Apple Releases Studio Display 15.5 Firmware Beta With Webcam Fix

[Jeven Stobs]

I don't understand how he gets two Studio displays so close together in order to get nearly identical angles?

He probably has one sit a little higher behind the other.

 

[marinersaptcomplex]

How are you so sure that they worked normally during testing?

True, I am perhaps naive to think the promos featuring the studio display's camera were actually filmed on the SD's camera tbh

 

[hans1972]

Lol, The camera on monitor firmwares below 15.5 sucks, so if you’re using this display with Big Sur or Catalina or iPad or Windows or Linux, the camera will suck, period. This necessitates a firmware update if you want a good camera experience.

I get that firmware updates won’t work in linux and windows… but not on Big Sur? Some macs support Big Sur but not Monterey. So you mean to tell me that you have to have a Mac with Monterey to use a monitor ???? For some people that means needing to buy a new Mac.

I believe all Apple displays released from 2010 and later has had macOS requirements.

Apple Thunderbolt Display required OS X 10.6.8 or later.

Apple Thunderbolt Display - Technical Specifications - Apple Support

support.apple.com

 

[Jeven Stobs]

They released a firmware update before it launched, and this is the first firmware update after launch. Both firmware updates were for different reasons…

This is the first?
I believe not, I’ve seen multiple articles and threads discussing an (iOS) update for the display that actually fixed issues with the speakers (but not the camera)

 

[Silverstring]

Apple's decision was completely arbitrary and not based on any technical deficiency in earlier Mac OS versions whatsoever.

What was it like working on the Studio Display engineering team?!?

I don't own a Studio Display, don't plan on purchasing one, and don't think it was/is cool to have released it with the out-of-the-box camera performance it had/has before this "fix".

That said, "completely arbitrary" and "any...whatsoever" are definitive statements, so you must have some inside knowledge—spill! What is Tim like?

 

[Jeven Stobs]

No one will have a meaningful answer to this question. It will only be speculation and more Apple hate.

Did anyone try to write a letter (or rather email) to Craig yet?

 

[sigamy]

I don't understand how he gets two Studio displays so close together in order to get nearly identical angles?

He showed it via his laptop. He has one in front of the other, but slightly lower. they are not side to side.

 

[hans1972]

Not too many displays on the market right now where "using with unsupported systems" is even a thing people have to worry about.

True, but those people probably haven't used Apple displays then.

Even the Apple LED Cinema Display 27" released in 2010 had Mac OS X 10.6.4 as a system requirement.

10.6.4 was released in June 2010 and the LED Cinema Display was released one month later, requiring user's to upgrade to the latest OS X version to run a supported configuration.

 

[hans1972]

Agreed - it's absurd, and the people carrying water for Apple on this are just .... I don't get it.

Apple has been doing this since 2010, requiring minimum version of OS X / macOS for support. People have either accepted it or bought displays from other companies.

 

[BWhaler]

Are you going to use both webcams? If not, why not bag one now? ?

Great question. I guess I could get one now, but I want to ensure there are no other quality issues. Just being conservative since it's a lot of money.

 

[Maigrais]

Great news. Not going to order these displays--I will get two--until I know this has been resolved and people have another few months with the display. All going well, I'll be a fall/holiday customer.

Same here!

 

[hans1972]

C'mon - at least debate in good faith

You know darned well that camera wasn't up to advertised specs at launch

"it still worked but looked like crap" isn't the bar Apple should be held to here.

It didn't look bad. Some people couldn't really see the difference. I believe most people having gotten the display are not too concerned about webcam quality waiting a few weeks.

 

[digitalfx]

quality wise, not much of an improvement.looks more like color tweaks...still has noise.

 

[hans1972]

That still doesn’t explain why Monterey is needed, the studio display is using an a13, which is an older iPhone soc, and that iPhone soc didn’t require Monterey for updates as Monterey didn’t exist. So why does the studio display require monterey.

System requirements doesn't need justifications. They are axiomatic. It's the privilege of the manufacture to set them for whatever reasons they want or no reason at all.

I don't understand why some people need justification for such things. Just accept them and act accordingly. If you don't like the system requirements, don't buy the product.

 

[hans1972]

You mean, those things that literally nobody asked any monitor manufacturer to support, ever?

Apple usually (there are exceptions) don't ask customers what they need or want when they create a new product. That's what makes Apple so great sometimes and so different from a lot of others companies which seems obsessed with involving customers.

