Mac Perfect

October 29, 2024
1 min read

Instant buy.

Just look at this computer! I’ve been a fan of laptops powered by Apple silicon, my M1 MacBook Air is still a perfectly fine computer. I now have M2 MacBook Air and M3 Pro MacBook Pro for work. Since day one that chip changed my experience with mac. It is fast, it has an amazing battery life. And now the M series chips can offer incredible performance in such a small package. I’ve been waiting for an update to the Mac mini; I want to set one up as a home server that will last at least 10 years, and I feel like this is the one. It will probably be overkill, but fun as hell.

I’ve had a lot of questions for Apple recently, but sometimes they just deliver a perfect product.

Apple in 2021: My Report Card

March 20, 2022
6 min read

For a couple of years now, Jason Snell at Six Colors asks people in tech to rate Apple in different categories. I like this idea to look back and give my opinion. I started last year and decided to keep a tradition (albeit a bit late).

Mac

Grade: B

Don’t get me wrong – M1 Max and M1 Pro are great for someone who needs it, but Apple didn’t do any hardware for me. Those 14” and 16” are too heavy, over-powered, and expensive for what I do. I still love my MacBook Air with M1, it is a great laptop, but we are still waiting for a redesign.

I like how iMac with M1 looks, those colors are great, but it’s small, so I’m still waiting for something bigger. Or for Apple display that doesn’t cost like a used car.

I think B is a good score, but compared with the year when the M1 was first introduced and the improvement the new MacBook Air was, it doesn’t compare favorably.

iPhone

Grade: B

Again, solid year for an iPhone, but I was so much in love with 12 Pro Max the year before that feelings from iPhone 13 Pro are much more neutral, comparatively. It is a great phone, better in some ways, but the telephoto lens is still a hit or miss. With 12 Pro Max, I loved shooting with it, this year, not so much. The rail is all scratched up, although the previous phone looked like a new one after a year of use.

iOS 15 didn’t bring many new features. It works, and the Live Text feature is spectacular, but that is mostly all the progress for the year. And I find myself restarting the phone pretty often, because of some small bugs.

iPad

Grade: B

The first category to improve year after year. Maybe the issue is with me, not with Apple, but I hear a lot of similar sentiment in Apple centred podcasts – I finally use the iPad for what it is, a remarkable consumption device. Before, I’ve set out to replace my laptop with an iPad Pro, and it worked. But was a bit worse in numerous things. Last year iPad mini came out and oh boy it is great. Yeah, the screen is lacking a bit, but otherwise it is a fantastic device. Small, but with the screen large enough to be comfortable, looks great, fast. And it finally allows an iPad to be the best iPad it can and not attempting to be something else.

Watch and Wearables

Wearables – Grade: C

Watch – Grade: B

I’m still waiting for the AirPods Pro update. The ones I have are already dying after just one year (the regular AirPods worked for 2 years). The battery doesn’t hold anymore, and the case glitches all the time, attempting to connect, even though it is closed. The AirPods Max are still too expensive and not comfortable to take with you.

Apple Watch on the other hand (sorry) is a different story. I don’t agree with those saying that this is a small update. I like my Series 7. I love the bigger screen and improved sensors (compared to my previous Series 5). But I have to mention that software is lacking a lot. All the watch faces are bad, each in their own way. There are not many apps. It becomes too passive device for such a price.

Apple TV

Grade: E

I don’t think anything changed much. Yes, the remote got updated, but it is still the same overpriced box, that I can’t recommend to anyone, but Apple fanboys.

Services

Grade: F

This is a bit emotional grade, but where do I start? First, it is a year 2022 and the best tier of Apple One is still not available in Latvia. That means I’m overpaying for the storage because I have to pay for Apple One Family and additional 2 TB of storage, since I have a bit more than 400 GB stored in iCloud. Apple needs to add the Premier tier everywhere or give more options for storage upgrade.

