I’ve been trying to distance myself from the google ecosystem a bit, and while I’m sure their intentions are good by having all of the Fitbit data, I’m not sure I’m ok with them having it.
Apple will never satisfy my lust for cheap, powerful hardware
- Thread starter strawman
- Start date
I find this statement interesting, because while I know Google is kinda famous for what they do with the data they collect, the reason I see given by many of the people who say they have decided to leave Apple is the same, even though Apple is much more vocal about respecting user privacy.
--Patrick
What is done with the data matters. I’m guessing people who leave apple over the stranglehold over the data itself don’t necessarily go to google. They move towards having more control over their data and trying to “own” it themselves.
Yes, apple has lots of data at their fingertips, but like you said, they have a pretty good track record of keeping it not just from the highest bidder, but from the government as well. If that changes, then it’s a different story.
I just wish Apple Maps navigation was as good as google maps.
I have asked Siri to navigate a few times and it has been sketchy. I have no sense of direction so this is important.
Oh yeah. Google has definitely outspent Apple in time, money, and effort in order to make sure they can be the best atI just wish Apple Maps navigation was as good as google maps.
—Patrick (who still prefers Waze’s crowdsourced approach over Apple Maps’ more centralized one even though he knows Google devoured Waze back in 2013)
My dad bought me an expensive Smart Watch for my birthday even after I told him several times the only use I have for these things is heartrate tracking, sleep tracking, and a silent alarm, all of which I get from a Fitbit (and the fitbit is smaller, which I prefer). It's still pretty much collecting dust on a shelf, even though I set it up with the intent to give it a try. It's also the Google WearOS, which is total shit, and not incentivizing me to want to try it.
We had a pretty lively discussion going on over in the Random Crap thread, but I figured the rest probably belonged here, sooo...I know I said reviews were going to take a while, but apparently samples went out to people with followers, so we get to see them in action. I gotta say I'm suspicious of the objectivity of some reviewers (looking at you, iJustine!), but this guy seemed pretty genuine in his impressions.
He also calls out what we were discussing in the other thread, that he thinks Apple released these not to compete against other manufacturers' $399 headphones, but against their $999 headphones. I don't care what reviewers say, though. I'm not going to render any opinion until I get a chance to go into a store and squeeze my head into a set and hear for myself, but that's gonna be a while, considering the Apple store nearest to me is currently closed due to coronavirus.
--Patrick
He also calls out what we were discussing in the other thread, that he thinks Apple released these not to compete against other manufacturers' $399 headphones, but against their $999 headphones. I don't care what reviewers say, though. I'm not going to render any opinion until I get a chance to go into a store and squeeze my head into a set and hear for myself, but that's gonna be a while, considering the Apple store nearest to me is currently closed due to coronavirus.
--Patrick
Thank you for sharing that. I will finish it later. I don’t understand the unboxing part of the video though. It’s a thing, but I don’t get it.
There are people for whom opening a product's box is a sort of ceremony, and these "Unboxing" videos give other people a chance to experience that thrill, especially since higher-end products generally cost too much for any one person to buy one of all of them, and because the packaging on higher-end products is usually more elaborate, more of a journey to unravel.
--Patrick
The SE2 is now down to only $400 full price for the SIM-free base model ($550 for the 256GB, same as AirPods Max...coincidence?). It's the same size/shape as an 8 but has the guts of an 11, so it'll fit all the cases/etc you might already have for an 8 but it's two years newer inside. Also you don't have to switch your current plan, you can just move the SIM over from your 8, no need to "upgrade" to a 5G plan. This would sorta let you snooze your BIG upgrade for a couple more years but still put a newer phone into your hands.
I know this because I also have an 8 and am thinking of doing exactly the above before the end of the year.
--Patrick
You mean the second one (the one that looks like an 8)?
There was a first-generation iPhone SE that looked like an iPhone 5s but was a 6s on the inside.
And when Apple decided to bring that idea back again (putting the engine from an 11 into the chassis of an 8), instead of calling it the SE2 or SE (2020) or something else distinctive, they call it "the SE (2nd Generation)" and just refer to it as "The SE" all over their website... which of course isn't confusing at all.
--Patrick
Yes I mean the new one.You mean the second one (the one that looks like an 8)?
