Tim Cook Says Apple is 'Very Committed' to the Mac and to 'Stay Tuned'

[iBug2]

I don't understand what the fuss is about. Apple is upgrading their Mac lines less frequently these days, that's it. As long as people buy new Macs when they are released, there's nothing wrong with that since nobody needs to upgrade their laptop at every single CPU refresh nowadays. CPU progress is at an all time low. My 2012 MBP is almost as fast as the fastest laptops sold today. I have absolutely no reason to upgrade even after 4 years. Do I need a 2.8 Ghz CPU instead of a 2.7 Ghz one? Not really. Since people are not upgrading like they used to, Apple is not updating the lines as frequently as before. I think that's the smart thing to do.

My only complaint is that they are not cutting their prices down after a year.

The only upgrade I'm waiting for is for the Thunderbolt Display. I want a 5K display for my nMP.

 

[MacBH928]

The computer market is growing stale. We need a new competitor to ignite the innovation.

I don't like to say it, but ... Google OS?

 

[Gameboy70]

It's a matter of priorities... it needs a 3.5mm jack more than it needs 'stereo' speakers. They could drop that speaker too if they really needed the space. But, they figured that gimmick is more sexy than keeping the jack. And, it's hardly in the long-term interest of the consumer unless the future is Lightening audio (which it is most certainly NOT!).

What anyone decides is the "thing" Apple is swapping the headphone jack space for—the speaker, the Taptic engine, more battery, or another coprocessor—is arbitrary. What matters is that the jack takes up space for something, even if individual consumers object to what it supposedly replaces. I would agree with you on the speaker issue, since I consider it rude to play music over speakers in trains, buses, and other public spaces (especially when it's music with strong language, exposed to children and seniors unsolicited). Nonetheless, it's clear that a lot of people play music and podcasts over speakers; I'm just not the target market.

What Apple has removed with the 3.5mm jack is an implementation detail, not its functionality. Users can still listen to audio over wired headphones without buying anything extra, while Apple's engineers have freed up space for other opportunities, like dropping the chins (I won't go larger than a 4" screen with Apple's current bezel design).
[doublepost=1473623695][/doublepost]

Actually, Steve Wilhite, the inventor of the GIF, says It's a Soft "G", but I think he's wrong or likes peanut butter.

Ugh, not this "founder's intent" argument again. The world has clearly moved on from his canonical pronunciation.

Back in the 90s, I was part of the coterie of web designers who actually read books on HTML, which always had sidebars with a definition and the phonetic spelling of the file format, complete with Steve's cloyingly patronizing "Choosy developers choose GIF" mnemonic. The people who read these books were the only ones who knew how to pronounce it the "right" way. Anyone who read the acronym without this education instinctively pronounced it with a hard G. None of this mattered until the file format went viral with the advent of social media, where orders of magnitude more people exchanged GIFs and talked about them without reading books about it. That ship has sailed, with out without His Steveness' blessing.

Speaking of the 90s, the rock band Live intended for the name to rhyme with "give". Lesson: If you want something to be pronounced counterintuitively, change the spelling accordingly.

 

[B4U]

Of course, endurance increases, provided it doesn't overheat and explode.......we are talking batteries here aren't we?

It would expand before exploding.
Yes, we are talking about the batteries inside.

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

I don't understand what the fuss is about. Apple is upgrading their Mac lines less frequently these days, that's it. As long as people buy new Macs when they are released, there's nothing wrong with that since nobody needs to upgrade their laptop at every single CPU refresh nowadays. CPU progress is at an all time low. My 2012 MBP is almost as fast as the fastest laptops sold today. I have absolutely no reason to upgrade even after 4 years. Do I need a 2.8 Ghz CPU instead of a 2.7 Ghz one?

Mostly true of CPUs, but, not true of GPUs, which are still catching up. But, even with CPUs, although speed is not improving much, the speed/power ratio has improved.

My only complaint is that they are not cutting their prices down after a year.

I would be much more favorable towards the new Macbook if I could buy one for $800, like I did the 2007 white plastic Macbook. Even so, with no ports, Apple should sell a lightweight, portable docking station if they insist on only one port. And, you have to consider the docking station part of the size/weight/cost equation.

The only upgrade I'm waiting for is for the Thunderbolt Display. I want a 5K display for my nMP.

