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0 pointsapi4y ago0 comments

> many of us don’t want our iPads or iPhones to be like our computers.

This nails it. I want full control and the ability to run anything on my computer. I want my phone to "just work" and I never want to fuck with it or worry about what's on it. They are different devices with different roles.

What I do wish for is open ARM hardware with similar performance. I am totally certain that it is coming now that Apple has demonstrated just what is possible. Ampere, Samsung, Marvell, etc. are surely working on high performance designs now if they weren't already.

There is nothing magic about what Apple did with the M1. They built a really high performance ARM core by applying a lot of the same things that have been done for high performance in the X86 world but without the X86 dead elephant strapped to their back. The M1 can be duplicated if not exceeded.

0 comments

saagarjha4y ago

I mean, there is nothing stopping you from using your phone in that way even if it was open like your computer is…

kalleboo4y ago

> The M1 can be duplicated if not exceeded

The obvious question is why has Qualcomm failed so hard at even keeping up with the A series? They're untouchable for radio stuff but their CPUs are very average. Samsung are also trying very hard with average results.

The M1 isn't Apple's first crack at this that is some fluke which will quickly be overtaken by someone else. Everyone else has already been in a race to beat their A-series chips and failed miserably. The M1 is just the first time we've been able to benchmark it on a real OS. If someone beats it, it will be AMD retooling their cores and doing it in 3-5 years (Zen was originally battling an ARM variant internally at AMD)

apiOP4y ago

There hasn't been enough of a market so they have not made the investment.

Android occupies the lower-end side of the phone market, so there's less of a drive for the absolute highest performance. There has until very recently been almost zero desktop or laptop ARM market or server ARM market.

Apple also has a ridiculous amount of cash sitting around and could afford to fund R&D ahead of market demand and develop a truly killer ARM architecture. Everyone else is now behind, but what I'm saying is that there's not much in the M1 that is secret. It's just well-understood performance CPU engineering techniques deployed well on an ARM chip and the added efficiency is largely due to the lack of X86 cruft overhead and the 5nm node.

fartcannon4y ago

You don't have to fuck around with it! You CAN just use it like a regular locked down device, and throw it into a landfill when youre done.

The rest of us can get on with using the otherwise wasted power of all these tiny computers.

Think of the waste caused by Apples profiteering.

klelatti4y ago

The real waste comes from inadequately powered devices that have to be retired early because they are no longer fast enough. I think Apple have a decent record on this front although right to repair is another matter.

shsizbz4y ago

Im posting this comment on an iPhone SE (1st gen) I got in mid 2016. I still get OS updates, not just security patches.

Whats that about Apple waste? Its people that waste and drive waste.

Id love it if I could load my own OS and do whatever on this little phone, but only if iOS itself was still locked up. I dont need to add even more worry about the safety of my “phone” (really portfolio of everything Ive done since Ive been online)

smichel174y ago

Many years ago, Apple removed all apps for the 1st gen iPod touch from the app store, with no warning. I found out about this when I did a factory reset (ironically, this was to un-jailbreak my iPod touch, since the jailbreak slowed it down a little and I wasn't using any of its features). Imagine my surprise and frustration when all the apps I was using moments before - Spotify, Fruit Ninja, Opera Mini (the only browser that was acceptably fast on that device) - were suddenly gone with no recourse.. except to upgrade. Which I did -- away from an ecosystem where a company has that kind of control over me.

1 more reply

fartcannon4y ago

Try that with an iPhone 6. Apple's position on right to repair and planned obsolescence is well known:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batterygate

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsapi4y ago0 comments

> many of us don’t want our iPads or iPhones to be like our computers.

0 comments

saagarjha4y ago

I mean, there is nothing stopping you from using your phone in that way even if it was open like your computer is…

kalleboo4y ago

> The M1 can be duplicated if not exceeded

apiOP4y ago

There hasn't been enough of a market so they have not made the investment.

fartcannon4y ago

You don't have to fuck around with it! You CAN just use it like a regular locked down device, and throw it into a landfill when youre done.

The rest of us can get on with using the otherwise wasted power of all these tiny computers.

Think of the waste caused by Apples profiteering.

klelatti4y ago

shsizbz4y ago

Im posting this comment on an iPhone SE (1st gen) I got in mid 2016. I still get OS updates, not just security patches.

Whats that about Apple waste? Its people that waste and drive waste.

smichel174y ago

1 more reply

fartcannon4y ago

Try that with an iPhone 6. Apple's position on right to repair and planned obsolescence is well known:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batterygate

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse