The Online Photographer

Photo[shop]-Specific Computers

I'm far from a computer expert, so take this with the appropriate chunk of salt. I'm just reading and reporting back.

A friend sent me this interesting short article about picking a computer for Photoshop and Lightroom. It's a product description page for a photo-specific computer built by a PC fabricator. It's on Punch and it's called "What kind of processor do I need for Adobe Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC in 2018?"

It starts with a brief description of cores and threads, then moves on to clock speed. Turns out multi-core CPUs aren't really that significant with photo processing: "...we have undertaken testing using a range of processors from dual core right through to the huge 18-core variants. We were quickly able to conclude that both Photoshop and Lightroom are not able to take advantage of a great number of processor cores." Two- and quad-core machines are fine, the authors say, with maybe an extra two cores for running background tasks at the same time.

The situation is the opposite with processor speed. Their conclusion is pretty stark: "Photoshop performance scales directly with processor clock speed."

This would seem to emphasize the importance of turbo boost, but the authors explain that turbo boost requires CPU cooling to avoid overheating the CPU and operate at good efficiency. It's good news that the new Mini has a redesigned fan—sorely needed, in my experience—but how does that relate to what they're talking about? Beats me.

I'm not sure all this helps me choose a Mac Mini model. But then, I don't really do massive Photoshop projects—I process relatively straight, don't do a lot of processor-intensive functions like panoramic photomerges, and print small. I should probably just make do with the most basic base Mini if I go that route.

Oops
But I did some configuring, and it turns out you can slam the budget pretty easily configuring a Mini. The Mini is not mini any more in terms of $. I guess you're getting a lot of computer, but you're certainly paying luxury prices. (And before the Apple-haters chime in, I'm in the Apple ecosystem and I'm not getting out. It's not a question of just one device—it's how all of them work together.) I suppose my next work computer will be a 21.5" iMac, which is what lordly Apple decrees customers like me shall buy. Who am I to argue with a trillion-dollar behemoth?

The first Mac I did my work on, Spring 1984.
Ten pages of text per floppy.  :-)

Still, interesting article. (I love primers.) I'll be interested to hear what some of you think who know much more about the subject than I do.

Mike
(Thanks to Steve Rosenblum)

P.S. And here's an interesting thought. It's finally at least conceivable that I could go with a highly configured iPad Pro and an iPhone, and dispense with everything else. No more desktop, no more laptop? Radical.

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Thom Hogan: "As I outline in an article on my site: memory first, dedicated GPU second (if you can get one), CPU clock speed third. In broad strokes, that's where performance in Photoshop comes from. The thing you absolutely want to avoid is virtual memory or scratch disk spills out to a slow drive.

"To answer your question on the new Mini, it's unknown yet just how much heat dissipation the fan on it can manage long term. If it's efficient, then yes, the turbo boost speed is very important. If not, the base clock speed is probably more important."

[Here's that link —Ed.]

Vince: "If you’re going to get an iMac, you’ll be much happier with a 27". Especially since that’s the size screen you already have. But I don’t know why you would. A Mini with an i7 and 512GB SSD is $1,500. If you want 16GB of memory, give Apple $200 to upgrade it. (The memory is replacing the built-in, and 16GB is $170 from OWC; it’s worth the $30 not to mess with it.) If you want 32GB, give OWC $330 to upgrade it. Around $1,700–1,800 total. A comparably equipped iMac 27" is $2,500–2,600, and only has four cores instead of six. Why spend the $800–900 when you don’t have to? (Unless you also want a 5K monitor, in which case definitely get the iMac.) (Note: I own and love the iMac. But you have a Mini and a good monitor. It seems to make more sense to stay with the Mini.)

"Also, what that article really says is that Adobe apps are bloated and horribly performing. If you really want to improve the performance of your editing, get new software instead of beefing up your hardware to ridiculous heights."

Moose: "Likely not much factor for your use, but GPU is a significant factor for many Photoshop users. Your link mentions two reasons: 'The downside of utilising a processor with integrated graphics solution is that both the processor and GPU share the computers main system memory. Not only does this consume valuable memory for graphics use but it eats up memory performance bandwidth too.' A more powerful GPU also speeds up some display functions."

Joe Holmes: "After eight years with my elderly Mac Pro desktop machine I finally upgraded last year to the 27" iMac Retina 5K, with every available upgrade and 40GB of RAM. What an enormous difference, a huge amount due to moving a lot of my software to a superfast SSD. Everything is now just snappy. One thing I've long depended on for photo processing is two monitors—it's great having a full-screen image on one and all my Photoshop palettes and tools on the other. I know you love your existing monitor, but you might consider keeping it and using the iMac's (gorgeous) 27" Retina screen as a second monitor. All it takes is the right cable. Of course the iMac is much pricier than a Mac Mini, but if you, like me, expect to keep the machine for at least six or eight years, it's a very worthwhile investment."

Thomas Tveit Rosenlund: "That is not a photo specific computer. That is actually an Adobe specific computer. Because of Adobe's software architecture the applications can't utilize a lot of cores in an optimal way (only for some tasks like batch output/input). It is the same story with GPU. There exists other software solutions for photo processing and cataloging that actually manages to utilize the resources of a multi-core setup as well as the GPU capabilities in a much better way. Capture One is one, I am sure there are others as well (Capture One is reportedly better developing Fujifilm X-trans files also, so the switch should really be a no-brainer for the author of this site).

"What you really need is a Microsoft Surface pro and an upgrade to Capture One for Fuji.  :-)  "

Mike replies: I've been trying to make friends with Capture One for Fuji. The plugin I really want to keep is Nik Silver Efex Pro 2, and it looks like I should be able to learn how to integrate that. I just think I'm going to miss ACR. I've spent time and effort learning ACR and I'm attached to what I know how to do in ACR....

david stock: After decades of Mac use, I'm feeling stuck. With Apple's lack of desktop choices, iMacs are what many photographers seem to turn to. But I dislike the screens. They are pretty for viewing, and for web content. But for someone who prints photographs regularly, they are suboptimal. They are extremely bright and saturated (and too reflective). Because they are optimized for web and movie viewing impact, they are hard to profile accurately for printing. They have a history of problems with uneven illumination. And they are actually too high in resolution to allow conveniently judging critical sharpness (as Lloyd Chambers and others have pointed out). I had high hopes for the new Mini. It's powerful, with lots of good ports. Its only drawback for me is the lack of a dedicated graphics card; I can't wrap my mind around paying $700 for an external GPU box. Apple promises a new Mac Pro next year. But I'm sure it will be incredibly expensive...."

Mike replies: FWIW, I've felt that frustration. I invested in the NEC PA272W last year to have a more configurable, lower-glare display, but Apple's options of low end (Mini) and high end (Pro) desktops were both too extreme for me—no Goldilocks solution. I needed a box right in the middle. The new Minis are likely going to do the job when I upgrade next Spring, assuming I can afford to. 

But maybe the real problem is Photoshop. I just looked at Capture One's system requirements. It's a pretty basic, casual page, but they say minimum is 2 cores, 8 GB RAM, and 10 GB free hard drive space, and optimum is 4 cores "or better," 16 GB RAM "or more," 100 GB free hard drive space, and an SSD drive. Seems like the Core i3 Mini with extra RAM would serve. I just don't know about what you mentioned, which is how the lack of a dedicated GPU might affect anything. I just switched from coffee to tea; switching from ACR/Photoshop to Capture One should be easy, right?

But hey, I learned a lot today. I guess I'll just keep my ears open and read the real reviews when they start appearing, and just keep learning till I know enough.

Hallelujah

Oh, joy.

New Mac Mini.

This will not excite some of you, but I've been waiting for this day for quite a while. The Mac Mini is exactly what I need (I prefer the form-factor because I can use my third-party monitor of choice and secure the computer when I'm away), and my 2012 is in need of updating. I'm on my computer 6–10 hours a day so little differences add up.

Photoshop CC speed performance compared with current 2014 model:

Here are the rest of the details. Available November 7th.

As my friend Steve texted when he heard: "Yay!"

iHappy.

Mike
(Thanks to Steve Rosenblum)

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Jim Kofron: "i2."

David: "New Mac mini, Yay! No SD slot, Boo!"

Kodachromeguy: "Wow, good news, I hope. I, too, am using one of the 2012 Mac Minis and have been waiting for the next version. Let's wait a few months for the first users to provide some feedback. Let them do the troubleshooting."

Keith: "Based on the extended delay between the D300 and D500...uh, wait, wrong product. Between the previous Mac Mini and this current one, you may want to buy on the high end of the spec. Might be anchored to it for awhile."