Apple News+ and Apple Fitness+ are still not available in Latvia, as in most of the world. Apple Music apps are a joke. Everyone is enraged with 1Password going Electron, but Apple Music is so much worse.

Activity app on Apple Watch is making things worse, not better. I’ve been wearing Oura ring and after comparing the two, I can’t believe I’ve listened to those prompts. Apple Watch is constantly trying to push you – more, faster, more effort. Regardless of how you feel. I’ve had COVID-19 and Apple Watch expected me to close all the rings every day. While I woke up a bit under the weather with Oura ring, and it noticed and recommended I take things easier, maybe even take some rest days. I think Apple Watch Activity can be harmful.

HomeKit

Grade: D

It’s the app that exists. I love my colorful Hue lamps, but I mostly use them through Hue app. If you want a HomeKit enabled camera, you’ll have to look around for some time.

Hardware Reliability

Grade: A

Although I mentioned problems with AirPods Pro, this is the product from before. I don’t see any major issues with the offered hardware. I don’t even remember any of the new “gates”, which says a lot.

Software Quality

Grade: B

As I said, I’m restarting my phone quite a lot, the software is okay, but can be much better. I think there is a lot to cover and Apple needs some time and resources, and it will get better.

Developer Relations

Grade: E

Whatever you think of the Apple vs Epic conflict, it appeared only because Apple is bad at “relations”. Sony and Microsoft have both even worse deals in their stores, but nobody says a thing because they manage it much better. Apple, on the other hand, thinks only developers have to pray to them. But it is a two-way street, and there is no App Store without developers. The sooner Apple will understand that the better. Otherwise, they will be dragged through all the courts all over the world and the result will be much worse than if they made the changes themselves.

Environmental and Social Issues

Grade: C

Apple still is dependent on China. I don’t think anything changed or can be changed in the nearest future. So, no change in the grade year over year.

Apple Event — April 2021

April 20, 2021
5 min read

Long time since the last event and finally, we got one in 2021. There were many rumours, so let’s see what came true.

Services

The first and the most boring thing announced — Apple Card Family. You can now share credit as a couple and you can order a card for your 13-year-old. If you are in USA, that is.

Apple also announced Apple Podcast subscriptions. There were no details shared, except that you will be able to subscribe for ad-free listening, early access and more. What’s good — it will be available in 170 regions and countries from the start, which will be next month.

iPhone

Apple
Apple

It was surprising to hear “iPhone” as a part of the spring presentation, but there is just the new purple color for iPhone 12 and 12 Mini. Looks good and I like the precedent of updating colours. They did this with red before, but this is more similar to seasonal Apple Watch band additions.

Find My — AirTags

AirTags are released. Finally. Although not sure if many people are waiting for them. They use Find My network, you can personalise them with text or emoji. There are cases, including $300 — $400 Hermes ones.

If you have iPhone 12 with U1 chip, you can use Precision finding which shows you the precise location of the tag and navigates you to it. They cost $29 for one and $99 for the pack of four. Available April 30.

What’s good is the battery is standard and replaceable, so after more than a year of promised battery life you still will be able to use your AirTags.

Apple TV

Apple TV+

The only TV show trailer was of course for Season 2 of Ted Lasso, which can’t come soon enough. Apple shared the date of the release of the second season — July 23rd.

Apple TV 4K

Update to the same old Apple TV box. Now it will have A12 Bionic, which will enable to play High-frame rate HDR content.

They also added a cool Color Balance feature, which uses camera and sensors on your iPhone to calibrate the picture of Apple TV.

New square-sided remote, with a 5-way navigation click-pad, which is also touch enabled and has a circular gesture for rewinding (like an iPod). There is a power button to control TV and Siri button is on the side now.

It still costs $179 for 32 GB which is too much.

iMac

Apple
Apple

When they showed the new iMacs with M1, the first thought was — why did they leave the chin?! We’ve quickly learned that the whole computer fits into the chin, but I would rather have a thicker device and a display with a smaller bezel than this.

