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Apple Will Ship A Pro iMac Later This Year, It Won't Feature Touchscreen (buzzfeed.com)

Apple's expected update to its iMac line will arrive later this year with some previously unexpected additions: pro models. From a report: "We have big plans for the iMac," Phil Schiller, Apple's SVP of worldwide marketing, said during a recent reporter roundtable at the company's Machine Shop hardware prototyping lab. "We're going to begin making configurations of iMac specifically with the pro customer in mind." Just what those configurations will entail, Apple won't yet say. Nor will it comment on the possibility of an iMac Pro moniker for the more powerful machines in the lineup. Company executives are, however, quite happy to confirm a feature the pro iMac will not have: touchscreen. "No," Schiller said when asked if Apple would consider building such a thing. "Touch doesn't even register on the list of things pro users are interested in talking about. They're interested in things like performance and storage and expandability."

163 comments

  1. WI'll it have by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    5 year old hardware, or just 4 year old hardware?

    1. Re:WI'll it have by tripleevenfall · · Score: 1

      Number of people who want touchscreen desktops?

    2. Re:WI'll it have by Maritz · · Score: 1

      They should patent this LCD panel with no touch screen malarkey. Keep other companies from stealing the idea.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    3. Re:WI'll it have by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 1

      debatable but in 2017 it's becoming more or less a standard feature on any iMac-killer Windows 10 all-in-one PC.

    4. Re:WI'll it have by FellowConspirator · · Score: 1

      A touch screen might make sense if the computer is used as an instrument panel, but by and large it's an ergonomic disaster for common computer use.

    5. Re:WI'll it have by nine-times · · Score: 1

      Just as an aside, and not tackling the question of whether touchscreens make sense on desktop computers: There's a difference between "a lot of manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon of including this feature," and "this is a useful feature that people will use an appreciate."

    6. Re:WI'll it have by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      3-year olds find the touchscreen useful - to the point they try touching on screens that don't support it and gunk them up.

      So - touch is useful for simplistic games for small kids. Not at all for office type work or development or design or . . .

    7. Re:WI'll it have by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      debatable but in 2017 it's becoming more or less a standard feature on any iMac-killer Windows 10 all-in-one PC.

      Which people then proceed to never use; because the app and OS support for it is so dodgy.

    8. Re:WI'll it have by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Just as an aside, and not tackling the question of whether touchscreens make sense on desktop computers: There's a difference between "a lot of manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon of including this feature," and "this is a useful feature that people will use an appreciate."

      DING DING DING!!! WE HAVE A WINNER!

      You have EXACTLY hit the nail on the head!!!

    9. Re:WI'll it have by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      4 years old now, but its going to be released next year by which time it will be 5 years old anyway...

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    10. Re:WI'll it have by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep. Same reason we give toddlers finger paints instead of brushes.

  2. What is there strategy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So they neglect Mac Pro for years(focused on performance & stuff) then they end up making a faster version of the consumer product iMac?

    1. Re:What is there strategy? by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      Well at least they heard the bit about 'expandability and storage' - two things completely absent from the trash can Mac Pro. Unless you count paying extra for less performance by way of Thunderbolt, which I don't.

      Thunderbolt might take care of the storage bit by way of 10gbe and fiber channel adapters. It is a sorry excuse for GPU expandability though, especially since Apple has gone out of their way to prevent GPUs from working on Thunderbolt by way of software lockout.

      Skip the 'pro iMac' and just make a Mac Pro like you had in 2010, except with 2017 hardware inside. How fucking hard is that?

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    2. Re:What is there strategy? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      $$$? There are many more iMac users than Mac Pro users. I would guess 10:1 would be a conservative estimate.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    3. Re:What is there strategy? by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Well at least they heard the bit about 'expandability and storage' - two things completely absent from the trash can Mac Pro. Unless you count paying extra for less performance by way of Thunderbolt, which I don't.

      Thunderbolt might take care of the storage bit by way of 10gbe and fiber channel adapters. It is a sorry excuse for GPU expandability though, especially since Apple has gone out of their way to prevent GPUs from working on Thunderbolt by way of software lockout.

      Skip the 'pro iMac' and just make a Mac Pro like you had in 2010, except with 2017 hardware inside. How fucking hard is that?

      Thunderbolt may make less sense on a conventional "tower" peripheral card cage disguised as a computer; but it makes a HELLUVA lot of sense on laptop and All-In-One designs.

    4. Re:What is there strategy? by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      $$$? There are many more iMac users than Mac Pro users. I would guess 10:1 would be a conservative estimate.

      Add at least TWO zeros to that.

    5. Re:What is there strategy? by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Thunderbolt never made sense. External PCIe makes some sense. Thunderbolt itself is a mishmash of standards and ports and protocols running on top of PCIe with all of the security issues that comes along with attaching shit to your PCIe bus. So why not skip the expensive controllers, proprietary implementations, ridiculous cables, and just use external PCIe?

    6. Re:What is there strategy? by I+kan+Spl · · Score: 1

      Mostly because PCI-Express does not really support hotpluging. True, the spec states that it "should" be possible, however there are no consumer-available devices where it works properly.

      Being able to plug/unplug a high performance device without cycling the power is worth some extra layers given that the alternative is to dump PCI-express entirely and design a new main bus technology that supports it natively.

      --
      My UID is prime and so is this number: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0.
    7. Re:What is there strategy? by sexconker · · Score: 1

      I don't know that it doesn't work, but if people were buying external PCIe devices they'd get it working.

      Even if the native lanes coming off the CPU were unable to support it until Intel/AMD got around to it in a generation or two of there being demand for it, it would be trivial make a PCIe device that was nothing more than a hotplug enabler with a bracket for ports for the external cables. And of course it could be implemented via a muxer that many mobos already have or via the chipset (which usually provides some PCIe lanes of its own).

  3. Apple will never give you what you want. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Apple will make you use dongles and raise the price for their toy Macs. Real (PowerPC) Macs have been out of production for a decade.

    1. Re:Apple will never give you what you want. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yeah, lets go back to the days of endless shipping delays due to IBM fabbing chips for their P-series servers, and then Apple as an afterthought. Let's go back to not having any performance whatsoever in notebooks, because there was no such thing as a low-wattage G5 and never would be. And, even better, let's get all the software incompatibility of not running a common instruction set with the rest of the world, causing you to have to run needed applications in virtualization + emulation rather than just virtualization.

      You may have missed it, but the transition to Intel was the smartest thing that Apple has done in 15 years, other than release the iPhone.

    2. Re:Apple will never give you what you want. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Blame IBM for not producing a G5 that was suitable for notebooks, Apple's bread and butter back then. Maybe they didn't care, as Apple was a much smaller client than console makers, or maybe they didn't realize that Apple had Mac OS X on x86 ready since day one for this sort of contingency.

    3. Re:Apple will never give you what you want. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple will make you use dongles and raise the price for their toy Macs. Real (Motorola 68000) Macs have been out of production for two decades.

      FTFY

    4. Re:Apple will never give you what you want. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IBM did care. The economics just didn't justify the investment.

      The PowerPC consortium was not just IBM. They were simply the last ones to keep at it.

    5. Re:Apple will never give you what you want. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IBM did care. The economics just didn't justify the investment.

      The PowerPC consortium was not just IBM. They were simply the last ones to keep at it.

      For desktops maybe. ~~Motorola~~ ~~Freescale~~ NXP (soon to be Qualcomm) still makes PowerPC parts that are very popular in the auto industry.

    6. Re:Apple will never give you what you want. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple will make you use dongles and raise the price for their toy Macs. Real (Motorola 68000) Macs have been out of production for two decades.

      FTFY

      Yes, let's get a computer with a 10 year old CPU, when the rest of the world is using 386s. Hell Apple even managed to lag behind Commodore until their Quadra line came out. Now that's impressive.

