2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats • Hacker News Board

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#31

Post by Caballera » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:48 PM UTC

Tom1971 wrote: post #8

While, over time, a lot of today's annoyances with the new Macabook's will fade away, the lack of ESC key is a deal breaker for me. I tried it at the Apple Store and it's pretty much unusable. (It had the seen issue as the writer, apparently relying on the physical click to know whether or not I had pressed it. In addition, I also mistyped it a lot. Maybe hack to replace the whole touch bar as one single ESC key will…

The escape key is still there, it's on the Touch Bar, I have no issues with using it, and I haven't had to re-map it. Also you can hit the 'fn' key and the 'Function' bar and escape key will appear while using any other 'app' that changes the Touch Bar.

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#32

Post by Rezo » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:49 PM UTC

If you're used to the Mac's "force app to quit" Command-Option-Esc shortcut, it won't work from the touchbar if the app is unresponsive:

https://twitter.com/technosucks/status/800831482608484352

"You might not be able to use the Esc button in the Touch Bar if the app you're using becomes unresponsive." https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT207358

Fortunately you can still force the Mac to shut down with the Touch ID button after it locks up.

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#33

Post by TheDrizzle43 » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:49 PM UTC

perfmode wrote: post #18

Right now is a great time to score a 2015 model. Doesn't make sense to buy a new MacBook Pro until a 32 GB option is available imho.

Before it was announced I was 100% sure going to grab a new MacBook Pro but now I find myself looking at refurbished 2015 models.

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#34

Post by stormbrew » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:49 PM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #5

Not supporting DisplayPort with an adapter is just insane. Apple's new top-end laptop is incompatible with the most common way to connect external monitors? I've been willing to give Apple and the new MBP the benefit of the doubt on this stuff, and in particular I don't mind that it needs dongles now if that means we get universal USB-C adoption faster. But the dongles need to actually exist and work now!

My understanding is that it's specifically the thunderbolt-2 adapter that doesn't support further adapting to other alternate mode mechanisms. This might be because of incompatibilities between TB2 and TB3/USB3.1 alternate mode implementations?

It doesn't mean it can't do DP over a specific type-c to DP cable/dongle, which presumably are or will be a thing (eg: https://store.google.com/product/usb_type_c_to_displayport_c...). The author appears to want to wait for docks that do both DP and power delivery, if I understand correctly.

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#35

Post by Siecje » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:49 PM UTC

otterley wrote: post #9

We bought a 15" 2016 Macbook Pro ("Retina" is redundant; there are no 2016 MBPs that lack a Retina display.) We also bought a LG 27UD88-W monitor to go with it. (It's one of the few that has a USB-C input.) I have to say, I'm really impressed by the single-cable solution. The monitor charges the laptop (57W maximum, which is less than the Apple charger, but "good enough"), and the laptop sends both video and USB peri…

Why doesn't the Apple-supplied USB charging cable work?

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#36

Post by Veen » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:49 PM UTC

Tom1971 wrote: post #8

While, over time, a lot of today's annoyances with the new Macabook's will fade away, the lack of ESC key is a deal breaker for me. I tried it at the Apple Store and it's pretty much unusable. (It had the seen issue as the writer, apparently relying on the physical click to know whether or not I had pressed it. In addition, I also mistyped it a lot. Maybe hack to replace the whole touch bar as one single ESC key will…

> I've been told to remap the ESC to CAPS LOCK to vim usage, but I seem to be one of a rare breed who uses the latter the way it was intended to be, so that's a no go for me.

Not really relevant, but when Vi was originally developed, the escape key was in a more convenient location — right where the tab key is now. It was never intended for users to have to reach that far to hit such an essential key.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File%3aKB_Terminal_ADM3A.svg

Edit: also, Control-c and control-[ do the same thing.

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#37

Post by hash-set » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:50 PM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #5

Not supporting DisplayPort with an adapter is just insane. Apple's new top-end laptop is incompatible with the most common way to connect external monitors? I've been willing to give Apple and the new MBP the benefit of the doubt on this stuff, and in particular I don't mind that it needs dongles now if that means we get universal USB-C adoption faster. But the dongles need to actually exist and work now!

The dongle shit killed it for me. I use Macs to code due to certain conveniences, but Apple is not looking out for me. Cheap bastards.

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#38

Post by Stratoscope » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:51 PM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #5

Not supporting DisplayPort with an adapter is just insane. Apple's new top-end laptop is incompatible with the most common way to connect external monitors? I've been willing to give Apple and the new MBP the benefit of the doubt on this stuff, and in particular I don't mind that it needs dongles now if that means we get universal USB-C adoption faster. But the dongles need to actually exist and work now!

With my late 2013 MBPR and ViewSonic VX2475SMHL-4K, all I had to do was use a mini-DP to DP cable and everything just works, both in OSX and Windows 10.

I hardly ever boot into OSX any more - most of my work is in Windows and I generally like Windows better anyway - especially with the crisper font rendering after using the ClearType tuner compared to the fuzzier OSX text.

(Yes, OSX - I haven't even bothered to upgrade to Sierra.)

So I guess my next upgrade will be back to another ThinkPad, and I'll keep this old MBPR for OSX/macOS/iOS testing.

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#39

Post by abakker » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:51 PM UTC

otterley wrote: post #9

We bought a 15" 2016 Macbook Pro ("Retina" is redundant; there are no 2016 MBPs that lack a Retina display.) We also bought a LG 27UD88-W monitor to go with it. (It's one of the few that has a USB-C input.) I have to say, I'm really impressed by the single-cable solution. The monitor charges the laptop (57W maximum, which is less than the Apple charger, but "good enough"), and the laptop sends both video and USB peri…

3 sounds like a doozy. Is there any way that the average person can learn to tell these apart once they are out of the packaging, or is it really just a guess and check?

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#40

Post by ChuckMcM » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:51 PM UTC

"Most dongles don't work" was what killed it for me, after reading several reports that it was really hard to hook up anything reliably to the USB-C ports given the churn in the dongle market I decided to skip this generation and go for the next rev.