Apple leaving professional market?

[webrunner5]

1 hour ago, Damphousse said:

The uniform level of disappointment with the "pro" line and Apple in general in the comments pretty much tells the tale.  I like to read the comments just to do a reality check.  I like to see where my assessment is compared to the general population.  I don't have vitriol like some of the people posting in the comments but I figured out what was going to happen with the "pro" line a long time ago.

 

It is funny to watch people try and defend this even when Apple themselves says they screwed up...

Mistake or not if it works for some people great.  But the quirky designs and delayed updates and refreshes should really not come as a surprise to anyone in 2018.

I am not the biggest Apple fan in the world now, used to be when I made lots of money!, but I have always commended Apple for making Beautiful looking, innovated products just as much as their performance is. I have always thought the Trash Can was one of their top amazing products design wise. I would Hardly call it a mistake. Tim Cook can send me his anytime he wants.

[kye]

I moved to Apple from PC / Android and I did so knowing that I was paying more for a given level of hardware performance.

What I am getting, however, is a higher level of personal performance, and this is what I am paying extra for.

The amount of time I spent in the PC world struggling to get Microsoft Windows to properly use the BrandA driver for the BrandA chip on the motherboard with the BrandB driver for the BrandB plug-in interface card to connect to the BrandC device I want to use... On Mac I spend time working on my work, not on trying to get my computer to do what I tell it.
My dad was in charge of the PCs for a large educational institution and once had the pleasure of ordering a custom-built server (~$10k worth of high-end hardware) and after a month of not being able to make it work he sent it back to the distributor.  Luckily the distributor was happy to take it back as the school bought large amounts of equipment from them.  The problem was that it wouldn't complete an installation of the OS, and the problem was a known issue and the manufacturer of the RAID controller, the HDD manufacturer and the motherboard manufacturer were all blaming each other as to why the combination didn't work.

At Apple, if something doesn't work, someone gets yelled at and told to fix it, which works because they control all the moving pieces.

You will notice that Apple vs PC articles that recommend PC over Mac often point out that: the hardware performance (ie, MFLOPS or certain chipsets) are cheaper in PC, that for every good feature a Mac has there's a PC that has a better specification, etc.  The flaws to this logic are that CPU speed is not workflow speed, and that Laptop A might have a better screen, and Laptop B might have a better battery life, but you can't buy a Laptop with the screen from A and the battery from B.
Articles that recommend Mac over PC often talk about how 'things just work' which unfortunately isn't as true with the last few OSX versions as it used to be, but I sure as hell don't spend time on forums reading about manufacturers blaming each other for why my mouse won't work.

In case I sound like an Apple fanboy, I'm really not.  Apple are monopolistic corporate criminals who are large enough to exploit the weaknesses in international taxation law to basically shaft every country they do business in, which would justifiably put any of us who did it in jail in a matter of minutes, but they're big enough to get away with it.  The reason I buy their stuff is they suck slightly less than the alternatives.

[webrunner5]

I think Steve Jobs, and Tim Cook, but a lot was probably in the works with Jobs, started putting to much form over function. The latest Macbook Pro ditching the SD slot, the mike input on the iPhone, that is just going too damn far to make something thin just to be the thinnest.  I am not going to go past my late 2014 Pro 15" I have. Heck my Note 8 has a mike jack and a S Pen in it ,and it is more waterproof deeper than my Apple X phone. And who the hell doesn't use SD Cards. That stuff is stupid I don't care how nice the stuff is.

My son is eat up with Apple stuff, so is my brother. I used to be Years ago. But I was until lately a pretty big Gamer. Not many games out for Apple products over the years. Their video cards were always too far behind for one thing. So I just passed on them. Plus I have built my own desktops for years, and years to save money and to have what I want. So Apple was out of the question mostly for that.

But yeah their stuff works right out of the box, but on average it was not cutting edge stuff, and as a gamer I wanted cutting edge. But they have gotten better, but if they keep up this thinner crap I guess they will have non moveable keys on the keyboard next LoL.

This is the laptop I have for gaming. My son seems to want the Apple, so it works out for me. I don't carry it much anyways. I bought it more for RVing than anything. It weighs a ton. But it is faster than my Box on my desk. I think I am done building desktops now. They have finally got video cards as good in laptops now for not a lot more money overall. Ahh they might be one generation behind on them but that is no big deal anymore. They had a promo sale on that laptop at Micro Center that was a crazy deal. I could not turn it down. My son used to work there, and they call him about heads up deals before most people know about them.

https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GV72-7RD

[Trek of Joy]

13 hours ago, kye said:

I moved to Apple from PC / Android and I did so knowing that I was paying more for a given level of hardware performance.

What I am getting, however, is a higher level of personal performance, and this is what I am paying extra for.