There are seven different colours, muted in the front, joyful in the back. It has an iPad Pro inspired design which makes it very thin, wiith 24” screen size in just a bit bigger body than 21.5” iMac.

1080p camera, together with M1 image-processing potentially will produce a great picture. New 6-speaker system is able to support Spatial audio.

I don’t understand why a desktop computer needs a magnetic connector, which is also attached such that it would be inconvenient to put it against the wall. On the other hand, ethernet port in the power brick is a nice touch.

There are also some new accessories. Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad are now white with color accents matching new iMacs. Magic Keyboard on the other hand, got the biggest update. It also matches the color of the iMac, but now it comes in three versions. First, similar to the old one, but with a couple of new buttons (like emoji-picker). Second, with added Touch ID and third with Touch ID and number pad.

There are two main configurations — $1299 which comes in 4 colors and $1499 which comes in 7 colors. But it is not the only difference, the more expensive one has 8-core GPU instead of 7, two additional USB 3 ports (lower-tier has only Two Thunderbolt ports) and it comes with Magic Keyboard with Touch ID.

iPad Pro

The most surprising announcement was that iPad Pro has an M1 in it, which makes it 50% faster than previous iPad Pro. It also has a higher tier 8-core GPU and new 2 TB configuration. New Thunderbolt port with USB-4 now supports Pro Display XDR in full 6K resolution.

Speaking of the display, 12.9” iPad Pro will now have the display similar in performance to the Pro Display XDR. It uses Mini-LED technology and now has both outstanding brightness and contrast ratio.

Of course, it has 5G, so you can have fast internet access whenever you go (in ideal conditions).

Moreover, a big update to the front facing camera, it now has Ultra-Wide sensor. Apple presented the Center Stage feature, which keeps you in the center of the picture and if you move it will crop accordingly. Looks nice in the demo.

It will be available in the second half of May for $799 for 11” and $1099 for 12.9”.

Now that iPad Pro is more powerful than ever, there still is a question of software. Even with M1 in May, it will power iPadOS 14, which won’t be able to use all this power. Some hope for the WWDC in June?

And at the end, I will leave you with two questions which popped to mind when they announced M1 in iPad Pro:

  1. How long until we see macOS on an iPad?
  2. When will Apple add 5G to the laptop?

Apple in 2020: My Report Card

March 15, 2021
7 min read

I like an annual look at Apple fromSix Colors, with commentaries from prominent people. Nobody asks me, but I have opinions, so here is my report card. Yes, I know it’s March already, but as there were no events or product releases from Apple I think it’s still relevant. 2020 was a good year for Apple in terms of hardware and not so great in terms of regulations and developer relations.

Mac

Grade: A

How can you give a different score when there was a release of Apple Silicon? It seems that M1 is just perfect, although I didn’t buy a new laptop yet, I’m very tempted. Last year was a turning point for the Mac and let’s hope it will continue that way.

The problems with keyboard are over, Apple designed processors are remarkable, we are just waiting for new hardware (redesigned iMac among other things, please).

For the last couple of years I didn’t use Mac much, so can’t give a mark regarding software quality, but I don’t mind Big Sur, from whatever use I got from it.

But all the changes Apple made tempt me to return to Mac and I think that tells a lot.

iPhone

Grade: A

This is the great year for an iPhone. First, iPhone SE — perfect budget phone, yes the design is a bit old, but internals are great and for that price it’s unbeatable.

Next, the iPhone 12 lineup is solid. Although, there are reports that Apple overestimated the demand for the Mini (and I believe them, just because when it was hard to find Pro Max every store had iPhone 12 Mini in abundance in every color), I loved holding one. If the camera was on par with the biggest one I would buy the Mini without hesitation.

Every time I buy a new iPhone, I get the one with the best camera and this time was no different. I got iPhone 12 Pro Max in glorious gold color and I love it. Still, after 4 months, sometimes I catch myself looking at it and enjoying it as a physical object.

