There’s a lot of pushback from musicians and creative people against the crass advert and apple event featuring crushed musical instruments. https://www.pcmag.com/news/gruesomely-arrogant-artists-denounce-apples-crush-ipad-ad
M4 iPad Pro
- Thread starter Tony L
- Start date
Amber Audio
This is the Day
I keep Apple kit in use a lot longer than Dell etc. generally it just works and integrates so well. Dabble with alternatives but seem to end up back with Apple - went full on Samsung (phone/tab/watch) for a year, Blackberry had their Playbook and we’ve had all sorts of Surface devices. Currently have a Mini M1 with 3 screens, old iPad, Watch 6 and Phone 12, just gave away my old Intel iMac and sold a few years old MacBook Pro, not decided what to replace them with yet. Plan on getting the new Watch and Phone when released, will wait to see the iPad M4 11 when it arrives then decide what to buy for myself.
tuga
Legal Alien
Apple equipment has a prodigious longevity.
I use an i7 2012 MBP (£300 from eBay in 2014) for web browsing, ripping CDs and to remote control my streamer, a mini M1 with HQPlayer installed.
My work desktop is a 27" 2013 iMac (£350 from eBay in 2015) and my phone is an 8.
I always buy used.
Avinunca
Canine Hifi and electronics enthusiast.
I think the MacBook Air M1 is an excellent vfm Apple product. Bought one a month ago for 740 pounds (it hasn't got a pound sign) from HDEW cameras. I like the fingerprint detector. It's as fast as I need.
My last MacBook was a 2015 pro model. It's performed flawlessly for God knows how many hours - especially after I retired in 2019.
My last MacBook was a 2015 pro model. It's performed flawlessly for God knows how many hours - especially after I retired in 2019.
Tony L
Administrator
It should have a ‘£’ just above the ‘d’ key assuming you have the nationality settings correct in System Settings. Just slide-down on the key to get it.
garyi
leave blank
Good god isn’t it just the internet of today, everyone just so faux upset about anything.
Apple have apologised for the video and withdrawn their ad.
“In a statement to Ad Age on Thursday, Tor Myhren, Apple’s VP of marketing communications, apologized for the spot:
The “Crush” ad was posted to Tim Cook’s Twitter account and Apple’s YouTube channel on Tuesday. The ad “had not received any paid media” yet, and Apple now says that its plans to run the ad on TV have been cancelled. As of right now, the video is still live on both platforms.”
Apple apologizes for 'Crush' iPad Pro ad that sparked controversy - 9to5Mac
Alongside the new ultra-thin iPad Pro this week, Apple debuted a new “Crush!” ad to promote the new hardware. The...
9to5mac.com
TheDecameron
Unicorns fart glitter.
That hackneyed old “its in our DNA” number. Their ad agency wants firing. The whole thing is an uncharacteristicly clumsy misstep for Apple.Apple have apologised for the video and withdrawn their ad.
“In a statement to Ad Age on Thursday, Tor Myhren, Apple’s VP of marketing communications, apologized for the spot:
The “Crush” ad was posted to Tim Cook’s Twitter account and Apple’s YouTube channel on Tuesday. The ad “had not received any paid media” yet, and Apple now says that its plans to run the ad on TV have been cancelled. As of right now, the video is still live on both platforms.”
Apple apologizes for 'Crush' iPad Pro ad that sparked controversy - 9to5Mac
Alongside the new ultra-thin iPad Pro this week, Apple debuted a new “Crush!” ad to promote the new hardware. The...
Tony L
Administrator
I just assumed the ad was all CGI and just suggesting ‘all this creative stuff squishes in here’. It made a lot more sense than most Apple ads to be honest.
PS The thing that irritates the hell out of me with Apple under Tim Cook is the very deliberate spec limiting and upselling of core specs, e.g. only being able to spec 16GB RAM with a grotesquely overpriced 1TB of storage. My recollection is core specs were far more able to be tailored to user requirements under Jobs.
PS The thing that irritates the hell out of me with Apple under Tim Cook is the very deliberate spec limiting and upselling of core specs, e.g. only being able to spec 16GB RAM with a grotesquely overpriced 1TB of storage. My recollection is core specs were far more able to be tailored to user requirements under Jobs.
Desktops were highly configurable, Laptops were limited to RAM, CPU, Storage.. the small additional configurations available back then on laptops are now either obsolete (optical storage) or standard (wireless networking).
You're misremembering slightly, though. Apple was always really good at getting customers to pay for high margin stuff they didn't need. They basically applied the "trim lines" model from the car industry to computers: if you want X, you need to spend more to get the model with X, Y, and Z.
The main difference is how brazen it now is. In Jobs's time, Apple didn't have a locked-in ecosystem, so they had to rely on being better than a competing product in order to justify their high prices. (Steve Jobs himself hated the idea of configurations, by the way - his vision was that there should be only one version of every product, the best).
These days, there's no strong need for Apple to fight to retain customers.. you've got a ton of software that only works on an iPad, and you need a new one: you pay what Apple tells you, or you don't get anything.
iPhone sales are now falling, which is a problem for Apple, as it's still the company's largest profit source by a long way. Expect gouging and bundling to get worse in order to maintain revenues.
Tony L
Administrator
I’m maybe going back quite a long way, but I’m not misremembering. As an example my previous mid-2012 MacBook Pro could be spec’d with an i5 or i7 CPU, 4, 8 or 16GB or RAM and a variety of HDD sizes. Each decision was independent of the other as I recall, plus storage and RAM could be altered after the fact as they were servicable. I opted for the 8GB i7, I think with 512GB storage. I retired it with 16GB and a 1TB SSD, still a very good machine even now.
