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make the trackpad slightly smaller so the touchbar can fit above the function keys

the screen should be touchscreen OLED

the screen can detach from the back, then magnetically attach covering the keyboard and becoming an ipad.

magsafe on both sides please (or USB-C compatible like the patent from 2016)
 
Very good week against rumors involving all the Mac models that need reworked Apple Silicone transitions from being Intel based. Can’t wait until their shipping! :cool:
Yes and today I reaffirmed why the Mac is so much better. Originally I was Wintel on everything with Win.ini still remaining fixed in my memory. Today I had the misfortune of setting up a PC beast.

A massive case bigger than a Mac Pro, and a 27in. Dell Ultrasmart monitor. With duplicated functions on cards for some reason, looking a notch pitch in a large case, where opening it showed a Micro mother board and a few cards and a fan held together with a plastic cable tie, and so much space it was just unreal.

Yes it had a Ryzen processor, but at 55cm deep, 48cm high, and about 35cm wide, it was a joke, let alone the myriad of different cables, and a choice of which ethernet port or DisplayPort to use, but where it was more one of these massive ego trips by a design agency where its 'oh look how big our computers are'.

All in all the cost of these various components let alone the awful beast of a size, mean it was over $500 dearer than a decent 27in. iMac, and roll on M2 chips.

The clean lines of Apple shone through today, and that's even before the Bitlocker warnings, the 'can't find display port' diagnostics etc. etc.

Keep up the good work Apple, as today refreshed why I left Wintel platform so long ago.
 
Unfortunately, the display will be priced between $1499 and $1999, which is not an affordable display. It should be under $1,000, but Apple is not going to do it. At least it will not be plasticky crap.
I remember in the 2000s when Apple had a dedicated display line with a 20 inch, 23 inch, and 30 inch CCFL LCD. The 30 inch was priced about $3000 but it was a phenomenal display used by pros and consumers and did not require calibration as it was designed to work seamlessly with Mac’s and also Windows systems. I had three of them that I eventually replaced with apples 24 inch LEDLCD then 27 inch. After that I went with the LG 5K UltraFine displays in 2017 and have loved them. I would love to see Apple return to reasonable displays. If they offered a 27 inch or 30 inch display in 5K for $1499 I would grab two in a heartbeat.
 
I remember in the 2000s when Apple had a dedicated display line with a 20 inch, 23 inch, and 30 inch CCFL LCD. The 30 inch was priced about $3000 but it was a phenomenal display used by pros and consumers...

The 30" Cinema Display is still a great monitor.... Especially to plug into a Mac mini for aging users who have fading vision and don't need high pixel density...
 
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Hey sign me up for a DECKED-OUT Mac Pro cube. I hadn't even hit puberty when the G4 Cube was released, but always felt like I missed out.

I hope this rumor is true. I am ready to computer MAXX!
 
I really hope they continue to offer and support Intel CPU’s on the MacPro or at least continue to offer an Intel version alongside the ARM version. I’m not discounting the performance of Apple Silicone, but it backs you into a corner upgrade wise, which pretty much defeats the purpose of a desktop machine. Also, until Windows is working on Apple Silicone, for some professionals, the inability to dual boot or run a VM is a big problem.

i really think if they go full bore Apple Silicone on the MacPro and abandon Intel options entirely that they will alienate professionals again.
 
chetzar. From my experience (45 years) your comments on alienating professionals are so wide of the mark. I started on the Wintel platform in a PROFESSIONAL environment. We transitioned to Mac because they gave far more productivity, far more bang for bucks when it came to what really mattered. PRODUCTION. As far as the creative world goes Apple dominated that for some time, but sadly a lot of administrators brought up on the Wintel platform were reluctant to make the jump, and even sadder is because for many it meant that changing to Apple would remove the deliberate mystification that surrounded any computerisation at the time and which I assure you existed.

