Wednesday, January 3, 2018

The Grand Irony of the iMac Pro

Apple closed out the end of the year with the launch of the iMac Pro. This system is being pitched as an example of Apple's commitment to the interests of the "Pro" user -- a system that meets the needs of creative and graphics professionals that have been a core Mac user base for so long. The iMac Pro is being rolled out in advance of a redesigned Mac Pro that's supposed to be unveiled sometime in the future.

The current Mac Pro design is something like four years old. You know the one -- it looks sort of like a Dyson fan turned on it's side -- there are racks and racks of them in use... nowhere, because it doesn't really do racks. Err, my bad. I just Googled "Mac Pro Rack" and found a bunch of aftermarket chassis designs. Anyway, it's probably noteworthy is that there is a market for Mac Pro rackmount accessories -- and how disconnected the design is from the application.

After releasing a bunch of very un-Pro systems with Pro name tags and sparking a bonfire of outrage from professional Mac users (more from me about this in my previous post, Is Apple "Designing" Their Way Out of Customers?), Apple suddenly started making noise about how the Pro market was important to them and how they'd release a new, modular Mac Pro in, maybe a couple of years.

What I think that they really wanted to do was to cool the outrage and get some positive media while their Touchbar USB-C Macbook Pros racked up sales -- since those systems were the only real option available to most pro Mac laptop users, significant sales numbers inevitable.

The other thing that Apple did, while the world waited on the two-year development of the Mac Pro,  was plan and announce an iMac Pro. What I think they were trying to do with this was two-fold: first, fast-track a pro-spec system around an existing design; second, if the sales for the iMac Pro underperformed, they could use that to amplify the idea that "there really isn't much of a pro market after all -- more noise than substance".

As I noted in my headline, what makes this so ironic is that the iMac was never the system you allocated to your Pro users. The iMac was the home system, the one with colors or flowers, the inexpensive all-in-one you used for your admin and support staff so that they'd be on the same platform and could use the software -- if needed. But as Apple has gotten out of the business of doing pro monitors and systems, the iMac is their last option for control over the total package.

It's sort of like if Apple had gotten rid of all of it's iPhone models, then realized they really needed a phone, then saying, "we've made this great iPhone from our Apple Watch. In order to get the battery life and performance you'd expect from an actual iPhone, we've added these dongle attachments for battery, processor and display." Okay, maybe it's not that bad. But if there's anything that makes the case that Apple -- at least for a time -- quit caring about the pro market, it's the iMac Pro.

Also noteworthy on the iMac Pro are what you see in the actual technical specs.
  • USB-3 ports. Why? Because the world still uses them. 
  • A traditional audio port. Why? Because the world still uses it.
  • An SD card reader. Again, another hated drop from the Macbook Pro line.
  • USB-C ports used for Thunderbolt, DisplayPort, etc. If they had done this with the Macbook Pro, there probably would have been fewer complaints.
  • No Touchbar. If this was a must-have feature, it would make sense to migrate it to these desktop systems. It would probably make even more sense for desktop since it wouldn't be a power draw. But the reality is that, if this feature were on a stand-alone keyboard, the additional cost would probably limit it's sales.
iMac Pro -- the missing link between evolution and devolution. Now, if they can only get this thing into a laptop-sized package, they might have something worthy of a Macbook Pro title.

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

New Year, New Mac

So in the back and forth over what to get for Christmas, my wife decided she would like to have an Mac of her own to use as her system (she's been using PCs regularly for many years). My initial inclination was just to buy her the latest Macbook Air, fully decked out. Essentially, that would be the same as my personal system, albeit a couple of years later with a somewhat faster processor. However, before I decided to pull the trigger on that, I decided to check the Apple site and see what options might be available in the refurb and clearance section. In the clearance section, I came across a couple of listings for the previous generation 13" Macbook Pro (pre-USB-C, Touchpad, and no Magsafe connector version).

If I could identify faults with my 13" Macbook Air, I would say that it only has two real shortcomings. First, the lack of a Retina display. As my eyes have aged, they can challenged by the lack of sharpness on the older technology LCD panel. It's also not great for image editing -- if you happen to be doing that work on a laptop screen. Prior to my wife and I getting married, when I was at home, I would do my image editing on a big screen monitor sitting on my desk in my dedicated home-office workspace. Since getting married, I no longer have the space for the desk or the monitor, so I've found myself editing images directly on the Air. Of course, Apple could update this, but they've had years to make the update and haven't done it -- I don't expect a Retina Macbook Air any time soon.

