Apple Operating Systems (macOS, iOS, watchOS, & tvOS) Catch-All

muraii wrote:

That’s my favorite case on any computer.

I would say there are more than a few PC cases that have surpassed that OG Mac Pro case in design and functionality. During its heyday though it was an amazing case with the chambered approach.

TheGameguru wrote:
muraii wrote:

That’s my favorite case on any computer.

I would say there are more than a few PC cases that have surpassed that OG Mac Pro case in design and functionality. During its heyday though it was an amazing case with the chambered approach.

I haven't seen one that attracts me more than it. I'm unimpressed by glass/lucene windows or LEDs, generally. There are definitely some nice cases and I've never owned or worked on a cheesegrater Mac Pro, but damn if it ain't gorgeous and the way the chambers work is nice.

What would be comparable in today's lineup?

I think I actually prefer the old G4 Power Mac cases. The motherboard isn't split up like it is in these Mac Pros; it's mounted to the door and the whole thing lays down away from the case and is super accessible. Hmm... I wonder if Dad has gotten rid of our old one yet. I should grab it from him so I can try to use the case on my next PC build.

I loved my 2006 Mac Pro, and was really bummed when one of the memory channels failed. I would still be using that computer if it hadn't broken, although not as a daily driver. It would probably be a nice quiet Linux server somewhere. The massive memory I had installed (I think 24 gigs, in 2006!) would have kept it exceptionally useful.

There is no modern Macs that compare. Modern Mac Pros are crippled, unexpandable, and saddled with anemic video cards. You'd need to get a workstation-class machine from Dell or HP to get anything comparable.

muraii wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:
muraii wrote:

That’s my favorite case on any computer.

I would say there are more than a few PC cases that have surpassed that OG Mac Pro case in design and functionality. During its heyday though it was an amazing case with the chambered approach.

I haven't seen one that attracts me more than it. I'm unimpressed by glass/lucene windows or LEDs, generally. There are definitely some nice cases and I've never owned or worked on a cheesegrater Mac Pro, but damn if it ain't gorgeous and the way the chambers work is nice.

What would be comparable in today's lineup?

Corsair has a few. Remove the LED fans and it’s usually pretty subdued when it comes to bling.

The 900 comes to mind or the 1000 minus the fans.

900d is purty. I think it’s the form—which the 900d gets—with the material and the grate. The Mac Pro feels industrial.

I'm considering upgrading to whatever the new iPhone X model is that I like once they're announced on Wednesday during the event. However, I'm not gonna do a carrier payment plan like I did with my iPhone 8 Plus and instead buy the phone outright (if I can get my wife to okay me letting go of a large amount of money for something like that). I'd also like to get a new Apple Watch if they end up announcing them too, but I just hope I can stay awake through the presentation since it'll be after I get off from work that Wednesday morning.

Why pay the upfront cost when the carrier or Apple will give you a 0% interest loan?

And if you're on the carrier payment plan, wouldn't you still have a year of payments left in addition to shelling out the up-front money for the new phone?

My 8 Plus is already eligible for the upgrade, so I'm likely going to be getting one of those XRs they announced today.

I'm on a 6 plus still that I bought four years ago. Finally time to upgrade I think. I like the big phones too much to downgrade the size though so I'll probably be going with the Xs Max and hope to get another four years out of it.

If you do the carrier payment there is no upfront cost (well besides activation or whatever), and if you do want to upgrade your phone before the payments are finished you can just pay the rest of the payments at once. As far as I know there is really no downside to the Apple/Carrier payment plans and I looked into it pretty deeply about a year ago.

As an 8 Plus owner, I'm pretty unimpressed with the announcement today. Neither the Xs or the Xr look like significant upgrades to me; they actually feel like downgrades to me with the loss of the home button.

If Apple stays that course, a couple of years from now when my parents upgrade their iPhones I'm going to be going through hell teaching them new swipe gestures.

I'll be sticking with my 8 Plus as long as possible.

Better camera and faster processors are great, but I agree I don't like the loss of the home button. Not sure what I am going to do, I still have an iPhone 7.

I've lived with it since about January. You get used to it. It's still slower than TouchID, though. It's a pain because you have to raise the phone to your face. It fails a good 15% of the time. I don't like it. I've made my peace with it, though.

Overall the X is such a frustrating phone compared to a 6S (the last phone with a real button and headphone jack) that I don't see myself upgrading for years. The guts of the X are amazing. But if they'd taken the guts and camera of the X and put it in a 6S body I would have just purchased that.

I have to wonder if it fails more often on non-caucasian faces. Remember the awful stories of early face recognition software that just plain didn't work for black people.

BadKen wrote:

I have to wonder if it fails more often on non-caucasian faces. Remember the awful stories of early face recognition software that just plain didn't work for black people.

I wouldn't imagine it does fail. It's bouncing lasers off your face (hand waving what it really is) and essentially mapping your face in terms of its geometry. It's not taking a picture and comparing it against another picture like Samsung I believe did.

DSGamer wrote:

It's still slower than TouchID, though. It's a pain because you have to raise the phone to your face.

It works at decent angles and at arms length for me, providing it's upright, but it's not instantaneous like the second generation Touch ID. Being able to lay it into a leaning Qi charger and automatically disclose otherwise private details in notifications at a mere glance, while I'm at my desk, is more useful than I expected.

Wow no more SE. I had a class of 5 ladies last year and in the class there were 4 SEs and one Android phone. Add my SE for 5/6. If definitely suited a certain kind of user.

And farewell to the headphone jack.

I was very underwhelmed too. No reason for me to upgrade from my 8. I'll also be hanging on to my work SE for as long as possible.