One could argue there is one thing Apple missed with the iPhone this year — high refresh rate display. I would agree, but the current display is so good, I don’t see the difference even using it simultaneously with the iPad Pro (interestingly, I do see the difference when using Pro and non-Pro iPad).

All things considered — iPhone 12 Pro Max is the favourite thing I bought last year, and I bought many good things.

iOS 14 is also solid, with addition of widgets, the first time in a while I downloaded public beta before a release because I wanted new features like incoming calls as a notification and Picture in Picture.

iPad

Grade C

As an iPad Pro user I didn’t see much change. iPadOS 14 gave nothing, it’s hard to call 2020 iPad Pro new, so there was no need to upgrade. The only new addition this year is The Magic Keyboard, but it is too expensive for what it is. I know Apple products are expensive, and I gladly pay for them, but not this time, especially for 12.9” iPad Pro.

I’m waiting for a new new iPad Pro and probably will go for a smaller one (if everything else remains equal). I hope last year was a year of Mac and this year Apple will give attention to the iPad.

Watch and Wearables

Wearables: Grade: B

Watch: Grade B-

The only new product in wearables are The AirPods Max which I guess is a great product, but too pricey for many. I see myself buying them in the future and I think it is a compelling product for a niche audience.

I finally bought a pair of AirPods Pro, and they are great. Spatial audio is great, but unfortunately, it is not adopted by different services, so there is not much use.

Apple Watch on the other hand (sorry) didn’t compel me in any way. I bought one for my wife, but not because of some new feature, but because she wanted one, so I bought the latest. With Series 5 there was a big selling point — always-on display, they could’ve left everything else untouched I would’ve still bought one the first day, but with Series 6, there is nothing even remotely similar.

Apple Watch SE, although a nice addition, is overpriced for what it is and will probably become more viable after a price drop.

Apple TV

Grade: F

It’s just laughable. I did buy one last year or a year before, but wouldn’t have now. I have everything Apple offers on my LG OLED TV (Fitness+ the only thing missing, but it is missing everywhere in the world and hardware has nothing to do with it). Apple TV box wasn’t updated in years and still costs a lot. You can’t even compare it to other boxes, sure there is a privacy angle, but common, it’s comically expensive and internals are outdated.

Services

Grade: C

I’m starting to get frustrated. I didn’t understand why Apple News+ is not available in my country, but okay, there could’ve been some rights issues or something, it’s not Apple’s content, but Fitness+, really? Apple makes all the videos, so in this case they do own the content, why not make it available everywhere? I hope they know people over the world speak English… And because of that Apple One Premiere is not available in Latvia. So to have more storage, I have to pay extra and the idea of a bundle and one payment is not working.

I did subscribe to the family Apple One bundle plus an additional 200 GB of storage, so Apple is taking my money monthly.

The really great thing about services — Ted Lasso, of course. I’ve watched it three times already, it’s so good.

HomeKit

Grade: C

I only started to use smart home appliances and I don’t see much from Apple. Home app is not great, Apple doesn’t provide accessories themselves, so I’m not even sure what to grade here.

Hardware reliability

Grade: A

All my Apple hardware worked perfectly last year (maybe because I didn’t buy a laptop with a butterfly keyboard). The only thing I’m afraid of — problems with AirPods Pro, but so far they work, so can’t say anything bad.

Software quality

Grade: B

Although the iOS 14 and watchOS 7 are solid, I still have some inexplicable problems from time to time. Mail stops showing messages until a restart is the latest. Notifications in Big Sur are bad, but luckily, I don’t use macOS a lot.

Developer relations

Grade: C

I think Apple had an awful year with developers. It tried to improve it with the commission cut at the end of the year, but there were still many questions. The whole Epic saga and Hey fiasco gave a lot of bad publicity. Whoever you support in both situations, Apple still doesn’t look good.

