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INTRODUCING “POWER”

macOS Studio Apple Mac Studio Studio Display lifestyle 01 220308 2

Mac Studio

A Story About Mac Portability

Table of Contents

For context, this post uses the term portability for referring to the ability to carry and transport a device from one location to another.

Lint Free Educational Insights For:

Creators; Musicians, 3D artist, App Developers, Photographers, Videographers…

About Macs & Portability

Why the Mac Studio might be the perfect powerhouse solution you can actually take with you?

Macintosh Carry 1st draft

Finding the ideal ‘portable creator studio’ solution

I’ve always liked the idea of having access to a computer that is powerful enough to efficiently undertake the heavy processing required for accomplishing some of the high-end quality work, no matter where you are.

Well, the MacBook Pro laptop does a pretty good job at that. Wouldn’t you say? (comment if you choose)

But what if, you needed to, or simply could, gain a little more processing power and ports for connecting to your other devices and operate without a struggle?

Wouldn’t you more confidently push onwards with that video editing project you’ve been waiting to re-start?

the Macintosh plus se classic nkns

macintosh-plus

Macintosh Classic

Macintosh SE

IMac G3 Bondi Blue

blue-g3-tower

The Boxed Shaped Macintosh Phase

How things have moved on, as I recall my very, very first Macintosh computer. 

It all started with a humble Macintosh Plus, quickly followed by a Macintosh SE (I think) and then finally a Macintosh Colour Classic. 

It was obvious that whilst these Macintosh computers were fun and intuitive to use, they weren’t quite cutting it, with regards to power, speed and reliability. And especially for the demands of a creative media business.

After this, which I’ll call the Square Macintosh Phase, it was definitely time to move on to something more professional. 

But at what cost and would I have to learn new software?

Apps built with Apple Mac in mind

You see, during this time, I was also introduced to my very first design related software applications. Such as, Adobe Illustrator, Aldus Freehand, Aldus Pagemaker and Quark Xpress (later, learn what apps I mostly use today).

Now imagine what it was was like drawing and designing on such a tiny screen, but also, how ‘relatively’ easy it was to carry a Macintosh Plus or Classic all-in-one computer between one location and another.

So whilst the very first commercial macs are fairly portable, their tiny built-in display leaves a lot to be desired from the professional creators point of view. 

However, so fond of these macs, there are many Retro-Macintosh Enthusiast joining groups and other communities around the world, with members who sought these vintage Macintosh devices for refurbishment or adding to their collection.

Small and compact,
but larger screen please!

Answering user pain points (or in some cases luxury demands), the mac desktop soon started growing larger in size, which seemed to at first contradict the previous all-in-one design pattern that focused on being compact. 

And so, the release of the first colourful iMac G3s rolled out.

After all, can you imagine the size of a Macintosh Plus design with a larger display? LOL

 

big-screen-macintosh-900-1

By the way, there is a fairly comprehensive historical listing for Apple’s Mac / Macintosh computers, you can access the website here.

Now, along with the iMac G3 came the Power Mac G3 tower, so whilst we have always had the consistent option of an all-in-one solution, because of the required need for expansibility and upgrading, the tower macs have always been the de-facto choice for the professional creative studio.

Moving swiftly forward, the real impressive pro-user” macs came during and after the G3 and G4 era.

Then there was the Power Mac G5...

mac-g5

Cheese Grater

G5s Grater Design 600

Trash Can

MacPro Cylinder Wastebasket

Yes, upwards and onwards the Power Mac G5 was a big deal, that you couldn’t carry from one location to another in a hurry. This “monster” was built to stay fixed in the studio. 

These powerful and extremely extensible “pro-macs” had gone from being dubbed as the err, grill (I think..), the  ‘cheese grater,’ and then the cylindrical ‘wastebasket’. ( Any more? answers below)

Anyway, as I was saying, minus the external screen display, of all the Power Mac and Mac Pro range (I know, the model category naming gets a little confusing), the cylindrical Power Mac is the nearest to being portable. 

And so whilst, the Mac Pro (cylinder) is a conveniently small computer, and is packed with more power than its predecessor the Power Mac G5.

Some might say more power than you need…

Mac Studio and Studio Display

Now finally, let’s get straight to the more juicy points with regards to why the Mac Studio and Studio Display makes for such a desirable solution for creators.

Apple Studio Display connectivity MacBook Pro 220308

Anything to do with portability?

Today, although a MacBook Pro laptop will often suffice the needs of most creators; in the office, working remotely, constantly on the move, or living that nomadic lifestyle, however, you can be sure that most creators will miss, and prefer working on a larger display. 

After all, you want to see your art and design in all its glory. Which is why you may have already hooked your MacBook to an external display. And if it is music or video you are concerned about, then you’ll certainly need more than ‘elbow room’, of which, the Mac Studio provides plenty of.

Concerned about lugging an awkwardly sized display around? 

