It’s more about how little heat they generate to begin with. The M1 uses about a third of the power of the 10th-gen Intel Core i7 CPU it replaced, both at idle (6.8W vs. 19.9W) and at peak (39W vs. 122W).
We got an 8GB M1 Air for my wife last month. She routinely leaves multiple apps and 15-20 browser tabs open. With the Air, the only time it’s even the slightest bit warm to the touch is from her residual body heat sitting in her lap or resting her wrists on the palmrest. It’s an enormous difference from my work-issued Intel Air (gets warm with multiple apps open) and my own Intel MBP (which fluctuates between warm and fry-an-egg hot).
Fuck Apple. They’ve slowly but successfully abandoned a core niche of video professionals. I’ll always have a Mac of some sort for business reasons but for real work I’m looking towards the PC.
The M1 Mini currently only supports two displays - one Thunderbolt and one HDMI. The Intel Mini supports three (two Thunderbolt, one HDMI). If you want more then you have to use hacks like DisplayLink adapters, which work but will affect performance.
It’s the only thing holding me back from getting an M1 for myself just yet.
BTW, I forgot to mention the new iMac’s external power block. I saw that and thought “WTF?”, and then they showed that it’s also where you plus in the Ethernet cable.
Still a cheat, but the additional connector saves it. Also, the MagSafe power connector and the fabric, color-coordinated cable are sweet.
Still confused why they went with Touch ID and not Face ID.
Just saw that the new Apple TV remote is available for purchase on its own…for $59. That seems like a lot but it’s not a lot more than a universal remote and that click wheel for video scrubbing looks pretty sweet. It’s backwards compatible all the way to the Apple TV HD.
Also, not mentioned at the event, the Mac Mini got the option of 10gig Ethernet for $100. A nice option for those who need the bandwidth because it negates the need for an adapter that uses up a Thunderbolt slot and causes the Mini to run hot.
The fact that a Mini is fanless, and the new iMac is “virtually” silent, already has me grating at the muted sounds of my iMac’s fan. I am a slave to marketing…but we wants it.
However, there is a common opinion coalescing around the new iMac that it’s ugly. The “chin” has always been a bone of contention, and many are wondering why they kept it to make the iMac wafer thin (it’s thinner than a MacBook Air), instead of making it 1/4” thicker and losing the chin.
I don’t hate the chin, but I completely see the point. The new iMac has a wall mount option that deletes the foot, and a chinless iMac would look great as a wall mounted screen. Apparently a big screen version of the new iMac is in the works, so we’ll have to wait and see whether that one is chinless…
FYI, “chinless wonder” is English slang for an idiot, specifically one from the upper classes. So I can’t wait until Apple finally come out with one to see the memes.
You know, I could get annoyed by winning the lottery, but all this time and I never even knew that the iMac has a chin much less that I’m supposed to be annoyed with it. Imagine how shortchanged I feel.
Oh, and I really like the look of the new iMac, and I suspect most consumers will as well. It’s only the tech media that will pitch a fit about it. You know the same ones that have been complaining that there hasn’t been a redesign for 10 years or whatever. It was inevitable that a lot of them wouldn’t like it, no matter what the design would have been.
I’ve always thought the dbrand skins are ugly as hell, but in this case they’re probably gonna make a lot of sales. The white border around the new iMac screen is gobsmackingly stupid, even more so than the chin.
I watch TV only through my Apple TV, which I connect to the built-in Bluetooth speakers in my apartment. The problem with that is that the old Harmony remote I was using couldn’t control the volume on the Apple TV. So I was using the Harmony for everything except volume, and the Apple remote app on my iPhone to control the volume.
The new Siri remote can do the volume and turn my TV on and off. It’s a new world!
It’s nice that Apple is making FaceTime available to anyone with a web browser. I wish they would do the same for Messages.
I AM super happy about Spatial Audio for Movies and TV coming to the Apple TV. I had been expecting that to be announced when the new device was announced. Was very disappointed at that time.
I’m still waiting for Atmos to show up for music, as it was said to be released today. Still not showing up for me.
I actually missed a lot of the presentation, so I’ll probably go back tonight to watch it in its entirety.
I’ve had an android phone since they became available (was not an ATT customer; if iPhone had been an option I’d have likely gotten one).
I still get crap from friends with iPhones complaining that my phone is somehow gumming up their ability to send high quality videos via group text.
They don’t seem to understand that I don’t care if they send me HD clips of their kids.
(Not an apple hater; I do have an ipad and don’t make any claims that android is superior, I’m just not interested in switching platforms after a decade with one they meets my meager needs)
So much packed into this year’s presentation, but the driver appear to be consistency and connectivity across hardware platforms, making the Apple ecosystem both more powerful and more suffocating at the same time.
Hotel Cupertino.
I say this not in protest. One of the things I’ve always liked about Apple is how everything Apple works on everything else Apple. This new suite of OSes is that on steroids.
But they’ve ramped up privacy protections with things like on-device language recognition (so the audio recording of your Siri commands don’t leave your device), a built-in VPN and the ability to create infinite burner email addresses.
So much more. Things that stood out to me include:
Improved FaceTime with screen sharing and spatial audio
Spatial audio on Apple TV (yay!)
Functional multitasking on the iPad
Using your Mac/MacBook/iPad as an extra screen just by proximity
Text recognition on everything including photos
Quick notes, tags in notes and live collaboration simply with an “@“
Photos searchable in Spotlight, including any text, the image and any tags
Vastly improved Safari tab organization
Keys and IDs in Wallet (TSA approved)
HomeKit improvements on the Watch
HomePod minis as stereo pairs
Sharing medical data with your doctor or family members
The new Maps app looks phenomenal, including alerts to disembark public transportation at your stop (which is great if you’re drunk, but your going to throw off that new steadiness tracker)
I know I’ve forgotten a ton as the hits kept on coming today.
I know it was mentioned somewhere in the B&Q (by Waldo, I think), about the benefits of fiber internet. I can’t find it, so I figured here is as good a place as any to post this without having to start a new thread.
My contract with Xfinity recently ended and they jacked up my price into the AT&T Fiber price range - $70/month - so I made the switch. I got the 1gbps service for $85/month which includes HBO Max (the next step down is 500mbps without HBO for $70/month, so it made sense to me).
Obviously, the internet is now lightning fast. Notably though, with my Citrix VPN for work, the speed boost is even more impressive because it’s the same speed up and down. The Xfinity service was limited to 5mbps upstream which, for a VPN connection that pushing tons of data both ways, means I am seeing an exponential boost in performance.
Techie Question:
I have found one ethernet port in my apartment that pushes through at full speed. I have my iMac connected to this (it’s the only practical option but I still have to run a 30 ft ethernet cable) and I get pretty much full speed on it (see below). The minor speed loss is likely because there’s a network switch on this line to connect my HD HomeRun TV antenna.
However, that’s the only port where this is true. None of the others come close to pushing through maximum speeds. The port by my work desk offers 350mpbs down and 500mbps up, and that’s the next best one.
The other ports I have tested run at 90mbps down and up. These are near my Apple TVs which, running on WiFi, get around 400mbps up/down. It would be nice to get these hardwired for better performance but also because I’m bloody paying for 1gbps!
So, to the question: All the network wiring here was done during construction, so why am I getting vastly different speeds from these ports?
Just anectodal, but my experience with ATT Fiber is that you will never get 1,000 Mbps full speed. Never. Ever. It ranges from 150-950, depending on the time of day.
When it was installed at my house the installer made it clear to me that the 1000 was purely aspirational puffery, but I’ll be pretty happy with the results. Dude was right.
