Here you have it. The Macbook Air’s biggest issue since the M2 has been fixed. M2’s 256GB model’s SSD speeds were roughly 1500MB/s read and write, the M3 is twice that. You no longer have to upgrade to the 512GB model to enjoy the faster speeds.
MacBook Air
Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Air (Late 2020) Unboxing
I borrowed an M1-powered MacBook Air from my relative for this unboxing.
If you have been paying attention to the recent MacBook Airs, this unboxing is going to look exactly the same as the ones that came before.
The keyboard has the only obvious physical change with these few key changes.
Battery life
I have not taken out the power adapter from the box yet, but have already installed the 11.0.1 update. It took more than 20 mins, and I noticed the battery percentage did not change even after the update has been completed. After playing with the MacBook Air for more than an hour in total, the battery percentage only dropped like 2-3%. Take note that I did not push the MacBook Air hard, nor did I do any benchmarks since those are all over the internet already, but this thing is fast and snappy! And the battery life is incredible.
The state of iOS apps on Apple Silicon macOS
It appears more than just a few developers have chosen to block their iOS apps from appearing from the Mac App Store, either because they already have a macOS version and obviously they want to make money from those, or they are just bent on not giving macOS users access to their apps. Possible reasons could be because their apps are “not ready for macOS yetâ€, or maybe because they will lose out on a lot more tracking info if users chose to use their apps instead of their websites. Whatever it is, none of the third party apps that I use on a daily basis are available on macOS, and that sucks. Maybe Apple was wrong to give the developers that choice in the first place. Developers who are lazy and want more money but do not want to do the extra work.
However, from recent reports it seems that you may actually be able to install iOS apps not available on the Mac App Store by executing their .ipa files directly. Worth a try I guess.
Conclusion
These are definitely the best Macs to have came out of Apple in probably the last two decades. Going Intel in 2006 might have allowed a lot more people to be exposed to Macs, but it also took away the uniqueness Macs have over the rest of the computing industry, with their RISC processors. With the M1 Macs Apple has regained its uniqueness and advantage over the rest of the traditional computing industry, and do not expect them to slow down anytime soon. Very soon the pathetic PC whiners are just going to claim that their old AF x86 platform architecture is superior because they say so, just like stupid Android people who still think they have the most powerful phones just because some manufacturers have to use massive cooling solutions for their shitty designs. Well idiots will be idiots and there are so many idiots in the PC industry that it is not even funny.
Should you buy an M1 Mac now?
The usual answer applies – buy only if you need a computer now. If not there will always be faster Macs in the future. If you have been waiting, especially for a MacBook Air, I think this is a good time to purchase it. The MacBook Pro, maybe not, since there are rumors that a 14-inch one is coming next year.
Apple Silicon Macs are Not Available to Buy in Singapore Just Yet
This is not the first time IMDA has cause a delay in the purchasing of Macs in Singapore. Every time there is a significant change in the Mac’s innards or when something surprise drops (like the AirPods Pro), they are never available to order at the same time as the other countries. And this is definitely not Apple’s fault.
Now I have no idea of the process it takes to certify wireless devices locally, but I cannot imagine that the process is much longer in Singapore than in other bigger, more advanced countries. And I hate to wait.
If you know someone working in IMDA, or if you yourself are from IMDA, and are involved in the process, can you let me know? DM me on Twitter, email, or anything. I will read your email, delete it and pretend that I have no recollection of your existence or identity.
Also, I will love to hear from anyone interested in purchasing one of the three Macs Apple updated with Apple Silicon earlier today. Is the MacBook Air the must buy? Or will a Mac Mini as a supplementary desktop to test out Apple Silicon make more sense to you? I personally will not advise anyone to go for the 13 inch MacBook Pro since rumors are that an updated display (14 inch) is on the horizon. M1 (not the shitty telco) is so exciting.
Edit: The MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro are now available to order at 10am, 12th November. For some reason the Mac mini is still not available yet.
5 hours to the “One More Thing†Event
This is finally it.
T minus 5 hours before what is likely the last Apple event of 2020, and will likely be the most significant one for at least the next decade, Apple’s November 2020 event, titled “One More Thingâ€, the exact words that Steve Jobs use repeatedly to introduce the new, shiny, and most promising Apple products in his legendary keynotes.
We know that the introduction of the first Apple Silicon Macs will be highlight of the event. That Macs will now get new architecture for the first time in fifteen years has to get many people excited, enough for Cult of Mac to write a shit piece just to capitalize on the heightened interest.
