Funny you mention this i remember that for the Macs which was bad enough, what was funnier was when the iPod touch 3rd gen had the 802.11n hardware (iPhone 3GS did not) but was never enabled
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The new MacBook Air proves Apple uses software to limit features
- Thread starter mectojic
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This will be in 2036 so by then everyone will be complaining why it doesn‘t have 32GB/1TB as standard
You suggest "A similarly specced Air and MBP should sell..." But that premise fails due to the wrong presumption that MBA and MBP are ever "similarly specced" when they never are. MBP always includes superior display, heat management (fans), better speakers, etc.
What you just mentioned is entirely not applicable to this discussion because the Mac by default is already a niche product. And support for multiple external displays is not even a new feature. It has been a standard feature for years that some people have come to just expect. Hence the outcry when M1 and M2 Airs were released with support for only 1 external display regardless of resolution.
Furthermore, you don't have to mention doing software for a living. I do too. Features can get cut, but definitely not something that has been a part of the SRS for at least 12 years. If you are not matching SRS of an existing product line and not even communicating the omission properly, either someone's head should be on the chopping block or you mention to your customer why an omission took place. If neither happened, the decision to omit is indeed intentional and related to something other than effort that must be spent on R&D.
It's super complex for this to be achieved on Mx chips but it's super easy, barely an inconvenience with the Mx Pro/Max chips?
This is also not to mention the community was able to "hack" in support for 4K120 properly to HDMI, something Apple does indeed artificially limit via software and requires an EDID override to force DisplayPort to work.
My gods, I can't take this place anymore... Apple puts in the effort to add a feature and the response is still negative...
There's two display controllers in a laptop with an integrated display. Not surprising that the first thought would be to apply one of those controllers to the display that's inseparable from the chip. Now Apple added a feature that lets you repurpose that controller for another external display if, for some reason, you choose to disable the integrated display. Rather than respond with a "hey, Apple found a way to address the concerns of a small subset of users", we get another wave of bile and hate.
I can't imagine what it must be like spending my time tabulating lists of ways I can present myself as a victim of minor conspiracies.
There's two display controllers in a laptop with an integrated display. Not surprising that the first thought would be to apply one of those controllers to the display that's inseparable from the chip. Now Apple added a feature that lets you repurpose that controller for another external display if, for some reason, you choose to disable the integrated display. Rather than respond with a "hey, Apple found a way to address the concerns of a small subset of users", we get another wave of bile and hate.
I can't imagine what it must be like spending my time tabulating lists of ways I can present myself as a victim of minor conspiracies.
See above. Same mechanism should be possible with M2 too.
If we will eventually get the same "new feature" (mind: it had been available in MacBook Airs for 12 years prior to M chips) in M2, then sure. I can concede at that point that Apple did not make this an artificial limit. If it is indeed possible also on M2 and there are no significant change between M2 & M3, then not backporting this to M2 just reeks of Apple being forced to give us this "feature" right after Mac sales dropped 34%.
Remember when Sarbanes-Oxley wreaked chaos on revenue recognition departments across the land and a company that had been, and is again, offering free OS updates for years had to ensure they were in compliance?
This is more of what I mean. Apple is being forced to add a second display in clamshell mode because that's going to recover 34% in sales?
I read those comments above and saw "yep, not easy to do".
You read those comments from someone who is not an Apple employee saying that it might be possible in principle but would also take substantial effort because the integrated panel is treated specially, and decide that if they don't but put in the effort and cost of back porting it to previous generations it's all because they have malicious intents.
Reading this thread, I'd say that if Apple provides this feature it's because they're dedicated to providing the best products they can, not to please the thankless hoards.
Yes, it was a $2 fee they needed to charge in 2007 under accounting rules in the Sarbanes-Oxley act and how it defined certain accounting practices. Other manufacturers had to do the same when the new Wi-Fi standards were approved, though manufacturers knew the standards were coming soon, so the hardware in some products was capable even if the firmware wasn't at the initial time of sale. More here.
Can't blame Awful Evil Apple for this one. But speaking of evil, I love your Marathon-inspired profile pic.
It doesn't "prove" any such thing. This software update adds the ability for the MacBook to run differently in clamshell mode than it does while open, and support an additional external display in clamshell model. Something no other Mac does. It's entirely possible that this software update was simply not ready 4 months ago when the M3 MBP's released, and they made sure it was ready by the time M3 Air was released. It's not nefarious. It's just development prioritization.
