Dan Seifert, writing for The Verge:
Apple will not be making an Apple Silicon version of the 27-inch iMac to replace the Intel-equipped model that it discontinued in 2022. The company is instead focusing the iMac line around the 24-inch model that was first released in early 2021 and just updated with the new M3 processor this fall.
Apple PR representative Starlayne Meza confirmed the company’s plans to The Verge. The company encourages those who have been holding out hope for a larger iMac to consider the Studio Display and Mac Studio or Mac mini, which pair a 27-inch 5K screen with a separate computer, compared to the all-in-one design of the iMac.
After John Ternus’ comment about the 24-inch iMac being the “perfect size and resolution to replace both the 4K and 5K Intel-based models” at the ‘Scary Fast’ event, this prediction felt tenuous. The Studio Display + Mac Studio is probably a better combination than an all-in-one for most people wanting the power of an iMac Pro anyway.
That said, never say “never”. Don’t forget that Apple said it was out of the display business back in 2016 when they discontinued the Thunderbolt Display. A scant three years later, they announced the Pro Display XDR, followed by the Studio Display in 2022.
Oh, and remember how Steve Jobs declared that “the 10-inch screen size is the minimum size required to create great tablet apps” before they introduced the 7.9-inch iPad mini, calling it “every inch an iPad”? And when he threw cold water on the idea of large phones before the iPhone 6 Plus helped shoot iPhone sales into the stratosphere?
And, as both Dan and eagle-eyed Benjamin Mayo at 9to5Mac note, their statement specifically references the 27-inch iMac. Does that preclude an even larger all-in-one at some point?
Apple says it won’t do something right up until the point that they decide to do it. But this is as clear an indication that they’ll ever give that there’s nothing currently waiting in the wings.
In the fantastic podcast-turned-game-show episode (#097) of Hemispheric Views, Andrew Canion hosted a ‘Duel of the Defaults’ with Jason Burk challenging Martin “Mr. Default” Feld on which of them was the most default Mac user. That is, who uses the most default Apple apps and services on their Mac.
The episode is a true gem made all the better by it coming completely out of the blue, and Andrew’s arcane and arbitrary scoring system (lower is better??).
Not wanting to miss out on the fun, I’ve performed an audit of my own system, scored it (uhh…as best I could…), and now present it as a challenge to the reigning Mr. Default.
I’ve tested my buzzer (🛎️), now let’s dig in…
My Home Screens here at the end of 2023, belatedly added after seeing Josh Ginter’s shared screens in his Defaults post. I know it’s not my Mac, but I use all the same stuff on my phone anyway. ⌘
For Your Consideration
📮 Mail Server
📨 Mail Client
- Spark Mail (the classic version, not the weird new one)
- Score: 3
📝 Notes
- Drafts for day-to-day notepad
- Apple Notes for long-term storage
- Score: 2
✅ To-Do
- Things for personal projects and tasks
- Apple Reminders for anything shared or that I really need to not forget
- Score: 3
📷 iPhone Photo Shooting
- Lock Screen swipe left & Control Center
- Score: 1
🟦 Photo Management
📆 Calendar
📅 Calendar Backend
📁 Cloud File Storage
- iCloud Drive for almost everything
- Dropbox for my Blot site
- Score: 2
🤓Hard Quiz Special Topic Interlude (Something for Which I’d Be the Subject Matter Expert in the Room)
- Rock Climbing & Anchor Building
📖 RSS
🙍🏻♂️ Contacts Management
- Apple Contacts (backed by iCloud)
- Cardhop when I remember I have it installed
- Score: 2
🔎 Browser
💬 Chat
- Apple Messages (iMessage, MMS) for 90% of all conversations
- Instagram DMs for sending funny Reels to my wife, and a few random group chats
- Snapchat when people message me there
- Discord occasionally, but I find it overwhelming most of the time
- Score: 5
🔖 Bookmarks
- Safari Bookmarks for frequently-visited sites
- Raindrop.io for anything I want to save long-term or revisit by category (like ‘maybe purchase’)
- GoodLinks for 7 Things This Week ‘Take a Chance’ links
- Drafts for linked post ideas
- Micro.blog for posts I may want to revisit there
- (Yes, I know this is chaotic 😳)
- Score: 6
📑 Read It Later
📜 Word Processing
🧮 Spreadsheets
📊 Presentations
🛒 Shopping List
🍴 Meal Planning (as Recipe Management)
💰 Budgeting and Personal Finance
📰 News
- RSS & Podcasts
- Safari
- Score: 1
🎵 Music
🎤 Podcasts
🔐 Password Management
- iCloud Keychain (been trying since July)
- 1Password (been exiting since July)
- Score: 2
Final Score: 50
Woof. I don’t hold a candle to Mr. Default.