The original switch to Intel
When Apple first announced the switch to Intel processors back in 2005, rumors of the switch had already been making the rounds for months, but it still came as a big surprise when Steve Jobs announced it at WWDC that year.
Apple had to make the jump then. IBM, who was making the PowerPC G5 chips for Apple, sucked big time in developing CPUs with both the clock speeds needed for Macs to keep up with the competition, as well as with the thermal requirements to put them in what will eventually become the best selling Macs, the iMac and the portable Mac laptops. Intel was the best in the industry then, and their roadmap offered a solution for Apple, so they took it and switched everyone to Intel. That the architecture change resulting in an initial boost of people buying Macs because they can run Windows on them was just a decent bonus.
Intel today = IBM of yesteryear
The Intel today is the IBM of yesteryear. Intel suck. Delays, fabrication issues and the lack of processing gains are just some of the massive problems facing Intel and the whole x86 computing industry today. The best in the industry today is Apple, and their chips are years ahead of everyone else’s. So Apple have to make the jump again, this time to Apple’s own processors.
No more Boot Camp?
With this jump Macs will likely lose the ability to run Windows via the Boot Camp utility, but it is likely not important in today’s world. Unlike a decade ago, mankind have adapted to the usage of multiple operating systems across various platforms, and the people who originally bought Macs all those years ago to run Windows on them have all now switched to using macOS, likely exclusively. People will buy Apple Silicon Macs for what they are, Macs. That the architecture change this time bringing about the ability to run apps from the best computing platform in the world, iOS, is too, just a decent bonus.
MacBook Air? MacBook Pro?
Apple has traditionally made the early release of their most popular Macs during an architectural change a priority, and in 2006 the 15-inch MacBook Pro was the first Intel Mac released to the world. Today’s Apple sell a lot more 13-inch MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs than their 16-inchers, so it is not surprising that the rumor mill believes the two 13-inchers will be the first Apple Silicon Macs (let us ignore the Mac Mini dev kit) announced tonight. Their affordability will likely ensure big sales numbers as well.
I cannot imagine anything other than great success for the Apple Silicon Macs.
MacRyu’s Mac Setup 2014
So in 2007 I posted my old setup based around my 2007 24″ Aluminum iMac and 12″ iBook on Flickr.
Then in 2011 I posted my revamped setup based on the same iMac but with a relatively new 2010 MacBook Air.
After another 3 years and spending the last 12 months not bothered with updating this site, I want to reboot this site with my first decent post – my current Mac setup.
And here it is.
The iMac, now in its seventh year of service, has been semi-retired and is only used sparingly these days. Its main duties have been taken over by the 2012 11″ MacBook Air, which is connected to a Crossover 27″ high resolution monitor (2560X1440, LG’s IPS panel, the same ones used in the current 27″ Thunderbolt Display) via Dual-link DVI, which I run in clamshell mode for the time being. It will be eventually replaced by the next Mac Mini, whenever that thing is refreshed, because running clamshell mode can be a pain in the arse for long term use.
The iMac is these days used as a BT machine, iTunes server or for casual file access when I don’t want to turn on 4 switches just to access or print a file. It has been upgraded with a OCZ SSD last year, and boots into Mavericks in about 6 seconds flat, which is extremely speedy for a 7 year old machine. It is also connected to my HDD docks for serious backing up duties.
The Harman Kardon Soundsticks III is the world’s favourite computer speakers (they are almost always in every celebrity’s home or desks, just watch TV!) and I finally saved enough to get them last year. The iPad mini stand was a real replica of the see-through acrylic ones found in authentic Apple Stores, and was a gift from my brother a few weeks ago. Also on the table are docks for my iPhones (the 5S is being used to take the photos, that is why it is not in its modified Belkin dock), iPads, and other pieces of tech toys including the PS Vita 2002, Cowon Z2, Nexus 4 and the Xiaomi Note+. Oh and I love my Starbucks Reserve Mug.
Yes, those are the Sony consoles hiding in the dark corner.
Hopefully this site will still be around in 2017, when I will (most probably) post my updated Mac setup again.
Follow me on twitter @ryuworks or @macryudotcom (official account for this site). And join MacNet at http://sgmac.net for all Apple related discussions on FB!
WWDC 2013 predictions?
Sometimes I wonder why people even crave for such posts when everything is out there in the open, but I guess there are some who would not bother with the research.
I am just going to rehash everything that is already all over the web, adding some of my opinions if necessary.