I know it's a phone event, but there was no AirPod or AirMat news, nor was there any Macbook Air or Macbook Mini news.

You guys have had better luck with Touch ID than I have with my 6 plus. It fails enough to be annoying. I find I have to wipe it down with a cloth more frequently than I’d like to get it to work and if my finger is even slightly damp from sweat, rain, etc it’s not going to work either.

I had a 5. Then I went to the 6. Then I went to the SE because I decided I preferred the smaller form factor.

I was hoping they'd announce an iPhone IX that was the size of the 5 but with the full-face screen of the X.

I wasn't actually expecting that, but it's what I wanted.

I'm not sure any of the current models are for me.

It's so weird to not be lusting after any Apple hardware any more. They've been pretty steadily phasing out and/or changing all the stuff I had a use for. Maybe the new Mac Pro will bring me back sometime next year.

Vargen wrote:

It's so weird to not be lusting after any Apple hardware any more. They've been pretty steadily phasing out and/or changing all the stuff I had a use for. Maybe the new Mac Pro will bring me back sometime next year.

Yeah. I hate what they’ve done to the MacBook Pro line, personally. So they also lack a computer I love at this point. As a software developer that likes function keys and prefers my keys to have some travel. Nevermind that I still use USB A cables and hate dongles.

At this point there isn’t a current Apple product I truly love (if I were replacing my 2013 MacBook Pro and starting from scratch) outside the Apple TV and the OSes themselves. I like the Apple Watch okay also, I guess.

But I don’t feel any desire to upgrade really anything until they wash the current generation of design ideas out. Hopefully they go a different direction or improve on them a lot.

The only reason I use iOS is because of security updates and privacy. Were it not for that I’d be on Android.

Yeah it's kind of maddening. I've had some experience with Android now and I find it ok but only in the same way I find Windows 10 ok. I'd still prefer to stay on macOS/ iOS.

I quite like the new MBP, I never used the function keys and some software (Skype, Bear, Office) surface useful functionality on the Touch Bar. I like the keyboard in everything else but it is very loud, like If I'm typing during a meeting I have to be conscious where the conferencing gear is in order to not sit too close to the mics. I hear it's better on the latest model. I have to say it's quite convenient to be able to plug the charger on any port on the chassis. Is worth losing the magnetic connector? To me it is.

The new phones don't really do anything to me, I'm quite happy with my 8+. I've not felt it to be slow in anything I need it to do. I'm sure to upgrade when my company lease is up in a year though.

New watch looks good, I have the series 2 and it's.. slower than I'd like. It takes around five seconds to start the workout-app to the point where you can start a workout. I'm using Fantastical for calendaring and the watch app is not as responsive as I'd like. More real screen estate is good too. Apparently the ECG functionality is US only currently due to regulatory issues in other markets. Understandable but a bummer nonetheless, as god knows how long it takes to get approval in the EU.

I was kinda interested about the new Apple Watch news. Having a Watch detect arrhythmia or falls is incredibly intriguing to a medical professional, particularly one specialized in public health. However, a lot of my colleagues are pointing out that the battery holds out for 4 hours only which is... ridiculous.
I'm very happy with the X I got a month ago. The Face ID is seamless (for me - like BadKen, I've heard stories about it not working on PoC), and I forget that my phone is locked, that it has that protection. Not going to upgrade anytime soon, as it did come with a hefty price tag (though I did get some cash from selling my "old" iPhone 8).

Wait, the battery is 4 hours?! Dang, I was going to pre-order one but I better research it a little better first.

And agree, if the ECG is accurate, that would be amazing for detecting afib and other arrythmias. Have had 2 patients who have needed implantable loop recorders just this month following strokes, would be crazy if you could just do it with your watch. Or better yet, pick up the afib and prevent ever getting the stroke in the first place.

Suvanto wrote:

I quite like the new MBP, I never used the function keys and some software (Skype, Bear, Office) surface useful functionality on the Touch Bar. I like the keyboard in everything else but it is very loud, like If I'm typing during a meeting I have to be conscious where the conferencing gear is in order to not sit too close to the mics. I hear it's better on the latest model. I have to say it's quite convenient to be able to plug the charger on any port on the chassis. Is worth losing the magnetic connector? To me it is.

I guess Apple figured the magnetic charging port was saving too many laptops from destruction and was hurting their bottom line.

In their defense, moving from spinning hard disks to solid state storage has made their laptops a lot more resilient to the occasional drop.

The current MacBook Pro is a great laptop. It's just not a good replacement for older Macbook Pro models in a lot of important ways. I want an ethernet port on a Pro laptop, because in my head one of its functions is to be a mobile network troubleshooting station. Media professionals want to be able to plug everything they need in and get to work without buying a bunch of dongles. Programmers want all the keys they're used to using in their development kit of choice.

The Mac Pro is sexy, but I can't get the 3d hardware I want, load it full of internal storage, or put in a video capture card or three. Apple says they've heard these complaints, but we'll have to wait until next year to see how they're addressing them.

The stuff Apple's doing with their watches is interesting, but I don't actually want one. Yet.

I love my Mac Mini but Apple shows no interest in it these days.

I have a MBP at work and while I really like it, it gets freakin' hot! It's not good for use on actual laps.

If there were a lower priced Air replacement, I would consider it for myself personally.

FaceID fails for a myriad of reasons. Some I can understand. I get out of my car and it’s sunny my glasses darken and the phone can’t recognize me.

In fact bright sun at a certain angle can make it fail as well.

Other times it just doesn’t like the way I look at a given moment and won’t work those are the ones I can’t figure out.