    7. Re:Apple will never give you what you want. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Motorola, at the time, was another manufacturer of PowerPCs, so Apple wasn't locked on IBM. In fact, today, Apple could do a whole lot of good by migrating to their A series

    8. Re:Apple will never give you what you want. by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Apple will make you use dongles and raise the price for their toy Macs. Real (PowerPC) Macs have been out of production for a decade.

      So the cheese-grater Mac Pros weren't Real?

      I'll always love my G5 tower (which continues to serve as an iTunes server); but I'd trade it in a minute for a 2010 Mac Pro.

    9. Re:Apple will never give you what you want. by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Yeah, lets go back to the days of endless shipping delays due to IBM fabbing chips for their P-series servers, and then Apple as an afterthought. Let's go back to not having any performance whatsoever in notebooks, because there was no such thing as a low-wattage G5 and never would be. And, even better, let's get all the software incompatibility of not running a common instruction set with the rest of the world, causing you to have to run needed applications in virtualization + emulation rather than just virtualization.

      You may have missed it, but the transition to Intel was the smartest thing that Apple has done in 15 years, other than release the iPhone.

      Even though the G5 whipped all over the Intel chips of the day, raw-performance wise, you're right that the move to Intel was the smartest business decision Apple ever made.

    10. Re:Apple will never give you what you want. by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Motorola, at the time, was another manufacturer of PowerPCs, so Apple wasn't locked on IBM. In fact, today, Apple could do a whole lot of good by migrating to their A series

      Problem is, Mot. was busy trying to kill themselves at the time, and couldn't focus on their commitment to the PowerPC Consortium. All they wanted to do with the PPC was make high-end embedded controllers for Ford and GM with PPC 603 cores under the Freescale name.

    11. Re:Apple will never give you what you want. by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Blame IBM for not producing a G5 that was suitable for notebooks, Apple's bread and butter back then. Maybe they didn't care, as Apple was a much smaller client than console makers, or maybe they didn't realize that Apple had Mac OS X on x86 ready since day one for this sort of contingency.

      IBM was too interested in the Cell processor they were making for all the console mfgs at the time. Apple was like .5% of their entire IC sales.

    12. Re:Apple will never give you what you want. by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Apple will make you use dongles and raise the price for their toy Macs. Real (Motorola 68000) Macs have been out of production for two decades.

      FTFY

      Yes, let's get a computer with a 10 year old CPU, when the rest of the world is using 386s. Hell Apple even managed to lag behind Commodore until their Quadra line came out. Now that's impressive.

      Commodore had their own fab. That was their secret sauce. That and Jay Miner (occasionally)...

  4. Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Since Microsoft copies everything Apple do, perhaps they will stop trying to turn their OSs into mobile phones now. Although I'm sure they will find a new way to screw up their next OS.

    1. Re:Great by tripleevenfall · · Score: 1

      Nonsense, M$ knows that you want a touchscreen desktop that looks and works just like an ipad.

    2. Re:Great by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      Why do they need new ways? They still haven't fixed a lot of the old ways yet.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    3. Re: Great by itomato · · Score: 1

      And costs 1/3 what an iPad Pro + dongles would.

    4. Re:Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's true.

    5. Re: Great by tripleevenfall · · Score: 1

      But is still a touchscreen desktop which no one wants except for children

    6. Re: Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Very limited imagination if you think only children can make use of a touch screen. Thats the same mentality Apple had regarding "no one needs more then One button!". Jeez. How could anyone ever need more buttons? And thats why adults go where they have choices and children stay in the sandbox their parents put them in.

    7. Re: Great by bondsbw · · Score: 1

      Yet targeting the exact group of professionals which a pro iMac would target. And by all accounts doing a much better job, partially due to its touch screen.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    8. Re: Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      apple allows their users to have a 2 button mouse now! How hi tech of them.

  5. Apple adrift by thunderclees · · Score: 1

    Apple has a serious problem with storage on MBP. For their price points they should start at 512, with 1T being the norm and all lines having a slight increase to access 2T. If iMac is going to be like MBP why would anyone care?

    1. Re:Apple adrift by ctilsie242 · · Score: 1

      Ideally, Apple should ship a 256 GB NVMe SSD and a 1TB HDD, using that for a baseline Fusion configuration. For expanded stuff, the machine should have at least two NVMe slots (for SSD RAID), and a good amount of SATA slots with a hardware RAID controller that supports autotiering, and RAID 6.

    2. Re:Apple adrift by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Apple has a serious problem with storage on MBP. For their price points they should start at 512, with 1T being the norm and all lines having a slight increase to access 2T. If iMac is going to be like MBP why would anyone care?

      With TB, who cares? Especially with a desktop. Get yourself an external and STFU.

    3. Re:Apple adrift by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Ideally, Apple should ship a 256 GB NVMe SSD and a 1TB HDD, using that for a baseline Fusion configuration. For expanded stuff, the machine should have at least two NVMe slots (for SSD RAID), and a good amount of SATA slots with a hardware RAID controller that supports autotiering, and RAID 6.

      In the desktop world, I believe that TB 3 has nicely addressed that need. No reason whatsoever to have massive amounts of internal drive bays.

    4. Re:Apple adrift by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes there is, outside your small startup with a chef and the lady (boy) from marketing who offers free massages on Fridays.

      Fixed desks, workstations underneath, no removable drives.

    5. Re:Apple adrift by thunderclees · · Score: 1

      Poor desperate fanboi,
      Real desktops have space for direct storage, external is just t.o.o s.l.o.w.
      Apple is going to rape you for that big black dildo shaped piece of mid-level hardware and then you want to be raped again to buy a TB3 (USB-C) drive which is still slower than the cheaper pcie.

      "Here's a nickel kid, get yourself a real computer" - Dilbert

    6. Re:Apple adrift by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Poor desperate fanboi,

      Real desktops have space for direct storage, external is just t.o.o s.l.o.w.

        Apple is going to rape you for that big black dildo shaped piece of mid-level hardware and then you want to be raped again to buy a TB3 (USB-C) drive which is still slower than the cheaper pcie.

      "Here's a nickel kid, get yourself a real computer" - Dilbert

      If you think a TB3 External SSD is "too slow", then you have amply and clearly demonstrated your lack of knowledge on the subject.

      Good day.

    7. Re:Apple adrift by thunderclees · · Score: 1

      It could be pointed out that you think having to connect slow external storage is adequate is a demonstration of consumption of fruity soft drink.
      Ignoring the problem of carting around a very expensive TB3 external drive with your more expensive MBP.
      Theoretical max transfers of USB-C are 5GB/s, PCIe 2 is 8GB/s and PCIe 3 is 15GB/s.
      Real world a fast USB-C is 900MB/s, the PCIe Samsung's SM951 can reads at ~2.2T/s.
      (I do find it hilarious that USB-C is faster on commodity hardware then TB3 on Mac)

      Fanbois like you are a problem for Apple.
      Apple periodically needs a kick in the ass or they will continue to make expensive crap until they are teetering on collapse as has happened before.

    8. Re:Apple adrift by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      It could be pointed out that you think having to connect slow external storage is adequate is a demonstration of consumption of fruity soft drink.

      Ignoring the problem of carting around a very expensive TB3 external drive with your more expensive MBP.

      Theoretical max transfers of USB-C are 5GB/s, PCIe 2 is 8GB/s and PCIe 3 is 15GB/s.

      Real world a fast USB-C is 900MB/s, the PCIe Samsung's SM951 can reads at ~2.2T/s.

      (I do find it hilarious that USB-C is faster on commodity hardware then TB3 on Mac)

      Fanbois like you are a problem for Apple.

      Apple periodically needs a kick in the ass or they will continue to make expensive crap until they are teetering on collapse as has happened before.

      So now you switch the topic from "Slow" to "Expensive" then back to "Slow" again.