Gordon Lewis: "The reasons that same may feel motivated to curb their enthusiasm over the new Mac Mini is that, in classic Apple fashion, the cost mounts steeply with every option you add to the base configuration. For example, the lowest priced model is $799. The next one up is $1099. Want an extra 8GB of RAM? That's $200 extra. Want to double the base SSD drive capacity? That's another $200. Want a faster processor? Yet another $200. And because Apple makes it difficult if not impossible to retrofit any of these components, including RAM, you can't upgrade components over time. Instead, you have to anticipate future needs and buy everything at all once. I mention all of this as a generally satisfied Apple customer, not a 'Windows fanboy,' but I call 'em like I sees 'em. The Apple ecosystem has its benefits, but economy is not necessarily one of them."

New MacBook Pro

Apple has updated its MacBook Pro with Touch Bar models to incorporate 8th Gen Intel Core processors, True Tone technology, and the Apple T2 chip.

The 15.4" models now feature 8th Gen Intel Core i7 six-core processors, which are up to 70 percent faster than 2017 predecessors, while the 13.3" models now feature 8th Gen Intel Core i5 quad-core processors, which are up to twice as fast as the previous models. The 15.4" models now utilize DDR4 onboard RAM and can be configured up to 32GB for optimal multitasking. These models feature a dedicated AMD Radeon Pro 555X or 560X graphics card with 4GB of GDDR5 VRAM. The 13.3" models utilize integrated Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 or 655. [Text from B&H Photo.]

They seem expensive to me, but then I guess they are, for most people, arguably (and I use that word advisedly!) the best all-around computers money can buy. I probably should have bought a new MacBook Pro of the generation just prior to the Touch Bar models (which I can see myself being frustrated with—any control panel that changes itself would not get along well with my brain, or rather the other way around) to run my NEC monitor at home and detach to take on the road with me. But I went another direction, so it's too late now, until I need to update next time. Sigh.

The last time I used a laptop as my main computer, it looked like this:

...And sounded like this. (You would need to listen to the entire three minutes and 25 seconds to get the full experience, but please spare yourself.) Talk about the bad old days!

And yet it was one of my favorite computers ever, if I'm honest. I probably have readers who were "tweens" when that computer was current. And they think I'm old, only because they have no idea yet that their own lives are going to zoom by with the speed of an 8th Gen Intel Core i7 six-core processor.

:-)

But I digress. From the digression. Here again is the latest and greatest.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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louis mciver: "Yes, the physical interfaces of the Macbook Pro continue to deteriorate, with the Touch Bar taking the cake. It is a significant visual distraction and also very prone to triggering something or other when one of your fingers accidentally rests on it, which is a very natural and ergonomic thing for your fingers to want to do. Fortunately there is nice piece of free software called 'Touchbardisabler' that completely turns off the touch bar. Screen brightness and volume keys are automatically remapped and you can also remap the escape key to another key such as the caps lock key."

Peter Wright: "I am very glad to see at last a four-core MacBook Pro 13 inch, and I expect I will buy one in a few weeks to replace my old MacBook Air. I think the Thunderbolt 3 interfaces that get so much criticism are really another reason to make the purchase: At last I can expand/update the machine externally using fast SSD storage or GPUs. I’ll take high-end interfaces any day over the clutter of different low-speed interfaces we have seen up to now. All I wanted in addition was more horsepower under the hood."

How To Use a Standing (or Sit-Stand) Desk

My messy desk in the sitting and the standing position

It's well known by now that sitting at a desk all day isn't good for you, and standing desks—also called sit-stand desks—have exploded in popularity. To the point that it might be considered a fad.

But I love mine.

There are a lot of options. You can get just the leg set, and then you can have a local cabinetmaker craft a custom top in whatever size and whatever kind of wood you prefer (in our area we have loads of Mennonite woodshops that will provide reasonably-priced, very well made solid wood furniture of any specification or design on demand). You can buy inexpensive hand-crank models. Or you can just buy a complete desk that comes with a tabletop, like I did four years ago. (Word to the wise: do opt for the "expert assembly" if it's available in your area.) If you really want to go all-out there's even a beautiful, deluxe new type with four separate legs that comes in several colors and sizes. (This is the killer app among current options, and it's apparently considerably easier to assemble yourself—assembling the older two-legged ones like I have is a challenge. The "expert assembly" guys who came to my house worked for two hours. Two guys. Two hours. Glad that wasn't li'l ol' me.)

What you might not know is that standing all day might not be all that good for you either. The trick is to change your state a lot—get into the habit of changing position. Sit for a while, stand for a while, sit for a while. If you can mix in "microwalks" it's a very good idea, too. Take a two-minute walk to the water-cooler every hour or so. Just make sure those walks aren't to the soda machine (at work) or the kitchen (at home)! A slightly longer brisk walk (5–15 minutes) at midday is a smart idea too.

I have these microwalks built into my day because of the dogs. They're also my built-in exercise timer (theirs, but also mine.) I also touch my toes for thirty seconds once or twice a day. (This takes longer than you'd think because it takes a while to stretch all the way down there.)

Here's the right way to use a standing desk: every hour or two, raise the desk to standing height. Take a standing position with your feet comfortably (about should-width) apart and deliberately put equal weight on both feet.

When you catch yourself shifting your weight, sit down again.

That's it. Doesn't have to be any amount of time. Two minutes, six minutes, twelve minutes, doesn't matter. As soon as you shift your weight it's a sign of discomfort and you've been standing long enough. Take a load off. Sit.

It's the intermittent change of position that does you good.

And don't forget those little walks.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Speed: "The power of photography—I am now going to clean my desk."

Wednesday Open Mike: Remember Moms

Great gift idea for Mother's Day: B&H has the Apple 9.7" iPad (2017, 32GB, wi-fi only, gold) on sale for only $269. Your Mom is worth it.

I love my iPad.

I have five Apple devices. Of those, by far the worst is the one I have to use most of the day every single day, the 2012 Mac Mini that I use as my work computer. It overheats and crashes frequently and it's not all that powerful when I'm doing things in Photoshop. Why Apple can't make me a competent basic computer in a smallish (but not overly small) box, that doesn't @!#%#$ overheat, is one of those problems that's annoying chiefly because it shouldn't be a problem at all.

The phone (mine's an iPhone 7+) is my favorite "thing" ever, large or small, tech or mechanical or art-object—favorite all-time. Well, actually I liked the 6+ a little better because the button was real, but "same difference" as we said when I was a kid.

I'm writing my book on a 21" iMac that I like a lot (it's not connected to the Cloud and has almost nothing on it), and then I have an older MacBook Air laptop that I don't use except when I'm traveling. Which means, I hardly ever use it.

The device that I need the least is the one I'm most attached to: my iPad.

When I first got it, I couldn't figure out what to do with it. Now it's like Linus's blanket: I take it to bed with me every night, and it's what's in front of me when I eat alone. I use it mainly to watch videos, movies, and snooker (snooker's my no. 1 spectator sport), and I read books on it. It migrates around the house.

It's fantastic to look at pictures on. It's just the right size to hold in your hands, and the Retina screen shows off digital images nearly ideally. I like looking at pictures on it.

You've probably already gotten your Mom a present. Just thought I'd add a suggestion.

Alternately, try flowers!

Mike

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Ernie Van Veen: "The boys and I bought an iPad mini for my wife got Mother's Day five years ago. She's never been a fangirl of tech stuff, but she was, as we say in Australia, 'chuffed' when she got it. She uses it every day for everything from Facebook, to news, blogs, email, and reading, and she takes it in her handbag everywhere we go because it's her first choice for photography. Lately she's been complaining about the limited storage space...I think it may be time for a new one."

Eolake: "I couldn’t agree more about the iPad. Love of my life since the first one. Tip: make a search on Amazon for Tablet Grip. There are many different kinds, and when you hold a tablet in your hand, it makes a big difference. (There are some for phones too.)"

james wilson: "I keep my mini cool with Macs Fan Control. It is a great little app that increases the fan speed in response to processor. I batch process hundreds of images at a time and the fan goes faster and faster to maintain a normal temp. I love my little Mini, no problems."

Mike replies: Thanks. This seems to be working well. It's not clear what the best settings are or what the target temperatures should be, but I was able to get the case cooled down quite a bit and the CPU temps down from 210°F to about 180°F. Hopefully that will help with the crashes, but of course it could be something entirely different causing those.

A Brief Plea to Apple

Boy, does this feel like a grain of sand in the Sahara. It doesn't even amount to a hill of beans. Maybe one bean, at best.

However, we have several readers who work for Apple, so maybe one of them can get this to the right department. A seemingly minor thing, but I'm in dire need of a timed Do-Not-Disturb mode for my phone. I go to meetings of my fellowship most nights, put the phone on Do-Not-Disturb mode when the chairperson prompts me to do so...and then forget to turn Do-Not-Disturb back off again until sometime the next day—when I discover that I've missed one to five calls. Calls can be critical, because one might come from a friend in trouble.

Using the Scheduled mode in Settings kinda works, but kinda not, because the meetings are all at different times. And I still forget to reset it.

