Surface Book & Studio the machines Apple won't release?

Discuss anything related to audio or music production.

Game changer?

Yes, this changes everything!
6
46%
I'm still waiting for Apple's releases, like real soon! (any year now really)
4
31%
Nah, I'm good. I think.
3
23%
 
Total votes: 13

Stromkraft
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Surface Book & Studio the machines Apple won't release?

Post by Stromkraft » Wed Oct 26, 2016 3:22 pm

So are the coming Microsoft Surface Book i7 and Surface Studio the machines Apple just won't release (at least not until, well thursday is it?)

Is Microsoft seriously going into computer hardware a game changer for music production? What does it mean for other PC makers like Dell?
Make some music!

Stromkraft
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Re: Surface Book & Studio the machines Apple won't release?

Post by Stromkraft » Thu Oct 27, 2016 7:47 pm

Stromkraft wrote:Microsoft Surface Book i7
The store link is Surface Book with Performance Base - 1TB SSD / Intel Core i7 (duo-core)

Unfortunately for Music producers the high-end Surface Book i7 only has a dual core 6th Gen Intel Core i7 (Skylake), specifically the i7-6600U processor with Intel HD graphics 520 and not a quadcore as far as I understand. That limits the Apple competition to the 13" models as the 15" Apple models are likely to be all quadcore as ususal. Unless Microsoft claims that these are "twice as fast as MacBook pro". Surely that was about duo-core MacBooks?

The Surface Book linked to above with a 1TB SSD drive is priced at $3,299.00 wheras the 15" MacBook Pro with 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, — unclear the exact processor but also Skylake — 1TB SSD drive is priced at $3,199.00 and with the 2.9GHz option at $3,399.00.

The Surface Pro have 2 USB-C ports, an SD card reader, a Mini Display port and a headset jack whereas the MacBook Pro have 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports and a headset jack (Maybe the one that fell of the iPhone 7 :| ). The thunderbolts can use USB-C with an adapter (?) and I'd assume more with a USB Hub. I'd assume these are backwards compatible too. If you knew as little I did about Thunderbolt 3 there's more info here: Thunderbolt™ 3 – The USB-C That Does It All

Because of the pricing the top models should be compared, I think. The big difference is the actual implementation. A Surface Book is not the same as a Macbook, that is still a traditional Apple laptop. Microsofts plan for Windows 10 and these machines opens for a new way to work, possibly also with music production.
Last edited by Stromkraft on Fri Oct 28, 2016 11:14 am, edited 3 times in total.
Make some music!


H20nly
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Re: Surface Book & Studio the machines Apple won't release?

Post by H20nly » Thu Oct 27, 2016 10:40 pm

Stromkraft wrote:Microsofts plan for Windows 10 and these machines opens for a new way to work, possibly also with music production.
if they get this dialed in and keep making elegant design choices like what they did here with Surface Studio... at the VERY LEAST this will force Apple's hand.

this is nothing but good for users of both platforms.



except for the pricing :x

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Re: Surface Book & Studio the machines Apple won't release?

Post by [jur] » Thu Oct 27, 2016 11:38 pm

Hey amigos,
I'm moving this topic to the Lounge.
Even though it's somewhat related to music production as we all use computers to run DAWs, these kind of threads clearly are mainly computers oriented.
So please, next time you're posting ask yourself which forum is the most appropriate one.
Thanks!
j.
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Angstrom
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Re: Surface Book & Studio the machines Apple won't release?

Post by Angstrom » Thu Oct 27, 2016 11:58 pm

That's a bold statement

/dadjokes

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Re: Surface Book & Studio the machines Apple won't release?

Post by [jur] » Fri Oct 28, 2016 12:04 am

:wink:
Ableton Forum Moderator

beats me
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Re: Surface Book & Studio the machines Apple won't release?

Post by beats me » Fri Oct 28, 2016 1:51 pm

Ironically the thing that is going to hurt Microsoft’s new business model is the thing that made them so successful and big in the first place, licensing their software to third parties. They can throw all the high end hardware onto the market that they want to, but that doesn’t change the fact that a majority of consumers will go for the cheaper and less flashy third party options. This ultimately delays developers from being motivated to develop for touch screens when most users don’t really care about it or expect much from it yet.

Apple? You really think they aren’t constantly considering the implications of slapping touch screens on all their products? They are slowly working on converging the OS’s. The new Touch Bar on the new MBPs is proof of that, but they are also taking a focused approach on user experience. The fact that developers have largely been unresponsive to optimizing their software for touch screens on both the 12.9” iPad Pro and Windows touch screens is proof that developers aren’t in any rush on this and ultimately the user experience suffers.

And IMO there is already too much "it has a touch screen!" sub par experience acceptance. That doesn't help things.

Stromkraft
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Re: Surface Book & Studio the machines Apple won't release?

