When it was fast

There’s a new release of macOS version 27, and I have to say it’s the first time my M1 Max MacBook Pro is starting to feel sluggish. (The latest Apple chip is the M6.) Adobe Lightroom importing doesn’t feel as snappy as before. More than one Google Chrome tab? Forget about it.

And that’s the problem with computer chips chasing after better performance year after year. The software running on those chips expand to fill the provided bandwidth. Hardware and software progresses symbiotically. With more power, comes more code to use that extra power.

Older hardware gets forsaken and disregarded. My M1 laptop fully supports macOS 27, but let’s be honest, macOS 27 is written for a newer and faster platform. Why wouldn’t Apple optimize their newest operating system to run maximally with their latest hardware? They then throttle down the performance to fit the smaller performance envelopes of the older stuff. Game developers aren’t using the less powerful XBOX Series S as the benchmark; they code for the Series X, then scale it back for the poverty XBOX.

Just as Series S does not run games as well as Series X, my M1 MacBook Pro isn’t running macOS 27 as smoothly as an M5 MacBook Pro. By design.

It didn’t feel this way at first, of course. Any current model year Mac computer feels completely speedy and snappy when first purchased. Even Intel-powered Macs, horrendously slow by today’s standards, was fully adequate when launched. It’s after the first year of ownership, and subsequent years later, when the OS upgrades accumulate, that the sluggishness creeps in. Until about five years later and you feel compelled to upgrade because it all just feels a bit slow.

I will not be buying a new computer this year. The ongoing war in Iran and the latent inflation to come (we haven’t yet seen the full results of the oil shock), it’s important to have reserves for the truly necessary. Because those necessities will and are costing more.

View fullsize

Egg party.

Finally a new iMac

Yesterday, Apple announced the awaited proliferation of its magnificent M1 chip to the iMac. However, it’s just not the one people like me are waiting for. Serving duty in the totally redesigned iMac is the same M1 chip in the 13-inch MacBook Pro and the Mac mini. An amazing chip in its own right, but us power-users are looking for something more worthy of a “pro” suffix.

This is just the beginning, of course: the new iMac announced yesterday is only the replacement for the entry level 21.5-inch. The 27-inch iMac we know and love soldiers on for awhile longer with the Intel chips, until more beefier Apple silicon is ready for the show. Apple have set the stage nicely for an iMac Pro lineup, whenever the more capable M1 chips arrive. I myself am waiting for that same chips to show up on a new 16-inch class MacBook Pro. Fingers crossed for later this year.

Nevertheless, the iMac gets a major design change in nearly a decade. It’s now essentially the biggest iPad imaginable (24-inch wide, this new entry-level iMac is) fixed on a display pedestal. That’s it: there’s no bulge, no curves, nothing extraneous. Due to the impossibly thinness, there’s now an external power-brick, which is something laptops users have been used to for the longest time. Finally there’s now a keyboard with Touch ID, again, something MacBook Pro users are familiar with, though it’s going to cost $50 dollars extra over the standard keyboard.

Very worth it to tick that option, I would say.

I think the new design looks fantastic, especially the return of colors that isn’t a shade of greyscale. If I were in the market for an M1 iMac, the blue would be the one. I do wonder if the forthcoming iMac Pro will keep such a colorful palette options. Probably not, because professionals are serious people, and only blacks and silvers will suffice!

View fullsize

The roundabout, confounding Americans since inception.

No TouchBar is okay with me

It’s a new year, so we’re all looking forward to what sweet Apple products are forthcoming this calendar. The introduction of the M1-powered Macs late in 2020 was an absolute game-changer, and we eagerly await the Apple silicon to proliferate to other models. A MacBook Air is nice, but for my purposes I need something more substantial. As a current user of an Intel-powered MacBook Pro 16-inch, the eventual M1 equivalent to come is what I am anticipating highly.

I thought I’d want an iMac with Apple silicon instead. The vast screen real-estate is not to be ignored, especially now that we are mostly working from home. However, the romance of being a “digital nomad” - being able to go and be anywhere at any moment - holds large over my psyche. The biggest Mac laptop - in dimension - that Apple sells remains the right product category for me. An iMac is rather difficult to take with you.

Lots of rumors are abound on what the M1-powered 16-inch MacBook Pros will be like. There’s talks of the return of MagSafe charging, though the lack of it currently hasn’t been that bothersome for me. There’s talk of the return of SD card slot, which would be very welcomed for a hobbyist photographer like myself that deals primarily in that storage format.

Finally, there’s talks of the eliminating the TouchBar, the controversial touch surface that replaces the function row on the keyboard. The advantage of the TouchBar is that it allow for content-aware, app-specific keys, rather than a fixed set that cannot be changed. Sounds great on paper, but personally it’s not something I use at all (much like shortcuts on iOS). Perhaps I’m a bit of a simpleton: all I need from the function row are the basics adjustments for screen brightness, and the media controls. The rest of the time I largely ignore the contextual keys that pops open. Emoji keyboard? I never use it.

Like the controversial “butterfly” keyboard, I would be happy to see the TouchBar go into the Apple museum of tried but unsuccessful ideas.

View fullsize

Simple and elegant.

Apple silicon Macs

Let’s talk a bit about the Macs with Apple silicon. Announced last week and releasing this week, there’s new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini equipped with Apple’s M1 chip, a derivative from its illustrious line of A series chips that’s been powering iPhones and iPads for a decade. Long story short: Apple is abandoning Intel because the chipmaker is unable to produce CPUs with the power and efficiency that Apple requires. Apple’s own in-house team has done such a fantastic job with the iPhone chips that porting it to the Mac platform is the next logical leap.

And the benchmarks show the M1 is simply amazing. Single and multi-thread scores equalling or better than Intel’s latest 11th generation chips, with only the very top-of-line still holding a slight advantage (I can cherish my Intel-powered 16-inch MacBook Pro for quite a bit longer). Keep in mind the M1 represents only the “entry level” product from Apple, and it does this amazing performance with incredible power efficiency - battery life on the new laptops is well above 10 hours. The M1 MacBook Air doesn’t even have system fan.

And because Apple now practically owns the whole stack, the seamless integration between software and hardware means the M1 Macs can get more performance out of a single unit of speed. The supreme fluidity of using a modern iPhones and iPads has come to the Mac as well, which is just fantastic.

I cannot wait for the truly “Pro” products to come out with Apple silicon, offering even more performance, and more than the 16 gigabytes of RAM and 2 terabytes of SSD that the new M1 Macs maxes out on. The only question is what should I buy: a MacBook Pro to replace my current 16-inch machine, or a new, hopefully redesigned iMac to compliment the mobile product? A confounding and fun conundrum to ponder on. I sold my 2017 iMac to consolidate down to a single laptop, so it would be interesting if I reverse the decision.

Intel and the rest of the PC world should be on high notice.

View fullsize

Hofmeister.