Either that, or maybe Apple could provide me with a younger and less absent-minded brain—but maybe even mighty Apple can't afford that.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Ray Hunter: "Perhaps you could ask the chairperson to state a reminder regarding the silenced phones at the close of the meeting, a mirror to that at the beginning of the meeting. I know it isn't a solution to a functional memory, but it's a Band-Aid."

Mike replies: Paul Butzi suggested the same idea privately. I spoke at the meeting last night, and I brought up the phone issue. We did end the meeting with a reminder to people to turn their phones back on. We'll see whether that sticks, but I'm going to try to remember to announce it at the end of meetings.

Michael: "The alarm clock function in your phone can be a big help. I have number of different pills which have to be taken daily, some at specific intervals, some two hours after eating—with nothing ingested for an hour after taking—plus eyedrops on another schedule and such stuff. The entire schedule set as a series of alarms on my phone does more than just remind me to take this or do that. If something interferes to throw me off the clock, I can quickly reset the rest of the day to accommodate the change. If the dislocation is a big one, I can incrementally time-shift my way back to the normal schedule over the next few days. This may seem to have nothing to do with your problem but give it a try. Set an alarm for shortly before meeting time and another for a reasonable interval after it’s over. Turn the phone function off when the first one sounds. When the after-meeting alarm sounds, turn the phone back on. Low tech? Yes, but it works."

John: "You've become too reliant on technology. Leave your phone at home or in the car when you go to meetings."

Mike replies: That presupposes that I can remember to do that, which would functionally never happen, given that I've been trying for about twelve years now, unsuccessfully, to remember to take the canvas shopping bags from the trunk into the store when I go to the grocery.

Learn Something New Every...Post

Well, it's going to take me a long time today to catch up with all the comments from yesterday (sorry; I've got the flu), but I have to say that I learn something with almost every single post here. Who knew that there was a little tiny button on the address bar of my very own browser called "Enter Reader View"—

Which turns this—

Into this—

I spend roughly a fifth of my life in my browser, but I didn't know that*. I can't say there's any site I would consign to the purgatory of Reader View permanently (you can do that)—I want to see their special contents—but whenever I start to get irritated by the whirring and whizzing and blasting and zinging on some random page somewhere, that little pebble of knowledge is likely to be a godsend.

Thanks, specific readers, and thanks, vast brilliant TOP-reader Cloud (VBTRC). TOP readers are seriously the smartest people on the Web. Not just in subset photorelated.

(Another question for the VBTRC: What was that site that every year does an elaborate infographic about the state of the photo/camera industry in the year just past? I've been trying to remember and/or find it for days but I can't come up with it. Does anyone recall?)

As a last word on the "ruination" of the Internet, this quote from Maria Popova of Brain Pickings: "The internet—its beauty is that it's a self-perfecting organism, right? But as long as it’s an ad-supported medium, the motive will be to perfect commercial interest, to perfect the art of the listicle, the endless slideshow, the infinitely paginated article, and not to perfect the human spirit of the reader or the writer." (Thanks to Merle for that.)

We'll continue to be part of the semi-pricipled semi-resistance,  :-)   in favor of the human spirit of the reader and the writer. 

Mike

*Every smart person is aware of the dim reaches of his or her own ignorance. In the beautiful alleged words of Isaac Newton, "I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." (But read this. It's still a beautiful quote.)

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Weekend Special: Alert!

I know it's the weekend and I'm supposed to be working on the book (working title: The Best Digital Camera—with Tidbits on Life, Love, Loving Life, Learning Photography and Knowing Thyself—is that zany enough? It's for those of you who contribute to TOP through my Patreon page, and it will be free to you...when it's done...eventually...), but I felt I should say that today is the LAST DAY of B&H Photo's slammin' Cyberweek Apple sale.

B&H, which I believe is the biggest Apple vendor on the planet apart from Apple itself, is closed now. But it opens again at 5:45 this afternoon, and the sale goes on from there to Midnight.

Especially recommended: the new iPads, and the 13" MacBook Pro. The latter is arguably the best Mac laptop. Despite bitter criticisms of the new Pro laptops, they've been "selling briskly" according to industry analysts, and have contributed to Apple's 15.4% sales increase in the segment year-on-year—although it is still only the fifth largest purveyor of laptops, after HP, Lenovo, Dell, and Asus.

As for the iPads...I read a survey some while ago in which owners reported that the iPad was their least essential Apple device, but the most loved. That is true for Yr. Hmbl. Ed. I couldn't even figure out what to do with the danged thing for the first five months I had it, but now it's like my toddler blankie...I take it up to bed with me every night, and it's the first thing I pack when I travel. It's my main e-reader...I can't even find the charger for my Kindle Paperwhite any more.

One thing it's very useful for: as a dazzlingly beautiful portable viewer for your photographic portfolios. The new oversized 12.9" iPad Pro is stunning in this role (you will need at least a 6-MP camera to show off its talents, heh heh), but they're all good for that, even the little guys. I watch movies on mine, too. Least needed, most loved.

Go, and behold what treasures await ye. We live in the future. Ends when the clock strikes twelve.

Now get back to work, Mike

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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The Mac Isn't Dead Yet

Big (big) news in the computer world is that a trio of Apple execs led by Phil Schiller, the world's highest-paid CMO, held a highly unusual and atypical gathering, with, in Schiller's words, "no black cloth that’s going to come off something right now." An interim, between-product-announcements update press meeting. The context, according to a long but interesting article by Matthew Panzarino at TechCrunch, "is that Apple’s dedication to the Mac has taken a bit of a philosophical beating lately among its core professional customers." And the upshot is: a) yes, Apple still cares about the Mac and its many users; and, b) they're sorry(!) they haven't updated the Mac Pro like they should have.

(Er, Apple's apologizing. You got that.)

Phil Schiller said they would "talk about what’s going on and frankly be a little more transparent with some of the things we’re doing, some of the places we’re going, because our pro users desire that and we care deeply about them and we’re dedicated to communicating well with them and helping them understand what we’re doing and what we’re up to."

(Apple is concerned about transparency(!!). You picked that up too.)

The specific news is that Apple is going to rethink the Mac Pro completely, but it won't be ready this year. (Note that that is not the same as saying it will be ready next year.) This is believed to be the first official confirmation that the Mac Pro will be updated and continued.

Along the way, Apple provided some interesting figures about Macs. The Mac user base is approaching 100 million; Mac sales have a $25 billion run rate and almost qualifies as a Fortune 100 company all by itself; the current percentage of laptop/desktop sales is 80/20; and MacBook Pro sales are up 20% for the first quarter year-over-year.

You can see from those numbers both a) why they don't want to blow it, and b) why they might have been complacent. 

The meeting happened yesterday in Apple's Product Realization Lab at its Cupertino office campus. There were four people from Apple there: Schiller, whose title is Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing; John Ternus, who's in charge of Mac hardware; Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi; and, to moderate and watch the clock (the meeting ran for 90 minutes), Bill Evans of Apple PR. There were only five writers at the table: John Gruber of Daring Fireball; Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch; Lance Ulanoff from Mashable; Ina Fried of Axios; and John Paczkowski from BuzzFeed.

So that chorus of critiques we were referencing and linking to a few weeks ago was being listened to. Check out the articles if you're interested.

Mike
(Thanks to Gordon Lewis and others)

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Gordon Lewis: "I find it hard to believe that Apple has suddenly become infected with humility and transparency. It's more like embarrassment. They haven't upgraded the Mac Pro since 2013. That's a long time to sit still in the IT world. Expecting their pro customers to wait another year or more for an upgrade or other new pro-market products is asking a lot, to say the least. My concern is that by this point, whatever they eventually come out with will be too little, too late."

Jim in Denver: "It's too late. I'm going to buy two PCs in the next week or so. It's been 18 years since I've had a PC, but the Mac product is just not getting things done anymore. Hopefully they hit the ball out of the park and give me a reason to buy another Mac in a couple years."

PaddyC: "It's very good news. And as [John] Gruber reported, they also mentioned they have new iMacs (including a pro-ish one) coming up. I mention the iMacs because I do have some concern over the price of the new Mac Pros whenever they arrive.

"All around great news for this late 2010 Mac Pro user."

Speed: "A competitor has surfaced."

faberryman: "So they will do something sometime unless they change their mind."

psu: "I sort of object to the framing of your headline...the Mac was never dead. Far from it. People were just unhappy that the one they thought they wanted updated was not living a fuller life."

Mike replies: Remember that I'm not a subject-matter expert in this area, I'm just reporting. Or, in this case, not even reporting, just linking to the five articles written by the writers who were at the meeting. The longer version of the quote in my first paragraph, written by Matthew Panzarino, is as follows:

"The context, of course, is that Apple’s dedication to the Mac has taken a bit of a philosophical beating lately among its core professional customers. The narrative is that Apple has not put the resources needed into making the Mac work for pros, has neglected updates and could even be working toward a future where there are no Macs, just iOS devices. That’s the picture you’d get from the think pieces, anyway."

"A future where there are no Macs, just iOS devices" is a future in which the Mac would be dead, right? Maybe I should have used the full quote in order to support the headline.