With the myriad of different potential problems on the Winter platform, the myriad of different combinations of ports/networks/cabling, the potential for a real cock up was always there, safeguarding some IT staff, whereas the advent of the Mac meant that although port configurations were sometimes limited it was a simple case of plugging a unit into a power supply and then start producing....which was what the machines were designed to do.

No messing around with win.ini files or system files, and this allowed the creative professionals to get on with their jobs, which was not playing around with different cables/configurations etc.

This idea that 'professionals' use platforms and excludes the Mac is just bonkers!

Apple too have made changes to ports/configurations and the 2nd attempt to move away from Intel, but mainly as a result of technological changes that result in higher productivity, but you take a PC out of a box and get that up and running when it has this card or that card just thrown into a large chassis, and sadly many of the past problems with Wintel still exist today.

I hope they completely move away from Intel, and Apple have rarely had an upgradeable CPU, although the Mac Pro 2019 was suggested to be upgradeable via the ifixit teardown, so not having an upgradeable CPU has been something the Macs have lived with and still thrived on.

Yesterday brought that back, when I had to put together a Wintel system, where very little had been changed from the past....A chassis you could put a car in, to look big and important, with a micro board in it! A 512Gb SSD, a Geforce card and a separate Ethernet card and an additional card that carried video/audio/ethernet also...none of which was required.

Then of course you had the separate monitor, complete with display port, hdmi, multiple USB's etc. etc., then the cabling from the monitor to whatever card and port a user happened to plug the display port cable into, and where of course instead of a plug and play philosophy a user would have to gen up on instructions for EVERY individual card they had decided to put in their respective machine, or in this case every individual card with cards duplicating functions served already on other cards in the same chassis, serving no real purpose at all. Oh and of course the additional external web cam sitting like a dead bird on top of a monitor.

Then of course the switch on to see the usual 'cannot find display port cable' or similar, let alone the massive increase in resource costs in producing all of this stuff, including more cables, greater space requirement.

Then take a good spec 27in. iMac. iMac Pro, take it out of the box, plug in the ethernet cable and switch on! With the Mac Pro, take it out of the box, plug in your monitor, plug in your ethernet, plug to mains...switchon.

The upgrades to Mac Pro, are then through NEED rather than ego.
 
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I wish I had held out for this new Macbook Pro.

I replaced my mid-2014 with the first-gen 16" and I mostly hate it. The performance is minimally better. The Touch Bar sucks (I've rigged BetterTouchTool to basically disable it), and lately `kernel_task` has been running at 1000%+ CPU — apparently because I'm charging and powering an external display using both right-side ports and You Just Can't Do That.

Oh, and the other day I tripped over the non-MagSafe charging cable, spilling a drink.

I hope I can ditch this clunker for a reasonable price.
 
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The Touch Bar made my life easier and make real estate much more obvious for the buttons used the least.
Removing it before it is fully adopted is a shame and a bad move in my book.
 
chetzar. From my experience (45 years) your comments on alienating professionals are so wide of the mark. I started on the Wintel platform in a PROFESSIONAL environment. We transitioned to Mac because they gave far more productivity, far more bang for bucks when it came to what really mattered. PRODUCTION. As far as the creative world goes Apple dominated that for some time, but sadly a lot of administrators brought up on the Wintel platform were reluctant to make the jump, and even sadder is because for many it meant that changing to Apple would remove the deliberate mystification that surrounded any computerisation at the time and which I assure you existed.

With the myriad of different potential problems on the Winter platform, the myriad of different combinations of ports/networks/cabling, the potential for a real cock up was always there, safeguarding some IT staff, whereas the advent of the Mac meant that although port configurations were sometimes limited it was a simple case of plugging a unit into a power supply and then start producing....which was what the machines were designed to do.

No messing around with win.ini files or system files, and this allowed the creative professionals to get on with their jobs, which was not playing around with different cables/configurations etc.

This idea that 'professionals' use platforms and excludes the Mac is just bonkers!

