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David Pogue: New iMacs and Mac Pros Coming 'Probably in 2013' [Update]

And This Year's Emmy Award for Comedy Goes To...

"The foundation of the Mac Pro graphics architecture is the latest generation of GPUs..."

from the current Mac Pro pages:

http://www.apple.com/macpro/features/graphics.html

Sheesh. :apple:

The same page also has:

"Two Mini DisplayPort outputs connect to a pair of Apple LED Cinema Displays" which of course Apple doesn't manufacture anymore and are not to be found anywhere else on the site. Apple needs to tighten this up. But what can they do, show the Mac Pro with an HP display? Scary how unfocused this is.

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No audio in port on the Retina MacBook Pro? That's supposed to be the foundation of a mobile studio? I thought Apple would have learned from the disaster of the "Digital Audio" 733 MHz Mac about no audio in. :apple:
 
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"probably"?

Just like "rumored to", it's more gibber shoveled out of their marketing department. Why do they condescend and patronize their users, or are we holding our computers wrong as well?

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DeeEss said:
"trust me, I'm a sales man"
Click to expand...

Bingo!

Durendal said:
What a massive load of hairy horsecrap. What possible reason would Apple have to wait that bloody long? The parts are available! It's possible that the Mac Pro is waiting on the availability of GTX 670/680 parts in sufficient quantities, but the iMac? There's no reason for it to wait that long. I give it a couple of months, tops.

Also, what the hell was "new" about the Mac Pro today?
Click to expand...

We're customers, what rights and expectations do WE have? Who said Apple is in it for us, especially if we're too small to be of profit? They're no longer in the education and creative niches... or, rather, they've done everything except having executives openly say that (yet). They're for mass markets, commoditized.
 
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milo said:
Yeah. And what makes you think that violating a user agreement is the same as breaking the law?
Click to expand...

Ha! I lol'ed. Maybe we'll be sent to "user agreement" prison if we don't obey every nonsense line in those things!

Makes me think of the South Park episode about the iTunes user agreement.
 
Train said:
There's still one hint pointing to an iMac refresh anytime soon. On May 13 appeared two Geekbench results on Macrumors ( => https://www.macrumors.com/2012/05/1...pro-and-imac-models-showing-up-in-benchmarks/ )

The MacBook Pro is now released and it's specs are the same as in those Geekbench results (the biggest 15" model).

So we should see the iMac 13,1 and 13,2 anytime soon now, at least I hope so.
Click to expand...

Interesting!
Perhaps this is the only substantial evidence suggesting an imminent iMac update.
Here's me hoping that we'll see a new iMac with the release of Mountain Lion!
 
This is just so sad.
And the real sad part is that a new desktop PC is not an option.
Apple is in the position to do it and everyone has to play by their rules...
 
2LMedia said:
Pretty much. My crew is looking at HP Workstations given the lack of any attention given to the Mac Pro line. We can run Cinema4D and Adobe Apps on a Windows machine with few issues, so that seems to be the direction we're headed unless Apple can change our minds in the next 6 months. Unlikely.
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We're looking at the same HP's probably here (z820), the lack of a pro graphics card in the mac pro has been a driving force for the switch, too bad for apple because our work will still get completed even faster without them.
 
jjhny said:
The move to let the pros die is flat out dumb. The creative pros kept the company alive - there wouldn't have been "Apple, Inc." if it weren't for the pros in the trenches all those years.

That said. Sony has both a consumer and a pro division. The pro division keeps them cutting edge. Apple should have an actual "pro division" in case the interest in the toys dies down. The other thing is that tech keeps getting better - who can say if an innovator down the road makes a better mousetrap (device). Having a strong computer division might be a life saver down that road. Even if the pro division only breaks even it is worth it as a "just in case" strategy.

Steve is gone, and he drove the innovation. I fear the corporate types who will rise to the top - and those types are usually mediocrities at best. I have looked at IOS 6 - you have maps and facebook integration. That is hardly compelling new tech! Without Steve to kick a** you may see many useless features and no innovation - just standard corporate "new and improved" which will be neither new, or improved.
Click to expand...

Exactly! I've been saying for a year or so apple should have a seperate pro div from their consumer iWank stuff (just an idea apple, but maybe update apple.com/pro from 2009, or just delete it as its embarrassing to look at!)- which may implode and apple will just be sat there with millions of unsold I toys muttering 'wish we made a pro division and kept upto date with computers'
 
milo said:
Yeah. And what makes you think that violating a user agreement is the same as breaking the law?
Click to expand...

It is illegal to install Mac OS on a non-Apple computer. Check "Hackintosh" on Wikipedia...

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jjhny said:
Ha! I lol'ed. Maybe we'll be sent to "user agreement" prison if we don't obey every nonsense line in those things!

Makes me think of the South Park episode about the iTunes user agreement.
Click to expand...

You must not use iTunes to pilot nuclear or biological weapons :rolleyes:

It actually says that in there.
 
iGrouch said:
This optics of all this look wrong.

