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Open Letter to Tim Cook

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Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#171

Post by phire »

grzm wrote: post #120
phire wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Oh, don't tease! :) What's your current machine?

Nothing special: Acer Aspire S.

And it's far from the only ultrabook around that thickness with those kind of ports. I'm just amused that it has more variety of ports than the Pro machine which costs 3 to 4 times as much. (though, no thunderbolt 3)

But it's not even in the same market as the Macbook Pro, it should be competing with the Macbook. I was kind of hoping to upgrade it to a Macbook Pro when the new model was released.

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#172

Post by sangnoir »

jsz0 wrote: post #149
graeme wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are professional users really a "vocal minority" of the MacBook Pro ? I'm not a developer. I run an online business and use a MacBook Pro for video recording, editing, and general website admin. I needed the extra processing power, and the ports. The new model has me apprehensive, though I'll certainly look at it. What's the target demographic this new MBP is serving, though?

> Are professional users really a "vocal minority" of the MacBook Pro? A lot of professionals have workflows / infrastructure that does not rely on the specs of any individual computer. Past a certain point it's the only practical approach for scaling. I suspect the vocal minority are the users in the upper end of the prosumer range who can't really justify moving to truly pro workflows / infrastructure.

> I suspect the vocal minority are the users in the upper end of the prosumer range who can't really justify moving to truly pro workflows / infrastructure.

Are you suggesting that they are Pro'ing it wrong?! Your comment reeks of no True Scotsman: if a persons workflow is local, then it's not "truly pro". You seem to be forgetting that not all people can be wired into the pro infrastructure all every time they need to do work (travel, connectivity).

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#173

Post by colejohnson66 »

Kudos wrote: post #160
colejohnson66 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a few people who preordered the iPhone 7 the minute it was available online. By the morning, it was up to a week (or more depending on the model). It's not an artificial shortage if they really are out. Do you really think a factory can churn out the millions of phones needed in just a few months?

Except the parent commenter meant literally the minute, not later that day. Only the base 13" model was available to ship quickly, the rest were launched with a 4-5 week delay.

I'm certain that's probably because the product was finalized too late to begin production early, not an artificial shortage.

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#174

Post by guelo »

IBM wrote: 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…

Right. They don't give a fuck about us so it's hard to continue giving a fuck about them. But the question for them is, will they really be better off in the long term giving the creatives the middle finger?

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#175

Post by guelo »

DanHulton wrote: post #161
c0nducktr wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's the target demographic this new MBP is serving, though? I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I think the new MBPs are, well... not good, considering the price. I really like my 2012 MacBook Air. It's still going strong, although I wish I had went for the 8GB of RAM instead of just 4. But when I was talking about the new models with my friends and coworkers, a lot of us shared one thought: We don't thi…

I really wish I agreed with you. Unfortunately, there's literally nobody who can step in here and make a truly competitive product, since it won't run the same OS. I mean, I develop for the web, so I could very well switch to Windows or Linux at this point, and after some pain points, I'd probably be back up and running and around 90% as happy as I was before. But that last 10%, where things don't work quite like I w…

There's also a 10% that works better on Windows than on Macs and you're not currently aware of it. I've switched between Macs and Windows and Linux as my daily driver several times and there's always an annoyance when you switch and everything doesn't work the way you want t. But it goes away quickly, within days. And then the next time you switch you're again annoyed that things don't work the way the new way you're used to. Actually, I've been mostly using Macs for the last 4 years and I still think window management and the Finder are inferior to Windows'.

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#176

Post by kalleboo »

sxcurry wrote: post #148
smrtinsert wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new touch pad looks ridiculous. It looks like novelty they're throwing out to placate the masses they get a real touch screen together behind the scenes. I have absolutely 0 desire to use a tiny strip of touch above a perfectly good keyboard.

And the good news is .... you don't have to!

You'll still have to pay for it if you want a 15" macOS laptop though (unless you want to buy old hardware)

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#177

Post by richie5um »

tensor wrote: post #70
IBM wrote: 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…

For every rule of thumb there are exceptions. In this case, if you lose the professional market, which is more than just developers, also designers, photographers, videographers, architects, scientists, you risk a sort of negative network affect. In most families and circles people go to the person in the group who knows the most about tech, usually professional user. This person will often recommend products they th…

I agree. We can't prove it, but recommendations of "it just works" are what I feel has helped drive Apple - especially the Mac, but in the early years, also the iPhone.

Every year they seem to continue to introduce (via neglect/decisions/priorities) more reasons to pause at purchase time. And, recommendation time.

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#178

Post by godmodus »

snoman wrote: post #153
woah wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Real men have huge computers

I honestly don't want to come off like that, but if 2 vs 4 lbs is someone's primary concern then it sounds like a great laptop.

halving the weight is a problem ... it could be solved if they used something other than allu for the body, maybe go for carbon or a hybrid allu/carbon case.

have you ever considered getting an Air and using AWS for power? i might be clueless, thinkpad user here. and i lob a 19cell flatbattery around that weighs at 0.5 kilo itself.

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#179

Post by eropple »

initram wrote: post #89
eropple wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your workflow is Mac-oriented, buying a trashcan Mac Pro right now is really expensive for pretty outdated hardware. MBPs are pretty much the only game in town.

If you're doing video editing with FCPX and/or Motion, those dual GPUs in the MacPro help a lot!

Sure, but the hardware's anemic for the price. The MBP is pretty much at the reasonable spot on the price/performance curve.

(I use an MBP as the brain of a multi-camera video studio; I totally get why one would buy a Pro. But I'd pull 100% off of Macs before buying one.)

Re: Open Letter to Tim Cook

#180

Post by easychris »

c0nducktr wrote: post #101
graeme wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are professional users really a "vocal minority" of the MacBook Pro ? I'm not a developer. I run an online business and use a MacBook Pro for video recording, editing, and general website admin. I needed the extra processing power, and the ports. The new model has me apprehensive, though I'll certainly look at it. What's the target demographic this new MBP is serving, though?

> What's the target demographic this new MBP is serving, though? I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I think the new MBPs are, well... not good, considering the price. I really like my 2012 MacBook Air. It's still going strong, although I wish I had went for the 8GB of RAM instead of just 4. But when I was talking about the new models with my friends and coworkers, a lot of us shared one thought: We don't thi…

I'm not sure about the "Business as target market" thing.

In our 12-person company I introduced Macs and now everyone uses one instead of a PC. I'm not sure if businesses would have switched to Macs without some kind of endorsement from a "Hacker"-friend or employee.

If the common perception about Macs withings IT experts will change to "look nice but really not worth their money" I imagine in the long run that could hurt the sales to non-experts too.

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