Kuo: Redesigned MacBooks With Apple Silicon to Launch in Second Half of 2021

reginalb said:
I've never understood this very common sentiment (I don't want a feature so it shouldn't be included for anyone that does). Making it touch screen doesn't mean you have to use it. When other people want a feature that you don't, that isn't a valid reason for it not to be included. Just don't use it.
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It will certainly affect the user interface of the operating system. Look at Windows 8 and Windows 10. LOTS of empty space on Windows 10 in the touch oriented areas of the operating system on my 4K monitor.
 
Eauboy said:
This will be a painful wait for me. I have been holding out with my 2014 15" MBP, telling myself this would be the year to upgrade. Just got the M1 Air for my GF. It's a wonderful machine, but just smaller than I want. Now it's seems likely that I'll have to wait well into next year before they update the 16" model. No way I'm buying the 2019 Intel version.
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I honestly doubt you (or I) will be waiting till very late in 2021 for the Apple Silicon 16" MBP... and definitely not beyond that into 2022. The MacBooks (pro/air etc) are by far the biggest selling Mac OS machines they make, so getting them all updated is definitely top priority.

They know very well that only some edge-case 16" MBP buyers (ones who really need obscure apps to go native first, or ones who still want another bootcamp-capable machine for a few more years) will be ordering an Intel one. Everyone else has put their wallet down until the update happens.

They also very likely low-balled their estimate on how long it would take to complete the transition, just like they did going from PPC to Intel. Sure, this one is not quite the same because they're also responsible for designing the CPUs themselves this time. But on the other hand, the Apple of today is, by orders of magnitude, a far bigger, wealthier and more capable company than it was way back then. They've likely planned all of this quite a lot more ahead than they make known publicly. In fact, I bet it was pretty weird for those Apple engineers to record that presentation about the M1 when they actually finished work on that design quite a long time ago.

I think it's pretty likely the next wave of machines (with the next step up M-series chip) will be announced at the first or second major Apple event on the calendar in 2021.
 
kahkityoong said:
No thanks. I don’t want crap all over my screen which I use to edit and watch movies on.
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I have a very easy solution for all the Apple tyrants here: just don’t touch the stupid screen.

Is that so hard?

I mean, really, you are all authoritarian with people who have an alternative view, meanwhile Apple is literally hitting Mac OS to merge with iOS and become a complete mobile platform.

You can’t do that without touch screens.
 
xWhiplash said:
It will certainly affect the user interface of the operating system. Look at Windows 8 and Windows 10. LOTS of empty space on Windows 10 in the touch oriented areas of the operating system on my 4K monitor.
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Exactly. And not just that, but also the gigantic can of worms the whole thing opens up for Mac OS and 3rd party apps in general. It's not such a simple thing of saying "I just want multitouch input, you don't have to use it if you don't want to". It fundamentally changes the playing field for everything.

What happens if some key apps go all-in on touch controls, to the point that it's not something people who "just don't want to use it" can ignore? What happens to Mac OS machines that by their very nature don't have a multitouch display at all, like Mac Minis and the Mac Pro? Are those users going to be happy if Photoshop eventually becomes touch interface centric, using up valuable display space for touch input they can't even use? Or if the UI is just so oriented that way, it makes using a flagship Mac Pro with a traditional display/mouse/keyboard input a clumsy experience?

I already wrote a long post on this so I won't go into it all again. Long story short: if you really look into the details, it's not as simple as you think.
 
Freeangel1 said:
I hope They FINALLY include a touch screen?
Lazy APPLE. No touch screen when Surface by Microsoft has had it for years
Whats a iPad Pro M1 aka MacBook M1 without a touch screen?
wanna run iPad and iPhone apps on your Mac ? You need a touch screen!
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I haven’t heard anything from Apple that they changed their mind on the idea of dedicated devices for tablet and laptop use cases.
 
