New apple M1 chips - who's buying?
Discussion
nebpor said:
Cheers. Am thinking of building a new PC for my own music production needs, but pondering a mac instead, so perfect use case
I am a long time mac user for work, it’s just I’m used to windows for Ableton and associates gubbins. Might be time to go apple …. The only problem is building my own is more fun than buying one!
You could always go down the hackintosh route. A friend made one mid Covid and runs it very successfully in his studio. It way above my patience threshold to bother with that. I am a long time mac user for work, it’s just I’m used to windows for Ableton and associates gubbins. Might be time to go apple …. The only problem is building my own is more fun than buying one!
Craikeybaby said:
I'd get the refurb M2 Air from Apple. I have the M1 Pro and the fans have only come on once, and that was doing multiple AI denoise photos at the same time in Lightroom.
That has considerably more thermal mass though. I've seen the heatsink for the M2 Air. It's basically a sheet of tinfoil! Had a look at the "dark blue" one today and quite liked it, very thin indeed. The trackpad didn't have a great colour match mind. I also like the look of the gold coloured one.The M1 Air had more meat on it's heatsink. Maybe I just go for an M1 air if I can find one for the right price.
ETA: stuff doesn't stay on the apple refurb site long does it. They had 8 core/8core 16/512 M2 airs on there earlier. Now it's just 8/512s or there's a 16/1TB for Megabucks.
Edited by Otispunkmeyer on Friday 2nd June 23:09
Otispunkmeyer said:
ETA: stuff doesn't stay on the apple refurb site long does it. They had 8 core/8core 16/512 M2 airs on there earlier. Now it's just 8/512s or there's a 16/1TB for Megabucks.
They can come and go pretty quickly, I found that sometimes things were on the site and off again within the day. When the Mac Mini M2 models came up I grabbed one quick Edited by Otispunkmeyer on Friday 2nd June 23:09
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65809408
Mental. What cost of living crisis or economic downturn!
They can stick that where the sun doesn’t shine, along with its two hour battery life.
Mental. What cost of living crisis or economic downturn!
They can stick that where the sun doesn’t shine, along with its two hour battery life.
I wasn't expecting a Mac Mini update but still never say never with this stuff. My new refurb Mac Mini isn't immediately old . Mac Studio went M2 with a £100 bump, so that's the home Pro model now with the new Pro being a £7k minimum for the deep deep professional stuff (in Apple world). Still no iMac M1 update, they must be saving that update for something bigger (M3?) or they forgot .
. Mac Studio went M2 with a £100 bump, so that's the home Pro model now with the new Pro being a £7k minimum for the deep deep professional stuff (in Apple world). Still no iMac M1 update, they must be saving that update for something bigger (M3?) or they forgot .DoctorX said:
Three and a half grand for that AV headset. Ooof.
Very impressive though. You just know where the App Store will be going with that external display.
A similar thing and a similar price to the MS Hololens AR glasses https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/hololens . Does anyone in 3d design/manufacturing/prototyping use these?Very impressive though. You just know where the App Store will be going with that external display.
BlueMR2 said:
Seems we are now being charged more in £ than the US is in $.
...and it used to be cheaper to import stuff from the US when it was £1.70 to $1.00 (about 10 years ago) even with VAT/duty/fees and it even broke the $2 mark in 2007. But at the current £1.00 to $1.25 means everything imported from the US much more expensive (it almost hit parity at one point last year).I did notice the smug lady wearing a set on the plane...but obviously bankrupted herself buying them as she could only now afford economy seats
But if you use 'man maths' and break it down to the the equipment it will be able to replace (i.e. multiple Apple Pro Display XDR @ £4599 each, and a base Mac Studio Max @ £2099) then it's almost a bargain
HRL said:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65809408
Mental. What cost of living crisis or economic downturn!
They can stick that where the sun doesn’t shine, along with its two hour battery life.
First off, let me say that I can't ever see myself buying a VR headset thingy. It's just not my thing. Same as I have never even tried watching a 3D movie despite previously owning a Sony LED 3D TV which came with a couple of pairs of glasses which I never even took put of the packet.Mental. What cost of living crisis or economic downturn!
They can stick that where the sun doesn’t shine, along with its two hour battery life.
Maybe I'll reconsider if these headsets eventually become the size of a pair of sunglasses and I can use them to watch a movie on a plane or something...
But that aside, I find the tech aspect of this sort of stuff mildly interesting, and with that in mind, I suppose you can usually trust Apple to sit back, watch everyone else make a half-arsed attempt at it, then bowl in at a later date with a massively more polished product, and it appears this Vision Pro is as expected.