Michael Perini: "It is interesting and a little sad to note that in Phil Shiller's description of pro users, photographers never enter his mind: 'There’s [sic] music creators, there’s video editors, there’s graphic designers—a really great segment with the Mac. There’s scientists, engineers, architects, software programmers....'"

Computer Note (and Front Flip) (OT)

When is a time capsule not a time capsule? When it's a Time Capsule

Whew! Well that was a narrow thing, and nervvy. I became aware about a week ago that my main backup drive, a 3-TB Apple "Time Capsule," had developed hardware failure of unknown extent and unforseeable consequence; the discovery put me on notice, and on edge. The Time Capsule is  a Wi-Fi router with a hard drive in it for making automatic backups using Time Machine, "Time Machine" being the backup software application that comes with the Apple macOS computer operating system. The two are designed to work together, seamlessly and easily and without bothering anyone, which, when things are going well, they do. Anyway, I received the replacement Time Capsule a few days ago, and yesterday and last night completed copying the data and swapping in the replacement. I can't say that it was a huge risk at any time, but it made me anxious all the same...one of those things that seems large when it's looming over your head...you know. The actual task was less of a hassle than I thought it would be when I was reading the how-to page, which gave me the cold sweats.

I've mentioned before that one of the reasons I got into photography in the 1980s was so I wouldn't have to work with computers. That's gone well.

I give Apple very high marks for customer service. They sent a replacement Time Capsule under warranty (it's possible they won't accept the old one as a return, because I wrote on it to remind myself which cable goes where—if so, that will prove a very expensive mistake), and then a Senior Applecare Advisor walked me through the procedure of making the switch.

...And it worked. I feel like doing a front flip!

...And speaking of which, and while we're off topic, you must see this absurd yet amazing thing:

The remarkable event happens following the two-minute mark, so either skip ahead or hang in there. Granted, he wrecks the truck immediately afterward, but the feat is astonishing all the same.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm going to guess that things like monster trucks and tractor pulls are a peculiarly American thing, and that they don't have this sort of thing in Britain, or Switzerland, or, say, down on the French Riviera. What you might not realize is that the ritual seems equally peculiar and foreign to certain classes of Americans as well. The primary audience is apparently little boys, to whom a monster truck rally includes pretty much everything that's important in life.

Back to work now, Mike.

Mike

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Eric Rose: "Both my brothers-in-law are huge into tractor pulls up here in Alberta. Since they are farmers by trade they just happen to have a few tractors to play with. They prefer the old ones. I think half the fun for them is restoring the old beasts and seeing them beat the new stuff."

Dogman: "I bought a Time Capsule last year at the same time as the new iMac. It replaced my previous backup device...nothing. Nothing since both backup drives on my old Mac Mini died at the same time, likely due to a storm that caused power spikes.

"About three months ago, the Capsule started making loud, screeching noises. It actually woke me up one night the noise was so loud. Being the computer-knowledgeable, handy type, I whacked the damn thing real hard and then laid it down on its side. It stopped screeching so I could sleep but I was pretty sure it was only a temporary fix. Turns out, it quieted down. That made me think it might have quit working but it has been functioning like new while still being silent. At the time, I switched it from automatic backups to manual so I now do backups when I remember it. I thought this might extend the life of the machine but I guess that's debatable. Anyway, all is well for the time being.

"Looking into the issue on the 'Net indicated to me that the noise might have been due to an accumulation of dust around the cooling fan—we live in a house built in the 1930s that has been constantly recirculating dust from the Roosevelt Administration. Whacking the Capsule hard might actually have shook the dust loose and fixed the problem.

"Or not."

Bruce McL: "Carbon Copy Cloner. Buy an external hard drive and clone your Mac HD with Carbon Copy Cloner. I don't say this lightly. I've been a Mac Consultant for many years. Time Machine does a good job of archiving—saving copies of old stuff. CCC does an excellent job of backing up. You can plug a hard drive cloned with CCC into any Mac and run the Mac from that drive. All of your settings, all of your apps, everything will be there and will work. Time Machine does not do that. Restoring a complete system from Time Machine is more difficult. I have three backup hard drives that I clone with CCC. I alternate between two of the drives each week, and the third one is in a safe deposit box in my bank. I swap that out every two or three months. If you want to save a little money, you can buy bare 3.5 inch internal HDs and run them in a Voyager hard drive dock."

Gordon Lewis: "I'm trying hard not to reveal my biases, but what the hell: Are you really at such loose ends in Penn Yan, New York that you've resorted to watching monster truck demos on YouTube? I suspect it's time for a small group of your most devoted readers to knock on your door and deliver a much-needed intervention."

Mike replies: It was clickbait on or near a Jay Leno's Garage video, and I do watch those sometimes when I'm at loose ends. I'm a big fan of Jay Leno...not particularly as a talk show host, and not particularly as a comedian, but as a great car guy.

Computer Update (OT)

Since I have gassed on in the past about my computer shopping, I thought I would post an update.

After several months of running the 13" MacBook Air as my desktop computer, it became obvious that it was having a bit of trouble in that role. The trouble? The MacBook Air can get no air. Its tiny little stylishly miniaturized fan would kick on and dutifully make noise, but, without anywhere for air to flow amidst all the slender slimness and styleyness, the waferlike little wedge would just get hot and make noise.

So I've bought an Apple desktop computer.

This would have been easy, except for the fact that Apple does not really make desktop computers any more. Well, it sort of does, but not for people who want to use separate, third-party monitors like my lovely calibrate-able NEC. They make a Mac Pro which is not pro (more about that in a minute) and a Mac Mini, which was deliberately handicapped in 2014 to be worse than the one it replaced. The Mini in general is intended by Apple for ratty second-class citizens who had previously wandered lost in the purgatory of PC use, so it doesn't have to be any good, right? The desktops Apple wants proper Apple customers to use are the ones that come built into the back of displays...the iMacs. Otherwise, your Hobson's Choice is too little computer, or too much computer.

Since too much computer, from Apple, costs a lot, I ended up buying a late-2012 Mac Mini, my first-ever "used" Macintosh. (I have been using Macintoshes since the very first one in 1984.)

This was not easy. The competition for 2012 Mac Minis is fierce, because so many Apple customers actually need, you know, computers. (They seldom show up as Apple refurbs, for example.) The one I bought (from eBay, ye gads) is thoughtfully maxed out. It is a 2.6 GHz Quad-Core i7 with 16 GB of Crucial RAM and two hard drives, a 1 TB SSD and a 1 TB HDD, and a clean install of Sierra. The solid-state drive is a Samsung SSD 850 EVO, which seems to get good reviews. The other one is the spinning drive that came with the unit when it was new. I paid $1,009.

I also bought this:

...It's a 3D-printed replacement base for 2012 Mac Minis that has ventilation holes around the rim. The company that makes it is called Shapeways. The Internet says it lets the Mini run cooler so the fan kicks on less often. After abusing my poor weak-ass tiny-fan-having MacBook Air for several months it seemed like a good idea.

So I've bought an older computer to replace a newer computer. Then again, the Cubs won the World Series, Voldemort is president, and it was 71°F in February in Upstate New York the other day, so clearly we are in the Apocalypse and everything is backwards and upside down. So why not?

Why I'm grumpy about Apple
I'm a longtime Apple fan and I love Apple, but it makes me grumpy now.

There are three apocalyse-type signs that Apple has lost the narrative when it comes to stand-alone desktop computers. One was that the 2014 (current) Mini was deliberately crippled compared to its predecessor. Another is that Apple hasn't bothered to update the Mini and the Pro in years...not high (enough) profit areas; they're not that interested.

The third was the "trashcan" Mac Pro. You've seen it—a styley, miniaturized black cylinder, the price of which includes Veblen-Good inflation. I've heard it was good video workstation when it came out, but as a "pro" computer it's just wrong. Not a bad product, just one that does not take the preferences of its target market into account.

...And gives them something they do not need. "Pro" is a marketing word that has been applied to everything and anything (I think the most ridiculous application of it I've seen was to toilet paper, but there are more examples almost as bad), but the reason it has resonance is that the real meaning of "pro" is that it signifies that the people who use the thing, whatever the thing is, have a job to do, and have chosen the most versatile, capable, and effective tool available to do it with. The previous Mac Pro was oversized and came in a utilitarian aluminum box with big honking handles on it for moving it around. It was highly configurable and customizable; it had lots of room inside for whatever you wanted to put in it as well as for a big fan and liberal amounts of airflow. You could do anything you wanted to it, and hence with it. It was designed to be easy to repair.

In other words, a versatile, capable, effective, user-centered tool for making a living with.

By the time the 2013 Mac Pro came around, however, Apple had become a design- and lifestyle-oriented company, and it made the Mac Pro fashionable and petite. Apple also priced it out the wazoo to help the "Pro" appeal to wealthier customers, as also befits Hermès scarves and Louis Vuitton handbags.