Apple too have made changes to ports/configurations and the 2nd attempt to move away from Intel, but mainly as a result of technological changes that result in higher productivity, but you take a PC out of a box and get that up and running when it has this card or that card just thrown into a large chassis, and sadly many of the past problems with Wintel still exist today.

I hope they completely move away from Intel, and Apple have rarely had an upgradeable CPU, although the Mac Pro 2019 was suggested to be upgradeable via the ifixit teardown, so not having an upgradeable CPU has been something the Macs have lived with and still thrived on.

Yesterday brought that back, when I had to put together a Wintel system, where very little had been changed from the past....A chassis you could put a car in, to look big and important, with a micro board in it! A 512Gb SSD, a Geforce card and a separate Ethernet card and an additional card that carried video/audio/ethernet also...none of which was required.

Then of course you had the separate monitor, complete with display port, hdmi, multiple USB's etc. etc., then the cabling from the monitor to whatever card and port a user happened to plug the display port cable into, and where of course instead of a plug and play philosophy a user would have to gen up on instructions for EVERY individual card they had decided to put in their respective machine, or in this case every individual card with cards duplicating functions served already on other cards in the same chassis, serving no real purpose at all. Oh and of course the additional external web cam sitting like a dead bird on top of a monitor.

Then of course the switch on to see the usual 'cannot find display port cable' or similar, let alone the massive increase in resource costs in producing all of this stuff, including more cables, greater space requirement.

Then take a good spec 27in. iMac. iMac Pro, take it out of the box, plug in the ethernet cable and switch on! With the Mac Pro, take it out of the box, plug in your monitor, plug in your ethernet, plug to mains...switchon.

The upgrades to Mac Pro, are then through NEED rather than ego.

Mikey, it sounds to like you have a lot of experience as a Professional as a creative/content creator end user and I think you may be looking at this from the lens of an end user that does content creation. While I certainly think Mac's have historically excelled in several of the creative/content creation applications, for those who do any sort of cross-platform development, the ability to load Unix and/or Windows via VM or Bootcamp is still critical.

Few things I want to provide for thought:

1) From a port perspective: Yes, it is true, Mac's have a streamlined/simplified I/O on their machines, this, depending on your use case, can be seen as a Positive OR Negative.

2) Building a PC/W10 Machine: Building a PC is really very simple these days. Sounds like you had a specific use case and custom hardware that was required. Sure, that can get a bit tricky, but overall, building workstations is very easy.

3) You refer to CPU replacement for upgradeability: While it is certainly nice to be able to upgrade CPU's, the majority of workstation upgrades/repairs do not involve CPU's, but instead Memory (RAM) or Storage. When it comes to Apple Silicone, their SOC's have Memory and Storage backed into the "CPU" if you will, hence why it is a system on chip configuration. It is not uncommon for companies IT departments to upgrade end-users memory or storage over time, instead of replacing the entire workstation. When it comes to MacBooks, this is obviously not possible and IF Apple bakes their Memory and Storage into the SOC for the MacPro, then it wont be possible on those machines either. Believe it or not, this can actually shorten the useful lifespan of your workstation. Imagine the trashcan Mac, but worse.

4) Value (Hardware/Software): I think it's fair to say, and widely know, that you are paying a premium for the hardware when you buy a Mac, no questions asked. It's FAR more cost effective to build a Windows/PC workstation. As for their GPU's, if you want to look at a specific professional use, Apple still refused to even allow the use of NVidia GPU's on their workstations, even though they are far superior for After Effects than AMD cards. Nothing against AMD, I have used, and currently use AMD CPU's and love them, but their video cards simply do not provide the same level of performance as NVidia cards, particularly when it comes to rendering in AE and anything that requires Ray Tracing.

5) As for having to edit INI files and such, that is not the typical case, it again sounds like you have some form of a custom setup that required an A-Typical setup.

