[kscherer]

I'm not banking on any surprises, but I also find it hard to believe that Apple is putting hundreds of thousand of dollars into a 1.5-hour video to announce the M3.

"Hey, it's 25% faster, and to demonstrate that here's an entire rainbow of people to prove that we are indeed inclusive when we tell you about nothing!"

I just can't get my head wrapped around that, and my gut tells me there has to be more to it than that. Why gather all of those critical people together to tell us about a chip? For a Mac event to take that much time, it seems likely that there's at least one big thing to talk about, and since the MacBook Pro is just a MacBook Pro at the end of the day, a new, bigger, possibly redesigned iMac seems like the best candidate for a "surprise", especially if M3 Pro and M3 Max are options (or even M2 variants).

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by chucker So they'll do an entire event about "hey, remember when we made the iMac big? It's baaaaaaaaack! Thanks guys, can't wait to see what you do with it"?

Not a whole event, no. But it might be part of one section of it (the iMac stuff). But, yeah...Apple typically zigs when we zag, and they're not much for going backwards, unless they do it in a way that lines up/sounds good with their reasons.

They're frame a 27" (or larger) iMac in some way they never have before. Not even necessarily "pro", but just "for those who reach for the sky" (vs. the eave/aluminum gutters, like the rest of us).

Then again, wasn't that 27" iMac kinda an emergency/"fills a need" product back when the Mac Pro was languishing and before the AS stuff came out, before the Mac Studio was unveiled, etc.

Is there a reason for a larger AIO iMac now, later 2023, with all the other things now in place? It would be weird, but I assume there's a market. It shows up in every message forum I lurk about in.

I don't know. The secrecy/mystery surrounding tonight's wing-ding...I'm not sure I like it. They've plugged their leaks too well, and I, for one, miss the blurry, freight elevator shots of unreleased stuff.

[PB PM]

It could be more about the headset thing with some Mac speed bumps slapped on at the end too.

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by kscherer I'm not banking on any surprises, but I also find it hard to believe that Apple is putting hundreds of thousand of dollars into a 1.5-hour video to announce the M3. "Hey, it's 25% faster, and to demonstrate that here's an entire rainbow of people to prove that we are indeed inclusive when we tell you about nothing!" I just can't get my head wrapped around that, and my gut tells me there has to be more to it than that. Why gather all of those critical people together to tell us about a chip? For a Mac event to take that much time, it seems likely that there's at least one big thing to talk about, and since the MacBook Pro is just a MacBook Pro at the end of the day, a new, bigger, possibly redesigned iMac seems like the best candidate for a "surprise", especially if M3 Pro and M3 Max are options (or even M2 variants).

Yeah. Some new software title? They got all the big areas covered already, so I can't imagine what. What's the big missing hole in the Apple/Mac ecosystem? Free AppleCare for all? Nah.

[kscherer]

Is there a reason?

Mac Studio - $1999 (M2 Max/32/512GB)
27" Studio Display - $1599

Total - $3598

That leaves a lot of room for a 27"+ AIO.

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by PB PM It could be more about the headset thing with some Mac speed bumps slapped on at the end too.

I figure it would be the opposite. All Mac stuff, with that headset VR/AR thing mentioned at the end. I've honestly forgotten all about that thing.

I know they never would, and I certainly don't expect it, but I've mentioned here before how cool it would be if Apple, like Fender, had a custom shop where, if you have the money and the lack of sense of how to best spend it you could call them up and say "I'd like an M3 tangerine toilet seat iBook", and they'd have to build it for you.

Because I'm the kind of idiot who probably would try to make something like that happen.

"I can get a tangerine iMac DV (like the one currently sitting in my closet) outfitted with an M2, 24GB RAM and a 1TB SSD, Retina display and a slot-loading SuperDrive? Sure, why not?"

I'd love to walk into my living room after being gone for the afternoon and see that luscious little jellybean sitting on my desk again. That was always one of my favorite things about coming home, and seeing that sitting there, looking so 1999-2000.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by kscherer Is there a reason? Mac Studio - $1999 (M2 Max/32/512GB) 27" Studio Display - $1599 Total - $3598 That leaves a lot of room for a 27"+ AIO.

Mac Studio - $1999 (M2 Max/32/512GB)
Good display with power button - $400

Total - $2399

[chucker]

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 I figure it would be the opposite. All Mac stuff, with that headset VR/AR thing mentioned at the end.