My theory is that Apple has a tendency (because they are perfectionists) of painting themselves into a corner. It is possible that this is what happened here.

Firstly there is the whole advent of the iPhone/IOS phenomenon which draws a lot of the company's energy, just to keep in the game against the competition.

Where Apple may have blundered, regarding the Mac Pro, is with Thunderbolt (Lightpeak). Specifically what tripped them up may have been the Thunderbolt display. In eagerness to impress they released this display in a way that the graphics were dependent exclusively on Thunderbolt. This was fine for their laptops/iMac/MacMini but was problematic for the pro desktop which traditionally use graphics cards and expansion slots.

Apple didn't think through properly how the Thunderbolt display was going to connect to the one mac where it was the most important (for them), the Mac Pro, the one Mac Apple really likes us to purchase with their quality though expensive screens. If Apple thought that the vendors of graphics cards would release thunderbolt enabled cards we must then assume that Apple are naive.

Apple have themselves in a knot of a design quandary due to the way that they are so specific on the way a Mac is designed and looks. Don't get me wrong the Thunderbolt display is a great idea but Apple could have perhaps either implemented and released the screen at a later date or in a different guise.

The options could have been:

Release Thunderbolt Display as is, when top end Mac is released with new type of Thunderbolt enabled graphics card in 201x; whenever such a thing happened.

Release the Thunderbolt Display when they did but in a way that the Mac Pro would connect using conventional display port. How this would be implemented I am not sure. Some kind of adaptor? Extra cable: thunderbolt on Mac Pro to thunderbolt-in on display? Who knows, but again, because of the way that Apple is specific about perfect design they have given themselves little room to manoeuvre.

What is sad about all this is that Apple does not have Thunderbolt in its top of the range Mac, the one place where you would expect it. A technology that will mostly only be used by pros initially. But also as a consequence of this design bottle neck the top of the range Mac does not have USB 3 and is using cpus that are two years old. What a faux pas!

I think we can all agree that if Apple had road mapped their design approach, whereby the Mac Pro continued in its current form factor (albeit with the latest Xeons, USB 3, Thunderbolt and whatever are the best in current graphic cards), and then, lets say next year, replaced it with something more radical, they would have held on to some kudos amongst the pros.

Then again maybe I am completely wrong. Maybe Apple doesn't care or are at a point where they feel that they cannot compete in this area. Whatever the reason they are alienating professionals who want to work on Mac and in the long run this can't be good.
Click to expand...

One of the best posts in this thread.

Apple does screw up from time to time. The "Digital Audio" 733 MHz had no normal audio line in. If you wanted to get standard audio in, you had to use a Griffin analog-audio-to-USB-audio converter. Jobs later admitted this was a serious gaff.

And guess what? The Retina MacBook Pro has no audio in. For a mobile studio solution? Doh! :apple:
 
Setmose said:
One of the best posts in this thread.

Apple does screw up from time to time. The "Digital Audio" 733 MHz had no normal audio line in. If you wanted to get standard audio in, you had to use a Griffin analog-audio-to-USB-audio converter. Jobs later admitted this was a serious gaff.

And guess what? The Retina MacBook Pro has no audio in. For a mobile studio solution? Doh! :apple:
Click to expand...

Neither do the newer MacBook Pro models.

EDIT: Guys, how do you do strikethrough text?
 
Intel is the problem..

I for one am still pointing the finger at INTEL for not producing any compelling CPUs. Yes, I know about Moore's Law, but it seems like when Intel became the "even bigger" CPU supplier for most every PC platform (including Apple), and that left IMB/Motorola and to a lesser extent AMD, to specialized markets, who does Intel have to compete with now?

The CPU wars are long over, and a 2008 MacPro is just about as good as a 2012 MacPro (save the RAM costs, and maybe PCIe),

There will be a KILLER MacPro soon. I just hope it has some killer CPUs in it. In the meantime make the most of what you have.

I have a 2008 MP (and buying another one). Gonna link the via Ethernet and distribute tasks. I'm loading them up with 32GB of RAM, eSATA SSD RAIDs, maybe a PCIe SSD, replacing the DVD drives with SSDs, and putting large HDDs for storage in the internal bays. Only think missing is Thunderbolt, and that's not a big deal right now.

My system runs current software very well. And I'm more concerned with everything I use being 64-bit (one major app left to go). Then I'll want a new MP later this year.
 
I'm also disappointed about this poor update, but I don't think it's a real problem.
Apple won't drop their pro line, they are just not ready yet to release a new macpro with a massive redesign.
I see a lot of people complaining but I really don't see what's so wrong ?
I run an audio post production facility. For the moment, the current version of the macpro is more than enough to run EVERY pro hardware and software for my needs. I don't need to upgrade my computers (I have 3 macpros, 2 from 2009 and 1 from 2010) but if I need another one or if one of my computers fails, I still can and will buy one of these "not so new" macpros.
The technology we use in the pro world doesn't move that fast. The last version of Avid Pro Tools and even their new HDX cards work very well with 3 years old macpros.
Again, what's wrong ? I'm a pro user. I don't NEED a better machine than the actual macpro. I can wait. :)
People complaining that they are going to switch to PC or Hackintosh are not "pros". Pros don't have the time and money to adapt to a different platform when they don't absolutely NEED to, nor to build hackintoshes when they need plug and play, reliable machines with real support, not mentioning the fact that using macos on a non-apple machine is illegal...
:apple:
 
Big-TDI-Guy said:
You know what would instill faith? APPLE telling pro users that they will continue to support them. Its not like that information would benefit the competitors to any significant degree, and I'm positive it would put the minds of those who DEPEND on this tool for a living, at ease.