The second issue relates to the first -- when I had my Macbook Air sitting at my desk, I used to hate the fact that it only had one Thunderbolt port. I like to use one port for Ethernet and one port for display. Since the reviews weren't great for most of the Thunderbolt docks that I saw, I never invested in one. That being said, a second Thunderbolt port on the Macbook Air would make it a perfect system for me.

But, as I said, Apple isn't moving this way with their new products. Instead, the last generation Macbook Pro is really the last thing we've seen out of Cupertino resembling a Pro class laptop.

So I was looking at this clearance 13" Macbook Pro -- Retina display, two Thunderbolt ports, and even an integrated HDMI port, something that I often wind up carrying a dongle for when I travel -- and I began to see a plan take shape. After discussing it with my wife, we decided that we'd order the clearance13" Macbook Pro for me and give my wife my older Macbook Air. Merry Christmas to all. Overall, the ordering process was pretty straightforward -- other than the free shipping experience that UPS provided, essentially stealing one of our vacation days (you can read all about it on my Twitter feed). And I spent the New Years weekend migrating my old system to the new Macbook Pro.

So a couple of hick-ups that I experienced that I should probably warn you in case you find yourself in a similar position. I had a Time Machine backup of my Air, but when I tried to use the migration assistant, it told me that it couldn't use the back-up because there was a difference in versions between the two systems. Initially, I thought it was probably because my Air was running on Sierra and I expected my new Pro system to be running High Sierra. That turned out to not be true, but not before essentially forcing me to migrate my Air to High Sierra. When it still wouldn't work, I dug deeper and discovered that the new Pro clearance system shipped with El Capitan, and that was the OS difference issue. The new Pro is now running High Sierra too. Perhaps if I'd felt like jumping through some hoops, I could have restored my Air from an older backup, then went looking for a signed copy of Sierra, but it seemed like a lot of extra effort just to avoid the upgrade.

Reflections on the 13-inch Macbook Pro (early 2015 model)
Overall, I'm pretty happy with the upgrade to my system. This Macbook Pro is noticeably snappier than my Air. This system is running an Intel i5 at 2.6 GHz while my older Air was running an i7 at 1.7 GHz (or something like that).

The Retina display is much easier on my eyes.  The display color seems much richer and type is so much sharper that I don't find myself reaching for my glasses -- something that had practically become a necessity with the Air.

Another reason why I thought it might be better for me to get the Pro is the differences in the laptop body. One of the things that my wife and I can sometimes struggle with is being able to identify which device belongs to whom. With iPhones, we use different models, so it's pretty easy. With iPads, we use different color cases. The Apple product that sucks the most for multiple users in a household is the Airpods, since there's no really easy way to differentiate one pair from another, even though they're uniquely paired to a specific user's devices. Anyway, with one Pro and one Air, it's much easier to identify which system belongs to whom.

There are some issues that I have noticed with the Macbook Pro though. Probably the one that I'm most aware of is the battery life. While the early 2015 era Macbook Pros are supposed to be pretty good on battery life -- or at least supposedly much better than the current generation (I've heard several stories of crap battery life on the USB-C / Touchbar models), the battery life on the Pro is no match for the Air. Even with my couple of years old Air, I could easily expect four to six hours of active system operation before I saw my battery falling into a "really need to charge this" zone. With the Pro, I'm getting below 50% in two-three hours of use. It's sort of like turning over the keys to my high mileage compact and jumping into an SUV. It's a workable battery life, but at this point, I'm thinking I don't want to get too far away from an outlet.

The touchpad on the Pro seems a bit more sensitive than the one on the Air. While I've been using the system, I've found myself accidentally triggering clicks and inadvertent mouse movements. I'm still playing with the settings, so hopefully I can make that work a bit better.

In conclusion, I think that the ideal system would be a Macbook Air with a Retina display. If that system was available, I'd buy one today. Having spent a couple of years getting accustomed to the battery life of the Macbook Air, that feels like a bit more of a critical requirement than the Touchbar designing product team seem to recognize. That being said, I am really appreciative of the Retina display and the extra ports on my Pro, but YMMV.