Apple Announces a Mac Event On October 27, Says 'Hello Again' 87
Apple announced on Wednesday that it will be holding an event on October 27. The tagline of the invite is, "hello again." This suggests that the rumors are true and that the company will indeed announce a fleet of new Mac products. The original Mac was introduced with the word "hello" in 1984. People have waited for years now for Apple to refresh its Macbooks -- some of the products in Mac line haven't received an update in 1000 days. Many expert even said earlier that Apple should stop selling the old MacBooks. The new MacBooks are expected to ship with Intel Skylake processor and a contextual keyboard. Not long ago, the company was also exploring the idea of a MacBook without a 3.5mm audio jack.
Prediction (Score:3, Insightful)
I have no idea what they will really release, but I'm pretty sure many Slashdot posters (who would never buy Apple hardware anyway) will hate whatever they change, and I'll have to explain to them all what Apple is thinking... sigh.
Thus is the internet.
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I hate the tagline change from "hello" to "hello again". What Apple is thinking?
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Maybe it's "Hello again 17 inch MacBook Pro"? One can dream, right?
(Typing this on my 2010 17 inch MacBook Pro, I would probably have bought two new ones already if only they still made them but I guess they don't want my money)
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I'll have to explain to them all what Apple is thinking... sigh.
OK I'll bite. WTF were they thinking when they gutted the Mac Mini?
Re: Prediction (Score:3)
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I have no idea what they will really release, but I'm pretty sure many Slashdot posters (who would never buy Apple hardware anyway) will hate whatever they change
If I never bought Apple hardware why would I care what they changed? The problem with these events is that while I once looked forward to them to see what new improvements and capabilities they would be adding I now look at them with some trepidation because the new features are generally things I do not care about or which make things actually worse. I'm in the market for a new laptop and desktop to replace my aging macs but I want high performance machines, including the GPU, which do not require me to t
Re: Prediction (Score:2)
Frankly if I could run OS X reliably on a Dell XPS 15 it would be "hello again" Dell.
It's supposed to run fairly well on my elitebook 8470p but I haven't tried it...
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Frankly if I could run OS X reliably on a Dell XPS 15 it would be "hello again" Dell.
http://www.osx86project.org/ [osx86project.org] fill yer boots as it CAN be done
Re:Prediction (Score:4, Informative)
As a macbook pro user let me say that I will probably not like what Apple shows.
1. I want an m.2 slot for SSDs. They are getting bigger and cheaper and I want the option to upgrade my SSD as they improve.
2. I want memory slots just like my MacBook Pro has. I want the option of adding ram to my notebook like I did with with my MacBook Pro.
3. I want more than one USB ports. A Pro should also have Thunderbolt ports.
4. Keep the audio jack. You do not need to drop it.
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Re: mac os now locked down to IOS levels and (Score:1, Insightful)
Rootless is easily disabled, you just have to boot to recovery mode, open a terminal, and run a single command. Reboot and voila. You can load arbitrary code even in the kernel.
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Yes, just boot into Recovery Mode using the DVD the ... oh wait, modern Macs don't have a DVD drive and even if they did, macOS isn't available except via download. So you can't boot of media, there is no media. So no recovery mode, so no disabling rootless.
FFS if you are going troll at least do something imaginative. Booting to Recovery Mode takes a single key press during the boot process.
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True, it's not quite to iOS levels. But you still can't run code that isn't "blessed" by Cupertino and you can't turn that off: macOS removed the ability to disable Gatekeeper.
So this [stackexchange.com] is a lie? Is that you Donald?
Re: mac os now locked down to IOS levels and (Score:4, Informative)
I haven't yet installed MacOS Sierra, but given the number of stories I've read, it's clear that the people who are most in need of gatekeeper are the ones who are too stupid to be trusted with disabling it. A perfect example are those idiot chinese coders that downloaded pirated copies of xcode, which resulted in every app they wrote having malicious code injected.
Gatekeeper is a tremendously valuable tool because it's a solid front line of defense against malicious apps, and IMO anyone who disables it is a moron.
It's trivially easy to bypass gatekeeper on a case-by-case basis. All you do is right-click on your desired app and choose "open". It will ask you to verify whether you really want to do that, and voila, it opens. If you open an app and the OS says that it's unsigned, that's a big honking red flag, and it means you need to scrutinise the source of your application.
