I love how good looking the inside of this machine is — even if no one will ever see it. The ports are mostly modular, meaning repairs to them shouldn’t require a full logicboard swap.
Category: Apple
On the Mac Studio’s Extra SSD Slots
Last week, a story went around that at least some Mac Studio models come with unpopulated slots for SSD modules. This led to speculation that the machine could be upgraded with more storage.
I asked around about this, and came to the conclusion that these slots are populated on higher-end models with 8TB of storage, and maybe even the 4TB option. SKUs with less storage still have the slots, just without any modules in them.
I’m on Vacation, but This Take is So Bad and I Wanted to Burn it So Badly, I Posted This From the Mountains with my iPhone⇢
Daniel Howley, writing at Yahoo Finance:
Apple says a Mac Studio with an M1 Ultra will outperform a Windows PC outfitted with an Intel Core i9 desktop chip and Nvidia’s formidable RTX 3090 graphics card, while consuming less overall power.
That not only means the Mac Studio will run at lower temperatures than competing PCs, but it will also maintain peak performance longer than its PC counterparts.
The M1 Ultra seems incredibly impressive, but then Howley goes on to quote Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush:
The M1 Ultra Mac Studio is Two Pounds Heavier than the M1 Max Version
Quite a few people noticed an oddity on the Mac Studio tech specs page:
- Height: 3.7 inches (9.5 cm)
- Width: 7.7 inches (19.7 cm)
- Depth: 7.7 inches (19.7 cm)
- Weight (M1 Max): 5.9 pounds (2.7 kg)
- Weight (M1 Ultra): 7.9 pounds (3.6 kg)
Turns out, the weight difference between the two specifications of the Mac Studio comes down to cooling. In a statement to The Verge, Apple said:
They [both models] have the same 370W power supply. The additional weight is due to M1 Ultra having a larger copper thermal module, where as M1 Max has an aluminum heatsink.
Base Model Mac Pro Receives Spec Bumps⇢
Apple this week upgraded its base model Mac Pro to include 512GB of storage and AMD’s Radeon Pro W5500X graphics for the same $5,999 starting price. Previously, this configuration included 256GB of storage and Radeon Pro 580X graphics. These changes apply to both the tower and rack versions of the Mac Pro.
It’s not the spec bump that has been rumored for the 2019 machine, but it’s something. Interestingly, the Trashcan got a similar update later in its life.
The Future of the 27-inch iMac
As previously noted, the 27-inch iMac is gone from Apple’s website, and John Ternus said the Mac Pro would be the final Mac to make the switch to Apple silicon.
I think this means the 27-inch iMac as we knew it is gone forever. In my mind, this leads to two questions:
First, does Apple intend the Mac Studio and Studio Display to act as the replacement for the high-end iMac? The last 27-inch Intel iMacs were no slouches, but the Mac Studio will still smoke them in terms of performance, after all.
Two Curious Things
There’s a lot to process today but here are two oddities:
- The 27-inch iMac is totally gone from Apple’s website, and at the end of the event, John Ternus said the Mac Pro was the final Mac to make the switch to Apple silicon.
- The Intel Mac mini is still for sale.
More on the ‘Studio’ Line⇢
Chance Miller at 9to5Mac has outlined a new video by Luke Miani, who is reporting that the “Mac Studio” is a taller Mac mini, paired with a new display that looks like a larger 24-inch iMac.
Miani’s version of this display seems to not serve as the Pro Display XDR’s replacement, as was reported over the weekend. Miani has mixed track record on these things, but at least this version of the story makes more sense to me than what we’d previously seen.
Sunday Rumor Sunday
With Apple’s spring event just around the corner, there’s a lot going on in the rumor world:
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that he expects to see a more powerful Mac mini this week, alongside a new “more affordable” 27-inch external display.
Mark Gurman reported today that the display in question has been ready for months. This display seems to be much more mainstream display than the Pro Display XDR, and will lack mini-LED to keep the cost “down” to around $2,500.
Apple Heading Back to the Office⇢
Apple Inc. has set an April 11 deadline for corporate employees to return to in-person work, marking a key test of whether the tech giant can reestablish office life in the Zoom era.
Employees will be required to work from the office at least one day per week by that date, according to a memo sent by Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook on Friday. By three weeks after April 11, employees will be expected in the office twice per week. And on May 23, employees will need to be in the office at least three days a week – on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Apple Announces March 8 Event
The Mini Mac mini⇢
Speaking of Quinn Nelson, he has published a video in which he took an M1 Mac mini and built it into a tiny 3D-printed case:
The result is a machine much smaller than the existing M1 Mac mini, which uses the same design that first debuted back in 2010.