Apple Thread

[schocker]

This was last year
https://mobilesyrup.com/2019/11/29/a...ay-2019-deals/
Usually just gift cards from apple and then not the most current phones on sale.

[killramos]

Apple isn’t much into sales. You might find your carrier with some relative deals but that’s about it.

[benyl]

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It’s an interesting play by Apple. I probably my would have bought another Apple TV for my media room if they didn’t do this

As for slow, an Xbox one is still substantially quicker than an Apple TV 4K so I don’t see how horsepower will be an issue.

I have an original 2013 Launch XBOne. haha. Everything is slow on it.

[rage2]

Nov 10 looks like Apple Silicon Mac event. Let’s hope price drop for similar performance otherwise sticking with intel. Kids surface pro on its last legs and need a laptop for school stat and wants to go back to a Mac.

[killramos]

Apple silicon transition really has me spooked from picking up a new Mac, either intel or arm, not going to lie.

[Mitsu3000gt]

When your choices are a brand new iPad-grade CPU or a 6-year-old Intel CPU, it's not great, especially at ultra-premium prices. Apple already uses AMD GPUs so maybe they will also offer a Ryzen CPU option on their higher end SKUs for 2021. It actually would be ideal for them since they put such an emphasis on aesthetics over thermals & performance, the Ryzen CPUs would give them a huge performance boost under the same design language and inadequate cooling.

[killramos]

I find the 2020 iMac attractive for what I need, but I’m paranoid that it will get effectively obsoleted in 4 years by the arm transition.

[rage2]

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Apple silicon transition really has me spooked from picking up a new Mac, either intel or arm, not going to lie.

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I find the 2020 iMac attractive for what I need, but I’m paranoid that it will get effectively obsoleted in 4 years by the arm transition.

Yup. Only way to figure it out is to get one day 1 and test through everything we use to see how it goes. Virtualization is the big one, but that won't affect kids so I think a MBA would be great for them. For myself, no rush to jump into it, but I feel I can just move my virtualization stuff by upgrading my NUC and RDP'ing. Hopefully won't be too laggy because Shaw.

But that's at least a year or 2 down the road while shit settles down. Just need a laptop or 2 right now for the kids cuz theirs are dying and yea, it's not an easy choice right now. They need to use this shit for 4 years.

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When your choices are a brand new iPad-grade CPU or a 6-year-old Intel CPU, it's not great, especially at ultra-premium prices. Apple already uses AMD GPUs so maybe they will also offer a Ryzen CPU option on their higher end SKUs for 2021. It actually would be ideal for them since they put such an emphasis on aesthetics over thermals & performance, the Ryzen CPUs would give them a huge performance boost under the same design language and inadequate cooling.

My iPad Pro renders 4K videos as fast and sometimes faster than my i7 MBP. So I don't really get the stigma of "iPad grade CPU" there. Regardless, most people only care about is good battery life, light, and quiet. If Apple Silicon can provide that at a lower price point than it's Intel counterpoint, it's a win. I'd love to be able to replace my 2015 MacBook 12", so here's hoping we'd see a nice light thin portable with good CPU power without throttling. One can only dream.

As for pricing, I don't feel MB's are ultra premium priced, at least on the bottom end of the segment. I picked up a MBA for one of my kids for $1300 upgraded from $1160 from i3 to i5. Same price as a Dell XPS 13 with similar CPU. High end, for sure no argument, but I don't see Apple Silicon being anywhere ready to target high end both from a performance perspective or from software adoption. The first batch is the low end, get people transitioning with a cheaper or more powerful alternative.

[sabad66]

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Is there a chance of iPhones being on sale for black friday? I'd like to get a new phone but don't need the top of the line 12.

I think I saw on rfd or somewhere else that Costco offering the XS 64gb for 699. Pretty good deal IMO if you don’t need the latest but still want a quality phone

[killramos]

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Yup. Only way to figure it out is to get one day 1 and test through everything we use to see how it goes. Virtualization is the big one, but that won't affect kids so I think a MBA would be great for them. For myself, no rush to jump into it, but I feel I can just move my virtualization stuff by upgrading my NUC and RDP'ing. Hopefully won't be too laggy because Shaw.

But that's at least a year or 2 down the road while shit settles down. Just need a laptop or 2 right now for the kids cuz theirs are dying and yea, it's not an easy choice right now. They need to use this shit for 4 years.

I’m trying to be open minded about it all, but boot camp was a big part of the use profile of my last 2 macs so it’s a huge red flag to me. But again, in the case where I jump on one of the last intel macs for compatibility, I don’t want to get in a situation where all the intel stuff gets deprecated in macOS in a few years.

And I really don’t want to have to have separate Mac and Windows machines.

[rage2]

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I’m trying to be open minded about it all, but boot camp was a big part of the use profile of my last 2 macs so it’s a huge red flag to me. But again, I don’t want to get in a situation where all the intel stuff gets deprecated in macOS in a few years.

And I really don’t want to have to have separate Mac and Windows machines.

No 2 ways about it, Boot Camp and Virtualization are done on Apple Silicon. I'm basically giving myself 2 years to move all my remaining Windows tools that I use off to a separate VM and RDP. Not hard, since I VirtualBox instead of Boot Camp.