1. Completely new UI (User Interface) for iOS 7
Honestly, I do not know what to expect. Jony Ive has designed the majority of the Apple hardware we know and love today, but his take on UI is still uncharted territory. As far as we know, he was, to quite an extent, involved in the original iPhone’s UI design back in 2006/2007 but everything after that was under Forstall. The whole “flat look” rumour thing that has been reported widely sends chills down my spine – I absolutely will hate iOS losing most of the fun elements it is known for.
However, if looking the gradients and gloss means a much slicker and professional looking UI (think Tweetbot, think Reeder), I am all for it. It is highly unlikely the hordes of software engineers will let Jony Ive change iOS into something as tasteless as Windows Phone 8, after all. Besides, the Brit has impeccable taste. A clean look, less gloss, less gradient, but with lots of colours and fun elements will be the hallmark of a modern iOS. Besides, change just for change’s sake, for once, is something that iOS needs to keep a majority of their bored customer base from “looking for a change”.
2. Mac OS X 10.9
As with iOS 7, OS X 10.9 must be the most well kept secrets in Cupertino right now. Rarely in the past two years has information about the two new operating systems been so tight-lipped that even now, less than a week from WWDC 2013, there has been no leaks, no screenshots of new features or the new UI (in the case of iOS 7). Rumour-mill has it that engineers have been taken from 10.9 development to help speed up iOS 7’s development pace, and that has resulted lesser changes to 10.9.
Like many of the traditionalists I am more interested in OS X than iOS, and a much improved OS X will perk me up way more than a completely revamped iOS. That said, though, OS X is extremely mature and with much of the underlying changes needed for a modern desktop OS already done in Snow Leopard and Lion, all that is left to do for the next few years is tweaking OS X to perform better, and address the outstanding issues still present today.
An improved Finder (as rumoured) will be welcomed, and hopefully the UI for Calendar and Contacts will be changed to something slicker. Mail.app is in crazy need of a refresh after many years of bloat, though most peeps these days run Sparrow, or more recently, Airmail, as a replacement for Mail.app. I really doubt a new file system will debut anytime soon to replace HFS+, definitely not in 10.9. There is also some speculation that widgets and Dashboard might be discontinued, but I hope that they do keep Dashboard as I still use it everyday for currency conversion.
What other changes do OS X need? You tell me. I am really happy with how everything works so far.
3. New iPhones and iPads?
NO. NO NEW IPHONES AND IPADS. PLEASE. THESE ARE COMING IN SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER.
I am going to slap anyone who tells me that he or she is disappointed because there is no new iPhone/iPad at WWDC.
4. New Macs?
Haswell is just released. So new Retina MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs are definitely coming. There are rumours that the 13″ Retina MacBook Pro will go on a diet and get slimmer (thanks to crazy power efficiency in the new Haswell platform), and that will be definitely welcomed. The current rMBP 13″ is not that much lighter from the old 13″ MBP (non-retina) right now, and is not tempting enough for anyone to switch.
Oh ah, and a price drop across the whole line of Retina MacBook Pros is much needed (will and probably come).
You can follow MacRyu at @ryuworks on Twitter and @ryu on App.net.
What I want for WWDC 2012 is a new iMac and the curious case of the 15″ MacBook Pro
The past few days had seen a crazy mix of rumors about the exact new Macs that will be announced during the keynote tonight, and much of the rumors are about the big possibility that the new 15-inch Mac notebook will not be a MacBook Pro, but instead a new “MacBook”, and that the MacBook Pro line will live on a bit longer with only updates to the internals.
This mean that the Macs codenamed J30 and J31 in my previous post could instead be updated MacBook Pros as opposed to actually being new and redesigned iMacs.
Having absolutely no rumors/news about redesigned iMacs besides extremely vaguer mentions in the major rumor sites isn’t helping either. In the days leading up to WWDC 2012, we have heard a great deal about the new Mac Pros, the new 15-inch Mac notebook, and lesser about the updated MacBook Airs, but almost absolutely nothing about the iMacs, rather than some unverified news that redesigned iMacs will not make it in time for WWDC 2012.
However, something about the whole MacBook Pro line being retained despite having a new 15-inch Mac notebook stinks though.
Apple is not a company afraid to cut old products when they introduce new ones.
Apple is also not a company to keep complex product lines.
A 11/13 MacBook Air line, with a 13/15/17 MacBook Pro line, with a new 15 MacBook line, all for Apple’s notebook lineup, is absolutely nonsensical and not in Apple’s fashion to do.
What Apple will be in favor of, is a product lineup which they have implemented since day 1 of their big switch to intel more than 6 years ago.
