Semantic Nonsense: So they made a new Mac

Last week, while I was busy playing demos (and I will be again now that Stranger of Paradise is out), Apple was busy doing something quite unusual for them: Plugging a hole in their lineup.

As you may recall, one of the reasons I built the Hackintosh was because Apple stopped making power-user-grade computers, offering nothing in between “I like looking at webpages” and “I like burning through 8K video editing and my trust fund.”

Well, those days are gone now. With all but the Mac Pro now transitioned to Apple Silicon, an entirely new product was just about the only new M1-based computer they could have announced last week.

And so, we now have the oddly named Mac Studio. It’s a brick with no modularity, like the Mac mini (Mac maxi or, hell, even just Mac was RIGHT THERE, Apple), but has enough oomph under the hood to match or beat the raw computing power of the existing Mac Pro. Not quite the tradeoff I was looking for (I was looking for modularity and less power), but I’m frankly shocked this exists at all.

The base model rings up for $2,000 while the “please hang on until the M1 Mac Pro comes” model with doubled specs starts at $4,000. The actual Pro, when it exists, is certain to cost even more, meaning that the cheaper Mac Studio is it. No other model is going to come closer to my sweet spot. It’s this, or nothing.

Even if I had two grand just kicking around, I don’t know if I’d do it. My laptop is still pretty new, as is the Apple Silicon software ecosystem. I’m also poorly calibrated on the M1’s performance; it’s possible the efficiency of the chips means that my old conceptions of where my use case falls might be invalid.

…Though I will have to eat some words, at least for now:

I’d be willing to pay up to 2 monitor stands for a proper Mac desktop, but the product I was waiting for didn’t come into existence. I was hoping for something more scalable.
— Me in 2019. Well, shit

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Kit Kat M&M of the week: Crunchy Cookie

So, I have to come clean. I did not try a new Kit Kat this week. I DID, however, find an unexpected new M&M flavor (which is somewhat more rare than a new Oreo flavor) last time I was out shopping.

This is alleged to be a permanent edition to the M&Ms roster, so it needs to bring the goods. I’m still bitter about the espresso bean M&M losing to the excellent but far less unique Mint Crispy M&M for the last permanent roster spot… only for that spot’s permanence to vanish moments later. So maybe the new guy doesn’t, in fact need to deliver.

The Crunchy Cookie M&Ms are indeed crunchy, but less crispy than Crispy M&Ms. While the texture is about where it should be, the flavor is kind of low-key. I’m not really sure what kind of cookie it is trying to be. I’m assuming the inspiration is dried clumps of cookie dough, but the chocolate-candy shell is where i’m picking up 90%+ of the total flavor.

Of course, I can’t help but wonder how these would taste baked into an M&M cookie.