Apple to Update Nearly Entire Mac Lineup at WWDC?

[thekev]

How many people would want a 32" screen at such a high premium? Probably not enough for mass-production.

Who would buy such as screen at all? Probably not Film/ TV production companies as it is to small. Not PC users as Windows doesn't support it. Not TV viewers as the 4K advantage will be too small at 32", and there is no content. That leaves Mac users, where HiDPI graphics are present in the OS and strong rumours of Retina Macs.

Computer displays have mostly started with smaller form factors in the past even with large premiums attached given the cost of replacing a large display due to dead pixels and defects. It's important to look at if such a display would make sense at $1000 or below sold as an independent display. While others like Dell weren't using exactly the same panel or internals, most of them started around $1000 at the time of the 27" Cinema debut. The others got a price drop and the Apple version gained a docking station.

If it's way more expensive than this one started, I wouldn't anticipate the 27" making it to a much higher resolution this year. Keep in mind that many of the rumors were analyst predictions. We haven't seen huge amounts of credible information on such production, and recently the rumor mill suggested that Sharp couldn't produce ipad displays with the required consistency.

 

[calaverasgrande]

Most Mac Pro owners I know who use Mac Pros have every drive bay taken up, size is not anything to worry about with a workstation. It literally doesn't matter. The case they have now looks great. No reason to change it.

Actually all the Mac Pro owners I know have a pile of external drives.
Same with the dozen or so at work. But even if Mac Pro users divy up 50/50 over using internal drive bays, I still don't know hardly anyone using any kind of drop in cards. I know one video producer who has a nice AJA or something, and one guy with a non firewire MOTU box.

Firewire = No one uses this. Doesn't matter. It wouldn't surprise me, if Apple dumps it.

I use this. It's the best way to copy a safety image of your system if you aren't using time machine. It's also still the fastest data interconnect on Macs with wide support. Thunderbolt is sexy and neato but there aren't a lot of gadgets that rock that 10gb bandwidth yet.
But firwire, we still use that in video and audio production environments.

There's this. ( I THINK it support Dual Monitors, like 80% sure. Could be wrong )
http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-x51/pd.aspx
And this
http://www.commodoreusa.net/CUSA_AMIGAmini.aspx
Neither are great, but I never understood the point of super tiny form factors. Its a desktop. I want desktop performance on my desktop. Not a laptop.

and your point is? Those are both hideous looking boxes which don't have anything on the Mini pricewise.

And I diss it because I think its crap. Its my opinion. Which shouldn't matter to anyone. I always do recommend to people looking for a Mac who don't want to spend a lot. To A: Work harder and buy an iMac. Or B: Buy a used iMac.

I kind of have the same opinion on the iMac. The only thing you can upgrade is the ram. If you upgrade the hard drive it needs to be one with the Apple firmware/temp sensor. And that is if you want to go through the hassle of taking one of those iMacs apart. I do appreciate that the max ram capacity on an imac is pretty high, and it has a decent cpu/gpu. But the hard drive thing pisses me off. I should be able to buy whatever high performance drive I like and install it. That and if I am going to have a monitor tied to my CPU I may as well have portability. Like a laptop!

 

[milo]

I'm not saying I LOVE the mini (it could be more robust)- but it's a nice option for a decently powerful desktop computer (that you can use a whatever monitor with) for those of us who can't "blow" 5-6k on a computer...

What I've been saying for years is that they should make it just a bit bigger, just big enough that they can switch from laptop to desktop parts (cpu, drive, memory). They could easily make it so it holds two 3.5 hard drives and more memory slots (that are both easily accessible) and end up with a machine that's not that much bigger and much much much better performance for the price as well as more expandable.

Really? Care to show us a link to an example that any other computer maker builds that has any of the features of the mini? Firewire, internal PS, dual monitor support, wifi, BT and thunderbolt, in such a small form factor.

The only thing on there that's particularly exotic is TB and that's because PC makers aren't supporting it at all yet. And I doubt that most users in that price range value most of those features over either better performance or that same performance at a lower price.

Firewire = No one uses this.

