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Ellis Vener

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If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« on: June 11, 2012, 01:45:19 pm »

http://www.macrumorslive.com/ is live blogging it.

Specs on the three lines of Apple Notebooks (Air, Pro and a new second thinner, high pixel density retina display equipped Mac Book Pro line) start at the 10:16 tag. All three start start shipping today.

They also have a new FW800 to Thunderbolt adapter coming and a thunderbolt camera, lots of other stuff coming too.
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Ellis Vener

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #1 on: June 11, 2012, 03:03:06 pm »

Hmm, no mention in the keynote of new Mac Pros, iMacs or mac Minis.
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Eric Kellerman

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #2 on: June 11, 2012, 03:21:18 pm »

Rumours certainly suggested a MacPro was on the cards. Lloyd Chambers will be going berserk!
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Peter Stacey

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #3 on: June 11, 2012, 03:26:54 pm »

Aside from the new Macbook Pro (16 GB of RAM will be very nice) and Air's, I was a little underwhelmed by the offerings.

The cross platform sharing of app data, integration of Twitter into the OS, greater Facebook functionality in iOS, new maps app, etc. was good but nothing revolutionary. I'm sure it will all work elegantly with Apple's implementation, but most of it is already available in other platforms and Apple are catching up.

Passes looks like it could be good and seems to be something no-one else has implemented yet to the same degree. Hopefully a lot of services integrate with it over the next few months to make it really useful.
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Eric Kellerman

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #4 on: June 11, 2012, 03:33:26 pm »

Not much use, any of that stuff, if you are seriously working with photography or video.
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Peter Stacey

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #5 on: June 11, 2012, 03:40:01 pm »

Not much use, any of that stuff, if you are seriously working with photography or video.

Both Aperture and Final Cut have been updated, but it will require a hands-on view before seeing how useful the update is.

On the photography end, the Aperture update doesn't really interest me unless they've added support for the X-Pro 1 and have solved some of the current rendering issues of other converters for the x-trans sensor. That would be the only reason I would look at it as I prefer Lightroom and Photoshop.

I'm sure the update to Final Cut Pro will interest a lot of people (and is hopefully better than the previous disaster they had).
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Rob Stone

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #6 on: June 11, 2012, 03:41:29 pm »

Go to the Apple Store.  They updated the Mac Pro!  Didn't even mention it in the keynote.

Rob
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shotworldwide

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #7 on: June 11, 2012, 03:52:15 pm »

No thunderbolt port?

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Ellis Vener

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #8 on: June 11, 2012, 04:16:10 pm »

Not much use, any of that stuff, if you are seriously working with photography or video.
Yeah you're right Eric, a faster laptop with faster processors, increased battery runtime, and a higher resolution display = no use at all ;-) .  But jeez did they ever spend a lot of time on iOS 6 and Mountain Lion. All of which may be productivity aids but we shall see.
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Eric Kellerman

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #9 on: June 11, 2012, 04:38:26 pm »

Yeah you're right Eric, a faster laptop with faster processors, increased battery runtime, and a higher resolution display = no use at all ;-) .  But jeez did they ever spend a lot of time on iOS 6 and Mountain Lion. All of which may be productivity aids but we shall see.

Ha ha! I don't want to spend my Photoshop time with a 15"-laptop on battery power, Ellis. Do you?
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PeterAit

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #10 on: June 11, 2012, 04:50:17 pm »

Oh, is this a computer forum? Silly me, I thought it was a photography forum.
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David Watson

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #11 on: June 11, 2012, 04:58:41 pm »

Yeah you're right Eric, a faster laptop with faster processors, increased battery runtime, and a higher resolution display = no use at all ;-) .  But jeez did they ever spend a lot of time on iOS 6 and Mountain Lion. All of which may be productivity aids but we shall see.

Actually I think that there is some good news.  I was holding off buying a new Macpro laptop in the faint hope that the Macpro itself would be updated but if you look at the price of a reasonably well configured Macpro it is clear that Apple is only interested in selling these under sufferance and if it is worth their while.   To match my current spec. I was approaching £8000!