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From what I read, it was pure impatience. The official Apple link was apparently slow, and they could get it faster with some local pirated link.
Re: mac os now locked down to IOS levels and (Score:5, Informative)
You can run code that isn't blessed by Cupertino. In fact, Gatekeeper defaults to signed and Mac App Store apps. Signed apps are apps that a developer makes that have been signed by a key generated by Apple. Apple doesn't get a chance to review those apps - the developer writes it, signs it, and releases it. Apple has revoked a few keys before, because they were used to spread malware (because even developers can't be bothered to secure their keys, so those keys got stolen).
And it's possible to bypass gatekeeper quite easily. First off, it only affects "unsafe" distribution methods, like software downloads from the Internet. So if you install an app from say, a CD, it works just fine (since these will be older, they will be unsigned). And code that the compiler produces is also trusted, presumably you've verified that yourself. Another way is it relies on extended attributes, so clearing those also bypasses it.
Or you can give an unsigned app permission to run permanantly, requiring little more than a few extra seconds to press the Ctrl key and clicking Open.
For file protection, you can disable it easily enough, though it requires a trip through the recovery mode console Even Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] has the basic command you need to disable it.
Honestly, the options are there to take full control of the machine, if you want to. For the vast, vast majority of users, including power users, leaving it at the defaults is just fine.
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It's just AtEase all over again. [wikipedia.org]
For 90% of the population they'll get by just fine. You'll still have a way to get to a bash prompt if you want. (Just like I could launch into Finder when the rest of my family had their own personal AtEase pages)
Re:mac os now locked down to IOS levels and (Score:4, Insightful)
Either you don't use a Mac, or your skill level is so low that you are exactly the kind of person for whom this change is designed. There is virtually no reason why you *should* disable Gatekeeper because it provides critical front-line security to protect you from malicious apps.
If you want to grant an exception to an individual app, that is still possible. If you want to disable gatekeeper entirely, you can still do that too, although you'd be begging to be exploited by malicious software if you did.
And, oh look! I found this on my very first google search.
https://www.tekrevue.com/tip/g... [tekrevue.com]
Clearly you couldn't even be bothered to make the attempt to get more info before invoking the power of your pie hole.
Nervous (Score:2)
My feelings/fear is that they'll just give up on the desktop versions and go strictly laptops.
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They are pretty close already. They do not have any real desktop with room for hard drives and video cards. Even the overpriced Mac "Pro" has limited expandability and is unsuitable for most professionals.
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last I checked a laptop computer still works fine when you put it on a desk
Unless you expect it to perform as well as a desktop, with all the peripherals... multiple monitors, multiple networks, multiple audio devices, gobs of RAM, oodles of storage, and a video card that makes even the latest macbook pro look laughable.
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Mac mini has been neglected for years, as has the mac pro. Their all-in-one approach is a non-starter for me, and the mini is non-expandable and badly underpowered. If they came out with an acceptable mini-tower not marked up by 3x that I could stick a few drives in and still upgrade the memory and video card in I would be game. Frankly I am done with Windows, and I am not a fan of Linux. Now would be a strategic time for them to take advantage of Windows 10 discontent, but I am sure they won't. I bare
Re:Nervous (Score:4, Insightful)
They are neglected for a few reasons.
First, the Mini and the Mac Pro are the worst selling machines in the lineup, even when they were brand new. If it wasn't for a hard core group of people who buy practically every model of them, Apple would've dropped both years ago.
Second, both are subject to Intel - because they are the worst selling machines, Apple is not going to invest a lot of design time to accomodate various sockets. The current Mac Mini has a dual core i7 purely because that's the only processor Intel makes that is pin-compatible with the i5s. Apple will not redesign the Mini logic board just for a custom configuration - the ROI is very bad. So Apple is limited to whatever chips Intel has that span the range and share a single socket.
I love my Mini (Score:2)
I hate laptops. I have a monitor, keyboard mouse everywhere I need to work so I tote my mac-mini around. It has always been under powered and unexpandible however the form factor and durability of this machine is nice and wins out for doing actual work. Doubles as a means to stream/play movies. When it wears out no worries, I can get peripherals anywhere. Hope they continue to support it...