🗣️ A Succinct Justification of my Default Lifestyle
- I always try the default app first, but inevitably run up against friction points that a third-party app could solve. Once I’ve found a more bespoke solution, it’s hard to go back.
Thanks to Gabz for the format.
Check out more Defaults presented by Hemispheric Views listeners (and submit your own) here. (Curated and hosted by Robb.)
Uses
Honestly, I should just link to Devon Dundee’s post and be done with it, but that would be too easy. My feelings about the event echo his in many ways. I’ll try to be a copycat. Let’s dig into Apple’s spookiest event since Steve Jobs literally put Mac OS 9 in a coffin.
M3 Family
I had forgotten that the M2 Pro/Max chips came out later than expected, so a second revision within a year shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. But for the majority of the M3 family to debut all at once is quite the achievement from Apple’s chip team. You would think, or at least I would, that the better the chip, the longer it would take to “evolve” from the base M3. The reality, though, is that these chips take many months to develop. They don’t start on the M3 Pro once they get M3 out the door.
Apple’s modus operandi with their chip design is to observe what real people and real pros expect out of their computer, and then build in hardware acceleration for those workflows. We’ve seen this with hardware accelerators for video codec decoding, unified memory, neural engines, and now ray tracing, mesh shading, dynamic caching, and more. It’s a smart strategy and allows them to optimize for real, specific features.
The distribution of performance (P) and efficiency (E) CPU cores between the M3 (4P, 4E), M3 (6P, 6E), and M3 Max (10P, 4E) is curious. But every core, across the line, is faster, so I can’t imagine we’d see any speed drops from the M2. I suspect they’re just tuned for what Apple expects from the workload of each chip’s typical user.
MacBooks Pro
The MacBook Pro is dead! Long live the MacBook Pro! I’ll get this out of the way: I’m a little sad that the TouchBar has been killed along with the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Here’s what I posited earlier today about an alternate path for the TouchBar:
I only played with the TouchBar in stores. I thought it was a neat concept, but imperfectly implemented and then left without iteration for years. Honestly, I think there’s still a spot for it today. Half-height function row keys PLUS the TouchBar above it could have been a winning combination.
On the other hand, I’m thrilled that anyone purchasing a MacBook Pro will now get all the fantastic improvements that the 14-inch form factor brought along. Liquid Retina XDR Display. MagSafe. HDMI. Better cooling. Sick-ass black keyboard well. Improved speakers, mics, and FaceTime camera. Sure, it starts at $300 more than yesterday, but as Stephen Hackett said on AppStories, it’s probably the best $300 you can spend at the Apple Store right now. If only it had a little bit better internals for that $1600 starting point, but, then again, Apple still wants to entice folks up the line. I’m satisfied.
I didn’t think the industrial design needed any particular improvements, so I’m good with the rest of it. These will continue to be the industry leaders in the overall laptop package for another year.
iMac
Apple did the absolute minimum here by swapping out the M1 for an M3 chip, and that’s okay. Sure, I was hoping for an M3 Pro option to bring its share of the chip family in line with the Mac mini, but alas. The iMac, like the MacBook Pro, is in great shape hardware-wise as it is today. Bumping the internals and keeping the price the same keeps it being a good value.
