FOMO for macbooks?

[says_stuff]

I get this is a kinda silly question,

But since my ipad pro 2020 was bought after careful consideration instead of a cheaper ipad air, paying more than necessary for me, thinking pros would get the best support, then it was left out of external screen support the very next year of its existence.

So i now have this very first world problem of fomo where i have been wondering if there have been macs, or macbooks missing such important update features so soon in their life cycle,

And i am asking this as i haven’t been following mac news and i have been looking so long into buying a macbook (since the butterfly keyboard phase) to replace an aging windows laptop, but can’t really decide if i should just wait till the very last minute to get it to avoid regretting soon after.

Thanks for your input anyway.

Edited - since i mixed up the ipad air generations.

 

[russell_314]

I get this is a kinda silly question,

But since my ipad pro 2020 was bought after careful consideration instead of an ipad air m1, paying more than necessary for me, thinking pros would get the best support, then it was left out of external screen support the very next year of its existence.

So i now have this very first world problem of fomo where i have been wondering if there have been macs, or macbooks missing such important update features so soon in their life cycle,

And i am asking this as i haven’t been following mac news and i have been looking so long into buying a macbook (since the butterfly keyboard phase) to replace an aging windows laptop, but can’t really decide if i should just wait till the very last minute to get it to avoid regretting soon after.

Thanks for your input anyway.

I’m a little confused by your question. You said you bought the M1 iPad and we’re disappointed because it didn’t get extra support for an external screen. It cost a little more than the air but you’re not necessarily paying for some extra fast track new feature support.


Apple Silicon has been out for a while on MacBook so I wouldn’t suspect any substantial changes. I wouldn’t expect some M3 laptop MacBook to have some amazing function that is only available to M3. Of course, none of us know exactly what Apple is going to do so that’s just my thoughts.

There are rumors of M3 being more power efficient so perhaps if that’s a concern maybe wait for that? Any Apple Silicon MacBook is going to be night and day difference between whatever laptop you have now for battery life. I think the better question is do you need a new laptop now? If you really need one, I’d say get it but if what you have seems to work maybe wait. It doesn’t matter what you buy, Apple is going to come out with something that’s better so you will never have the latest and greatest unless you keep buying new ones.

 

[says_stuff]

I didnt get a m1 ipad, sorry for not phrasing that right, i got the a12z pro instead of a a14 ipad air (not m1, mixed those up), on early 2021, , hence the dissapointment when it got left out of external screen support.

Thats the thing exactly, since i dont need a laptop now, i just want to jump ship, but i just feel should wait for the next and best and well, if previous gen macs miss out on software updates that easily, i probably should

 

[KaliYoni]

I get this is a kinda silly question,

But since my ipad pro 2020 was bought after careful consideration instead of a cheaper ipad air, paying more than necessary for me, thinking pros would get the best support, then it was left out of external screen support the very next year of its existence.

So i now have this very first world problem of fomo where i have been wondering if there have been macs, or macbooks missing such important update features so soon in their life cycle,

And i am asking this as i haven’t been following mac news and i have been looking so long into buying a macbook (since the butterfly keyboard phase) to replace an aging windows laptop, but can’t really decide if i should just wait till the very last minute to get it to avoid regretting soon after.

Thanks for your input anyway.

Edited - since i mixed up the ipad air generations.

I'm a financial markets person. So, the way I would think about this decision if I was in a similar situation is to regard the money spent on the iPad as a sunk cost (in other words, the money has been spent and there isn't any way to get it back) and to look at how much benefit buying a laptop would provide (for example, if I valued my time at $200/hour and a new computer would save me 1 hour/day, then the $2,000 cost would be "paid for" quickly).

If you're interested in finding out more about the psychology behind what you're feeling, here are a few sources I recommend:

Regret Theory: Meaning, Psychology, Applications

Regret theory states that people anticipate regret if they make the wrong choice, and they consider this anticipation when making decisions.

www.investopedia.com

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Thinking, Fast and Slow

www.amazon.com

The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, Revised Edition

The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, Revised Edition

www.amazon.com

 

[says_stuff]

love this answer, thank you for providing a name for what i am thinking and thank you for understanding and advising me!

 

[gwhizkids]

love this answer, thank you for providing a name for what i am thinking and thank you for understanding and advising me!

I know this will sound trite but it’s absolutely correct: buy a new laptop when you need a new laptop and then buy the best one you can reasonably afford.

There will always be some feature on new ones that are not on the preceding models. For laptops that’s normally not anything huge but occasionally, as with the MBP Pro and Max models, the extra peripheral connections were a big deal (vs the original M1 MBP with the Touch Bar) that had just the two Thunderbolt ports.

If you follow the “buy the best you can afford when you need it” rule, you will never have buyer’s remorse.

 

[ignatius345]

And i am asking this as i haven’t been following mac news and i have been looking so long into buying a macbook (since the butterfly keyboard phase) to replace an aging windows laptop, but can’t really decide if i should just wait till the very last minute to get it to avoid regretting soon after.

My 2¢: even the the oldest M1 Apple Silicon Macs are pretty damn awesome. I'm using an M1 iMac for all kinds of graphics work and it's a beast. Battery life on the MacBooks is a HUGE step up from the Intel ones. They've fixed the keyboards and they're putting solid, usable ports in laptops again.

That said, new ones are always nicer, and when new ones come out the previous generations generally get a little cheaper as refurbished models or just on sale.

Maybe this isn't a useful answer, but honestly I think it would be kind of hard to buy a disappointing Mac right now.

 

[says_stuff]

After the news that final cut pro wont be available on the ipad pro pre m1, i would like to ask again my original question, to see if this is only ipad/ iphone related,

Has there been history where your macs or macbooks in the past been left behind by software features or upgrades or incompatible software three (or even less) years after launching them?

 

[Basic75]

The macOS feature where you can simply select and copy text from an image in Preview didn't come to Intel Macs because they don't have the Neural Engine.

 

[galad]

No, text OCR works on Intel Macs too.

 

[gwhizkids]

No, text OCR works on Intel Macs too.

But it was a late change. It was not supposed to and IIRC they found some workaround to make it operate.

Or they got so much blowback they decided they had to make it work.

 

[Basic75]

No, text OCR works on Intel Macs too.

Must have missed that.