Apple “There’s More in The Making” Event - 2018.10.30
Intro
- focus on creative
- 51% of buyers are new to Mac each month
- 76% of those in China
- Installed base of 100 million Macs
iPad Pro
- 400 million iPads sold
- Edge-to-edge display
- Liquid Retina display
- Same size as the 10.5”, but with 11” display
- 12.9-inch in smaller form factor
- almost same size as an 8.5” x 11” piece of paper
- 5.9mm thin
- 25% less volume
- FaceID
- No notch
- Will tell you if the camera is covered as it works in any orientation
- A12X Bionic
- 7 nanometer
- 10 billion transistors
- 8-core CPU 4 x 4
- Up to 90% faster multicore
- 7-Core GPU (Apple designed)
- Neural Engine
- All-day battery life
- Up to 1TB Storage
- 1TB iPad Pros have 6GB of memory, but the rest have 4GB.
- USB-C
- Connect to 5K displays (seems to be mirroring)
- Charging out over USB-C
- Can connect cameras, musical instruments or even docks
- Mention connect to data accessories and displays at the same time.
- What does that mean? Who knows.
- Smart Keyboard Folio
- Starts at $799.00 - 11-inch
- $999 for 12.9 inch
- Base prices basically up $150-200
- Order today, ships on the 7th.
- New USB-C Accessories
- USB-C to 3.5mm headphone adapter
- USB-C to SD Card Reader
Apple Pencil
- Attaches magnetically
- Pairs and charges wirelessly
- Tap twice to switch modes
Mac mini
- Space Gray finish
- Same size as previous model
- 2.9 vs 2.6 lbs.
- Processors
- 4 cores & 6 cores
- 3.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i3 CPU
- 3.0GHz 6-core Intel Core i5
- Up to a 3.2GHz 6-core Intel Core i7
- 8th-gen
- Up to 5x faster performance
- Intel UHD Graphics 630
- Can power two or three 4K and 5K displays depending on their configuration
- Memory
- Standard with 8GB RAM up to 64GB
- SO-DIMM, yes user accessible sort of, it’s a mini still.
- Storage
- All flash storage
- Starts at 128GB 4-core and 256GB 6-core
- Configure up to 2TB
- T2 Security Chip
- 30x faster HEVC video encoding
- New thermal system with 2x airflow
- Connectivity
- Gigabit Ethernet configurable to up to 10GB ethernet
- 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports/ USB-C
- 2 USB-A (USB 3) ports
- HDMI 2.0
- 3.5mm audio out
- 802.11ac WiFi networking and Bluetooth 5.0.
- Starting at $799.00 4-core and $1,099 6-core
- Shipping November 7th
- 100% recycled aluminum.
- While we didn’t get a “pro” Mac mini Apple seems to be positioning it much more in that space. Everything from the design style to configuration options.
MacBook Air
- Retina Display
- No aluminum bezel
- 13.3” display
- 4x resolution, 4 million pixels
- edge-to-edge with thin bezel
- TouchID
- T2 Security chip
- SSD controller and encryption engine
- always on Hey Siri
- 3rd generation keyboard
- backlit with individual LED
- 20 percent larger force-touch trackpad
- 25% louder speakers
- 3 mic array
- wide dynamic range
- 2 x USB-C and 3.5mm headphone jack
- “Thunderbolt 3” ports
- 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2
- CPU
- 8th gen i5 dual core
- Intel Core i5-8210Y, just went up on Intel’s ARK page today.
- Up to 1.5TB SSD
- 12 hours battery life and 13 hours movie playback
- 17 percent less volume
- 15.6mm thin
- 2.75 lbs. (0.25 less)
- Made from 100 percent recycled aluminum
- production waste
- not post consumer
- three finishes. Gold, Silver, Space Gray
- 8GB memory up to 16GB
- Starts at $1,199.00
- Available November 7th
- completely redesigned and reengineered
MacBook Pro
- New Radeon Pro Vega 16 and 20, each with 4GB of HBM2 memory, will be available in late November
iOS 12.1 and other device updates
- eSIM support though the US carriers (T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T are not ready yet)
- Real time depth control and “beautygate” fix.
- Group FaceTime
- Audio only on iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, iPad Air, and iPod touch.
- Video requires an A8X processor or later.
- New emoji
- Bug fixes and other improvements
- watchOS 5.1
- bug fixes and compatibility
- still no ECG support yet for 4th gen Apple Watch
- Some reports of bricked Apple Watches
- tvOS 12.1, HomePod OS 12.1?
- Shortcuts 2.1
- Adds new features for Weather, Alarms & Timers, Measurement and Convert Measurement, Recent Photos import
- When running a shortcut from HomePod using Siri, media will now automatically play back from HomePod using AirPlay
- macOS Mojave 10.14.1
- Group FaceTime support
Thoughts
- Energy and enthusiasm was higher then ever, Tim was giddy,
- Apple’s flash storage and RAM options on Mac are expensive. Nothing new, but worth noting.
- Adding 1TB of storage to a Mac mini adds $800 to the price
- You can get an 1TB SSD these days for around $200 buck
- A fully spec’d Mac mini runs $4,199.00
- No screen, keyboard, or mouse/trackpad.
- 2TB SSD
- There is now a lot of confusion and crossover especially in Apple’s notebook line
- Between the MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro lines Apple now offers nine “base” configuration options for a notebook in the 12 to 13-inch form factor.
- Two Macbook
- Three MacBook Air
- Four MacBook Pro
- Depending on how you configure things even a macMini, vs iMac, vs. MacPro
- Less technical things like form factor, weight, battery life, are likely more important.
- Especially when limiting to lower cost option
- Let’s talk about cost
- I see lots of “angry” Apple fans online calling Apple “greedy”
- Saying they’re ready to leave the platform for less expensive options on Windows.
- I feel a lot of this is going from fans who “want” the new stuff, but can’t justify the cost and I think that’s normal.
- I’ve said it before, but there is a change in computing, especially when it comes to Apple products, and it turn on it’s head the old notions of device upgrades.
- To me Apple is clearly recognizing and encouraging the slowdown of upgrade cycles.
- They are signaling it in the frequency of updates, the longevity of OS support for older models, and the pricing.
- They don’t want you upgrading every year, or two, or three.
- There is a fine line between “greed” and “value” and it’s up to us as individuals to decide where that line is.