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But they've lost it at the high-end too: the MacPro's internals are now over 3 years old with still no update in site, AV pros are switching to HP Z-series and

But they've lost it at the high-end too: the MacPro's internals are now over 3 years old with still no update in site, AV pros are switching to HP Z-series and the MBP is high-end only in price and design: perf-wise it's quite lacking. The MacBook Air (with its low price to clear their stock) and Mac Mini are priced right for education, but spec-wise they're poor investments, especially as even web-pages now require beefy specs to display at a decent framerate (blame ads).

csydas 10y ago
In regards to the air/mini, I'm not convinced they have no place as you're describing it. My 2012 MacBook Air handles stuff just fine with modern browsers and modern applications. The numbers and specs are fine for a computer that "just works". A webpage has never been the culprit to make the thing sweat (excepting bugs with flash/Java plugins). They probably could afford to bump the specs easily if they wanted to run a new line, but to suggest the user experience is bad on these machines just based on numbers is incongruent with the reality of said devices.
zzzeek 10y ago
yet apple's stock price keeps soaring well into the 130s (!) now, despite months and months of nothing but bad news in my own distorted, self-selected information. what are we missing?
- intoverflow2 10y ago
  > what are we missing? A CEO that finds fulfilment in something more than numbers on a chart?
lotsofpulp 10y ago
Macbook Air is by far the best laptop, price, value, and quality wise, for 90% of users today. The hardware hasn't been updated simply because it needs no updating, there haven't been any big advances in the past few years. As long as you have quality components, any SSD/intel core processor/8GB+ RAM is sufficient for pretty much everything day to day.
- DaiPlusPlus 10y ago
  I'd argue the screen resolution is poor 1440x900 in a 13" screen considering I have a 7-year-old Sony Vaio 13" with a 1920x1080 display, and the ever-increasing number of 4K Windows laptops you can buy at a similar price-point. macOS' UI is clearly optimized for retina displays now and the information-density is low, heck I find the default workspace on the 15" MacBook Pro very limiting. I'll concede the rest of the MacBook Air's current specs are acceptable though the processor is 2 years old at this point, but I believe CPU performance has plateaued over the past 4 years, and Apple did recently bump the RAM to 8GB - but they were still selling 4GB until Q2 2016. The only other negative is the wimpy GPU, the Intel HD Graphics 6000, which scores worse[1] than an entry-level NVIDIA GTS 250[2] - a card released 8 years ago. That's embarrassing! [1]: Intel HD 6000, released 2014, Score of 823 - http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Intel+HD+6000&id=3120 http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Intel+HD+6000&... [2]: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250, released March 2009, Score of 898 -http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTS+250&id=29 http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTS+25...

csydas 10y ago

In regards to the air/mini, I'm not convinced they have no place as you're describing it. My 2012 MacBook Air handles stuff just fine with modern browsers and modern applications. The numbers and specs are fine for a computer that "just works". A webpage has never been the culprit to make the thing sweat (excepting bugs with flash/Java plugins). They probably could afford to bump the specs easily if they wanted to run a new line, but to suggest the user experience is bad on these machines just based on numbers is incongruent with the reality of said devices.

zzzeek 10y ago

yet apple's stock price keeps soaring well into the 130s (!) now, despite months and months of nothing but bad news in my own distorted, self-selected information. what are we missing?

intoverflow2 10y ago
> what are we missing? A CEO that finds fulfilment in something more than numbers on a chart?

lotsofpulp 10y ago

Macbook Air is by far the best laptop, price, value, and quality wise, for 90% of users today. The hardware hasn't been updated simply because it needs no updating, there haven't been any big advances in the past few years. As long as you have quality components, any SSD/intel core processor/8GB+ RAM is sufficient for pretty much everything day to day.

DaiPlusPlus 10y ago
I'd argue the screen resolution is poor 1440x900 in a 13" screen considering I have a 7-year-old Sony Vaio 13" with a 1920x1080 display, and the ever-increasing number of 4K Windows laptops you can buy at a similar price-point. macOS' UI is clearly optimized for retina displays now and the information-density is low, heck I find the default workspace on the 15" MacBook Pro very limiting. I'll concede the rest of the MacBook Air's current specs are acceptable though the processor is 2 years old at this point, but I believe CPU performance has plateaued over the past 4 years, and Apple did recently bump the RAM to 8GB - but they were still selling 4GB until Q2 2016. The only other negative is the wimpy GPU, the Intel HD Graphics 6000, which scores worse[1] than an entry-level NVIDIA GTS 250[2] - a card released 8 years ago. That's embarrassing! [1]: Intel HD 6000, released 2014, Score of 823 - http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Intel+HD+6000&id=3120 http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Intel+HD+6000&... [2]: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250, released March 2009, Score of 898 -http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTS+250&id=29 http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTS+25...