Post by Stromkraft » Fri Oct 28, 2016 2:56 pm

beats me wrote:And IMO there is already too much "it has a touch screen!" sub par experience acceptance. That doesn't help things.
True, but the more people use touchable flat screens the more touchability will be naturally expected.

If nothing else, the Apple world seems quite impressed with these new machines from Microsoft. At the very least I hope it will mean Apple wakes up and smells the coffee. Just as iOS device led people to buy Macs, Microsoft may lead buyers of their computers to buy their phones as well. The battle is on. May we all benefit from that.
Make some music!

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Re: Surface Book & Studio the machines Apple won't release?

Post by beats me » Fri Oct 28, 2016 4:01 pm

Stromkraft wrote:
beats me wrote:And IMO there is already too much "it has a touch screen!" sub par experience acceptance. That doesn't help things.
True, but the more people use touchable flat screens the more touchability will be naturally expected.

If nothing else, the Apple world seems quite impressed with these new machines from Microsoft. At the very least I hope it will mean Apple wakes up and smells the coffee. Just as iOS device led people to buy Macs, Microsoft may lead buyers of their computers to buy their phones as well. The battle is on. May we all benefit from that.

That’s still part of the problem you quoted above. People are just enamored with a touch screen slapped on a powerful computer with a high quality display. Says nothing about available applications that utilize it. I think far too much attention is going to be put on graphic design applications while developers of other type applications aren’t really going to see the need or have the imagination on what they could implement.

Apple is keeping things simple for the user and developers for now with the Touch Bar. Saw the little snippet of the demo video showing the Touch Bar being used to scroll through the timeline on Final Cut Pro. That’s pretty cool and makes a lot of sense instead of trying to figure out how to maximize usage of the entire display which is daunting for both developers and users.

Also using the Touch Bar to pick through thumbnails of pictures or browser tabs is cool and doing it on a full touch screen display really isn’t that much better than using the mouse. Plus the picker stays in the Touch Bar for quick use and not taking up display space. Using the Touch Bar to adjust graphic editing parameters also makes more sense because your fat paws won’t be blocking the image you are adjusting. Clearly Apple put a lot of thought into it. A 5-year-old could come up with "Put a touch screen on any computer."

H20nly
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Re: Surface Book & Studio the machines Apple won't release?

Post by H20nly » Fri Oct 28, 2016 8:56 pm

beats me wrote: People are just enamored with a touch screen slapped on a powerful computer with a high quality display. Says nothing about available applications that utilize it. I think far too much attention is going to be put on graphic design applications while developers of other type applications aren’t really going to see the need or have the imagination on what they could implement.

Apple is keeping things simple for the user and developers for now with the Touch Bar...
Apple may "want to" add touch screens to their units, but plenty of other companies already are.
i got an ASUS laptop with an i7, 12 GB of RAM, and an 15.4" touch screen for less than $1000 bucks. the screen flips over to make it a tablet. it's one of their higher end models. my son used it to trace out all the Spanish speaking countries in the world for a map he had to make for his Spanish class. Apple would never allow me to spend that on a similarly spec'd new machine with their logo on it... and my kid's homework would have been a hell of a lot more difficult without it.

in fact, i got a MacBook with an i5, 8GB of RAM, and a 13" non-touch screen for $1600

and therein lies the problem. ASUS make good mother boards... and the unit is no slouch. so why should people pay more for less when they can pay less for more?
the answer is they won't... most folks only know enough about computers to get them to the web and/or get them into trouble.

some of the features of the Surface Studio are way cooler than anything on my 2011 iMac - which has more features than a newer iMac... like a disc drive and Firewire. seriously, besides [maybe] a few hundred Mghz added to the processor speed, the new units actually have less than the old ones did. how is that progress? :|

thinner... :lol:

don't get me wrong, i love the iMac and the MacBook... but if the advantages are evaporating and Apple's idea of innovation is making users add adapters to their favorite peripherals... fuck em. at some point it's them who lose.

steko
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Re: Surface Book & Studio the machines Apple won't release?

Post by steko » Fri Oct 28, 2016 9:41 pm

Rahad Jackson wrote:My Awesome Mix Tape #6

steko
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Re: Surface Book & Studio the machines Apple won't release?

Post by steko » Fri Oct 28, 2016 9:42 pm

Rahad Jackson wrote:My Awesome Mix Tape #6

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Re: Surface Book & Studio the machines Apple won't release?

Post by H20nly » Fri Oct 28, 2016 9:57 pm

steko wrote:
H20kie wrote:Blah
https://macperformanceguide.com/index_t ... iMac5K2015

<cough>
what's your point? i forgot SSD?

steko
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Re: Surface Book & Studio the machines Apple won't release?

Post by steko » Fri Oct 28, 2016 10:06 pm

5K RETINA
Rahad Jackson wrote:My Awesome Mix Tape #6

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