 

[BellSystem]

At least Rene will have content to spit out another 14 videos. I was getting worried.

Interesting they released it as beta. Seems a bit excessive. Maybe because it’s an iOS device I guess? ?‍♂️

 

[StudioMacs]

This is the first?
I believe not, I’ve seen multiple articles and threads discussing an (iOS) update for the display that actually fixed issues with the speakers (but not the camera)

This is the first firmware post release.

There was a pre-release firmware that early reviewers mentioned and was available on day 1.

 

[jakey rolling]

Apple usually (there are exceptions) don't ask customers what they need or want when they create a new product. That's what makes Apple so great sometimes and so different from a lot of others companies which seems obsessed with involving customers.

LOL. Yikes.

 

[Moonlight]

LOL. Yikes.

Are you new to Apple?

 

[hans1972]

It is painfully obvious that Apple devoted engineering to exactly one aspect of this monitor - add as many talking points as possible to justify the price, while making it just different enough from existing displays to make it easy to deflect real-world comparisons. If we can snag a few extreme loyalists into ditching their 5k LG's because of a small brightness-bump, even better.

Apple should almost never create products that works like those from other companies or mimics them. There are hundreds of displays out there from other companies ranging from decent to insanely great.

If there are 50 great 4K monitors out there, we don't need Apple to create the 51st. Just buy one of the 50 existing monitors.

As Tim Cook has said several times, Apple should only create products if they feel they can improve on the situation or make something which separates it from the competition. It usually means doing things which are niche and specific.

A lot of Apple products, including their displays, are optimised for very specific use cases and often with integration with their other products. If you fall outside those very specific use cases, the product from Apple is usually ill-suited for you. It's very often Apple's way or it sucks really bad.

If there are 1 billion PC and Mac users there, 99% of them would be better served with a non-Apple display, but that still leaves out 10 million users who might be served well by the Apple Studio Display. And. may only 0.1 or 0.2% will end up buying it.

Apple does specific computing and if you are into versatile computing, you will often be unhappy with Apple.

 

[hans1972]

As would most devoted iFanatics.

It is painfully obvious that Apple devoted engineering to exactly one aspect of this monitor - add as many talking points as possible to justify the price, while making it just different enough from existing displays to make it easy to deflect real-world comparisons. If we can snag a few extreme loyalists into ditching their 5k LG's because of a small brightness-bump, even better.

Apple devoted diddly-squat to QA on this project. The engineering team was clearly being led by the marketing team.

It's exactly what a lot of 5K Mac users wanted.

They wanted the 5K 27"iMac without the iMac. They wanted the LG display in Apple's design language including metal casing, Apple's support and integration with Apple's operating systems and keyboards.

I can't understand where those people who thought Apple would either create a good, cheap display or extremely good display at decent price, got their expectations from. Certainly not from Apple, which didn't say anything.

 

[hans1972]

There is only one true answer to this: "because Apple said so". It's not a meaningful answer simply because Apple's decision was completely arbitrary and not based on any technical deficiency in earlier Mac OS versions whatsoever.

I tell you something which some technically-oriented people can't accept: Sometimes business reasons wins because they are more important.

I believe there were four essential Apple principles at play here:

1) Use as little resources to design the display and program the software
2) Reuse parts from other products, if possible, to make for profitable manufacturing
3) Integrate with macOS and iOS/iPadOS
4) Look forward, and pay no heed to the past

In addition, they created a somewhat niche product which are only good for a few specific use cases.

So to me that makes the Apple Studio Display a quintessential Apple product.

You seem to want Apple to behave like companies in the Windows world.

 

[hans1972]

And the blogosphere and YouTubers who were seeded with free Mac studios and studio displays didn’t even bother to ask apple why it didn’t also support Big Sur or Catalina?

Maybe because they don't care since they are probably running the latest version anyway? Or maybe because Apple usually just supports its latest version of software anyway?

Why this need for a reason or justification?

 

[hans1972]

LOL. Yikes.

It's something Ste ve Jobs imprinted on Apple's culture:

"It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." -Steve Jobs, Business Week, 1998

 

[jakey rolling]

Are you new to Apple?

No, I have been using Apple products since the mid-90's.

I'm not disputing what hans said. Just reacting to the notion that Apple ignoring its customers when designing products makes them "great".