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Apple's 2026 Mac Plans
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Have you tried using any Goodnotes-style app for teaching? I use my 13" Pro for my economics classes and it serves both me and my students very well, goodnotes + ppt slides
My 2012 iMac 27" lasted for >1 dozen years. Not everyone replaces every 3-5 years because use case did not change.
Indeed! I don't even eat around my computer. 🤢
Washer and dryer are probably higher...but other the fridge compressor, I pretty much fix anything and everything I can. I HATE buying new things.
..and I keep my computers for a decade.
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My 27" is developing the pink edges exactly as described here, so the entire system is past its prime. Seven years of moderate/heavy use so no complaints.
I could suck it up with a 24" M5 but need more memory than what's offered now, BTO to at least 64GB, preferably 96 or more. A 32" iMac Pro would be great, but would command a $8000+ starting price and be even more niche than the current Mac Pro.
So if I buy a new Mac and I go for MacBook Pro M5 what would you recommend in terms of upgrades? Ram? Memory? None? Or both? (The issue is that the upgrades are so expensive but I want to be future proof)
If Apple adds ProMotion support to the MBA line, you're going to see a seismic shift for many preferring the MBA over the MBP. While its easy to browse these forums and think more people are better off with a MBP, it's often the lack of specific little nice-to-haves in the MBA that drive that recommendation as opposed to performance e.g. GPU core count increases. As for the current lack of ProMotion on the MBA -- Consumers, and I like to think especially young people, end up dismayed upon evaluation... "I've had a 120hz+ gaming monitor for over 8 years...60hz is crazy to deal with in 2025". Thus, "MBP I guess".
The iPhone 17 is priced so fairly for the features offered and if anyone was on the fence and up for trying something new and landed at this device -- Apple likely has reclaimed their attention and I feel the add of ProMotion has a lot to do with that. The additional weight of 0.42oz compared to the iPhone Air isn't really all that remarkably heavier when it's in your pocket. But for the MBA and MBP -- you're carrying these things on your BACK in a pack. Carrying them often for extended duration -- much longer than you're holding a phone in bursts.
Am I right or out of touch?
The iPhone 17 is priced so fairly for the features offered and if anyone was on the fence and up for trying something new and landed at this device -- Apple likely has reclaimed their attention and I feel the add of ProMotion has a lot to do with that. The additional weight of 0.42oz compared to the iPhone Air isn't really all that remarkably heavier when it's in your pocket. But for the MBA and MBP -- you're carrying these things on your BACK in a pack. Carrying them often for extended duration -- much longer than you're holding a phone in bursts.
Am I right or out of touch?
Um… have you seen macOS Tahoe and iPadOS 26?
The iPad and Mac are more similar than they ever have been, and that’s not going to stop.
The M4 Pro is about twice as fast as the M1 Pro at compiling stuff in Xcode. All the little times you have to wait for the compiler add up.
So it's not a few seconds; it's less being interrupted, constantly, throughout the day.
So much this.
I’m not sure why there is so much negativity around this other than “Steve once said almost two decades ago an offhanded comment on a quarterly earnings call that he could’ve easily changed his mind on the next day as he was known to do”…
Also as someone with accessibility needs a touchscreen on a Mac would be a dream come true, sometimes it’s just easier to directly manipulate something on the screen with direct touch than it is using the pointer.
Sometimes using mouse/trackpad just is either extremely difficult or in some cases not even possible.
It’s pretty much gone with 26.1. At least all the transparent nonsense can be turned off. Would be nice to reduce the oversized buttons now.
Folks, you do realize that the A chips and M chips are literally the same technology, right?
They share cores, same unified memory, same encoders and decoders, same TSMC process, same everything.
The A18Pro is equivalent to, and sometimes even outperforms, the M1 chip.
This is really not that radical of a concept.
Apple has been selling the M1 MBA at Walmart for the last several years at a discounted $649 or even sometimes $599 price point.
The M1 however, is no longer being produced, seeing as it’s a chip from five years ago.
So given that the A18Pro is literally just as powerful, but based on today’s technology, this product absolutely makes sense.
It’s a replacement for the Walmart MacBook Air that has been wildly successful for Apple, that has helped dramatically increase Mac market share in the sub-$1000 area.
People like to fearmonger, but using this new budget, MacBook will be basically no different than using an M1 machine.
Funny, I also have no desire to touch the screen.
But I do sometimes try to pinch to zoom in magazines and books. Very senior moment feeling when it happens.
The MacBook would start with 12, I would assume. The A series can do 12.
I still believe it will be the A19P from the iPhone Air, the binned chips. Gotta do something with them…
I think it's more designed for the educational market and maybe for users like my mom that'd only use the web on it, so if the price is low enough it would sell.
Compare to the powerhouse of 1991:
M5510LL/B
Macintosh IIfx 4MB 1FD CPU $7369.00
That was no HD at all. I do believe it included a keyboard and mouse, but maybe not.
With the M4 MacBook Air going for $750, I may not wait for the new low-cost MB. I’ve been using an M2 iPad Air 11” since they were released, paired with a Magic Keyboard, as my personal computer. It works fine, but I find it buggy and not as intuitive as a MacBook. (And I find os 26 even worse.) So I’ve been considering switching back. My favorite MacBook I’ve ever owned was the 12” version with the keys everyone hated (but I never had a problem with). It was the perfect form factor. My only hesitation is the low-cost MB might be smaller, but will it run full macOS on an A-chip?
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In the same boat and kinda thinking I can get a M5 Pro Mini assuming it comes out soon, then hold on to the MBP M1 until M7. I don’t really take it off my desk much and have 2 monitors, one sitting idle because I use the MBP screen as the second.
But I have to figure out how to have may important data in both places without being cloud based.
Vista was the reason I switched to Mac, Liquid Glass might be the reason I switch to Linux.
No they aren't, it's there if you want to use it, I love it on my old Surface laptop 3, and I miss it on the Mac.
May be not for everyone, but is a nice addition that does not take anything away to people who do not want to use it.
Would.o go touch 100% ? No I have an iPad for that, but on the Mac it would be a good thing.
As per usual, once it'll be a reality, people will say it's the best thing ever....like they always do, complain then love.
I went from MacOS X to solely using Ubuntu for about four years. Then I went back to MacOS. But those Linux years were quite good. I’d have zero qualms going back to Linux or BSD which are increasingly looking like more “serious” operating systems compared to the “child’s toy” direction Apple OSes seem to be taking. I’ve already been window shopping Thinkpads - not MacBooks - as a next purchase.
Here we go again… “Year of Linux” … how many times has this been said now? Guess I’m not allowed to mention Ubuntu 😆