The Mac Pro is back! ....Eventually...

[ifmanis5]

After years of silence Apple finally publicly said it is rethinking and remaking its flagship desktop device.
LINK: https://www.buzzfeed.com/johnpaczkowski/apple-says-it-is-completely-rethinking-the-mac-pro?utm_term=.kwJeeMZzr#.cjYeeP5Vn

“We are completely rethinking the Mac Pro,” Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of worldwide marketing said during a recent roundtable with a handful of reporters at the company’s Machine Shop hardware prototyping lab. And it won't just be the computer. “Since the Mac Pro is a modular system, we are also doing a pro display. There’s a team working hard on it right now.”

This is so long overdue many pro users have jumped to Windows (or Hackintosh) and still may considering this new box is a year away. The long silence may explain some internal infighting over the fate of the Trashcan design and an admittance of its design over function issues. This is a great step forward and hoping they actually make a modular, custom configurable professional tool for people who actually need and use them. Oh yeah, there's a monitor coming too. Also, new iMac and Mac Mini hardware models are in the pipeline. Nice to see Apple being a computer company again.

 

[johnmd20]

Not related to the Mac Pro, but I really wish Apple would do a real refresh of the MacBook Pro and go back to the 17 inch screen option. Instead of worrying about touch strips, it would be nice to be able to use my laptop to log onto my virtual office without having to make every window three inches big.

Ok, done ranting.

 

[saintnick912]

Classic vaporware tactic out of the old-school IBM playbook.

 

[ifmanis5]

They are also planning to make their own GPUs: https://www.wired.com/2017/04/apples-making-gpu-control-destiny/

 

[Blacken]

Not related to the Mac Pro, but I really wish Apple would do a real refresh of the MacBook Pro and go back to the 17 inch screen option. Instead of worrying about touch strips, it would be nice to be able to use my laptop to log onto my virtual office without having to make every window three inches big.

Ok, done ranting.

Your 15" retina MBP (you have one, right?) can be scaled to the same effective screen resolution as the 17" ever was. I run mine at HiDPI 1920x1200 and it's perfectly readable.

 

[johnmd20]

Your 15" retina MBP (you have one, right?) can be scaled to the same effective screen resolution as the 17" ever was. I run mine at HiDPI 1920x1200 and it's perfectly readable.

Yes, it can. But it doesn't matter if I scale it at that, which I do, for my virtual office, which is literally 5 to 9 separate windows I need to keep on the screen and open at the same time.(I have a three monitor setup in my office) So I have to situate them with an overlapping structure, which I do but it's tight. It's more overlap and less information.

With the 17 inch, there was just so much more screen to use, it was less overlap. The 15 inch MBP is amazing for everything else I do on my computer. This is specific to my virtual office. Scaling it only can do so much.

 

[NortheasternPJ]

Yes, it can. But it doesn't matter if I scale it at that, which I do, for my virtual office, which is literally 5 to 9 separate windows I need to keep on the screen and open at the same time.(I have a three monitor setup in my office) So I have to situate them with an overlapping structure, which I do but it's tight. It's more overlap and less information.

With the 17 inch, there was just so much more screen to use, it was less overlap. The 15 inch MBP is amazing for everything else I do on my computer. This is specific to my virtual office. Scaling it only can do so much.

Can you run multiple screens with your MBP at your virtual office setup? (I'm not sure exactly what a virtual office is). I run my MBP with the built in display and two 24" monitors at my home office and works fantastic. Can run all at full resolution and no performance issues.

As to the Mac Pro, my only answer is the sales are so low and have been for a long time it's just not a focus. I disagree with it and think it's important to keep that market happy, even if it's not a ton of profit.

I don't get what you mean there was much more screen to use. The retina MBP's have a resolution of 2560x1600 native. By default that's downscaled to 1440x900 though.

The last 17" MBP had a 1920x1200 resolution, so you have a lot more screen space on the new 15" than on the last 17, even if the screen is 2" smaller.

 

[Blacken]

With the 17 inch, there was just so much more screen to use, it was less overlap.

I don't get it. There should be no overlap because the windows are the same size, scaled relatively. Unless the pixel density at fake-1920x1200 is too much for aged eyes?

Also, it sounds like you should try something like kwm or amethyst if you're looking for that kind of setup. It's keyboardy, so maybe not your thing, but I regularly have a full grid of applications open and it helps a lot.

 

[johnmd20]

I don't get it. There should be no overlap because the windows are the same size, scaled relatively. Unless the pixel density at fake-1920x1200 is too much for aged eyes?

Also, it sounds like you should try something like kwm or amethyst if you're looking for that kind of setup. It's keyboardy, so maybe not your thing, but I regularly have a full grid of applications open and it helps a lot.

It's too much for my eyes,(I wear contacts, always have, don't need reading glasses, yet)

I can't risk mistakes and the information I'm reading and conveying, especially when I'm on the phone, can't be screwed up.

 

[AlNipper49]

Are your 'virtual office' applications remote desktops to somewhere else?

 

[Blacken]

It's too much for my eyes,

Gotcha. C'mere, I've got just the thing:

Spoiler

 

[johnmd20]

Gotcha. C'mere, I've got just the thing:

Spoiler

View attachment 14976

Ahhhhh, fah Q!

 

[ifmanis5]

As this thread states, it's not just the hardware that needs to change if Apple truly wants to get back to "Pro" and to have any footing in VR/AR.

 

[doc]

Not related to the Mac Pro, but I really wish Apple would do a real refresh of the MacBook Pro and go back to the 17 inch screen option. Instead of worrying about touch strips, it would be nice to be able to use my laptop to log onto my virtual office without having to make every window three inches big.

Ok, done ranting.

Airport your screen on to a 50 or 60 in TV

 

[johnmd20]

Are your 'virtual office' applications remote desktops to somewhere else?

Yes, it's a remote desktop. When I scale to the max on my computer, everything is just way too small and it's especially small when I'm outside my virtual office. Yeah, the screen real estate is incredible but all the words are just too small.

It's cool, I'm just bitching, the 15 inch works fine, and it's amazing for travel, but the 17 inch was much better. And I don't travel that often anyway.