OSX 10.9 Mavericks . . . and ranting about the new Mac Pro because Van said so!!!

I was looking at the keynote earlier today and in between bouts of the video acting up I got a look at the tagging features. This is kinda what i had in mind a while ago when writing about how to make Smart Folders more useful.

First, how about an easy way to add metadata when a file is saved—from right within the Save dialog? Just think how useful smart folders would be if everything on your Mac were tagged with the appropriate metadata.

If you are interested see this column from March 2010

Just think how useful smart folders would be if everything on your Mac were tagged with the appropriate metadata.

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Don't worry about the metadata Sly, the NSA is storing it all up for you! ;D

dtravis7 said:

From all the pics I have seen it looks like the Retina MBP in the sense of RAM is part of the board and you are stuck with whatever you purchase. Time will tell for sure.

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I think that's the flash drive. There are four 'standard' ram slots, two on each side mounted vertically.

edit: looking at this pic it looks like the flash storage is removable too.

mrplow said:

I think that's the flash drive. There are four 'standard' ram slots, two on each side mounted vertically.

edit: looking at this pic it looks like the flash storage is removable too.

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Looks like a high tech bomb. >_>"

Think I must be getting old.

Love the fact that you get the menu bar and the dock on each screen.
Even just 10 yrs ago, I would have been excited / waiting with aniticipation to get my hands on all the new features.
Now I'm just thinking, do I really want to have to learn how to use all this new stuff?

So, I'm a complete newbie when it comes to Macs...
How do the software updates work?
Are they free? If not,about how much does it cost? (If there is a cost, do you think it'd be worth it?)
Or do the updates only come with new computers released?

CookieMonsterXo said:

So, I'm a complete newbie when it comes to Macs...
How do the software updates work?

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Any new major OS X version will be distributed through the Mac App Store (on your Dock).

Are they free? If not,about how much does it cost? (If there is a cost, do you think it'd be worth it?)

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Generally, new major OS X versions are about $30, though that cost has varied a bit in the past. Yes, I think it's worth it.

Or do the updates only come with new computers released?

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No.

dtravis7 said:

The end of the Pro user support is here. Sorry Apple! :-(

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Honestly, which those Bench Test's and speeds and all the goodness that the New Mac Pro is showing, 7 Teraflops of Computing Power, 2.5 times the speed of the new Flash, 20GB/s data transfers to a Backup Array, Power to connect 3x4K Displays, Bluetooth 4 and ac wireless, Why Dennis would you want to Upgrade anything in it, honestly. But I'm sure you will be able to swap out to bigger Flash ??

So, my take...

On OS X "Mavericks"... I agree, they should have waited for 10.x to run its course before changing the theme. It's a trivial matter really, but I don't understand their logic at all. That said, a lot of the features they're adding seem very logical and useful (unlike some of the fluff they've added from Lion to Mountain Lion).

On the Mac Pro... I agree with Dennis. I believe Apple may have just lost the true "Pro" market.

• Given the highly proprietary nature of this machine, you can bet that it will be difficult to impossible to do any internal upgrades.
• Given the expense and limited availability of TB1 upgrades, I can't even imagine how difficult and costly it will be to source TB2 peripherals - and that's on top of what I would imagine will be a steep initial system cost.
• If the GPUs can't be upgraded internally, don't count on TB to provide you with an external venue for adding/replacing GPUs. TB1/2 doesn't have nearly as much bandwidth as a full 16 lane PCIe card.
• From an aesthetics perspective - I would be willing to bet that most Pros set these things on the floor and rarely, if ever, look at them. So who cares what it looks like? Even still, I agree that it looks like a highly polished trash can. The phrase "Mac-in-trash" immediately came to mind when I first saw it.
• I realize that optical drives are passé these days, but given that this machine is all about authoring content, I'm really stunned that there's no optical drive - at least in this case.

Obviously, I'm not the target market for this machine, but nevertheless, I am hugely disappointed with Apple's recent direction - at least as it pertains to Mac hardware. I love OS X. I love my iPhone. I love my iPad. I would like to continue to love Mac hardware, but if the traditional 15" MacBook Pro (non-Retina) is discontinued, then the machine I'm typing on currently (which still has a lot of life left in it) will likely be my last Apple-branded PC.

Apologies for the negativity, but I feel as though I've lost all faith in Apple's ability to temper design with functionality.

Very well said Chris and I 100% agree.

