I’m sorry, but if we’re going to go along this line of “everyone who is a pro at something should have a pro machine targeted at them” then almost all computing devices become pro devices.

I was interested in these unexpected pro functionalities this guy was about to reveal but then it turned into a post about all of his opinions on what he’d like to be different about these computers.

Sounds like he’s been using his iMac since 2014 though. So something about these devices is making him stay, even though many of his problems as perfectly solvable with other solutions. Which is something a professional would probably go for…

I understand that this "something" is MacOS. If you're a Mac user, you're at the mercy of whatever Apple gives you. For a non tech person, changing operating systems might not be trivial. But even then, I would just advise the author to explore ecosystems that do provide them with flexibility and accessibility.

I think he's got a solid point when it comes to monitor resolutions.

For a 27" monitor the perfect resolution seems to be about 5K and just aren't really any other options on the market for a 27" 5K screen other than an iMac right now.

If you want a decent screen for text work it's probably not a bad idea to buy a used iMac and work out how to display text on it but it's not a clean solution.

e.g. I could personally use tmux running on the iMac or something but it's messy.

It seems to a shame to needlessly generate eWaste when there's not really a better screen on the market new.

I don't get his height adjustment argument. It's a pain in the arse but you can pretty easily buy a VESA adapter for an iMac and a height adjustable arm off the shelf.

There's the LG Ultrafine 5K. Apple even sells it. I'm pretty sure it's literally the same panel as the iMac.

The iMac except for the Pro aren't easily VESA adaptable after purchase. Like you can't remove the original stand. Really it should be at the very least height adjustable at this point. But it's pretty sad when a $200 monitor will have better ergonomics than a $2000 all in one.

The desktop monitor market is mostly driven by PC gamers and businesses who don't want the highest resolutions for different reasons.

>Apple even sells it. I'm pretty sure it's literally the same panel as the iMac.

It is.

>The desktop monitor market is mostly driven by ...

I'm always surprised that so many people buy large monitors whilst ignoring the resolution. Big is better seems to be the mantra when it comes to monitors and probably most other consumer goods.

Gamers want higher refresh rates and pushing 5K@144Hz is really expensive from a GPU side vs. 1440p@144hz. While text looks better at 5K, it's less noticeable for games. So big is better but it's a different tradeoff.

Businesses are just cheap and 1080p screens are good enough.

I’ve compared them side by side and they are not the same. Maybe it’s software but fonts are noticeably crisper on the iMac screen can the LG panels.

I thought this article, or at least the title and the thesis of the article is quite poorly written. None of what he wrote has anything to do with "other types of professionals".

Although I agree with most of his complains.

As I see it the primary customers for the professional class Macs are employees of ‘tech companies’, where there are rich veins of enterprise funding just waiting to be wasted. Re: Cellular Connectivity Apple purchased the 5g chip ip and development teams from Intel in 2019, so I suspect we’ll see those modems in more apple gear this year. To maximise advertising impact and lessen the cash flow, I would guess they’ll be in non iPhone devices first, that feels like an apple move to me. I wouldn’t be surprised if they add it directly in the m2 chip, since that would help explain why they didn’t switch over to it last year.

I think you may be on to something here with that. Not sure when it'll happen, but it's definitely not a matter of "if" in my opinion. And that worries me.

Buying a computing device without the ability to truly disconnect it from the internet when I choose is a MAJOR red flag. "You can just click the wifi icon to turn off internet access" is not at all satisfactory, especially when there's a 5G connectable radio in the thing's firmware. Nice feature if your regular internet stops working, but because of the closed nature of Apple devices, we have zero way to audit whether or not it really IS disconnected from the internet when we're _told_ that it is. And to my mind that not only justifies the assumption that we're being lied to about this (and if discovered it'll conveniently be "fixed" in an "update") and other such things, but requires that assumption as well.

Just another in a long line of signals that all point to more remote monitoring and surveillance. We all know Apple's supposed commitment to "privacy" is just marketing designed to trick those who don't know any better.

I'm already exploring a complete abandonment of all Apple devices in favor of self-built and maintained Linux systems for personal and professional computing day-to-day. It'll be a long transition, and I'll have to virtualize a hackintosh (somehow) to use a few "must-have", employer/client-mandated apps. It's not going to be easy, but I'm pissed off enough with Apple's dragging their heels on implementing basic *nix features that allow for things like containers via kernel namespaces for so damn long, that I'm willing to climb that mountain no matter how tough it gets.

Looks like there’s VESA mount adapters available for iMacs.

External mount is likely the best way to go if you want to improvements. I also like the extra room they leave on desk when the monitor stand does not use space.

I’ve been using products from Multibrackets at home and office in different configs (1x32”, 2x27” etc).

https://products.multibrackets.com/en/

I was worried about the lack of cellular connectivity on my new Macbook Pro, but I am happy to find that working off wifi (eg. in the train) works pretty seamlessly just with my iPhone in my pocket. I would still love to have it built into the Macbook, but I guess that it is less urgent than I feared.

Tethering makes it kinda moot.

Honestly these all seem like perfectly reasonable complaints in the context of apple hardware (rather than the usual “open up the hardware” stuff, which whether valid or not apple clearly has no interest in doing. All of the issues that this post raises are perfectly reasonable for a Mac running macOS)