If they introduce the M3 (which… why would they not, at this point? The M2 is getting long in the tooth), they might tell people what should be obvious: that the Vision Pro comes with the M3, not the M2. Which is a good opportunity to remind people the headset is coming.

[kscherer]

Originally Posted by chucker If they introduce the M3 (which… why would they not, at this point? The M2 is getting long in the tooth), they might tell people what should be obvious: that the Vision Pro comes with the M3, not the M2. Which is a good opportunity to remind people the headset is coming.

It's also possible that the thermal envelope of the M3 isn't workable inside the headset? Or that other subsystems aren't compatible? Also, I suspect the M2 is more than powerful enough for the Vision thingy.

[709]

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 Yeah. Some new software title? They got all the big areas covered already, so I can't imagine what. What's the big missing hole in the Apple/Mac ecosystem? Free AppleCare for all? Nah.

I could see them introducing/expanding some service offerings, maybe justifying the recent pretty big (comparatively) price jumps across the board. Get Scorsese out there to introduce a new tiered pricing system for TV+ or something.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by kscherer It's also possible that the thermal envelope of the M3 isn't workable inside the headset?

It's possible, sure.

But the most likely explanation for "why did they say it has the M2" is: because that was the most recent announced CPU.

(Supposedly, the Vision Pro hardware is long done, and the software isn't. If true, that's quite an uncharacteristic planning failure on Apple Inc.'s part.)

Originally Posted by kscherer Also, I suspect the M2 is more than powerful enough for the Vision thingy.

Well, yes, in that much of the AR stuff is handled by the separate R1 chip. But in terms of apps running, it kind of depends on the software ecosystem that will happen, which to me is a big wildcard right now. A $3,500 device where good software arrives for years to come is one thing; a device with that price tag where developers either quickly lose interest, or the thing becomes quickly obsoleted by much faster devices (as was the case with the iPhone and the Apple Watch, both of which were very unpleasant to use on their most recent OS versions, and you could not downgrade)? That's a harder sell.

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by 709 I could see them introducing/expanding some service offerings, maybe justifying the recent pretty big (comparatively) price jumps across the board. Get Scorsese out there to introduce a new tiered pricing system for TV+ or something.

He talks too fast. I'd never understand. He must drink so much caffeine!

[psmith2.0]

With that fly-in nighttime intro, I was braced or Rim to be dressed like Dracula (Lugosi version) I was gonna shut my MacBook down and put on the Workd Series.

Close one. I was half expecting it, following the Halloween howling, moon, clouds, flying bats, etc.

[drewprops]

"Monstrous" performance

The speed/efficiency comparisons are pretty nice.

...

[psmith2.0]

30 minutes in the dot. It’s over. Short and sweet. No new larger iMac, all the colors stayed.

Best, most surprising news? The 14” Nacbook Pro, which previously started at $1,999, dropped to $1,599.

When the hell does Apple cut the price of anything, and by $400?!? I was expecting things to even go up a little, so that was nice to hear. Makes buying a 14” model, and choosing between it and Air, a real no-brainer.

Edit/update, well of course…Apple being Apple, that new $1,599 pricing also knocks the base RAM back down to 8GB. Bumping it up to the max 24 GB is, of course, $400. So you’re immediately back to $1,999. However you can bump it to 16GB for $200, for a true “same specs” savings of $200, so that’s cool. Before tonight, a 16/500 14” MBP was $1,999. It’s now $1,799. I guess that’s the way to look at it.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 Best, most surprising news? The 14” Nacbook Pro, which previously started at $1,999, dropped to $1,599.

Well, yes and no.

Yes, the 14-inch MBP chassis now starts at $1,599. But also, the 13-inch MBP at $1,299 is now gone, and this replaces that. The $1,599 14-inch MBP has the M3, not M3 Pro.

Regardless, this is a big improvement. You should never have bought that $1,299 thing.

[psmith2.0]

Not gonna lie...after they'd introduced the new MacBook Pros (Space Black!) and iMacs, and it was only 25 minutes in, I was thinking "don't they have another 30-60 minutes to go? Damn, are they gonna update the entire lineup? Mac mini, MacBook Air, etc.? No way!"

Yep, no way.

When they threw it back to Tim, after the iMac introduction, and he started doing the "wrapping up" talk, I realized "no, it's just a two-product show...30 minutes exactly". A short one.

