Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
All Things Apple (was MacBook Air, but things evolve...)
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
edited December 2024
If you look at Apple’s promotional material during the M4 launch, they were largely comparing the M4 to the M1 and M2 in the speed comparison graphs, which is usually a sign that they view those as potential upgrade customers. Similarly in a lot of recommendation and review videos on YouTube, the tech reviewers typically say that coming from the M1 the new M4 is a very nice upgrade.
Don’t get me wrong, a doubling of the cpu and gpu speed is excellent, but I am sticking with my M1 iMac. Basically the machine is still as buttery smooth as it was when launched, and it is more than fast enough for my modest needs. I’m happy to hang onto it, and not have to spend the time and money on an upgrade.
If I had bought the base spec version with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, I might feel differently about upgrading. To take full advantage of AI at least 16 GB of RAM seems required. But I spent the money on 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. So I’d say that if you are planning to hold onto a computer for a long while, say 7-10 years, then it’s prudent to bump the RAM and storage at least one bracket when you buy, especially since on the new Macs this is almost impossible to upgrade yourself.
0
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
edited December 2024
I’ve found it best to rely on external storage for most of my bulk storage needs. I have about 500 GB of video and audio files that I like to keep available, and rather than stretch to 1 TB or 2 TB of internal storage at Apple’s prices I’ve attached a USB-C external drive at a fraction of the cost.
I use a 2 TB Samsung T7 SSD, which is about the size of a thick credit card and has a read/write speed of about 1 GB/s which pretty much saturates a USB-C 3.5 port. That’s plenty fast enough to allow me to stream and open my data more or less instantly, as I don’t do any video editing. It’s not as fast as Apple’s internal storage, but it was 150 euros instead of 800.
If you are a video professional who needs a Thunderbolt 4 or 5 drive, then it’s available but at a cost several times greater. But why pay more when less will still give satisfactory performance?
You can now choose to install large apps (greater than 1 GB) to an external drive, which must be APFS formatted, which can be convenient. You can set this up in the Mac App Store application.
0
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
I’ve been reading about this interesting book, called Apple in China about how Apple’s fate is now largely tied to its Chinese manufacturing operation. Very interesting snippets so far.
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
iPhones are definitely getting more expensive. The newly announced budget iPhone 16e is €719 in the Netherlands including VAT, and these budget iPhones used to be €500 a few years back.
But then, I don’t think there is a lot of reason to buy a more expensive iPhone Pro anymore, especially at €1229. Most of the good photographic features like 48MP, Portrait Mode and 2x zoom have made their way down to the 16e, and it’s very debatable whether 2 extra gpu cores and a 5x zoom mode are worth it.
0
personDon't believe everything you thinkThe liminal spaceVeteran
@Jeroen said:
iPhones are definitely getting more expensive. The newly announced budget iPhone 16e is €719 in the Netherlands including VAT, and these budget iPhones used to be €500 a few years back.
But then, I don’t think there is a lot of reason to buy a more expensive iPhone Pro anymore, especially at €1229. Most of the good photographic features like 48MP, Portrait Mode and 2x zoom have made their way down to the 16e, and it’s very debatable whether 2 extra gpu cores and a 5x zoom mode are worth it.
This has kind of been my way of adopting new tech. Wait a few years and all the leading edge tech will be commonplace and half the price.
3
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
For me, the key things I will not compromise on are battery life, the quality of the main camera (I only need one), and responsiveness (which comes down to the speed of the performance cpu cores).
This new 16e has 26 hours of video playback battery life, which is the same as a 16 Pro Max which is very impressive. The only thing I am not so sure about is the new C1 modem chip, which handles calls, Wi-Fi, etc. For a generation one Apple product it is crucial that it be reliable… Better not to buy on launch day I think.
But there are a whole bunch of features which are not trickling down to lower-priced products for the sake of product differentiation and price. OLED screens, the telephoto camera, the camera control button, the Dynamic Island.
Maybe this is the future though…
0
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
Although if that’s the future it’s out of my budget at €2000
0
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
It seems there is a bit of a controversy in the land of Apple commentators, and it’s about the implementation of AI. All the ambitious features of ‘Apple Intelligence’, such as context-aware Siri queries, have been delayed by a year, and we will have to see whether Google’s or Amazon’s digital assistents are not much better before the new Siri is ready.