      You do realize, of course, that there is NO WAY that USB-C (which is limited to 10 Gbps) is SLOWER than TB 3 (which is rated at 40 Gbps, or 20 Gbps X 2 Ports per controller/bus). So, unless you are talking about the 2 "TB2-speed" Ports on the right-side of the 13" MBP, my statement stands. If you claim that a USB-C drive is actually slower than a TB3 drive, it's the peripheral, not the computer, that is limiting speed.

      And I didn't see a benchmark for TB3 on the Mac, which you claim is so much slower than "USB-C on Commodity Hardware".

      Also, don't you Apple-Haters keep saying that Apple just uses "Commodity Hardware" and "Reference Designs" anyway?

      Can't have it both ways, Haters...

    9. Re:Apple adrift by thunderclees · · Score: 1
      Dude, take out that Apple shaped butt plug and release all of that pent up raeg. You are so full of it that it is coming out of your mouth and on to yer keyboard.

      Yep, like you said, no way is USB-C slower than TB3. USB-C has faster real world speeds than TB3, Apple's implementation of Intel's tech is slower. Thats hilarious, "it's the peripheral, not the computer, that is limiting speed".
      You mean the interface, the interface is not the computer. >:^)
      Anyway you invalidate your original argument here.
      Your suggestion that somehow external storage is a suitable replacement for cheap and fast direct storage. Using the same storage the interface speed makes huge difference.

      We don't hate Apple, we are not irrationally emotional about inanimate objects, that seems to be your issue.
      We do not agree at all with the direction Apple's management are going when it comes to locking out owners and forced obsolescence

      Apple has taken cheap commodity hardware and makes it expensive by coming up with ridiculous changes, no for performance or reliability but to lock out user updates and lock in fanbois to Apple support. Anyone buying a current Mac is paying more because Apple needs to recoup development and manufacturing costs for integrating RAM and coming up with new proprietary SSD redesigns that are not better than commodity versions.

      Help Apple by using your wallet to show management that you want to be able to upgrade your RAM and SSD and that 1T is not enough, especially for a large, warm black dildo of a desktop.

    10. Re:Apple adrift by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Dude, take out that Apple shaped butt plug and release all of that pent up raeg. You are so full of it that it is coming out of your mouth and on to yer keyboard.

      Yep, like you said, no way is USB-C slower than TB3. USB-C has faster real world speeds than TB3, Apple's implementation of Intel's tech is slower.
      Thats hilarious, "it's the peripheral, not the computer, that is limiting speed".
      You mean the interface, the interface is not the computer. >:^)
      Anyway you invalidate your original argument here.
      Your suggestion that somehow external storage is a suitable replacement for cheap and fast direct storage. Using the same storage the interface speed makes huge difference.

      We don't hate Apple, we are not irrationally emotional about inanimate objects, that seems to be your issue.
      We do not agree at all with the direction Apple's management are going when it comes to locking out owners and forced obsolescence

      Apple has taken cheap commodity hardware and makes it expensive by coming up with ridiculous changes, no for performance or reliability but to lock out user updates and lock in fanbois to Apple support. Anyone buying a current Mac is paying more because Apple needs to recoup development and manufacturing costs for integrating RAM and coming up with new proprietary SSD redesigns that are not better than commodity versions.

      Help Apple by using your wallet to show management that you want to be able to upgrade your RAM and SSD and that 1T is not enough, especially for a large, warm black dildo of a desktop.

      You are full of shit.

      And what's with the "Royal We" ("We do not agree..."). Are WE a Colonial Being; the Shelliac Corporate?

      PROVE that "Apple's Implementation" of TB 3 is SLOWER than USB-C, or STFU.

      Like EVERYONE else, Apple HAS to use SOME "Commodity" Hardware, such as CPUs and GPUs; but if you will look inside something like the 2016 MBP, you will find a LOT of Apple-Designed CUSTOM silicon (didn't I already point this out?) and other Apple-Designed CUSTOM components. FAR, FAR more than the typical Dell, Acer, HP, Lenovo dreck out there.

      And, BTW, if you had been paying attention, Apple admitted they made some questionable design choices with the 2013 Mac Pro, and are, even as I type, busily working to completely re-imagine that, the iMac, and the Mac mini.

      So, STUFF IT, asshole.

    11. Re:Apple adrift by thunderclees · · Score: 1

      Ahh the butthurt raeg of the ignorant.

      We are legion for we are many...

      Apple didn't have to use commodity hardware but that was not necessarily a bad idea. Apple does not have to compromise on hardware considering what they charge but they obviously do.

      No the problem is in the current line even more than the 2013 models, they are way too expensive and as was said earlier the storage options are too small. $1399 for 2T upgrade from 1T available only on the $4k MBP?

      The media has said that Apple was to become a services company like Google and wants to sideline the hardware and if that is true then they are doing a great job.

      Eeeyore is an ass...

  6. Nah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The iMac is for people who want to have a "premium" experience checking their email and watching cat videos.

    1. Re: Nah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And MS gives you a "premium experience" for auto upgrades :)

      Linux doesn't give you any premium experience per se just that everything works.... not "just works" but works

    2. Re: Nah by smooth+wombat · · Score: 0, Troll

      And by "works" you mean after you've manually configured files, got told to RTFM which doesn't exist, got yelled at online by people who think you should automatically know what to do, then sacrifice a goat in the hope an obscure posting from three years ago will do the trick.

      If Linux just "works", why is it people on here repeatedly post about not having sound or cameras or drives working even with the latest packages and instead have to jump through hoop trying to get the above to work?

      You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

      --
      We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    3. Re: Nah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not 1999 loser. You must be retarded. My grandma uses Linux.

    4. Re:Nah by thebullshitpatrol · · Score: 1

      ganoo plus linocks on the desktop is for people who want to have a premium experience theming Gnome and using TWMs

    5. Re: Nah by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      And by "works" you mean after you've manually configured files, got told to RTFM which doesn't exist, got yelled at online by people who think you should automatically know what to do, then sacrifice a goat in the hope an obscure posting from three years ago will do the trick.

      If Linux just "works", why is it people on here repeatedly post about not having sound or cameras or drives working even with the latest packages and instead have to jump through hoop trying to get the above to work?

      You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

      You took the words right offa my keyboard.

    6. Re: Nah by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      It's not 1999 loser. You must be retarded. My grandma uses Linux.

      And I'm sure that either her name is Ada Lovelace, or she didn't set it up herself.

      She can take an iMac out of the box and be up and running in less than 10 minutes.

  7. Vision by amiga3D · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Jobs died and so did the Vision at Apple. Jobs had the Vision of what Apple was. Now they wander around with no clue as to what kind of company they are, coasting on momentum. I wonder sometimes if the people running Apple use Windows 10 on their Macs.

    1. Re: Vision by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Companies that survive long beyond their founders.... learn to invest the kitty the founders built up.

      Look at MS. I hate Balmer, we call him irrelevant and predict his down fall. Under him MS released shit products. But he knows how to invest properly.

      Buffet said he admire Tim Cook.... I think Tim Cook will end up like Balmer... Apple will become irrelevant but they will still be big.... because of Smart capital deployment.... not brilliant products.

    2. Re:Vision by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I disagree. I think Jobs' vision was Apple itself and he worked very hard to make sure the ideals and culture would survive him. The cylindrical Mac Pro was designed with love and it was a very Jobsian machine in my mind. But the design just doesn't stand up to what people want in a pro machine. (G4 Cube anyone?)

      What is Apple doing so wrong? And how would Jobs have done things differently? Under Jobs Apple killed the Xserve overnight.

    3. Re: Vision by itomato · · Score: 1

      What unexpandable "Pro" device is built with anything but Malice?

