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Never did I think a downgrade would be a welcome thing: gone is the super-tall 4K display, and a more conventional 1080p screen is in its place. It's not as brag-worthy, but let's be honest: hardly anything used 4K, the tall screen ratio hurt app compatibility, and using native 4K all the time...

The reviews are out, and they're pretty much what you'd expect: the iPad Pro hardware is great, but unless you have specific needs (audiovisual editing, mainly) or just want the absolute best, the iPad Air is the better value. I don't want to assume that Apple will fill in the software piece of...

I'm digging the look if accurate (and there's reason to believe it is). Now let's just hope the Tensor G4 and other updates make these worthy upgrades.

I wouldn't call the Quest 3 uniformly better. It's better at a few things (games most notably), and of course the value for money is definitely there. But I'd much rather have a Vision Pro if I'm either pairing with a computer or can get my work done using the available apps. The resolution is...

Sounds about right. It's not that the Vision Pro is a terrible product; it's that it was only going to be an instant hit if it was so mindblowing that people couldn't put it down. And the likelihood of that happening was slim no matter how well Apple executed. If I were running the product...

Google really needs to rethink its launch timing for the A-series. It's always releasing the budget phone at the same time as the higher-end Pixels are on sale, so it doesn't become a viable option until the new flagships arrive or it goes on sale itself.

Oof, but not surprising. Either the headset experience just doesn't fly (and might be true for any headset) or they realize they aren't using it as much as they thought they would. There are certain people for whom the Vision Pro is a real treat, but it's not universally appealing like a...

Some early Geekbench 6 results for the iPad Pro M4, have apparently slipped out, and if they're reflective of real-world performance... we're in for a treat. They're not dramatic gains over M3-based Macs, but they're significant... and apparently the higher-spec M4 outruns the base M3 Pro...

It's really one of those features that you get if you know you need it. Photo and video editors in the field; DJs who don't want the stage lights obscuring the screen; you get the idea.

I'm more than a little envious. If I knew I could handle my workflow on an iPad, I'd seriously consider a similar setup... well, maybe without nano-textured glass. I love the thought of a cellular model that I could use to stay connected on vacation.

What Lakados said — it's fairly easy to tone things down if the regular chip gets too hot, and I'd add that M4 is supposed to be more efficient than M3 (and thus cooler). There are some uses for M-series chips in iPads, but I'll agree that the software needs to do more to justify it. This is...

I've heard a better explanation: the M3 is based on a stopgap TSMC 3nm node, and both Apple and TSMC want to get off of it as soon as possible. Now that the 'real' 3nm node is here, Apple is transitioning devices to M4 as production volume and roadmaps allow. M4 Macs come later in the year as...

Can we merge threads? The announcements were pretty much what we expected. I'd say the real sweet spot is the 13-inch iPad Air. Yeah, it's using an M2 rather than an M4, but you can finally do the pseudo-laptop trick without splurging on a Pro (or getting a tiny 11-inch tablet). Speaking of...

Windows 11 isn't that terrible, but Microsoft is definitely keeping up its tradition of swinging between great and mediocre OS releases since Windows 98. By that token I suspect Windows 12 will be amazing.

Rumor goes that the switch to OLED will help slim things down. It's supposed to be the first big redesign since 2018, so there's also opportunities to improve the overall profile. I'd say M1 might come to the base iPad, but no more than that. Apple's done engineering that chip and no doubt...

It's not so much the challenge as just that it requires a lot of time. A truly touchscreen-native OS needs to be optimized from the tiniest setting through to window management and menus. The rumor goes that Apple will bring touch to Macs in 2026 starting with the MacBook Pro, so I wouldn't...

Here's how I realistically see it panning out: - iPad Pro M3 with OLED 11- and 13-inch screens. Slimmer design, longer battery life, possibly a few other upgrades. - iPad Air M2 with LCD 10.9- and 12.9-inch screens. Much like the existing Air. - Apple Pencil 3 with squeeze gestures and haptic...

A lot of us would like macOS, but Apple shouldn't put it on any touchscreen device until the OS is truly optimized for it. Part of Windows' problem is that some important elements are still much better-handled by a mouse and keyboard; I don't want to consider a keyboard virtually mandatory for...

Thought I'd get the ball rolling on a thread for Apple's "Let Loose" event on May 7th. It'll stream at 10AM Eastern here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1J38FlDKxo The expectations are that it will almost entirely revolve around iPads... and given that an Apple Pencil is front-and-center in...