AMD Polaris is now shipping. Big improvements in power consumption. Here's hoping that MBP and Mac Pro versions will be available soon.  I still prefer classic MP, but, nMP with TB 3, Broadwell, and Polaris could persuade me.

 

[G4DPII]

It's nice to see Tim is still deluded enough to think that anyone will take him seriously - if that was even a true response from him and not one of his minions.

When the adverts for the iPad Pro have a tag line that states - Imagine wht your computer could do if it was an iPad Pro.

The Mac having any true meaning at Apple is a joke. Swift is not specific to Mac OS. You can easily write and test on Linux. You can install OSX as a VM. A Mac is not essential in order to develope for Mac OS.

 

[InuNacho]

How are we supposed to stay tuned when our iPhones don't have FM receivers built into them?

 

[BSben]

How are we supposed to stay tuned when our iPhones don't have FM receivers built into them?

I remember FM, that was quite cool back in the days before digital radio....

 

[ojfl]

You'd be silly not to use 3rd party ram, it has always been that way. Many great external TB chassis on the market now for very reasonable prices. I'm partial to the OWC Thunderbay 4 mini.

I am thinking that will be the way for us to go, to get an iMac, max out the RAM with OWC and get a Thunderbay, transfer the drives and boot from it. It would be good to have a choice though.

 

[TheFluffyDuck]

Ten years ago, Apple made a point of discrete graphics cards in their consumer lines. Their pro computers had graphic cards that were only a few months old at the latest.

Now we are paying 50% or more for 2 year old hardware in some cases. The professional market which kept apple afloat in the 90s is being left out in the dark. Scientists, designers, graphic artists. We NEED performance machines, not luxury items at a premium price.

If apple was a luxury car company. They would be known for making the prettiest, yet slowest sports car.

 

[satchmo]

I'd wish Tim wasn't simply committed, but rather passionate about the Mac as he is about the Watch and iPhone.
Make the product line whole again. If Intel was the reason, fine, we understand.
But once the chips are available, make it right.

Don't nickel and dime us, or cripple systems.
Give us back 128gb Flash storage in the Fusion drive in the 4K iMac.
Give us back target mode while you're at it too.
Give us back the ability to upgrade the RAM.
Give us back quad-core Mac minis again (or at least BTO)
Give us a retina MacBook Air display (if you're not discontinuing it)

And this list is just for starters. I actually hope Apple innovates and goes beyond playing catch up.
Tim, we're staying tuned. Show us you mean what you say.

 

[Sakurambo-kun]

Given Apple's size and immense pot of cash, they should be spec bumping the entire Mac range multiple times a year. They should always have bleeding edge components. That some models are over a thousand days old, combined with other series issues (such as the painful slow and 5 year old Open GL driver and lack of Vulkan support) does sadly sold that Apple are at best disinterested in the Mac. That disinterest may end up with them walking away entirely.

You can only let a product stagnate for so long before even your most loyal customers move to alternatives.
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I hope they don't get rid of the headphone jacks in all new macs, cuz you know, they have courage.

Funny how Macs don't even have lightning ports, meaning more of those dongles Apple loves so much should people be stupid enough to buy lightning headphones.

 

[imageWIS]

Sounds like another refresh I'll avoid like the plague. I'll stick with the Intel integrated graphics in my mini before buying anything with an AMD gpu in it.

Ok, I'll bite: Why? The AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB on my iMac 5K works perfectly.
[doublepost=1473637499][/doublepost]

Well of course he's going to say that. he'd be committing product suicide if he said that the Mac was not important to Apple. People would leave the platform in droves.

I'm not saying Apple is or isn't committed, but obviously he's not going to give any details other then saying they're committed

But wouldn't saying that they are committed by the courageous thing to do?
[doublepost=1473637672][/doublepost]

I'd wish Tim wasn't simply committed, but rather passionate about the Mac as he is about the Watch and iPhone.
Make the product line whole again. If Intel was the reason, fine, we understand.
But once the chips are available, make it right.

Don't nickel and dime us, or cripple systems.
Give us back 128gb Flash storage in the Fusion drive in the 4K iMac.
Give us back target mode while you're at it too.
Give us back the ability to upgrade the RAM.
Give us back quad-core Mac minis again (or at least BTO)
Give us a retina MacBook Air display (if you're not discontinuing it)

And this list is just for starters. I actually hope Apple innovates and goes beyond playing catch up.
Tim, we're staying tuned. Show us you mean what you say.

