Marcus Moore
Forum Replies Created
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Hey Oliver. Haven’t posted around here in a while- I remember several years ago debating with people around here about the idea of a Roles-based organized timeline. Needless to say I was pretty pleased with what was ultimately implemented in 10.3.
Along the lines of what you’re talking about- I wrote another speculate piece recently of how I think Roles mixing could be implemented. I wrote up my thoughts here-
https://disproportionatepictures.blogspot.ca/2017/04/roles-redux-part-deux.html
and even mocked up a video of what it might look like here-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50fnmRtUSXA
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[Andrew Kimery] “I agree with you about the I/O, but even with the old MPs we never got USB 3 or eSATA from Apple even though they were available. It’s like all the engineers got moved onto working on the nMP and the old MP just kinda coasted into EOL.”
USB3 wasn’t a thing until after the 2010 MP was released. My top of the line 2011 17″ MPB was still Thunderbolt1/USB2. My quick internet search shows that the first Macs with USB3 didn’t ship until June 2012. And at that point I agree that there were no resources being put into the current tower chassis and all development energy was on the nMP.
[Andrew Kimery] “What makes this even more disconcerting is that the rate of technological change is only going to keep getting faster so if Apple is already having issues figuring out when (how?) to upgrade the nMP is this indicative of an inherent problem with this line of computers?”
Well, I think 5K is going to be Apple’s display standard for a while- so I think it’s an important one for them to hit. After that we may well see more regular processor/GPU updates. I say this is an anomaly, based on some specific hardware hurdles.
I might be wrong, but that’s my thinking.
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[Andrew Kimery] “Not to be pedantic but from 2006-2010 we got a new Mac Pro about every 12-15 months (and the Power Macs before that were on about a 6 month cycle). The stretch between the 2010 model and the speed bump in 2012 was, at the time, the longest drought between releases. That gap has been obliterated by the nMP. According to Macrumors the 2010-2012 gap was 685 days, the overall average time between MacPros is 449 days, and the nMP came to to market 885 days ago. Personally I would love it if Apple went back to releasing speed bumps between major revisions so there was always something new every 12-18 months.”
In general, the MacPros were 2006, 2008, 20012. Full disclosure, I’d forgotten the 4,1 released in 2009. Remembering the conversations from back then, I think you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who’d call the 2012 chip swap an “update”, as evidenced that they’re both 5,1. So I think you’d have to call the whole 2010-2013 a single upgrade cycle.
Anyway, I think the challenge with the nMP is that it’s tied not only to CPU and GPU upgrades, which theoretically could be made more often if they chose. But that there’s the extra element of I/O that’s so integral to this machine, and specifically bandwidth (for storage and for displays) that was never really an issue with the old towers. They all came with USB and Firewire 800 thru that whole lifespan. But I/O has been evolving fast in recent years, and I wouldn’t be surprised if much of Apple’s decision to go with this new form factor was built on the early Promise of Thunderbolt/Lightpeak’s original 100Gb/s optical goal. I don’t think they wanted to ship the nMP without 4K display support, which is why they had to wait for Thunderbolt2 to be released in late 2013. Now, with everyone screaming about how you can get a better display on the 27″ 5K iMac- I don’t see how they could have released an updated MacPro anytime after that without 5K display support and not taken an ENORMOUS amount of flack for it. At least that’s my theory.
And so here we are- Thunderbolt3 chips are shipping, USB-C is ready. And there’s some very healthy upgrades on both the CPU and GPU side. So I think we’re set. Both for a new nMP, as well as refreshed 5K Cinema Displays.
Just today I had my Apple rep call me to say that WWDC dates were for June- and did I want to be called if there was a new MacPro announcement.
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I’ll take that bet. MacPros have always been upgraded on a roughly 2 year cycle, we’re only slightly over that (let’s remember it was Dec 2013, and most people didn’t receive them until Q1 2014)- so a refresh this Summer wouldn’t be as far out of line as people are painting it.
Without PCIe slots, I/O is an even more important part of the nMP that other towers. So it’s been of no surprise to me that a meaningful update to the MacPro has been waiting for whatever combination of Xeon Processor, GPU, Thunderbolt, and USB-C they see as a meaningful upgrade.
If you’re a tinkerer who likes to build their own Machines and stay on the bleeding edge than this surely drives you nuts- and the MacPro isn’t the machine for you.
The only Mac that’s been updated this year is the MacBook (which had USB-C last year). In all likelihood we’re only a month or so away from the release a new MacPro and new MacBookPros with TB3 and USB-C.
“The MacPro is dead”. :/ This is like early 2013 all over again.
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In he scenario I’m imagining (we actually had this happen a few days on our show with a bad cable) you wouldn’t see the TC descrepancy in the windows, because SnL has actually matched them correctly. Because of sync loss on set, you have to do manual offsets to the clips after creating the Sync Clips, the offset getting wider the longer the drift was undiscovered.
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SnL syncs purely by matching TC- so my first thought would be timecode drift between the camera and the recorder.
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I’ve been using Motion pretty much exclusively for about 5 years- to the extent which I’m actually going to be dropping my CC account, and switching over to the photographers plan for Photoshop. I just don’t use the other apps…
The only time Ive used AE in the last few years has been for 3D Camera tracking, a feature which I’d very much like to see make it’s way into Motion- natively or as a plug-in.
And I think that (to me) is Motion’s real achilles heel. As great as Ae is, a lot of the most advanced functionality comes from 3rd party support from Trapcode, Mocha, Video Copilot ect… and while Motion does have great support from companies like Motion VFX and Tokyo Productions, the above guys are missed.
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[Herb Sevush] “From tim’s original post
“The numbers for $/sale were worldwide. Here in the US, the for each sale: $707.04!” “
About that ASP- Yeah but that’s figuring for 1.3 units per person- which doesn’t actually translate into any one person’s purchase. It just means that X people in 100 bought 2 watches, not that they paid more for one watch. Also, the original data points to the fact that 2/3rds of people (like me) purchased the cheaper Sport version at $350-$400.
[Herb Sevush] “But what can be more conspicuous than a Rolex, and now an Iwatch, that you wear on your wrist. In this case it isn’t, like the rolex, to demonstrate how rich you are by showing how much money you can waste, but rather by proving how smart you are by displaying Apples latest bauble for all to see. $700 is pretty cheap for that sort of validation.”
A watch is a single purpose device- it tells time. Anything beyond that is pure fashion, especially when you’re talking about something like a Rolex- it’s purely status. While whether you like it or not, the Apple Watch has (like a modern smartphone) numerous functions. If one or two of those functions serves a users need- it’s not frivolous.
Look, I’m sure you’re right that some people will purchase this thing for purely inane or reasons of vanity- again, that’s going to happen with anything- how many people own sports cars or pickups because of what they think it projects vs if they have a practical need for it. But that isn’t to say that there aren’t those that need those things legitimately. “Need” being a relative term with anything in the consumer electronics stratum- we’ve survived as a species for thousand of years without smartwatches. But you could say the same thing about smartphones or tablets or computers…
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The watch costs $350. If someone chooses to spend more for fashion reasons- that’s no more indulgent than someone who doesn’t buy the absolute cheapest car, pants, wine, or any other consumer product on the market.
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I think you’re exactly right- 3D text is a good visual demo so it gets top billing on the page- it is what it is. But trying to build any larger case from that is folly.
One more consumer oriented feature at the top of a What’s New page after 4 years of professionally focused feature improvements (including lots in the current release) is just giving 3D text too much weight- by a LONG shot.