The best part? Apple kept it available in all the same gorgeous colors. I’m so glad they didn’t axe any. I mean, come on, show me another desktop lineup that looks this good:
😍 Those iMac colors still look drop-dead gorgeous. Especially in this lighting. (Video by The Verge)
Lightning Lives On
The biggest disappointment of the event, by far. I mean, I don’t really care that Lightning charges the keyboard and mouse because I’ll still have Lightning cables around for years to charge various accessories. But by not continuing to ship them with brand-new iMacs, it surely means that Lightning will stick around for many more years. I’d have preferred to see some interesting new features (external TouchBar?), but the least Apple could have done is swap out the port on the Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Keyboard.
Oh, and I’m obligated to complain that the best keyboard color combo continues to only be available on the extended version. I can’t be the only one that doesn’t want the numeric keypad, does want Touch ID, and can’t stand white keys. My longing will go on…
Shot on iPhone
I’m not a professional videographer. My camera operating capabilities barely include point-and-shoot. But even I know that to get a quality production, it requires a ton of expensive, technical gear like lighting rigs, steady cams, and the like. Every Apple Event used these things in the past. Still, I was floored to see that “Shot on iPhone” tagline. They swapped out a “real” camera for an iPhone and it seems to have fit right into the production. It’s quite the achievement for their team and and it proves that they are internally testing the very workflows that they espouse that their products are good for. I’m glad to know that they’ll experience the good stuff and pain points alike.
But John Gruber said it best:
Why be so cynical? What Apple has accomplished here is extraordinary. They shot a 30-minute film using the same phone cameras they sell to hundreds of millions of people around the world, and the footage looked so good that no one could tell it was shot using iPhones until they told us so.
I offer the team a round of applause. 👏
And From the Peanut Gallery
To wrap things up on this event, I’ve taken a liking to saving some of my favorite reactions to Apple Events. These are the comments from my networks that made me laugh, or that pointed out intriguing details in the presentation. You’ll find a few of my observations included too because, well, it’s my blog and I thought they were pretty good posts! 😉
Love the Mac pirate flag appearance 🏴☠️ #AppleEvent
In case you missed it. ⌘
Why do I look at all new GPU features in terms of how many bananas I could render?
SPACE BLACK TAKE MY FUCKING MONEY
audibly heard all my nerd friends moan for space black
She just walked into that apartment like it was Monsters Inc.
The Apple Event is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE.
Show us the underside of the mouse, you cowards!
the “Space Black”, which is only available on the M3 Pro and M3 Max models, sorry cheapskates!, is kind of black in person, but not as dark as the old plastic BlackBook.
the new anodization is supposed to reduce fingerprints, and in the 30 seconds I got to touch one earlier today, it seemed like there were fewer visible ones left on it. but we’ll see what it’s like in the real world.
Holy smokes, they actually did it. They finally killed the TouchBar. No more 13-inch MacBook Pro.
Come on Apple, I had but one wish. A black version of this keyboard. I wouldn’t even care that it still charges with Lightning. The count continues.
How come they didn’t edit the event on iPad with FCP just kidding we all know why
Would you look at that? Space Black didn’t completely replace Space Gray in the MacBook Pro lineup. The plain M3 14-inch model comes in Silver/Space Gray. Space Black is only for the true professional chip Macs.
@matt Helluva upgrade for all those people getting the base-level MacBook Pro because it has “Pro” in the name. Base-level now has modern industrial design, that gorgeous screen, MagSafe, and all the other benefits of the new chassis. (Albeit at a couple hundred dollars more.)
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Apple’s most intriguing event of the year is about to start.
My final ‘Scary Fast’ event predictions:
🖥️ M3 iMac
💻 M3 Pro and M3 Max MacBook Pros
⌨️ Accessories get USB-C and at least one surprising new feature
🎮 Gaming focus (callout to Japanese viewers)
🧛 At least one costume is seen
🌔 Everything is filmed at night
00:00:00 - Here we go!
00:01:09 - Seeing a lot of MacBook Pros here…
00:01:50 - Absolutely loving this spookiness!
