First Published April 23, 2021
My Intel powered 16 inch MacBook Pro is in a matte back case and just sits on a small table in our living room. Snz has the same model and configured computer, and , like me, she seldom uses hers. Now those two three year old MacBooks cost damn near seven grand for the pair.
We also have a touch better than base model iMac that currently serves as consumer device in my home office; backgrounding baseball games and news of the day watching. Like last night, when we had a few drinks and the Cubs swept the New York Mets.
Now along with that “Intel” powered baby iMac, there are two other computers in my office. A new MacBook Air M1, and a new Mac Mini M1. Both these devices are running Apple’s new silicon. A SoC or System on A Chip.
Apple began a two year transition away from Intel’s x86 chip for a more energy efficient and faster processing configuration that combines maximizing how software and hardware, for sake of simplicity…hold hands, while simultaneously juggling data.
Apple in California has been designing their own chips for some time. The iPhone and iPad’s are computers in your hand, and often the fastest and most efficient computer in your home. But to upscale mobile understandings of computation to large screen stand alone and consumer laptop computing is a mammoth undertaking, to say the least.
I’ve been an early adopter of this change. And yes, there have been some minor glitches with these “first generation products.” But these computers are not just fast, they are quick. In real world, day to day use, Apps pop. Boom…you’re in.
This is not an advertisement. I’m not pimping them. I have no stake in this, other than a hobbyist willing to pay the Apple Tax to hands on, and see how one of the major corporations in the world is handling an immense manufacturing restructure during a pandemic, a major chip shortage, and the understanding that how we “go to work’ and play, will be, after this global event, changed for ever.
So I’m gonna buy one of these redesigned and new M1 iMacs. I think I’ll go blue and a bit better than the base model.
And Snz has an eye on that new M1 12.9 iPad Pro. Why I don’t know, but there you go.
But with all these new purchases. All these new computers, including this years new iPad Air. We’re no where near the seven grand we for payed those two Intel MacBook Pros.
For me, these entry level, first generation, product introductions have somewhat kept the plague at bay. And, given the history of the Apple Tax, the cost of these mental health-lockdown-tech toy- band-aids were reasonably cost effective.
But, have no doubt, when Apple makes ready their “prosumer” line it will take big bucks to barter.
Today…Monday October 30, 2023
Yes it’s big bucks. I working this addendum on an M1 Mac Studio Max…talk about “prosumer,” it’s a beast and the fastest computer I’ve ever used, and maybe ever will. The M2 Chip was just a clock speed tweak. That said, it is still, at the pro level, lighting quick and all the computational desktop device that most users will ever need. But not a major upgrade.
But now comes the M3 SOC. An update/upgrade of moving from a five to a now a 3 nanometer chip. More power and better energy efficiency. More CPU and GPU cores. And about the graphics…say high to real ray tracing. Think a AAA game venture here. Could I really flight sim at better than 35 fps. That’s wishful thinking. Maybe, and does that matter? Nope.
I can work 130 stems of audio in Logic Pro. And the Mac studio won’t breath hard. But my plan all along was to skip M2 and then consider M3. The M1 SOC was game changing….earth shaking. I’m very curious to see just how far Apple can go with this chip set. And I’m very curious -about the price of a 16inch M1 Macbook Pro full fat. And lets stay in this game with a mid-level config Mac-mini M3.
Apple is sure making a big deal of of tonight’s Apple event.