Compare that with the bewilderingly complex and overlapping specs available for the current M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max modern equivalents: https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/buy-mac It just feels like an elaborate upselling scam now. FWIW after days of research, analysing test results, reading reviews etc I went for the entry 14’ M3 Pro with a 1TB SSD as I suspect that is the peak value of the entire range. I just hope it lasts half as well as the current version.
The thing that annoys me with the new M4 iPad Pro is they conceal the RAM specs and don’t allow upgrade of that feature. I’d happily pay another £100 or two for 16GB on the base spec model as I suspect that is its limiting factor. Keying RAM to Apple’s ludicrously overpriced storage charges is just a scam IMHO. That said I don’t expect anything like the service life from an iPad as a ‘proper’ computer, so the base 8GB will probably still be useable in 3-4 years time. I’m certainly not paying the absurd Apple tax for 16GB accompanied by 1TB of storage I just don’t need on a tablet. In this case their upselling has failed. They could have sold me more RAM, but only more RAM. I’ll stick with the base model.
Tony L
Administrator
They are ideally placed as they seem literally years ahead of the competition in most hardware areas. iOS and iPadOS still feel deliberately limited and constrained compared to the astonishing hardware they run on, and have done for years now. AI may be the shift needed to tie it all together. I’m curious to see what the WWDC brings.
@Tony L ah, I get you now. I was actually thinking further back, as you had mentioned Jobs..
Yes, the 2012-2016 models were a peak in customer friendliness. The last Apple device I used was a job-suppiled 2016 MacBook Pro, upgraded to the limits over the years. That did me fine up to 2020, when forced work from home saw me migrate to my Windows desktop instead.
The performance benefit of the Mx series chips comes primarily from directly coupling the RAM to the CPU in the same chip package, dramatically reducing latency. The downside of this approach is that you cannot ever upgrade that RAM. That's excusable in a tablet or phone, arguable in a laptop, but a bad move in a desktop. I do my work at a desk, and while I used to have, and love, the "cheesegrater" Intel MacPro, Apple has nothing much to offer me now except rich boys' toys. I could use a laptop, but most of the work I do these days is inherently immobile: I imagine people would look at me funny if I set up scopes, PCBs and analysers in a coffee shop... although I'm tempted to try it sometime just to see the reaction
Yes, the 2012-2016 models were a peak in customer friendliness. The last Apple device I used was a job-suppiled 2016 MacBook Pro, upgraded to the limits over the years. That did me fine up to 2020, when forced work from home saw me migrate to my Windows desktop instead.
The performance benefit of the Mx series chips comes primarily from directly coupling the RAM to the CPU in the same chip package, dramatically reducing latency. The downside of this approach is that you cannot ever upgrade that RAM. That's excusable in a tablet or phone, arguable in a laptop, but a bad move in a desktop. I do my work at a desk, and while I used to have, and love, the "cheesegrater" Intel MacPro, Apple has nothing much to offer me now except rich boys' toys. I could use a laptop, but most of the work I do these days is inherently immobile: I imagine people would look at me funny if I set up scopes, PCBs and analysers in a coffee shop... although I'm tempted to try it sometime just to see the reaction
Tony L
Administrator
Well I did it. The above video removing the final bit of option paralysis as the performance difference between the 9 core 8GB models and the 1TB 10 core 16GB models seems next to nothing.
I went for the entry 256GB 11”, and very nice it is too. Just an iPad really, albeit with an even nicer display. Astonishing to think something this small and light has the best single CPU core performance of any computer available to buy today. Better than the top i9 gaming PCs etc. Obviously that is negated entirely by iPadOS so in reality it looks and feels just like the 2nd gen Pro it is replacing.
Option paralysis #2 was deciding to go for the trade-in. I felt the offer was actually pretty generous at £285. Especially once I figured out I’d not need to give back the charger or USB C cable (the new one doesn’t come with a charger, so that’s another £20 on the trade-in price as far as I’m concerned). An Apple USB-C cable is probably about £15 too, so that’s really not a bad deal all in as I’d have had to let them both go had I sold privately. Looking at eBay closed prices I actually think I’m ahead here. It was only the 128GB model. My only concern is I hope they don’t just shred it as it is absolutely mint and still works perfectly. Apple claim to be green, but I don’t trust them here for a second. My old iPad could bring someone use for another year or two, a lot more if they chucked a new battery in it. I hope that is where it ends up. They certainly asked a lot of questions regarding condition and functionality so I assume it has a future.
Anyway, that’s me done for an iPad for another four years.
Tony L
Administrator
I find the iPad in portrait mode so much more convenient for web browsing (which is basically my job). It just feels like an interactive magazine. A laptop feels far more inconvenient. I still need one as iPadOS is too limited for some of the technical stuff I have to do. I’d guess my computer time splits about 75% iPad, 20% iPhone and 5% MacBook Pro.
docstocker
pfm Member
You commented that you locked it in portrait
How do you do this?
My iPad is very old as is my MacBook Pro but continues to do everything I need
My iPhone is also several iterations behind the current
I’m probably one of the people responsible for the poor sales of new iPhone models
Tony L
Administrator
Assuming you are on a fairly recent version of the OS swipe down from the top right to get the Control Centre, it is icon with a little padlock inside a rotational arrow.