00:02:16 - OMG, what if they did trick-or-treating in the ring?
00:02:43 - “Good evening” ✅
00:03:01 - “Do you think his orange watchband is Halloween themed?” — My buddy Robert
00:03:24 - Gonna be all Mac, all day.
00:04:14 - Starting with MacBook Pro? Would have thought iMac with regular M3 if we were getting that today.
00:05:20 - Boom, there it is. M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max ✅
00:05:38 - And the curiosity is over, 3-nanometer it is.
00:08:01 - Johny Looks very sharp tonight.
00:09:13 - Anyone else watching in Spatial Audio tonight?
00:10:05 - Sounds like pro users will be getting much better battery life with their current workflows with all that energy efficiency.
00:10:58 - That’s a lot of cores in a laptop. Remember when dual or quad core was state-of-the-art? Wasn’t that long ago.
00:11:54 - John and Johny. Power couple.
00:13:25 - Oh, is the 14-inch getting an M3? It is! Does this mean the 13-inch is finally going away?
00:15:28 - I really want a room like that with all the noise cones on the wall. So sweet looking.
00:16:36 - That much RAM in the M3 Max bodes well for the M3 Ultra.
00:17:57 - 11x faster than the latest Intel version is a big incentive to get off that platform.
00:19:06 - Return of the BlackBook?
00:19:56 - I’m not gonna lie, it doesn’t look that different than Space Gray from these shots.
00:21:31 - Ah yes, high-quality Screen Sharing, otherwise known as Vision Pro-mode.
00:22:00 - Stepping inside the home to look at a new iMac? (Nope.)
00:23:05 - Skeleton in the lab!
00:24:35 - Whoa! Quite the price drop! That’s gotta be another nod toward phasing out the 13-inch.
00:25:11 - Horray! The iMac gets an update for its 25th anniversary. And keeps those gorgeous colors.
00:26:08 - I wonder for how many years they’ll be comparing to Intel models. 2 years? 3?
00:27:45 - So there wasn’t really anything else changed besides iMac’s guts, right?
00:28:46 - 30-minute event, or “One more thing”, Tim?
00:29:33 - Oh man, they’re not going to say anything about the accesories? USB-C? Bueller? Bueller?
00:30:01 - “This event was shot on iPhone.” Holy shit!
And that’s it! It was a “scary fast” event, indeed. Time to scour the press releases and website updates to see what other goodies didn’t make it into the presentation. I’ll follow up with more cohesive thoughts soon.
But for now, here are the results of those predictions.
😓 I didn’t do so well on those predictions:
✅ M3 iMac
✅ M3 Pro and M3 Max MacBook Pros
❌ Accessories get USB-C and at least one surprising new feature
❌ Gaming focus (callout to Japanese viewers)
❌ At least one costume is seen
✅ Everything is filmed at night
Have a ghoul night!
Live Blog
Craig Mod, newsletter author extraordinaire:
A lot of this newsletter writing is happening, probably, because the archives aren’t great. Tenuousness unlocks the mind, loosens tone. But the archival reality might be just the opposite of that common perception: These newsletters are the most backed up pieces of writing in history, copies in millions of inboxes, on millions of hard drives and servers, far more than any blog post. More robust than an Internet Archive container. LOCKSS to the max. These might be the most durable copies yet of ourselves. They’re everywhere but privately so, hidden, piggybacking on the most accessible, oldest networked publishing platform in the world. QWERTYUIOP indeed.
I’ve looked down on newsletters as compared to blogs — I’ve seen them as unnecessarily messy, impermanent, and invading of a space where I go for work more often than pleasure — and but Craig has a point here. I’m still in favor of my writing’s first home being on the open web, but I’m coming around to the idea that there’s room for it to also be published through email if that’s where someone wants to find it. Indeed, I have been partial to the notion that blog posts are best seen as emails to the world. Back in March of 2021, I questioned, “So, what if I think less about writing an article for HeyDingus, and more about writing an email to readers?”