I bought the latest iPad Air with that M3 chip. I have to say I am extremely satisfied with it. Compared to my Samsung S3 Lite ... well.. What a difference! It also has a left-handed mode which is ideal as with my other tablet I kept having issues due to my palm triggering the screen / text to move.
Comments
If you look at Apple’s promotional material during the M4 launch, they were largely comparing the M4 to the M1 and M2 in the speed comparison graphs, which is usually a sign that they view those as potential upgrade customers. Similarly in a lot of recommendation and review videos on YouTube, the tech reviewers typically say that coming from the M1 the new M4 is a very nice upgrade.
Don’t get me wrong, a doubling of the cpu and gpu speed is excellent, but I am sticking with my M1 iMac. Basically the machine is still as buttery smooth as it was when launched, and it is more than fast enough for my modest needs. I’m happy to hang onto it, and not have to spend the time and money on an upgrade.
If I had bought the base spec version with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, I might feel differently about upgrading. To take full advantage of AI at least 16 GB of RAM seems required. But I spent the money on 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. So I’d say that if you are planning to hold onto a computer for a long while, say 7-10 years, then it’s prudent to bump the RAM and storage at least one bracket when you buy, especially since on the new Macs this is almost impossible to upgrade yourself.
I’ve found it best to rely on external storage for most of my bulk storage needs. I have about 500 GB of video and audio files that I like to keep available, and rather than stretch to 1 TB or 2 TB of internal storage at Apple’s prices I’ve attached a USB-C external drive at a fraction of the cost.
I use a 2 TB Samsung T7 SSD, which is about the size of a thick credit card and has a read/write speed of about 1 GB/s which pretty much saturates a USB-C 3.5 port. That’s plenty fast enough to allow me to stream and open my data more or less instantly, as I don’t do any video editing. It’s not as fast as Apple’s internal storage, but it was 150 euros instead of 800.
If you are a video professional who needs a Thunderbolt 4 or 5 drive, then it’s available but at a cost several times greater. But why pay more when less will still give satisfactory performance?
You can now choose to install large apps (greater than 1 GB) to an external drive, which must be APFS formatted, which can be convenient. You can set this up in the Mac App Store application.
I’ve been reading about this interesting book, called Apple in China about how Apple’s fate is now largely tied to its Chinese manufacturing operation. Very interesting snippets so far.
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/02/03/apple-in-china-mcgee
iPhones are definitely getting more expensive. The newly announced budget iPhone 16e is €719 in the Netherlands including VAT, and these budget iPhones used to be €500 a few years back.
But then, I don’t think there is a lot of reason to buy a more expensive iPhone Pro anymore, especially at €1229. Most of the good photographic features like 48MP, Portrait Mode and 2x zoom have made their way down to the 16e, and it’s very debatable whether 2 extra gpu cores and a 5x zoom mode are worth it.
This has kind of been my way of adopting new tech. Wait a few years and all the leading edge tech will be commonplace and half the price.
For me, the key things I will not compromise on are battery life, the quality of the main camera (I only need one), and responsiveness (which comes down to the speed of the performance cpu cores).
This new 16e has 26 hours of video playback battery life, which is the same as a 16 Pro Max which is very impressive. The only thing I am not so sure about is the new C1 modem chip, which handles calls, Wi-Fi, etc. For a generation one Apple product it is crucial that it be reliable… Better not to buy on launch day I think.
But there are a whole bunch of features which are not trickling down to lower-priced products for the sake of product differentiation and price. OLED screens, the telephoto camera, the camera control button, the Dynamic Island.
Maybe this is the future though…
Although if that’s the future it’s out of my budget at €2000
It seems there is a bit of a controversy in the land of Apple commentators, and it’s about the implementation of AI. All the ambitious features of ‘Apple Intelligence’, such as context-aware Siri queries, have been delayed by a year, and we will have to see whether Google’s or Amazon’s digital assistents are not much better before the new Siri is ready.
I bought the latest iPad Air with that M3 chip. I have to say I am extremely satisfied with it. Compared to my Samsung S3 Lite ... well.. What a difference! It also has a left-handed mode which is ideal as with my other tablet I kept having issues due to my palm triggering the screen / text to move.