Environmental and social issues

Grade: C

It’s hard to give a high score to a company which is so heavily reliant on Chinese labor and precious metals mines. Whatever Apple tells, it remains a badly kept secret that working conditions there are below humane. I know Apple can’t change everything, but they are so vocal about some things, that you start question why they are not about the other.

They tried to do a lot of good regarding Covid-19, but contact tracing went nowhere, I would say fortunately, but that is another topic altogether.

Taking a charger out of the box, while understandable, still doesn’t sound like something totally because of the environment.

Apple Event – November 2020

November 16, 2020
4 min read

It was another instalment of the beautiful commercial made by Apple, filled with amazing transitions and views of the Apple Park.

The presentation was short with a couple of minutes of recap by Tim Cook of all the products announced in the last 8 weeks.

This time there was a lot of background music when presenters were talking and I didn’t enjoy it, as it portrayed the ad vibe even more.

In the end they showed a bit with a PC guy from the old Mac vs PC commercials, it was OK. Judging by Twitter old-time Mac fans enjoyed it.

One More Thing — The Mac

Right at the beginning Tim Cook emphasised that One More Thing this time was relating to THE Mac. So, no AirTags, AirPods Studio or other devices.

I was surprised to learn that over 50% of Mac buyers are new to the system. On the other hand, with such a strong quarter for Mac, it is not a surprise that those weren’t only those who updated their computers.

They’ve made a commercial (yes, a commercial inside the commercial) showing many celebrities with Macs and a lot of those were with glowing logo. In black and white it was noticeable that they made focus on that, as it looked cool, but Apple doesn’t make such laptops anymore…

MacOS Big Sur

What they couldn’t show before is how macOS is better with Apple Silicon. It is more similar to the iOS and iPadOS in some regards. I know the internet is all about scores for CPU, but everyday little things are more important for the experience, especially on the types of machines Apple introduced. It launches apps instantly and more importantly it instantly wakes from sleep, just like iOS.

M1

This is the start of the next generation of Mac. First System on a chip for low-power Mac computers. It has 8-core CPU (4 High and 4 Low performance cores) and Apple says the High-performance core is the fastest core in the world right now.

All the new Macs

Apple introduced 3 new Macs, and they are similar to each other — MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac Mini. For the first one it is a complete transition — you can’t buy Air with an Intel processor anymore. For the latter two it is the mainstream, low performance models, with Intel laptop and Mac mini still being sold as an option.

What they have in common is that all three have the same M1. You can choose up to 2 TB of SSD and 16 GB of RAM.

What is different is battery life in case of MacBook Pro and continuous performance. What that means is although the processor is the same because MacBook Air doesn’t have a fan and other two models do, they can not only reach the same speed as Air, but sustain it for longer periods of times.

It’s a shame that they didn’t update the camera in laptops. It is still the same 720p, very mediocre camera. Although the picture will be improved by the SoC thanks to Machine Learning.

Because Apple doesn’t sell any other display, it was funny how in every picture or video of people using Mac mini it was standing right on the stand of Apple XDR monitor, the stand for which costs $300 more than the computer itself.

I was blown away by the numbers provided regarding the battery life and am very optimistic about Mac lineup and will probably end up buying one of the laptops introduced (most probably MacBook Air). But of course the more exciting things will come out, when Apple will show iMac and Mac Pro with Apple Silicon inside. I can’t even imagine what will be possible with M1X (or whatever it will be called) where because of no thermal limitations there could be 16 cores and most of them would be High-performance.

Apple March Non-Event

March 19, 2020
4 min read

On March 18th Apple surprised everyone with the announcement of new and updated products.

It was rumored long ago that there was an Apple event planned for the end of March, but with the COVID-19 going around the globe everyone understood that it wouldn’t be possible to organize. So they’ve published the press release and it looks like either press only got the devices now or are still under embargo.

Let’s go through the products starting from the least important and moving to the most interesting one.

“Mac mini Also Updated Today”

The only update was the storage, it now starts at 256GB, which is the bare minimum today. As someone with the 256GB on all three of my Apple devices (iPhone, iPad and MacBook) I can’t understand how anyone would survive with less.

