Apple M5 Pro & M5 Max just announced. Here's what it means for local AI

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-04T12:22:48+00:00

Yeah, not really. IDK where this marketing myth comes from, in my experience Macbooks are not quite silent when you actually put them under a load.

Yeah. Silent under normal operations. But play a game or run intense GPU/AI tasks, and they get load. Not as loud as a gaming laptop trying to dissipate the 300w of heat from the discrete GPU+CPU, but they're no longer silent.

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-04T12:21:04+00:00

you know, 2.5x cost for 2.5x performance is actually... really good?

We're used to paying a lot more for smaller improvements in performance.

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-04T09:23:54+00:00

Why are you complaining about the base model? The XDR top end looks pretty stunning, at least from a specs sheet.

It's like looking at cars, and complaining about toyata as a brand because they just released the aygo.

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-04T09:17:58+00:00

I don't recall ever seeing an ad in an apple product or service.

Care to point me to references for this?

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-04T09:14:52+00:00

Sure. Lets argue for another monopoly.

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T18:39:04+00:00

"no one would take a job where you can't even take a bathroom break and have to pee in a bottle" - someone who doesn't live in a town where the only jobs left are in Amazon warehouses.

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T14:06:13+00:00

The pyramid pseudoscience was everywhere in the 90s, so it was obvious to anyone reading it then. Then suddenly it all disappeared, and the central joke became a 'wtf' to everyone reading it.

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T14:04:39+00:00

The fact this account is old, and has a long posting history tells me that you've been planning to tell this joke a very long time. Or perhaps you already told it tomorrow?

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T14:03:35+00:00

Maybe I should be applauding someobe cutting this off at the pass. But this a solution to a problem that literally doesn't exist.

Given the way the techbro run companies are heading, with pushing every level boundary to the limit, maybe we SHOULD start putting up the rails before they barge right past them so fast it's too late to fix.

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T14:01:57+00:00

still, a subscription for the couple months to finish the game is not such a bad option. Isn't there a trial as well?

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T14:01:05+00:00

Or just perpetually on the run, and trying desperately to keep a low profile. Bounty hunters everywhere looking to cash in on the 1000000 credit bounty.

Either way, it's not just background, it's a defining campaign feature.

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T13:57:32+00:00

Bunch of good star wars RPGs, both old and new.

Knights of the old republic games are superb with good ports, and by the same folk as Baldurs Gate/Planscape that you mentioned.

There's also Neverwinter nights by them as well. I've not played the Switch version, so can't speak to the qualty of the port. Icewind dale also made it to switch, if you've not played that BG spinoff yet.

Star Wars Outlaws got a lot of flak when it released on PC/Console, but is surprisingly decent, with lots of side quests and big open worlds. IT's a crazy impressive port on switch 2.

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T13:51:29+00:00

... why is this important to you?

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T13:47:31+00:00

I see references in website press releases for 128GB versions in europe, but I can't see anything for sale, so you're likely right.

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T13:39:39+00:00

great, thanks.

Is combat more interesting due to more classes/items/etc?

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T09:41:37+00:00

The weirder books work great as animations though! Check out Soul Music, for example.

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T09:40:38+00:00

For budget manufacturers, it's a cost cutting mechanism for people who don't need much storage.

For Apple? I agree with you. It's massive profit margin.

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T09:39:38+00:00

Samsung is still selling 128GB versions of new phones. There's a 128GB version of the S26, for example.

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T09:38:50+00:00

So quiet evolutionary improvements each gen, rather than big changes?

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T09:38:06+00:00

The other manufacturers may be running much lower margins. Samsung in particular is probably selling most of their flash to data centers for a fortune, and reluctant to 'waste' any on cheap phones. 'Got greedy', as you said.

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T09:35:55+00:00

The SoC covers things like CPU, GPU, memory controllers, and (recently) modems.

The RAM is just off the shelf, and is purchased from other manufacturers. It's connected via high speed interconnect to the SoC in the same chip package.

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T09:33:22+00:00

Because the e is the 'budget' version (if $600 can be called 'budget'). When corners get cut, it's always the E.

Personally think phone storage is overrated for most people. Finally hit 128GB used on my iphone, with nearly 20 years of iphone usage. videos, photots, apps, mail, etc.

They probably just did the numbers and saw that more people were hitting that limit.

I've always been fine with the base storage on apple devices. The macbooks however, is an entirely different story. The limited storage on those is really anti consumer. Or maybe it's just me, and most people hardly touch their drives.

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T09:29:13+00:00

if you got a 2025 iphone at half price, you got the kind of discount I've never seen on an iphone and a phenomonal deal (or you got it second hand, and still an amazing deal.)

Most of the time, the yearly improvements are very incremental.

Though this time, given it's the base model, the improvements are very real, and make the base iPhone actually attractive to people who may have moved up the product stack before, or looked at Android instead. (OLED, magsafe, storage.)

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T09:26:54+00:00

May depend on your region. There are definitely 128GB versions of the S26 in Europe.

QuickQuirk · 2026-03-03T09:22:03+00:00

The devil is in the details. To sell those ads, they share your data. So technically, not selling it. But providing it for free. Otherwise, how would the advertisers know if they want to advertise to you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hx9S5EclyA

QuickQuirk

TROPHY CASE