I watched the Marques Brownlee video about his hands-on experience of Vision Pro and he was impressed by much of it:
https://youtu.be/OFvXuyITwBI
Apparently the eye tracking and monitoring of hand gestures is absolutely insane. Described as 'magic' and 'almost telepathic' which amused me, but I know what he meant. It just shows how well it can actually be done, when done by someone like Apple.
The price is mental, but I suppose you have to bear in mind that this headset isn't just a display and sensors, it is an entire standalone computer with an M2 chip, running it's own OS.
The last point is that VR may have never really caught on, like 3D TV's, but once you get someone like Apple pushing it, and working with major games and movie studios to produce content specifically for this sort of device, that will surely be good for all VR systems.
I guess the next generations of this product will likely include a cheaper 'non-Pro' model and also I guess they will try to include the battery pack into the headset itself at some point.
mmm-five said:
I did notice the smug lady wearing a set on the plane...but obviously bankrupted herself buying them as she could only now afford economy seats
You’re probably not the right demographic then. I was looking at the MacRumors forum yesterday when it was launched and there was at least one person talking about getting a second job to pay for it! These aren’t people who fly business class. I think it’s really is an interesting development and looks super cool, but I’m not yet seeing a mass market killer app for it yet. Equally though, all the reports that this was being developed suggested it would be a pro tool in this iteration aiming to lay foundations for the future. I was also sceptical of iPhone as a Windows Mobile user, but caved when the 3GS came out and was much closer to feature parity to the rest of the market.
eyebeebe said:
You’re probably not the right demographic then. I was looking at the MacRumors forum yesterday when it was launched and there was at least one person talking about getting a second job to pay for it! These aren’t people who fly business class.
I think it’s really is an interesting development and looks super cool, but I’m not yet seeing a mass market killer app for it yet. Equally though, all the reports that this was being developed suggested it would be a pro tool in this iteration aiming to lay foundations for the future. I was also sceptical of iPhone as a Windows Mobile user, but caved when the 3GS came out and was much closer to feature parity to the rest of the market.
I might be the perfect demographic for them...I think it’s really is an interesting development and looks super cool, but I’m not yet seeing a mass market killer app for it yet. Equally though, all the reports that this was being developed suggested it would be a pro tool in this iteration aiming to lay foundations for the future. I was also sceptical of iPhone as a Windows Mobile user, but caved when the 3GS came out and was much closer to feature parity to the rest of the market.
Have £6k worth of Mac & display in front of me, and still travel economy or premium economy (only business or first when there's a free/bargain upgrade available).
Wonder if they're rated to -30ºc, as they'd be wonderful as an augmented piste map / tour guide when I'm in Breckenridge, Banff or Tahoe. Will need a much bigger battery though
Before the show, I was expecting a premium £2k price, and by the end I was expecting a £5k 'Pro' price due to the dual 5k micro-OLED screens, lenses, multiple cameras, multiple chips, OLED outer screen, etc.
So I'm surprised they eventually came in at £3.5k...which is still to rich for me...and you'll probably have to pay another £1k for prescription lenses and another £2k to get the storage/RAM that you'll actually need to be able to install anything on them....as the base model is probably 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD
Edited by mmm-five on Tuesday 6th June 10:30
Lord Marylebone said:
The last point is that VR may have never really caught on, like 3D TV's, but once you get someone like Apple pushing it, and working with major games and movie studios to produce content specifically for this sort of device, that will surely be good for all VR systems.
You've never heard of Oculus / Quest / Valve Index / PS VR / etc? There are something like 20 million Quest headsets out there. Those devices are also far better for gaming than the Vision Pro (which isn't really a gaming device)130R said:
Lord Marylebone said:
The last point is that VR may have never really caught on, like 3D TV's, but once you get someone like Apple pushing it, and working with major games and movie studios to produce content specifically for this sort of device, that will surely be good for all VR systems.
You've never heard of Oculus / Quest / Valve Index / PS VR / etc? There are something like 20 million Quest headsets out there. Those devices are also far better for gaming than the Vision Pro (which isn't really a gaming device)People are already now suggesting that Apple will be the ones to push VR into the mainstream, and if anyone is going to do it, it might be Apple. I read that sales of VR/AR headsets sank by 21% in 2022 as people began losing interest following the initial interest and uptake of headsets like the Quest.
Even if you have zero interest in ever buying an Apple product, but are interested in VR/AR tech then you should be applauding Apple for having a go. A rising tide lifts all ships.
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