Is a Mac Mini with M2 Pro and 16GB memory on base model too much to hope for? 
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Here's What Else to Expect From Apple Later This Year
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I’ll assume your claim to USB-C connectors being less robust than Lightning connectors is your personal opinion unless you can provide data sheets for both connectors quantifying their respective robustness.
Apple pretty much admitted their mistake with the flat butterfly key design a while ago and reversed course.
Finally, a replacement for the power-starved M1 iPads.
I'm still not sold on a dedicated classical app. I'm an avid listener of classical music, but now this will mean needing two apps to listen to different genres (something not needed with, say, Qobuz, which is optimized for classical in a way that Apple Music and Tidal aren't). Will the libraries be consolidated between the two apps? How about playlists?
And how about a much needed update to the Music app? In December of last year, there was a rumor that Apple was rebuilding the Music app to be fully "native"; that never happened. Basically no updates announced for the Music app for Ventura except minor ones. And if the classical app is coming with Ventura, why wasn't it announced at WWDC?
The Music app store is still basically just an awkward embedded internet browser. Using it yesterday, I was reminded how much it's in need of an update.
So far on the Mac side, there've been only been solid rumors about the MBPs, but what about a Mac Mini Pro? Surely one is coming if Apple still sells the Intel model. That means the "transition" isn't complete. And the regular Mac Mini should be updated with M2, as should the 24" iMac. It will have been a year and a half since the 24" iMac was introduced and 2 years since the Mac Mini got M1.
Also hoping to see a Mac Pro and potentially a new monitor.
And how about a much needed update to the Music app? In December of last year, there was a rumor that Apple was rebuilding the Music app to be fully "native"; that never happened. Basically no updates announced for the Music app for Ventura except minor ones. And if the classical app is coming with Ventura, why wasn't it announced at WWDC?
The Music app store is still basically just an awkward embedded internet browser. Using it yesterday, I was reminded how much it's in need of an update.
So far on the Mac side, there've been only been solid rumors about the MBPs, but what about a Mac Mini Pro? Surely one is coming if Apple still sells the Intel model. That means the "transition" isn't complete. And the regular Mac Mini should be updated with M2, as should the 24" iMac. It will have been a year and a half since the 24" iMac was introduced and 2 years since the Mac Mini got M1.
Also hoping to see a Mac Pro and potentially a new monitor.
Why do you feel the need to upgrade? Just curious what you expect the M2 to do for you that the M1 can’t.
I'd love to see some innovation on the software side. Don't get me wrong, I think both iOS and MacOS are mature products that generally get the job done very well, but I can't remember the past time I was actually excited about an update because it would bring a feature that would genuinely improve things.
Sure there's been some of that over the years, but mostly small potatoes and nothing I hadn't seen elsewhere before (hello widgets).
Anybody who has an M1 MacBook Pro absolutely does not need to upgrade this year, or next year really.
I’ll pay an extra $200 next year if they keep it Lightning or go portless. I’m sure Apple is just as sick of hearing this than the rest of us.
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M2 is a boring iterative product.
Even M1 isn't that impressive when you take out all the "performance per watt" marketing shtick. You get a weak GPU, buggy, slower USB/thunderbolt implementation and a host of display issues compared to the outgoing Intel machines.
What are a handful of large potatoes iPhone software features you'd like to see Apple create?
My Mac has six (four on the back, two on the front) Thunderbolt 4 ports.
Display issues? I'm currently driving four displays ( one 5K, three 4K) with zero bugs or issues. Mac runs quiet and cool. Can't hear it unless I move in back of it and with my head within a foot - it's just a very soft whir. And I'm very happy with its performance.
Well I think it's safe to ponder that the 13" M2 MBP was not a comparable product to the 13" M2 MBA. It's has a slightly smaller display 13.3" compared to 13.6" on the MBA. It has a 720p FaceTime HD camera when it should have been a 1080p FaceTime HD camera. It only has Stereo speakers compared to the MBA's Four-speaker sound system.
So while I think the 14"/16" 2021 MBP are stellar laptop products, the 2021 13" M2 MBP looks like a rush job of sticking a M2 SoC in it. So yeah I think a year later, Apple needs an update to this model.
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If you're upgrading every yea then, yes, it will seem boring. If you're wanting to feel some excitement perhaps sit out a few versions. This is no different than what we see with cars. You're not going to get major updates or redesigns each year which is why the vast majority of us don't buy a new car every year.
Can’t do it all at once, I guess. Especially since so much of the engineering that goes into the phones is similar to the Mac now. Everything is on the same OS underpinnings, same processors, etc. So it kinda (now) makes sense to draw from one pool of talent when making changes. Work on the phones, flip over to the Mac’s for a while, then back to the phones. Each product cycle builds on experience from the last. It doubles the rate at which the technology evolves because it’s now single stream.
I got a new MBP M1 in July. I didn’t really need it, I just hated the butterfly keyboard of my old MBP. It was more a gift to myself for 4 years of sobriety, so I guess I’m rationalizing.
I got an iPhone 14PM from a 13PM because my carrier offered it with no change in my bill a a reasonable upgrade fee if I send them the old one. It should be here Monday, and I’m looking forward to the new features.
There’s not a lot of outward changes, but my father who was a mechanic told me when he showed me how to work on cars “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
Sometimes change for change’s sake leads to many more problems than it’s worth…
I'll be honest with you, I'm not entirely sure (which is probably the reason I'm not a developer).
But looking back, I think what Google is doing with Assistant -- stay on the line, make reservations for you, work through hotline phone trees -- is pretty cool, as is Magic Eraser and some of the other camera features they rolled out with the Pixel 6.
Plus there's some small potato stuff I'd actually love to see, but that's another story.
I personally think they should invest their money in making the actual Apple Music service better. For example, making it so you can actually follow an artist or group, rather than adding each specific song or album manually. Also bringing back the ability to interact with artists and receive news from them would be great. While I know Apple is Apple-centric, they should improve Apple Music on non-Apple devices. A lot of us have PCs for gaming and the iTunes app is pretty crappy.
I could be considered an Apple fanboy, but there are areas of Apple which are not up to Apple's usual high standards IMO: Siri, Apple Music, Apple Arcade (or gaming in general). They can do better, and hopefully there are plans to.
I could be considered an Apple fanboy, but there are areas of Apple which are not up to Apple's usual high standards IMO: Siri, Apple Music, Apple Arcade (or gaming in general). They can do better, and hopefully there are plans to.
Don't pin your 2022 hopes on that. The Apple SoC rollout hasn't been that fast, example M1 first showed up November 2020, with the late Oct 2021 keynote introduced the M1 Pro/M1 Max. The you had the M1 Ultra March 2022.
The M2 announcement was fairly recent in June 6 2022.
Does anyone think Apple will rush out new 14"/16" MBPs barely a year later? We can't even get new Mac mini that are still M1 based. The advantages of a M2 over a M1 make it something that Apple might release more products using that.
Compared to the 2020 M1, the M2 offers the following:
- New 5-nanometer chip is a follow-up to the remarkable M1
- 8-core CPU and up to a 12-core GPU w/ performance improvements over M1
- Features 20 billion transistors, which Apple claims is 25% more than the M1
- Can support 100 GB/s unified memory bandwidth
- Supports up to 24GB unified memory
- 16-core Neural Engine with improvements over M1 Neural Engine
- Capable of playing back multiple streams of ProRes 4K/8K video
Don't you see?!?!?!? Instead of selling eleventy million iPhones, Apple is missing out on their chance to sell eleventy million and five!!!