[Frank777]

Well we're two days away from the Keynote and nothing important has leaked.
At this point, Apple may have to leak something themselves tomorrow, if they want crowds to watch.

I don't recall a WWDC that was so unanticipated, the discussion thread here wasn't even started until less than 48 hours prior.


Personally, I expect updates to the whole family of Apple operating systems.

In terms of hardware, I want to see what happens with the Pro, and also if the Watch gets any new significant health features.

[psmith2.0]

Oh, it’s Monday!

Yeah, this has just flown over my head. Only thing I’m really interested in is if something happens on the MacBook Air front, to see if those redesign rumors pan out. I never really get too wound up about the OS updates, but, naturally that’s a big part of this gathering. I may watch it with the sound real low unless/until I see something that interests me.

I can no longer deal with Tim’s voice and Jimmy leg, and the parade of presenters who usually come across as though they’ve never spoken to a group larger than seven people.

These post-Steve keynotes can be a bit of a slog, and a chore to sit through. But I’ll keep it in a small, quiet window as I work, in case something interesting/cool accidentally happens.

[chucker]

I'm hoping for advances to SwiftUI (it still feels more like a tech demo than something for big apps; then again, Microsoft's UI frameworks of late have been stuck in that state for years, too).

Maybe some cool new thing on the Watch. watchOS 8 was… iterative at best.

Also, pleaaaaaase bring back iOS 14's ability to do DnD except when unlocked. I'd love to set a separate focus for that.

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 the parade of presenters who usually come across as though they’ve never spoken to a group larger than seven people. These post-Steve keynotes can be a bit of a slog, and a chore to sit through.

Bit harsh but not wrong. I think they want to avoid having too much the Tech White Dude Sameness. They could have Craig do much of the presentation but it wouldn't be a good look diversity-wise. However, many of them sound like they came straight from Apple University Presentation 101, and the end result is something that's simply too formulaic. They seem a bit like what they remember Stevenotes to be like, not what they were actually like. He'd show far fewer things and instead display passion for those few things.

Also, maybe a notch fewer superlatives.

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by chucker Bit harsh but not wrong.

Cool, you just pegged me at the molecular/DNA level. Congrats.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 Cool, you just pegged me at the DNA/molecular level. Congrats.

Didn't mean to come off as a dick.

[psmith2.0]

Not at all. That’s totally me…sometimes a tad indelicate/un-PC in my presentation or phrasing*, but rarely just outright wrong about shit.

I thought it was funny.



*But never any true malice or venom in my heart.

[chucker]

Gotcha. I can't read you, man.

My "wait, did I offend him?" meter was at 70%.

[Frank777]

Now this is more like it. Here we go.

[kieran]

I'm seriously thinking about overhauling my entire setup if things are announced in a certain way.

Currently, I have a 13" M1 MBP with a 24" iMac with LG 4K 27" monitor on the side.

I'm considering trying in the iMac and MBP for an updated Mac mini, Studio Display, and updated MBA.

I don't do anything computer intensive, so the MBA and Mac mini would be more than enough. I haven't gotten the MBA in the past because I haven't liked the design since I bought the first MBA.

I think I could get away with the 27" Studio Display with the MBA docked next to it with Universal Control instead of having the 2 big monitors. I just want to clean up my setup a bit, but who knows.

[709]

I wouldn't say no to an updated Apple TV, but haven't really seen any rumors that it may be on the menu today. New, more powerful and porty Mac mini would be keen.

[turtle]

I'm really looking forward to what is presented at the keynote. I have no pending purchases, but things should only get better with the AS getting up to full speed.

I'm less tied to Intel now, one because I want more flexibility and running VMs and remote connecting to them seems to solve my needs.

[psmith2.0]

The usual sites seem quite confident that a new MacBook Air is going to be announced. Whether it's still called that - seems a little silly if it loses the taper and light, sleek "airy" vibe, after all - is still up in the...um, air. Maybe today is when they finally just go with "MacBook" for the non-Pro notebooks, greatly simplifying things? I can dig it.

We'll see in about three hours.

We need to come up with Keynote Bingo. Or a drinking game. There are so many predictable, always-happens aspects to these things, we'd all be lying on the floor, incoherent, after about 40 minutes if we did the drinking game.

"Take two shots every time Tim overstates something with far too many superlatives to sound natural or believable."






Call 911...I's done got alcohol poisoning!

😵🥴🤢

[chucker]

A bingo card that’s all superlatives except for one field which is AR.

[turtle]

Not to be a "store's down post" but isn't all day of the even longer than normal? I seem to recall that normally the store goes down right about the time of the event but not the whole day before the event.

This does indicate a number of changes to me. Maybe some general layout and not just items on sale.

[turtle]

Originally Posted by chucker A bingo card that’s all superlatives except for one field which is AR.

I'm really curious if they will account this at all. So many rumors about this and then retracted. I think the current is that it will be a separate event. I know my son has been watching stuff on this and jonesing for one.

[psmith2.0]

I think in recent years (new iPhone day), I've noticed the store being down since 9-10am ET. I think some new hardware is definitely coming, as a result. If they were just going to do nothing but talk about the upcoming OS's, Swift, retail initiatives, services and stuff, there's no reason to take the entire store down for hours and hours.

