jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Apple sucks!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Maybe that's why:

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA APRIL 28, 2021 Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2021 second quarter ended March 27, 2021. The Company posted a March quarter record revenue of $89.6 billion, up 54 percent year over year, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.40. International sales accounted for 67 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
“This quarter reflects both the enduring ways our products have helped our users meet this moment in their own lives, as well as the optimism consumers seem to feel about better days ahead for all of us,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Apple is in a period of sweeping innovation across our product lineup, and we’re keeping focus on how we can help our teams and the communities where we work emerge from this pandemic into a better world. That certainly begins with products like the all-new iMac and iPad Pro, but it extends to efforts like the 8 gigawatts of new clean energy we’ll help bring onto the grid and our $430 billion investment in the United States over the next 5 years.”
“We are proud of our March quarter performance, which included revenue records in each of our geographic segments and strong double-digit growth in each of our product categories, driving our installed base of active devices to an all-time high,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “These results allowed us to generate operating cash flow of $24 billion and return nearly $23 billion to shareholders during the quarter. We are confident in our future and continue to make significant investments to support our long-term plans and enrich our customers’ lives.”
Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.22 per share of the Company’s common stock, an increase of 7 percent. The dividend is payable on May 13, 2021 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 10, 2021. The board of directors has also authorized an increase of $90 billion to the existing share repurchase program.

If Apple ever sucked, it was in the years after Jobs left, and before he came back. A series of clueless decisions sent them into a tailspin then. They're obviously making things people want now.

They have some amazing things in the pipelines, if rumors based on server hacks at a third party vendor are true.

https://youtu.be/0UiGUAHqB4U (MaxTech explains the rumors and leaks)

Billy Bob 2 Loc: Marengo IN

But from Apple is best are. I been buying from this one for over 10 years NO DOGS. A link https://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?keywords=MAC+PC or at a good game machine. When you get 16 or 36 RAM its faster and at least 1 TB and a 1TB external hard drive to back up your artwork . AI software, photoshop has it now as a add now. You need help just ask, anGODbless

Billy Bob 2 Loc: Marengo IN

Apple has PCs in colors now, go their online store.

JohnR Loc: The Gates of Hell

Look for a 2nd hand 27" Retina iMac - the 2017 models are good - you can add extra RAM if it doesn't come with enough - 16GB is more than enough IMO. It has a 4GB graphics card.

Dean37 Loc: Fresno, CA

A lot of years ago, at my company some of the managers decided that we should all go Mac, because the PC's were crashing causing too much downtime. Personally, in the 34 years of using PC's I've never had one crash, but since Windows XP I intensely dislike their Windows OS's. I switched to Ubuntu Linux and find it very easy to use.

As to the company's switch to Mac's, I don't know what others experienced, but I had the experience of crashes 4 to 5 times every day. Since the company decided to switch most of the computers back to PC's and UNIX I tend to believe most people had problems. I ended up with a UNIX terminal and a PC on my desk.

At home I went from Osborne to PC's and after Windows XP, I went to Ubuntu Linux. By the way my Osborne 1's still work well, just no graphics.

My current PC's are laptops with Win 10 and Ubuntu Linux. The latest is a gaming laptop with an I7 CPU 16 GB ram and 1tb SSD. It works well.

I know that some are Apple users, more power to them, they do excellent work. Choose what works best for you with the software of your choice.

RPaul3rd Loc: Arlington VA and Sarasota FL

I have used an Asus VivoBook for years, and before that an Acer (both recommended at the time by BH photovideo) and both are Windows 10 home edition. Having said that, what I have found is a computer with at least 16 GB of Ram will give you plenty of horsepower. I would recommend a 1 TB hard drive or SSD. AND DON'T forget the external drive(s) for backup. You can get any of these for around $1500. Not a sermon, just a thought.

Markag

I purchased an M1 chipped MacBookPro and with Photoshop it is FAST. Other Adobe products LR and Bridge want to install as if its an Intel machine. I took a pass on LR and Bridge Disappointing.
My PC has plenty of SSD drives and 128 gigs of RAM. Again, the Mac is very close with 16GB Ram and 1TB SSD with Photoshop. An adapter on the Mac allows me to plug in the power adapter, network cable, MacMouse, HDMI cable to a larger monitor and charge an Iphone 12.

jdmiles Loc: Texas

I am not going to do a deep dive on this as I am not buying at moment. There seems to be some inaccuracies in this report. Maybe it is a bit old.

- Intel CPU's are catching up to AMD NOW.
- 10 bit displays are supported by windows so I am not sure why they wouldn't be supported by Lightroom. They don't even mention Photoshop. Curious.
- NVMe M.2 drives are definitely the way to go especially with the new faster buses. It also curious that they don't mention the buses

So I click on link titled Adobe Lightroom Classic: 11th Gen Intel Core vs AMD Ryzen 5000 Series" and they are using a PCI 3 bus for the Intel bus. Enough said.

I recommend doing reviews from someone that does not sell hardware. For instance TomsHardware.

htbrown Loc: San Francisco Bay Area

I can't advise you on Apple products. I just ordered a windoze computer from a local guy who builds to order - he quoted an i7, 1 YB SSD, 32 GB ram for $2200. I upped the ram to 64 GB and still came in under $2500.

11bravo

I always say "build your own". It's not that difficult, and it makes it easy to repair/upgrade. If external space is not a problem, get a large case - so nice to work inside. The only problem these days is that video cards are in short supply. I'd say 32gb RAM minimum. I like a mobo with a 2 digit LED display for error codes (LONG gone are listening to beep codes).

PC Parts picker can help with parts. Likewise, Newegg now has a similar function.
https://pcpartpicker.com/

Finally, I'd suggest a Rosewill RX-358 external case:

https://www.rosewill.com/product/rx-358-u3c-blk-external-3-5-hard-drive-enclosure-to-usb-3-0-esata-support-3-5-sata-iii-ii-i/

It has an internal fan that keeps the drive COOL. For inside, get an ENTERPRISE grade HDD, as in

HGST Ultrastar DC HC320 HUS728T8TALE6L4 8TB 7.2K RPM SATA 6Gb/s 512e 3.5" Hard Drives

Both of these for your backups, both image and photo. Attach with usb3, then disconnect when finished.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

👍👍 Completely agree (and on your choice of HD). Modern cases have such easy drive mounting, that it takes well less than an hour to assemble a PC. Good idea to wear a grounded wrist strap when handling the devices.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

In the mid-1980s to 1998, Apple released some bad OS software. But from Mac OS X 10.3 forward, they’ve had very stable machines and software.

IBM currently has over 250,000 Macs, iPads, and iPhones in use. You might find this interesting:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.computerworld.com/article/3452847/ibm-mac-users-are-happier-and-more-productive.amp.html

11bravo

Picked 2 of those enterprise HDD's for main + synced backup based on YOUR posted recommendation. Also convinced a friend to buy 1 for his backups with a pay a bit more now and not worry later (he'd JUST bought a Seagate external HDD which he was able to return as unopened).

So glad I bought last year when readily available (will see what chia mining does to large enterprise HDD prices).

BIG Thanks

drmike99 Loc: Fairfield Connecticut

My 14 year old iMac died a couple of months ago. I bought the new MacBook Air with the M1 chip and the 16G memory option. It seems fast enough to use with my photo software suite of Photos, Nikon free software for translation of the NEF (Nikon raw) files, and Affinity Photo. I stayed with the minimum on-board storage (256 G) and use an outboard hard disk for photo storage. My Time Machine hard drive restored my old iMac files with minimal fuss. Be aware if you are connecting peripherals the computer connections are USB-C size.