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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Apple's announcement...

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Apple now have a real solid mass consumer base, so now they are taking advantage of it. That means products with a higher price tag but not a great deal of improvement in performance. Mac's have always been pricey but you could see a real difference in the performance compared with windows machines. You paid for quality. Now I could build a more powerful windows machine for almost a 1/3 less of the price. Now you pay more for aesthetic than performance with Apple. Shame.
 
My two cents: Steve Jobs was pretty clear and up front with everyone where Apple was headed. In 2010, he stated that they were in 'the post PC era'. I think some people took that to mean 'we beat Windows PCs'. But I think Mr. Jobs was referring to Apple, and he was telling everyone that Apple had shifted its focus away from computers and into portable consumer devices. Apple Computer, Inc. is no longer called that. They changed the name of the company to Apple, Inc. Words have power and changing the name of a company is not done on a whim. It is a message, to both your customers and your employees.

Final Cut X surprised a lot of people. But again, I think it was clear and consistent with the direction Apple was focused: delivering video to mobile platforms were first and foremost, with output to Facebook, YouTube, etc right there and in your face. The magnetic timeline seemed to me to be a first step towards a user interface that would work for a touch interface, at the expense of precision and 'muscle memory' of the legion of editors that lived on FCP. Apple believes that small, portable, touchscreen devices are the future of the company, and they're putting all their resources into making that happen.

Apple, Inc. will keep making Mac Pros, simply because people still buy them. They know they have a base of customers that are invested in them, both emotionally and financially. But they aren't going to pull 100's of their top people off their iDevice juggernaut to work all hours to build you the best tower PC on the planet. Doing that to make a product that might sell a few 100,000 just doesn't make sense when you could keep them on a product that sells a few 100,000,000. The honest truth is that they still might love you, but they don't need you any more. They've moved on. The relationship is over, pro market, Apple is trying to let you down gently.
 
I'm actually pretty stoked.

When I saw the introduction of that new Macbook Pro, I was impressed. Be honest: that's one very nice piece of technology!
And the price is very affordable. They used FCP X in the demos which is also updated IMMEDIATELY to get use of the display. That's nice. FCP X, that got a new What's New page that puts an official tag on the R3D support coming later this year, next to some other potentially interesting updates.

Been using FCP X, I've warmed up to it a bit. It's very incomplete, and has some big short-comings, but it has strong points that no other NLE's can match too. If Apple keeps working on it (a commitment they seem to be making) I think it can be very huge in the future.

The not a real new Mac Pro was VERY disappointing. Totally not what I was expecting. But Tim Cook mailed that 'something great is coming next year'. To me that says: a redesign of the Mac Pro, with 4K displays, and it's not finished yet.
Yes, we need new Mac Pro's, and they SHOULD have given better updates to the Mac Pro. I personally don't think the MBP 17" is coming back.
But I don't think Apple is leaving the pro user.
 
I understand why some are frustrated because Apple didn‘t launch a 4K MacPro/iMac or at least a new super performance MacPro with TB/USB 3.0 etc.
But it is only a matter of 12-24 months until Apple will or can offer an affordable 4K solution ($2-3K). Until then it‘s good to know that we‘re well prepared for the „Post-HD Era“.
 
Never mind the quality (I only had a cellphone cam on me!), feel the Finder 1.0:


One from my collection :-)

Mike
 
Jannard said:
My bet (and I have no inside knowledge whatsoever)
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Am I the only one made a little... uneasy... by that statement? You would think Apple would give the CEO of the company that's been driving 4K the last few years a *little* heads-up on their roadmap...

Mike
 
I hate to break it to a forum of professionals but Apple is not on the way out - professionals are on the way out. There will always be expensive toys for elite artisans and technicians but those markets will continue to shrink. Maybe I'm wrong and the release of the Red One actually increased the size of the professional market but as I see it, the pro market just shifted it's definition to accommodate more content creators. That might sound like more pros until you step back and see that most Mac users are content creators too.

I think Apple is still on the right track. Big and expensive (relatively speaking) tech is never going to be the end game because it will never get into enough hands to disrupt lethargic, lazy markets. Any company that is truly pushing innovation rather than just counting beans knows this. Apple and Red might not need each other technically but they share that culture so it is inevitable that they will both serve the same large community together.
 