MacBook Air

Everyone was waiting for an updated keyboard making it’s way through the whole lineup and not just being in the 16” MacBook Pro, this day has come. With the new keyboard, 256GB storage as a base and a new (old) starting price of $999, this is again the best default computer there is. Except, we can’t be sure what a computer is right now…

iPad

Apple unveiled the new iPad Pro, of course it has a new chip, which is faster and more powerful. As a previous generation iPad Pro owner I can’t see how you would be able to see this, as the tablet is fast as hell still.

It has two cameras now, adding the 10MP Ultra Wide to the back, making it look like an iPhone 11. In a year, I am pretty sure that I didn’t take one photo with my iPad Pro. I know there are people who like to hold huge tablet in front of their face at schools and in touristy places, but I’m not one of them. I love editing photos on my 12.9” iPad Pro, but I would probably miss the shot before reaching for the iPad in my bag.

LiDAR Scanner is the weakest point in todays announcement, not from the technology point of view, but from the delivery. If you read everything Apple has provided, it just makes AR a bit better and promising a lot. Knowing Apple there should be a lot more information, either with the announcement of iOS 14 or more likely iPhone 12. It just made sense to include the hardware right now, but the software story is not yet ready.

Magic Keyboard and Trackpad Support

This is the biggest news, not only for me, but reading tweets for a was majority of potential or current iPad Pro users. Seeing videos, it looks like pointer support in iPadOS got much better. And the most interesting thing – it happened today, not in September with the release of iOS 14, but in March with iOS 13.4 (public release in a week).

The best news is that new keyboard with the trackpad is compatible with the now previous generation iPad. The worst news is the price – $299 for the 11-inch and $349 for the 12.9-inch. That is a lot of money, it is actually more than the price of the standard iPad itself. It looks nice, I’m sure the trackpad will be amazing, as Apple always excelled in making those and they now come in different colors. I’m not sure I would buy one yet, will try out pointer support first.

Pretty strong announcement from Apple, if they won’t surprise us again with the everyday announcements, I’m not sure this would be enough for the whole event, but it is more than enough for the press release.

I’m not in the market for a new iPad, as my previous generation 12.9-inch one is fast enough, screen and design didn’t change much and I don’t use cameras. Thankfully, Apple made the new Magic Keyboard for iPad compatible with the older models. Oh, and regarding the MacBook, I have one MacBook Pro already lying around not being used for months, so who need those, right?

WWDC 2019 Keynote Impressions – macOS

June 8, 2019
5 min read

This was a surprisingly powerful part of the keynote. All the talk before the WWDC was about iPad improvements and Mac Pro, so I wasn’t expecting such a strong showing from macOS. First, the name – Catalina, sounds beautiful and I don’t even know where to start, there was so much. 

Screen Time for macOS – logical addition. It helped me to realize how much time I’ve spent on social media, but after that didn’t use it almost at all, hope with some improvements and macOS version will use it more.

The break-up of iTunes, the end of the era. It was arguably the iTunes and the Music Store which helped Apple to reach the position it has right now. Instead there are three new apps and iPhone synchronization moved to the finder. The two apps I probably won’t use – TV and Podcasts. One of them, Podcasts, is made using the new developers tools I’ll mention later, but I will wait for Marco Arment to port Overcast app to the Mac, as his sound engine is superior and synchronization between devices is a key feature.

The one app I intend on using more is Apple Music. Right now, even when I’m working on my MacBook and with ease that you can switch AirPods to the Mac I listen to the music from my iPhone. iTunes for using Apple Music just sucks. It’s so big an clunky. 

The one feature I liked the idea of during the presentation – Sidecar. I’ve also heard only good things about the app after the keynote, but then I’ve found out I won’t be able to run it on my Mac, because it’s too old. So maybe I’ll have to buy Luna Display after all. This actually is very representative of something that everyone calls Sherlocking – Apple copying something that 3rd parties do already. They do some part of it, but not all, so developers can still sell their devices or software to those who need something more powerful or, like in this case, to those who have older computers.

