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Throttling is not based on whether there is a fan or not, but on whether the cooling is adequate for the amount of watts the processor is using. It’s totally possible to have a fanless design that doesn’t throttle, and one with a fan that does. If the fanless design has higher performance per watt, you might still have higher performance before throttling in the fanless one.

All theoretical of course, but so was your statement.

Fact is, I do hear the fans in my Windows PC. Stop telling me it’s “quiet”, it’s not.

Edit: For the record, I’m totally going to yell at my IT department (who don’t want to support Macs) to get me an ARM Windows PC for work ASAP. It’s great for the Windows segment that they can finally enjoy (some of) the spoils of Apple Silicon Macs.
Depends on what you're using, I have HP Z2 small form factor Xeon / Quadro combo and the only way to hear the fans would be to put your ear down in front of the computer. So for me it's silent.
 
Happens on both platforms if you don't adjust the auto update settings right.
I've seen/heard/witnessed coworkers and customers have inconvenient Windows updates at least 10x more than macOS.
And even so, you can punt macOS updates yet still be (more) okay than Windows.
 
I just saw Gary explain M4. It’s new design on ARM v9 with higher performance per GHz then previous M chips.
Be careful with the ISA’s. M4 “may” be adherent to the v9 ISA, but it’s not just an Arm designed chip.
 
This is very old outdated info, you should use Windows from time to time.
You can set the hours when updates should be installed, you can turn off automatic updates(it will updated only when you manually search for it), also Windows was optimized to not install updates when you are doing something on the computer.

Also in corporate environments this was never a problem for Windows as you can't updates freely anyway.
"I should use Windows from time to time." - is an uninformed, condescending comment.
I am using Windows right now, and use it every day.

I have numerous Windows 10 and Windows 11 boxes, some physical (tower/gaming + Dell XPS 13 laptop) and some virtual.
 
I've seen/heard/witnessed coworkers and customers have inconvenient Windows updates at least 10x more than macOS.
And even so, you can punt macOS updates yet still be (more) okay than Windows.
Sysadmin here.

I’ve always had a conspiratorial take that MS forces updates that are pending on users by breaking functionality until the update is applied.

EVERY time the search function in the taskbar or the windows button/key becomes nonfunctional, there’s an update pending reboot.

Now if I could only convince my managers that idgaf, let me FORCE machines to reboot at least twice a month, that wouldn’t be a problem.

This has been a consistent “bug” since W10 1903 and W11 still behaves the same way….
 
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Unfortunately apple hasn't REALLY been competing on the top end, just performance per watt. The GPU side apple has seeded to Nvidia and even Radeon. TBH I almost wish apple would build a gaming console that's focused on not just graphics but advanced AI to play against/with and just use that to catapult their GPU/Compute chips. That's a big area apple is behind in. Then again most of those more powerful cpus are for severe and I'm glad apple is focused on users/small studios.
Apple did make a games console 😅

 
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Dell has their XPS 13 Snapdragon version up for sale now, in case you were interested sticking with Dell.


BestBuy is taking preorders also on lots of different brands:
Sadly Dell had no Oled!
 
First off, I know this article is about iPad versus a Surface laptop, but I am seriously thinking about the Surface laptop because of the following experiences. Curious if anyone else had graduated to the "Dark Side"?

Having used Macs solely since 2006, about 17 years, I decided to build a gaming PC. Full blown setup with an i9-14900K, RTX 4090 graphics card, 64gb RAM, liquid cooling, and Windows 11 Home...yada yada yada.

The PC was built for $3700 and the Mac Studio Ultra I bought at $4000. Pretty comparative pricing between the 2 and in my sweet spot financially for a desktop. And yes, if I would just shop for the same PC from a company online, delivered it would cost probably around $4600-$4700.

I built it mainly for VR gaming and wanted to see how it compared to my Mac Studio Ultra M2 in apps like LightRoom, Adobe Premier Pro 2024, and Photoshop.

At this point I don't even turn the Mac on anymore and am thinking of selling it. The PC has far exceeded what I thought it would do with all aspects of my computer use, gaming and productivity. I'll stay in the Apple ecosystem with an iPad Pro and an iPhone.

NEVER thought I would touch a Windows PC in my home again but my mind has changed after 17 years which before that I was building gaming PC's.

So yes, the performance gap between Windows and Mac has always been a he said/she said kind of relationship depending on what exactly you were comparing between the two. Trying two head-to-head 2 different architectures is a little tricky.