Here’s Craig again with a clincher footnote:
And so much better than just publishing on my website. Newsletter subscriptions are the push that RSS promised but never became. And CMD-R to reply is the best, most intuitive commenting system I’ve yet seen.
Getting comments from readers really is the best part about blogging.
For a while now, I’ve made it easy to get my blog posts delivered by email through the excellent Feedrabbit service. But those emaials come from Feedrabbit, not from me. I don’t have any access to my readers there, not their addresses, or even a subscriber count. I do include a one-click link to email me at the bottom of each blog post so they can easily reply, but it all still feels one step removed. Craig’s essay has me reconsidering a service like Buttondown that can, at the very least, slurp up my RSS feed and deliver its posts by email, but with some management and personalization tools at my disposal.
Or, who knows, maybe I’ll move forward with my idea to consolidate all my online writing over to Micro.blog, which offers its own posts-as-emails and posts-as-a-newsletter-digest options.
I didn’t think reading this article was going to shift me over to the pro-newsletter camp, but here we are.
P.S. I love how Craig’s webpage titles — the ones you see in your browser tab — are labeled “Article Title — by Craig Mod”. Most sites include the name of the website, like The New York Times, Daring Fireball, or HeyDingus, for example. But Craig gets his byline front and center. Pretty handy since that whole title, “by Craig Mod” and all, is taken along for the ride with most rich links.
Linked
A weekly list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.
1️⃣ In case you, like me, have wanted to follow the The Verge’s QuickPosts in your RSS reader, Parker Ortolani pulled through with the elusive link. [🔗 @parkerortolani // threads.net]
2️⃣ If you want your day to be ruined by lines that should line up but don’t, watch this visualization about the irrationality of pi. [🔗 @thechosenmortal // threads.net]
3️⃣ This chessboard doesn’t exist yet (it’s a crowdfunding project) but I hope they succeed because it looks amazing! Magically moving pieces, strategy help, and it spans digital and physical versions of the game. Go watch the promo video! [🔗 indiegogo.com]
4️⃣ I don’t care what anyone says; ‘Thai Food near me’ is a genius name for a restaurant. [🔗 Mia Sato // theverge.com]
5️⃣ I happened across this video of Taylor Swift singing “Blank Space” solo, and it’s a gem. Both the preamble and the performance are top-notch. [🔗 Taylor Swift // youtube.com]
6️⃣ Are you any good at Rock, Paper, Scissors? CGP Grey has set up an ingenious “competition” through a series of YouTube video breadcrumbs. Start here. [🔗 CGP Grey // youtube.com]
7️⃣ I’ve long been a Hailee Steinfeld fan, but I never realized it was her voice in this version of “Starving”. It’s been on repeat for me this week. Queued up next is her “Essentials” playlist on Apple Music. [🎤 Hailee Steinfeld // song.link]
Take a Chance
Thanks for reading 7 Things. If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know.
7 Things
My wife and I moved into our new home several months ago. I was slow to unpack things and even took a week or so to get my desk together and Mac back up and running. When I finally did, my Magic Mouse wasn’t there in the same box as the rest of the Mac’s accessories. I’ve been a mouse user for years and years, but I needed a pointing device and the Magic Trackpad was right there. I hooked it up and figured I would give it a shot, just until I tracked down the Magic Mouse.
Well, I’m here to tell you that everyone was right. The silent movement and tap-to-click have been a godsend. How could I have lived with that awful clicking noise for so many years? I’ve been more productive than ever by mastering the broad, yet intuitive, gestures to throw windows around, switch spaces, and perform complex macros.
And the ergonomics; oh the ergonomics! My wrist has never felt so free and natural. The improvements to my computational life have been so far-reaching and life-changing, in fact, that when I finally happened upon my old Magic Mouse in a drawer, I chucked it straight in the trash.
Pysch. 😜
I’m back to the Magic Mouse, and loving it. Despite my sarcasm above, I don’t hate the Magic Trackpad. It’s a wonderful piece of tech that works better than any other trackpad on the market. And if I couldn’t use the Magic Mouse, I’d probably switch back over to it rather than get a different mouse. I love that other people love it.