6 years ago, there was a 13-inch MacBook, and a 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro.
Yes, this means that the notebooks are separated into two lines based on the size of the notebooks, which made sense since Apple could really only put in Pro-level graphics cards in the bigger Mac notebooks.
If you recall, Apple was all ready to follow that lineup when they introduced the unibody MacBooks (13-inch) and the unibody MacBook Pros (15-inch and 17-inch) in late 2008. But then they realized they had to have a Mac notebook under 1000USD, and thus the MacBook White was revived, and the 13-inch unibody MacBook became the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which in itself isn’t very “Pro”, being the only MacBook Pro without a dedicated graphics card (yes there was an oddball 15-inch without a dedicated card for a while, but nobody except Elsie Law wanted one).
If the Apple today is still the Apple of Steve Jobs, I believe we will be seeing this new MacBook line-up tonight;
11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air (with Retina Displays)
and
the all-new 15-inch MacBook Pro (redesigned, with Retina Display)
And then I’ll have my redesigned iMacs too. Yay~
Macs to be released at WWDC 2012
Appleinsider just put out an article with regards to new part numbers (Australian) for what are supposed to be the new Macs to be unveiled next week at WWDC.
While Tim Cook did say during D10 that Apple will be doubling down on secrecy, when the products are actually in the final process of being shipped worldwide to Apple Stores and resellers, it’s pretty hard not to leak any info.
Judging from the part numbers above, the models to be introduced at WWDC next Monday night are as follows (it’s pretty obvious if you look at the models and the Australian prices);
1. J30 – iMac 21.5″
2. J31 – iMac 27″
3. J11 – MacBook Air 11″
4. J13 – MacBook Air 13″
5. K5BPLUS – Mac Pro (We know this from a previous 9to5mac leak)
Which will bring us to the last 2 machine part numbers, D2 and K31.
All these while we have been hearing rumors about a redesigned MacBook Pro, but every single rumor is about a redesigned MacBook Pro 15-inch model, and there is absolutely nothing on a redesigned 13-inch or a redesigned 17-inch.
Which brings us to the very, very obvious fact that next Monday night, there will only be one redesigned MacBook Pro, the MacBook Pro 15″. And from yet another leak reported by 9to5mac, we know that at least one of the MacBook Pro 15″ models will really be professional based, with very high specs listed, as well as the leak that this higher spec-ed model will cost around $3000 (that’s USD, mind you, which is almost on par with Australian Dollar right now). And the D2 BEST model do fit in with this pricing at $3000+. Therefore D2 = redesigned MacBook Pro 15″.
Which brings us to K31. And if the 15″ leak is accurate, so must the 13″ leak be. And therefore K31, the updated MacBook Pro 13″ with no retina display, is the new White MacBook, the cheapest model one can buy from Apple, and is still in the inventory because it was the most popular Mac before the redesign (just like the White MacBook), and some people can’t bear to give up the old.
The rest of the part numbers are likely to be new accessories, although with that large a number of accessory part numbers, whatever is going to be introduced looks really fun, especially B67, with so many versions of it being introduced.
P.S. A few minutes before I clicked published, 9to5mac just posted the entire price list with model names for the very same image Appleinsider put up, making this very post redundant. And K31 isn’t the MacBook Pro 13″ surprisingly (obviously based off the price), but the Airport Express…..A new Airport Express???
9to5mac’s full Apple inventory image below.
Probably the most elegant bag for the new 11-inch MacBook Air – Fabrix Cases’ The Satchel
I have been waiting to post this review for almost one whole year, and now is exactly the best time to release it – the 11-inch MacBook Air officially becomes Apple’s cheapest notebook, and with the Airs being the future of Apple’s notebook lineup, it seems very possibly that the 11-inch will easily become the most popular notebook on Apple’s line soon.
One thing about having a 11-inch notebook is how hard it is to actually find a bag that fits the exact profile of the notebook unless you actually had one custom made. Apple notebooks are probably the only ones with huge support from some of the world’s best notebook bag manufacturers. That said though, the 11-inch MacBook Air is relatively new, being in the market for only less than a year. Many manufacturers have been marketing bags/sleeves that were previously made for netbooks for the 11-inch Air, but few of these bags/sleeves actually perfectly fit the slim profile of the 11-inch Air.
I have been using Fabrix Cases’ The Satchel for almost a year now, since I first got my 11-inch Air last October, and must say that it is easily the best bag for the 11-inch Air and its slim profile.