There was a first-generation iPhone SE that looked like an iPhone 5s but was a 6s on the inside.
And when Apple decided to bring that idea back again (putting the engine from an 11 into the chassis of an 8), instead of calling it the SE2 or SE (2020) or something else distinctive, they call it "the SE (2nd Generation)" and just refer to it as "The SE" all over their website... which of course isn't confusing at all.
--Patrick
Ok, so through totally unexpected circumstances, I had the chance to try out a set. I didn’t get to try out the theater/spatial thing, and I only hooked them up via Bluetooth because I did not have access to one of the wired adapters to see if analog input makes any kind of difference.
They sound fantastic for a $400 set of headphones. Whether the additional features (one-step integration with your other Apple devices, spatial audio, metal construction, audio sharing) add up to the extra $150, though? I’m not 100% convinced of that. If you can find a place that has ‘em on sale for $400, though? Yes, completely worth it.
—Patrick
Last edited:
In political Apple news, Parler needs to get their shit together or risk removal from the app store.
www.buzzfeednews.com
Apple Has Threatened To Ban Parler From The App Store
The social networking app favored by conservatives has been given 24 hours to institute a moderation policy.
www.buzzfeednews.com
I'm just gonna leave this here. The real cost of all those Apple shinies.
www.bbc.com
The dystopian lake filled by the world’s tech lust
Hidden in an unknown corner of China is a toxic, nightmarish lake created by our thirst for smartphones, gadgets and green tech, discovers Tim Maughan.
www.bbc.com
Nothing new there... There's a reason the EU is pushing fairly hard for Apple. Samsung etc to collect and recycle all their equipment.I'm just gonna leave this here. The real cost of all those Apple shinies.
The dystopian lake filled by the world’s tech lust
Hidden in an unknown corner of China is a toxic, nightmarish lake created by our thirst for smartphones, gadgets and green tech, discovers Tim Maughan.
Not enough, perhaps, since on a regular basis it turns out "recycling plants" in South East Asia are just another name for "toxic landfills".
The rare earth mines in Congo are apparently even worse, as the small amount of worker protection and environment control that there is in China, is completely lacking there. As in, 6 year olds washing themselves and playing around in the toxic sludge while their parents work in it in just their underwear.
I can understand people not being aware of the size and scale of the problem, but completely unaware? What, they think all the fancy crap is made from sunshine and lollipops?
I got the M1 (ARM) MacBook Pro. Battery life is crazy. Two days between charges so far (I plug it in at about 30%), that's with web browsing, some Photoshop and InDesign, and text editing. Adobe doesn't have its native apps released yet, but launching InDesign and opening the project file (inside Rosetta) takes just a few seconds, and you wouldn't know you were running in an emulator while using it (InDesign is the most sluggish of the Adobe apps in my experience).
The M1 has really been turning the computing world upside-down, and it's made a lot of the usual "Apple is only ever about style, not substance HARRUMPH" people double down on their harrumphing. We'll see if they capitalize on it or if it fizzles like the 2013 "trashcan" Mac Pro.
--Patrick
--Patrick
It’s definitely going to be a mindset change. Especially when it comes to RAM. When I first started looking at them I was disappointed with the amount they came with, mainly because it’s not upgradable. Until I read more and saw how their approach lessened the need for a large amount of ram.
I’m holding out on getting a MBP to see if they have any more changes this year. I definitely want to get one though.
I’m holding out on getting a MBP to see if they have any more changes this year. I definitely want to get one though.
Bitchers gonna bitch. My husband is involved in the embedded programming community, and he said many of them actually use MacBooks and are happy with the M1 (part of the reason I jumped on the 1st Gen). This is also a group that knows a bit about ARM, so I'll take their opinions over a bunch of whiney neckbeards.
I was going to hold out for a 16", but my old 2010 MBP decided it was time for retirement last month (daily kernel panics). I think I'm actually happier to have a 13" now, it just fits on my lap better.
I got the upgrade to 16GB of RAM, just because I run multiple Adobe apps at a time and do occasional video editing.
Well that's a thing that can happen to the 2010's. Thanks, NVIDIA!
Plus the 13's display resolution of 2560x1600 is higher than the 15's 1680x1050. Heck, it's the same as some 27in monitors!I think I'm actually happier to have a 13" now, it just fits on my lap better.
