Apple Event thread - New iPads etc. - Oct. 16, 2014

[Essence_of_War]

I'm quite surprised that there wasn't a haswell-e update for the mac pro.

That seemed like an obvious bump.

 

[Childs]

I wonder if the yields on the 5K panels were somewhat low preventing an announcement for a 5K thunderbolt display.

 

[Subyman]

In something like FCP it makes sense, because you can have 4k 1:1 in preview and have plenty of screen real-estate for UI. Well, maybe not 1:1 depending on what your timeline looks like, but its better to get as close as you can get your Preview to its export res with the UI for editing.

Exactly, I was saying this a few months ago. 4K desktop is useless for editing 4k video unless you scale the video, but at that point you may as well just use some other lower resolution. Apple did it perfectly with this. Since the iMac is adopting 5k, maybe we will see 5k Korean monitors soon

Price on the mini still seems high and 16GB is getting really old. I would have rather them kept the same thickness of the iPad Air and enlarged the battery instead of making it thinner and stagnating on battery life. I don't know what the fascination is with thinner and thinner. I think we are good enough. I would like to see fiber weave materials used instead of aluminum. I'm sure that is the next step for Apple in the coming years to get ever thinner. I have dings in the top of my MacBook that wouldn't be there if it was a weave.

 

[Subyman]

I wonder if the yields on the 5K panels were somewhat low preventing an announcement for a 5K thunderbolt display.

I'm wondering, does the GPU in the Mac Pro even support 5k without multiple cords?

 

[Anubis]

Sorry Apple, not sticking to a standard 4K resolution on the iMac just seems dumb to me. Plus, whatever GPU you put in there probably can't handle it well.

even a GTX 980 would have issues doing anything besides desktop work at 5k, that's an insane res to push, to expand on that you need 4 of them to game at 60 FPS at 4k

 

[Eug]

I wonder what resolutions the Retina iMac supports. The jump from 5120x2880 to 3840x2160 is too great a change in pixel density. 2880p would make for small fonts, and 2160p would make for giant fonts.

I don't like 1440p on my current 27". Actually what I'd really prefer is a 24" Retina iMac.

Apple Store still down.

 

[Kaido]

Exactly, I was saying this a few months ago. 4K desktop is useless for editing 4k video unless you scale the video, but at that point you may as well just use some other lower resolution. Apple did it perfectly with this. Since the iMac is adopting 5k, maybe we will see 5k Korean monitors soon

As much as I love my Hackintosh...~5K Retina, 4ghz i7, etc. OOTB is awfully tempting :thumbsup:

 

[manly]

I wonder when we'll be able to find out about the 2 GB.

When ChipWorks looks at the chips under a microscope?

Worse.. They'll continue making new iPad mini (original). Now selling for $249.
512 MB :|

yeah, that's literally disgusting. It's a 2011 SoC being sold soon in 2015.

 

[cronos]

That's because it is the same exact device as the iPad Air 2 except smaller.

It's not, it's still A7

http://www.apple.com/ipad/compare/

The only difference that I can see after skimming through the specs is that it has Touch ID, but that's it. Is that right?

 

[desura]

The biggest surprise for me were some of the photos. Really impressive. Is making me consider just selling my DSLR now

So I looked at the tech specs and I can't find it...

http://www.apple.com/ipad-air-2/specs/

no word on RAM?

I wish that the new iPad had the new iPhone's rounded edges, as well. I don't get these stupid chamfered edges at all.

I should just get an iPad already.

 

[Eug]

I can't believe they're still selling an A5 based iPad.

Anyhoo, when someone out there proves the A8X iPad Air 2 has 2 GB RAM, I will pre-order a gold.

 

[Anubis]

I'm wondering, does the GPU in the Mac Pro even support 5k without multiple cords?

it needs 2 to do 4k correct? I do admit that this seems odd that the imac can now power a higher rez display vs the pro

id love to see a stand alone panel at this rez or 4k, more of them should drive the price down for the rest of the stuff out there

 

[desura]

So it looks like the iPad mini 3 will have...

1. same form factor
2. gold color option
3. same processor

That's it, huh? Not even a camera upgrade?

 

[cronos]

So it looks like the iPad mini 3 will have...

1. same form factor
2. gold color option
3. same processor

That's it, huh? Not even a camera upgrade?

Looks just they added the fingerprint sensor, but that's it.

 

[Stuka87]

I was hoping for Mac Mini updates, and we got them. Except that there is no longer a quad core option. Which is really disappointing. I have a 2012 quad core i7 mini and its great. Wife is in need of updating her machine, so now I am thinking of just getting her a previous gen quad i7.

 

[Childs]

Lame, the Mac Mini tops out at 3Ghz i7 Dual core...no more quad core. And the pricing seems out of wack. $300 to upgrade from 2.6Ghz i5 dual core to 3Ghz i7 Dual core.

 

[Oyeve]

So did they lower the price on previous ipad minis? I was looking to get one for my handicapped niece but was waiting for this event to pass to see if the older ipad minis would drop.

 

[Eug]

So did they lower the price on previous ipad minis? I was looking to get one for my handicapped niece but was waiting for this event to pass to see if the older ipad minis would drop.

Yes. They also lowered the price on the previous Air of course.

I almost feel sorry for those who jumped on the $75 off iPads deals from 3rd party retailers last week.

