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Mac

 29th August 2024 at 2:45pm

Stephen's Mac Picks

Type2017 Annual PredictionsScore
Stephen Regular "Redesigned Mac Pro" 0.5
Type2018 Annual PredictionsScore
Stephen Regular "The Mac Pro will ship by the end of 2018" 0
Stephen Risky "iTunes rewrite or replacement for Mac OS" -1
  • iTunes was eventually split up in 2019.
Type2018 iPhone Event PredictionsScore
Stephen Non‑graded "No Macs" 1
Type2019 Annual PredictionsScore
Stephen Regular "The Mac Pro will ship (in 2019 this time)" 1
  • Added mid-year: Must be able to order a Mac Pro by the end of 2019, they do not have to arrive in customer hands by the end of the year.
  • Ungraded: "I waffle on sticking with my iMac Pro"; he bought one almost immediately. Myke predicted that Stephen would buy a Mac Pro, exchange it for an iMac Pro, then buy another Mac Pro in 6 months.
Stephen Regular "The MacBook Escape will go away" 1
Stephen Risky "First ARM Mac ships" -1
  • Halfway through the year, Myke ups the ante: "If Stephen gets this right, I will buy you one, if the Mac Pro is an ARM Mac I will buy you the top of the line model."
Stephen Non‑graded "WWDC will introduce a multi-year plan to move macOS and iOS closer" 1
  • Mac Catalyst and SwiftUI deemed to fulfill this
Type2019 WWDC PredictionsScore
Stephen Regular "Apple replaces at least one bundled macOS app with a Marzipan version" 1
  • It's called Catalyst, not Marzipan, which is pushed back on a little. Podcasts is cited as fulfilling this (is it replacing a Mac app? Stephen gets away with this a bit) and they say that Messages might now be a Catalyst app, but in fact it isn't.
  • The permissive grading may be due to the other hosts not wanting to get too picky when it comes to grading later picks.
Type2019 Fall RickiesScore
Stephen Regular "No Mac or iPad hardware in the keynote" 0
  • 10.2" iPad was announced
Type2020 Annual RickiesScore
Stephen Regular "The 13 inch MacBook Pro will gain a larger screen" 0
  • The long-rumored 14" model finally came out in 2021.
Stephen Non‑graded "WWDC brings no real changes to Mac Catalyst" 0
Stephen Non‑graded "Apple will not ship an ARM Mac in 2020" 0
  • In 2019, Stephen picked the first ARM Mac to be shipped, so this was his... revenge?
Type2020 Summer RickiesScore
Stephen Regular "A CPU transition is announced for the Mac" 1
  • Federico counsels against specifying ARM, which is good because Apple calls it "Apple Silicon" and never uses the term ARM.
Stephen Risky "Something in the default Dock of Catalina becomes a Catalyst app" 2
Stephen Non‑graded "A new iMac is announced with Intel CPUs" 0
  • While it could still happen, as of 2022 the Apple Silicon transition appears to be complete for the iMac with no last Intel version.
Type2020 September RickiesScore
Stephen Flexie "Apple will not unveil additional details about the release of the first Apple Silicon Macs" 1
  • Myke challenged Stephen to make this a sixth Flexie in the discussion of his previous pick.
Type2020 October RickiesScore
Stephen Flexie "Big Sur gets a release date" 0
Type2020 November RickiesScore
Stephen Regular "Big Sur gets a revised release window" 1
Stephen Regular "No new Mac announced will have a touchscreen" 1
Stephen Risky "A desktop Apple Silicon Mac is announced" 2
  • This pick literally came to Stephen in a dream, in which Tim Cook announced the Mac mini as a "bad little b****".
Stephen Flexie "We see a Big Sur feature recap" 1
Stephen Flexie "No mention of cellular Macs" 1
Stephen Flexie "Apple announces Windows for ARM coming via virtualization in the future" 0
  • Parallels was updated to do this by 2021, but it wasn't announced at this event.
Stephen Flexie "The 12" MacBook does not return" 1
Type2021 Annual RickiesScore
Stephen Risky "Apple has Apple Silicon versions of all of its Intel Macs on sale by the end of 2021" -1
  • "No Intel Macs are available for sale without an Apple Silicon counterpart." Myke points out the iMac Pro as a potential spoiler.
