Episode Summary
Executive Summary: The episode centers on hands-on Mac hardware and software experiences: Catalina’s permission prompts and Finder bugs, the 16-inch MacBook Pro’s quirks, and an extended deep-dive into setting up a Mac Pro, including its silent, cableless interior and expansion options. The second half covers iCloud photo-sharing limitations, a spirited Swift type-system debate, and a road-trip seating hypothetical, with sponsor reads woven throughout.
Main Topics: Catalina pain points and the 16-inch MacBook Pro: The hosts compare Catalina behavior on laptop versus desktop, highlighting constant permission dialogs, keyboard input lag concerns, and Touch Bar bugs, while still praising the 16-inch MacBook Pro overall. Mac Pro setup, internal design, and expandability: A long, detailed account of setting up the new Mac Pro, its surprisingly quiet operation, cableless internals, and the engineering choices that make it feel like an overbuilt but elegant long-term platform. Boot Camp on an external drive and T2 security: A frustrating troubleshooting saga shows how T2 security blocks external booting until the correct recovery setting is changed, preventing the Mac from even showing the external Windows drive. Mac Pro peripherals, cables, and upgrades: Discussion of USB-B audio cables, expensive audiophile USB pricing, braided cable preferences, and expansion cards/SSDs for the Mac Pro, including what works and what needs proprietary power or drivers. iCloud Photos and shared album limitations: Listeners ask about printing from shared albums and whether Apple can support server-side sharing of full-resolution images; the hosts explain shared album downsizing and workaround options like Google Drive and ZIP files. Swift’s type system and language philosophy: The hosts debate whether Swift is too strict or justifiably type-safe, contrasting it with Objective-C and dynamic languages, and arguing about how much pragmatism versus language purity Swift should embody. Road trip seating dynamics: A lighter closer asks how the ATP hosts would fit into a car on a road trip, leading to a discussion of driving preference, back-seat comfort, and how long trips change the social dynamics inside a car.
Key Arguments: Catalina’s permission prompts create workflow friction that feels overbearing, especially for apps with first-run installers or auto-updaters. The Mac Pro’s internal architecture is unusually elegant because many components connect without cables, using slot or contact-based connections instead. The Mac Pro is designed like a long-term product platform, not a stopgap, because Apple invested heavily in custom engineering. T2 security explains why external boot media can be invisible until external booting is explicitly enabled in recovery mode. The 16-inch MacBook Pro is excellent overall, but the Touch Bar and Catalina bugs reduce day-to-day polish. Shared iCloud albums are not a good solution for printing because they downscale images; users need a separate full-res transfer method. Swift is valuable for safety and performance, but its evolution can feel excessively restrictive and academically driven. Dynamic languages are easier to work in for some developers, while strict type systems provide confidence and compile-time correctness for others.
Data Points: Mac Pro setup time before successful booting: about 10 hours - Time spent troubleshooting Boot Camp on an external drive before discovering the T2 boot setting Mac Pro RAM capacity impression: not even quarter full - User notes the new Mac Pro feels like it has effectively infinite RAM Mac Pro storage increase: 1 TB to 4 TB - Upgrade from old Mac Pro to new Mac Pro internal SSD capacity Photo library size: about 1 TB - Imported photo library immediately consumed roughly half of the 4 TB SSD Time Machine backup progress: 1.41 TB backed up - Time Machine had been running for days and reported only cumulative backed-up data Destiny performance on Mac Pro GPU: about 90 fps at 1080p - Reported performance of the Radeon 580X in Windows/Boot Camp Destiny performance target: 60 fps at 4K with 75% render resolution - Working gameplay setting used to hold a 60 Hz monitor’s refresh rate Mac Pro base price mentioned: $6,000 - Reference to the expensive starting price of the new Mac Pro Mac Pro RAM upgrade question context: 24 threads / 12 CPU cores - Stress test in HandBrake showed all threads pegged AudioQuest USB cable price: $599.95 - Example of an absurdly expensive Type A to Type B USB cable on Amazon Monoprice cable price: $1.27 - Chat-room comparison price for the same style USB cable Shared album image resolution: about 2048p - Photos in iCloud shared albums are resized and unsuitable for high-quality printing Collide trial length: 30 days - Sponsor offer to try the product across the fleet Linode credit: $20 - Promo code ATP2020 for new users Squarespace discount: 10% off - Offer code ATP at checkout
Pivotal Quotes: "You have to unplug every single cable, the power cable, all the USB cables, your display cable." — John: Explaining that the Mac Pro case cannot be removed unless everything connected to the back is disconnected "Why do we need cables at all?" — John: Reaction to the Mac Pro’s internal cable-free architecture and overengineered design "Swift is such a dick." — Marco: Describing Swift as overly strict and nitpicky about types and compiler rules
Implications: Listeners get a practical cautionary tale about Catalina, T2 Macs, and external booting, plus a preview of how Apple’s pro hardware may evolve. The episode also underscores unresolved gaps in iCloud Photos and the ongoing tradeoff between language safety and developer friction.