    4. Re:Vision by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      I disagree. I think Jobs' vision was Apple itself and he worked very hard to make sure the ideals and culture would survive him. The cylindrical Mac Pro was designed with love and it was a very Jobsian machine in my mind. But the design just doesn't stand up to what people want in a pro machine. (G4 Cube anyone?)

      What is Apple doing so wrong? And how would Jobs have done things differently? Under Jobs Apple killed the Xserve overnight.

      Well, not "overnight"; but it sure should have made the transition to Intel before they gave up on it.

    5. Re: Vision by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      What unexpandable "Pro" device is built with anything but Malice?

      The only thing that Apple did wrong with the Mac Pro was listen to the Intel Rep's spiel about how TB would obviate peripheral cards.

    6. Re:Vision by antdude · · Score: 1

      I wished Apple would get Woz in it since he still alive. He had good technical vision. Maybe Apple should hire me since I am unemployed and unhappy with what Apple is doing right these days.

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  8. No trackpoint by execthis · · Score: 1

    No trackpoint. Still.

    Pass.

    1. Re:No trackpoint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And no floppy drive, either!

    2. Re:No trackpoint by Phics · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree with this sentiment. Touchpads are the ultimate in dumbing down a HID to make it 'friendly' but ultimately less efficient. I refuse to use a consumer notebook these days, so I stick with my T-series ThinkPads with TrackPoint. I understand why some people like touchpads, but I find them irritating, slow, awkward, and inaccurate. Also, nothing like moving a mouse without taking your hands off the home keys.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world; those who believe there are two types of people, and those who don't.
    3. Re:No trackpoint by execthis · · Score: 1

      I always think it's funny when I'm sitting in a cafe working on one of my Thinkpads and I'll be scrolling something with my right finger on the trackpoint. Then later I'll be doing something else and scrolling with my left finger and all these people on their Macs are looking at me like wtf.

    4. Re:No trackpoint by retchdog · · Score: 1

      i would have once agreed with you, but have decided that it's largely because trackpads are just usually dodgy pieces of shit. i was a huge fan of thinkpads starting with the 600e/x, and even once dropped $100+ on the IBM external keyboard with a trackpoint, just so i could use the nipple on my desktop.

      but, today, i can't think of anything i miss about the old trackpoint compared to an apple trackpad. the apple trackpad is more than precise enough; it is better for tracing curves since it's not a joystick (not that this comes up often, but hey); it doesn't get that really irritating ghosting effect where the trackpoint would register a "lean" to one corner or other until you jiggled the hell out of it and prayed; the surface doesn't gunk up with oil and sweat and get slippery (i guess this is some lipophobic material?).

      it's definitely not worth buying an Apple computer just for the trackpad, but all things being equal, it's what i'd pick. at the very least, i stopped pining for a trackpoint a long time ago. it was nice, but meh, it had problems and the trackpad fixed them all for me; ymmv.

      --
      "They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
    5. Re:No trackpoint by nightfire-unique · · Score: 1

      Still rockin' my W520, 6 years running. Before that, a T60 for the same amount of time. X20 before that, and a 760C before that.

      After all these years, I keep coming back because of the trackpoint. I've tried every laptop under the sun (actually, including a Sun :p) and while some have had nicer screens, faster video boards and longer battery life, none have been as robust, stable (with Debian), or pleasant to use day in and day out.

      I suspect we're a dying breed though. :/

      --
      A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
    6. Re:No trackpoint by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 2

      No trackpoint. Still.

      Pass.

      No trackpoint, thank God.

    7. Re:No trackpoint by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 3, Informative

      I agree with this sentiment. Touchpads are the ultimate in dumbing down a HID to make it 'friendly' but ultimately less efficient. I refuse to use a consumer notebook these days, so I stick with my T-series ThinkPads with TrackPoint. I understand why some people like touchpads, but I find them irritating, slow, awkward, and inaccurate. Also, nothing like moving a mouse without taking your hands off the home keys.

      You must have only used non-Apple trackpads, then.

    8. Re: No trackpoint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This doesn't happen and you know this.

    9. Re:No trackpoint by sexconker · · Score: 1

      I agree with this sentiment. Touchpads are the ultimate in dumbing down a HID to make it 'friendly' but ultimately less efficient. I refuse to use a consumer notebook these days, so I stick with my T-series ThinkPads with TrackPoint. I understand why some people like touchpads, but I find them irritating, slow, awkward, and inaccurate. Also, nothing like moving a mouse without taking your hands off the home keys.

      You must have only used non-Apple trackpads, then.

      ALL trackpads are ass. Only the worst of the Apple fanboys claim Apple trackpads are good. They're not. It's simply an inferior tool.

    10. Re:No trackpoint by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 2

      They're looking at you because they wonder why you keep looking at them, checking to see if they've noticed your clearly superior trackpoint yet. "Why does he keep glancing at me, then his weird laptop, then back at me? See! He just did it again!"

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    11. Re:No trackpoint by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      ALL trackpads are ass. Only the worst of the Apple fanboys claim Apple trackpads are good. They're not. It's simply an inferior tool.

      So no, you haven't used Apple trackpads. Gotcha. So, I'm sitting at my work desk surrounded by all sorts of things plugged into my Mac - monitors, keyboards, etc. There's plenty of room on my desk for a mouse. And yet I have a Magic Trackpad because - wait for it! - it suits me better than a mouse. I have gaming mice at home, but at work the trackpad is much more comfortable.

      It's OK that you don't like them. To each their own. But you can't objectively claim that Apple's trackpads are bad, because plenty of people who use both devices and have the money for any kind they want still choose the trackpads. We're not buying them because we have Apple neck tattoos or some crack. We buy them because we like them more.

      "I prefer mice" is justifiable and reasonable. "It's simply an inferior tool" makes you sound like... an inferior tool.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    12. Re:No trackpoint by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 1

      Darn kids - you get off my lawn!

    13. Re:No trackpoint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fanboi detected.

      "It's not a 'lifestyle choice,' it's who I am!"

    14. Re:No trackpoint by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Wrong. I've used plenty of them, including the latest "magic" shit. Trackpads are trash devices for input. No, gestures don't make them good. Simulating a click with "haptic feedback" doesn't make them good. Being accurate, sensing pressure, etc. doesn't make them good. They're still fundamentally ass to use.

      What would make them good? A larger area, more reliance on the wrist for lateral motion and less on fingers, physical buttons, and ergonomic shape that conforms to that fits and supports the hand while in use, etc. No, tilting a flat plane doesn't help. At that point, just the device is sensing the surface instead of the surface sensing a human, and call it a mouse.

      The last great innovation in computer interfaces? The scroll wheel. Touchscreens came well before that (the good and accurate kind - resistive).

    15. Re:No trackpoint by radarskiy · · Score: 1

      "I find them irritating, slow, awkward, and inaccurate"

      This is exactly how I would describe a TrackPoint. It takes forever to move the pointer anywhere, yet even with that slowness I am still left spiraling around the target I am trying to hit.

    16. Re:No trackpoint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Way to confirm the point the parent comment was making.

    17. Re:No trackpoint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have a 2006 Macbook. Its trackpad is fine. I have no problems using it. Not as good as a real mouse but...

      The other trackpad I have some experience of is with a consumer-grade HP laptop, circa 2013. That one is 'ass', as you so eloquently put it.

      Pretty much anyone who uses a non-Apple laptop always carries an external USB mouse... And I can understand why.

      By the way, I'm not fond of the clit mouse of ThinkPads etc. either. So terribly slow.

    18. Re:No trackpoint by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      I agree with this sentiment. Touchpads are the ultimate in dumbing down a HID to make it 'friendly' but ultimately less efficient. I refuse to use a consumer notebook these days, so I stick with my T-series ThinkPads with TrackPoint. I understand why some people like touchpads, but I find them irritating, slow, awkward, and inaccurate. Also, nothing like moving a mouse without taking your hands off the home keys.

      You must have only used non-Apple trackpads, then.