  • (For pick complexity purposes, I'm counting this as 1 condition for each Mac line that still had no Apple Silicon counterpart at the beginning of 2021: The larger MacBook Pros, the iMac in both sizes, the iMac Pro, and the Mac Pro. The Mac mini is 1 line with a high end and low end, so it already had an "Apple Silicon counterpart" although the high end Mac mini was still Intel.)
  • The iMac Pro left the lineup entirely, but the Mac Pro remained on Intel for about a year and a half more.
Stephen Flexie "There will be a chip named M1 followed by a letter" 0
Stephen Flexie "No Mac gets a cellular data option" 1
Type2021 WWDC RickiesScore
Stephen Regular "No word on an Apple Silicon Mac Pro" 1
  • Stephen originally had a Risky Pick stating that we'd get a release date, but did a complete reversal because of late breaking rumors
Stephen Flexie "macOS skips ahead to version 15 to match iOS and iPadOS" 0
Stephen Flexie "No new Mac notebooks are announced" 1
Stephen Flexie "The next version of macOS comes with a redesigned Today view" 0
Type2021 October RickiesScore
Stephen Regular "At least 1 new Mac model announced ships in November" 0
  • All of them shipped in October.
Stephen Regular "Apple announces a Mac mini that is more performant than the original M1 model" 0
Stephen Risky "5G becomes an option on at least one MacBook" -1
Stephen Flexie "USB-C charging is faster than the new MagSafe" 0
  • Which charging methods can do what differs between models, but in all cases MagSafe appears to be equally fast or faster than USB-C.
Stephen Flexie "MacBook Pro colors don't include anything radically new for the line" 1
Stephen Flexie "The chip is called the M1X" 0
Stephen Flexie "A new MacBook comes with at least one new non-USB-C/Thunderbolt port on the laptop itself" 1
Stephen Flexie "New MacBook Pro displays run at a native 2x" 1
Stephen Flexie "macOS Monterey features are reviewed" 0
  • Some Mac software features were mentioned, like running iOS apps, but nothing really specific to Monterey.
Stephen Flexie "The new MacBook Pro power bricks have ports on them, like the iMac does for Ethernet" 0
Type2022 Annual RickiesScore
Stephen Flexie "A more powerful Mac Mini is announced, but it is not a "Mac Mini Pro"" 0
  • The Mac Studio is very close, but this pick was about the name and the Mac Studio, while very reminiscent of the Mini, is not named as such.
  • Just 2 weeks after the grading window closed, the M2 Pro Mac mini was announced.
Type2022 March RickiesScore
Stephen Regular "Larger, more powerful iMac is introduced" 0
  • Not only was this wrong, the larger iMac disappeared entirely from the Mac lineup.
Stephen Flexie "The Intel Mac mini is removed from sale" 0
Stephen Flexie "A revised 13" MBP drops the Touch Bar but does not add MagSafe" 0
Stephen Flexie "iOS 15.4 and/or macOS 12.3 get a release date" 0
  • They did get a window but not an actual date.
Stephen Flexie "No preview of an Apple Silicon Mac Pro" 1
Type2022 WWDC RickiesScore
Stephen Risky "The new version of macOS brings back Dashboard as a way to place widgets outside of the current Notification Center" -1
  • It has to be called "Dashboard" to get the points.
Stephen Flexie "macOS 13 is called "Mammoth"" 0
Stephen Flexie "Apple announces the first M2 Mac" 1
Type2023 Annual RickiesScore
Stephen Regular "No Intel Macs are left on sale (as new) at the end of 2023" 1
  • "Does not include the refurbished or educational stores." Or, in other words, the Intel Mac Minis and Mac Pro are not sold as new anymore (and of course they don't introduce a new Intel Mac).
Stephen Flexie "The Apple Silicon Mac Pro allows third-party GPUs to be used" 0
  • If this ever does happen, Federico promises to buy a Mac Pro.
Stephen Flexie "The Mac Mini is updated to include more than one system-on-a-chip option" 1
  • e.g. M2 and M2 Pro.
Type2023 WWDC RickiesScore
Stephen Regular "Apple will announce a 15-inch MacBook Air" 1
Stephen Flexie "The 15-inch MacBook Air will be powered by an M3" 0
Stephen Flexie "We see a Mac Pro preview" 1
  • Ultimately it was both a preview and not a teaser... apparently.
