MacBook Pro • Hacker News Board

Re: MacBook Pro

#341

Post by swang » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 6:53 PM UTC

I have the early 2013 MacBook Pro. It is still pretty fast.

Nothing I saw today makes me happy to upgrade as a developer. Sure it's lighter and thinner and HUUGE trackpad that's a nice to have when I'm traveling. But the TouchBar requires me to look down at my keyboard which slows me down. And they can't even leave the keyboard itself alone with the terrible butterfly implementation coming over from the 12" MacBook. And I am sure all the Mac developers will enjoy developing apps that both have and do not have TouchBar. Just wait 5-7 years for all the non-TouchBar based MacBooks to not be as common.

Then the ports. Apple seems to think that it can force upgrades to technology like they did with (arguably) floppy drives and cd-rom/dvd drives. But USB (non-C) is not a dying standard, neither is an SD-card slot. People still use SD-cards Apple! I don't want to buy dongles all the time. I am shocked they even bothered to include a headphone jack. Where's your courage now Apple?

All of this has been very off-putting as a developer. And where are the iMac and Mac Pro updates?

edit: also they got rid of magsafe. i guess thats a split since their magsafe 2 cables were way too loose.

Re: MacBook Pro

#342

Post by artimaeis » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 6:54 PM UTC

karmelapple wrote: post #296

untog wrote: post #179

I know USB-C is the future, but it's going to be a long, long, long time before all our devices are using it - particularly external displays. My current Macbook Pro has an HDMI port. I use it every day. I do not want to carry a converter dongle with me everywhere (I did that with my old Air that only had a DisplayPort). To echo other complaints: this is supposed to be a professional machine. I don't care about it be…

And the wild thing is, the ports introduced today aren't even USB-C; they're Thunderbolt 3 ports. Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C are not the same, right?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)#Thunde...

Thunderbolt 3 is basically an extension which builds on top of USB-C. As such it's fully backwards compatible.

Re: MacBook Pro

#343

Post by bdcravens » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 6:54 PM UTC

Given it's only TB3, and the party line is to get adapters, won't this mean that you'll need to add $100+ to the price for adapters?

Re: MacBook Pro

#344

Post by kevindong » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 6:54 PM UTC

The Touch Bar seems like it'll go the way of iOS's/Mac's Force Touch: completely unused by users and completely unsupported by developers.

Re: MacBook Pro

#345

Post by mindo » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 6:54 PM UTC

They should have called it "MacBook Hipster". Call me stupid, but this spring I bought mbp 13" mid-2012 model not because it's the cheapest one they have, but because that's the only one they had with swappable hdd, ram, battery and even with ethernet port that I personally don't care that much about.

I much rather have slightly lower specs but when the day comes and my ram is corrupted or i need ssd replacement I could order one online and get delivered the next day, rather than drive 200km to drop it for repairs, wait god knows how long and drive those damn 200km to pick it up.

Hispter glue sandwiches is not something I'm planing to buy as my next computer, I just really hope Apple will get their sh*t together and release another laptop for old school guys like me...

Re: MacBook Pro

#346

Post by vegasje » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 6:54 PM UTC

Seems like my next laptop won't be a MacBook Pro.

Can anyone recommend a good Linux laptop that will offer up to 32gb of RAM and have decent battery life?

Re: MacBook Pro

#347

Post by rayiner » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 6:55 PM UTC

pcwalton wrote: post #338

rayiner wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Microsoft really hit it out of the park yesterday. Did we watch the same event? Microsoft introduced a $3,000 desktop PC in an era when nobody uses desktops anymore. It introduced a minor update to the Surface Book that starts at $2,300 with dual-core CPU, only 8GB of RAM, and last-gen graphics hardware. For the same price as the new Surface Book i7, I can get an MBP 15" with bigger screen, twice the RAM, and a qua…

> Microsoft introduced a 28" desktop PC in an era when nobody uses desktops anymore. The fraction of desktops vs. laptops shipped (~40%-~60%) has been holding steady for years. https://www.statista.com/statistics/272595/global-shipments-...

How many of those desktops are used in corporate environments that would never spring for a machine that starts at $2,999?

Re: MacBook Pro

#348

Post by zeusly » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 6:55 PM UTC

hartator wrote: post #327

I think it's also interesting to note that for the first time Apple is lagging behind in term of CPU generation when introducing redesigned MacBooks. The new MacBook Pro are said to be using 6th generation of Intel CPU (Skylake) when you have already on the market the 7th generation on Intel CPU (Kaby Lake). You are even competitive laptops using them already: http://www.gsmarena.com/new_dell_xps_13_laptop_comes_in_r…

as I understand it, the MBP line uses the 45W CPUs and I think they aren't out yet

Re: MacBook Pro

#349

Post by andrewfong » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 6:55 PM UTC

throwanem wrote: post #324

rayiner wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Microsoft really hit it out of the park yesterday. Did we watch the same event? Microsoft introduced a $3,000 desktop PC in an era when nobody uses desktops anymore. It introduced a minor update to the Surface Book that starts at $2,300 with dual-core CPU, only 8GB of RAM, and last-gen graphics hardware. For the same price as the new Surface Book i7, I can get an MBP 15" with bigger screen, twice the RAM, and a qua…

> Microsoft introduced a 28" desktop PC No. Microsoft introduced an entirely new kind of tool for digital artists. I'm not one myself, but the Surface Studio makes me wish I were. And the people I know who are, are over the moon about it. They can't wait to get their hands on one. Yes, it's Microsoft that hit it out of the park, and made Apple look amazingly weak by comparison. Today's event wouldn't have been partic…

This. It's aimed at a very specific group of users and they love it -- e.g. https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2016/10/26/the-surfac...

Re: MacBook Pro

#350

Post by josho » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 6:55 PM UTC

justanton wrote: post #292

Apple is being run more and more by marketers, rather than by techies. As a developer, I don't want to see "emojis" on my keyboard, but I do want to be able to plug in any device I need in that exact moment, without looking for a right dongle. Apple needs to stop sacrificing usability for "looks".

Agreed. The venn diagram of people that can afford the pro and those that care about emojis is likely rather slim.

However, watching the photoshop demo I could see the value. Honestly though, I think an add on accessory the size of a trackpad would be better. Unfortunately, that would sell in numbers so small that software support would be non-existent. So, this is a compromise solution that doesn't have Apple's usual boldness to it, rather a lacklustre add on that will deliver lacklustre results (to both sales and usefulness).