Which, you'll note, are not called pro scarves or pro handbags. Maybe they should have ditched the "Pro" moniker and renamed it the Apple LaApple, after the Ferrari LaFerrari. It lost the workin'-for-a-livin' gestalt if you ask me.

So what about people like me who just need a computer? Well, I am supposed to use an iMac. There's no basic Apple computer in the middle that doesn't come attached to a display.

So how will this go?
Call me pessimistic, but I don't see this latest move of mine going well. I'm bad with computers, which is one reason why I've always used Macs in the first place. Buying an old computer as a new computer is something I've done only once before, when I bought a Mac Classic in 1991 or so. At least that "old" computer (basically an SE "Mark II") was a computer I could buy new. It was just old in that it was retro. That one turned out not to be a good buying decision. It lasted me only two years, when I switched to a Quadra 605. Buying a "new" computer without AppleCare is probably a fool's errand for me. I suppose in a few years I'll be back to an iMac again, with my tail between my legs, having bought myself a lot of hassle and lost a passel of cash in the meantime. Maybe I should have bought an iMac; after all, they're what I've used since the first one came out, and I fit the demographic. I just always wanted to own "separates," is all.

My bad, I guess, for wanting to think different.

Mike
(Thanks to Dave Reichert)

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Harold: "You're not alone in your thoughts about Apple 'Pro.' For example Lloyd Chambers and Marco Solorio."

Stephen Scharf: "Honestly, I think the 27" IMac is the way to go. Back in 2014, when I needed to replace by 10-year-old Mac Pro G5, I debated dropping six large for the new Pro, so in late 2014 I rather reluctantly bought the maxed out 27" 5K Retina iMac with 16B RAM and 3 TB Fusion Drive. I've been very happy with my decision; the iMac is fast and fully supports as a second display the same 27" NEC PA-series we both use. I still use my NEC for color-critical work, soft proofing, and printing, but the 5K display has completely ruined me for wanting to look at anything else. The display profiles up beautifully, is very close in color accuracy to the NEC, and the screen is to die for. Furthermore, a profiled display is stable with little drift. Looking at my images close at full size on this display is like looking at a 27" chrome. Lloyd Chambers has done testing of all the various Macs and says the Late 2015 5K Retina iMac is the best computer presently on the market for photography: the display gamut is even larger (P3 vs. sRGB), and the SSD drive enables the computer to be blazing fast when loaded up with 64 GB of RAM."

Edd Fuller: "It is quite amusing that you take a shot at 'ratty second-class citizens who had previously wandered lost in the purgatory of PC use,' while describing your experience with Apple, which sounds very unsatisfactory, not to say purgatorial."

Mike replies: Well, actually I was characterizing (or lampooning) Apple's own attitude toward its target market for the Mini, which is PC users who are switching.

Hugh Conacher: "This conversation is being had in all sorts of forums at the moment. Many of the video pros that I am associated with are moving to PC, as Mac no longer meets their needs."

shelley Stallings: "I have owned over 20 different Apple computers in the last 30 years. I did not need that many, just loved their products and often could not resist when they dropped a new one on the market. Most (90%) have been excellent machines matched with great OS. My favorites were the G5 Mac Pro aluminum tower, the first titanium MacBook, and my current MacBook Air combined with 27" iMac for desktop work. I have never been interested in the current black cylinder, but would buy one used at a great price just to add to my collection of 30th Anniversary, Cube, original Tangerine iBook, first titanium MacBook, first bondi blue iMac and Power Computing Mac clone, along with 14 others, some Apple II models including GS. Can't see why a 27" iMac wouldn't work fine for you Mike. You can use your favorite monitor with it along with the iMac monitor. Bang for buck is good and it is the system platform you are familiar with."

Rick Baumhauer: "I understand your frustration on some level, given your preference for your expensive monitor, but I'm not sure that buying used now was a better bet than waiting a bit longer to see what shakes out. We should be seeing (at minimum) new iMacs soon—possibly March, June at the latest. There may also be Mac mini and/or Mac Pro updates, as well—the latter can't be allowed to languish much longer (rumors suggest that the Trash Can had reliability issues that are forcing an accelerated rethink).

"I don't think it's quite fair to say that the 2014 mini was 'deliberately handicapped.' The issue was really a combination of Intel's complicated chip lineup at the time and Apple's desire to the keep the (low-margin for them) mini's production simple. In short, Intel didn't offer both dual-core and quad-core chips that shared the same socket design and also both offered the best integrated GPUs that Intel offered at the time. They would have had to: use two different logic board designs (not going to happen for production reasons); gone all quad-core (no good for lower-end pricing); saddled the lower-end dual-core models with slower GPUs; or drop the quad-core models in favor of dual-core across-the-board that all used Intel's better GPU. For the target market, they made the best choice they could. Unfortunately, Intel's following generation of processors didn't address this issue—the chips that used the same socket as the 2014 mini were still all dual-core, and didn't give enough of a boost to justify an update for a (comparatively) low-volume, low margin product.

"The 2014 mini did offer several meaningful updates: 802.11ac Wifi, Thunderbolt 2, lower power consumption, faster SSDs, elimination of the FW800 port, support for 4k over HDMI or Thunderbolt/Mini-displayport. For multi-threaded workloads, though, the lack of a quad-core option does sting. Unfortunately, that's a finite market that you happen to fall into.

"The Mac Pro situation has dragged on so long that there is clearly an issue beyond the usual economics of that line. The most plausible explanation is that the Trash Can was intended to be amortized over several years, but a reliability issue has forced them to go back to the drawing board much, much earlier than intended. The upshot of that is that we may get something closer to what its target market really wants—something more flexible and utilitarian. Time will tell."

Mike replies: Great comment. That explains a lot. Thanks Rick.

Wednesday Open Mike: I Just Need It For Work, Mr. Cook Sir

Here's my problem: Tim's Apple doesn't seem to make the desktop computer I need. Seems strange to say.

Here's my concern: that maybe Apple has cast itself as a "lifestyle" company to such an extent that it has forgotten that some of us need computers for, um, work. (Sounds so grubby, doesn't it?)

To some degree, computers are appliances. Lifestyle is well and good, but I still need a computer. I worry that Apple is gradually losing the basic mission.

If you want to pick your own monitor (I chose an NEC PA272W which I love, by the way), you have to pick the high road or the low road—a half-crippled Mac Mini marketed for "switchers" with everything soldered in (the resellers are still trading upgraded 2012 models back and forth), or the svelte, design-y overkill of the current stratospherically-priced Pro (you know, the one that is too small, that came after the one that was too big).

I don't need twelve cores, but four would be nice. Could the amount of memory and a separate graphics card possibly be my decision? A box big enough to fit a proper fan into would work well for me. A bunch of ports just because, ach, well, I need 'em (sorry, I'm so ashamed) is probably too much to ask for. Could I have a card reader? Could I put in the memory myself, you know, like I did the '90s and the aughts? Can I have my SuperDrive back? (I can actually hear Jony Ive thundering, "'E wants whot?!?")

"Please Sir, can I have my SD card reader on the front,
where I can actually reach it?"

If you ask me, Apple should ditch the Mini, ditch the Pro, and put out a lineup of three medium-sized desktops, good better and best, all user-configurable, all reasonably sized, all non-crippled, all user-upgradeable. It's not beyond the limits of the technically feasible.

I'll take the middle one. (You know, the one there isn't one of right now without leaving the Apple universe.) Some people just need a computer for their work, is all. In addition to all the stuff for their lifestyle...stuff that I have also bought, mind you.

Quadra 605 of 1993. 2.9" H x 12.2" W x 15.3" D. 8.8 lbs.
Like that.

Can't I get a medium-sized box (maybe the same size as the old Quadra 605 of sainted memory), with user-replaceable memory and space for more than one user-replaceable hard drive? I don't need it to occupy the least possible amount of space. (In fact it would be great if I could set the monitor on top of it.) I'd like it to not overheat. It would be nice if it were more or less affordable. If it could be quiet that would be fabulous, because...I'm listening to music. At home. Where I work.

Please?

I promise I won't flash it around in public. I just need it for work.

Mike

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B. Collinson: "Your plea to Jony and Tim's Apple is part of a growing chorus of voices. I love my Macs (we have four of them in the house), but increasingly find the road ahead to be foggy and concerning. I have previous generation 13" MacBook Pro, and I cannot even begin to fathom replacing it with the new MacBook Pro (touch strip aside, I want my ports back thank you). The total consolidation of connectivity for a 'rofessional' laptop into a single USB-C connector is simply ridiculous. That, and the fact that my Mac Minis need surgery to give them SSDs (which they desperately need) leaves me feeling much the way you do. Sigh."

Frank Petronio: "I haven't followed all of your Mac posts but the 27" iMac 5K is the best computer I've had in a lifetime of digital imaging (well since 1989). And a small MacBook Air or larger iPad (with a Bluetooth keyboard) would be perfect travel companions. Buy it once, max out the RAM, replace in 5–8 years. Well made, reliable and long-lived. Very secure unless you're a politician. I don't see what the issue is?"

