[HN Gopher] MacBook Pros, an "M1X" chip, and other stuff to expe...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       MacBook Pros, an "M1X" chip, and other stuff to expect at Apple's
       October event
        
       Author : rbanffy
       Score  : 16 points
       Date   : 2021-10-15 20:15 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
        
       | twalla wrote:
       | I can't be the only one who's mostly just excited at the prospect
       | of being able to buy a high spec macbook that doesn't have a
       | goddamn touch bar.
        
         | brysonreece wrote:
         | I've never really understood the disdain for the Touch Bar.
         | I've been rocking my first MacBook, a 13" Pro, for the last few
         | months and haven't had any complaints about it so far.
        
           | duped wrote:
           | Did you regularly use function keys beforehand?
        
           | lmilcin wrote:
           | Some of us touch-type. Since I have learned to use keyboard
           | properly quarter of century ago I have never needed to look
           | at my keyboard.
           | 
           | I tried to give it a chance. But it is breaking my flow by
           | having to look at the keyboard which is a big productivity no
           | no.
        
       | hiram112 wrote:
       | My 2015 MBP running Mojave is on its last legs. Everything Apple
       | has released since then - both the increasingly unstable OS
       | "upgrades" and all the horrible hardware changes including the
       | broken keyboards in 2016, lack of ports, removal of escape and
       | function keys, gimmicky touch bar, etc. - have discouraged me
       | from upgrading to a new laptop, even at work where my employer
       | would be paying for it.
       | 
       | I'm at the point where if they don't release a new Intel MBP
       | that's a worthy successor to the 2015 15" model, then I'll
       | probably just end up giving up on Apple for good and moving to a
       | Dell with WSL. I imagine I'm not the only one who has patiently
       | been waiting for years, but won't do so much longer.
        
         | spfzero wrote:
         | I'm running on my 2015 still as well. The later Intel models
         | never got me excited, with what seemed to be only marginal
         | performance increases every year, and my 2015 being rock-solid
         | reliable. The M1X definitely interests me.
         | 
         | I don't think you'll be seeing any new Intel-based laptops from
         | Apple though.
        
         | bsaul wrote:
         | 2013 MBP.. same reasons, same hopes...(except i don't mind an
         | m1.. i've heard only good things)
        
         | cultofmetatron wrote:
         | check out the frame.work laptop. The future is repairability
         | and you won't be compromising too much in terms of form factor.
         | Also, you can replace the battery yourself. (its sad that in
         | 2021, thats a FEATURE)
        
         | nebula8804 wrote:
         | There is no way they are releasing an Intel model. Why would
         | they? The M1 chip has been an outstanding success exceeding the
         | expectations of every reviewer I have seen. It has blown me
         | away so much that I can't wait to rid x86 from my life. Burn
         | the boats! This is a whole new world.
        
         | daniel-thompson wrote:
         | I guess we'll find out on Monday, but have you seen anything to
         | suggest Apple is releasing new Intel models? Everything I've
         | seen says that they're transitioning completely to the M1/M1X.
        
         | laurencerowe wrote:
         | What do you run on it that needs to be intel? The Rosetta
         | translation works really well for everything but doesn't work
         | for VMs. Notably docker for Mac runs in a VM but almost
         | everything has arm images available now so it's no longer an
         | issue for me.
        
       | nowherebeen wrote:
       | My Ubuntu crashed yesterday in the middle of upgrading to 21.10
       | when I moved the mouse and the XPS 15 hinge is literally falling
       | apart. I can't wait for this to come out! I am mostly interested
       | in the CPU performance and not having to run a VM to build iOS.
       | That itself should save me hours waiting for code to build.
        
       | kristianp wrote:
       | Surely they're not going to put a full-size hdmi port in them, as
       | the article suggests. Apple is all about smaller, newer or less
       | ports.
        
       | jstsch wrote:
       | I am excited about these. Very curious if they'll be able to
       | drive my two LG 5K UltraFine displays.
       | 
       | Got those screens right away when the MBP2016 came out. It is a
       | great setup, but unfortunately quite unstable. The MBP2016 had
       | tons of crashes, after 4 logic board replacements it got swapped
       | out for a 2018. More stable, but I still have to follow some
       | ritualistic order plugging/unplugging them...
        
         | cuddlybacon wrote:
         | I have two LG 4K monitors with a 2016 model (which I really
         | want to upgrade). It's mostly fine. Waking from sleep it does
         | go thru an annoying sequence where it wakes up one monitor at a
         | time. When I gave feedback to Apple, they suggested plugging in
         | the dedicated power supply as well. Maybe that would help some
         | of the issues you see.
        
         | gambiting wrote:
         | The fact that the M1 macbooks can't drive two external
         | displays(even with the internal display switched off) is
         | criminal. I know at least two people who bought a brand new M1
         | MacBook and returned it the next day for this very reason.
        
           | nebula8804 wrote:
           | The Mac Mini Can drive two external displays. One via USB-C
           | and one via HDMI.
        
         | AttakBanana wrote:
         | Just curious, are these issues not enough to make you look
         | elsewhere? Especially since these kind of issues have been
         | common with MacBooks over the past few years. Maybe you require
         | MacOS for something specific? Or is there just nothing else
         | you'd rather use?
        
           | jstsch wrote:
           | Apart from this issue, these machines have been great for me.
           | And the Apple ecosystem is hard to beat (when you get used to
           | the seamless integration between devices...)
        
       | c7DJTLrn wrote:
       | Given all the little issues MacBooks have had over the past few
       | years, the departure of Jony Ive, the move to ARM, I'm expecting
       | this one to be a seriously impressive iteration. I've seen the
       | "leaked" images already and it looks about how you'd expect but I
       | think performance numbers will blow people away.
        
       | throwawaysea wrote:
       | Given that these have custom GPUs, do older games still work on
       | them? For example games from Blizzard? What about software for
       | ML?
        
         | nebula8804 wrote:
         | Yooka-Laylee (a 2017 3D platformer) runs well at 1440p on the
         | Mac Mini M1 with everything on. Seems like the GPU is at least
         | competitive with cards from a few years ago. Not bad for a 15W?
         | SOC.
         | 
         | The Anandtech benchmark puts it within fighting range of the
         | GTX 1650.
         | 
         | [1]: https://www.anandtech.com/show/16252/mac-mini-
         | apple-m1-teste...
        
         | brundolf wrote:
         | I imagine anything targeting Metal will work seamlessly
        
         | ashton314 wrote:
         | I have a friend who has an M1 and runs StarCraft I and II on it
         | without a problem. I don't know much more beyond that.
        
         | runnerup wrote:
         | Many very old games worked flawlessly on my girlfriend's M1
         | MBP. Baldurs Gate, Diablo, etc.
        
       | OldHand2018 wrote:
       | The pressure is on. Didn't Apple give themselves a short time
       | window when they introduced the M1 for a full-lineup changeover?
       | Like 2 years, or something?
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-10-15 23:03 UTC)