Jason Von Drayco said:
Just get a hackintosh, then you get your OSX and thunderbolt and USB3.0 + all the cheapness and speed, AND you get to learn something building your own computer....ikea furniture is harder.
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That's only because Ikea instructions sometimes inexplicably flip the orientation of the illustrations from one panel to the next.
 
I may be wrong, but I believe Apple is re-evaluating what it means to be a professional user going forward and trying to think about what that user is going to look like in the next 3-5 years. Their choices lately have appeared to some to be the handwriting on the wall for the demise of the pro Apple market but I think those people aren't paying close enough attention.

The Mac Pro is not dead. I think what we'll see is a redesign that's reflective of what Apple thinks the high-end user of the near future is going to need from all of their products, taking technologies like Thunderbolt and the Retina display into account and abandoning things they think will become less important or redundant.

It won't, however, be all things to all people. Apple gave up on that years ago. There will always be holes in their product line that don't quite meet the needs of some. For them, there are other options.

Speaking of other options, it's important to remember that it's not just Apple vs. PC. It's Apple vs. Microsoft, Apple vs. Dell, Apple vs. HP, Apple vs. Boxx, Apple vs. DIY, etc. In that context, Apple's offerings stand up pretty well against the myriad choices from countless other manufacturers that COLLECTIVELY cover the needs of the professional market.

As for Apple catering to the consumer market, 1) iProducts and their subsequent royalties help subsidize the rest of the Apple line (many prices have dropped), including pro endeavors and 2) how many consumer configurations do you think Dell sells compared to the number of pro workstations?

The Retina display packs more resolution into a 15" screen than I have in my 30" screen. In Apple's mind that fact might negate the need for a 17" Macbook Pro. Or, maybe the thinking goes something like, "If you thought that was something, wait until you see how many pixels we pack into the new 17" model."

Either way, Apple's current offerings are the most powerful they've ever been. I seem to recall some pretty kick-ass work being done on Macs from 7 years ago.

Yes, the requirements of 4K+ have upped the ante and require more horsepower and flexibility. RED is responsible for kicking that into high gear and we all know it better than most. But, that means this is a transitional period for everyone, not just Apple.

Everything changes, remember? The original Scarlet announcement alone changed things. It's direct affect can be seen in designs from Sony, Panasonic, Canon and BMD. Now, consider how long it took to come out. In the interim, things changed around it which, in turn, caused the Scarlet to change. Now that Scarlet is out, it's undoubtedly changing things again.

Give people the opportunity to figure out how things are changing and what that means for the future, both for consumers and manufacturers. I'd like to give them all a chance to at least try to get it right.


EDIT: For those of you who poo-poo FCPX for having instant hooks into YouTube, you're not paying close enough attention either. There will come a day when watching content on YouTube (or a service like it) will be indistinguishable from watching it on broadcast or cable tv. The fact is, YouTube is positioning itself to be an original content provider with moderate to big budget programming. Netflix is doing something similar with "Arrested Development". YouTube already does HD, 2K, 4K and 3D. When the pipes coming into our homes are fat enough to accommodate those 4K TVs (internet enabled, of course) that Jim has been talking about it will all but seal the deal for YouTube as a network unto itself. Apple sees this and is preparing a legion of new editors to usher in that new business model. Be ready.
 
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I don't understand where people get off saying they can build a pc at a fraction of a mac pro price. Even Jeff would say that is not realistic! Xeons are damned expensive....Maybe you can claim right now its cheaper to build a Xeon PC, but that is only cuz the Mac Pro is using older CPU's. If it had an E5 it in, you couldn't say that, because they would be priced competitively.
 
Jarred, You should see the reactions I get sporting this sticker. Long live the 300!



