The Ultimate macOS Thread

$19.99 is a great deal for Mountain Lion. Anyone know why they're moving to cheaper and cheaper OS releases?

In their case money is in the hardware really. OS X basically only runs on their hardware (hackintosh is not nearly large enough to matter) so they make the money from that. On top of it OS X drops support for earlier hardware fairly regularly forcing hardware upgrades and again money to Apple. What they get with cheap OS's is a rapid upgrade cycle for their customers, meaning that ISVs don't have to worry about compatibility with more than one or two previous releases. On top of that they are growing their ecosystem, look at iMessage as an example, first it was just the mobile devices now its their PCs. Same with other iCloud features and things like AirPlay, the more of those new features they can push out to the market quickly the more "lock-in" you get.
 
Windows is not something most people buy - they use the version that comes with their PC until they get a new PC. Apple appears to be trying to change this model, to sell the OS to existing Mac users but also not interfere with selling new hardware. Solution: cheap, frequent releases.
 
My eyes were hurting after reading a liveblog of the keynote. It went on for ages. Some interesting stuff though. Shame there was no love for the iMac or the Mac Pro though, but that isn't really where the market is lying any more. I'll save more judgement for what was announced until I can watch it on the Apple website.
[edit] I noticed on engadget that the Mac Pro has recieved something of an update, but nothing really worth writing about. [/edit]

On another note and that of my MacBook Pro wifi problems. I went into the Apple store in Aberdeen a few weeks ago about it and it the Airport card was replaced there and then. The genius gave me kudos for having a picture of what it was doing since it was sporadic then 15 minutes later it was done. I spent that time talking to one of the sales people. I had a major geeky Apple fix that day...
 
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That's sexy as hell right there. <3
 
2-3 thousand dollars is pretty sexy in my eyes too... none of the normal models got the new display as far as I could tell.
 
Yep, only the 15" extra model ships with Retina so far. They'll upgrade the whole lineup as they go along, I think - 13" Retina displays will probably release with Mountain Lion or a short time after.
 
Given the prices of their other models, and even competitors running Windows, the Retina model with the 2,3 GHz i7 is actually pretty good value for money.
But I'm going to skip this generation and wait for the next one before upgrading, after all my MBP is only 7 months old.

Also, I believe the iMacs are now completely redundant.
 
I find it interesting that Apple is dropping Google Maps and is instead using their own Maps app based on Tomtom maps and others.
 
Given the prices of their other models, and even competitors running Windows, the Retina model with the 2,3 GHz i7 is actually pretty good value for money.
But I'm going to skip this generation and wait for the next one before upgrading, after all my MBP is only 7 months old.

Also, I believe the iMacs are now completely redundant.

Disagree about the iMac. there's several market segments where the iMac is absoluely critical, IMO:

*Education: At least in the US, Apple held a near monopoly on the k-12 education market for the longest time, until people in the late 90's were like..."uh, no one uses these in "the world of work + they're expensive as hell..." Things began shifting to PC especially in middle and high school grade levels, but the Mac is resurging in this segment and has been for some time...I'd recon since the original MacBook was introduced. Not every school want's an all laptop computer setup, so for them, the iMac is ideal.

*home use: the AIO market is finally catching on and has likely become one of the few bright spots remaining in the home desktop pc space, the innovator in the space ceeding this market would be a big mistake. There's plenty of families who'd rather have a shared family desktop PC rather than a laptop for a variety of reasons (less fragile, internet safety: the iMac will likely never leave the common area of the home that the parents put it in, etc.)

I find it interesting that Apple is dropping Google Maps and is instead using their own Maps app based on Tomtom maps and others.

The mapping data is powered by Open Streetmap, with a custom Apple UI. They got in trouble for not crediting Open Streetmap which is a condition of their licence terms. I didnt pay close attention so I'm not sure who's powering the navigation portion.

Try to tell that to our designer who is running a 27" iMac with two 27" displays hooked to it :-D

Yup. Many professionals are worried that it'll be the Mac Pro that's the redundant system.
 
The mapping data is powered by Open Streetmap, with a custom Apple UI. They got in trouble for not crediting Open Streetmap which is a condition of their licence terms. I didnt pay close attention so I'm not sure who's powering the navigation portion.

Some Tomtom guy claimed that they will be the main provider of maps, most of media and the stock market seems to believe him. :dunno: Open Streetmap will also be used.
 
No worries, I haven't even been on Engadget, I just happen to have iOS 6 installed on my iPod touch and iPad to test the new features ^^
 
I believe the iMacs are now completely redundant.

Not agreeing. I have a 27" from last year and it is still sooo nice after years of only using laptops. A terabyte of storage AND an ssd for the OS, that 27" IPS screen, a silent cooling system and no palm rest sweat. A laptop can't replace that, retina or not. :)
 
Not agreeing. I have a 27" from last year and it is still sooo nice after years of only using laptops. A terabyte of storage AND an ssd for the OS, that 27" IPS screen, a silent cooling system and no palm rest sweat. A laptop can't replace that, retina or not. :)

All of that can be solved with an external monitor and keyboard + docking station, which is something I'd definitely get if I were to go laptop only in the future.
You basically get two systems then, and performance wise there won't be much of a difference.

But like Rick mentioned, schools are probably an exception. Although when the new iMac comes out I could change my mind, but right now there's no way I'd get an iMac, no matter what situation or purpose.
 
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Given the prices of their other models, and even competitors running Windows, the Retina model with the 2,3 GHz i7 is actually pretty good value for money.
But I'm going to skip this generation and wait for the next one before upgrading, after all my MBP is only 7 months old.

Also, I believe the iMacs are now completely redundant.
It's a pretty damn good price if you ask me, the MBP I got with an optional high res screen and SSD cost me $2600 with education discount and we are talking half the RAM and storage and like less than half of screen res of the retina one. That's not to mention general improvements in GPU and CPU performance that come from it being newer. I won't be buying it simply because I can't afford it but the price is pretty good for the specs. You will also not find a single Windows machine with that res for any price (assuming resolution matters to you at all)
 
The Retina screen in the new iPad has been hailed as being the closest thing to a studio grade monitor you can get in a consumer product.. So it could seem the Apple's push towards better screen are not just a matter of resolution, but image quality in general. I hope this continues with the new Macbook.

I agree completely that it is pretty damn sexy, can't afford it though, and am pretty happy with my 2010 model still :) Only thing I'm a bit skeptical about is that HDD and ram isn't user replaceable as it was on the arlier models?
 
The Retina screen in the new iPad has been hailed as being the closest thing to a studio grade monitor you can get in a consumer product.. So it could seem the Apple's push towards better screen are not just a matter of resolution, but image quality in general. I hope this continues with the new Macbook.

I agree completely that it is pretty damn sexy, can't afford it though, and am pretty happy with my 2010 model still :) Only thing I'm a bit skeptical about is that HDD and ram isn't user replaceable as it was on the arlier models?
I somewhat wonder about the benefit of a Retina display on a laptop though, with the iPad I could very clearly tell an app that was updated for retina and one that was upscaled, now an iPad is a closed eco system with fairly easy way to update apps for new resolution, OS X on the other hand is much more diverse and I don't see too many ISVs updating for new resolution. Another thing to consider is that with monster resolution software size will have to grow, not only do you have a fairly limiting 256GB as standard but also most of the software is downloaded these days and internet speeds are still fairly slow (esp in the US) not to mention that one of the biggest ISPs (Comcast) actually has a 300GB monthly cap*. So software size can become an issue, especially for power users who like to try a bunch of different software and likely use some sort of online video service.

*It's not really advertised but you get throttled after you reach that.
 
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