The amount of time I spent in the PC world struggling to get Microsoft Windows to properly use the BrandA driver for the BrandA chip on the motherboard with the BrandB driver for the BrandB plug-in interface card to connect to the BrandC device I want to use... On Mac I spend time working on my work, not on trying to get my computer to do what I tell it.

I'm in the same boat, my frustration hit a tipping point after running a digital media lab for high school students with 24 workstations. We had a staff of 5 - one of which was a salary slot solely dedicated to computer maintenance. Literally every day we had issues with various components not talking to the software or just not working at all. I can't tell you how many times we had to re-download drivers for things like sound cards, and then with Windows updates you had compatibility issues with the Adobe suite and so on. Then there were viruses that come with students surfing the net, ugh. So when it came time to replace the lab computers I took a chance and bought iMac's instead. This was my first time using a Mac. Our tech had nothing to do after the switch, absolutely nothing, everything just hummed along without any hiccups. I had to rewrite her position because it put her out o a job. Time is money, and moving to Mac saved me a lot of cash. 

People say those issues are largely gone with Windows 10, but I was visiting my in-laws and my father-in-law can't get his Win10 machine to recognize one of his thumb drives - a drive he's been using to store his personal records. It opened fine on my MacBook. Go figure. A insignificant sample size of 1, but it brought back many memories of students struggling to get everything working as we were against the wall for film festival submissions. Never again.

13 hours ago, kye said:

CPU speed is not workflow speed

This too. After moving to FCPx my workflow has sped up considerably. The whole PC vs. Mac debate for me is so played. There's so much more to a computer than how much I can save with a similar PC spec. Being able to just work all the time is more valuable than saving a few hundred dollars on parts. I run a 5k iMac, pretty tough to get a 10-bit 5k monitor and a fast machine for less than what I paid for my computer. And its just a thing of beauty to cut through 4k prores file with no hiccups, no stuttering or any issues. Its been a revelation. 

Its not for everyone, and that's cool. I actually enjoy editing a lot more since I moved to Mac, FCPx is so much more efficient for me. As always, YMMV.

[Robert Collins]

In my experience, PC v Mac threads never really die until people end up debating the benefits of Linux

[kye]

8 hours ago, Trek of Joy said:

After moving to FCPx my workflow has sped up considerably.

When I did my PC v Mac analysis the software didn't come into it - I didn't change software at all.  I did a big analysis of what I wanted from a computer, including listing all software applications.  It surprised me, but almost every piece of software I use is available on both platforms.
The analysis didn't really involve much difference on the hardware side either (I was looking at laptops) and the decision came down to integration.  Things like my entire family are on Apple Messenger and there's no client for MS, which means that communicating with them becomes more difficult.  Calendar integration is one of those things that *should* work but I've had issues with in the past.  Etc..  I literally decided on PC v Mac based on ecosystem alone.

8 hours ago, Robert Collins said:

In my experience, PC v Mac threads never really die until people end up debating the benefits of Linux

Linux is excellent, but I've passed the stage in my career where I want to spend time being a systems administrator as well as a user.  This was one of the main things with MS.  MS makes you spend time as a sysadmin because things just don't work, Linux makes you spend time as a sysadmin because there's a huge learning curve in getting used to everything.  There's still a learning curve for MS and Mac but I've already climbed those and don't wish to climb another.

Besides, OSX has unix at the back-end and whenever I find myself choked by Apples "our way or the highway" attitude I just pull up a terminal window and implement a work-around.  Most of the benefits and none of the sysadmin-ness.

[Mokara]

On ‎2018‎-‎04‎-‎07 at 1:15 AM, jhnkng said:

Err.. what?

https://www.androidauthority.com/why-are-apples-chips-faster-than-qualcomms-gary-explains-802738/

TL;DR --

"There is no denying that Apple has a world class CPU design team that has consistently produced the best SoCs in the world over the last few years." 

Anyway, it's hardly surprising that Apple would try to bring their chip designs in house, like they have for pretty much every bit of their business (besides manufacturing.) In any case Apple sells a whole range of Macs, they're not all going to go internal all at once. At a guess the Macbook will be the first -- it's basically an iPad with a bad keyboard -- but certainly there may be Apple designed chips for the 13in Macbook Pro. We think Pro means heavy duty computing applications, but it's pretty obvious Apple sees "Pro" as meaning anyone who uses it for work. They've  prioritised things like size and battery life over raw power, when to be honest I think I'd rather an option for raw power at the expense of size or battery life. 

As a fun aside, I have a fully specced first gen 15in MBP with the Touch Bar, and my iPad runs Fortnite better than my very very expensive laptop. So don't discount what's possible with mobile hardware when you have the opportunity to really optimise for it. 

Also, err, Prores RAW. Developing a new codec that will be invaluable to only a very core niche of video professionals is hardly the action of a company who are abandoning the Pro market. 

 

Those tests compare systems, not processors. They don't control for the effects of the OS and other supporting hardware that may impact on overall performance.