Max48 said:
In the past, I preferred future-proofing to upgrading. My 2012 rmbp has really utilized that 16GB ram and kept me going up to last year. I did the same with my 2019 16", but that was a costly decision. Going forwards, it seems more worth it to simply buy the base model and spare the extra $ for a sooner future upgrade.
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Well since the machines we’re discussing seem a year away maybe let’s wait until folks have tested them to make a determination on which one to recommend.
It certainly does look very promising, as I expected.
 
reallynotnick said:
A 9th gen iPad feels sort of soon for first half unless it's just form factor changes with the same A12. I feel like an updated iPad Mini would make sense for the first half of 2021.
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I really hope for a mini overhaul.
My impression is that there are way more mini fans and customers out there than Apple actually wants. They’d rather have you get the Air or Pro and seem surprised at the popularity of the model.
 
matrix07 said:
What I want from Apple right now is a 27” Cinema Display that has the same quality of current iMac screen, fully compatible with AS but doesn’t cost us arms and legs like XDR display. Come on Apple! You’re leaving money on the table.
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I like the idea - but maybe they have already given up on competing anywhere in the display market except for that one high end display...
 
bkkcanuck8 said:
I get the feeling that they will introduce a Mac Pro Mini but it will not be the Mac Pro replacement (an indication of the performance that the Mac Pro will have but without the same expandability) - that will be the last thing that will come out at near the end of the 2 year transition period. I expect them to keep the PCIe slots as they have a full time contingent of pro consultants within Apple now making their voices heard (and there are lots of pro PCIe card addons other than video cards themselves).

Remember Apple now has a growing media business themselves...
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I suspect the biggest challenge to both the Pro and the Pro Mini is adopting the SoC model they're using now to the modular and upgradeable system that pros demand. Can Apple silicon's unified memory model and its benefits be realized with modular, expandable RAM? During WWDC Apple made it a point to state that ASi Macs would only run on Apple GPUs (with the rumor being that Apple is developing its own discrete GPU). Part of this is because Apple is pushing tile based deferred rendering as Metal's drawing model, whereas most mainstream GPUs only support immediate mode rendering. Will that be enough to satisfy consumers and professionals or will they have to eventually allow support for third party GPUs? Interesting questions we'll find the answers to in the next two years.
 
bradman83 said:
During WWDC Apple made it a point to state that ASi Macs would only run on Apple GPUs (with the rumor being that Apple is developing its own discrete GPU).
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Actually, I think people read too much into it. When they listed the hardware the listed the Apple SoCs "currently" only supporting Apple GPUs, but then the only model they had released was the DTK and it only supported Apple GPUs. Apple does not typically comment on future unreleased plans - so that was just a statement of current state of affairs. The eGPU expansion units are recognized on M1 Macs but not AMD GPUs... but that likely is because there are no current ARM based drivers developed for AMD GPUs. I don't think there is anything preventing AMD from developing such a driver if they felt it was beneficial. We will likely only know what will be supported on the Mac Pro until it is announced. Apple obviously is developing their own GPU technology but we have yet to understand if that will be a replacement for the AMD GPUs in the Mac Pro. Tile based rendering is superior on low power devices - which is all that has been released right now.
 
ericwn said:
I haven’t heard anything from Apple that they changed their mind on the idea of dedicated devices for tablet and laptop use cases.
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And you would not .... until (if or when) they had something close to being announced.... Gen 1 is typically a replacement of the SoC while leaving the enclosure, market segment etc. the same. In fact they don't even have a LTE/5G option, but I have no doubt that is coming... but not for Gen 1.... If it were to happen it would not happen until at least Gen 2 and possibly a Gen 3 device... as things like this cannot be done without laying a proper foundation and 'encouraging' development of single sourcecode/binary applications for both the iPadOS and macOS ... Apple never likes to go into these things without it being a much smaller jump to support by enough applications at launch time or shortly after (already there are over 100 apps that support M1 natively).
 
hailey bee said:
Make the Touch Bar optional, Apple.
I bet, if the Touch Bar was optional, the bulk of purchases would not include it. So what is this practice called, when a company forces you buy a $200 unneeded add-on toolbar?
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$200? Sounds like someone is confused.
 
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ericwn said:
I really hope for a mini overhaul.
My impression is that there are way more mini fans and customers out there than Apple actually wants. They’d rather have you get the Air or Pro and seem surprised at the popularity of the model.
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That all sounds like something you want to be true, but is it?
 
KPOM said:
I disagree. I want Macs to stay non-touch oriented. Granted, they’ll eventually probably have to add it, but I don’t want a Mac to be a Surface.
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Agree. The only good touch-macbook would be one that dual boots to iPad OS and Mac OS. Two different interface schemes, optimized for each. I hope to never see OSX get dumbed/flattened down more than it already is with Big Sur.
 
ericwn said:
I said it’s my impression. The long gap between iPad mini 4 and 5 didn’t indicate anything different to me, nor is the lack of updates the mini has seen since.
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I get that it’s your impression/opinion, but was wondering what could possibly give you the impression that “They’d rather have you get the Air or Pro and seem surprised at the popularity of the model”?
 
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