Week Note Twelve - Flying Desk Squad
Desk to Desk
Since having to work from home, reality has kicked in. "This is it, I'm confined to my home desk for the foreseeable future until COVID-19 dissipate". Previously, I was doing WFH for one day a week and I have a decent desk setup. After three days in, I realised I was missing the sound of the office in the background. There are plenty of coffee house background noises to discover which helps combat that issue along with making sure you look out of the windows (and going outside) to appreciate the outdoors. This has inspired me to expand this note into a writing which I will hope to complete ASAP as it has grown into a lengthy thoughtful entry.
Apple's hardware upgrades
There has been some tasty updates by the fruit company.
iPad Pro
Somehow it has taken over the top when it comes to raising the hardware game with their custom ARM chip. The new iPad Pro has the same form factor, new cameras, LiDAR scanner, still talking heavily about augmented reality, and boasting an 8-core graphics processor flagging this device to be faster than most PC laptops.
I'm curious how Apple tests their hardware against PCs because it seems far-fetched at this point. Geekbench will be heavily referenced by many to compare yet they don't feel like real comparison. I wonder if Arstechnica will do a solid write up.
And yes, the Magic Keyboard looks like they are trying to get into the competition against the Microsoft Surface.
[Update: 29/03/2020 - It seems that it is the same as A12X with an extra GPU unlocked. From reading Daring Fireball's post about the difference, there is a good reason why it is. Check out the twitter thread via DF].
MacBook Air
This was a surprise update because MacBook Air has suffered a lot in the past few years before getting that worthy Retina display and adapting the dreadful butterfly keyboard with a strange arrow keys layout.
The keyboard from the 16" MacBook Pro is now in this new Retina model. It is still thin, better specs to upgrade to Intel i7, 16GB ram, and 2TB storage. If you want to hit that sweet spot, the i5 model is a good one to get and if you can afford to, upgrade the ram to 16GB. It's an compelling upgrade if you are looking to replace your ageing MacBook.
If you are still waiting for ARM chipsets, you will have to hold out for a little longer if anything real is to come out from Apple. Performance per watts and low powered hardware is what Apple always achieving to do.
Mac Mini
A minor change is that the top end model has 512GB storage. That's it.
Browser Tabs
Currently I have 97 tabs in my browser on the phone and there is no cure for this. Starting this week, I'm going to be zapping my tabs in blocks. It is a mental block that we do not need and we should be kind to ourselves to free up 'temporary storage' in the mind!
And finally...
I do love reading tidbits of how Apple's history. Chris MacAskill wrote about The secret call to Andy Grove that may have helped Apple buy NeXT and then I went down the rabbit hole reading further about NeXTSTEP.
Stay safe out there.