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Turn off Apple Intelligence on macOS 27 and get its disk space back

620 points · 417 comments · privacyisntdead

  1. _pdp_ · · focus · HN ↗
    I don't understand why you would want to remove well-balanced and relatively small local-inference models that ship with every mac.

    Sure, not frontier levels but fine for basic tasks and they are off-the-cloud.

    1. zanderwohl · · focus · HN ↗
      Because the Macbook Air still comes with only 512 GB of SSD in its default config. A feature that you rarely use probably isn't worth even 1/50th of your meager storage.
      1. Gigachad · · focus · HN ↗
        The neo comes with 256gb, which would be fine if they used it sparingly, I don't have any issue with this much storage on my phone, but on macos the space just gets eaten up by junk and is hard to manage.
        1. zanderwohl · · focus · HN ↗
          I love the Neo for what it does at its price point, but on the other hand it's absolute robbery to have a 256 gb SSD and an 8 gb or 12 gb or whatever RAM. MacOS totally uses less RAM than Windows, but man. It's still not enough in this day and age.
          1. dansquizsoft · · focus · HN ↗
            I can confirm from personal experience that the Neo slaps and your perspective is uninformed.
            1. fauigerzigerk · · focus · HN ↗
              It's not just a question of experience though. The Neo can be perfectly sufficient for you right now but that doesn't change the fact that Apple obsoletes devices based on RAM.

              E.g., the iPhone 15, released 3 years ago, doesn't get Apple Intelligence because it has just 6GB of RAM.

              I wouldn't buy a device that is already at the very lowest end of supported hardware the day it's released. It could cut the years of meaningful OS upgrades by half or perhaps even by two thirds.

              It's uneconomical.

              1. wallst07 · · focus · HN ↗
                >doesn't get Apple Intelligence because it has just 6GB of RAM.

                This sounds like a feature to me: Apple should provide a upgrade path that disables AI for older hardware that can't run it, and thus not download the models.

                1. fauigerzigerk · · focus · HN ↗
                  [delayed]
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