But I have to tell you in the end, my PC "just works".
Macs have been impossible to upgrade internally for some time, and since the ARM switch even external upgrade capability is reduced. I bought an external TB3 GPU 6 years ago figuring that was the way to keep my Mac running a decent graphics card, even stuck with AMD due to lack of Nvidia support, and then Apple ditched support entirely and my M1 Mac Mini can't use it at all. Biggest advantage for anyone who likes to tinker is the upgradeability and modularity of a PC, which Apple no longer caters to, in any of their current models. (Intel Mac Pro I don't consider current by any means!) Unfortunately that means Apple limited their market to those who don't ever want to upgrade anything but would prefer to just replace the computer when it's obsolete/underpowered.

Now, Surface isn't exactly known for upgradeability, and I doubt the ARM chipset is conducive to it, but I've used an Intel HP and a Dell tablet for work before and both we upgraded with bigger SSDs and more RAM. Even my Steam Deck I was able to upgrade the SSD to 2TB easily, just screws and no adhesives to melt. I've replaced Macbook batteries and that process was a pain. Good luck trying to replace anything else on a Mac, though.

I currently have a Mac Mini and use an external TB SSD (WAY cheaper than paying the Apple premium for storage) for my home directory, but having dealt with issues years ago with an iMac struggling to read my user folders off an external Firewire hard drive every time I booted (I upgraded it to have an internal SSD), I live in constant fear that Apple will break this external upgrade, too. Steve Wozniak's vision of upgradable Macs is long dead.

I thought seriously about building my own PC instead of buying a Mac Mini, but I have other solutions for gaming (Steam Deck, and booting my own SSD in my work laptop that has 4 slots), so a desktop Mac was the most attractive replacement. If I were buying my own portable computer I'd want a tablet convertible form factor and the Surface or one of the Dell or HP equivalents are the only things on the market that meet my needs. IPad is great, but the OS is not a desktop OS and doesn't have the features I need.
 
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Does anyone know the specs of the M3 MacBook Air they were using on stage?

The M4 chip is out, just not available on Mac yet ;)
 
Sysadmin here.

I’ve always had a conspiratorial take that MS forces updates that are pending on users by breaking functionality until the update is applied.

EVERY time the search function in the taskbar or the windows button/key becomes nonfunctional, there’s an update pending reboot.
Very interesting take.
I actually see the search bar issue from time to time - even <Windows Key> start typing will break stuff.
I've had to nuke Cortana or search indexer or something else I can't recall right now.

That said, knock on wood, my Win10 boxes have been okay the past 9-10 months. Except the disaster KB5034441 recovery partition update, blocking ALL Windows updates behind it... the https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...80070643/3bcad8a3-385b-4cf8-8458-509a162cea64

But - and this is serious - starting with Win10 22H2 (rolled out en masse between Nov 2022 and April 2023), AND updates to it, I've seen third-party AV -turned off- by MSFT and replaced with Defender (notably Crowdstrike, until recently; SentinelOne; Cylance; etc. ... but Sophos/Symantec/Trend not so much).

This is malicious.

Not even to mention 30 instance of msedgewebview2 - when I don't use Edge - plus 50 svchost, and runtime broker and other MSFT supporting apps... it's a nightmare.

And any of these can be used to bury (hide) malware...
 
"Stole" may have been a strong word, but they definitely COPIED it and didn't come up with the ideas themselves (which was what the meme I originally replied to was accusing Microsoft of)

Didn’t even copy. Jef Raskin was inspired by GUIs since the late 60s, was working on concepts all the 70s, was invited to look at Xerox, then took Jobs to Xerox. Xerox wanted to be an Apple shareholder. Raskin applies the ideas to the Lisa. It wasn’t even the first.

That’s simplifying the events but it is good enough to slap down any mong who believes Steve Jobs just walks into Xerox and copied something. That was in the stupid Asstown Kutcher movie. It is a fictional movie that starts off with a 99 year old man introducing the iPod.
 
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Interesting point that Ars Technica just brought up:
One caveat that I hadn't seen mentioned in Microsoft's presentation or in other coverage of the announcement, though: Microsoft says that both of these devices have fans. Apple still uses fans for the MacBook Pro lineup, but the MacBook Air is totally fanless. Bear that in mind when reading Microsoft's claims about performance.
 
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well, competition is a good thing, but the "average" customer doesn't care about cinebencz benchmarks.
More interesting, they either sell online, or like at Best Buy right next to any x86 Windows computer, so that will be their main "competition"... and it's running WinARM, so no x86 compatibility, which might not matter to non-enterprise users
I agree, the main importance for majority of PC users is it supports there existing x86 based software, something Apple users didn't have to be concerned about as Apple perfected a solution way back when they transitioned to intel from PowerPC, and intel to AppleSilicon, ignorants is bliss for Mac users.

