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Quick Takes: The Comfort of Apple's Ecosystem, Using a 2009 Mac Pro in 2018, and More

Thursday March 22, 2018 2:14 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
In addition to our standalone articles covering the latest Apple news and rumors at MacRumors, this Quick Takes column provides a bite-sized recap of other headlines about Apple and its competitors on weekdays.

Thursday, March 22


Highlights


Image Credit: MacStories

1. Erasing Complexity: The Comfort of Apple's Ecosystem: MacStories editor-in-chief Federico Viticci explains how, after years of testing competing products and ecosystems, he has decided to fully embrace Apple's ecosystem given the simplicity and integration of apps, services, and hardware.
It took me years to understand that the value I get from Apple's ecosystem far outweighs its shortcomings. While not infallible, Apple still creates products that abstract complexity, are nice, and work well together. In hindsight, compulsively chasing the "best tech" was unhealthy and only distracting me from the real goal: finding technology that works well for me and helps me live a better, happier life.
2. Retro Review: 2009 Mac Pro in 2018: iMore's Anthony Casella examines whether the 2009 Mac Pro, upgraded with dual Radeon RX 580 GPUs, is still a capable machine in 2018 compared to a 2014 iMac and entry-level iMac Pro, based on transcoding HD video, rendering video in Final Cut Pro, and gaming.

Image Credit: iMore

Casella notes that his article isn't intended to be a scientific comparison, but rather more of a fun project to see if a nine-year-old workstation can still keep up in 2018, if someone were to have upgraded its components over the years instead of buying a whole new system. His answer is very much "yes."
And yes I say that it can hang with the latest and greatest systems. In some areas, like with openCL computation, we made it insanely fast. Much faster than an iMac and an iMac Pro. It some areas it plays in the ball park like when transcoding videos. Others seem to show it's age like when exporting Final Cut Pro videos but it does not show it's age when using a FCP workflow like editing, transforming and scrubbing.
3. Samsung Galaxy Note 9 to adopt in-display fingerprint scanning: sources: "Samsung Display has prepared three or four solutions for Samsung Electronics to embed the fingerprint sensor inside of the main display, and both are seriously considering one of the solutions," a source told The Korea Herald.

Samsung wouldn't be the first smartphone maker to achieve the feat, as Chinese company Vivo released the X20 Plus UD with an in-display fingerprint scanner in January. The smartphone is the result of a collaboration between Vivo and Synaptics, which could also be working with Samsung for the Note 9.


Apple was widely rumored to embed Touch ID into the iPhone X's display, but as it turned out, the company chose to ditch the fingerprint scanner entirely in favor of Face ID. And with a trio of new iPhone models with Face ID expected to launch later this year, it doesn't look like Touch ID has a long future.

Other Links

  • The Loop Bash at WWDC 2018: The party will be held at The Ritz, a nightclub around the corner from the San Jose Convention Center, on June 4, 2018, from 8:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Pacific Time. The Loop will make an announcement on how to RSVP for the party as WWDC draws closer.
  • Meet Haben Girma, a blind-deaf rights lawyer changing tech and design: Mashable's Kerry Flynn interviews disability rights lawyer Haben Girma, who is deaf and visually impaired, about the need for more commitment to accessibility in tech by businesses and entrepreneurs. There are a few quotes from Apple's accessibility director Sarah Herrlinger.
  • Clipboard API Improvements: Apple has added a new entry to its WebKit blog that provides a technical overview of recent improvements made to the Clipboard copy-and-paste API that enables web apps to more seamlessly integrate with native apps on macOS and iOS.
For more Apple news and rumors coverage, visit our Front Page, Mac Blog, and iOS Blog. Also visit our forums to join in the discussion.

Tag: Quick Takes
[ 109 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

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Avatar
L-Viz
8 months ago
Kinda sad, that mac enthusiastic journalists have to praise 9 year old mac pros due tue the lack of current decent upgradable macs.

On my last visit to the Apple Store, there was no Mac mini on display. Only iPhone covers, wireless headphones and watch bands.
Rating: 35 Votes
Avatar
MrBat
8 months ago
Ah, the cheese grater. So pretty, modular and nice to work with.

Ah, my old 13" MBP, just slap a 2.5" SSD and 16GB RAM and boom, life is good. Too bad only holds an old dual core. MagSafe tho, total life saver. When MacBooks Pro were actually quite "Pro". Once upon a time.

Times of yore. I feel old. :D
Rating: 19 Votes
Avatar
laurim
8 months ago

This is the very reason Apple locked down the cylinder MP - the machines never die and can upgraded with non Apple parts. Not a good business model in anyone's book. It will be interesting to see how they tip toe around that problem with the next one.- Balancing customer desire & satisfaction (upgradeable) vs profitable product.

If they sold the upgrade parts as well (at a reasonable price) they wouldn’t have to worry so much and we wouldn’t have to worry about incompatibilities.
Rating: 12 Votes
Avatar
ChazSch
8 months ago
I am still rocking my late 2008 MBP...and the only upgrade is a SSD drive....so there!
Rating: 10 Votes
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deanthedev
8 months ago



Ummm ok until you have to interact with someone who doesn't own or have access to Apple hardware. Then yeah it's great! MacStories editor-in-chief wouldn't have any bias at all would he?


Hmmmm.

I interact just fine with the rest of the world, whether they use Mac, Windows, iOS or Android. Never had any issues.

However, the seamless integration between my Apple devices makes all my personal and family activities so much smoother.
Rating: 9 Votes
Avatar
MrBat
8 months ago

If they sold the upgrade parts as well (at a reasonable price) they wouldn’t have to worry so much and we wouldn’t have to worry about incompatibilities.


Actually, if Apple would make computer chassis like a "platform", just like car manufacturers do, and sell upgrades, would be terrific.

Take as an example my old iMac 27" 2011. GPU got toast, 700 EUR replacement for an old MXM AMD 6970 2GB. Asking that kind of money in 2017 is lol not happening, nice scam bro.

Now, if Apple would have told me... we can offer you an internal upgrade of PSU + MXM GTX 1080 for let's say 1200 EUR.... My reaction: Well well well, you want that in cash or credit card? When will be that ready?

However, nope. :( I sold my beautiful iMac for parts on ebay. I'm still super salty about it, and I really mean it.

I got so pissed that got myself a PC under Win10, made of parts. GTX 1080 liquid cooled, Ncase M1, NVME and all the like. Ran all at about 3K or so with a Dell U2717D.
Rating: 9 Votes
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Xenious
8 months ago
Early 2008 mac pro still going strong. Upgraded SSDs, memory and flashed NVIDIA card. I'd love to buy a new Mac Pro if they would make one. ;)
Rating: 9 Votes
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Naraxus
8 months ago
Welcome to Tim Cook's Apple where a nearly decade old machine runs circles around a pretty piece of aluminum.
Rating: 6 Votes
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Will.O.Bie
8 months ago
I used to rock Android everything years ago but ever since I tried Apple and it's ecosystem, there was no looking back. I agree that their products and services are seamless in working in sync with each other. No, they are not perfect and has its bugs, but compared to Android, I'd rather take my chances with Apple and its stance on privacy and security.
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
thomasthegps
8 months ago
I use a 2009 Mac Pro upgraded with dual 6 core Intel Xeons X5680 and a RX 580, which means it has a total of 12 cores and 24 threads. I have to say that I don't really encounter any lag at all in normal use. In gaming Mac OS is horrible but in windows I can game just fine.
Rating: 5 Votes

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