To anyone else reading this thread...if you have to choose between more RAM or more SSD, get more RAM. You can always add USB storage later, but there's no such thing as adding USB RAM.
--Patrick
I got an external portable SSD that acts as Time Machine backup and some extra storage space for media files. I waffled over whether I actually needed Time Machine, since so much of my stuff is backed up in the cloud, but Time Machine has saved my bacon so many times I didn't want to tempt Fate by saying "Oh, I don't need a Time Machine backup this time." Plus, cloud services don't have versioning, and that is also pretty handy to have.
Here’s a decent write up of the M1 architecture and why you don’t necessarily need a ton of RAM with them. https://www.howtogeek.com/701804/how-unified-memory-speeds-up-apples-m1-arm-macs/
I definitely agree that you should choose RAM over storage. RAM just isn’t as important with M1s as it is typical PC’s though.
I definitely agree that you should choose RAM over storage. RAM just isn’t as important with M1s as it is typical PC’s though.
Question. As far as I understand it my graphics card uses a different type of RAM from my cpu. So does this new integrated RAM work more like DDR4 or what?
Also, while I can definitely see some benefits to the approach, the non-upgradeability and non-replaceability, like smartphone batteries and, more and more, memory cards, just really sucks for the consumer. Here it might be more justified, though. Doesn't mean I have to like it.
Also, while I can definitely see some benefits to the approach, the non-upgradeability and non-replaceability, like smartphone batteries and, more and more, memory cards, just really sucks for the consumer. Here it might be more justified, though. Doesn't mean I have to like it.
There aren’t many native games for the M1 yet, I think WoW is one of the few. So it’s hard to say for sure. There is a big increase in performance for native games vs the same game on the intel Mac though.
I don’t know that this will ever be a good replacement for a hobbyist, or hardcore gamer, but we’ll see where it goes. This may give people an option of being able to have a laptop, or a small computer, and still be able to at least have decent gaming performance though.
I don’t know that this will ever be a good replacement for a hobbyist, or hardcore gamer, but we’ll see where it goes. This may give people an option of being able to have a laptop, or a small computer, and still be able to at least have decent gaming performance though.
Part of the reason the memory on your GPU is a different type is because it is a separate, "private" pool of memory not shared with the rest of the computer. The video card drivers use that space to keep things the GPU would rather not spend time fetching from main memory (or disk) all the time, such as shader code, texture data, the images being built and sent to the screen, etc. Likewise, when the GPU is used for calculation rather than rendering (Bitcoin mining, CUDA/OpenCL/Stream/DirectCompute, etc), the results have to be exported back to the main memory. Basically, time gets wasted because information has to constantly be sent/fetched back and forth over the PCI/AGP/PCIe bus between main memory and this private GPU VRAM pool. This swapping intensifies even more if the GPU does not have enough onboard VRAM to do whatever it wants to do, much like a computer swapping to disk when it runs out of RAM. What really suffers from this arrangement are integrated GPUs, because since they have no private VRAM of their own, the drivers have to rope off a section of main system memory to act as that private pool, meaning that the computer ends up wasting time copying things from one section of its system memory to another just because the GPU will refuse to work with anything that isn't inside its fenced-in area.
When Apple says they are using a "unified memory pool," this does away with all the copying by letting the GPU and CPU share access to the same pool of memory. This increases complexity from the drivers' point of view ("Whose turn is it?"), but it drastically reduces the amount of time lost to copying, since this copying is no longer even needed. It should also reduce latency and input lag, since there is no longer any reason to wait for all this copying to get done. The amount of overall memory necessary to do all this stuff is also reduced because there is no longer a need to reserve an additional portion of memory as a sort of shipping and receiving area to hold the stuff that's being packaged and sent back and forth across a traditional computer's bus.
As for how it works, it works like whatever kind of memory it is...DDR3, DDR4, whatever. The type of memory isn't the revolutionary part, it's the how-it's-accessed-and-used part that is the new thing.
--Patrick
I tried this out today, and it works really well. There is little to no difference in unlock time between having a mask and not having one.
www.macrumors.com
Apple Releases First watchOS 7.4 Public Beta With iPhone Unlocking Feature
Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming watchOS 7.4 update to public beta testers, with the new beta coming a few days after the release of...
www.macrumors.com