      ALL trackpads are ass. Only the worst of the Apple fanboys claim Apple trackpads are good. They're not. It's simply an inferior tool.

      I have a Trackpad on my "MacBook Pro wannabe" Samsung work laptop. I use a mouse on that system. The Trackpad IS "ass".

      I know the difference. You don't. Simple as that.

    19. Re:No trackpoint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If only the mac had TrackPoint.

    20. Re:No trackpoint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No trackpoint. Still.

      Pass.

      Even less people want a trackpoint than a touchscreen desktop. Even less on a desktop.

  9. GPU by cayenne8 · · Score: 2

    I'm hoping they put in really BEEFY GPU options...I want a new iMac to work on pictures, video editing and with Davinci Resolve, which is a resource BEAST...

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    1. Re:GPU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm hoping they put in really BEEFY GPU options...I want a new iMac to work on pictures, video editing and with Davinci Resolve, which is a resource BEAST...

      So you expect them to do something new.

      Consider yourself blessed if you actually get GPU options, much less something and anybody running something other than a mac would call beefy.

    2. Re:GPU by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      you can do this already.

      https://eshop.macsales.com/sho...

      Install your pair of BEEFY cards and go.

      It's been an option for 3 years now.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    3. Re:GPU by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      you can do this already.

      https://eshop.macsales.com/sho... [macsales.com]

      Install your pair of BEEFY cards and go.

      It's been an option for 3 years now.

      Interesting...maybe I need to look back into this again.

      I thought I'd read, a year or so ago..that expansion boxes for GPU wouldn't really work with Resolve or other applications running on OS X..on an iMac or older Macbook Pro....

      Maybe things have changed...I'll look into this.

      Thanks!

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    4. Re: GPU by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      I disagree; embedded (vs expandable) GPU ought to be the difference between this iMac and Mac Pro. However, soldering the CPU and RAM to the motherboard... Apple executives need to be stabbed with a pencil every time they do that.

    5. Re: GPU by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      This? The.

    6. Re:GPU by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      Get the right thunderbolt box. the cheaper crappier ones do not supply enough power and require a "hack" that does not work anymore.
      Friend of mine uses the "devil box" with his MBP and Final Cut all the time for video editing.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  10. So they do know what we want by dromgodis · · Score: 1

    "[...] the list of things pro users are interested in talking about. They're interested in things like performance and storage and expandability."

    Uhmm... If they knew all along, I'd like to hear him explain the latest MacBook Pro model.

    1. Re:So they do know what we want by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      "[...] the list of things pro users are interested in talking about. They're interested in things like performance and storage and expandability."

      Uhmm... If they knew all along, I'd like to hear him explain the latest MacBook Pro model.

      New MacBook Pro:

      Performance: USABLE performance almost DOUBLE of the previous model, since the thermal design allows both the CPU and GPU to run at 100% 24/7 without throttling.

      Storage: USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 provide external storage that is nearly as fast as internal storage.

      Expandability: With 80 Gbps of raw I/O bandwidth, the new MBP is the world's most expandable laptop already.

    2. Re:So they do know what we want by sexconker · · Score: 1

      What about PC laptops with docking stations that are essentially an x16 PCIe 3.0 fanout?

    3. Re:So they do know what we want by dromgodis · · Score: 1

      I didn't know about the no-throttling thing; that could be useful for some. My use cases mostly involve performance spikes though.

      However, I see 16 GB non-upgradeable as a severe limit on performance and expandability, and non-upgradeable drive as a limit on storage and expandability.

      Sure, you can compensate for everything except the RAM by hanging stuff in a harness of dongles around it (if you remembered to bring them), but it is often not *practical*, which - in many forms (connectors, wire lock, physical function keys, oversize cursor keys) - is an aspect that they apparently haven't discovered yet for their list of what pro users are interested in.

      Meanwhile, I wonder how many pro users requested the touch bar and how many pro users requested the removal of USB (and possibly HDMI) connectors, and the ability to upgrade the memory and storage.

      IMO, the new MPB is an impressive engineering job. I really mean it. But as a pro user I can't help being disappointed that the marketing department have limited what could have been a wonderful, no compromise work tool in favor of gimmicks.

    4. Re:So they do know what we want by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      IMO, the new MPB is an impressive engineering job. I really mean it. But as a pro user I can't help being disappointed that the marketing department have limited what could have been a wonderful, no compromise work tool in favor of gimmicks.

      The advances I quoted are HARDLY "Gimmicks"; they are solid Engineering improvements. Even the TouchBar is quite the feature when the Application Developer understands how to best use it (or not) in their particular Application.

      Sure, you can compensate for everything except the RAM by hanging stuff in a harness of dongles around it (if you remembered to bring them), but it is often not *practical*, which - in many forms (connectors, wire lock, physical function keys, oversize cursor keys) - is an aspect that they apparently haven't discovered yet for their list of what pro users are interested in.

      You just don't get it, obviously.

      The genius of having a laptop with a shitpotfull of symmetrical, multifunctional, I/O bandwidth is that you have a system that has a MUCH wider Application Envelope than one that has howevermany dedicated, legacy ports. I might need 10 FULL-SPEED 3.0 USB-A Ports to hook up a bunch of Audio interfaces. You might not. You might only need 4 USB-A ports, but want 4 monitors. But with TB 3, you can have your 4 monitors and I can have two monitors, three Ethernet busses, and 10 FULL-SPEED 3.0 USB Ports.

      It's all about CHOICE. What we used to have to do with a tower computer stuffed to the gills with peripheral cards, most of which were hogging a precious I/O slot for an interface that used a small fraction of the bandwidth available to that slot, we now can share a single Port with a dizzying array of available I/O options. And best of all: It's mostly platform agnostic.The same USB-C/TB3 "Dock" that you can hook to your Dell lappie can almost always work on my MacBook. As a long-time Mac user, who secretly pined over the peripheral options available only to the Wintel crowd, this is a Brand New Day.

      And I, for one, am QUITE happy that it is finally here!

  11. It's about time! by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

    I'm really looking forward to running Aperture on one of these new Pro iMacs!

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  12. Hmmm by John+Allsup · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Tasks that previously would have required the Mac Pros of old are now being well addressed by today’s iMac."

    And creative tasks that require a high-end machine, where once creative pros would turn to Mac Pros, are now being well addressed by high-end Windows workstations, that, you know, allow newer CPUs than Sandy Bridge.

    --
    John_Chalisque
    1. Re:Hmmm by John+Allsup · · Score: 1

      Whoops, my bad, _Ivy_ Bridge. FTFM. But still, a pre-Haswell CPU, and a GPU that benchmarks roughly similar to a GTX 660 Ti or a Radeon HD 7870. Fine for photoshop and DTP people, I imagine, for for those with serious 3d and/or video workloads...

      --
      John_Chalisque
  13. Already have a monitor... by cvdwl · · Score: 1

    The iMac is really cool, sleek, pretty, minimal, yeah... but many pros I know already have monitors they like. How about a little love for their other desktops (mini and Pro)! I'd also wager that most "pros" aren't, in general, people with white offices and squeaky clean desks on which art-like computers sit.

    And keep your confounded sticky fingers off my screen!

    Otherwise, yeah, a long-time Mac user drifting away from the fold. Then again, there aren't many systems left that aren't larded with proprietary sh** that fubars something in Linux. And Windows is not to be abided.

    ... grumble, grumble, grumble, mutter, mutter, Millenium... Hand... Shrimp, I tol' 'em, I tol' 'em.

    --
    ... grumble, grumble, grumble, mutter, mutter, Millenium... Hand... Shrimp, I tol' 'em, I tol' 'em.
    1. Re:Already have a monitor... by Megane · · Score: 1

      To be fair, touchscreens are lame on anything but a tablet; it has been known since the days of the light pen (remember how successful they were?) that, surprisingly, people's arms get tired trying to lift then up to a vertical screen.