Stephen Flexie "The next version of macOS is not called Skyline" 1
Type2023 October RickiesScore
Stephen Regular "Apple announces a new Apple Silicon system-on-a-chip" 1
Stephen Regular "The M1 iMac receives an update" 1
Stephen Risky "Apple unveils an iMac Pro" -1
  • In Stephen's mind, this requires a 27" or larger screen, and a Pro/Pro Max caliber processor at least.
Stephen Flexie "The iMac's input devices are updated with USB-C but otherwise remain the same" 0
Stephen Flexie "The M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max are all announced" 1
Stephen Flexie "The Mac mini is not updated" 1
Type2024 Annual RickiesScore
Stephen Flexie "The M1 MacBook Air is still on sale at the end of the year"
Type2024 May RickiesScore
Stephen Risky "We get new Macs" -1
  • Ungraded: probably a new Mac mini
Type2024 WWDC RickiesScore
Stephen Flexie "Some AI features on the Mac require an M2 or later" 0
Stephen Flexie ""Improvements" to Stage Manager are announced" 0
Stephen Flexie "The next version of macOS is named Tahoe" 0
Type2024 September RickiesScore
Stephen Flexie "macOS Sequioa released with iOS 18" 1

Myke's Mac Picks

Type2017 Annual PredictionsScore
Myke Regular "2017 will see a more powerful iMac at the top of the line that rivals and replaces the Mac Pro" 0.5
  • "The Mac Pro will go away, the Mac Mini also goes away, by the end of 2017 the iMac is all that remains."
  • While explaining, Myke got a little carried away with how complete this transition would be, but when challenged to make it part of the pick, he decided to go for it.
Type2018 iPhone Event PredictionsScore
Myke Non‑graded "Nothing about the Mac" 1
  • The mention of Mojave's release is deemed insufficient to make this wrong.
Type2019 Fall RickiesScore
Myke Non‑graded "The Mac is not mentioned" 1
Type2020 Annual RickiesScore
Myke Non‑graded "Apple will introduce a new iMac design with an accompanying external display" 0
  • The new iMac design wouldn't come out until 2021, and the new display came in 2022.
Type2020 Summer RickiesScore
Myke Non‑graded "The ARM transition box will be a Mac mini" 1
Type2020 October RickiesScore
Myke Flexie "No new Macs announced" 1
Type2020 November RickiesScore
Myke Regular "An Apple Silicon Mac is available to order in November 2020" 1
Myke Regular "Apple demos iOS apps running on a Mac" 0
Myke Risky "An Apple Silicon Mac is cheaper than the product it replaces" 2
Myke Flexie "New Macs follow current design trends, no large scale redesign" 1
Myke Flexie "Big Sur released within 48 hours of event" 1
Myke Flexie "Craig demos Big Sur features" 1
  • The instant wake demo is counted for this.
Type2021 Annual RickiesScore
Myke Regular "Apple announces a new Mac Pro powered by Apple Silicon" 0
Myke Risky "A Mac gets a screen that supports touch and/or Apple Pencil input" -1
Myke Flexie "A new iMac has adjustability that is reminiscent of the Pro Display XDR" 0
Type2021 April RickiesScore
Myke Risky "2 sizes of iMac announced" -1
  • An iMac even being announced was fairly risky. However, it came in just one size.
Type2021 WWDC RickiesScore
Myke Regular "Shortcuts for the Mac" 1
Myke Flexie "New MacBook Pro" 0
Myke Flexie "Preview of the new Apple Silicon Mac Pro" 0
Type2021 September RickiesScore
Myke Regular "The new Apple Silicon MacBook Pro will not be announced at this event" 1
  • This was originally going to be "No Macs", but at this point everyone was on the lookout for reused picks and this one has come up a few times.
Type2021 October RickiesScore
Myke Regular "Apple unveils a new MacBook Pro" 1
  • And Myke unveils a new strategy for picks: obvious, passionate, risky. This is clearly the first.
Myke Regular "We get a colour option that is new to the MacBook Pro (name)" 0
  • This was originally "new in name or hue", but some questioning of what a new hue would be resulted in relying solely on a new colour name.