WinARM needs to emulate Apple until they do users will stick with x86
 
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As someone who worked 20+ years on MS until Vista finally broke my will and OSX felt so much nicer on an iMac than Win on a hyperexpensive RAID-workstation, and who nowadays is barely able to use Windows, I say: Let there be pressure for Apple in the market to improve their products. We've seen Apple go very slow with iterations and features as there was basically no other company threatening their status. A nice wake-up-call will be good for everybody. That said, Win does not have the ecosphere, the love for detail, the will to every now and then f*** it all and jump ahead with technology, the sense of design. Their market is different, all of their products feel like hell, promising a lot and when you actually use their hard- or software it's awkward and bad UX/UI, just not the same level at all. Teams vs Zoom, PPT vs Keynote, Word vs very offing txt-editor :-D, the Surface vs MacBooks. And so on. Apple is far, far, far from perfect or even really good, but MS, despite trying (e.g. the WinPhone's interface) just doesn't have the same level of WOW that Apple mostly still delivers, it is pedestrian. Even what they do wit ML/AI feels limited in thinking, searching for a presentation, writing an eMail. Here's hoping Apple will surprise us with different ideas what you can do with an intelligent assistant, that sounds like Sc... what?
 
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A 15” HDR2 touch screen Surface laptop with 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD and 22 hours battery life is $1299. A 13” OLED iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD and 10 hours battery life is $1,648. I think Apple may be seriously challenged here. Especially iPad.
RW1j1Tr


You have to add the ridiculously expansive "magic" keyboard on top!
 
Sysadmin here.

I’ve always had a conspiratorial take that MS forces updates that are pending on users by breaking functionality until the update is applied.

EVERY time the search function in the taskbar or the windows button/key becomes nonfunctional, there’s an update pending reboot.

Now if I could only convince my managers that idgaf, let me FORCE machines to reboot at least twice a month, that wouldn’t be a problem.

This has been a consistent “bug” since W10 1903 and W11 still behaves the same way….
I tell everyone that has a Windows computer... if your computer was working fine a moment ago and suddenly it goes completely wonky... check to see if Windows has an update it wants to do. I swear... if you DO NOT keep Windows 110% happy at ALL times, it WILL makes your life... A LIVING HELL!!! But, hey... wanna play in Microsoft's sandbox? Gotta play by their rules. Same with Apple. 😁
 
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I agree, the main importance for majority of PC users is it supports there existing x86 based software, something Apple perfected way back when they transitioned to intel from PowerPC, and intel to AppleSilicon, ignorants is bliss for Mac users.
Apple started doing the fat binary long before that, when they transitioned from 68xxx to PPC. Only issue is when they switch, they never look back. You can always expect fat/universal binaries for a few years, followed by dropping support for the old platform altogether. MS usually takes the approach of supporting backwards compatibility, and I expect there to continue to be both ARM and Intel PCs for the foreseeable future. It's an interesting shift, honestly. Closest thing MS had before was the switch from DOS based Win 95/98 to NT based XP, which was somewhat comparable to Apple's OS 9 to OS X switch, where they also used fat binaries for some programs to run in either OS remember correctly. Interestingly, MS only maintained some degree of DOS support in that switch--you have to run an emulator like DOSBOX to run DOS programs today.
 
Surface Pro is basically a tablet.
"Basically"? as in the sense that it doesn't have a keyboard, then yes. But they are still comparing it to a cheapest laptop Apple makes. They could compare it to the Pro Tablet that Apple just released with the M4, I'm curious to see how it stacks up. It'll be the same processor they put in their MacBook Air this year, and then it'll be Table to Tablet comparison against devices released the same year.
 
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Unfortunately this time Microsoft is ONLY late to the party, but the original engineers of Apple Silicon for PCs works at Qualcomm after leaving Apple being discouraged and started Nuvia which was absorbed by Qualcomm.

Fact is Windows 11 on arm is first for users having full interactive capability and ability unlike MacOS!

So although I like the comedic reference, it's factually incorrect and has no reverence as even Bertrand left Apple feeling their future was stagnant and falling. Dad as I really like Bertrand and the original old guard from NeXT whom REALLY gave Apple an edge and powerful computing which after 20yrs you've got what they are today :( slowly rotting at the core.
 
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