Underneath the current debate about specs I think there is a genuine current of wanting Apple to provide its customers with more value for money, as there always has been when people debated Apple's stock configurations. But I feel like the 8 GB/16 GB and 256 GB/512 GB wars are just a reflection of the same rehashed debates over specs that never ends when discussing Apple hardware.
I'm happy with the base model config on my MacBook Air; it feels plenty fast for what I need it to do, which admittedly isn't all that much compared to working with 8K video, high-res Photoshop images, large 3D rendering workloads or huge ML data sets.
I find a lot of the complaining around the base specs of the MacBook Air to be somewhat puzzling. It leaves me asking about what people are genuinely expecting out of Apple's lowest-end laptop line. It reminds me somewhat of the early-mid 90s, when reviewers would complain that a home-oriented PPC 603-based Performa didn't benchmark as well as a pro-level PPC 601- or 604-based Power Mac.
It was mainly due to Sarbanes-Oxley as others have been so quick to mention. But I'm sure that if Apple really wanted a way to give out that update for free, they could have legally figured something out.
And for me, Apple has always been a company that's nickle-and-dimed customers, whether it was for RAM/storage upgrades or accessories. It's only been magnanimous with its products when it was to their market advantage...which is, well, what every other company does under Capitalism. 🤷♀️
In the press release, Apple lists dual-display support as one of the top three major selling points. That pretty much guarantees Apple isn't going to backport the feature, regardless of how easy it might be.
It also tells you how desperate Apple is to recover from that 34% loss in sales volume. When was the last time you saw dual-display support as a headline feature for a notebook?
![1709668506415.png]( "1709668506415.png")
It also tells you how desperate Apple is to recover from that 34% loss in sales volume. When was the last time you saw dual-display support as a headline feature for a notebook?
Yes. Did you even look at their MacBook Air page? The fact that 2 displays can be connected is now mentioned as if it's a "new feature".
And in the press release, it's also headlined as mentioned above.
Why are we even kidding ourselves? Apple *is* pushing the dual-external-display connectivity "feature" as a differentiator between M3 vs M1/M2 in an effort to push old M1/M2 owners to upgrade. They even increased Mac trade-in value to make it enticing. It is very clear what they are trying to do.
Your statements are baseless…
1) The number of displays supportable are a matter of bandwidth, not only of the chips themselves but also the various other mainboard chipset components. Do you have the full spec for all these components across all the MBA generations? Likely you do not…
2) Noise cancellation will only work with a proposer seal between your ear and whatever produces the audio. As regular AirPods to no offer such a seal, it would not work. Noise cancellation also requires outward facing mics to pick up the noise to be cancelled. That and the chips regular and Pro AirPods are likely different.
Nothing to see or discuss here, move along…
Let's not pull a different product line (AirPods) into this. By limiting to one single external monitor does not make the product worse. While part of my day job is recommending and getting patrons the right Mac hardware, with MacBook Air I just suggest people to add one larger monitor over two smaller (24 or 27-inch) monitors. It's actually more cost effective and better cable management. For existing folks who have two monitors, we deployed DisplayLink docks as a workaround.
They could have gone back and enabled the M2 MacBook Air models for dual monitors support. On M1 MacBook Air or MacBook Pro without the MagSafe charging ports, it could be messy if one didn't have monitors with USB-C or Thunderbolt connectivity and docking station.
They could have gone back and enabled the M2 MacBook Air models for dual monitors support. On M1 MacBook Air or MacBook Pro without the MagSafe charging ports, it could be messy if one didn't have monitors with USB-C or Thunderbolt connectivity and docking station.
Best thing is, Apple doesn't even hide behind marketing language. There is no, "because of the next-generation M3 GPU architecture, this clamshell mode is made possible on MacBook Air."
It's straight up, you want this feature, you need the M3 model. Pay up.
M3 has the same memory bandwidth as M2, 100 GB/sec. Or maybe you mean M3 hardware ray-tracing is needed to drive a second display in clamshell mode? 😆
When you have a loyal customer base, it's always more profitable to offer them two things that almost do what they want rather than one thing that actually does what they want.