E. George Betz
Seine/Harbour Productions
 

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I hate to disagree, but we might have to wait a while for a another management shakeup to get that "think different" attitude back. Things change when you are no longer the scrappy underdog looking to piss in the cornflakes of Goliath.
Apple has positioned the 15 inch as the new standard for media pros, like it or not they are trying to nudge everyone to buy into a product lineup which is more agreeable to there bottom line. The 17 inch is great to edit on but mine needs those thinderbolt
ports and usb 3.0 sad to say but I see no need in shining aluminum coming to the rescue
 
Get yourself an Hp z800 or z820 have more graphics options, more PCIe slots USB 3 etc and take a look inside. Beautiful design and build quality. What you are really upset about is not the MacPro itself but the apple OS which has severely lost some of its appeal to me with Lion. You want simplicity and elegance in your Operating system and stability. The Apple ship has sailed and what you are missing is what used to be not what is. Focus on the tools that are here that will work for you today. I have 7 MacPros in the office and out working on sets everyday and those will all soon be replaced with z800/z820's.
 
I get it that a lot of folks (Jim included) are fans of the Apple brand; that's a personal choice.

IMO, there is no more reason to wait for Apple to come out with new Mac Pros than there is to wait for Arri to come out with a proper 4k camera. Some people just have a preference for a particular brand. From a technical perspective there is certainly nothing superior about the Mac OS or Mac hardware. Thunderbolt motherboards are now available for PC. "Retina" resolution displays are coming. Better videocards are already available for PC. Higher density (10 core) processors are already available for PC.

Need a pre-configured workstation? HP and others have a machine for you. Willing to build your own? There are multiple options, including Thunderbolt connectivity, that scream under Windows 7. Want continued access to the latest and greatest videocards? PC is the platform for you. Want the most cores available? PC is the platform for you.

CS6 with Mercury Engine is pretty outstanding, but there are lots of options on PC, from MediaComposer down to Vegas Pro.

I realize some folks are so emotionally attached to Apple and FCP that all of the above will constitute heresy... but personally I'm not waiting for a new Apple any more than I'm waiting for a new Arri.

- Tim
 
I bought recently a new MacPro for a necessary upgrade of my Smoke on Mac System. It's a very stable system that works as expected with plenty of power. All that talk about more Ghz here, more GPU power there, is pure geekery. No need to switch in the moment. All that rumor about Apple abandoning the pros is that: rumor, based on nothing really.

I own also PCs. Good boxes from HP. Technically the same as my MacPros. But they don't run Smoke on Mac and don't encoded ProRes. Horses for courses.

Hans
 
Ghz and GPU's are pure geekery? Oh dear, Apple might be the right brand for you my friend.

As for Apple abandoning the Pro market, they've been sending very clear messages about their priorities for quite a while now (starting with FCPX, now no 17" MBP, lame update for Mac Pro). Maybe that doesn't constitute full abandonment, but there is no disputing that Apple now puts consumer targeted releases ahead of professional targeted releases. If you're comfortable maintaining allegiance to a company that doesn't put your needs first, that's your own choice...

- Tim
 
Jarred Land said:
Apple used to be like that. Really. You used to see people drive around with that little white apple sticker that you would get with a new mac on the back of their car , and being a mac user even seeing that on some other car you would feel kinda proud.

I haven't seen a new one of those little stickers placed on a car for awhile.. nor had that proud feeling.

I just want those days to come back.
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Yeah. That's a cool reflection, Jarred. Sometimes it's just that simple to see devotion.
 
Apple make iToys. Just look at how they are developing there OS. Professionals use Linux and Windows, it's a cold reality that the sooner you accept the better off your professional career would be.

I've been using Mac's since 1991 and have waited and waited for them to bring out a top "xStation" machine but it will never happen. If you want a top level professional machine you have to go with a different OS, mainly Linux. There is a reason why all the top post software developers make Linux and Windows products. Autodesk Flame Premium, FilmLight Baselight, Mistika.... The true pros have been none Mac for decades.

I love my iPhone and my iPad, they are great but I would not want to finish a film in an iOS environment and that is what Mac OS Lion has become. They hid the Libarary file from the users directory... Come on people if you call yourself a profession then learn Avid, get a copy of CS6 and build yourself a dual boot Linux and Windows machine and watch how your career moves forward and Apple continues to make fantastic easy to use iToys.

Red please develope a Linux RedCineX Über Pro :-)
 
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