GMC:er Posts: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
There was an old saying that "The Revolution Will Be Televised.". Probably though, the revolution will be streamed. What revolution? The digital revolution of course that is coming for your souls!!! just kidding. Seriously though, the big revolution at hand is the idea that all applications the Apple universe will be the same for Mobile Devices and Desktop/Laptops. We are in the "transition phase" right now. ONE APP STORE TO RULE THEM ALL Eventually, there will be only one App Store. The same app you run on your phone will be the exact same app you run on your laptop. E.G. You will have a version of Photoshop or what not, that will be the exact same app whether you run it on your phone/tablet/macbook/etc. It might adjust to screen dimensions, but it's the same app. Presumably, the same will be true for things like LOGIC and FINAL CUT PRO.
This is the big idea apple has been working toward for years. They have finally gotten away from Intel Chips and just bought a company that makes mobile chips instead (ARM) and are gonna use those for phones and laptops. Here is the first release. A new macbook air that DOESN"T USE A FAN, of any kind to cool it. Nope. Doesn't need one. It runs a mobile chip that really doesn't need a fan and it just sips electricity since it's a mobile chip, and Apple has optimized the OS to work well with it.
That's the advantage of "vertical Integration", E.G. Owning the entire production pipeline. Here is a handy vid This guy tries out the new M1 (mobile chip) powered MAC MINI, MACBOOK PRO, and MACBOOK AIR. The performance difference between these is evidently not much as they all now share similar hardware in terms of their guts. The first apps to be "universal" (run on any mac/phone) will be those from Apple. So if you use FINAL CUT or LOGIC PRO, this is the future for the hardware you will be using at some point. Eventually Apple declares all hardware “Legacy” and stops supporting it. So if you have an Intel based Mac, watch this space. It will still be supported for a few years while this transition is in play, but they are eager to make the switch and get away from Intel Chips in the stores/support/etc.
Here are all three currently available M1 machines. ---
So you can get in to a mac now for under $700 with the mac mini base model. Keep in mind though, UPGRADES ARE HISTORY for the most part. You will want to have the memory/ssd/etc. Built to spec when you buy it.
ONLY 16 GB RAM? One thing to keep in mind. So far, Apple seems to be limiting the RAM in these new machines to 16gb. That seems almost paltry in a 2020 build to be honest. I’d say 16gb is a minimum for Audio/Video creation and even photo editing. True, the new architecture is built to make good use of ram. Still, i hope they raise that bar just a bit.
Also, the main difference between the Macbook Air and Pro is not what it once was. In previous years, the Macbook pro had better graphics, faster processor, etc. Now it’s mostly a bigger screen and the touch bar, etc. Given the Macbook Pro costs double what the Mini costs, the Mini seems like the best value for an M1 based machine. Maybe next year they will take the ram up to 32 GB but each 8 GB of ram in the mac universe is $200. Which is wildly overpriced imho. However, since they are soldering it to the motherboard, you have no choice. You pretty much have to pay whatever they decide as you can no longer upgrade it after market. It’s like a phone. You pay for all the features at time of purchase. The mobile business has been good to Apple and they have now reconfigured their desktop/laptop business as an extension of Mobile.
GMC:er Posts: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Here is a tear down inside view of the Mac Mini. The logic board is very small. You can see the chip and ram and storage soldered on to the motherboard. The hard drive is smaller than a bottle cap. It sorta looks like the inside of an ipad which makes since as they share similar dna. None of this can be upgraded after market. As mentioned before, that's Apple's goal. To have users buy a system that can't be modified and that Apple controls the pricing of. They are gonna make serious money on this stuff.