Let me tell you, there are conveniently sized holdalls or transport bags, that will snuggly accommodate most LCD monitors. 

The Portable Mac Studio?

Now this leads me to wonder, why would anyone want to be able to design on a smartphone? (replies below)

Of course portability and size matters, this is why the Mac Studio (providing you have access to a monitor), so far, seems to be the best mac workstation format for Professional designers, Photographers, 3d Artist, Videographers and App Developers. It is also perfectly suited for remote work and nomadic lifestyles.
(What do you think?)

Your Creative Studio in a Box

It’s small, it’s powerful, and comes with a cutting-edge built in camera, but, that’s not all…

Why would I buy the Mac Studio?

Why would I buy this computer? The answer is simple really. 

It’s because it is small and powerful, gives you confidence for taking on  more demanding projects no matter where your are.

Built with the latest technology for its time, the Mac Studio provides confidence and the convenience of portability dictated by todays remote and mobile working digital creators.

Connect more external devices

Fortunately, the Mac Studio will allow you to connect if you really need to, up to 5 third party displays through the HDMI or Thunderbolt 4 ports, compared to that of the MacBook Pro.

studio-in-a-box-600

Todays Creators

Musician and Producer 

For starters, musicians and producers can now confidently work on the most complex compositions with hundreds of tracks, plug-ins, and virtual instruments, all played in real time.

3D Artist and Animator

Meanwhile 3D artists can work with more extreme geometry, edit and render massive environments, run complex particle simulations in a fraction of the time.

App Developer  

As for App developers, well, you can now more readily build new versions of code with incredible speed, and run more automated integration and testing than before.

Photographer and Illustrator 

Now, with the subject of photography, Photographers can sort through thousands of images with speed and precision, composite massive images with hundreds of layers, and export final images for publish in a flash.

Videographer

Finally, but by far from last, Videographers can edit multi-camera projects and more streams of 8K video than ever before, add more colour corrections to projects while maintaining fluid playback, and encode video for final delivery faster than ever.

 You might want to check out some of the specs.

Mac Studio in short

Besides having more ports for connecting your other devices, the Mac Studio is the ideal solution for users who have outgrown their current main computer workstation, require better security with faster and more efficient data processing.

This includes creators who work in mediagraphics and audio, plus of any other data computation intensive projects.

Basic Mac Studio Specs

Mac Studio M1 Max

Ports
  • 4 Thunderbolt 4 ports
  • 2 USB-A ports
  • 10Gb ethernet
  • HDMI 2.0
  • 3.5 mm headphone jack

Memory

32GB

32GB unified memory

Configurable to:

64GB

Mac Studio M1 Ultra

Ports
  • 4 Thunderbolt 4 ports
  • 2 USB-A ports
  • 10Gb ethernet
  • HDMI 2.0
  • 3.5 mm headphone jack

Memory

64GB

64GB unified memory

Configurable to:

128GB


Mac Studio Full Specs

Studio Display

Camera
  • 12MP Ultra Wide camera with 122° field of view
  • ƒ/2.4 aperture
  • Center Stage
Compatibility:

Mac Studio (2022)

16-inch MacBook Pro (2019 or later)

14-inch MacBook Pro (2021)

13-inch MacBook Pro (2016 or later)

15-inch MacBook Pro (2016 or later)

MacBook Air (2018 or later)

Mac mini (2018 or later)

Mac Pro (2019 or later)

24-inch iMac (2021)

27-inch iMac (2017 or later)

21.5-inch iMac (2017 or later)

iMac Pro (2017)

Studio Display is compatible with the following iPad models running iPadOS 15.4 or later:2

iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation or later)

iPad Pro 11-inch

iPad Air (5th generation)



Studio Display Full Specs

Very Useful Links


Apple History


Apple Museum


Macintosh Models


Applications We Use


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RETRO MAC COMMUNITY

Low End Mac – Facebook Group

Low End Mac is an English-language user-to-user support group for those using Apple Macs and authorised Mac clones. There is no official definition of “low end” or “vintage” or “classic” – we like to call them all  “ageing” Macs. 

Our goal as a group is to help you get the most out of your ageing Mac, whether from the earliest days, the PowerPC era, or the 2006-and-beyond Intel era.
Although discussion of iPods, iPhones, iPads, Apple TV, etc. has always been allowed here, we do have separate groups that focus on iPod/iPhone/iPad and Newton devices. 

Our online LEM Swap groups in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia (and its neighbours) are linked in the “Recommended by the Admins” section.
Most of all, be excellent to each other. 

We want to remain one of the most helpful Mac groups on Facebook.

#mactips


GLOSSARY

MacTips: macOS Batch File Handling

Batch Rename Items: select a number of files and and use mouse right click to access the menu. Select Rename Items


batch-rename

Batch Compress Items: select a number of files and and use mouse right click to access the menu. Select Compress Items

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