I loved the presentation of Voice Control, fortunately I don’t need it, but the video looked very lovely. It’s nice that Apple tries to provide the way for everyone to use their devices.

Again, one of those things that has been tried before, but probably can only be delivered by the company of Apple scale – MacBook private Bluetooth beacon. When someone steels your laptop it sends Bluetooth signal (very low power, so battery won’t drain) to the nearest Apple devices and this creates mesh network which in the end provides you with the location of the stolen device. Amazing, with the amount of Apple devices in the world, this solution is the one that can definitely work.

As I’ve mentioned before I have an older Mac, which doesn’t have Touch ID, I love how my MacBook unlocks itself when my Apple Watch is near, now it will be possible to do even more, that is the promise of Approve with Apple Watch. Hopefully it will work on my MacBook and Apple Watch and will help me everyday, so I won’t have to type my passwords all the time.

One of the biggest additions this year – Project Catalyst, that is continuation of last year mentioned Sneak Peak, which everyone called Project Marzipan. Let’s not dwell on the name Catalyst in macOS Catalina. I’m sure it will be a bit of a struggle to remember which is which, but the macOS name will change in a year, so the problem won’t stay for long.

The idea behind it is helping iOS developers to port their apps to the macOS. From what Apple showed us it looks good and right at home on the Mac. Again, Podcasts app was written using Project Catalyst and from the looks it’s hard to tell it apart from Apple Music. I love that at least some of my favorite iOS apps will come to the Mac, like Overcast for example. 

The apps Apple decided to show off on stage were a bit odd. Calling Asphalt 9 Legends and Amazing Mac App, was a bit much. Although it’s a developers conference, but Jira is not the most beloved software in the world, but it proved the point, now you could move your iOS app to the Mac.

The last big thing that got mentioned and I will discuss it here was SwiftUI. It’s a new framework which makes making an app so much easier. It will work on Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV. And looking at the demo, I wanted to again try to learn coding. 

So as you can see, pretty strong keynote for macOS. I think it shows that Apple is still serious about Mac and there is hope that this OS will have bright future.

WWDC 2019 Keynote Impressions – Mac Pro

June 7, 2019
2 min read

Between the trash can Mac Pro going for a couple of years without an upgrade and problems with MacBook Pro keyboards, you could see how Apple was not very serious about the professional market (excluding iPad Pro, of course). But then Apple assured everyone they are working on the new modular Mac Pro and also release iMac Pro. 

It was hard to imagine how Apple can release a more powerful machine and boy did they deliver. Speaking in car market terms this is super car. It is even close to the concept car. The amount of power this cheese grater looking machine has is unimaginable to me. 

I still can’t believe there is a computer in the world, which you can just put on your desk with 1.5TB of memory. I don’t even hame so much storage between all my computing devices. 

I hope pros are really happy with this announcement and will be able to use it. I can’t even imagine how much the top of the line configuration will cost, $40,000?

Pro Display XDR

This is probably the most controversial announcement from the keynote. This is the most amazing display I’ve ever seen. Basically Apple presented the $40,000 reference display for under $10k, now it sounds better? 

Regarding the stand – I will sound like a fanboy, but this looks like the most precise and engineered stand for the monitor. Also, this display is for professionals, who have mounts already on their desk, the display part is swappable, so when they buy a new display they just put it in place of the old one. They don’t need a stand and it’s actually better that this one is sold separately. 

The one thing I wish Apple would do and I think a lot of people agree – also make a prosumer display. Take iMac 5k display and sell it separately. Right now if I want to buy Mac Mini or even an external display for my laptop or iPad I have nothing from Apple, I sure won’t spend $7000 on a display. 

Overall, even as someone who doesn’t need all this power, it was amazing to watch what is possible and it sure shows that Apple is still serious about pro Mac market.