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MacBook Pro 17″ vs. Mac Pro
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[Craig Seeman] “Apple’s business. Cook jumped in quickly and clarified and the next major MacPro transformation. Now us business people can make a decision on that one way or another. You don’t have to like it but he gave it to us.”
Hey honey…yeah go ahead and plan dinner, I’ll be home by say, some time in 2013.
We have very different bars regarding communication and actual information worth considering.
I like Apple Computers but I think they’re an absurd and irresponsible company in the way the treat the professional community.
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Cook wrote the email. Apple officially confirmed it to the media. No spy involved here. Apple’s confirmation is what it is, a Confirmation from Apple.
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[Craig Seeman] “Cook wrote the email. Apple officially confirmed it to the media. No spy involved here. Apple’s confirmation is what it is, a Confirmation from Apple.”
a blessing if you will.
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[Jim Giberti] “I like Apple Computers but I think they’re an absurd and irresponsible company in the way the treat the professional community.”
An email from the CEO directly to a customer is irresponsible?
A confirmation from Apple is irresponsible?Personally I like that Apple’s CEO responds to customers.
Personally I like that Apple will now confirm such communications to the press.
To me that’s responsible. No more “no comment” or “plausible deniability.”[Jim Giberti] ” I’ll be home by say, some time in 2013.”
You may not like what he said but he’s quite clear about what he said and Apple confirmed it to the media. This is not some rumor speculation without confirmation.
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[Jim Giberti] “a blessing if you will.”
Blunt truth. That’s very good given Apple’s history of “keep ’em guessing.”
This from the CEO who said he was going to “double down on secrecy”
They’re also being blunt honest. -
[Bill Davis] “Walter,
I absolutely understand your desire for “absolute performance” since you work in the part of the pipeline where real time compositing, rendering and the hard core calculation makes the difference between you being more or less productive.
But I have to wonder whether the FCP-X model of expressing EVERYTHING as metadata is seriously changing that.
With the new X construct, I know I’ve simply moved “final output calculation” well downstream in my workflows. As I work in X, I’m really just building text lists that avoid almost all the processor heavy lifting – leaving the big calculation load i to after the client has viewed and approved my inter-stage work – that’s probably why I’m finding X so responsive in the laptop world.
I think more and more software is going to work this way. Less crunching code to do stuff in real time – and more simply building and manipulating metadata journals – not just in the database, but to express the actual editorial functions as well.
That “two stage” process – fast decisions now – optimal quality later when I need it – is driving HUGE efficiencies in my work.
It’s clearly the central factor that’s driven all the “change this small thing and wait for the section to re-render” mode that was so integral to working in Legacy.
And the fact that it’s gonna take my laptop overnight to calculate finals isn’t always a gig problem for me. What I need to do FAST is editorial – which in the world of X is kinda now all just metadata journaling.
As long as I can park on a frame and see the ultimate quality represented, I’m good. I can then get back to work making my decisions in a lower rez stream, and even email that stream out for editorial approval via email. I find this to be amazingly efficient in X compared to my years in Legacy.
I personally am rooting for whatever The 2013 “Pro User” refresh that Tim Cook has hinted at to be something that has some type of “scaleable” rendering engine under the hood – perhaps using TBolt and/or Grand Central to leverage additional horsepower. That might even provide for guys like you who currently require the big iron approach – and also let the same software work for someone like me with lower rendering requirements.
Seems like a pretty smart approach rather than requiring all of us to run on “big iron” whether we want to maintain a business infrastructure to support those kind of hardware arrays or not.
Fun to speculate.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
“I’m intrigued Bill, what do you actually make with FCPX? Honest question, not bating, I promise.
Liam Hall
Director/DoP/Editor
http://www.liamhall.net -
I’m thinking the Mac Pro update will maybe come with the update of FCP X.
“You never want to get to get a call from the editing room”
Art Adams -
[Craig Seeman] “An email from the CEO directly to a customer is irresponsible?”
Craig, I’m just seeing this.
Why, because it was done obtusely through an email to Franz that had to be confirmed.
I’m busy like most professionals.
We tend to like our information delivered directly so that we see it.
It’s a level of respect that professionals typically pay to one another.If this is Mr Cooks statement then why in dog’s name, after a couple of years of obvious frustration within the professional community and knowing that you’re nor going to offer them anything for maybe a year more, wasn’t it this directly published in, oh I don’t know, any credible publication on line or otherwise…say the COW:
“Thanks for your support. Our Pro customers are really important to us. Although we didn’t have a chance to talk about a new Mac Pro at today’s event, don’t worry as we’re working on something really great for later next year..”
See, I just changed two words and made it a direct message to all our valued customers.
Business 101.
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[Craig Seeman] “They’re also being blunt honest.
“Amazing that Apple lives in a universe where the words “blunt” and “vague” can be interchangeable.
I don’t live there.
If my business were dependent on Mac Pros (which gladly it’s not any longer) I would be furious at seeing my PC peers running screaming systems if all I had to counter was the email promise of something better than my already aging technology in an 18 month window.That’s just me.
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[Jim Giberti] “Wow, epic communication – no wonder the professional community is so at peace with their relationship.
“Jim,
I don’t think it’s actually Apple’s communication or lack thereof that’s driving the unease at all. It’s just a convenient target.
The underlying issue is the wholesale tectonic shifts in the entire society as a whole that are taking place.
Globalization of information.
Big Data – the ascendence of Search – and the attendant rise of metadata as the central technique for imposing even a bit of order on the functional data chaos.
Fragmentation of every audience and the breakdown of the traditional forms of marketing and eyeball acquisition.
The shifts in economic skills required for success away from personal skills and toward reputation management and collaborative connection (in my opinion)
This stuff is the real change going on.
Apple is trying to FIT into that. Not trying to manage money flow by product manipulation. They’ve clearly got the cash flow thing nailed already.
Now it’s all about positioning for a future they’re in a unique position to intuit – or invent – or at least try to manage based on their deep “insider” knowledge of tech.
I still think the broader future is all about identify, search, manipulate, add value and re-deploy (and charge for the above!) as rapidly and as consistently as you can.
That can be done by a solo practitioner. Or it can be done by a brash young startup. Or it can be done by a “traditional” media firm who’s not afraid to change.
But I really don’t’ think it’s Apple driving this change. I truly think it’s Apple reacting to the inevitable change they see coming – just like every other business on the planet.
For what it’s worth.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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