      That being said, why the fuck don't we have a MacPad Pro already? (aka the Mac equivalent of Surface, running OS X, not iOS)

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  14. A "small" internal SSD is fine by Bender+Unit+22 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A "small" internal SSD is fine. Like 1TB. I would be running an external RAID encloure anyways. I can't see having less than 8TB for editing 4K videos anyway.
    But what I REALLY would like was a workstation like the old Mac Pro. My late 2013 iMac runs OK(the big 4gb graphics card and fastest cpu) still but it bothers me that I have to replace everything, including the screen. I can extend the life of it now that I make more and more in 4K by getting a faster external RAID.

    So what I think what I will do is that I will build a 8 core hackintosh workstation so that I can get a proper workstation to run FCP X on now that Apple don't make one and haven't done for some time.

    1. Re:A "small" internal SSD is fine by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      That late 2013 iMac should still do Target Display Mode though. Yet another amazing feature that Apple decided to do away with when they moved to the 5K version. At least you can still use it as a background processor and secondary display.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    2. Re:A "small" internal SSD is fine by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      If you need external hard drives, then the iMac isn't made for you. You should get a tower with 4-5 hard drives slots. Unfortunately if you like Apple, Apple doesn't offer any.

    3. Re:A "small" internal SSD is fine by Voyager529 · · Score: 1

      If high storage capacity is a requirement, external devices tend to be a better be regardless. The problem is that the recent Macs have performed the paradoxical task of both pigeon-holing and fragmenting the market for such things.

      For users where disk I/O isn't critical (photographers, etc.), NAS units like Synology or QNAP are great, plentiful, and relatively inexpensive. They'd be more useful if there were 10gbit NICs on their computers or even if the Thunderbolt adapters that were either 10g or dual-head gig weren't $400+. They work well enough for bulk storage for folks who are okay with wireless speeds, but even 802.11ac isn't a bargain unless you're in the same room with your router - the only choice for those who have Macs which sport the lack of a network connector.

      Thunderbolt arrays are a thing, but $400 for an 4-bay dumb enclosure is only a bargain when compared to $1,600 for an 8-bay unit...and those are the prices on diskless models.

      Since Apple is all-in with USB-C now, the industry is just starting to cater to the folks who are in this camp...meaning that my cursory Google searches were only able to find 2-bay units so far. Users who want faster speeds and capacities are getting their fix with some sort of dongle.

      I'm not saying Apple needs to ship every computer with every port they ever standardized on, but it's clear that while PC users have no shortage of options (USB3, eSATA, internal RAID, affordable >1gbit network) while Mac users do not.

    4. Re:A "small" internal SSD is fine by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      If high storage capacity is a requirement, external devices tend to be a better be regardless.

      Unless you often need to connect the drives to different computers (and no, network file sharing doesn't count), internal storage is much better than external.
      Less expensive, less cables, less bulky, no need for a second power supply, you get the full speed of the native hard drive bus.

      Instead of having a dedicated NAS device it's often a better idea to get a tower with built-in hard drives, and share them over the network.

    5. Re:A "small" internal SSD is fine by ctilsie242 · · Score: 1

      I'm hoping that more USB 3.1 arrays wind up on the market, because they can not just be used at a high speed, but work everywhere, be it a Mac, a newer PC, or heck, even an older PC running at a lower speed. Thunderbolt drives do run faster, but the bottleneck winds up being the drives or the array, and not the bus, so the added headroom that Thunderbolt gives isn't worth the cost in most cases.

      For "slow" storage, NAS units from QNAP, Synology, etc. are ideal, just because they bring so much functionality to the table. They can do Time Machine backups, encryption, various sharing, as well as other low-end server tasks. Plus, they can back up to a cloud provider so if ransomware nukes a share, you can get it back easily, or (with some models) just roll back to a previous btrfs snapshot without having to do a full blown restore.

    6. Re:A "small" internal SSD is fine by Voyager529 · · Score: 1

      If high storage capacity is a requirement, external devices tend to be a better be regardless.

      Unless you often need to connect the drives to different computers (and no, network file sharing doesn't count), internal storage is much better than external.

      I think it's a horses-for-courses thing. Don't get me wrong, my laptop has more onboard storage than most and I don't walk around with external drives, but I also have a NAS for a reason.

      Less expensive

      Well, yes...but a half decent RAID controller evens the score pretty quickly.

      less cables

      Technically, yes...but it's not like one power cable and one bus cable is in itself going to be a dealbreaker.

      less bulky

      Depends on how many drives are needed and a few other factors. If a desktop can only handle two internal drives, a 4-bay NAS isn't bad at all.

      no need for a second power supply

      Can't argue that one.

      you get the full speed of the native hard drive bus.

      In theory, yes. In practice, a 4-bay Synology with link aggregation and 7200RPM disks will sustain a good 240MBytes/sec, which certainly isn't a slouch. Conversely, I've got a server at a client's office that's using on of those wretched Dell H310 RAID controllers and it makes me cry because of how terrible the performance is. If you're doing software RAID that's not necessarily the worst thing ever, but it still involves an abstraction layer and other areas of compromise.

      Instead of having a dedicated NAS device it's often a better idea to get a tower with built-in hard drives, and share them over the network.

      So, a NAS then, just not a storage appliance ;-).

      I love my FreeNAS, which is basically what you're describing here. I'm just saying that there are circumstances where more than two internal hard drives can get very messy, very quickly.

    7. Re:A "small" internal SSD is fine by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      Well, yes...but a half decent RAID controller evens the score pretty quickly.

      Most people who need storage don't need that. Software raid and/or fake raid works just fine. I use the Intel RAID I don't see what I am lacking. I doubt those low end NAS box have great RAID controllers anyways.

      A typical "Pro" desktop computer should have the room for at least 4 hard drives. Apple doesn't offer any product in this category. They only offer a desktop with laptops components (iMac) or a non-expendable desktop (Mac Pro / Mac Mini).

    8. Re:A "small" internal SSD is fine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They didn't "decide" anything. The current displayport standard at the time didn't support 5k res: there wasn't an external connector that could target the screen. Could have had multiple dp inputs I suppose though.

  15. It's the usual... by evolutionary · · Score: 1

    They want to sell less for more...

    --
    "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
  16. Confused As Usual by pipingguy · · Score: 0

    "Apple Will Ship a Pro iMac"
    vs.
    "Nor will it comment on the possibility of an iMac Pro moniker"

    Not gonna click the link to RTFA because BuzzFeed.

    1. Re:Confused As Usual by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought you were confused by the same thing I was; the term "iMac Pro". I read that and had to check my calendar, then I had to read the snipit again.
      That one is right up there with "Army Intelligence"

  17. Expandability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apple? Expandability?? LMAO!

    Does that mean it will have an upgradable SSD and RAM? Or does that mean it will have lots of (expensive) adaptors so it can charge a big ipad and iphone?

    1. Re:Expandability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      New Pro-Dongles!!!

  18. Don't do Mac's or Microsofts anymore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Actually, my Linux Mint's are just running well, yesterday I needed to scan some documents, so a picked up from basement my old Canon LED USB scanner that is not working on OSX anymore, no drivers. Connected to the Mint and in like 5 seconds I was burning documents using it, no pain, no drivers to install, nothing. EAT that Apple & Microsoft!

    Wake me when they release a standard Pro tower not this garbage can!

    1. Re:Don't do Mac's or Microsofts anymore by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Actually, my Linux Mint's are just running well, yesterday I needed to scan some documents, so a picked up from basement my old Canon LED USB scanner that is not working on OSX anymore, no drivers. Connected to the Mint and in like 5 seconds I was burning documents using it, no pain, no drivers to install, nothing. EAT that Apple & Microsoft!

      Wake me when they release a standard Pro tower not this garbage can!