We just have to hope that maybe it's for a bit more than some new watchbands or a new iPad keyboard/stand.

Two hours to go, my money is on the following, hardware-wise:

- New non-Pro notebooks...50/50 on if the "Air" naming remains
- A preview, if not outright unveil, of a new pro tower

It's been two years since the AS stuff was announced. They said they were looking to transition everything over in two years. So unless they're using November 2020 as the point where the clock started (with the first M1 Macs being released then), there should be something said today about a new AS-based pro tower. It's weird that it's not in any of the rumor talk, but we all know it's coming at some point.



It's been ~14 months since the 24" M1 iMac was unveiled. If other things are getting an M2, those could as well, and maybe color tweaks (or outright deletions). They've had well over a year now to see which colors are selling/popular, and which ones have been a complete waste of aluminum and glass. Not that I'm any sort of barometer for anything, but the only 24" iMacs I've seen in real life, in someone's house, have been silver, blue and one green. I've never seen any of the others - yellow, purple, pink, etc. Even if not proper processor upgrade, I could see, while the store is down, Apple tweaking/scaling back on the iMac colors today. I think they'd do that before they'd go and introduce all new ones. I could easily imagine the iMac, after today, just coming in silver and blue, and maybe whatever the next best-selling color is. None of t he original iMac colors stuck around super long, so Apple won’t churn out pink and purple (or whatever else) ones forever if they’re not strong sellers. Too much of a manufacturing/stocking/logistical hassle for anything not selling well enough to make it worth its while. So I bet today sees something on the iMac color front.

[709]

Geez, has it really been 2 years since Apple Silicon was announced? Crazy... it doesn't seem like that long ago. With that in mind maybe you're right about a new Mac Pro reveal, I mean, Ternus mentioned it by name at the end of the March event. That’s a pretty big matzo ball hanging out there.

So, does that mean stacked Ultra chips, or is there one last level of chip past Ultra? Can't wait to hear whatever they name that chip, if so.

[psmith2.0]

Yep, two full years. That's why I'm thinking something must be said, at the very least, about the AS-based Mac Pro. If it's not getting truly introduced today, then at least a helpful update. WWDC, a roomful of nerdy pros, is the proper, sensible venue for such a thing.

[turtle]

I'm digging the integration with the Lock Screen and focus. I can see this being big for me.

Who would have thought it would get such long screen time. Really cool though.

[psmith2.0]

This current presenter (the car stuff) sounds like Lois Griffin.

PS - Awesome, more shit to look at/be distracted by while driving! Because apparently we aren't having enough fender-benders and life-altering vehicular accidents from drivers constantly fucking with this sort of stuff on the road. Yay!

PS #2 - I actually do love how Apple lets the area surrounding the spaceship look kinda natural and just "there". No sarcasm/poking, I'm being 100% serious. It doesn't look overly manicured/landscaped or "perfect" like I'd expect from such an outfit, with a brand new futuristic building. Once you're out of view of the building, it looks like you're out in the country/wilderness. That's a cool look/vibe, IMO. So many offices/buildings are so impeccably maintained to the point of looking like a miniature golf course or Disneyworld. It's too nice. I really like the "let it stay wild" look they've got going on in many areas.

Taking a jog around Apple HQ makes it seem like the chances of encountering a bear or mutant, inbred serial killer are significantly higher than they actually are, which would likely contribute to better, faster runs and elevated heart rates. By design, I wonder?

[turtle]

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 ... PS - Awesome, more shit to look at/be distracted by while driving! Because apparently we aren't having enough fender-benders and life-altering vehicular accidents from drivers constantly fucking with this sort of stuff on the road. Yay!

This was my thought! I REALLY have no desire to have so many things at my control while driving. Sure there are times where the traffic is light, highway with no one near you and such that you *could* get away with it, but do I need to be able to unlock my home or set my thermostat WHILE I'M DRIVING?

[psmith2.0]

M2 in da house!

Definitely some updated Macs today, using it...Air, mini, iMac?

EDIT: New MacBook Air. The name stays, no white bezel/keyboard so that rumor wasn't accurate.

Does have a notch, but everyone expects that. No iMac colors either...silver, space grey, starlight and midnight(?)...a darkish slate blue? No wedge/taper, but still very thin, way more so than the MacBook Pro.

And it's now a 13.6" display. And up to 24GB RAM?! Hmmm.

I have a feeling it ain't gonna start at $999 anymore...we'll see.

EDIT: Now starting at $1,199. The M1 Air is staying around at $999, so that's good.

[Capella]

I'm working on my thread roundups don't worry!

[psmith2.0]

Maybe I read the screen wrong, but I've never seen 24GB RAM be an option for any of this stuff. Always seems to be in multiples of 8 in recent years, but that's pretty cool. That would be a more affordable upgrade than 32GB.

Those rumors really shit the bed re: the new Air. It doesn't look anything like the 24" iMac, with all the off-white trim, the rainbow colors, etc. It looks pretty damn sedate, sleek and professional! Just goes to show you, when we zig (and assume a bunch of stuff, based on other product designs), Apple zags and throws a curve.

