Apple / Mac new hardware discussion

[wakka]

Love the setup fuse, and the glimpse into your paradise of games.

That Mac Mini looks a lot smarter than my gaming PC. lol

We got a convert boys.

[speedlolita]

We got a convert boys.

Maybe if I grow out of PC gaming.

That said I haven't used my PC for games in 3 weeks now!

[fuse]

Been some mention of it over in off topic already, but the Apple event just last week showed off a bunch of new phones and watches.

My phone's getting a bit long in the tooth so I've ordered a 15 Pro, but perhaps more radically I'm giving serious consideration to trying out the Watch despite being fairly anti-smartwatch for some time. I'm deep in the Apple ecosystem so another brand isn't really a consideration, but the main thing I'm interested in is the heart / pulse / ECG tracking. Think I've figured out a suitable band (can't stand the look of the silicon ones, not into fabric either) but I feel like this is something I really need to poke my head into a store for to try on before I throw money at it. Anyone using / used one and have any strong feelings?

Still haven't done much in the way of gaming on it, but continue to be delighted with the M2 Pro Mac Mini. Did try to download Baldur's Gate 3 for it the other day only to find that it was still in early access for Mac, and had all kinds of glitchy **** / screen tearing going on, which was a shame.

[CMcK]

I’m using a five year old Apple Watch still runs well and battery has held up surprisingly well too. The main things I use it for are paying for stuff, fitness tracking, discrete notifications and timers. Seems to be pretty accurate reading your pulse but I can’t comment on the ECG stuff as I’ve never felt the need to use it. Being able to change bands so easily is a really nice feature.

[MartyG]

I have a bunch of those same Ikea CD/DVD/Tape/Game shelves - nice thing is they don't bow in the middle.

[wakka]

Not an Apple Watch user myself but it’s strongly rumoured to get a major overhaul and redesign this time next year. May be worth waiting for (or at least bearing in mind).

[fuse]

Wasn't even aware of it until earlier in the day, but there was another Apple event today.

M3 chips! Only in 24" iMacs and MacBook Pros for now.

[wakka]

Yep - a pretty straightforward upgrade for both the iMac and MBP (on the latter, black tax is back, though!).

A few key takeaways:

- Long gone are the days of waiting years between Mac chip upgrades that we had in the Intel era. Great that Apple are keeping their Pro machines cutting edge.

- The event was hyped surprisingly heavily for what are a fairly staid set of upgrades. The switch to an evening (US time) event and distribution of goody bags to streamers ahead of time were particularly unusual. My read: a test of how much this improved US-based viewership ahead of next year's all-important Vision Pro event(s).

- Zero announcements of new gaming deals. IMO this seriously calls into question Apple's commitment to proactively supporting a pipeline of AAA games to Mac/iPhone following the excitement from some about the Capcom deal and its iPhone 15 Pro compatibility. We are just a month out from the 15 Pro launch and we have brand new, even more powerful Mac chips. This would have been the perfect moment to throw in an announcement of a deal with another publisher for more games for both platforms and yet - nada.