My jam used to be to go to alta vista or hotbot and search "weird shit" and see what came up. Boy howdy...but nowadays I can agree with a lot of the comments. It is about monetization (thanks Mitch) and the user base. Also the rise of what I will call super social sites like Reddit, FaceBook, etc. Allowing users to tailor their content into a funneled feed, where before you had to search for it. Literally. Then bookmark it/rss feed, hopes it stays up. Save some websites/data to a zip drive.... ohhh I did, I did. <3 me some iomega zips. Thanks for a walk down internet history lane. Enjoyed it!
When I was younger I was really into CGI, I remember thinking man, If I ever get to work on one of those to do some 3d rendering, that will be something.
UPDATE: I over looked the spec part with their Intel chips... however I presume they tie directly into the T2 chip, and will probably leave them altogether in an iteration or two.
As I predicted in a former post on why they haven't updated their hardware line up... "using their T2 chip..."
This is them leaving their dependency and insecurity of Intel and AMD.
Good luck to them. I do remember a time when their ARM G series CPU's out performed x86 cpus on all things creative.
I honestly think everyone is missing some cues Apple has been sending.
They're building their own chip for desktops. Wait... let me hypothesize and break it down for you one time.
One, the recent privacy concerns and backdoor built in for AMD and Intel chips. They riding that we care about your data train.
Two, their homegrown Axx chip is in all new mobile devices. Whats to stop them from making a bigger one or use the same one for desktops? Probably why the new Mac Pro has been delayed as well as other device refreshes. And letting the profit of the under spec'd overpriced Imac Pro fund them in the mean time.
Three, their recent poaching of Intel employees and hiring of linux devs too. I would assume for low level engineering. Maybe even integrated graphics too?
Four, Macs originally used to have their own custom ARM chip, so Apple has a history of being self contained. One of the adages to tech is build, partner, buy. You usually do one until you can do one of the others.
I suspect you will see them release a new desktop(s), running their newly made chip, possibly with integrated graphics like they do now for the mobile devices. Some abilities to upgrade, so they can get you on the over priced upgrades and accessories. Like RAM, HDD, and maybe, just maybe CPU. That last one I am on the fringe with, I know.
Again this is just my observation, and hopefully I can look back on this post some day and either laugh or be like I told ya'll so.
I am glad I am not alone in feeling like this. I too have a mbp, and somehow, Apple has lost the magic that once captured me. Even adding apple care, now has to be when you buy the device. Its no longer, one year, plus at the end of the year, add some apple care to extend it for a total of 3 years.
I have been leaning towards some of the same ideas and laptops. You may want to check out System76 if you haven't already.
