4 ms·

You're highlighting Apple's strategy very well, with one omission: the M1 Macbook Air at Wal-Mart was US only. Even next door in Canada with the same retailer,

You're highlighting Apple's strategy very well, with one omission: the M1 Macbook Air at Wal-Mart was US only. Even next door in Canada with the same retailer, Wal-Mart didn't have that deal. This is the M1 Macbook Air deal for the rest of the world as well as the US. This is huge, it's the cheapest Mac laptop of all time. Apple Silicon is paying dividends!

intrasight 7mo ago
Except sadly it is not using M. My first Mac was a Mac - ie the first Mac. 128k of memory and $1000 (with the student discount!) in 1994. I've had every architecture of Mac since then - except for M. This one might just have inspired me to try a Mac again - if it had an M.
- bell-cot 7mo ago
  's/in 1994/in 1984/', perhaps?
  - intrasight 7mo ago
    Yes. Thanks.
- philistine 7mo ago
  The M-series is just marketing. They're just the A-series with more cores and IO. Apple has one family of CPUs, but they give them different names.
- esskay 7mo ago
  They dont need to use an M series. The chip they are using isn't far off (spec wise) a base M4. It's single threaded performance is damn good.
  - intrasight 7mo ago
    I didn't realize that. I thought it was a different architecture - or different enough that the two couldn't run the same binaries. Are they indeed binary compatible?
    - jamiek88 7mo ago
      Yes! It’s simply a naming convention.
    - sjs382 7mo ago
      You can run iOS apps on an Apple Silicon Mac if the developer doesn't explicitly prevent you.
      - menno-sh 7mo ago
        Additionally Apple have been sticking M-series chips in iPads for a while now. They appear to be pretty much interchangeable.
    - esskay 7mo ago
      Yeah theres very little difference at this point between the A and M lines, think of the M as just being the more powerful line, but that doesnt make the A line weak, not by any stretch. Both are completely binary compatible at this point. The A18 Pro single core performance is on-par with the M4 (a smidge lower but barely anything in it), and outperforms the M3.
- trillic 7mo ago
  A18 Pro Geekbench on an iPhone: Single: 3539 Multi-core: 8772 Macbook Air M1 Geekbench: Single: 2347 Multi-core: 8342

intrasight 7mo ago

Except sadly it is not using M. My first Mac was a Mac - ie the first Mac. 128k of memory and $1000 (with the student discount!) in 1994. I've had every architecture of Mac since then - except for M. This one might just have inspired me to try a Mac again - if it had an M.

bell-cot 7mo ago
's/in 1994/in 1984/', perhaps?
- intrasight 7mo ago
  Yes. Thanks.
philistine 7mo ago
The M-series is just marketing. They're just the A-series with more cores and IO. Apple has one family of CPUs, but they give them different names.
esskay 7mo ago
They dont need to use an M series. The chip they are using isn't far off (spec wise) a base M4. It's single threaded performance is damn good.
- intrasight 7mo ago
  I didn't realize that. I thought it was a different architecture - or different enough that the two couldn't run the same binaries. Are they indeed binary compatible?
  - jamiek88 7mo ago
    Yes! It’s simply a naming convention.
  - sjs382 7mo ago
    You can run iOS apps on an Apple Silicon Mac if the developer doesn't explicitly prevent you.
    - menno-sh 7mo ago
      Additionally Apple have been sticking M-series chips in iPads for a while now. They appear to be pretty much interchangeable.
  - esskay 7mo ago
    Yeah theres very little difference at this point between the A and M lines, think of the M as just being the more powerful line, but that doesnt make the A line weak, not by any stretch. Both are completely binary compatible at this point. The A18 Pro single core performance is on-par with the M4 (a smidge lower but barely anything in it), and outperforms the M3.
trillic 7mo ago
A18 Pro Geekbench on an iPhone: Single: 3539 Multi-core: 8772 Macbook Air M1 Geekbench: Single: 2347 Multi-core: 8342