I suspect you'll be very happy with that event. It's clearly iPad-related, and most folks expect the iPad Pro M3, iPad Air M2, a new Magic Keyboard, and a new Apple Pencil.

That sounds about right. It's a community event that can help, but everything is working against it right now. Better to hold it when people can get excited again.

I see the Vision Pro as an investment on Apple's part. It's not trying to have an instant success like the iPhone, or even the iPad; it's about putting everything the company has learned so far into a shipping product so that it can learn from real-world experiences before it really tries to go...

I really don't think the Vision Pro suffers because of one virtual Mac monitor, or because it doesn't have Steam games. Rather, it's that it's $3,500, visionOS is still rudimentary, and the reliance on gesture control means that you don't get physical controllers that would be helpful for some...

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: it's easy to champion physical releases up until you move or need more space, and suddenly you have boxes and boxes of discs you need to relocate. That and many people only watch a movie a handful of times at most; I used to collect movies, but then I...

I'd like to see how Tensor G4 steps things up, but rumor goes that Google will at least up its game with next year's models. I'm still happy in iPhone land, but my inclination now would be toward the Galaxy S24+ or Ultra if I went Android, not the Pixel series. Camera quality matters, but...

I remember when RCS was first introduced a long time ago, and I was talking to companies about it. They couldn't articulate all that well what it was, why we needed it, and how it would be widely adopted. It took ages even to get to the point where it was being used as a semi-consistent...

They're high-end for a number of reasons. Yes, Apple is being stingy with 8GB of RAM, but the performance is good (especially for audiovisual tasks), the designs are great, the displays are high-quality, and the battery life is superb.

Apple is likely to repeat the M3 strategy where it upgrades some models this year and others the next, but that's not surprising... it needs to deal with both production volume and the challenges of building very high-end chips like the M4 Ultra/Extreme. I do like what Apple is doing, though...

That's an RTX 4080 versus the lower end M3 Max. Now, even the higher-end M3 Max probably won't beat an RTX 4080, but neither result would be shocking. The RTX 4080 by itself can chew more power than the entire MacBook Pro (typically 150W); if Apple could achieve 4080-level performance with its...

You're still pitting a gaming laptop (and not ASUS' best-built, at that) against a high-end creative workstation. The markets for the two are wildly different! That's... actually not all that great in 2024, especially since the system will throttle back while on battery power (yes, I appreciate...

The comparison with that Lenovo isn't straightforward. The LOQ has a lower resolution (if slightly higher refresh rate) and lower quality display, just one USB-C port (no surprises at the lack of Thunderbolt with AMD), build quality will undoubtedly be worse... you get the idea. Performance will...

That's the one thing about the current Mac lineup that gets me — it's been at 8GB base for some configs for years, and a $1,600 machine shouldn't start there. Now, 8GB on a modern Mac isn't quite like 8GB on Windows, but it's also true that it doesn't magically provide gobs of headroom, either...

The funny thing: I was big on 3D acceleration, but I never had a Voodoo card. I jumped in early with Rendition-based cards and jumped to ATI/NVIDIA when those companies hit their stride. I was generally happy, but it was hard not to be a little envious of people who had dual Voodoo 2 boards.

I wouldn't feel that bad. M2 shipped in 2022; it was just MacBook Pro owners that got the M2 and M3 refreshes in the same year, and that was a fairly long stretch. That and there was a time when Apple refreshed computers roughly every half year as it kept up with chip revisions from Intel (and...

I'm curious as to where Apple can and will go with M4 beyond the Neural Engine upgrade. I could see a raw performance boost thanks to the improved 3nm process, but after that it's not clear. Maybe a newer version of the ARM architecture? Either way, I'd say this is a nice problem for Apple to...

Not as much of a heartbreaker these days, but still... ASUS is clearly making a play for more market share, and isn't as interested in catering to enthusiasts (see also: the 'safer' look of the latest ROG Phone).

In this case I don't see a reason to lie. If anything, Google has a strong incentive to tell the truth as this is a selling point for the Pixel 8.

If it's end-to-end encrypted, then it's going to be very tough to access. Google may thrive on user data, but I really don't think it's quietly tracking users here.

Egads, the leaps to conclusions are so large here that you'd think it was a long jump competition. This doesn't mean Google is spying on your whereabouts even when your phone is off. The company even notes that location data is end-to-end encrypted, and the crowdsourced data is provided in a...

There should be an M3 Ultra down the line, and that will get considerably closer to 4090 performance… but you’re probably going to pay a steep premium for that, well beyond the console realm. I will say that Macs excel at more than just video editing… really, they’re superb for media creation...