6) PC Cases: If you bought a Full Size ATX Case for a Micro-ATX board, well, there is nothing I can offer for ya there, other than buy a Micro-ATX case next time *shrug*

7) Cabling: You can get Motherboards with Thunderbolt controllers built in and they even can carry video signal from your GPU. As for DisplayPort - outside of the Apple EcoSystem, DP is very widely used and a very common port. HDMI is also an industry standard. Both cables can carry Audio. Regarding USB: Well, you don't have to use the USB ports on the monitor. And if DP/HDMI/USB is too much for you, just buy a thunderbolt display. They are several out there to choose from.

Companies like Puget Systems wouldn't be doing so good if "professionals" didn't feel the Apple had left them behind for so long.

Again, the MacPro is a wonderful machine that is incredibly powerful. Expensive, but powerful. I just hope they continue to offer an Intel version for professionals who need the cross-platform capabilities. If they don't and the Apple Silicone MacPro is not upgradeable/repairable, then Apple just put themselves back in the same spot they were in with the trashcan MacPro, only worse.

At any rate, I can hope, but only time will tell how they decide to proceed :)
 
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Yes and today I reaffirmed why the Mac is so much better. Originally I was Wintel on everything with Win.ini still remaining fixed in my memory. Today I had the misfortune of setting up a PC beast.

A massive case bigger than a Mac Pro, and a 27in. Dell Ultrasmart monitor. With duplicated functions on cards for some reason, looking a notch pitch in a large case, where opening it showed a Micro mother board and a few cards and a fan held together with a plastic cable tie, and so much space it was just unreal.

Yes it had a Ryzen processor, but at 55cm deep, 48cm high, and about 35cm wide, it was a joke, let alone the myriad of different cables, and a choice of which ethernet port or DisplayPort to use, but where it was more one of these massive ego trips by a design agency where its 'oh look how big our computers are'.

All in all the cost of these various components let alone the awful beast of a size, mean it was over $500 dearer than a decent 27in. iMac, and roll on M2 chips.

The clean lines of Apple shone through today, and that's even before the Bitlocker warnings, the 'can't find display port' diagnostics etc. etc.

Keep up the good work Apple, as today refreshed why I left Wintel platform so long ago.
Left DOS/Windows 2 years ago. 35 years in that world and I haven’t looked back. I refused to go with Win 10 and forced upgrades that could potentially break your system. My 15 year old $9000 scanner is still chugging away using Vuescan and ABBYY for Mac. I am still on Mohave as everything works so well ....
 
Then take a good spec 27in. iMac. iMac Pro, take it out of the box, plug in the ethernet cable and switch on! With the Mac Pro, take it out of the box, plug in your monitor, plug in your ethernet, plug to mains...switchon.
Right up until the graphic card or LCD go on the fritz. Like our 2013. No thank you. I finally talked my husband in mac minis with the dead bird on top. All in ones just ask for trouble with their horrible plastic hinges and heat problems.
 
We can still hope for a Mac Pro mini?
We've only been asking for it since the full size G5 units ...
I must be one of the few who loved the Cube. If not for a hit piece that referred to seam lines as cracks, it could've lasted. Back then LAN parties were the thing and having a machine that could fit in your backpack plus have desktop performance was a novelty.
 
It'd be nice if they released a new Magic Mouse that is more ergonomically designed rather than what we currently have which is more form over function and way too low and flat.
 
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I must be one of the few who loved the Cube. If not for a hit piece that referred to seam lines as cracks, it could've lasted. Back then LAN parties were the thing and having a machine that could fit in your backpack plus have desktop performance was a novelty.
I loved the concept too, and picked one up years later just for the design. The main problem was the minimal expandability, lower performance ceiling and greater cost compared to the contemporary (and also stylish) G4 towers. It would have been like selling the 2013 Mac Pro alongside an updated 2013 cheese grater, for the same cash.

Not sure it would have been ideal for LAN parties, either, given the acrylic shell would likely smash if you put a bag down heavily with it inside (I treat mine with kid gloves). Short, low power, single-slot GPUs with no active ventilation weren't ideal for gaming either, even if a good selection of FPS titles had been available for MacOS (9 or X). The external PSU brick and USB sound card added faff too. Shuttle XPCs made a lot more sense for LAN gaming (especially as P4s were also faster than G4s).

