I really was into buying the iMac after the event and for a while, but after thinking it over I’m going to wait for something more powerful and, more importantly for me, with a bigger screen.
I just replaced my daughter’s 24" monitor and after spending some time on one I decided I couldn’t make do with a screen that size.
It looks wonderful and I love the design and features, but I’m going to wait for a bigger iMac.
Cant help but point out on the environmental aspect it is much much better for the env if you go to your local repair show an have them desolder a single ssd die rather than replacing the entire NVMe driver and throwing away all the other working parts that are on that NVMe driver. A good repair shop (someplace that does more than just phone screen repair) will not have any issues with desoldering and resolving (also buying a replacement ssd die is quite cheap compared to throwing away the SSD controller).
On the user unfriendliness issue it is simply bandwidth, apple could let you upgrade the memory but in so doing they would end up selected a memory tec that can’t provide enough bandwidth to your cpu the result is that you would be getting only a fraction of the performance of the SoC (massive waste). A single high performance core in the M1 can consume as much as 4 top fo the line AMD/intel cpu cores in bandwidth (this is how much data it can suck up and use per second) this is a very impressive performance aspect of these chips, to provide user upgradable memory that did not bottleneck a cpus (with 16+ cores) you would need 12 or maybe even 16 channels of DDR5 (that means you need to have 12 dims connected, lets be clear this will mean the memory subsystem will draw more power than the SoC under load)
The thing is for a machine of this class apple will want to release it in dec (since that is when companies have left over budget to spend on these things) it makes a signfant difference releasing a high value item at that time rather than mid year. Apple will have had the design etc all finished for all the upcoming macs before they pulled the trigger last year at WWDC. What they are waiting for is TSMC capacity on 5nm, in Aug last year this was 100% used by the A14, then they have slowly moved more of the cacpity over to the M1 and will have since then been now moving more over the the next iteration (chips take months to make) and apple have a limited capacity. Next yers iPhone will be don a newer 5nm+ or even 4nm node but the dec macPro will continue on the 5nm so as not to compete with the iPhone for wafer space.
I am torn on a new iPad Pro 12.9. I have the 2018 which is working fine, but I have the itch to upgrade, didn’t last year, but I am intrigued by the M1. My wife is strongly considering trading in her 2018 iPad Pro 11" to change to the 12.9" design due to a significant change in use case for her.
I ordered 4 AirTags to play with, might get more when we can travel again. We like to cruise so luggage is a good use case possibly.
No iMac, not needed right now.
I might order 1 Apple TV, we have a mix of 5 Apple TV’s, 2 Fire sticks, and 1 Roku in the house right now. Yes, that is 8 streaming devices, 1 for each TV in our house, embarrassingly. But we only have 1 4K Apple TV and the rest are the older versions, so I might buy 1 to see how it does and to try the new remote, then hand down an original 4th gen to my in laws, who still have one of our old 3rd gens.
I’m likely getting the 12.9" iPadPro thanks to the screen.
I specifically asked Apple sales on Friday via chat if the new 12.9" iPadPro would work with the original 12.9" Magic Keyboard (with the touchpad $329), and they said that it absolutely would. I asked why they weren’t selling the original anymore, and he said he was sorry for the confusion, but that the older magic keyboard would fit and work with the new iPad.
We had this conversation before all the reports were released, so take all this with a grain of salt.
Either way since I’m passing down my 2018 12.9" iPadPro to my soon to be college kid with the keyboard, I will be buying a new magic keyboard as well. I’ll test them both when they arrive.
Whew! The iMac still has a chin. If they took the chin away, where would I deploy my post-its kanban?
I’m waiting for a 27" (at a minimum …) M(1+n or whatever they’ll call it) iMac. For the duration, I’m clinging on to my ancient i-devices with home buttons like a barnacle.
I’m soooo tempted by the new iPad Pro, especially as I return to working on an undergraduate degree part time. My iPad Air 3 is still solid although I’m finding myself needing more. I spend most of my day in front of my PC at work, so having my iPad ride along has become key to managing my tasks/personal responsibilities.
I’m ordering a four pack of AirTags because I commute and work in two different facilities, so knowing if I left my bag or keys at one or the other is helpful!
I wish it had a travel mode I could set it to. That way if my bag is more than X feet from me, it would alert my phone. Then I’d know if I left it or if it was being stolen sooner. Or if I was traveling with a child and it was on their backpack, I’d know if they started to wander too far.