Mike replies: You're right, I probably should have just bought another iMac (I bought the earliest one and have used them ever since—I'm smack dab in the middle of the target market for iMacs). But the way my new home is configured, I wanted a way to either lock up the main computer or take it along with me when I travel, for security reasons.

Peter Wright: "I think just about every serious photographer, or person who uses Macs for work will sympathize. I have a fully specified Mac mini (with the NEC PA 272W), a MacBook Air, an iPad Pro, iPhone, Apple TV and router. Everything works well for the most part, and if I have any problems Apple service is good at sorting things out. However...I have no issues with the 'lifestyle' products, as you call them, but the Mac Mini and Air are not exactly what I want, and nothing on offer at Apple seems to be a reasonable replacement.

"If the PC universe can get its act together with respect to reliability and usability, I may take a serious look at their offerings, especially for the desktop.

"My parish priest (who is definitely not a techie) decided recently to donate, with my help, one of his computers to a Syrian family who have recently arrived in town. (He mostly uses an old MacBook Pro for office work, and an iPad.) He decided to donate his PC (with a quad-core i7, 1TB SSD, and 16GB RAM), but it was a close call. He explained to me in a tone of voice that he would normally reserve for someone drifting into heresy, that he thinks Apple may be beginning to lose its way. If even my priest can see the problem then, perhaps its time to think of the Bible: Book of Daniel, chapter 5, where the writing appears on the wall, and recall what happens next!"

Ergonomic Keyboards (OT)

Alas, I have to return the beautiful Déck mechanical keyboard, the Francium Pro. I love it—the keys are made of material that doesn't show wear or get shiny; the letters are molded in with a different color of plastic (called "two-shot" molding) so they can never wear off (the irritating failure mode the old Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 that I've used for years); the base is a metal plate and the thing is beautifully solid; the Cherry MX Brown key switches offer a wonderful, subtle feel; and of course it's backlit, with white light as an option, which is the reason I bought it.

But apparently I have to relearn every six or seven years that I can't use straight standard keyboards. Honestly, if I had to use, say, a laptop to write on, I would be forced to quit writing. The problem is RSI (repetitive strain injury), in my case aggravated by ulnar flexion, or ulnar deviation, which is a cocking of the wrist toward the little finger, and pronation, which is what you call it when you have to hold your hand flat, palm down, instead of at a natural angle, as your hands might fall if you held a basketball between your knees and placed your hands on both sides of the top of the ball. (You can find some illustrations of wrist positions here.) After spending four days typing on the lovely Déck, I spent the weekend in agony—seriously, I went around holding my right wrist and popping ibuprophen like candies (no, actually I followed the dosage instructions. But my hand was in enough pain that I looked forward to each Advil hit).

The key to solving ulnar flexion is simply to split the keyboard and arrange the halves in whatever way doesn't hurt you.

Pronation is usually solved by "tenting"—imagine if you broke the keyboard in half and angled each half upward like the sides of a pup tent:

This is a Kinesis Freestyle2 split keyboard tented to a rather radical angle, 20°, using an expensive accessory called an "Ascent."

One size does not fit all
Of course, the problem with ergonomic keyboards in general is that not everybody needs the same thing. Right-handers, for example, are sometimes bothered by having to locate the mouse far away from their body because of the "tenkey," or numberpad, affixed to the right side of full-sized keyboards. That doesn't bother me because I'm left-handed. And my left hand never hurts; the problem is all in my right hand and arm. I have a slight physical affliction, a large so-called "port wine stain" vascular birthmark on my right hand, arm, and shoulder that seems to be associated with stiffness and tightness on the right side of my body (I notice it even in my feet, far away from the birthmark. A masseur who once worked me over as a birthday present told me, "your right side is about ten times tighter than your left side"). My left hand has never given me any trouble when typing.

So there's no such thing as an "ergonomic keyboard" as a single distinct thing—rather, there are all kinds of different designs that represent different peoples' attempts to solve the problem. For example, both of these are ergonomic keyboards:

The top one is something called the Truly-Ergonomic Mechanical Keyboard, and below that is the formidably odd but apparently effective Kinesis Advantage2. I assume you'd have to be a touch typist to stand a chance of accommodating to the Kinesis Advantage2, and I'm not a touch typist. I suppose it's not quite right to call myself a "hunt-and-peck" typist, because I can usually type without looking at the keyboard very much and I can manage 45 words per minute on a good day, but I learned to type the wrong way and now it's ingrained.

Should you use an ergonomic keyboard, even if you don't have problems? Well, talk to someone who does have problems. It's like being a normal weight—would you like to stay that way, or would you be fine with gaining a hundred and fifty pounds? With smoking, I used to tell my son and his friends when they were kids that by far the easiest way to quit is to not start in the first place. If you don't have any physical problems from sitting at a desk and typing, I'd say (after a weekend of constant annoying pain in my wrist), for heaven's sake try to keep it that way.

Recommended
The keyboard most likely to help most people is the Microsoft Sculpt. Mild in every parameter with just enough of every accommodation to help in every way—and thus make the desired difference—a Sculpt would be especially good for people who don't yet have problems. It's not expensive as ergonomic keyboards go; it's good-looking (although the pad discolors after time, some reviewers report—something Microsoft might quietly fix, or, for all I know, might already have fixed); it has a separate, detached numberpad and even includes an ergonomic mouse; and it shouldn't be too hard to get used to.

The best for me right now would probably be the Matias Ergo Pro, available for Mac or Windows and with regular or low-force keys. It's a fully split board with mechanical keys and adjustable orientation. I don't know, though. It's expensive, and I'm a bit sore, literally, so I guess I'll stop poking fate with a stick and just stick to what I'm used to.

As a reviewer I give high marks to the lovely Déck Francium Pro gaming keyboard. It's sweet. Love those Cherry MX Browns. I just can't use it. YMMV.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Gordon Lewis: "This is in no way to contradict the truth or importance of what you wrote, but I have more issues with mice than keyboards. Although I can and do type comfortably all day on an Apple keyboard, Apple mice, for example, are naught but well-disguised instruments of mockery and torture. Other mouse designs assume I am right-handed, which I find so presumptuous as to be insulting. My pointing device of choice is a Logitech Trackman Marble Mouse: sturdy, ambidextrous, programmable, and comfortable."

Robin: "Unfortunately I know all too well about these issues, being an 'early adopter' of voice solutions thanks to an RSI that almost ruined my life. As an indication of when this was...a sound card for digital input cost ten thousand dollars. I could write a chapter but really only want to say a big THANKS! for even bringing this issue to light. The more people who read an article like this, the more who might save their bodies and careers.

"Since mice are evil, my biggest problem has been buying a good touchpad. The old Cirque ones simply are not built as well as they used to be (my first lasted a decade). And they do not work as reliably with Windows 10, for whatever reason. My days are filled with frustration and knowing that things were better in the 'nineties is really grating."

The Inevitability of Unintended Consequences (OT)

...Does anyone know how to prevent fly-by-night foreign merchandisers from placing unwanted advertisements as "invitations" on your Apple iCloud-linked personal Calendar?

Sheesh. I hope I don't end up having to disable my Calendar, but I will if this can't be stopped. Unacceptable.

Mike

P.S. Speaking of computers, my maiden voyage of using the laptop as a main computer was concluded when I got back from my Thanksgiving trip. Seemed to work fine. It was easy to detach it, carry it along, and then reconnect it. Not as easy as if it had one USB-C connector running to an OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock, but not much more difficult either. Meanwhile, my main backup is my 3TB Time Capsule, which I put in a safe when I travel. My main problem now is that my laptop, which I bought to be small and portable, is not quite powerful enough to be my main computer. It does most things fine, but is slow with Photoshop.

Do you think thieves will believe the sign I put on the safe that says "Nothing in here but papers and hard drives"? In fact, there is nothing in the safe but papers and hard drives. But then, thieves might be the last people to believe that anyone else is honest. Reminds me of the fable from '80s New York City about the guy who put a sign on his windshield saying "NO RADIO" and came back to find his driver's side window broken and a note on the seat that said "Just checking."

Mike

UPDATE: Three good solutions to Calendar spam:

Ars Technica
New York Times
MacSparky

Thanks to Richard Ripley, Don Craig, Jeff Buttel, and other readers who suggested these resources and others.

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Kent: "Yup. Received a Black Friday Ray-Ban offer on my calendar here too. The methods mentioned above are about all you can do at this point. Apple: get on it please! I have a very strong, visceral negative reaction to spam that is probably not doing my nervous system any good. The idea that some a**hole is using devious means to hijack my personal computer/communication system, which I most certainly did not purchase for their benefit, for nefarious scam-marketing purposes makes my blood boil. I am not a violent person, but spam unfailingly conjures up a fantasy about shoving computer equipment where the sun don't shine, sideways, without lubrication. Absolute scum.

