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I’m going to venture a guess that the first one out of the gate will be a laptop that does rely on just the internal GPU, so they can get that completely worked out, and then start adding on discrete GPU support. So, maybe a MacBook Air, or MacBook (“MacBook nothing” as some call it). With MBP-level CPU performance, and huge battery life - since the latter is something an ARM laptop is uniquely suited to pull off, it’d make a good flex. “Just as fast, for twice as long”, or something like that. It’ll also let them point out the very good Metal performance of their own GPUs. Then, once that’s established, and they’ve had some more development time, we’ll get discrete GPUs.
Yes, I also think it makes sense that AS's first foray into the notebook space would be with a model that doesn't currently have a dGPU, so that they don't have to make the GPU section of their first AS mobile Mac much more powerful than what they already know they can do in the iPad.

However, Kuo is predicting the first mobile AS Mac will be the 13" MacBook Pro, which also meets this GPU qualification, since none of them have dGPU's.

 
I suspect it will have intelligent bandwidth allocation than TB3, meaning that at a minimum there will be 32Gbps available for EGPU PCIe data (rather than the current practical limitation of 22Gbps due to the permanently reserved 10 Gbps for DisplayPort signal).
The 22 Gbps max per port is a limitation of the current Intel dual-port TB3 controllers, iirc. I think the 10 Gbps carve out is for the other controller’s (potential) USB 3.1 bandwidth requirement but I could very well be wrong, my memory isn’t what it used to be.
 
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I agree with jobs. I work on my iMac 12 hours a day at least 6 days a week. My back and neck hurt enough, I'm not extending my arms at a 90 degree angle to touch a tiny element one my 5k display.

I guess they could have a switch to turn touchscreen on or off, but I just don't see the utility for a touchscreen Mac anyway.

I could see Apple doing one of those arms to the side, flip over display things on the laptop front to accommodate a touch-screen when one needs it, but thing can operate like a normal laptop (or actually, an ergonomically superior laptop ala the cantilevered iPad keyboard case) most of the time. And an MS Surface Studio like thing for the iMac line. I'm confident Apple could execute the laptop version more elegantly than Acer has--
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I mean, iPad and iPhone apps could be run pretty well with just the ginourmo trackpads MacBooks have evolved over the years, but you can't beat the real thing. iPads have been adding alternate inputs but remained touch-first, why can't Macs gain alternate inputs (if done ergonomically intelligently) but remain primarily mouse/trackpad/keyboard driven?
 
I enjoyed the Touch Bar after installing Better Touch Tool but overall, I hardly use it except when I accidentally hit the Siri button when touch-typing the delete key. At this point I'd rather have the old function keys back.
You can have the function keys back, just go to keyboard preferences and change it to that. I believe the Touch Bar is great, I never used the F keys anyways, and its great having a row of keys applicable to the software your using. I’ve swapped the Siri button, with the Sleep function!
 
The TouchBar can't do anything a touch screen wouldn't do as well or better.

But Jobs made a big deal about how bad touch screens were and how they required "gorilla arms", so people are stuck with this silly "pretend I'm not really a tiny one-line touch screen".

Everything about Big Sur screams touch screen support. Fonts are bigger, there are settings to add more space in the menu bar, sliders every year, tons of padding between controls.

Its a dead give away that macOS devices are gonna come with touch screen.
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I could see Apple doing one of those arms to the side, flip over display things on the laptop front to accommodate a touch-screen when one needs it, but thing can operate like a normal laptop (or actually, an ergonomically superior laptop ala the cantilevered iPad keyboard case) most of the time. And an MS Surface Studio like thing for the iMac line. I'm confident Apple could execute the laptop version more elegantly than Acer has-- View attachment 932080

I mean, iPad and iPhone apps could be run pretty well with just the ginourmo trackpads MacBooks have evolved over the years, but you can't beat the real thing. iPads have been adding alternate inputs but remained touch-first, why can't Macs gain alternate inputs (if done ergonomically intelligently) but remain primarily mouse/trackpad/keyboard driven?

Thats a horrible comparison.

This Acer is actually very well designed. It is a gaming computer, the display comes forward because most games are using external peripherals, and at least a mouse. This give the laptop a better angle, and puts it closer to the user, but most importantly it opens up half of the top case for extra fans and cooling.

For what this laptop is entended for, it is one of the better designed products in the market.
 
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Everything about Big Sur screams touch screen support. Fonts are bigger, there are settings to add more space in the menu bar, sliders every year, tons of padding between controls.

Its a dead give away that macOS devices are gonna come with touch screen.

i think you are right.

but, i think the way it will likely emerge is simply:

1 macOS and iPadOS and iOS will become one very powerful platform that permits robust touch, keyboard, gesture, and voice interfaces

2 it will be the form factor of the device that determines which interface is actually used (more than the other ones that are available) so an iPad user would simply use the touch interface more. a person at a desktop doing excel would probably use a keyboard interface more.

this is how apple will manage the transition from a current/previous very public stance that the two interfaces if combined would result in a less optimal user experience. apple will stress that it has been able to provide an optimal user experience no matter what the device is.
 