But the Magic Mouse works perfectly for my hand and the way I like to work on a Mac. Despite what folks say about the sushi roll shape of the Magic Mouse, I find it to be the most comfortable mouse I’ve ever used. I did get wrist strain from using the Magic Trackpad. That’s gone with the mouse in my hand.
I’ve got all the gestures I need set up on the touch surface of the Magic Mouse. A two-finger double-tap brings up Mission Control. A two-finger swipe gets me back and forth between my desktop spaces. The scrolling is smooth and effortless. Speaking of effortless, I’ve never found clicking and dragging things around with a trackpad to be particularly easy. With a mouse, there’s no thought or finger acrobatics necessary. I find getting the pointer to the exact spot I want on the screen to be far more precise with a mouse.
I don’t even mind the weird charging mechanism on the bottom of the mouse. When I get a battery warning after god knows how many months of use, I don’t find it onerous to plug it in for 30 seconds. That quick charge gets me plenty of juice to get the rest of my work done for the day before plugging it in to fully charge overnight. And then I’m good again for months. I’m not saying it couldn’t be better, but I am saying that it’s not the horrific design failure to me that it seems to be to everyone else.
The couple of months that I spent with the Magic Trackpad reminded me that there’s really no right or wrong answer here. Different strokes for different folks. I’m so glad that Apple makes a world-class trackpad for people who prefer that type of input. I’m even more glad that, many years after it’s been clear that the laptop form factor is king, they also still make a mouse for people like me.
I used to keep the Magic Trackpad to the left of my keyboard to use for some gestures. But I think I’m going to enjoy this one-on-one time with the Magic Mouse for a bit.
John Gruber, writing for Daring Fireball, after new House Speaker Mike Johnson repeats the old party line following the latest mass shooting (number 560-something this year) here in the good old USA:
This “now is not the time” argument gets trotted out by Republicans after each and every gun massacre. Right after their tweets offering “thoughts and prayers”. Bullshit. The aftermath of a massacre is the time to demand sane gun control measures. That’s when the issue is clarified. Would Republicans argue that October 8 was “not the right time” for Israel to discuss Hamas terrorism? Was September 12, 2001 “not the right time” to discuss Al-Qaeda? Should FDR have delivered an address to the nation on December 8, 1941, advising that we relax, let cooler heads prevail, because the aftermath of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor “was not the time” to consider retaliating?
Every time we say “now is not the time”, we’re pushing our mess under the bed, hoping we’ll get away with not cleaning it up. Every time, we get a little more desensitized. The best time for strict gun regulation was 25 years ago. The next best time is today.
Linked
Just this morning, I was listening to Myke Hurley and Jason Snell on Upgrade discuss the dueling rumors for potential Mac updates. Jason seemed to think that something was imminent, but was a bit cagey on what he thought that something would be — be it an event, a press release, or something else. What he did propose, however, is that perhaps Apple would introduce a refresh to the 13” MacBook Pro (the one still with a Touch Bar) and bring the iMac up to the M2 chip generation.
Mere hours later, Apple invited folks to an oddly-timed (we’ll come back to that) event for next Monday, October 30th with the tagline ‘Scary Fast’. Without any iPads updated this year, and few solid rumors about what and when to expect new Macs, most publications I saw hedged their bets on what would be introduced. It appears they missed — probably in their rush to publish — this animation on the event’s page on Apple.com that clues us in on the focus of the event:
That’s right, a spooky Finder face! It looks like we’re getting new Macs. This is perhaps the most concrete hint I’ve ever seen in an Apple event invitation. The next closest one that I can remember was the ‘Time Flies’ tagline on the invitation to what turned out to be the Apple Watch Series 6 and SE (and iPad Air, and 8th-gen iPad, and Fitness+, and Apple One) event.
Okay, so we’ll see some new Macs. But which new Macs, and what will they be running on? That question is now the heart of the conversation around this event.