A huge number of pro audio interfaces use firewire. If apple dumped it they'd lose a huge chunk of people doing audio and music for a living (as well as many of their Logic users). Not to mention that FW has been the fastest external bus on macs for years so plenty of people have external drives that they'd no longer be able to hook up. I'm sure there are probably other FW peripherals as well. Maybe they'll dump it in a few years when TB or something else has taken over but not any time soon.

The mac pro has a decent design, one thing that could be a big plus would be a new case that can be rack mountable. Rumors have speculated about that for a while, I know it would be well received with pro users.

 

[G51989]

Actually all the Mac Pro owners I know have a pile of external drives.
Same with the dozen or so at work. But even if Mac Pro users divy up 50/50 over using internal drive bays, I still don't know hardly anyone using any kind of drop in cards. I know one video producer who has a nice AJA or something, and one guy with a non firewire MOTU box.

Maybe the ones you know, the ones I know actually use most of the internal expansion and drive bays, If I owned one I would to.

I have a ton of external drives as well ( My Workstation only has 10TB of internal storage, need MOAR ), doesn't mean I don't use my internal drivebays. Right now every one of my expansion slots is filled expect for one.

I use this. It's the best way to copy a safety image of your system if you aren't using time machine. It's also still the fastest data interconnect on Macs with wide support. Thunderbolt is sexy and neato but there aren't a lot of gadgets that rock that 10gb bandwidth yet.
But firwire, we still use that in video and audio production environments.

I was unaware, thanks for correcting me. I've owned Macs for a long time, and never plugged anything into a Firewire port, then again I don't work in the audio/video field either.

Thunderbolt is something that I don't forsee becomming mainstream, or as Common as USB.

and your point is? Those are both hideous looking boxes which don't have anything on the Mini pricewise.

You wanted me to show you computers that can do what a mini can do in a retardedly small form factor. There ya go, they have better hardware options, support better GPUs, and more memory. And are both user upgradeable. The Mac Mini is not. And looks is an opinion. I think Mac Mini's almost look like those old M&M Piggy banks they used to sell to kids. Its needlessy thin.

I kind of have the same opinion on the iMac. The only thing you can upgrade is the ram. If you upgrade the hard drive it needs to be one with the Apple firmware/temp sensor. And that is if you want to go through the hassle of taking one of those iMacs apart. I do appreciate that the max ram capacity on an imac is pretty high, and it has a decent cpu/gpu. But the hard drive thing pisses me off. I should be able to buy whatever high performance drive I like and install it. That and if I am going to have a monitor tied to my CPU I may as well have portability. Like a laptop!

Oh I agree with you on the iMac, but I'd reccomend over a Mini. Assuming your buying Apple EVERYTHING, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and more RAM on the Mini, it can end up costing more than an iMac for the same thing, so I'd go with the iMac.

I hate my iMac, worst Mac I've ever owned. Its thin and cool looking for sure. But just like the Mac Mini, its needlessly small and think for no reason other than to look cool. Its loud as hell, you can't upgrade anything besides the Ram, it gets really hot under basic use, That gloss on the screen pisses me off to no end. Did I mention Hot? It manages to produce almost as much heat as my Dual 2.7gzh Liquid cooled G5. Which as it stands in the only " real " mac in my house. ( as in, a Tower ).

I was going to replace it with a new Mac Pro, until I saw the update, I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I saw the " update "....

And my MAIN problem with the Mini isn't the mini itself, its just its needless thin and small. Why not make it a little thicker, make room for desktop parts? And better cooling? The couple we have around the department get LOUD.

 

[calaverasgrande]

Oh I agree with you on the iMac, but I'd reccomend over a Mini. Assuming your buying Apple EVERYTHING, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and more RAM on the Mini, it can end up costing more than an iMac for the same thing, so I'd go with the iMac.

Now you are being disingenuous. Only a fool would buy a $1000 monitor for a $700 computer instead of just buying the $1700 All-in-one.
You can get AMAZING Dell, Samsung or HP displays for half what the TB display goes for. I wasnt aware the newer Minis got loud under heavy use. Makes sense though, they made it thinner AND internalised the power supply.

Come on, you gotta admit it would be cute to have a mac mini, Time Capsule and external superdrive all stacked up.

 

[xgman]

A huge number of pro audio interfaces use firewire. If apple dumped it they'd lose a huge chunk of people doing audio and music for a living (as well as many of their Logic users).

Not that big of a deal. TB to Firewire is a simple solution.