  • Came true two years later... with "space black" replacing "space gray" in name at least.
Myke Risky "Apple teases another Mac, that is not for sale right now, with Pro in the name, and says that it is coming next year" -1
  • It was originally "Mac product", but there was some controversy over whether that includes accessories and displays. Ultimately, Myke upped the difficulty and removed the word "product".
Myke Flexie "MacBook Pro has a mini-LED screen" 1
Myke Flexie "The chip is not called M1X" 1
Myke Flexie "Webcam will be called "highest quality on a Mac"" 0
  • It was "Mac notebook".
Myke Flexie "The laptops will be thicker than the models they replace" 1
Type2022 Annual RickiesScore
Myke Regular "Apple releases a new MacBook Air that comes with some colour options not previously available in this product line" 1
  • It got Midnight and Starlight.
  • This is the beginning of an increasingly musical accompaniment to Stephen's "correct" bell, to accommodate Zoom's echo cancellation.
Myke Risky "The new Mac Pro will be..." -1
  • "... smaller, not a cube shape, feature no support for the current MPX modules and/or will allow for some form of expandability outside of Thunderbolt. It will be only be available in one color."
  • Another "and/or" added to a pick, which happened a few times this episode. It applies to just the MPX modules and expandability clause.
Myke Flexie "An iMac Pro is unveiled" 0
Type2022 March RickiesScore
Myke Regular "Apple introduces a new Mac mini with an updated design" 0
  • Myke insists, and Federico seems to agree, that even a change in the ports on the back is "an updated design". Stephen seems less convinced, but that's a matter for grading. It's agreed that it has to be the Mac itself and not, say, an accessory or power cord.
Myke Flexie "No iMac Pro or bigger iMac" 1
Myke Flexie "Apple unveils the first Mac powered by an M2 chip" 0
  • Apple waited until WWDC to announce the M2 MacBook Air.
Myke Flexie "No Mac gets 5G" 1
Type2022 WWDC RickiesScore
Myke Risky "Apple gives a sneak peak of the new Mac Pro..." -1
  • "...It features a case design inspired by the 2019 Mac Pro. It features more ports than any other Apple Silicon Mac available today. It does not have support for third-party GPUs. It features a chip name that has not appeared in any other product. It has a starting price of at least $6,999. It is coming later this year."
  • Originally it said "same case design", but the change was accepted on air after Myke reconsidered. "Later this year" was also demoted from being an exact quote.
  • This Mac Pro will have to beat the Mac Studio in terms of ports: 2 USB-C, 2 USB-A, 4 Thunderbolt, SD card, Ethernet, HDMI, and headphone jack, for a total of 12.
  • This pick is similar in spirit to Myke's ongoing Annual pick, but with different conditions. At the time it was the most complex graded pick ever made.
Type2023 Annual RickiesScore
Myke Regular "Apple releases a larger MacBook Air" 1
  • Just before the grading of this pick, hummonizing with Stephen's bell met an inglorious end, as it seemed to stop working and also Myke was kind of done with it.
Myke Flexie "Apple releases an iMac with a larger screen" 0
Type2023 WWDC RickiesScore
Myke Flexie "No Mac Pro teaser video" 1
Type2023 October RickiesScore
Myke Regular "The 13" MacBook Pro is redesigned" 0
Myke Regular "The names of the colours of the iMac are unchanged" 1
  • Cleverly worded so that if the iMac isn't touched, the pick is still correct, but Federico's questioning of whether a change in hue counts causes Myke to water it down to just names. At the time of the pick, the colors were "Blue, Green, Pink, Silver, Yellow, Orange, Purple".
Myke Flexie "At least one Mac is available to order "today"" 1

Federico's Mac Picks

Type2018 Annual PredictionsScore
Federico Non‑graded "Apple Video and Apple Music have dedicated apps for Mac and iOS" 0
  • "Music and Video removed from iTunes on the Mac"
  • iTunes was eventually split up in 2019.
Type2019 Fall RickiesScore
Federico Non‑graded "Catalina gets a release date" 0
Type2020 November RickiesScore
Federico Regular "Apple releases at least 2 different Mac models that run on Apple Silicon" 1
Federico Regular "The first Apple Silicon chip is a variant of the A14 family" 0
  • The M1 could be related, but Apple never said so, and instead say that it was built specifically for the Mac.