If you can swing it, I'd recommend the older Retina mini. The low end mini is slow now with iOS 8.

 

[destrekor]

In something like FCP it makes sense, because you can have 4k 1:1 in preview and have plenty of screen real-estate for UI. Well, maybe not 1:1 depending on what your timeline looks like, but its better to get as close as you can get your Preview to its export res with the UI for editing.

I think the driving decision behind that choice is the desire to keep "pixel doubling" as the best-choice scaling, while at the minimum matching what the previous 27" iMac offered for resolution.
1440p doubled is 2880p. (5120x2880 vs 2560x1440)

The system won't run in 5k resolution, not by default. It's possible, but something tells me it is unlikely. Their native scaling solution is 4 pixels driving every pixel. It will likely require a work-around to enable the native resolution of the display.

I assume, at least, they'll be utilizing the same approach as scaling for MBPr models.

If they went 4K and wanted to preserve the idea of scaling, they'd have to make a new approach as all their Retina-scaling-compatible apps are designed with pixel-doubling in mind. If they said we'll go 4K and kept pixel-doubling, they would have to offer a "preferred" apparent resolution that is less than that of the current 27" iMac, so there would be less screen real estate. Sure, you can increase the apparent resolution, but it actually costs more in resources to use any resolution (higher or lower, iirc) than the native pixel-doubled, and the appearance may not be the most ideal when comparing the relative size of different UI elements.

 

[Childs]

I think the driving decision behind that choice is the desire to keep "pixel doubling" as the best-choice scaling, while at the minimum matching what the previous 27" iMac offered for resolution.
1440p doubled is 2880p. (5120x2880 vs 2560x1440)

The system won't run in 5k resolution, not by default. It's possible, but something tells me it is unlikely. Their native scaling solution is 4 pixels driving every pixel. It will likely require a work-around to enable the native resolution of the display.

I assume, at least, they'll be utilizing the same approach as scaling for MBPr models.

If they went 4K and wanted to preserve the idea of scaling, they'd have to make a new approach as all their Retina-scaling-compatible apps are designed with pixel-doubling in mind. If they said we'll go 4K and kept pixel-doubling, they would have to offer a "preferred" apparent resolution that is less than that of the current 27" iMac, so there would be less screen real estate. Sure, you can increase the apparent resolution, but it actually costs more in resources to use any resolution (higher or lower, iirc) than the native pixel-doubled, and the appearance may not be the most ideal when comparing the relative size of different UI elements.

I can't be sure since I dont have one, but I thought the retina MBP allowed the preview in FCP to scale 1080p at 100% while doubling the other elements in the UI. I would think the same concept would apply to the 5K iMac, assuming the retina MBP does what I think it does.

https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/performance-retina/

When you look at the resolutions overlaid:

It looks like you should be able to do the same on the 5K iMac.

 

[Eug]

iPad 4: 652 g
iPad Air 2: 437 g

The iPad 4 is almost 50% heavier than the iPad Air 2. The Air 2 is actually over an ounce lighter than the original Air.

No more rotation lock switch though.

 

[desura]

iPad 4: 652 g
iPad Air 2: 437 g

The iPad 4 is almost 50% heavier than the iPad Air 2. The Air 2 is actually over an ounce lighter than the original Air.

No more rotation lock switch though.

Nice catch.

This is actually a big deal for me...

 

[Stuka87]

iPad 4: 652 g
iPad Air 2: 437 g

The iPad 4 is almost 50% heavier than the iPad Air 2. The Air 2 is actually over an ounce lighter than the original Air.

No more rotation lock switch though.

I use that switch for muting the speakers on my Air. Its easy enough to lock the orientation using the bottom quick menu.

It being even lighter than the first Air would make it even nicer for reading with, which I do a lot of. May just hand off my Air to the Wife and get an Air 2 for myself.

 

[vailr]

Did anyone fully understand what technology in the new Retina iMac that Phil Schiller was talking about? "It didn't exist, so Apple had to invent" some special controller chip for smoother Retina display.
And: is that anything similar to nVidia's G-Sync technology
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/NVIDIA-G-Sync-Tech-Preview-and-First-Impressions
that was introduced about a year ago, where a special electronics module was added to certain flat panel monitors, that supposedly made for smoother game play, anti-ghosting, or something like that.

 

[Childs]

Did anyone fully understand what technology in the new Retina iMac that Phil Schiller was talking about? "It didn't exist, so Apple had to invent" some special controller chip for smoother Retina display.
And: is that anything similar to nVidia's G-Sync technology
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/NVIDIA-G-Sync-Tech-Preview-and-First-Impressions
that was introduced about a year ago, where a special electronics module was added to certain flat panel monitors, that supposedly made for smoother game play, anti-ghosting, or something like that.

Apple designed the timing controller.

The timing controller, or “TCON,” is the brains of the display — it tells each pixel what to do and when to do it. Because iMac with Retina 5K display has four times as many pixels as the standard 27-inch iMac display, the TCON had to be able to handle more information than ever. But even the most powerful timing controllers available couldn’t manage this number of pixels, so we had to create a new one with four times the bandwidth of the previous-generation 27-inch iMac — up to 40 Gbps. Now a single supercharged chip beautifully orchestrates the symphony of all 14.7 million pixels.

http://www.apple.com/imac-with-retina/design/