However a new Macbook pro with Thunderbolt storage and fast Flash drives is not a bad thing.  Any loss of processor oomph is more than made up by the faster derive speed and faster storage.  Instead of a Macpro and a Macbook Pro I will now have a single Macbook Pro - my order is in but I will not be selling my existing kit until it all settles down!  A further benefit is that Adobe licensing allows two computers to be licensed with LR or Creative Suite - that saves me money because both offices can now have the latest implementation of this software.

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BJL

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #12 on: June 11, 2012, 05:09:24 pm »

Oh, is this a computer forum? Silly me, I thought it was a photography forum.
Peter: The title of this particular forum is "Computers and Peripherals", so it sort of is a computer forum.

Erik and Peter: Some photographers use laptops for photographic work when away from their desks and studios, and a lot of people including amateur photographers use only a laptop these days, rather than also having a desktop, so the "Retina" version of the 15" MacBook Pro with its 2880x1800, 220ppi screen and updated graphics is probably of interest to some photographers, even if not to you.
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Eric Kellerman

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #13 on: June 11, 2012, 05:51:23 pm »

Erik and Peter: Some photographers use laptops for photographic work when away from their desks and studios, and a lot of people including amateur photographers use only a laptop these days, rather than also having a desktop, so the "Retina" version of the 15" MacBook Pro with its 2880x1800, 220ppi screen and updated graphics is probably of interest to some photographers, even if not to you.


I absolutely agree with you. However, for those who have been waiting for a new desktop for two or more years, the potential demise of the MacPro line is disquieting.
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Ellis Vener

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #14 on: June 11, 2012, 06:27:53 pm »

Ha ha! I don't want to spend my Photoshop time with a 15"-laptop on battery power, Ellis. Do you?
No but sometimes I have to. out in the field a Paul C Buff Vagabond Mini Lithium battery helps, but on a flight, I am happy to have long battery life, and at any rate, not everything I do with a computer involving photography involves Photoshop, Lightroom or other image processing programs.
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Mr. Rib

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #15 on: June 11, 2012, 06:49:11 pm »

Ok, now I'm pissed.
WHAT THE HELL
I was waiting for this update for almost a year, putting up with my old desktop and waiting for Apple to finally make their move. Now not only I don't get a Mac pro option, I also don't get a chance of buying a 17" Macbook Pro with retina display on which I was counting.
All the pros - the guys who in fact saved the company from going bankrupt - were given the finger. It's a very nice parabole of XXI century, capitalism, 'there's no place for sentiment' kind of thing...but Apple could afford keeping the 'pro' line, even just for the image, but it's just that they are wealthy now so they don't care and their main target are kids wasting their life on facebook sipping a coffee at Starbucks and trying to find their never-to-be-found identity.  "They saved us, now f*ck them, let's move on to where the real money is."- thanks Apple, thanks Tim and thanks Steve (as this direction is definitely Steve's initiative).
I'm disgusted- they have the nerve to update the icon in their store with 'new mac pro' sign.
It's time to search for a new platform. Thanks again Apple.
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tastar

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #16 on: June 11, 2012, 07:52:09 pm »

As mentioned above, Apple did speed bump and marginally improve the Mac Pro line - and the prices did drop pretty substantially from the previous models. For example the 3.2GHz model was 2899 (USD) and is now 2499 (with 3GB of additional memory). The 3.3GHz 6-core machine was 3699 and is now 2999. And, having the line refreshed a little is better than losing it altogether.

It's funny, though - the base 3.2GHz Quad Core Mac Pro comes in at a Passmark CPU Benchmark of 6057, while the new MacBook Pro 15 2.6GHz Core i7 comes in at 8914. So, the contributors suggesting that a MacBook Pro could be a desktop replacement may be correct - the Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 ports do a good job in making up for the additional expandability of the Mac Pro. However, moving up to the 6-core 3.3GHz processor in the Mac Pro does give it a speed advantage over a MacBook Pro with a Passmark score of 10052.