 

[calaverasgrande]

Not that big of a deal. TB to Firewire is a simple solution.

well it is a big deal for audio production actually. Firewire is very latency sensitive. That is why audio production on the PC side of things relies on the Texas Instruments 1394 chips for stability and low latency.
When you start using bridges, repeaters and converters firewire gets flaky real fast. Latency issues will manifest as audible squeals and pops. Also, quite often in audio production we need to play back tracks and record at the same time. I can do about 20 tracks in and out simultaneously on my late 2010 MBP.
You also have to understand that a lot of folks are used to being able to run a MOTU 828MKII/MKIII (audio card basically) and a UAD dsp effects box off of their firewire port.
This actually works okay with Logic on a Mac even though you have a lot of audio streaming bidirectionally.
I am extremely skeptical of this working with a TB to 1394 adapter.
Esp if you are also expecting to host storage on that buss.
Ideally I want both, TB for video out and storage, 1394 for audio/video in.

 

[Mal]

well it is a big deal for audio production actually. Firewire is very latency sensitive. That is why audio production on the PC side of things relies on the Texas Instruments 1394 chips for stability and low latency.

In theory, it should be no different than using a FireWire PCIe card, which is certainly fine for audio work. We'll see how it is in practice, but I'd expect it won't introduce any issues for audio production.

jW

 

[JS3]

So mini isn't getting a update?

 

[calaverasgrande]

In theory, it should be no different than using a FireWire PCIe card, which is certainly fine for audio work. We'll see how it is in practice, but I'd expect it won't introduce any issues for audio production.

jW

that is kind of my point.
If you are using an external 1394 adapter it almost has to be TI chipset for it to work. Agere, Ricoh, Via etc will function just fine for straight data transfer. But when you get into isochronous data like audio, and bidirectional at that, you gotta have the TI chips. Apple might cheap out and use whatever chips they can source easiest for the firewire adapters. Though it may be on the PCIe bus as part of thunderbolt extending that buss outside of the machine, I am pretty sure there is some abstraction layer between inside and outside the machine. At the very least there has to be some kind of buffer amp/isolation to keep the entire system from crashing if you unplug a TB adapter.

 

[Treq]

And my MAIN problem with the Mini isn't the mini itself, its just its needless thin and small. Why not make it a little thicker, make room for desktop parts? And better cooling? The couple we have around the department get LOUD.

That's weird, my (and many others) main reason for buying a mini was that it is small and extremely quiet... though mine is a 2009 model. Do the new ones make more noise? I do want a new one for the media center. Hope they do a quiet refresh soon.

 

[G51989]

That's weird, my (and many others) main reason for buying a mini was that it is small and extremely quiet... though mine is a 2009 model. Do the new ones make more noise? I do want a new one for the media center. Hope they do a quiet refresh soon.

There are a couple of newer ones laying around where I work, they aren't lound in the sense that they are loud. They are loud in the sense that when you turn it off, you think " hmmm, what got so quiet? Oh the Mac Mini isn't turned on !"

 

[harlequinn]

I have to say I'm disappointed. The only real announcement was of the new MacBook Pro and updates to the MacBook Air.

iOS 6 - will happen sometime in the future, but we already knew that.

Mac Pro - no updates
iMac - no updates
Mac Mini - no updates
iPhone - no updates
iPod (all models) - no updates
Apple Cinema Display - no updates
OS X - no updates

Does anyone else see a pattern here?

On top of all this, the new MacBook Pros are almost unrepairable. I.e. the move to a truly unrepairable, un-upgradable and disposable commodity item has begun.

 

[milo]

Not that big of a deal. TB to Firewire is a simple solution.

It's another adapter to buy, it eats up a port, and who knows if adapting like that would be compatible for a real time application like that. I certainly wouldn't want to risk trying it, at least not until I had heard from many other users doing it without any problems.

And anyway, my post was a response to "nobody uses firewire". Which simply isn't true.

 

[AidenShaw]

no daisy

It's another adapter to buy, it eats up a port, and who knows if adapting like that would be compatible for a real time application like that.

...and since it does not have a second T-Bolt connection, no daisy-chaining after the GbE dongle.

If you have a system with only one T-Bolt port, you can't use this dongle with an mDP monitor.