Man, I botched every single one of my predictions. No iMac color drops or changes, etc. However, I knew it had to be the M3 coming. Putting the already existing M2 in the iMac doesn't warrant a special event. Hell, putting the M3 in barely did. The real news is the MacBook Pro. That's where Apple's bread is buttered these days anyway. No surprise these get the good stuff first (along with a long-neglected model).

Pretty cool. Short, tight and quick. No third-party CEOs shuffling out to demo or testify, no tired video segments/lifestyle pieces, etc. Just focused, to the point and direct, which I apprecaite/prefer, especially when I know how far the other way this bunch can get when they want to.

If they want to roll out future products this way (these short, tight videos, aired at night), be my guest. 30 minutes of my evening is easily devoted. No blabbing about the stores, no musical guests half the joint doesn't care about, etc. Awesome.

I liked the little onscreen blurb at the end, after Tim said goodbye, of "filmed on iPhone, edited on Mac". I expected the latter, but it's cool something this slick and dialed-in looking is filmed on a cell phone. A cell phone bolted into $11,000 rigs, booms and dollies, drones and so forth, but still...an iPhone filmed all this. That's just cool, and a great little ad-withing-an-ad touch. And I did indeed dig the little Halloween-ish touch (the Apple logo "moon", with wolf man clouds passing by, the howling and wind sounds, the animated bats fluttering about, etc. Gave it a nice theme/setting/vibe. Having bubbling, smoking beakers and flasks in that lab, cob webs, hanging skeletons, etc. would've overdone it, so I'm glad they didn't get out of control with it, nobody wearing costumes or talking in funny voices, etc.

If they'd slicked Tim's hair back and painted on a black widow's peak and had him doing a half-assed Bela Lugosi/Dracula voice, I would've bailed so fast. Is this Apple or Sesame Street? Is Tim gonna start counting? Surely no journalists/bloggers (Gruber, etc.) flew out for this. I'm sure these people, and iJustine, will all be FedExed a demo model ASAP to review/write up in the coming weeks (if they've not already had one for the past week or so, sworn to secrecy, etc.).

[chucker]

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 Before tonight, a 16/500 14” MBP was $1,999. It’s now $1,799. I guess that’s the way to look at it.

Only if you're OK with getting the M3 (non-Pro), and some other restrictions. With the M3 Pro, it's still $1,999.

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 Pretty cool. Short, tight and quick.

Agreed. Even this had some filler that made me roll my eyes (they seemed to really hammer the "did you know you can use Macs professionally? It's true! Anyway, here's a game showing raytracing" point). But I like how focused it was, overall.

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 I liked the little onscreen blurb at the end, after Tim said goodbye, of "filmed on iPhone, edited on Mac". I expected the latter, but it's cool something this slick and dialed-in looking is filmed on a cell phone.

Agreed, though it does make me wonder if that would've been feasible in a daytime setting. With those very dark scenes, maybe you notice the noise less?

Also… we don't really have an answer as to why this was at such an unusual time?

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 I'm sure these people, and iJustine, will all be FedExed a demo model ASAP to review/write up in the coming weeks (if they've not already had one for the past week or so, sworn to secrecy, etc.).

Some of them got a gift package, which I find a bit gross.

[709]

Originally Posted by chucker Also… we don't really have an answer as to why this was at such an unusual time?

Space Black.

Apple has done weirder things to introduce less.

[Frank777]

I'm not really disappointed the 27" iMac did not show up. It was always a long shot.

But I do not understand what the point of that prime-time Apple event was.
No average consumer cares about a chip intro, and the new MacBook Pro colour could have been announced in a press release.

Half-hour of my life I won't get back.

[psmith2.0]

Someone in marketing probably noticed the proximity to Halloween, and ran with it. “We should do it at night, we'll roll out that new black color, we can do some cool Halloween visuals/trappings, there's likely no overlap between folks watching this and the World Series…” (wrong), etc.

Yeah, I don't know why the nighttime thing either, other than "let's change it up a bit".

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by chucker Some of them got a gift package, which I find a bit gross.

Not "gross", but kinda smarmy/cheesy. And kinda tacky. Would any of these people dare ever rag on Apple at this point?

But, hey...I can be bought with chips and salsa too!

"Influencer", huh? Never heard of this motherf...

Did they send iJustine all colors of headphones?

What a bunch of jackals.