      VueScan doesn't have a driver for that Canon?

  19. My Oculus Rift says otherwise by iamacat · · Score: 1

    I sometimes spend 2-3 hours playing games with hands constantly moving in the air. Don't understand what's up with Apple's claims that an occasional swipe on the screen will immediatelly make people collapse with exhaustion. Trackpad will still be there, even make it a second screen if you want to be fancy.

    I understand the objection when technology was poor quality or for budget devices. But now Apple is just being obnoxious.

    1. Re:My Oculus Rift says otherwise by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Don't understand what's up with Apple's claims that an occasional swipe on the screen will immediatelly make people collapse with exhaustion.

      That's because you're a snotty little hipster brat who's too young to remember gorilla arm syndrome.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    2. Re:My Oculus Rift says otherwise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had a windows ultra portable with a touch screen, and while the touch screen is a nice addition for some functions (mainly when the track pad and keyboard where on the fritz, easier than using the trackpad when windows 10 decided I had to use the screen in portrait mode for some reason, ...) and I surprised myself touching the screen from time to time when on my iMac, I think it is not a priority because it is far from being a must-have feature ... And I think it would have a cost, both hardware and software greater than any benefit ...

      Plus, seems to me that MacOS and iOS share more and more things (at least in interface) but Apple seems considering the interfaces to be last on the list of shared components ... maybe because they did not find the right balance?

  20. Touch does not even register on the list? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Touch screen does not even register on Apple's list of features? Apple really needs to get out of their ivory iPhone tower and see what is being sold on todays computers......

    1. Re: Touch does not even register on the list? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For PRO users. You conveniently skipped that part. Here's a hint, pros != average people. They do real work, not retweet or post stuff on Facebook all day.

  21. Unless it comes with... by Type44Q · · Score: 1

    Unless it comes with 80 PCI-E lanes, it doesn't deserve the name.

  22. Address the gap in the lineup... by nine-times · · Score: 1

    In my opinion, the real gap in Apple's lineup isn't "an iMac with more professional features," but instead "a consumer-grade headless Mac that can be used for gaming." I really don't understand why they won't make one.

    They could release a small upgradable tower, which I'm sure a lot of people would like. They're not going to, though. That's not Apple's style. However, they could make a more consumer-grade Mac Pro, running a single Core i5/i7 processors instead of Xeon processors and a single Nvidia 1060/1070/1080 instead of dual AMD Fire Pro cards. Drop all the hardware down a peg from workstation-grade to consumer-grade, and drop the price to reflect that. I think you'd have a system a lot of people would buy.

    Or if you don't want to do that, just make bigger version of a Mac mini that can hold a laptop-grade Nvidia CPU instead of using Intel's chips. Maybe something vaguely in the class of an Alienware Alpha. Hell, just cram a discrete GPU into one of the existing Mac mini lineups. They used to do that, and I suspect they could overcome any technical challenges if they wanted to. They put discrete GPUs into the 15" Macbook Pros.

    Some people may point out that there aren't as many games for macOS as there are for Windows, which is true. However developers might be more inclined to create Mac ports if there were gamers using Macs, which might be more likely if there were Macs with appropriate gaming hardware. And even ignoring that idea, you could always set up a dual boot into Windows for gaming on a Mac, if you had hardware appropriate for gaming.

    1. Re:Address the gap in the lineup... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gaming does not even register on apples list of features. Profits are the only thing on the list

    2. Re:Address the gap in the lineup... by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      In my opinion, the real gap in Apple's lineup isn't "an iMac with more professional features," but instead "a consumer-grade headless Mac that can be used for gaming." I really don't understand why they won't make one.

      I don't know if gaming has been a priority of Apple. Sure you can play some games on one but don't expect the latest AAA one that requires the newest video cards to be on those lists. PC Gaming desktops are starting to become niche PCs themselves.

      They could release a small upgradable tower, which I'm sure a lot of people would like. They're not going to, though. That's not Apple's style. However, they could make a more consumer-grade Mac Pro, running a single Core i5/i7 processors instead of Xeon processors and a single Nvidia 1060/1070/1080 instead of dual AMD Fire Pro cards. Drop all the hardware down a peg from workstation-grade to consumer-grade, and drop the price to reflect that. I think you'd have a system a lot of people would buy.

      The only people that might be interested in a consumer Mac Pro would be gamers. Then the problem is they want so many customizations.

      Or if you don't want to do that, just make bigger version of a Mac mini that can hold a laptop-grade Nvidia CPU instead of using Intel's chips. Maybe something vaguely in the class of an Alienware Alpha. Hell, just cram a discrete GPU into one of the existing Mac mini lineups. They used to do that, and I suspect they could overcome any technical challenges if they wanted to. They put discrete GPUs into the 15" Macbook Pros.

      The whole point of a Mac Mini is that it isn't upgradeable. Making it more upgradeable goes against the entire design.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    3. Re:Address the gap in the lineup... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is apple.
      They don't WANT to make something 'consumer grade' that 'a lot of people would like'.

      They want to make something expensive & stylish, and sell it at 3x price to those who can afford it. Apple stuff is meant to be a bit exclusive, and mass-market stuff degrades that. When they do something mass-market, they at least aim for the upper half of that market. Or they bring out something unique - Ipads were quite special until the copy products came.

    4. Re:Address the gap in the lineup... by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      No, the whole point of the Mac mini was a low-cost entry Mac. Removing RAM slots increases the cost of entry because you have to pay for the Mac mini and extra RAM right at the beginning. At Apple's RAM prices on top of that. It couldn't be further from the idea of the Mac mini.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    5. Re:Address the gap in the lineup... by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      No I would argue the purpose of a Mac mini was a very small form factor headless Mac. At this point, the shrinking form factor allows for almost no upgrades.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    6. Re:Address the gap in the lineup... by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      There's nothing to argue about, go watch the Keynote where Steve Jobs introduced the Mac mini. The point was to be a low-cost, bring-your-own display/mouse/keyboard Mac for switchers.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    7. Re:Address the gap in the lineup... by nine-times · · Score: 1

      I don't know if gaming has been a priority of Apple. Sure you can play some games on one but don't expect the latest AAA one that requires the newest video cards to be on those lists.

      Yeah... that was kind of my point. Apple has practically been going out of their way to make sure their computers aren't good for gamers. I'm suggesting that if they just made one model that had hardware appropriate for gaming, they might see an uptick in people using it for that, and then developers would have more incentive to port games to it.

      PC Gaming desktops are starting to become niche PCs themselves.

      Do you have some market research to support that? I feel like I've been hearing for decades that consoles would kill PC gaming, but it hasn't happened. If anything, I feel like consoles are showing some weakness recently.

      The only people that might be interested in a consumer Mac Pro would be gamers.

      I can tell you right now that that isn't true. I've done professional IT for a lot of companies that use Macs, and I've gotten a fair number of requests for that kind of thing. Basically, the Mac mini can be a bit underpowered for a lot of people's needs, and the Mac Pro is way too expensive. Businesses have to instead buy iMacs, but a lot of companies are annoyed by that because it also means you have to purchase a brand new high-quality screen with every new computer you buy. Home users sometimes have the same complaint of wanting to buy a new computer more powerful than a Mac mini, but don't want to buy a $1k screen to get it.

      Or to give another use-case, some small businesses want a Mac server. Again, the Mac mini is underpowered, and the Mac Pro is too expensive for their needs. They don't really want to pay for the monitor, and cramming an iMac into an It closet doesn't always work.

      I can see an argument that they don't want to release a consumer-grade Mac Pro because it would cannibalize iMac sales, but I'm very sure it would sell.

      The whole point of a Mac Mini is that it isn't upgradeable. Making it more upgradeable goes against the entire design.

      That's debatable, but also beside the point. I didn't say that they should make the Mac mini upgradable, just that they could sell a higher-end model with a decent GPU.

