Tag: Hardware

I’m not going to rehash everything, so if you want to learn more about what Apple talked about yesterday you can follow these links:

• Keynote Video Stream
• MacBook Pro
• MacBook Air
• OS X Mountain Lion
• iOS 6

I recommend watching the Keynote, you’ll get the information you desire from there. I’ll close this out with some thoughts:

• Ping is dead … long live Facebook integration?
• How much longer can the 13″ MacBook Pro hang on!? Someone must be throwing 13″ 1280×800 screens at Apple because they didn’t even bump up the resolution to the 13″ Air’s 1440×900. I can come up with many reasons why it is still in the lineup, but each update just makes it painfully more obvious that the 13″ MacBook Pro is the strangest laptop in the lineup.
• Here is how I see the Retina MacBook lineup coming down to: 11″ MacBook Air, 13″ MacBook Air, 15″ MacBook Pro and … that’s it? Pixel-doubling/quading on all of them and simplifying the lineup. In this case I’d like to see the “Air” moniker dropped so it is back to just MacBook and MacBook Pro, but I’m strange. I get the feeling that next-year’s MacBook Air refresh will see the Retina display. Anyone have the Intel roadmap on-hand to see when that might happen?
• If/when the Air goes Retina … I can see the 15″ MacBook Pro getting an updated Retina display that pixel-doubles the 1680×1050 resolution instead of the 1440×900. Smooth transition up with sizes from the Air to the Pro. Right now it is all about economics.
• No desktop updates (Mac Prop non-announcement doesn’t count) so there has to be something coming for that. Even a processor bump would be appreciated for the Mac mini and iMac (again, I’m not talking about the Mac Pro). Of course, we have the Mountain Lion release coming up in July so maybe they are holding onto something for that.
• Mountain Lion and iOS 6 both look like nice updates. Really not much to say here.

That’s it. Anything else I write on the WWDC Keynote will be more specific than this.

The Mac Pro update was a small CPU upgrade. That’s it.

@codinghorror @marcoarment I think the thing is.. it wasn't an Apple planned update. Intel doesn't make the old CPU's anymore.

— gu3st 🐡 (bsky: @gu3.st) (@gu3st) June 11, 2012

However the above tweet gives me a little hope that maybe Apple has something bigger on the horizon. If Apple was really going to drop the Mac Pro, not being able to get the older CPUs would be a great time to do it … why go through the testing process for the “newer” processors when you can just drop the line that you plan on killing anyway.

I have no idea what is holding Apple back from rolling out the new E5 Xeons, but I still hope that they roll something out. Mountain Lion is due in July, so maybe the desktops will get their updates then (the iMac and Mac mini were also sitting on the sidelines today).

https://twitter.com/MilesForrest/status/212386067406536704
Yes, we’re there again: post Apple keynote complaints time!

Now, I’m not picking on Miles here, but he just happened to have his tweet at the top of my stream when I was thinking about writing this.

Basically, the complaints about the new MacBook Pro display announced today revolve around the following:

• The new display doubles the standard resolution of the past MacBook Pro (1440×900 to 2880×1800).
• The new HiDPI mode in the custom build of OS X Lion will pixel-double older applications (so use four pixels in the space of where here used to be one) … thus giving you the logistical space of the old 1440×900 screen.
• Apple still has available a higher-res screen on their older line of MacBook Pro, the 1680×1050 screen, but no comparable Retina complement.
• Sadness ensues.

What I say is this: cry me a river. This is Apple taking a big leap and stating that this is where they are going to be moving in the future. I would expect that next year you will see the MacBook Air move to Retina displays (for sure) and maybe even the iMac and display lines as well.

They might add more resolutions in the future, but I would not bet on it. The rumors around how the new display dialogs work is that they are deemphasizing the numbers and instead focusing on incremental changes of how things actually look.

However, not all is lost. The update to Final Cut Pro X shows how the new pixels could be used by having the preview area be 100% pixel-for-pixel 1080p, which is pretty remarkable. I’m guessing it will take some work, but there are tons of opportunities to change how a person can interact with their screen now that there are so many pixels available.

One thing that will be interesting is to see how gaming will work on the new display. That is a TON of pixels to push, and if you just scale it, the results might not be the greatest.

This is Apple pushing forward and there are going to be bumps along the way. That’s the best part.

Marco posted a little updated on the extremely-delayed Mac Pro update.

I listen to Amplified every week (I haven’t yet, however) and I think that Jim Dalrymple is one of the best people to follow as far as having solid information whenever he releases it.

Good news.