512 Pixels

David Sparks, writing about what could come after M1:

On the marketing side, I’d be surprised if they call it the M2. Presumably, they will make a successor to the M1 one at some point as the current lower performance/more battery life chip for things like the MacBook Air. Naming the higher performance chip M2 would put them in a weird place where an M3 (for MacBook Air) could be slower than an M2 (for MacBook Pro). The more I think about this, the more convinced I am that the performance chip currently in production will get an entirely different name, like X1, allowing them to have two chips for Macs. (Or possibly three once the Mac Pro releases.)

X1 sounds badass.

Apple Support:

The 10 Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45) port is Nbase-T Ethernet technology that supports multiple data rates for speeds up to 10 Gbps over standard twisted pair copper cabling up to 100 meters (328 feet) in length. Depending on the device you’re connecting to, the cable type and technology used, and the cable length, the highest link speed is automatically negotiated. For example, if the device you’re connecting to is 10 Gbps-capable and the cable can support the speed, the two devices would negotiate the 10 Gbps speed.

Over on MacStories, Viticci has written an in-depth piece on today’s major iOS release:

Version 14.5 is the biggest – or, at the very least, most interesting – update to iOS and iPadOS we’ve seen in the 14.0 release cycle to date. That’s not to say previous iterations of iOS and iPadOS 14 were low on new features and refinements – it’s quite the opposite, in fact. Perhaps the pandemic and Apple’s work-from-home setup played a role in the company spreading new iOS functionalities across multiple releases throughout 2020 and the first half of 2021, but, regardless of the underlying reason, iOS and iPadOS 14 have evolved considerably since their public launch six months ago.

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In the wake of Apple’s spring event, David and I cover the new iMac and iPad Pro, and also discuss changes to the Apple TV and some of Apple’s services. In short, everything should be more colorful and some things more powerful.

For the longer, members-only More Power Users, we wax poetic about WWDC 2019.]

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Matthew Panzarino interviewed Apple’s Greg Joswiak and John Ternus about the company’s new products, and the M1 being in the new iPad Pro came up, and Apple’s thinking about it jumped out at me:

One of the stronger answers on the ‘why the aggressive spec bump’ question comes later in our discussion but is worth mentioning in this context. The point, Joswiak says, is to offer headroom. Headroom for users and headroom for developers.

“One of the things that iPad Pro has done as John [Ternus] has talked about is push the envelope. And by pushing the envelope that has created this space for developers to come in and fill it. When we created the very first iPad Pro, there was no Photoshop,” Joswiak notes. “There was no creative apps that could immediately use it. But now there’s so many you can’t count. Because we created that capability, we created that performance — and, by the way sold a fairly massive number of them — which is a pretty good combination for developers to then come in and say, I can take advantage of that. There’s enough customers here and there’s enough performance. I know how to use that. And that’s the same thing we do with each generation. We create more headroom to performance that developers will figure out how to use.

“The customer is in a great spot because they know they’re buying something that’s got some headroom and developers love it.”

In hardware, headroom means two things: that a device can have great longevity, and that the software can become a lot more powerful. For the iPad, the former has been true for a long time, and I really hope the latter comes to pass.

This week on an action-packed Connected:

Apple’s Spring Event has come and gone, and now the picks must be graded. Will Stephen remain in power as the Keynote Chairman? Can Myke gain access to both Twitter accounts, or is Federico poised for a comeback?

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I generally try to use my mouse as little as possible when I’m in the zone on my Mac. Menuwhere’s ability to put the menu bar anywhere my cursor is on the screen makes for even less mouse travel than I had before. I dig it, especially for just $3.

A phone. An email terminal. A web-browsing portable companion. A phone. An email terminal. A web-browsing portable companion. A phone. An email terminal. A web-browsing portable companion. A phone. An email terminal. A web-browsing portable companion.

Are you getting it? These are not three devices.

It’s two devices, and we’re calling them your Palm phone and Foleo.

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I’m excited to throw one of these in my backpack.

The new iPad Pro’s M1 system on a chip puts the tablet on the same playing field as a whole bunch of Macs in terms of power and performance, but as Jason Snell writes at Macworld, that’s never really been a problem for previous iPads:

Here’s the problem with this clever marketing, though: it draws a direct parallel between the iPad and the Mac. And while the Mac definitely lacks in some areas (no touchscreen or Apple Pencil support, for instance) you can basically do anything on your Mac, including run a bunch of apps that originated on the iPad.

The iPad Pro, in contrast, can’t do all sorts of “pro” things that a professional-level user buying a device starting at $1,099 might want to do. They can’t run Mac apps (though if you connect a keyboard and trackpad, you certainly could!), and Apple has failed to build iPad-optimized versions of its own professional apps.

I really hope with iPadOS 15, Apple finally has a compelling reason for stuffing the iPad Pro with so much power. There’s so much wasted opportunity here.