"Just wanted to get that off my chest. Post or not, at your discretion. I feel better already...."

Mike replies: That made me feel better too. 

The New NEC Monitor

Hub of far-flung TOP Empire. Purpose: Take over known Universe, install Butters as Emperor. Result: Things would be better

Miracle of miracles! I did manage to get the new monitor all set up, and most things seem to be working more or less right. Although, as you can see, wire management still leaves something to be desired. The subwoofer doesn't help. And the fact that the desk goes up and down is a complication.

Key to the illustration:

1. Pencil sharpener that unlike most pencil sharpeners actually works well
2. Powerex AA battery charger
3. PS Audio PowerPlant AC power regenerator inherited from another hobby
   
4. Jesper sit-stand desk that I'm now scared to raise(!)
5. Verilux daylight-spectrum desklamp for ambient light in back of the monitor at night, and for evaluating prints
6. External My Passport 2TB hard drive where I keep images and music—uh-oh! No port for this  :-(
7. AudioEngine A5+ speakers. The fancier ones are wireless.
8. 2014 13" MacBook Air that I guess is now my main computer. Why? Because I have it
   
9. Magic Mouse 2 and Allsop mousepad with gel-filled wrist rest
10. Spiffy spanking-new NEC PA272w-BK-SV monitor recommended to me by several readers (thanks!), avec hood
11. Microsoft Natural 4000 ergonomic keyboard
    
12. AudioEngine S8 Subwoofer
13. Attention hound
14. 1930s-style office chair made by Horning Furniture in Penn Yan
15. Epson P600 printer, which thank goodness is wireless. The other printer too.
    

As I suspected, this all took me more or less all weekend. What you can't see are the dishes sitting undone in the sink and the cardboard-box carnage cluttering the living room. All in good time.

For now I guess I'm using the laptop as my computer. I copied all the data on it to two separate hard drives, wiped it clean, then did a data transfer wirelessly from the Time Capsule (a combination router and 3 TB wireless backup drive, if you're not familiar with Apple stuff) to create a replicant of the previous TOP command center. Then I upgraded to Sierra, the latest operating system. Said hello to Siri. She said "Hello."

The monitor looks glorious, but of course it remains to be seen if it helps with making prints. The proof will be in that pudding, ha ha. I've always had sort of a fatalistic attitude about color management; it's herding cats if you ask me. One small thing that I'm finding totally brilliant is that on the NEC ‹you can change color spaces with a touch of a button, so I can use sRGB when I'm working on the web and the calibrated profile when I'm working on photographs, etc.

You have to download the manual and the SpectraView (SV) software. I haven't done the calibration yet—waiting till darkfall. Also still to do: you can set the monitor to automatically brighten or dim based on ambient light readings. You set the limits yourself based on what looks right to you in different conditions. If, that is, you can figure out how to make the settings, which I haven't yet. Since my porch where I work goes from very bright on sunny days to very dark at night with the shades down, I'm going to need to work at that a little bit.

The old iMac is going in for a thorough cleaning and will be getting a new hard drive, at which time I will have to figure out what in the heck to do with it.

So I guess this is it...the new hub of the mighty and far-flung TOP empire. I've barely scratched the surface of what this monitor can do, but it is mindblowing. If you want a taste, check out the review at Tom's Hardware. Holy techy argot, Batman.

Mike

ADDENDUM: To clarify: I only print at night, when the ambient light is very consistent, with the monitor set at a consistant brightness. So the windows aren't an issue, and neither is progressive brightness.

UPDATE Sunday evening: All calibrated. As you know if you've ever calibrated a monitor, it's very anticlimactic—just extremely easy. You launch the program, set the sensor in place like la:

Then you just launch the program, position the colorimeter, and let it do its thang. Five or ten minutes and Bob's your uncle. It's almost...disappointing. You spend hundreds of dollars and that's all there is to it? Of course what's going on behind the scenes is extremely sophisticated.

Here's a shot of the trapdoor in the top of the hood that lets you drop the colorimeter into place without disturbing the hood. (For some reason I like the trapdoor.)

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

Calibrate!
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Featured Comments from:

Steve Rosenblum: "You audiophiles! Looks like you have both a sub-woofer and a woofer in that top photo!  ;-)  . The woofer looks rather fuzzy, too."

Tom Kwas: "Number 13 is the most valuable and vital piece of equipment!"

Scott: "I don't think the proof has ever been in the pudding. I think the proof has always been in the eating of said pudding."

ann peterson: "Butters is very photogenic!"

Mike replies: Thanks. Very charismatic too. He makes friends wherever he goes.

The Fateful Plunge

Well then, I've done it. Yikes, and gulp!

My first three computers were all-in-ones, successive versions of the basic original Macintosh. The last of those, called the "Classic," didn't last very long—it was conservative, casting backwards, and progress was afoot in the computing Universe. After that came an early Powerbook, which was revolutionary in its own way but still an all-in-one. As screens got larger, I began to wish for what by then was standard in the PC world but persistingly antithetical for Apple: a separate computer and monitor. Serious and luxurious.

Can't recall when that started. I know I very much wanted a Power Mac G4 Cube, the first of Steve Jobs' design-driven CPUs. It was very expensive—the hazy figure of $2,000 comes to mind—and of course I didn't already own a display. As the Cube came out in the Summer of 2000, that means I've been wanting a separate computer and monitor for at least 16 years.

And I've finally done it! Encouraged by certain friends who are now on the hotseat (no they're not—just kidding), and after weeks of research into the arcana of displays (I don't quite understand half of some of the reviews), I gulped hard, took the plunge, and ordered an NEC PA272w-BK-SV. That's the one with the included colorimeter. (The ColorMunki Photo with any monitor is also a very powerful contender.)

A nice thing happened, though. Just as I was getting set to order the NEC at $1,549—literally that minute—the screen refreshed and the price dropped by $300.

I have high hopes for the NEC's non-glare screen

It's the Rolls-Royce option, at least for me. But it's a business expense, and certainly my computers give me back more than my money's worth—my current one has been on and working all day almost every day since 2010 (I do mean almost every day—one year I worked 352 days. I even packed it into the car and took it on vacation with me one year—Lulu and the giant box of the 27" iMac shared the back seat). But it's always tough to part with such vasty bergs of cash.

So I have thirty days to figure out if a) it's an improvement when printing with the Epson P600 and b) if I can figure out how it works. Meanwhile, I still haven't decided what to do about a new computer; given the expense of the monitor, I'm back to looking at Mac Minis. Along the winding way of my long life with Macs, though, I've learned that trying to get away on the cheap can sometimes be false economy; I'll be wary of that.

More updates anon, if you care.

Mike
(Big thanks to all of you who contribute to TOP in any way!)

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

See past the glare
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Antonis: "I have spent a year with this exact monitor (and spent $30 more than you!) and I can assure you it's a pleasure to look at all day long—and, yes, to work with as well. My calibration setup has to anticipate how my Photoshop files will print not just on my trusty old Epson 3800, but, crucially, in the pages of the New York Times and such for movie ads. I don't miss my old Eizo and saw no reason to spring for the latest from that brand. If you are looking to buy a Mac 'on the cheap' don't neglect to look at refurbs from Apple or OWC."

The Apple Engineer

An Apple engineer talks about the new 2016 Macbook Pro.

-

-

[This won't be as funny if you speak Spanish. The speaker is Juan Joya, commonly known as "El Risitas," which Google-translates as "The Giggles." He's reportedly a well-known character in Spain, famous for his infectious laugh. —Ed.]

Mike
(Thanks to Nic Mainferme)

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Andrew Hughes: "'Get used to it, Fanboy'—LMAO!"

Mike replies: That was my favorite line too. Made me LOL.

Hackin...ACHOO!

I actually spent the last 24 hours researching how to build a Hackintosh. Which is absurd. I am absolutely the last person on the planet who should be building any kind of computer. Well, okay, not the absolute last person. But let's just say that in that category, "people who should build their own computer," I do not rank in the top two billion.

On the other hand, it was interesting. And in case I didn't already know it, it indicates I am experiencing mild FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) about replacing my computer. Partly that's because I'm both a full-time blogger and a photographer who prints, and because I mostly work at a desk but need to travel sometimes.

And who stands with Occam.

And my income tracks with the graph of camera sales.

So I do have, um, highly individualized needs.

As to the new MacBook Pro, well, all right...so I'd have to go back to using a card reader. Not that big a deal really. It's just so sleek and efficient having it built in. Card readers are inherently kludgey and inelegant.

Looking in from outside at Apple's product lineup, it seems to me like phones and tablets have become big product categories, and iMacs and laptops have expanded while the Mac Pro and Mac Mini categories have withered and shrunk. Minis are crippled now and the black-ashcan Mac Pro has not been a marketing success (minimalist, high-style design that values compactness and power users of computers do not go together gladly), and there's nothing in the middle for those who want to use high-quality third-party calibrated monitors or who like gaming and video...the other people who still like and use desktop computers.