Federico Risky "Big Sur on the new Apple Silicon Macs comes with a low power mode feature" -1
  • This was a feature in Monterey the next year.
Federico Flexie "Apple compares the performance of Apple Silicon Macs to "most PCs sold today"" 1
Federico Flexie "Apple demos a game running on an Apple Silicon Mac" 0
Federico Flexie "One of the new Mac models supports WiFi 6" 1
Federico Flexie "At least one of the Apple Silicon Macs has a Pro Motion display" 0
  • Was originally a Risky Pick.
  • ProMotion came to the Mac the next year with the MacBook Pro line.
Federico Flexie "Apple redesigns the App Store app for Mac to include iOS, macOS, and iPadOS apps together" 0
Type2021 September RickiesScore
Federico Flexie "No date is provided for macOS Monterey" 1
Type2021 October RickiesScore
Federico Regular "At least one new MacBook Pro model has an upgraded webcam with a higher resolution" 1
  • Must be better than the current 720p. Ungraded, Federico expects a 1080p camera.
Federico Regular "Any kind of release timeframe is provided for macOS Monterey" 1
  • Apparently feeling humble, Federico admits that this is a "boring" pick. It was originally "release date", but when some questioning about whether just a month would count came up, he watered it down.
Federico Flexie "HDMI and SD Card reader are back on the MacBook Pro" 1
Federico Flexie "Apple demos a Mac app that takes advantage of the updated Neural Engine" 0
Federico Flexie "Apple unveils a "Space Black" MacBook Pro" 0
Type2022 March RickiesScore
Federico Risky "A new base model Mac mini is introduced with the M2 chip..." -1
  • "... The new Mini is at least 30% smaller than the current one. It's thicker, but narrower, making it more similar to an Apple TV or Intel NUC."
  • In other words, closer to a cubic shape, but not necessarily a cube. Although Federico loves cubes, so that would be great.
  • The base model would get updated the next year, but it's the same shape.
Federico Flexie "macOS 12.3 does not come out within 48 hours of the event" 1
  • This will have to be judged by announced release, since episode recording is a day after the event.
Federico Flexie "Universal Control is demoed again" 0
Federico Flexie "The new Mac mini comes in more colors than silver and grey" 0
  • Was originally "in multiple colors".
Type2022 WWDC RickiesScore
Federico Regular "The next version of macOS will have at least one feature exclusive to Apple Silicon Macs" 1
  • There are a few examples: live captions in FaceTime, using an iPad Pro as a color reference display, and dictating emoji.
Federico Flexie "Shortcuts for Mac gets personal automations" 0
Type2023 Annual RickiesScore
Federico Regular "Apple releases a new Mac mini" 1
  • Ungraded: Probably the same design but with an M2 chip. More Thunderbolt ports would be nice.
Federico Flexie "Apple releases new developer APIs for Stage Manager" 0
  • At the time of picking there were not any developer APIs for Stage Manager on either macOS or iPadOS, so anything will be "new".
Type2023 WWDC RickiesScore
Federico Flexie "The next version of macOS is called Skyline" 0
Type2023 October RickiesScore
Federico Regular "The MacBook Air is not updated at this event" 1
Federico Regular "The visual design of the 14" and 16" MacBook Pro is unchanged" 1
  • The word "visual" was added, but it's agreed that we'll know it when we see it.
Federico Flexie "At least one M3-series chip introduces support for Thunderbolt 5, a first for the industry" 0
Federico Flexie "At least one computer or accessory that gets updated is less expensive in the US than before" 1
  • The new low-end 14" MacBook Pro, while spiritually replacing the 13" at a higher price, counts as a price drop in the 14" line.
Type2024 May RickiesScore
Federico Risky "The new iPad Pros can run a version of macOS when needed" -1
  • Ungraded: "Native, virtualized, or Mac Virtual Display?"
Federico Flexie "The new iPad keyboard can also be paired with a Mac or Vision Pro" 0
Type2024 WWDC RickiesScore
Federico Flexie "The next version of macOS is called Sequoia" 1
Type2024 September RickiesScore
Federico Flexie "No Macs and iPads at this event" 1