    8. Re:Address the gap in the lineup... by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      Do you have some market research to support that? I feel like I've been hearing for decades that consoles would kill PC gaming, but it hasn't happened. If anything, I feel like consoles are showing some weakness recently.

      I'm not saying that console games are making PC gaming obsolete. I'm saying people who are building fewer and fewer gaming PCs and generally people are buying fewer desktops.

      That's debatable, but also beside the point. I didn't say that they should make the Mac mini upgradable, just that they could sell a higher-end model with a decent GPU.

      Yes but how soon does that GPU become obsolete? I mean you can still use decade old CPU just fine for general computing but decades old GPUs are basically unusable by gaming.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    9. Re:Address the gap in the lineup... by nine-times · · Score: 1

      I'm not saying that console games are making PC gaming obsolete. I'm saying people who are building fewer and fewer gaming PCs and generally people are buying fewer desktops.

      I'm not sure what I'm supposed to infer from this. You're not saying that consoles are killing the gaming PC, but you're saying people don't buy gaming PCs. Are you saying that nobody is gaming anymore? Or are you trying to imply that consoles are killing the gaming PC while refusing to say that, for some reason? Because I notice you're also not saying that consoles *aren't* killing the gaming PC.

      Yes but how soon does that GPU become obsolete? I mean you can still use decade old CPU just fine for general computing but decades old GPUs are basically unusable by gaming.

      So you're simultaneously implying that consoles are killing the gaming PC because people aren't building PCs anymore, and also arguing that people won't buy a non-upgradable gaming PC.

  23. Re:Desktop with Laptop Hardware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No. This is /. News for corporate whores. This fits right in.

  24. Once, long ago... by puddingebola · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Once, long ago..., Slashdot was a place of serious programmers. They were interested in the philosophy of open source programming. They were committed to the development of good open source software, of promoting its use and development. They were interested in the technical challenges that it's development created, and they discussed the various facets of the issues involving open source software. Now...now there are only people like us discussing the latest Mac! Ha ha ha ha! We've destroyed them ALL! We've RUINED THEIR WEBSITE! HA HA HA HA HA! BWAHAHAHA!

    1. Re:Once, long ago... by axis_omega · · Score: 1

      They moved elsewhere or died... I'm sorry for your loss

      --
      It's funny how I make sense to others and not myself...
    2. Re:Once, long ago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe.. Ive been reading /. since around 1998 or something, if it was all programming nerds debating tabs vs spaces or what ever I wouldnt of checked in every day for that last 19 years.

    3. Re:Once, long ago... by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      Once, long ago..., Slashdot was a place of serious programmers.

      No it wasn't.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  25. This will be the tipping point. by itomato · · Score: 1

    Apple's tendency to withhold 'features' available elsewhere in the market because they're NIH or defeat some other aesthetic (like fingerprints so often do) is gonna but them with touch. John Q. Appleseed will walk up and pinch to zoom, then not apologize because he knows fingerprints ruin the sublime compute environment Apple have graciously provided.

    1. Re:This will be the tipping point. by nine-times · · Score: 1

      I think it's telling that you responded to my comment with an argument that has absolutely nothing to do with my comment.

  26. Re:Exactly! by Lumpy · · Score: 1

    Both of them use the keyboards and ignore touch.

    Every single Surface pro I see used is used with the keyboard and they use the trackpoint spot on the keyboard cover. When I had the Surface Pro I tried to use the touchscreen. It's pretty darn useless if you are doing any real work.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  27. Re:Exactly! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's still early to tell if Surface Studio is a good idea yet. Seems like it would be a good fit for photo and video editing. But I imagine getting people to give it a chance will be the biggest obstacle.

  28. People settled for the iMac. Old Pro was better. by enjar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The old Mac Pro (4U aluminum chassis) had:
    - Four drive bays, and you could get an aftermarket tray to add SSDs/
    - Easy RAM upgrade
    - Interchangeable GPU(s) -- it would take nVidia or ATI boards.
    - Two network drops

    The "replacement" Pro garbage can had stuff soldered in place, no upgrade option for GPU and a form factor that didn't allow upgrades, in addition to being abhorrently expensive and never updated. Not to mention having to do simple things like expand hard drive space with daisy chained expensive Thunderbolt stuff strung together like Christmas lights. I remember the mocking Jeff Goldblum Apple ad asking if PC stood for "Perpetually Cabled". In the old system you could keep all that stuff internal and using PCI, which was still faster.

    When we retired the old Pros, we replaced them with MacBookPros -- the garbage can just priced itself out of contention, and into the realm of "can we do the same thing Linux or Windows instead, since that garbage can is now more expensive than some really decent servers we bought recently"

  29. and in the past apple tryed to push gameing but th by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    and in the past apple tryed to push gaming but the only really good systems where the high imac or the old mac pro with a 3rd party video card.

  30. e-net $30 more 10-gig-e $100 from apple and it use by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    e-net $30 more 10-gig-e $100 from apple and it uses the TB3 bus.

  31. Re:Exactly! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

    Both of them use the keyboards and ignore touch.

    Every single Surface pro I see used is used with the keyboard and they use the trackpoint spot on the keyboard cover. When I had the Surface Pro I tried to use the touchscreen. It's pretty darn useless if you are doing any real work.

    And yet, with all the Surface commercials, it's ALL they advertise...

  32. They've yet to deliver on the Mac Pro by sethstorm · · Score: 1

    They're interested in things like performance and storage and expandability.

    Not doing too well on that front after they switched to the trashcan.

    --
    Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
  33. Re:People settled for the iMac. Old Pro was better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Pro sure, make it upgradable.

    I've been using 27" iMacs at work for the last 3 years, never felt the need to upgrade whats inside - probably because we get the spec we want when ordering? vs being a cheap skate and stuffing 3rd party bits into it later :-). 5K, i7 4GHz, 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM - I think it'll be fine for 3 years, then its written off by the company I take it home, and I get to order a new one.

  34. Re:Exactly! by zlives · · Score: 1

    if you dazzle with brilliance, baffle with bullshit

  35. corrected by zlives · · Score: 1

    if you can't dazzle with brilliance, baffle with bullshit

  36. Re:Exactly! by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

    Well, they still haven't gotten over losing the tablet war. They see millions using their iPads and Android tablets and figure that being able to touch stuff is the killer feature. They never seem to get that making a UI that people can and want to touch is where the real magic lies.

    --
    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  37. Apple == Boloney by JohnMcLane · · Score: 1

    As usual, this is pure propaganda bs! The machine is junk, very very expensive junk and the marshable "article" is actually a paid one. Slashdot is not that informative venue once was... it is ALL commerce. Cant trust it.

  38. ironic : MacBook pro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So ironic....after the recent release of MacBook Pro, this is what Phil says:

    "Touch doesn't even register on the list of things pro users are interested in talking about. They're interested in things like performance and storage and expandabilit

  39. Re:Desktop with Laptop Hardware by Luthair · · Score: 1

    Apple fangirls out in full force, what is this a tech blog.

  40. Touchscreens are on a vertical display are.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Touchscreens are on a vertical display are an ergonomic nightmare - there are dozens of studies, papers, etc. (just take a look at the ISO Ergonomic standards - there are hundreds of them) that show these are the surest way to both temporary and permanent damage if it's a high repetitive, extended use application. This is why the iPad and TrackPad the primary "touch" focus interfaces: they are typically used near horizontal or low angle of elevation which has radically different ergonomics.

    All people wanting touch screens are ignorant of basic scientific/engineering facts about ergonomics.

  41. Re:People settled for the iMac. Old Pro was better by cthulhu11 · · Score: 1

    Don't forget, on some revisions, the two SATA ports in the optical bays too - I have an SSD plugged in there. Those aftermarket trays were interesting, but I always found them to be way more expensive than I could justify.