What would really make the most sense would be a rationalization of Apple's desktop lineup. Consolidate Mini and Pro and add one or two models in the middle, each tailored for specific markets. A basic, inexpensive, dual-core, soldered-RAM Mini-like tiny box for switchers and light duty users; a bigger but still sleek box for photographers and graphic artists (self-serving suggestion, maybe, but hey, that's legacy for Mac—a heritage core constituency, if you'll pardon the pun); maybe a gaming tower; and a large, highly configurable and expandable, well-cooled, heavy-duty balls-to-the-wall box for the true power users.

As I've said, I don't know much about computers. I just like to advocate for photographers getting what they need to do their work.

And if I ever do buy all the parts for a Hackintosh, I can tell you with a high degree of certainty what would happen next The boxes would sit in a heap in the corner until the day I died, silently mocking me on a daily basis.

As Dana Carvey once said, imitating George H.W. Bush, not gunna do it!

Mike
(Thanks to Scott and Chuq Von Rospach)

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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The Good and Bad of the New MacBook Pro

As I'm in the unusual (and uncomfortable) position of buying a new computer, I watched the entire Apple presentation yesterday. First time I've ever watched an Apple Event, although of course I've been aware of them. First I need to say in passing that I find corporate events culturally bizarre. It's positively weird to watch corporate types recite scripted bonhomie while acting fake-casual, and the ever-present fealty to the Almighty Corporate Interest plays like a thick layer of gooey treacle over a thin steely core of ruthlessness. But I'll move on.

My first impressions: I liked the idea of the Touch Bar much more than I thought I would. There's a whole category these days of "things that look like gimmicks but actually (surprisingly) aren't," and it's possible the Touch Bar will fit into that category. I was enthused when they got to the Photoshop part of the Touch Bar presentation—it's true that you have to know Photoshop in the first place in order for the Touch Bar to make it quicker and handier to use, and I'm not sure I qualify, but it sure looks like the Touch Bar might indeed actually be a smart implementation of touchscreen technology in a laptop. I sure don't want to have to touch the screen of a laptop all the time, that's for sure. And when the Touch Bar migrates to desktop keyboards it will make even more sense. I'm not attracted to the idea of the Microsoft Surface Studio's whole-screen touchscreen at all.

So the big new feature looks good.

...So now on to the bad, and let me first firmly put the reins on my scorn so that it doesn't wither and blast the landscape in all directions.

The new MacBook Pros don't have SD card slots.

What?!?

Really. Apple's addlepated, brain-dead, counter-productive insistence on design nicety and the tiresome modernist spare-and-clean design aesthetic above user convenience, usability, and plain old functionality has been a consistent if intermittent failing of the brand over many years. I thought it would die with Steve, because I thought it was his self-indulgent idiosyncratic peccadillo. But no. This is possibly the worst instance yet—Jobs' indulgent idiosyncratic peccadillo raised to the level of corporate policy. (I'm getting exercised, so whoa boy.) But one big reason I've liked my last two large-screen iMacs, and definitely a big part of the appeal of my MacBook Air laptop, is that they all have built-in SD card slots—it's been especially convenient not to have to carry card readers when I travel like in the bad old days. And one big reason I haven't replaced my mid-2010 27" iMac is because they relocated the SD card slot to the back, which is exactly where you don't want it to be, and I know myself well enough to know that I would be annoyed anew every single time I had to stand up and crane my neck over the monitor to see the back of the machine just to insert or remove a card. Just like I'm annoyed every single time I have to swap a USB cable on my iMac because Apple thinks it's cool somehow to not give you enough USB ports (you're supposed to buy a Mac Pro if you want enough ports).

Well, I guess I don't have to worry about any of that any more.

Moreover, Apple's stupid design-first mantra is actually back-asswards anyway, because the cleaner the machine, the more your desk, not to mention your luggage, is cluttered with dongles and peripherals and other shit. I can see this working OK for a desktop unit, though, where you can use the USB-C/Thunderbolt port to connect to something that's actually useful for connectivity like a dock, even though that completely defeats the purpose of the alleged simplicity they're going for. But really, when you're on the road, traveling, the last thing you want to do is to have to carry along and keep track of a bunch of different connector cables and dongles. And what if you encounter a situation while traveling that you don't happen to be carrying the proper dongle for? That's another reasons why laptops should have maximal connectivity and why maximal connectivity is good.

I'm not an expert on computers, but as a photographer I see this as a major fail on Apple's part. You might disagree, so go ahead, tell me about that.

Sorry, haven't been very good with those reins. Don't worry, I'll calm down eventually.

Anyway, I'm leaning towards getting one of the just-discontinued MacBook Pros, because they have the features I actually need and use in the situations in which I need a laptop, whereas the new ones don't and would just, yes, continually annoy and irritate me anew every single damn time I travel with my expensive laptop and a camera, which is, by the way Apple, how I travel.

Sheesh to the nth. Apple! Annoyed photoblogger out.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Featured Comments from:

Jeff (partial comment): "Blueberries good; Apples bad...."

Dave Kosiur: "Lloyd Chambers agrees with you (and many other commenters), although he is ordering the 15-inch MBP."

Mike replies: I see Lloyd was even more acerbic than I was.

Alan Barnard: "The main reason I would upgrade to a new MacBook Pro is the inclusion of the four Thunderbolt 3 ports. These ports offer many advantages to photographers, including wicked fast data transfer for large RAW and 4K video files, the ability to drive multiple 4K/5K external monitors, and fast charging. Additionally, they are backward-compatible to almost every existing standard. All one needs to do is buy a few new cables; no need for dongles. What's not to love? More info here."

D: "Funny, I just came across this tweet about how Apple's fastest growing product category is adapter dongles."

John Kauk: "I suspect that the average Apple customer's camera is the iPhone, so there's no need for a card slot for the vast majority of them. Since my primary camera uses CF cards, carrying a card reader (or two since the 1DX added CFast) is habit now, so I'm not too worked up about the change. I'm geeky enough to be interested in how the Touch Bar will improve the user experience, and my son needs a newer computer, so I ordered the new MBP and the required adapters. Onward and upward!  ;-)  "

Kostas: "The irony is that if you go and buy a new MacBook Pro and an iPhone now, you cannot connect them (you need to buy an extra cable or adapter), but you can connect the iPhone to a Microsoft Surface."

Kent (partial comment): "Mike said 'shit'...this must be serious."

Richard Howe (partial comment): "Dysfunctional elegance is just another form of ornamentation—and much more annoying than the traditional kind. Somebody should get that message across to Apple."

The Empire Strikes Back

I really shouldn't use "Star Wars" references. I never saw any of those movies save the original and don't know the plot.

Of course, the same could be said for the PC world (PC as in non-Apple personal computer, not political correctness or Prontor-Compur or polycarbonate or Panama City or a nationalistic political party in Wales called Plaid Cymru). I don't know from PCs, having never used one.

Still, we talk about Macs often enough around here that it's only fitting we give the old Empire its due. Microsoft has announced the Surface Studio, an iMac clone with a 28-inch touchscreen. The screen and its enclosure is a mere half inch thick, and folds to about the pitch of a drafting table using a "zero gravity hinge." Looks very neat.

It's Microsoft's first Surface-branded desktop. For other details, I'm sure you know where to look. Price will range from $3,000 to $4,200 and supplies will be "severely" limited at first. It can be pre-ordered now at Microsoft.

Mike
(Thanks to John Camp and Robin Pywell)

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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JohnMFlores: "I spent 30 minutes with it yesterday."

Scott: "I switched from Mac to Windows a few years ago and I am loving Windows 10. My touchscreen laptop with a 360-degree hinge is fantastic. It has four main hinge positions: laptop mode, stand mode, tent mode, and tablet mode. Stand mode is perfect for the sofa. Go Empire!"

kirk tuck: "I'd rather use a slide rule and a typewriter than have to deal with the ultra-crappy Windows OS. I've got no time for the tenth or twentieth generation of crash-o-matic software."

Bruce McL: "I’m mostly a Mac guy, but I think it is important to mention some PC buying advice from the Joanna Stern, Personal Technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal: If you want to buy a Windows computer, buy Signature Edition PCs from Microsoft’s store. Signature Edition computers do not have junkware, adware, trialware, bloatware, shovelware, crapware, call it what you want. This makes any Signature Edition Windows computer significantly faster and more reliable than the same computer bought elsewhere. The computers do come with Microsoft’s Windows Defender software, which is not perfect but not too bad at malware and virus protection. It’s also free for life.

"I was listening to Joanna Stern on a podcast and she said she will not let any of her family buy their Windows computers anywhere else—and as you can imagine she has a lot of extended family members asking her for PC advice. If people protest, she lays down the law: 'If you buy somewhere else I will not answer any more computer questions from you.' It’s hard to get a more heartfelt endorsement than that."