Twitter Deploying Top-Spec MacBook Pros Across App Development Teams

[MacRumors]

Twitter is deploying top-spec MacBook Pros with the M1 Max Apple silicon chip to all of its iOS and Android engineers for app development, representing yet another push for the adoption of Apple silicon Macs in the enterprise.

The news was shared by John Szumski, a senior staffer at Twitter for the company's mobile platforms. In a tweet, Szumski said that Twitter will be rolling out fully-maxed-out MacBook Pros to all of its iOS and Android engineers. Szumski added that the new Apple silicon Macs are showing significant improvements in top-line performance for Twitter's app development compared to currently used Intel Macs.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1456715133615579140

An engineer at Reddit also shared a similar sentiment. Jameson, a staff engineer at Reddit, said that the new MacBook Pros have cut Reddit's app build time by 50%, yielding improved productivity for engineers. Breaking down the cost of deploying new MacBook Pros to Reddit's engineers, Jameson said, "for a team of 9, $32k of laptops will actually save $100k in productivity over 2022."

Apple promises considerable improvements for developers with the new M1 Pro and M1 Max Apple silicon chips. According to tests done by Apple, the 10-core CPU M1 Pro and M1 Max chips in the large 16-inch MacBook Pro offer 3.7x faster Xcode build times than the 8-core Intel i9 16-inch MacBook Pro. In terms of power efficiency and battery life, Apple says the new chips allow developers to "compile up to four times as much code in Xcode" on a single battery charge.

Article Link: Twitter Deploying Top-Spec MacBook Pros Across App Development Teams

 

[dantracht]

Very cool.

 

[leman]

Yep, and that's what this all is about. M1 Pro/Max builds software as quickly as a fully loaded enthusiast-class x86 desktop CPU drawing over 200W, so it's an incredible tool for software developers.

Although I am surprised Twitter would choose the M1 Max, what do they need the GPU for?

 

[Forti]

I can see a build-time improvement in android studio as well.

Definitely apple silicon is doing great

 

[madmin]

Perks of the trade: developing an iOS app in a multi notch environment

 

[ChristianSelig]

Story update: Twitter says previously used Intel machines won't go to waste, will be repurposed as space heaters during winter months of Twitter offices.

 

[MrTangent]

Perks of the trade: developing an iOS app you get to see a multi notch environment

The Apple engineers must have taken the term ‘top notch’ to heart with the, ahem, top notch, on the new Macbook Pros.

 

[CrapShack]

Excellent! Perhaps someday good news like this will be reflected in AAPL's stuck-in-the-mud stock price.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

But but Apple’s doomed now Alder Lake is here?

 

[Lukasz Rewerenda]

Yep, and that's what this all is about. M1 Pro/Max builds software as quickly as a fully loaded enthusiast-class x86 desktop CPU drawing over 200W, so it's an incredible tool for software developers.

Although I am surprised Twitter would choose the M1 Max, what do they need the GPU for?

They probably went for the only stock config with 32gb of Ram. Thats what I did - dont need the max, but all the other base skus had 16gb only.

 

[bigfatipod]

Excellent! Perhaps someday good news like this will be reflected in AAPL's stuck-in-the-mud stock price.

It’s up over 25% in the last year though

 

[mystery hill]

Although I am surprised Twitter would choose the M1 Max, what do they need the GPU for?

M1 Pro: 2 external displays
M1 Max: 4 external displays

 

[th1nk]

I bet some of the developers are sad that their coffee breaks during compilation are so much shorter now. ?

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

I guess they can also tweet faster now!

 

[contacos]

Lucky! I got a new crappy Dell form work, which is about to launch for Mars every time I open Teams for 5 Minutes and therefore I do all my work from my personal 14inch MBP

 

[Shirasaki]

Unlike last time IBM allegedly deploying lots of Macs, this time, it is literally impossible to install Windows on Apple silicon Mac, which doesn’t seem like a dealbreaker of any sort for iOS developer anyways. Though, how many machines? 9? Maybe twitter don’t even have many employees anyways.

Oh and, I smell an extremely strong taste of apple fan here. It frightens me.

 

[Shirasaki]

Lucky! I got a new crappy Dell form work, which is about to launch for Mars every time I open Teams for 5 Minutes and therefore I do all my work from my personal 14inch MBP

Meanwhile my dual SSD Dell launch teams in 30s, and it takes slightly longer on M1 Mac.

 

[newbmacuser2021]

I am building Android and iOS, and ChromeOS and macOS, on a MacBook Air 2017 1.8GHz with 8GB of RAM.

 

[contacos]

Meanwhile my dual SSD Dell launch teams in 30s, and it takes slightly longer on M1 Mac.

oh it does launch fast but 5 mins into a call the fan starts to go crazy or the laptop would suddenly heat up like an oven even though I am not currently using it at all. Even if I close the lid after working on it for a while, the laptop fan still runs crazy for 10+ minutes occasionally

 

[reklex]

hopefully they ship these to the macOS team at Twitter as well, the app could get some more love.

 

[Shirasaki]

oh it does launch fast but 5 mins into a call the fan starts to go crazy or the laptop would suddenly heat up like an oven even though I am not currently using it at all. Even if I close the lid after working on it for a while, the laptop fan still runs crazy for 10+ minutes occasionally

Mine runs fine and there is no space heater, tho M1 Mac def runs cooler even if I can feel the heat on speaker.

Either way, PC being PC, I’m used to it now. It’s just that many of my core applications will never run on Mac and Mac software library has tanked hard after losing 32-bit and much of Intel app (Rosetta can’t do all decently).

 

[djcerla]

(Build) time is money.

 

[TrueBlou]

I bet some of the developers are sad that their coffee breaks during compilation are so much shorter now. ?

Funny, one of the first comments I made on here in regards to Xcode on my M1 Pro, was that I hit compile and did my usual, I’m going to make coffee move. I didn’t even get out of the room before it finished. I may need to move my coffee machine closer, the alternative is unthinkable

 

[MikePulsifer]

In looking at the specs, it seems like a MBP for iOS app development, at least for an app like Twitter, would be overkill. I would think a 16GB MBA would crush the tasks just as well, if not well enough for most to not notice.

 

[Captain Trips]

Story update: Twitter says previously used Intel machines won't go to waste, will be repurposed as space heaters during winter months of Twitter offices.

Intel marketing: Woah! This is a great new marketing campaign! Put "Intel Inside" stickers on space heaters!
Intel employee: [whispers in ear of marketer]
Intel marketer: OK, OK, let me think. New marketing campaign - when you upgrade your current laptop with an older Intel processor, you can reuse the old one as a space heater! Green, baby, green!!!!