Until I saw that ‘Scary Fast’ tagline, I had been inclined to agree with Jason. It felt too early for the M3 chip to be announced. In fact, I was with John Gruber, thinking that the M3 surely wouldn’t be introduced until after the Vision Pro came out. I didn’t think Apple would relish introducing a brand-new, cutting-edge product like Vision Pro running on an “old” processor. But circumstances now have me questioning that premise. Would Apple put together a whole event — albeit a fully remote one — just to refresh a few models with the M2 chip that has been out for over a year now? My gut says no. That kind of update would be better served as a press release, not the full media hype cycle that comes with an Apple event. Nor an event tagline that specifically calls the speed of the machine into focus.
Okay, so let’s assume that we will be seeing the introduction of a new Mac chip, presumably the M3. What machines would that new SOC go into? Probably not the MacBook Air, seeing as the 15-inch model was just introduced a few months ago with the M2. That leaves the Mac mini, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and iMac that currently run on a base-level M-series chip. The iMac is the most obvious candidate and is what I’d put most of my money on.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro is more of a conundrum. I assumed that Apple would eventually phase that machine out of the lineup as the market shifted over to the redesigned MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. But by positioning that machine as a “Pro” laptop that starts at $1300, perhaps Apple has found itself in a similar situation as a few years ago when they clearly wanted to phase out the MacBook Air, but people kept buying them. Perhaps the 13-inch MacBook Pro is now the machine that they just can’t kill — a surprising turn of events seeing as it is the very model that was destined to replace the MacBook Air last time around but couldn’t. If I had to guess, I’d say it sticks around and gets the M3 as well, but without a redesign. The Touch Bar will live on.
It seems that the Mac mini is the easiest of any Mac to slip a new SOC into without much trouble. The same enclosure held Intel chips, the M1, the M2, and the M2 Pro. I think when the Mac mini gets the M3, it will continue to go into the same classic design. But will it happen next week? I’m not so sure. Partly because of the implications when considering the higher-powered variants of the M-series family.
In the two previous iterations, we saw the base model M1 and M2 introduced months ahead of its beefier Pro, Max, and Ultra siblings. It always seemed to me that it took extra time to develop and produce those more capable models. But if that’s the case this time around and the M3 Pro isn’t ready, we’d be left with a Mac mini that you could order with either an M3 or an M2 Pro chip inside — a bit clunky and confusing for the customer.
But if the M3 Pro is ready, I think and hope we’ll see it go into both the Mac mini and the iMac. That would make this bizarre event a bit more worthwhile. And people love the iMac. Raising the performance ceiling would provide more choice for folks who need more power but love the simplicity of an all-in-one desktop.
My final question regarding the M3 chip is about what process it’s manufactured on. Could Apple have scaled the 3-nanometer process and cores of the A17 Pro up for use on an M3 and M3 Pro? It seems unlikely, but they did scoop up all of TSMC’s 3nm manufacturing for the year. With the comparatively low volume of Mac chips needed to be produced, would anyone even notice if a few M3/M3 Pro chips came down the chip line?
More questions than answers, really. But here’s where my predictions stand:
- M3 chip is introduced, and it is on the 3nm process
- The M3 chip goes into the iMac, the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and the Mac mini without any major enclosure redesigns
- Apple is ahead of schedule on the more powerful chips and also introduces the M3 Pro
- The M3 Pro is an option for the Mac mini and the iMac
- The iMac’s color pallet stays the same
Accessories
Of course, with the Lightning port getting phased out of all products, it seems this would be the perfect opportunity for Apple to update its keyboard, mouse, and trackpad with a USB-C port. But the real question is if they’ll also finally give us a Touch ID keyboard option in the compact size but in a color other than silver and white. I’ve been waiting for a silver and black model for a long time now.
About that start time
Alright, let’s get back to the starting time for this event: 5 PM PST next Monday night. It’s the only Apple event that I’ve known to start after noon, much less the evening! But I’m pretty excited about getting to watch it live without having to take time off work, or committing time theft by watching the keynote while I’m supposed to be working. Since no one is traveling to California for a hands-on session this time around, I suppose Apple can be more flexible with the start time. I like the experimentation and hope it goes well. I do feel for the Apple employees who will undoubtedly be working late the night as the world learns about their new products.
