initiative.
 
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Until there is a mac mini with a couple of PCI-E 3.0 x16 card slots, user accessible RAM sticks, user accessible SSD drive slots, and built in ethernet I will never take Apple seriously. If they came out with that, my family would probably buy 5 of them.
 
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If this has been mentioned I apologise:
If Apple is bringing a Touchbar feature to the external Apple Keyboard then I sure hope that it's something else than the current Apple Keyboard. The Touchbar display might not consume much power but I gather that most people will have a cable connected to the keyboard at all times?!

Bring Accelerator cards and Expansion cards to the Mac platform. Extra speed without having to purchase a whole new Mac - Better specs on your graphics card? You got it. I don't see why not.

Bluetooth connectivity between this next gen Apple Keyboard and the iMac is bust.. I'm always having to plug in a cable to allow for the Boot Menu to open after reset or initial boot. Reboot again, you MF. This time with a cable.

Your move, Apple.

Sponsored by These Nuts!
 
Those of you with long memories may recall that Apple have pulled successful teams off their own projects to help slacking projects before. This was the revelation that the Final Cut Pro (pre-X) team were seconded to help fix an early disastrous version of Aperture. That move subsequently delayed the next FCP version.

Without a VP fighting the Macintosh corner it's clear that desktops to get overlooked at refresh time, and talented people at Apple may be moving on after perceiving that the Mac doesn't matter at Apple any more because their teams keep getting seconded onto other lagging projects.

Secrecy is also a factor, possibly preventing/hindering Apple from making wholesale additions to programming teams. We all know Apple have pots of cash, but they if they won't spend some of it making original programming for what should be their Netflix/Amazon Prime rivalling iTunes/Apple TV venture, they certainly don't seem to want to hire additional talent to ensure their core hardware and software remains class leading.

If there's no longer a dedicated macOS team and the desktop guys had to stop what they were doing to help the laptop guys try to get round a battery problem - thus delaying Mac Pros, Mac Minis and even the iMac - I would need to ask why Apple persist with having small teams of folks because it's starting to seem like stuff's not getting done. I'm not saying they should throw money at the problem to make it go away but they shouldn't have let the current situation emerge.

It's more important because the latest reports smack of a leak to manage expectations this year.

Apple might not mind a few heavy spenders migrating back to windows but it's going to hurt more when the Mac Pro halo starts to slip and these (former?) evangelists start touting Windows 10 machines to friends and family in the future because the Mac alternative is just too expensive and some folks don't want a tablet.
 
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I'm waiting for Apple to say that their new Touch Bar Keyboard will only work with the new iMacs - which of course will be a crock :)
 
The iMac design is now basically a decade old. It really shows it's age with those huge bezels around the Display.
 
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