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Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future

arstechnica.com

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Re: Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future

#31

Post by rbanffy »

akvadrako wrote: post #15
registered99 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there's the possibility of GPUs in the display, though

That makes a lot of sense, but I haven't seen any hints that it's coming soon. Keep in mind, you really need an upgradable GPU for that, since these $1000 5K displays have a long life cycle. And it would probably require rewrites of high-performance apps and games to be something closer to client/server setups to manage communication between the CPU/memory and GPU. There is really no difference for anything but the m…

5K displays won't cost $1000 for much longer. Right now they are premium products but soon they'll be the norm. By then, adding a good enough GPU to the screen will make sense (because your laptop doesn't need to carry - and feed - more brains than needed to push pixels to the built-in display) and, if the user wants more, they'll use whatever is installed in their computers.

Re: Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future

#32

Post by forgetsusername »

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #23

People bitch about dongles but if you think about it, who would make this progress if Apple doesn't? Apple is probably the only consumer tech hardware company out there that can do this. I almost think it's their responsibility to push the boundary. People make fun of the term "Courage" and I thought that was funny at first too. But the more I think about it the more I get what he's trying to say. Right now NO ONE ot…

And pros don't complain about their tools.

Pros, in every industry, complain about their tools more than anyone else.

>See TV as an example

The TV industry, from both the physical panels to production and distribution of content, look drastically different than 10 years ago. I can't tell if you're trying to credit that to Apple or not? But it's hardly stagnant.

Re: Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future

#33

Post by gokhan »

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #23

People bitch about dongles but if you think about it, who would make this progress if Apple doesn't? Apple is probably the only consumer tech hardware company out there that can do this. I almost think it's their responsibility to push the boundary. People make fun of the term "Courage" and I thought that was funny at first too. But the more I think about it the more I get what he's trying to say. Right now NO ONE ot…

>...who would make this progress...

Are you talking about loosing ports? A lot of people think it's not progress but something limiting their options.

> I'm not buying a device whose primary purpose is to stick in my USB cable.

People don't stick cables to laptops just for the sake of sticking it, no? People work with lots of devices with different interfaces. People travel to different offices and need to "stick" a cable of a device which they don't own, don't have a dongle ready and maybe won't see that interface for months or years again. Having all possible dongles for all the devices you come across is impossible for some use cases.

> .. if Apple didn't do this, I think the entire laptop category will just stagnate...

Oh, come on! Will just stagnate because of too many ports?

Re: Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future

#34

Post by majormajor »

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #30
jacquesc wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PC Laptop world is actually really competitive. Check out Razer, Alienware, Yoga line, and Microsoft Surface. They're innovating like crazy. Touch screens, OLED displays, external GPUs, different form factors, VR capable performance, etc. And many of those laptops integrated Thunderbolt 3 a while ago. Regrettably, Apple has us all locked into their ecosystem via software so it feels like they are the only ones innova…

Yeah I agree that they are competitive, that's why they can add stuff but can't remove. Adding is easy. Adding is always good, which means it's easy to make that decision, but removing requires "courage" (haha I just can't help it although I agree with the term) For example, it would be an idiotic move for Microsoft Surface to remove USB cables and headphone jacks because as far as hardware is concerned they're an un…

> For example, it would be an idiotic move for Microsoft Surface to remove USB cables and headphone jacks because as far as hardware is concerned they're an underdog.

That doesn't track with history. Apple was a huge underdog when they released the iMac and removed floppies and many non-USB ports.

Re: Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future

#35

Post by cocktailpeanuts »

rplst8 wrote: post #29
cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #23

People bitch about dongles but if you think about it, who would make this progress if Apple doesn't? Apple is probably the only consumer tech hardware company out there that can do this. I almost think it's their responsibility to push the boundary. People make fun of the term "Courage" and I thought that was funny at first too. But the more I think about it the more I get what he's trying to say. Right now NO ONE ot…

There was plenty of progress in the laptop market before Apple became the power-player that it is today. Did Apple play a part? Yes. Did many of the other companies that have since gone out of business, merged, or still exist today? Yes. Personally, I don't think touch interfaces are progress - for laptops (or desktops). There are many reasons this is true, but the biggest one for me is that your finger obscures thin…

One thing I just couldn't relate to during last couple of weeks is how all these people are criticizing the touch bar and saying it's a gimmick when they have never used it.

I am ready to listen to you if you come back after you use it for a month. But I think it's funny to make all these conclusions about something when you haven't touched it.

Re: Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future

#36

Post by cocktailpeanuts »

majormajor wrote: post #34
cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I agree that they are competitive, that's why they can add stuff but can't remove. Adding is easy. Adding is always good, which means it's easy to make that decision, but removing requires "courage" (haha I just can't help it although I agree with the term) For example, it would be an idiotic move for Microsoft Surface to remove USB cables and headphone jacks because as far as hardware is concerned they're an un…

> For example, it would be an idiotic move for Microsoft Surface to remove USB cables and headphone jacks because as far as hardware is concerned they're an underdog. That doesn't track with history. Apple was a huge underdog when they released the iMac and removed floppies and many non-USB ports.

Well I guess they had "courage" back then! But most companies don't, and that was my point.

Re: Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future

#38

Post by brigade »

Selfcommit wrote: post #4

The comment "15-inch Pros have enough thermal headroom to fit in quad-core Skylake processors..." is interesting. While the current offerings don't meet expectations set for the MBP... maybe this is a long play by Apple? How quickly will the disappointment be forgotten when 32 gig / quadcore / nvidia GPU's are released?

?? The comment is based on the fact that they're equipped with quad core Skylake processors, therefore they probably have enough thermal headroom to handle what they actually have.

Re: Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future

#39

Post by cocktailpeanuts »

gokhan wrote: post #33
cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #23

People bitch about dongles but if you think about it, who would make this progress if Apple doesn't? Apple is probably the only consumer tech hardware company out there that can do this. I almost think it's their responsibility to push the boundary. People make fun of the term "Courage" and I thought that was funny at first too. But the more I think about it the more I get what he's trying to say. Right now NO ONE ot…

>...who would make this progress... Are you talking about loosing ports? A lot of people think it's not progress but something limiting their options. > I'm not buying a device whose primary purpose is to stick in my USB cable. People don't stick cables to laptops just for the sake of sticking it, no? People work with lots of devices with different interfaces. People travel to different offices and need to "stick" a…

Please google why Apple got rid of the ports. They didn't do it to make you suffer.

Re: Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future

#40

Post by gokhan »

ThePhysicist wrote: post #3

They also reviewed the new Lenovo Yoga 910, which seems to be a good alternative for people that don't rely on MacOS: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/11/lenovo-yoga-910-revie... It even has a 4K touch-enabled display.

I have a ThinkPad 450s with touch, and I regret buying one with a touch screen. It's almost impossible to see the screen under daylight, expensive, consumes more power and I only use touch when I use the laptop in cramped places, like a plane flight. Great machine otherwise, but I couldn't find my use case for touch enabled laptops.

For a while, I thought it would be useful if the screen was detachable as in the MS' Surface device, but realized that I'm also not using my iPad that much to justify the use case.

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