Weird that I can't find a review anywhere that compares the battery life of the 2013 macbook air with the new $1499 macbook pro. Anyone know of one?
Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future
51–60 of 76 posts
Re: Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future
#52Does Xcode come with touch bar support? Custom debugging controls could be cool.
Yes, 8.1 and later[1]
[1] https://developer.apple.com/library/content/releasenotes/Dev...
Re: Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future
#53They 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 sort of feel like anytime someone reviews a Lenovo laptop, they have a responsibility to mention in the review whether there's any of Lenovo's EFI dickery like self-reinstalling windows drivers, expunged options, or SSL-interposing malware included. Right now the guidance seems to be that if you get a Yoga you'll get the dickery, if you get a thinkpad you'll be ok. But I'd really like to see reviewers call this out explicitly.
It's also worth pointing out that the 910 can't be a MacBook replacement with that nonstandard keyboard layout.
Re: Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future
#54They 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 sort of feel like anytime someone reviews a Lenovo laptop, they have a responsibility to mention in the review whether there's any of Lenovo's EFI dickery like self-reinstalling windows drivers, expunged options, or SSL-interposing malware included. Right now the guidance seems to be that if you get a Yoga you'll get the dickery, if you get a thinkpad you'll be ok. But I'd really like to see reviewers call this out…
Third option is to buy a "Signature Edition" [1][2] from the Microsoft Store (or participating retail stores such as some Best Buys and Staples, I think, if you ask nicely to someone that has the right sort of a clue). Microsoft's Signature Edition program expressly forbids selling the machine with anything more than a clean Windows install. It's definitely what I've started recommending anytime anyone mentions to me to be thinking about a new Windows computer.
[1] https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/cat/categor...
[2] The Yoga, for example: https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Lenovo-...
Re: Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future
#55People 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…
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…
> Check out Razer, Alienware, Yoga line, and Microsoft Surface.
A lot of their headline features gimp the user experience in some way.
Touch screens on laptops means you have to customize the UI so that each element is large enough to be tapped by a finger. So either you have to hide features to make room for these larger elements or pack the screen edge to edge, leaving a pretty cluttered interface. I'd rather have a better touch pad for precise input and without having to lift my arm from the keyboard.
Packing gaming-class hardware into a laptop leaves you with pretty terrible battery life, weight and heating issues. Something has to give. The metrics manufacturers should consider when building a portable device is performance per watt and durability vs weight. You'll always be better off money and performance-wise building a desktop PC for gaming.
Apple went with class leading storage speeds, an adaptable touch interface that's integrated with the keyboard and doesn't mess with the system UI, brought touch ID with the secure enclave, made a much larger touch pad which was already class-leading, made a considerably brighter screen - aiding outdoor use. It's a strong refresh with a premium price-tag, but you know you're buying quality when buying Apple.
Re: Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future
#56People 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…
I think replacement of magsafe with usb-c is a step in the right direction. Hopefully one day products will all have the same ports...unless there's a cooler faster usb-d that has even more function. Maybe one day there will be no ports at all.
Magsafe is/was my favorite mac feature.
Re: Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future
#57Many of us just want the 15" display preferring longer battery life and smaller size/weight to using a discrete GPU. I am at a university and the 15" rMBPs are popular with students as well as researchers. I currently have the 2015 rMBP 15". Thus, it is disappointing that there is not replacement for the version that uses only the integrated graphics. Also, the Intel 530 graphics of the 2016 rMBP 15" appears to be lo…
Do you have a cite on the 20% slower?
Added the source to my post.
Re: Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
I sort of feel like anytime someone reviews a Lenovo laptop, they have a responsibility to mention in the review whether there's any of Lenovo's EFI dickery like self-reinstalling windows drivers, expunged options, or SSL-interposing malware included. Right now the guidance seems to be that if you get a Yoga you'll get the dickery, if you get a thinkpad you'll be ok. But I'd really like to see reviewers call this out…
Third option is to buy a "Signature Edition" [1][2] from the Microsoft Store (or participating retail stores such as some Best Buys and Staples, I think, if you ask nicely to someone that has the right sort of a clue). Microsoft's Signature Edition program expressly forbids selling the machine with anything more than a clean Windows install. It's definitely what I've started recommending anytime anyone mentions to me…
Interesting - so they would actually use a different/clean EFI image on those?
If so, then I agree - that's by far the best way to get a Windows laptop. I'll pass on the recommendation next time someone asks me.
It does seem to be a bit more expensive, though; at least for Canadians. I'm seeing a $700 delta between what I'm seeing there and on the Dell store. Is that usual?
Re: Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please google why Apple got rid of the ports. They didn't do it to make you suffer.
They did it because the lightning port is proprietary and digital. You need to pay them to license it, and they can put DRM on it when they eventually choose to. That's main reason that they will never admit.
I keep hearing this silly conspiracy theory, but the numbers just don't add up.
Apple makes the princely sum of $4 per accessory on MFI licensing fees. Last year, those licensing fees made up less than one fifth of one percent of their revenue, a number so tiny that it doesn't even show up as a line item in their financial reports.
It would be such a spectacularly stupid decision to jeopardise sales of the world's most profitable smartphone just to try and add squeeze a minuscule amount of extra revenue out of MFI fees, it completely beggars belief that anyone is even considering it as a possibility.
Regarding DRM, Apple is the company that forced music labels to abandon DRM on their distribution platform the moment it became clear that Apple held all the power in that relationship. What possible conceivable benefit could there be for them to sneakily try and add it back now?
Re: Review: Touch Bar MacBook Pros give an expensive glimpse at the Mac’s future
#60People 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…
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…
I mean I keep looking around and I don't see what's so innovative. The Razer Stealth is in the 13" rMBP's weight class, but gets a third less battery life. Alienware makes big heavy gaming laptops. Surface is a good design that was poorly executed: http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/macbook-pro-13-inch.... Somehow, the Surface Book with Performance Base gets less battery life than the 13" rMBP, despite having a battery that's 60% bigger!
You have to nail the fundamentals before you start thinking outside the box. Surface Book, for example, had an innovative form factor, but it shipped with major bugs (heating up during sleep, screen refusing to detach from the base, etc.) Shipping a neat-o feature before it's ready for prime time is pointless. E.g. OLED is a disaster for battery life right now on typical white-screen desktop workloads.