Tyrone <none@none.none> writes:

> On Mar 5, 2024 at 9:12:45 AM EST, "Alan Browne" <bitbucket@blackhole.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On 2024-03-04 19:15, Your Name wrote:
>>>
>>> New models of a Mac that is rather pointless. It's now even less
>>> differentiated from the MacBook Pro models. Apple should just drop the
>>> "Air" and "Pro" names and have a single "MacBook" product line. :-\
>>>
>>>
>>> Apple Announces New MacBook Air Models With M3 Chip
>>> <https://www.macrumors.com/2024/03/04/apple-announces-m3-macbook-air/>
>>>
>>> Apple Quietly Releases New M3 MacBook Air Lineup
>>> <https://www.idropnews.com/news/apple-quietly-releases-new-m3-macbook-air-lineup/209627/>
>>
>> Look at the options and memory (RAM and storage) for the real story.
>
> The "real story" being that the Air is the low end MacBook. Not everyone
> needs a $4000 laptop.
>
>> The low end version of this has 8GB of RAM. Wholly inadequate.
>> 512 GB of SSD. Barely adequate.
>
> For you perhaps. More than adequate for most people. Again, this is the low
> end MacBook.
>
>> 16 GB is barely adequate and 24 GB is the most you can get. And
>> compared to commodity value of memory (even of this level), it's grossly
>> expensive. Worse for SSD.
>
> Except that Arm Macs don't use commodity anything. The RAM/CPUs/GPUs/NPUs/SSD
> are all custom and integrated onto a single chip. So the performance beats
> any commodity RAM plugged into slots over here and a commodity SSD plugged
> into another slot way over there.
>
> All while using way less power too.

The CPUs/GPUs/NPUs are bespoke. However, Apple doesn't make its own DRAM
chips or NAND flash chips. They use commodity RAM and NAND. There isn't
anything special about them, it's only the way that they're integrated
that is Apple's "special sauce."

Apple has always charged high prices for RAM and storage. Companies like
Sun Microsystems did too. The difference is that Apple has changed the
way they sell Macs (again) so that they're the same as the way they sell
mobile devices. You buy the complete product with whatever options Apple
has decided to provide and then it's "no touchee" from there on
out. It's Steve Jobs' old idea about selling computers as appliances.

So much for sustainability. I've had a few Macs that I got used and then
upgraded so that they became very usable computers that worked for me
for years.

The most recent was a 2012 Mini that came with not much RAM and a small
5400rpm hard drive. I put 16GB of RAM and a good-quality Samsung SSD in
it. It was like it got a new lease on life and it became a very nice
little computer. It saved it from the landfill too.

Oh well. Things change.