Getting this info exclusively from third parties borders on insulting.
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Indeed it would not benefit competitors, it would slow or stop the migration of those whose patience has run out with the lack of information and the lack of an upgrade
 
littlenemo said:
I'm also disappointed about this poor update, but I don't think it's a real problem.
Apple won't drop their pro line, they are just not ready yet to release a new macpro with a massive redesign.
I see a lot of people complaining but I really don't see what's so wrong ?
I run an audio post production facility. For the moment, the current version of the macpro is more than enough to run EVERY pro hardware and software for my needs. I don't need to upgrade my computers (I have 3 macpros, 2 from 2009 and 1 from 2010) but if I need another one or if one of my computers fails, I still can and will buy one of these "not so new" macpros.
The technology we use in the pro world doesn't move that fast. The last version of Avid Pro Tools and even their new HDX cards work very well with 3 years old macpros.
Again, what's wrong ? I'm a pro user. I don't NEED a better machine than the actual macpro. I can wait. :)
People complaining that they are going to switch to PC or Hackintosh are not "pros". Pros don't have the time and money to adapt to a different platform when they don't absolutely NEED to, nor to build hackintoshes when they need plug and play, reliable machines with real support, not mentioning the fact that using macos on a non-apple machine is illegal...
:apple:
Click to expand...

I asked the same question, and some 3D video designer said that he needs the newest stuff always. I guess it depends on the field. Audio pros probably don't need as many upgrades as 3D designers for obvious reasons.
 
Big-TDI-Guy said:
You know what would instill faith? APPLE telling pro users that they will continue to support them. Its not like that information would benefit the competitors to any significant degree, and I'm positive it would put the minds of those who DEPEND on this tool for a living, at ease.

Getting this info exclusively from third parties borders on insulting.
Click to expand...

Is Apple sure that they are continuing to support pro users?

If Apple really put effort into the pro computer market, they could easily take the whole thing over like they did with just the audio pros. Leaving the Mac Pro without updates is exactly how they lose some of their customers.
 
RBR2 said:
And what about the odd number of RAM slots (6). With dual channel RAM the logical progression is from 4 to 8, not 6. There are tests out there that have shown that RAM in all 6 slots actually slows some operations compared to 4.
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You have no idea what you're talking about. Since the Nehalem CPUs came out in 2009, Xeon processors have 3-channel memory controllers. Those "tests out there" actually support the opposite of your claim.

http://ark.intel.com/products/48768...E5645-(12M-Cache-2_40-GHz-5_86-GTs-Intel-QPI)

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faroZ06 said:
But it cannot be split into one input and one output. I don't think many people use the built-in speakers in their studios, amateur or professional.
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone that's even remotely serious in audio processing is doing *anything* with the headphone/line-in jack on a laptop. That's amateur hour. Most people would use a FireWire or USB audio interface.

That said, you can use the port for audio in and out at the same time with a four-ring 1/8" adapter. I have an IK iRig for use with my iPad and it works just fine with my MacBook Air.
 
Would have loved a pro update but I'm not terribly disappointed.

Is 3 years really that long for a pro machine (if it happens in 2013?) If phones/tablets are on a 1-year cycle, consumer desktops/laptops could be around 2 and pro machines around 3. My point is that those machines "change" less frequently. Unfortunately, we're in a time where we have seen introduced; thunderbolt, retina displays, usb3, etc, that are all available now. IMO, pro machines should have a longer life-cycle than consumer grade products and therefore, product refreshes wouldn't come along as quickly.

On the other hand, I'm taking it as an unfortunate stance to let the product life-cycle overrule the actual "need" of some pros for these feature improvements from the current design. In all honesty, I'd expect a pro machine to be good for 4 years - But maybe Apple should have decided on an incremental upgrade since there has been quick adoption and seemingly a need for more graphics power. Is this a new issue or was the previous pro not that great from the start?

Maybe you true pro users feel differently, but when I buy a computer, I'd want it to last at least a few years. When you go to buy something, do you really expect to swap it out 1-1.5 years later? If you assume what you have will be unusable by then, then why buy it in the first place?
 
bobobenobi said:
I don't think anyone that's even remotely serious in audio processing is doing *anything* with the headphone/line-in jack on a laptop. That's amateur hour. Most people would use a FireWire or USB audio interface.
Click to expand...
If it is an optical 'headphone/line-in' jack, why not? (And the headphone and line-in jacks on Macs have been combined analogue and optical for quite a while.)
 
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