2011 MacBook Pros – Possibly the coolest ever?
So the rumors about the new MacBook Pros releasing tomorrow night are definitely super interesting to me.
Let’s first recap how and why there is so much anticipation for this MacBook Pro release, unlike the other speed bump/innards update releases over the past two years.
1. It is now 2011. Apple first introduced the unibody MacBook Pros in late 2008, which makes three years already. And Apple loves to refresh its hardware designs every three years or so (discounting the fateful Aluminum Powerbook/MacBook Pro design). Which makes this year a perfect timing for new MacBook Pro designs. As with all Apple redesigns, it’s a big deal.
2. The release of the redesigned MacBook Air last year (I bought one myself, it’s that good). With the new MacBook Airs there is a very apparent new MacBook design philosophy – the focus on using SSDs, and not just any SSD, but the Toshiba Blade X-gale series that first appeared on the MacBook Airs, because they are much much smaller than a standard 1.8″ or 2.5″ traditional SSDs, and also because they are stock parts, they make way more sense for Apple to use them then to solder flash memory onto the logic boards themselves. And Apple publicly said that the Air will be the basic building block upon which future MacBook designs will be derived from, much like how the original Air inspired the Unibody MacBook Pro series.
3. The iMac refresh last year brought some interesting hardware configurations, namely, that Apple has a build-to-order configuration for a SSD and traditional HDD combination in an iMac, rather than have just a SSD as an option. This configuration allows one to install OS X and all apps onto the SSD and use the HDD for data. Having the OS and apps on the SSD will basically result in super speeding up boot times, application launch times, system response times, and the such, you get what I mean here. Basically it gives you a feeling of a much faster system than you actually own.
4. And that finally Apple probably has to switch to Core i3/i5/i7 series for their 13-inchers, for the Core 2 Duo chips will be out of production soon (or already is).
Macrumors (sourcing from Macgeneration, a french site) released the following rumored specs and info about the new MacBook Pro earlier today;
– no more white MacBook (Apple goes back to two lines of 13″ inchers)
– 16 GB SSD mSATA drives on all models to store the system
– Core i3 and third USB port on the 13″ model
– Matte screen option on the higher-end 13″
– Option to replace the SuperDrive with a SSD on the 15 and 17″ models
– HD screens on all models : 1440×900 on the 13″, 1680×1050 on the 15″
– 200 to 300 grams lighter : 1.8 kg for the 13″, 2.3 kg for the 15″, 2.65 kg for the 17″
– Better battery life : 12 hours on the 13″, 10 hours on the 15″
– 8 GB of RAM on the 17″
This seem to fit in with much of the changes in design philosophy brought about by the updated MacBook Air and the iMac refresh, for it makes use of 16GB of SSD for the system to basically boost overall system response speeds. Core i3 for the 13″ MacBook Pro makes complete sense with Sandy Bridge being good enough. Though personally I’m still hoping for some kind of miracle where Apple will put in a more decent-than-stock integrated/dedicated graphics on the 13″ MacBook Pro.
Matte screen options for the 13″ will finally appease the bunch of silly users who keep insisting that matte screens are better (when they are not) and who had to buy the 15″ because there wasn’t a matte screen option for the 13″, until now.
The screen resolution change isn’t a surprise, Apple switched the resolution starting from the updated 13″ MacBook Air last year, and it makes no business sense for them to keep using a lower resolution screen for the MacBook Pro lines.
And really, besides the introduction of SSD in every model and the increase of screen resolution, the most important part must be the decrease in weight of the whole MacBook Pro lines. With the unibody series the MacBook Pro line was already almost some of the lightest notebooks in its categories (all the more cool when you realised that competitors are achieving comparable weight using cheap filmsy lightweight plastic that breaks when you knock your laptop against your knee). If the 1.8kg weight for the 13″ MacBook Pro is real, there is just simply going to be no competition.
I am really excited, shouldn’t you be too? Especially you, you, you, you, you, you, and you, since you are already planning to buy your first Mac in the next two months.
This is really exciting.
P.S. And then there’s Light Peak. Shall not comment on it until we see it tomorrow.
P.S. again. It seems that new last minute-rumors have appeared to dispel some of the more cooler rumors including case redesigns and weight reduction. Check it out here. If true, will be much less ambitious and exciting than originally hoped for.
P.S., yet again. Cool my arse. The rumor mill could have never been more wrong. The 13″ers are totally lousier upgrades compared to the previous generation, which has better graphics and longer battery life (10 hours vs the current 7 hours)