Did you mean Cannon Lake? That is the one that is supposed to finally bring 32G of mobile memory (LPDDR4) to the table. I’m withholding expectations until the i7 mobile variants actually ship. Those are the ones that Intel waits until the end of the year to indicate that it won’t be out in the next calendar year...leaving Apple’s options stuck at 16G for years now.
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Pegatron Tipped to Manufacture Upcoming 'ARM-Based MacBook'
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Would be interesting to see Mac OS X make its return to RISC.
Apple has maintained separate consumer and professional product lines for decades. ARM makes some sense for the low-end sub-$1,000 MacBooks. The pro and desktop lines should remain Intel.
Apple does not appear to recognize any existing products except the iPhone. They think computers are done for, so they believe they have to throw crap against the wall to find the next big thing. If Apple just took care of their existing customers, and funded research the next bit thing will happen on its own. But Cook hasn't the gravitas to make that happen so he has to force it with stupid. He is way outside his comfort zone in product development. Which will result in Apple being regulated to big profits for a while then will crash and burn for lack of product innovation and lack of customers except teenagers, that are more interested in fashion, then tech.
Nice, I am excited about this. Having moved to iOS only for my personal and work computing needs, I am looking forward to new form factors and more desktop-level features coming to iOS apps. Should be great for those who are in the same boat as me. Exciting times.
Because:
1) They're not "incredible chips" overall. They're mobile processors, and have performance compromises because they have to fit into an extremely low power and thermal envelope. They're incredible for mobile devices, but not high performance computing.
2) They're not compatible with existing Intel software, including Windows through virtualization. Running such software will require emulation which will slow things down even further.
You’re not seeing the bigger picture. Apple taking these to desktop TDP is gonna be crazy.
Why can’t people see the potential? All they see is the current chips, which are already on-par with i5s, lol. In a phone!
Because it makes no sense other than improving Apple's margins at the expense of anyone who uses their Mac for anything other than a glorified iPhone.
Apple could easily update Macs regularly, they constantly let their lineup languish despite having suitable Intel chips available. People complain about Apple not bothering to update Macs even when the chips aren't there, and when they do, they still cut corners and include HDD technology in hugely expensive machines.
If I want to use a compromised machine then I use my iPad Pro 10.5, which is slowly becoming a great platform but still has a ways to go. I'd much rather Apple work on making the iPad better than destroying the Mac.
I was happy to leave PPC Apps behind because there were significant advantages for the end user for moving to Intel. There just aren't for ARM. (And no higher profit margins for Apple aren't an end user advantage). Even though the PPC switch was handled well, it still sucked. Those of us on PPC Macs had far shorter support than usual in every way, the early Intel Macs were rubbish in terms of long term support as well. But again it was worth it for overall compatibility with Windows and faster processors in the long term.
Right now an Intel Mac has the best of both worlds. Full Windows compatibility and full MacOS compatibility, to loose that would be a step back. Much of my software WILL NOT be recompiled for ARM and I know that.
Where are these magical Apple ARM chips that will emulate intel programs with no battery and performance penalty, and at a speed faster than they already run on Intel machines to actually justify the change?
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The 'bigger picture' is the end of the Mac as a viable platform for many, which is sad. I've used Macs my whole life, gone through the 68k to PPC the OS9 to OSX then PPC to Intel transitions, but this will be the one that breaks me.
Why can't people also see the significant downsides?
No, the reason not to buy them right now is they are outdated and poorly designed. A refresh might help a little, but a complete redesign from a design team who actually understand the real world it what it's going to take.
For better or worse, Polaris-based GPUs are what is shipping in every MacBook Pro and iMac that contains discrete video. Vega or Navi GPUs will get here eventually, but probably not until 2019 and probably not in the same form they are released.
The 21.5" can be upgraded to 32GB of DDR4 DRAM, either by Apple as a BTO option, or by the end-user who has the time, the skill and the patience to perform the upgrade. I also agree that Apple should make the DRAM in the 21.5" as user-accessible as they do in the 27" mode, but I accept that I do not get to make Apple's design decisions.
The upgrade to the Core i7 is not criminally expensive, it is reasonably priced relative to the cost of swapping CPUs yourself at some point in the future. Apple does charge a tremendous premium for upgrading DRAM at the factory, however they are not the criminals here. The DRAM makers may end up being the criminals should regulators and consumer protection boards find collusion and/or price fixing.
As for using an AMD Vega GPU, your choice right now is an eGPU via Thunderbolt 3. Is it ideal? Well, it all depends on how you look at it. If you own a 2016/2017 MacBook Pro, then it may not be ideal, but it is very useful. YMMV.
Like many of us in these forums, I believe what you want is an expandable box similar to any number of desktop Windows PCs on the market today (not the upcoming Mac Pro), with PCIe slots, an easily accessible CPU, DRAM slots and m.2 slots. Unfortunately, that is probably not a computer that Apple is ever going to release again. The reasons why do not matter either. It is just not Apple any more.
Apple don't even follow the upgrade path that is present. A Mac Pro that has been a joke for 5 years. Was already under powered and stale when it was released. The Mac Mini, that poor little bugger probably feels like it's be sentenced to spend eternity on the naughty step, god knows why, could be a cracking little machine if Apple weren't so damn determined to leave it castrated like a poor old donkey.
What is this obsession with iOS and Mac OS merging, things are bad enough now. I must be old, I remember when Mac OS was a productivity tool. Not this kindergarden fisher price tripe they deliver every year now. It doesn't need intergration with Instacrap ot whatever. People want that stick to buying the iToys. Every release they cripple another aspect of it.
Moving to arm will give them another chance to do even more damage.
I don't think ARM chips would be capable of emulating the Intel chips that all the software is running on now, so a Rosetta-like option to bridge the time between changing platforms most likely wouldn't work. Maybe I'm wrong about that, I'd like to be. That would mean that all software you use would need to be re-compiled for ARM, and all of the Intel-based optimizations would go away. All of the companies publishing software for Macs would have to re-build everything for the new chipset.
This is beyond a long-shot, this is nigh impossible.
This is beyond a long-shot, this is nigh impossible.
No. Anyone who uses their macOS device understands that there is more to a macbook than an Apple logo.
The new Apple norm.
*iMac Pro: Don’t buy and install Apple’s VESA mount!
Mac Pro: Just don’t buy!
Attention, everybody who hates typing on the butterfly keyboard out of the box and/or has experienced premature failure: this guy's wife isn't having any problems.
Increases in raw hardware power has been a band-aid fix to bloated, poorly-designed, poorly-written operating system and application software for quite a few years. That's because the bean counters have determined that it is cheaper to invest in hardware performance improvements that are more easily quantifiable, than investing in software development. It is more difficult to quantify the return on investment for those types of things.
We're reaching the limits of Moore's Law and the company who re-positions themselves to "skate to where the puck is going to be" is going to be a big winner.
Given the current state of iOS and macOS and the trajectory they are on, it is reasonable to conclude that they're not going to be the one.
LOL!
ARM based processors in laptops that are the most expensive on the market? That is hilarious but knowing Apple's consumer base, they'll pay regardless. Because shiny Apple product, muh social status symbol!
It's so sad what's happened to Apple.
ARM based processors in laptops that are the most expensive on the market? That is hilarious but knowing Apple's consumer base, they'll pay regardless. Because shiny Apple product, muh social status symbol!
It's so sad what's happened to Apple.