The issue with target mode on the 5K was actually an issue with HDMI unable to handle 5K output / input, IIRC.

 

[Sakurambo-kun]

Ok, I'll bite: Why? The AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB on my iMac 5K works perfectly.
[doublepost=1473637499][/doublepost]

But wouldn't saying that they are committed by the courageous thing to do?
[doublepost=1473637672][/doublepost]

The issue with target mode on the 5K was actually an issue with HDMI unable to handle 5K output / input, IIRC.

The 395x has an extremely low fill rate. It's not so low as to impede general light 2D work, but try anything in 3D and you'll soon run into its limitations. Fill rate is simply a measurement of how quickly it can draw pixels. 3D pixels can often be very expensive, and may well be rendered many times dues to overdraw.

To contrast to the PC space, a 1080 has around 10x more filtrate.

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

The 395x has an extremely low fill rate. It's not so low as to impede general light 2D work, but try anything in 3D and you'll soon run into its limitations. Fill rate is simply a measurement of how quickly it can draw pixels. 3D pixels can often be very expensive, and may well be rendered many times dues to overdraw.

To contrast to the PC space, a 1080 has around 10x more filtrate.

Is there a (standard, easily available, etc.) benchmark that is a good, illustrative measure of performance when this type of fill rate is a limitation?

 

[macintoshi]

Two reasons not to buy a macbook pro: No touchscreen and no kabylake. Means it will be surpassed by the time it appears!

 

[GizmoDVD]

I would be much more favorable towards the new Macbook if I could buy one for $800, like I did the 2007 white plastic Macbook. .

Both 2007 models were $1,099 MSRP for the base model.

 

[Abazigal]

I wonder what the chances of them doing retina display on the air is? That was the reason i bought the 13 inch 2025 pro because I love to take pictures and to edit them; the processing power is overkill for anything else I need it for, but I do enjoy it.

I foresee Apple doing away with the Air and keeping only the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines around. It's just a matter of waiting for the MacBook to match the Air in terms of price and specs.

So to answer your question - not a chance.

 

[Larry-K]

Ugh, not this "founder's intent" argument again. The world has clearly moved on from his canonical pronunciation.

Back in the 90s, I was part of the coterie of web designers who actually read books on HTML, which always had sidebars with a definition and the phonetic spelling of the file format, complete with Steve's cloyingly patronizing "Choosy developers choose GIF" mnemonic. The people who read these books were the only ones who knew how to pronounce it the "right" way. Anyone who read the acronym without this education instinctively pronounced it with a hard G. None of this mattered until the file format went viral with the advent of social media, where orders of magnitude more people exchanged GIFs and talked about them without reading books about it. That ship has sailed, with out without His Steveness' blessing.

Hey, that's great you and some "Web" designers read some HTML books in the '90s, sounds like a virtual intelligentsia.

Try inventing your own lame Graphics (hard "G") format, and you can pronounce its acronym anyway you want to.

 

[imageWIS]

Two reasons not to buy a macbook pro: No touchscreen and no kabylake. Means it will be surpassed by the time it appears!

I consider a touchscreen a negative, not a plus on a laptop... if you want a touchscreen: buy a tablet.

 

[ethrl19]

Will it run on Kabylake or Skylake? I'd rather it be pushed back a little in production if it means a newer processor.

 

[danielwsmithee]

I am thinking that will be the way for us to go, to get an iMac, max out the RAM with OWC and get a Thunderbay, transfer the drives and boot from it. It would be good to have a choice though.

No reason to boot from it. Even the Thunderbay will not be as fast as the iMac internal PCIe NVME.

 

[Thunderbird]

Still waiting for new iPods

Didn't you hear? They are going to remove the headphone jacks from those too.

 

[Playfoot]

Well, let's hope so Tim and his team will surprised all of us. Looking at the MR Buyer's Guide is an indication Apple doesn't care.

Well, one likely surprise will be the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack . . .

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

Both 2007 models were $1,099 MSRP for the base model.

I see from everymac that you are correct, and, although that was low-end model with the widely-available educational discount, it still would have been between $900-$1000. I stand corrected.