That 13" MacBook Pro is still around too, with an M2. So they once again opted to keep the naming as is (they should've named that 13" model "MacBook", but it's obvious they're not going to). So there will be a whole new cluster of people wondering why one MacBook Pro is so "affordable" ($1,299), and then a $700 jump up to a completely different set of MacBook Pros, starting at $1,999, with different screen sizes, body designs, ports, etc.

"But how 'pro' can this smaller, less-equipped $1,299 model be? Seems like just a regular, mid-range 'MacBook' to me. Beefier and more capable than the Air, but not quite true 'Pro' level...".

Yeah...exactly. I've only been asking/saying that for a least 14 months. And Apple saw fit to tell me, once again, to go pound sand.



Oh, Apple...

[Capella]

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 Those rumors really shit the bed re: the new Air. It doesn't look anything like the 24" iMac, with all the off-white trim, the rainbow colors, etc. It looks pretty damn sedate, sleek and professional! Just goes to show you, when we zig (and assume a bunch of stuff), Apple zags and throws a curve. That 13" MacBook Pro is still around too, with an M2. So they once again opted to keep the naming as is (they should've named that 13" model "MacBook", but it's obvious they're not going to, and there will be a whole new cluster of people wondering why one MacBook Pro is so affordable, and then a $700 jump up to a different set of MacBook Pro. Apple...

I was hoping for the rainbow finishes on the Air so bad and for the Pro to have the sedate ones. Also for the 13" 'pro' to be MacBook. *sigh*

[psmith2.0]

Yeah, I think a lot of folks did. Seemed kinda the obvious, expected approach, huh? I was certainly giving a bit of thought to something orange in recent months, not gonna lie...

They're weird. Bunch of damn contrarians.



PS - Federighi is just so shtick-y now. I think some of that praise/memes from a years years ago has gotten to him, so he (and Tim, Apple, etc.) think he needs to put on a show and Bring the Funny™ every time a camera is pointed his way. It gets to be a bit much sometimes. I don't need juggling seals and a song-and-dance act with this stuff, I really don't.

There's "goofy" and then there's "offputtingly goofy"...Craig is veering ever-closer to the latter with each event.

[Frank777]

So I guess no word on the Mac Pro till the Fall. That's disappointing.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 Maybe I read the screen wrong, but I've never seen 24GB RAM be an option for any of this stuff. Always seems to be in multiples of 8 in recent years, but that's pretty cool. That would be a more affordable upgrade than 32GB.

Yeah, you usually want powers of two, and you also usually want pairs.

So typically, a computer will have something like 8, 16, 32, …

But Apple's chips put the RAM on the same package (rather than separately), and they run them in parallel (hence the absurdly high memory bandwidth). The regular M1 had two RAM chips to the side. What they've probably done for the M2 is give it three, either in the same layout but smaller, or as three stripes off from the CPU.

Hence, 3x8 = 24 GB. Probably.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 That 13" MacBook Pro is still around too, with an M2. So they once again opted to keep the naming as is (they should've named that 13" model "MacBook", but it's obvious they're not going to). So there will be a whole new cluster of people wondering why one MacBook Pro is so "affordable" ($1,299), and then a $700 jump up to a completely different set of MacBook Pros, starting at $1,999, with different screen sizes, body designs, ports, etc. "But how 'pro' can this smaller, less-equipped $1,299 model be? Seems like just a regular, mid-range 'MacBook' to me. Beefier and more capable than the Air, but not quite true 'Pro' level...".

It's such a small thing but surely they aren't happy about this weird Air/NotReallyPro/Pro thing. They'd much rather have the Air to be the mid-range, like on the iPad, surely?

[psmith2.0]

It's completely the opposite of what any sensible person would expect at this point.

I guess that's just how it's going to be.

Also, how weird/potentially confusing is it now with the $1,299 MacBook Pro with an M2, while the $1,999+ ones are M1 (I know all the variants, but I'm just looking at this through the eyes of normal people who don't get into the weeds over such stuff, or hang out at places like this).

It just seems needlessly confusing. All the things that made those new 14" and 16" models jump up $200 in price and earn the "Pro" title - the size increase, the new (old) ports, etc. - aren't part of that $1,299 model. To me, that $1,299 13" model sits perfectly between the Air and Pro...in price (a little more so, prior to today), performance. It should have its own name to properly reflect that. To anyone. Because it's not an Air. And it's certainly not a Pro, in that way Apple is now defining their pro notebooks.

I guess they have their reasons, but I don't think it's really helping anyone or making things as simple and clear-cut as they could be. This is now about the fourth or fifth opportunity they've had to tweak/address that. They just don't, for whatever reason.

PS - Once you see Tim's jimmy leg, you can't unsee it.

PS #2 - That closing shot/zoom-out of Apple HQ, time-lapsing from daylight to dark, was really slick. I guess that's just a really slow drone with the time-lapse camera feature turned on? Or maybe just a boatload of CGI?

Oh well. Good presentation, some neat stuff. I guess the Mac Pro is still in the pipeline somewhere. They didn't say a single word about it, did they?