All in all, I’m excited to see what’s in store for us at this event next week. Even if the products turn out to be boring, how they’re introduced has already piqued my interest. Let’s see what else Apple has up its sleeve.
Postscript: I just read John Gruber’s postscript to his event thinkpiece, and have to admit that it’s a compelling prediction that makes me question much of what I wrote above. Perhaps the M3 isn’t at all, and this event is all about the iMac getting refreshed with the M2 and the reintroduction of a pro iMac with the M2 Pro and Max chips. Supply chain rumors haven’t indicated that a larger iMac is imminent. But Ming-Chi Kuo, supposed best in the business when it comes to supply chain leaks, has been off the mark lately. Maybe this has slipped by him too.
Either way, this oddball event is going to be an exciting one to watch.
I’m an infrequent user of Discord, but I do hop in there from time to time checking in on various communities I’ve joined that are hosted there. I always used the official Mac app installed right from their website. But for the past several years, I either resisted opening the app or was immediately annoyed when I did because it always prompted me to install the latest update.
I’m all for frequent updates of apps. I’m glad to see active development and new features rolling in. But jumping in my way upon launch to get me to download an update, install it, and then relaunch the app is the wrong approach. Usually, I go to Discord trying to kick off a message or join a time-sensitive live event. Those prompts interrupt my flow and minutes spent updating make me miss out on the live stuff. I much prefer the behind-the-scenes updates of apps from the Mac App Store. But Discord isn’t available there, probably because it’s an app that’s based on web technologies (Electron?) rather than native Mac development tools.
But the new ability in macOS Sonoma to add any website to the Dock as a web app has drastically changed my Discord experience for the better. You see, the Discord website, which looks and works exactly like the Mac app, doesn’t ever require an update. That’s because it just loads the webpage fresh every time. By simply logging into Discord in Safari and choosing File → Add to Dock… I now have the web version on my Mac as a pseudo-application.
Any website can be added this way. ⌘
Using Discord this way, I get all the benefits of having Discord as a separate app, rather than just running it in a Safari window. It maintains my login state. I can enjoy Discord in its own separate window without extra chrome or controls. I could get notifications, although I have those turned off. I can launch it by typing ‘Discord’ into my app launcher of choice (Raycast these days). I can Command-Tab to the app when it’s open. I can even automate it with the ‘Open App’ action in Shortcuts.
I’ve been using Discord this way for the past several months and it’s been great. There have been zero prompts to update it when I’m trying to use it. And here’s another surprise benefit: the web app uses a tiny 1.2 MB of space on my Mac. The (native-but-not-really) Mac app? A massive 392.6 MB. That’s right, it uses .3% of the space on my system, with nearly the exact same experience in use.
It’s the same Discord you already know, but less annoying and not so much of a space hog. ⌘
Don’t forget to give it a macOS-style app icon
The only small downside of using the web app I noticed is that the default app icon doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the macOS aesthetic. It just puts the website’s favicon onto a white background. Like I said, a very minor quibble. Luckily, because this is the Mac we’re talking about, we can easily change an app’s icon to whatever we want.
So I found a high-quality, modern macOS-styled, 3D-esque icon online and saved it to my Mac. Next, I found the app’s home in Finder. (They’re added to the user’s Applications folder at Macintosh HD → Users → [Your User] → Applications, not the system-wide Applications folder, by the way.)
I use a handful of web apps this way, including Threads and YouTube. The user’s Applications folder is also where shortcuts live after using the same ‘Add to Dock…’ command from the Shortcuts app. ⌘
Selecting the Discord web app and hitting the Command-I keystroke (or right-click → Get Info) opens the info pane. There, you can drag any image file onto the icon space in the top left of the panel to instantly change its icon. That’s it.
Using a custom app icon in macOS is easy-peasy. ⌘
Now I have a Discord web app that looks and acts the same as their Mac app, but works way better in several important ways.
Tips