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Problem is not the Touch Bar, but the lack of a function keys row, it should have both at same time.
Function keys hark but to an era long gone. If you customise your Function keys to perform an action, you’ll find that is the same with the Touch Bar. Oh and you can enable Function keys instead within keybo preference.
As someone trained to touch type, Function keys were never included, hard enough to hit numbers let alone Fkeys.

Most just haven’t learnt to use it, so suggest you go watch some YouTube vids of people applying to there workflows. And if you want to slow your productivity down on a computer, add a touch screen, you cant type on one, so you’ll end up going back and forth.
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i think you are right.

Over Craig’s dead body.
 
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This “Apple Silicon” move is eerily reminiscent of the PowerBook days. I guess it’s true what they say: history is doomed to repeat itself.
 
Function keys hark but to an era long gone. If you customise your Function keys to perform an action, you’ll find that is the same with the Touch Bar. Oh and you can enable Function keys instead within keybo preference.
Just because a tech is old doesn't mean it's inferior. Physical keyboards a much older than flat glass haptic keyboards (like on an iPad), yet most vastly prefer typing on a physical keyboard to typing on an iPad.

Many prefer the physical keys to the touchbar because when you press a key you get the immediate physical feedback that you've activated it. I think Apple should offer programmable function keys with programmable LED or LCD tops* (they'd just need to make them a bit bigger than function keys). That would provide the best of both worlds.

*The keys on the following are cruder than what Apple would do, but it illustrates the concept:

 
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You can have the function keys back, just go to keyboard preferences and change it to that. I believe the Touch Bar is great, I never used the F keys anyways, and its great having a row of keys applicable to the software your using. I’ve swapped the Siri button, with the Sleep function!

I mean I would like physical function keys back. You can't touch-type with a Touch Bar.
 
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Welcome news!

Definitely welcome news with a big sigh of relief ! This was a BIG issue I worried over since nothing was stated at WWDC 2020 about it. They've specifically stating Thunderbolt USB so I think that heavily leaves out any TB4 benefits which is minimal. But a Thunderbolt 5 I hope continues with USB-C connection.
 
In practice, Apple legal most likely already has negotiated a worldwide, perpetual license of some sort or at least one that protects their ability to use it for future products for quite a while to come.

It's standard practice to write all foreseeable contingencies into a contract like this, especially when a party has leverage. Certainly, "Mac moving to a non-Intel processor in the indefinite future" was a foreseeable contingency. This perpetual license is a certainty. Apple would not have adopted Thunderbolt without it.
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Then Thunderbolt will go the way of FireWire. At a time when a lot of the world is either going to AMD or ARM due to Intel’s stagnation, it’s clearly a method of trying to lock people in. Thing is, with such a viable alternative in USB 4, it’s going to do vastly more harm than good. Maybe it’s because the licence fee got dropped that they don’t care anymore? TB 4 seems like a lazy upgrade from 3, too.
Have you used a usb storage device on a Mac lately? Plenty of sleep issues. Half the time the Mac doesn’t see it on wake up which requires me to unplug and replug it back in. This was solved by going to TB3 hard drive enclosures.
Not sure if ARM will fix this but it’s annoying as heck.
 
Cool. Maybe someday I’ll need to buy something with Thunderbolt, like an eGPU. But would those even work on ARM?

Imagine if Apple put an RTX 3080 in the new 16“ MacBook Pro early next year just because they have the TDP for it with the ARM CPU.

“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”
 
I expected this despite all the doom and gloomers. Still nice that Apple game out ahead of this And didn’t let it linger. Now please announce Apple Silicon Macs won’t be limited to their own GPUs. Plenty of people are saying this like it’s a fact and it’s obvious nonsense to me.
I would expect Apple’s own GPUs for the mobile ARM Macs such as laptops. For desktops, there is little advantage for saving power so they would probably use current GPU chips.
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I agree with jobs. I work on my iMac 12 hours a day at least 6 days a week. My back and neck hurt enough, I'm not extending my arms at a 90 degree angle to touch a tiny element one my 5k display.

I guess they could have a switch to turn touchscreen on or off, but I just don't see the utility for a touchscreen Mac anyway.
Touchscreens are great for casual use and users. People on their PCs for 8 hours a day are consuming much less mental and physical energy when using a mouse exclusively. Pros understand this but most people aren’t pros because most people spend their time on forums defending cool liking marketing depicting touch screen devices in 30 second spots. No one asks these pros how much energy they waste using a touch screen or shifting gears between touch screen and mouse.
 
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Pledging support? I guess that means thunderbolt is soon out the door then!
 
Really? I was looking forward to a whole new proprietary standard and a ******** of dongles to go with it. Oh well. Next time.
I know that is sarcasm, but the way Apple is trending now who knows they may go back to the way the were back during the days ADB, SCSI, DB-9 Serial, and ADC ports.
 
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I know that is sarcasm, but the way Apple is trending now who knows they may go back to the way the were back during the days ADB, SCSI, and DB-9 Serial ports.

Exactly. Add ADC to your list too. I still remember trying to force PS2 cables into ADB sockets :( Was hard to tell sometimes whether that piece of plastic on a cable was vertical or horizontal
 
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