【Jelena Jensen Archives】

Apple did something unusual this week: It admitted it dropped the ball with the trash can-looking Mac Pro and Jelena Jensen Archivesannounced plans to release a new Mac Pro and new iMacs... next year.

It's the most un-Apple thing the company's ever done. But is the apology and promise of a do-over (that, again, won't come for another year) enough to smooth things over with frustrated Pro users?

Tech Editor Pete Pachal, Chief Correspondent Lance Ulanoff, Senior Tech Correspondent Raymond Wong, and Assistant Tech Editor Louise Matsakis discuss just that on this week's MashTalk podcast.

Lance flew out to Apple's Cupertino HQ earlier this week and sat down with Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi, and Vice President of Mac and iPad Hardware Engineering John Ternus.

The VPs basically apologized for miscalculating the Mac Pro (2:14), going as far to say the company designed itself "into a bit of a thermal corner." The three also suggested that Apple mistook the adoption of the iMac by Pro users. Because Apple saw more Pro users buying iMacs, they didn't prioritize the Mac Pro.

Though Apple stopped short of showing off any new hardware, the company hinted at a new Mac Pro design that'll fit the needs of its most demanding users. We're taking that to mean some kind of configurable computer that'll let users swap in new graphics cards, and maybe — just maybe — finally support resource-intensive things like VR.

Next, Business Reporter Kerry Flynn joins to tell us about Mastodon (16:50), the new decentralized Twitter knock-off that's taking the world by storm. Or is it? How does it work? What's great and what sucks? And how corny is it to "toot" instead of tweet? LOL.

Closing out this week's MashTalk, I dive into the launch of YouTube TV (read my review here), Google's new live TV streaming service aimed at young millennials (29:50). How's it different than other live TV streaming services like Sling TV, DirecTV Now and PlayStation Vue? Is the unlimited cloud DVR worth the $35 monthly subscription? Do youngsters even care about live TV?

And, as always, don't forget to leave your questions and comments by tweeting @Mash_Talkwith the #MashTalk hashtag. We welcome all feedback.