Excited to see what an Mx Cube would be like though!
 
The problem is they will definitely announce/release the iMac and the Mac Pro mini + display at different times, making it very difficult for people. Nearly everyone outside of the most basic of consumer that is interested in one of these products, is interested in both, and would like to see both before deciding what direction to go.

It will be hard for me to jump on a new iMac when I know the mini tower + display are coming.
 
Unfortunately, the display will be priced between $1499 and $1999, which is not an affordable display. It should be under $1,000, but Apple is not going to do it. At least it will not be plasticky crap.
The 27" Ultra Fine from LG is $1500. And it's plasticky. Where do you get under $1000 from?

But this is one of the reasons why Apple has avoided this space in the last several years: they don't know how to position it. The entry level 27" iMac with its 5K panel is only $1799. If Apple were to release a standalone 27" 5K display of the new design (basically the new iMac without the Mac inside) and charge $1500...so a full Mac is only $300 more? It makes it strange. They'd be better off bringing back target display mode and letting you use these new iMacs as displays...at least you'd have some CPU to tap into if you needed it.

If it were only $1200 or $1300, that would at least make the iMac pricing seem more appropriate, but would certainly undercut LG big time with a better display, and be far more competitive than any other display on the market.
 
the ability to load Unix and/or Windows via VM or Bootcamp is still critical.
Dude, it was never "critical". It was merely convenient. I've long since stopped dealing with that headache and I just have actual Windows PC's next to my Mac to test whatever I need to test.
 
The 27" Ultra Fine from LG is $1500. And it's plasticky. Where do you get under $1000 from?

But this is one of the reasons why Apple has avoided this space in the last several years: they don't know how to position it. The entry level 27" iMac with its 5K panel is only $1799. If Apple were to release a standalone 27" 5K display of the new design (basically the new iMac without the Mac inside) and charge $1500...so a full Mac is only $300 more? It makes it strange. They'd be better off bringing back target display mode and letting you use these new iMacs as displays...at least you'd have some CPU to tap into if you needed it.

If it were only $1200 or $1300, that would at least make the iMac pricing seem more appropriate, but would certainly undercut LG big time with a better display, and be far more competitive than any other display on the market.
The 27” 5K LG UltraFine can be had for as low $1100. I bought one in April of 2020 for $1100 from the local Microcenter brand new.

LG has no competition, so they price the UltraFine way too high. I had a plasticky 5K display manufactured in China especially for me back in June of 2020 for $440. It looks very similar to the LG UltraFine monitor, but it has many more input ports. It cost me $650 delivered to my house in the US, which included the price of the monitor and the shipping, and it was when shipping cost was through the roof due to COVID-19 back in June. The monitor uses the same exact 5K panel made by LG as the one that LG uses in its UltraFine 5K monitor and Apple uses in the iMac.

Apple can easily have a 5K display in an aluminum enclosure manufactured and shipped to you for under $500 and thus make 100% profit if they sell it to you for $999. Especially now that they no longer have to pay a licensing fee to Intel for Thunderbolt 3.

But making 100% profit is not good enough for Apple. They will price the entry-level monitor much higher than $999. And millions will eat it up.
 
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I feel like the 14" MBP is gonna see a price jump, especially since Air has become a pretty powerful laptop with Apple Silicon.

I expect the final lineup to be
  • Air the way it is now, possibly shrink bezels a few years after 14" MBP launch
  • 14" MBP with X series of what the Air has (M1 to M1X for example) and MagSafe / SD reader or some extra ports starting at $1499
  • 16" MBP with possibly even beefier chip (or the same as 14"), more ports and same price
 
I'm super curious to see what new AS M designs Apple can come up with, I was already a bit worn out on the current Intel designs before they swapped in the M1.
 
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