Farewell, Big iMac

In Jason Snell’s (excellent, as usual) review of the new M3 24” iMac, he reports on the currently-non-existent large iMac: “Apple told me that it has no plans to develop a 27-inch iMac again.”

Apple said the same thing to The Verge.

I have received many emails and messages from listeners and Labs members wanting to get a large iMac and asking how long they will have to wait. Based on this reporting, my answer will be, “Don’t wait; it’s not coming.”

I used to be a large iMac guy. I owned several of them over the years. If they released one today, I would not be interested. I’ve found I prefer the new world of separate computers and displays. My current display (a Pro Display XDR) has now worked with three different Macs. While there’s a higher cost going in, I think the math works out over time. Moreover, you can avoid that higher cost if you buy a non-Apple display.

When you look at the Mac compared to the iPhone, it is a blip on the Apple product line. Moreover, I expect if we had the numbers, you’d find that desktop Macs are but a blip compared to laptop Macs. So, when it comes to desktop Macs, we’re talking about a blip of a blip. I can understand why Apple doesn’t want to spend the time and resources to make a large iMac.

In hindsight, their messaging on this has been pretty straightforward: They view the 24-inch iMac as halfway between the little one and the big one and good enough for an iMac. I bought my daughter (a teacher) an M1 iMac as a graduation present (in yellow!). She loves it. I asked if she thinks it should be bigger, and she declined, “It fits perfectly on my desk.”

If you want something bigger, they want you to buy a Mac mini or Mac Studio along with one of their displays. Many people will not be happy with this decision but that is the reality. That doesn’t mean Apple isn’t capable of changing its mind. Remember when they got out of the display business? But if you need new hardware, I would not plan on waiting for that day.

I don’t think Apple is being coy. I think they view themselves as out of the big iMac business.

Focused 190: Overdosing on Gratitude, with Karl Staib

Process consultant Karl Staib joins Mike and me on this episode of Focused to talk about process design, delegation, and the power of gratitude.

This episode of Focused is sponsored by:

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Audio Hijack Is the Mac’s Best Audio Recorder, and So Much More (Sponsor)

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More on Apple and AI

During last week’s earnings call, Tim Cook spoke briefly about Apple and artificial intelligence:

“In terms of generative AI, obviously, we have work going on. I’m not going to get into details about what it is, because as you know, we really don’t do that. But you can bet that we’re investing. We’re investing quite a bit. We’re going to do it responsibly, and it will… you will see product advancements over time where those technologies are at the heart of them.”

This feels to me like round two of the photos-in-the-cloud debate from a few years ago. Google was examining your photos on their cloud servers and then allowing you to search them for pictures of dogs, or mountains, or whatever. Apple explained they wanted to do that on device, which would give you the benefit of having this feature, without putting your photos out there.

I remember seeing Craig Federighi at one of the Live Talk Show events when he quipped something like, “We can buy pictures of mountains. We don’t need yours.”

When Apple gets around to sharing a generative AI product, it will also run locally on your device. (There is a reason for all those machine learning cores they’ve been stacking on their chips.) Again, people will wring their hands that it’s not possible to do on device what’s happening in server farms. Again, I expect we’ll find that what happens on our devices is good enough and 100% more private.

I’ve written on this before, but I sincerely hope Apple aims their AI research at automation and Siri. It could be their Siri moonshot.

Mac Power Users 717: The Apple Notes Deep Dive

While it had humble beginnings, Apple Notes has grown into a true competitor over the years. On this episode of Mac Power Users, Stephen and I explore its history, features, and where Apple should take it next.

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About the M3 Performance

As the MacBook Pros with M3 are hitting the wild, we are getting more data on their performance. It’s looking like a roughly 20% increase over the M2 generation. The M3 Max chip is clocking about the same speed as the M2 Ultra, which is impressive.

I did not think the succeeding generations of Apple silicon would improve that much year over year. I hope Apple can keep it up.