Ages and ages ago, I worked, briefly, at a place where part of my job was "coordinating" with the office/marketing chicks who lived for doing this sort of shit for clients. It just became this all-encompassing, "brag" type of thing of "just the right, perfect" gift. For shitheads who, believe me, could already buy and sell anything they wanted, including us. I never hated waking up and going to a particular job so much in my life. I'm just not wired that way...I don't glad-hand, schmooze and kiss-ass (on a good day), let alone for a career. I bailed before long. When asked why, my response is unprintable here. But it involved the idea of money, bodily favors, etc. in the kind of terms/descriptions I'm fond of using to cut through the haze and double-talk.

Yes, I brought up "fellatio" (the street name for it ), paycheck, the waste involved, etc.

[turtle]

I kinda enjoyed it with my kids.

Ok, I enjoyed the time with my kids but would have happily enjoyed that time doing something else while reading the highlights in a press release.

Don’t let my enthusiasm, or the lack thereof, dissuade my cynical view though. It was largely an incremental spec bump where they kept verbally pointing out the two generation old process as comparison. At least they left the previous generation one on the screen though so we could see the real, marginal increase.

I also personally appreciated the push to get Intel users, like myself, to make the jump to AS. Funny part, I might have as a Christmas present to myself if they released an updated mini.

[psmith2.0]

Yeah, they compared everything to the M1, for the most drastic leaps/improvements.

"Well, yeah...I guess so. Most stuff from two years ago is quite slower, less-than than the thing unveiled 7 minutes ago!"



But, yeah...for those who bought a first-gen AS MacBook Pro two years ago, this is something nice. Most folks probably don't drop $2,000+ every 12 months for a Mac, the way they might for an iPhone, so a lot of M3 buyers might be those coming from M1-based Macs from 2021-early 2022, making those comparisons make some sense. It would be hitting those folks the most.

PS - the "space black" should've been a damn option ages ago. How does it take them this long to come around to such an obvious "pro" color? People here were screaming for it, back during the Civil War. You can't ever go wrong with black...computers, cars, clothes, guitars, furniture, adult novelties/marital aids, luggage, kitchen accessories and appliances, etc. It almost always "works", and looks great.

[Frank777]

Has anyone figured out what that weird MacBook Pro screen image is supposed to represent?

Do we have an internet conspiracy rumour started yet, or should I start one?


Hmmm. Do I go with 5G, Forced Vaccination or Elitist World Government?

[chucker]

So, performance.

The video says p-cores are 15% faster compared to M2. E-cores 30% faster.

What’s interesting (perhaps troubling) about this is that they’re changing the core configuration on the M3 Pro, and reducing memory bandwidth on both the Pro and Max.

M2 Pro had 8 p-, 4 e-cores, 19 GPU cores, and 200 GiB/s.
M3 Pro has 6 p-, 6 e-cores, 18 GPU cores, and 150 GiB/s.

M2 Max had 8 p-, 4 e-cores, 30 GPU cores, and 400 GiB/s.
M3 Max has 10 p-, 4 e-cores, 30 GPU cores, and 300 GiB/s.

This suggests — and Srouji’s artwork showing the three SoCs seems to confirm — that the M3 Pro, unlike the M1 Pro and M2 Pro, is no longer a chopped version of the Max. The three are separately laid out.

If we take these two facts: each p-core is 15% faster, but there are 25% fewer p-cores on the Pro, then I wonder how that translates to real-world performance. Because it sure reads like: the Pro’s performance barely changes at all; if you want that, you now have to upgrade all the way to the Max. And the Max, conversely, will have worse battery life due to fewer e-cores.

[psmith2.0]

We have some new, weird RAM capacities/levels now that we’ve never really had/seen in Macs before. 18GB, 36GB, etc.

18GB is the new 16GB?

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by Frank777 Has anyone figured out what that weird MacBook Pro screen image is supposed to represent? Do we have an internet conspiracy rumour started yet, or should I start one? Hmmm. Do I go with 5G, Forced Vaccination or Elitist World Government?

At this point, I figure any are a safe bet. Go for it! Any would get traction by the nutballs.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 We have some new, weird RAM capacities/levels now that we’ve never really had/seen in Macs before. 18GB, 36GB, etc. 18GB is the new 16GB?

Yep. SK Hynix (which I think supplies these) offers the modules in 8, 12, and 18 GiB sizes.

[709]

Originally Posted by Frank777 I'm not really disappointed the 27" iMac did not show up. It was always a long shot.

The iMac presenter guy said that the 24" was "the perfect size and resolution to replace both the 4k and 5k iMacs", so if a larger one is coming sometime in the future, I'd bet on 30"/6k or more.