TattooedMac said:

Honestly, which those Bench Test's and speeds and all the goodness that the New Mac Pro is showing, 7 Teraflops of Computing Power, 2.5 times the speed of the new Flash, 20GB/s data transfers to a Backup Array, Power to connect 3x4K Displays, Bluetooth 4 and ac wireless, Why Dennis would you want to Upgrade anything in it, honestly. But I'm sure you will be able to swap out to bigger Flash ??

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It's impressive, no doubt. And maybe my vision is clouded by the mindset of a tinkerer/old school geek (and no doubt, Dennis agrees with me here as well). But if I were doing REAL work with a $3000K+ system (and I believe this Mac Pro will be significantly more costly, given the state-of-the-art Flash-based storage), I would not want a "locked" box full of proprietary hardware that I can't take a screwdriver to.

Additionally, given that Apple won't provide warranty support beyond 3 years for its hardware, I would live in constant fear of eventually having a 3-year-old fancy looking doorstop should it experience even the slightest failure.

Now, that's a LOT of speculation, because we don't know all that much about it. But given the recent trend in Apple hardware, particularly with the latest iMacs and Retina MacBooks, I'm guessing that speculation isn't far from the truth.

The thing that bugs me the most is that there is no reason from a technical standpoint to build a machine this way. This is strictly a design exercise, much as it was with the recent iMacs and Retina MacBook Pros. Believe me, I get that this is part of Apple's DNA and that function will always follow form. But I believe that in the past, Apple has done a much better job of innovating in design without throwing all practicality out the window.

To take it one step further - automobile manufacturers release concept cars every year. They are usually "pie in the sky" designs that feature a theme or design language that will eventually trickle down into mainstream models, but in reality, they're not completely functional. Sometimes you can't open the hood, or the vehicle can't move under its own power.... This is like Apple creating a concept heavy duty pickup truck and turning it over to production with a full tank of gas, but no fuel filler door.

Again agreed completely.

I was hoping the next OS name would be OS Top Cat. I'm showing my age now.
Also, I'm kind of disappointed with the new Mac Pro.

The new Mac Pro is not for everyone. But believe me, they will sell and likely be popular with the professionals who they're geared for. I do agree with Chris that a 3 year Apple care warranty on an expensive machine like this will probably not be enough. I can see Apple selling a special 5 year limited warranty for the Pro only. ??

The new MP reminds me of the cube - a design that's a little too drastic and had to make compromises for the purposes of aesthetic gain. Time will tell however.

Few of the outward facing features in Mavericks excite me but the under the hood stuff is just fantastic. iCloud Keychain? Maps? iBooks? doivoivbfoivb Sorry, I fell asleep there. Tabs in Finder? About time and avery welcome addition. Xtrafinder is awesome and I use it solely for the tab support but the fewer third party programs I need, the better. The tagging features look fantastic in theory but we'll see how it plays out.

The under the hood stuff is where it gets just awesome. Compressed memory, app nap and timer coalescing just go to show how nuanced the fixes are.

vansmith said:

The new MP reminds me of the cube - a design that's a little too drastic and had to make compromises for the purposes of aesthetic gain.

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We touched on this a little earlier in the thread (or maybe it was the "New Mac Pro" thread). I initially was saying the new Mac- Pro looked like a "Super Mac-Mini"...then someone said the design looked more like a Mac Cube. I'm thinking that a reincarnated Mac Cube is a better analogy.

Of course...let's hope that the new Mac Pro doesn't suffer the same fate as the Mac Cube!

- Nick

Well said Van my man! Agree completely. I yawned at the fluff in the keynote also!

pigoo3 said:

We touched on this a little earlier in the thread. I initially was saying the new Mac- Pro looked like a "Super Mac-Mini"...then someone said the design looked more like a Mac Cube. I'm thinking that a reincarnated Mac Cube is a better analogy.

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I'm doing a little bit of catch up.

So, I just noticed this now (yes, I completely missed all the announcements and I'm just catching up now) - flash storage? Really? I'm partially surprised given Apple's move to flash storage but why not a hybrid option or better yet, solid state drives? I realize that it was chosen for space, energy and potentially heat reasons but how do you justify a pro machine with no user removable storage? Other than that though, it's one amazingly spec'd machine.

Again Van, Well said. Those were some of my first thoughts when seeing the machine.

The most interesting feature to me is multiple displays using AirPlay.

My 55in LG HDTV will nicely complement my MBP for photo editing.