As an aside, we just ordered a new HP Elite 8300 with a Core i7 3770 CPU, 3.4GHz, Passmark CPU score of 10433. It lists for 989.00. Too bad Windows is Windows.

Tony
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jonathan.lipkin

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #17 on: June 12, 2012, 01:23:18 pm »

My concern with the WWDC announcements is that they are mostly oriented towards consumer application - iOS, cloud, etc. While CEO Tim Cook reportedly has said that the the pro market is 'very important' to apple, it remains to be seen how or if this translates into products remains to be seen. There is plenty of evidence to support the fact that Apple is abandoning the pro market (lack of new mac pros, mediocre update to final cut, consumer product focus at WWDC), and some to suggest that they are supporting it (David Pogue's assurance that a new Mac Pro is in the works, TC's reported email saying the same thing).

We'll just have to wait and see, I'm afraid.

For the time being, I'm selling my old Mac Pro, and getting an iMac i7.
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Chairman Bill

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #18 on: June 12, 2012, 01:38:53 pm »

My 6 year old iMac could do with an upgrade, but given that the current iMac line is of 2011 vintage, I can't help but think it's well overdue an upgrade too. I was hoping for a 24", non-reflective screen & new Ivybridge processors. Looks like I might have to wait a while longer.

Chris Kern

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Re: If you are interested in what Apple is up to ...
« Reply #19 on: June 12, 2012, 02:58:44 pm »

As mentioned above, Apple did speed bump and marginally improve the Mac Pro line - and the prices did drop pretty substantially from the previous models. For example the 3.2GHz model was 2899 (USD) and is now 2499 (with 3GB of additional memory). The 3.3GHz 6-core machine was 3699 and is now 2999. And, having the line refreshed a little is better than losing it altogether.

I think it's fair to say that Apple considers the Mac Pro a strategic product.  Apple is primarily a consumer electronics company, but the Mac Pro gives it an important presence in the enterprise.  I'm referring to medium-sized to large enterprises here, corporate and governmental, with IT departments that may be more favorably disposed to supporting iPhones and iPads if they are already supporting Apple desktops.

I believe the 2012 Mac Pro upgrade was intended to give enterprise buyers the current processor specs their internal customers were clamoring for.  These purchasers don't especially need Thunderbolt or USB 3; in fact, many IT departments take a dim view of bus extenders and prefer network- to locally-attached storage.  But they demand current specs, and Apple probably made a shrewd decision by giving them an incremental upgrade until a redesigned product was ready to ship.  Among other things, Apple reasonably could assume that organizations which depend on custom desktop applications with OS X (or generic UNIX) dependencies would never return if they had to wait another year and went to the expense of porting their software to MS-Windows.

Not that the Mac Pro isn't profitable.  I doubt Apple would keep anything in its product lineup that didn't produce significant revenue.  (It bailed out of its brief, unsuccessful foray into enterprise storage, for example.)  The Mac Pro's primary constituency has a high proportion of volume purchasers and, of course, margins are higher for this kind of product than for consumer electronics.

In other words, I don't think this upgrade was intended for the likes of most of us reading these forums.

Having said that, a 6-core 3.33 GHz CPU with 48 GB of 1333 MHz memory or a dual-CPU model with 12 cores and 96 GB of memory is a very powerful machine.  (You need third-party memory to reach those specs; Apple's configurations only go up to 32 and 64 GB, respectively.)  About the only thing missing is a disk with a fast spindle, but I'm sure the power supply could handle faster drives and, in any event, Apple as well as the third-party suppliers are pushing SSDs for high-speed local storage.

Of course, you can get equal or superior performance for less money with a machine running MS-Windows.  But for those who need a UNIX-based desktop environment, or who just prefer OS X—and who don't want to wait for the 2013 redesigned model—I think the new Mac Pros are a reasonably attractive, if not spectacular, upgrade.

Chris
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