[Xtrema]

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I’m trying to be open minded about it all, but boot camp was a big part of the use profile of my last 2 macs so it’s a huge red flag to me. But again, in the case where I jump on one of the last intel macs for compatibility, I don’t want to get in a situation where all the intel stuff gets deprecated in macOS in a few years.

And I really don’t want to have to have separate Mac and Windows machines.

Other than some hardware specific cases (gaming?), you can probably run a Windows VM somewhere else for your Windows needs.

x64 emulation is also coming for Windows on ARM and x32 emulation is already here. So may be bootcamp on ARM Macs are still a possibility in the future.

[trieu]

I bought a base 13" Pro 1 week ago, should I return it and wait for the new one? My computer usage is very basic and consists of browsing the internet and streaming TV/movies

[rage2]

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I bought a base 13" Pro 1 week ago, should I return it and wait for the new one? My computer usage is very basic and consists of browsing the internet and streaming TV/movies

I’d say it’s impossible to answer that question right now. If Apple screwed the pooch on the transition, you made the right choice. If Apple Silicon lives up to the promise and the new laptop performs better at a lower price point, then you’ll have a little regret. Either way you’re not going to lose functionality if the laptop until new MacOS stops supporting it years down the road.

[Xtrema]

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I bought a base 13" Pro 1 week ago, should I return it and wait for the new one? My computer usage is very basic and consists of browsing the internet and streaming TV/movies

Depends on how fast the transition will be from the apps side. When Apple switched from PowerPC to Intel, it took them 4 years from announcement to totally dropped it from new version of MacOS and end of support of MacOS 10.5 comes 6 years later. So I don't doubt you can get 10 years out of it but question is how many apps you need will drop their intel version over the next while.

[rage2]

Tvos 14.2 update included an interesting feature that turns 2 homepods into a home theater atmos setup. After seeing HomePod owners praise the 360 sound of the setup, I decided to pick 2 homepods up. I’ve been hunting for a soundbar in the bedroom for a while now, something not too intrusive with good bass and atmos height channels bounced off ceiling.

The good news, the bass is surprisingly good with no subs.

The bad news, there’s no 360 audio immersion like people claim. Yes there’s definitely some positioning of audio, but it’s more like there’s 4 speakers on the wall, one on each corner of the TV. Some side separation bouncing audio off walls, but it’s isolated to the front of the room. No height differentiation at all. The biggest issue is that it only works with Apple TV, so any other devices doesn’t get this. Xbox plays thru the TV speakers. And final nitpick, they just don’t look good on the dresser. Not as clean as a single soundbar strip. 2 cookie jars sitting there just looks so out of place.

It’s not a bad setup as a stereo soundbar replacement, but seems a little steep at $800 with only compatibility through Apple TV 4K. Returning them.

[killramos]

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Tvos 14.2 update included an interesting feature that turns 2 homepods into a home theater atmos setup. After seeing HomePod owners praise the 360 sound of the setup, I decided to pick 2 homepods up. I’ve been hunting for a soundbar in the bedroom for a while now, something not too intrusive with good bass and atmos height channels bounced off ceiling.

The good news, the bass is surprisingly good with no subs.

The bad news, there’s no 360 audio immersion like people claim. Yes there’s definitely some positioning of audio, but it’s more like there’s 4 speakers on the wall, one on each corner of the TV. Some side separation bouncing audio off walls, but it’s isolated to the front of the room. No height differentiation at all. The biggest issue is that it only works with Apple TV, so any other devices doesn’t get this. Xbox plays thru the TV speakers. And final nitpick, they just don’t look good on the dresser. Not as clean as a single soundbar strip. 2 cookie jars sitting there just looks so out of place.

It’s not a bad setup as a stereo soundbar replacement, but seems a little steep at $800 with only compatibility through Apple TV 4K. Returning them.

Wondering if there is a way you can hack together an atmos setup with an Arc (very confusing that they names it Arc which is also the connection standard it uses).

[rage2]

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Wondering if there is a way you can hack together an atmos setup with an Arc (very confusing that they names it Arc which is also the connection standard it uses).

The sonos arc would be a great fit because I can get the ikea speaker lamps as rears. Unfortunately my 2018 Pq65 doesn’t support atmos over arc and that’s the best DV TV out there. Not changing it haha.

That and the whole setup is like $2500 which is ludicrous.

[eglove]

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The sonos arc would be a great fit because I can get the ikea speaker lamps as rears. Unfortunately my 2018 Pq65 doesn’t support atmos over arc and that’s the best DV TV out there. Not changing it haha.

That and the whole setup is like $2500 which is ludicrous.

Sonos is sooooo worth it though. Best purchase this year for me for sure. Arc + sub + 2 symfonisk for rears, then I got a one SL for the kitchen and a symfonisk lamp for the bedroom lol.

[rage2]

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Sonos is sooooo worth it though. Best purchase this year for me for sure. Arc + sub + 2 symfonisk for rears, then I got a one SL for the kitchen and a symfonisk lamp for the bedroom lol.

Believe me, I'd buy and try for sure. But I'm not upgrading the TV in the bedroom. There's literally nothing better for image quality especially now that Vizio is out of the Canadian market. Spending all that without getting Atmos is a little obscene, but yea, it's a sweet clean looking setup especially with the bedside lamps.