“According to some digging into Apple’s ‘BridgeOS 2.0’ code and macOS this weekend by Jonathan Levin, Steven Troughton-Smith, and Guilherme Rambo, the upcoming iMac Pro appears to feature an A10 Fusion chip with 512 MB of RAM,” Eric Slivka reports for MacRumors.
“While the full functionality of the A10 chip isn’t yet known, it appears the chip will enable support for “Hey Siri” functionality, potentially even when the iMac Pro is turned off,” Slivka reports. “The ‘Hey Siri’ theory was quickly confirmed by Rambo, who shared both a boot chime for BridgeOS and the setup process for ‘Hey Siri’ discovered within macOS.”
Confirmed: "Hey, Siri" is coming to the Mac pic.twitter.com/Dw9bRAzbxD
— Guilherme Rambo (@_inside) November 18, 2017
BridgeOS has a boot chime sound 🤔 pic.twitter.com/ofupY9RZt8
— Guilherme Rambo (@_inside) November 18, 2017
Read more in the full article here.
“The A10 looks like it can do a lot more than just Hey Siri, as [Troughton-Smith] points out,” Stephen Hackett writes for 512 Pixels. “The A10 may first fire up BridgeOS, then boot macOS once a set of security and system integrity checks are passed.”
“There are a lot of questions here, but one thing seems settled: Face ID isn’t present in what we know about the iMac Pro,” Hackett writes. “That aside, there is a ton of interesting stuff going on with the iMac Pro. It may be used to usher in a new era of Mac security and complexity, perhaps at the expense of pro users’ tinkering habits.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Last we heard from Apple, the iMac Pro “is scheduled to ship in December.” We’ll see if the company can manage to meet this particular promise or not soon enough.
https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/status/931994004887044097
SEE ALSO:
Apple delays HomePod release to early 2018 – November 17, 2017
Apple CEO Tim Cook: The ‘operations genius’ who never has enough products to sell at launch – October 23, 2017
Apple reveals HomePod smart home music speaker – June 5, 2017
Apple is misplaying the hand Steve Jobs left them – November 30, 2016
Apple delays AirPod rollout – October 26, 2016
Apple delays release of watchOS 2 due to bug – September 16, 2015
Apple delays HomeKit launch until autumn – May 14, 2015
Apple delays production of 12.9-inch ‘iPad Pro’ in face of overwhelming iPhone 6/Plus demand – October 9, 2014
Tim Cook’s mea culpa: iMac launch should have been postponed – April 24, 2013
I’d like to see it expanded all the way to built-in iOS support.
They will announce it on New Years Eve. Cook is a fool.
Apple doesn’t fully control the desktop. The iOS-ification of OSX will be the next main version of MacOS. Last brick in The Wall.
Let’s hope that doesn’t happen, that would be the end of the Macintosh, and probably in the long run the end of Apple.
I would tend to agree. You already have analysts and stock bookies calling the iPad and iPhone a personal computer. I say bollocks! A personal computer, among other things, is under the personal control of its owner.
But… Apple is a consumer electronics company now. For all the arguments I make against iOS restrictions, and Apple IT practices, I get reams of support for those restrictions and practices, and pushback against the very notion of individual owners having the choice to use them. Even the notion of other software stores fro iOS. People (likely stockholders) support the status quo as determined my the mothership.
Bottom line, if it’s good/bad for iOS, it’s good/bad for Mac. They are all computers after all.
It doesn’t matter to me if Apple is late delivering the iMac Pro. I’m still interested in purchasing one. If the iMac Pro does have an A10 Fusion chip inside it, that’s just an extra bonus for me. My Macs are usually running 24/7 so I don’t need Siri to turn on my Mac, but if Siri is always listening or waiting for commands or questions, I might like that feature.
I’ll never understand why people are so upset because an Apple product is late. Better late than never. It’s not as though someone’s life depends upon some Apple product being on time.
Many professionals need the latest and greatest… and asap.
I’m not one of those any longer, but I’m definitely in the market for a new Mac. Particularly capable of driving a 4K display. There’s some great deals out there now, but can’t take advantage of them with a 2012 Mac mini.
Don’t want an iMac (due the AIO issue and the expense), nor a Mac Pro (due to the expense).
That leaves a Macbook… which is out due fragility. Had a 17″ Alum Macbook Pro that I treated like it was made of glass. Motherboard died just outside the AppleCare time frame.
So I’m in the market for a mini that can drive a 4K display. Probably not going to see such a thing until after the next Mac Pro is released, if then… although there is no reason Apple couldn’t build such a mini right now. I’ve read some articles that indicated a software hack can get a current mini can drive a 4K display, although at a slower than optimal refresh rate.
That 17″ is most likely a graphics chip.
You might want to talk to somebody like these guys: http://stores.ebay.com/brickfence
Or find another independent chip-level repair shop. The independents actually fix the boards, they don’t just do board swaps, so things tend to stay fixed.
In this case the Christmas shopping season is hardly that important, though perception won’t be helped.
As for Siri I am happy to say she seems to be considerably better than she was 6mths ago. The last three commands (after not bothering for months) she has understood and executed perfectly the last two when I was doing something else and didn’t want to stop and find the answer to a couple questions and just asked her getting an instant answer. Now that is exactly the sort of use that will be handy to use. Looks like they may finally have got off their ass at Siri HQ. Perhaps I should ask her.
Just great!!
So now when you say”Hey Siri” your iPhone, Home Pod, and iMac will all be answering you at the same time. Maybe even your Apple Watch too…? Not confusing at all.
I think they have already worked out a heirarchical formula to prevent that happening… assuming it works.
Maybe the A10 is for iOS inclusion on the iMac Pro.
512 MB of RAM doesn’t inspire great dreams for the A10 in the iMac Pro. But Apple could make it a cross-platform device. That could be a great thing and would end the ignorant speculations that Apple will move Mac to A-Series CPUs.
The only real drawback is the added cost of the added CPU. Everything else is quite doable and I’m sorry I didn’t think of it first. 😉 But yeah, I’d want a lot more RAM for the A10.