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Open Letter to Tim Cook

petersphilo.org

121–130 of 233 posts

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#121

Not to beat a dead horse but I'm also considering abandoning Apple as I'm due an upgrade now. I'm still using a MBP from 2010 that I added an SSD and some extra ram too, it's still going strong although showing it's age it has served me very well over the years. Gluing parts in that used to be user replaceable, models now are 16gb of ram only (can someone explain this one?), thinness for thinness sake, removing stand…

> models now are 16gb of ram only (can someone explain this one?) Which other laptop were you going to buy that supports more than 16 GB? How much does it cost? What's it size, weight, color depth and battery life? As far as I know, the new Surface Book also only supports 16 GB of RAM . Or the new Razer Blade. The Razer Blade Pro can have 32GB of RAM, but it is twice as heavy and twice the volume of the 15" MBP.

The field was even more scarce 4 years ago. At the time, 16gb in a laptop was extremely rare. Apple won a lot of business (including mine) by showing that it was possible. Some people (including me) thought they would have spent some of the following 4 years figuring out how to keep moving up. Unfortunately, it looks like they actually spent that time pushing an MBP into an MBA chassis and adding a touch sensor that other manufacturers were shipping 10 years ago.

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#122
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it wouldn't had killed them to include some USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI port. Magsafe, USB Type A, HDMI, and Mini DisplayPort / Thunderbolt 1/2 are all literally too wide to fit within the width of the new laptop’s sides. They would have needed to make the whole laptop noticeably thicker or otherwise differently shaped to fit any of those. The headphone jack barely fits.

My current laptop is thinner than the new 13" Macbook Pro (bearly, by just 0.5mm). Way thinner than the 15" Macbook Pro. Yet it has full sized USB 3.0 ports, a USB-C port, SD slot and an HDMI port. The only reason those ports don't fit on the new MacBooks, is because the bottom curves up near the edges.

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Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#123

Not to beat a dead horse but I'm also considering abandoning Apple as I'm due an upgrade now. I'm still using a MBP from 2010 that I added an SSD and some extra ram too, it's still going strong although showing it's age it has served me very well over the years. Gluing parts in that used to be user replaceable, models now are 16gb of ram only (can someone explain this one?), thinness for thinness sake, removing stand…

>models now are 16gb of ram only Do you have a use for more than 16gb? Serious question.

Workload expands to use all available resources. 640kb etc etc etc...

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#124

Outside HN I really haven't seen posts complaining about the new Apple offerings. So it could be Apple only pissed off a particular type of developers.

Reddit is ablaze. The first comments on Ars were very snarky too.

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#125
post #20

Best comment [1] I read a couple of days ago: >One thing constantly said to founders here is "don't let a vocal minority come in, tell you they love your product, and then turn into bullies that tell you how you should make said product. You never made it for them; they aren't your market. Don't get confused into thinking they are, just because they're loud." I think that about sums up the relationship between Apple…

People are mostly concerned about: - 16GB max RAM - Function keys Personally I am only concerned about the RAM, I don't use the function keys ever and I can remap another key to replace ESC. I would have gladly forked over for a 32GB MBP, instead I just ordered an i7 ThinkPad x220, extra RAM and an SSD to see if I can do my day to day work on it before buying a top spec non-Apple X86 laptop.

My number one consern was weight. I've been carrying my MBP for the last 3 years working out of coffee shops and co-working spaces. I'm tired of lugging around 4.5 lbs. Especially when there are 2 lbs 15 inch notebooks. Apple lowered the weight .3 lbs to 4.1, still double the lightest 15 incher.

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#126

I don't get the racing analogy. It's not like you can buy a Formula One racing car. If Apple started making super computers to play chess then the analogy would be valid.

Author says in the comment that F1 is the only competition where you can't buy what is being raced - every other competition requires vehicles that are actually sold.

Besides, you can't buy an F1, but you will buy fast cars from manufacturers based on their F1 results. Ferrari could ship a Jeep tomorrow and people would still buy it thinking it's the fastest Jeep ever.

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#127
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> models now are 16gb of ram only (can someone explain this one?) Which other laptop were you going to buy that supports more than 16 GB? How much does it cost? What's it size, weight, color depth and battery life? As far as I know, the new Surface Book also only supports 16 GB of RAM . Or the new Razer Blade. The Razer Blade Pro can have 32GB of RAM, but it is twice as heavy and twice the volume of the 15" MBP.

The field was even more scarce 4 years ago. At the time, 16gb in a laptop was extremely rare. Apple won a lot of business (including mine) by showing that it was possible. Some people (including me) thought they would have spent some of the following 4 years figuring out how to keep moving up. Unfortunately, it looks like they actually spent that time pushing an MBP into an MBA chassis and adding a touch sensor that…

Yea, it was 4Gbit DDR3 DRAM that made it possible in most laptops. We are now moving to 8Gbit DDR4.

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#128
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple doesn't seem to know or care. Oh nonsense! They showed like a dozen ways that the new touch pad alone makes using professional apps easier, faster, and generally better in their keynote. They are clearly thinking specifically of the professional market. Whether they hit their mark or not is up to the market to decide. The new computers are already back-ordered by 4-5 weeks, so clearly someone's ordering them.

The new touchpad got so big it looks impossible to type without touchpad activity. Isn't the illusion of scarcity and back orders from product launch 101 to encourage higher demand?

Have you tried it out yet? I haven't, but my assumption is that false touch events would be pretty trivial to filter out--especially since there's no longer a mechanical click.

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are mostly concerned about: - 16GB max RAM - Function keys Personally I am only concerned about the RAM, I don't use the function keys ever and I can remap another key to replace ESC. I would have gladly forked over for a 32GB MBP, instead I just ordered an i7 ThinkPad x220, extra RAM and an SSD to see if I can do my day to day work on it before buying a top spec non-Apple X86 laptop.

My number one consern was weight. I've been carrying my MBP for the last 3 years working out of coffee shops and co-working spaces. I'm tired of lugging around 4.5 lbs. Especially when there are 2 lbs 15 inch notebooks. Apple lowered the weight .3 lbs to 4.1, still double the lightest 15 incher.

Out of curiosity, what's the lightest 15-incher you refer to? How do they compare in terms of spec? I'm particularly interested in the materials used in construction. Which MBP do you have?

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#130

Not to beat a dead horse but I'm also considering abandoning Apple as I'm due an upgrade now. I'm still using a MBP from 2010 that I added an SSD and some extra ram too, it's still going strong although showing it's age it has served me very well over the years. Gluing parts in that used to be user replaceable, models now are 16gb of ram only (can someone explain this one?), thinness for thinness sake, removing stand…

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