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For the Mini, a big part of that is because they saddled it with a substandard two-core CPU in the last hardware revision, rather than the four-core that was available in the top-tier Mini prior to that. Previous generations made a popular server platform. These days, refurbished 2012 four-core Minis sell for at least as much as the current generation (and for a while, were considerably more expensi
SubjectIsSubject (Score:4, Funny)
and,
Goodbye.
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Pretty Dang Exciting (Score:5, Funny)
They're thinking about dropping the headphone jack. Maybe the new MacBook will be waterproof.
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Right, because the only use of an Macbook pro is someone serious about audio work.
If you're using your Mac for office style work, you might need a headphone jack to listen to or create a presentation, or participate in a meeting. If you're programming on it, you might just be listening to music on it too with your itunes, or just streaming from something else. You might be doing video editing and need the audio out for some other reason. Sure, you COULD do this with some wireless shit, but that's ultimat
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If they remove the headphone jack, it's solely for market lock-in reasons. Same as on the iPhone.
If, as you mentioned, we can already achieve wireless audio through third-parties, then how does the removal of a jack signify or aid "market lock-in"? I'm not beholden to apple to buy their headphones. Bluetooth is bluetooth. I'm not sure I see how we're being locked in to anything here. I could switch from my apple phone to my android phone with no issue. A proprietary plug, I could understand as lock-in (although I do like the "non 4-dimensional" qualities of the lightning adapter).
I do agree that the mo
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Pretty sure you are wrong as most of my friends work for companies that make video and audio software for Macs, e.g. plug ins for CuBase ...
Serious audio on a PC is still close to impossible, windows not made for that.
How about Video Conferencing? (Score:1)
These machines are marketed to, and used by, "pro" users, and built-in audio on ANY computer is not used by anyone serious about audio work.
Perhaps you are unaware but there are some professionals who are not serious about audio work and who still use the audio for things like video conferencing and who would like to have some privacy or avoid disturbing others while doing so. A headphone is rather essential for that and no a wireless thing which has to be kept charged and only lasts for a few hours is NOT a suitable replacement. Having to miss a meeting because you forgot to keep yet another device charged is anything but professional.
speaking of unaware (Score:1)
Perhaps you are unaware
of USB headphones for video conferencing?
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of USB headphones for video conferencing?
If only they were not getting rid of the USB-A ports too. Still I suppose I could buy a brand new headphone set that I do not need or want and then buy another dongle so I can plug it into a USB-C port. This is NOT easier than having a headphone jack.
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Yeah. I bought two of those for my Mac Mini at home—the first because I needed a second separately addressable analog audio output, and the second because the first one immolated itself internally after about a week.
The existence of cheap electronics as a workaround does not negate the pain that losing the headphone jack in my MBP would cause. Just saying.
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If ONLY they made headphones that would connect directly to USB, or adapters that could allow you to connect a standard pair of headphones via the USB or Lightning ports.
Yes because I really want to carry around one set of ear buds for my laptop and another set for everything else - that's assuming they even make USB-C compatible ones yet so more likely I will need a special set plus a dongle. Sounds like a real winner of a solution.
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The head phone jacks are also optical out on multiple machines.
https://support.apple.com/en-u... [apple.com]
Play high sample rate digital audio on Mac computers
The audio hardware in some MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, and iMac computers supports 176.4 kHz and 192 kHz digital audio when connected using optical output.
These computers support up to 192 kHz sample rate for audio playback:
Subtitle: If you like your ports you can keep your (Score:1)
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Last I heard USB-C was a standard USB port.
If Steve Jobs were still around... (Score:2)
... I would actually be expecting something pretty amazing right now.
The "Pro. Go. Whoa." tagline of the introduction of the original (Bondi Blue) iMac was something that was actually pretty astonishing and well worth the -- rather low-key, in retrospect -- hype going into it. The iMac itself was advertised displaying the infamous 1984 "hello" image on its front:
http://lowendmac.com/wp-content/uploads/hello-again-imac.jpg [lowendmac.com] via
http://lowendmac.com/1998/1998-good-bye-newton-hello-os-8-1-wallstreet-and-imac/ [lowendmac.com]
Sin
iVT100 (Score:2)
Now Apple Inc. is proud to introduce iVT100, the new way to access your mainframe. "Hello again, world!"
Featuring: A Dell. (Score:1)