Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

371–380 of 623 posts

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#371

Post by adamlett »

d3ckard wrote: post #333
m12k wrote: post #316

It's actually kind of amazing to see the discourse shift against Apple and the new MacBook Pro to the point where it seems almost self-reinforcing. Like someone turned the reality distortion field on backwards or something. I've been wanting a mac laptop the size and weight of a MacBook Air 13" but with a retina display for years, and the ability to connect usb, power and external display with just a single cable is…

I do not agree. It is not about magic, it's about neglecting the user group that made them rich in the first place. Apple actually stopped making pro hardware. They're unpredictable when it comes to upgrades(15 Retina ethernal Haswell, 2013 Mac Pro, even iMacs), they do not seem to have an idea how the platform should evolve and they're obsessed with thinness, while in the pro market performance and battery life are…

It was not the pro users who made Apple rich. It was the consumers buying iPods, and later iPhones.

Pro users are at the same time extremely demanding and extremely conservative. Apple has never done much to cater to that market, and the fact that they have so many pro users these days is a happy accident which has more to do with how awful these people used to be treated when they were Windows users, and not a lot to do with anything Apple did specifically for their sake.

Apple doesn't care about pro users, whom they rightly consider demanding and ungrateful. Apple cares about ordinary people, the ones lots of pro users talk about often in the most condescending of manners. Apple's mission has always been to make computing accessible to the masses (remember the slogan: "The computer for the rest of us"?), not to make it better for the elite few who already know how to use one.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#372

Post by scholia »

jpkeisala wrote: post #158
icelancer wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am shocked how often I use my touchscreen on my Dell XPS laptop. I started off never using it, now find myself using it regularly when I'm on the go (not docked obviously). Takes a bit of time to get acquainted, but I really enjoy it.

Same here, I thought I would never touch it and almost looked option without it. Glad I bought touchscreen.

Ditto. Last year, I made the mistake of buying a non-touch laptop thinking I didn't care that much. Had to take it back to the shop and swap it for a touch-screen machine....

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#373

Post by ufo »

yoz-y wrote: post #285
dom0 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give an up-to-date KDE a shot.

KDE certainly is powerful and the Kparts system is amazing. However, in the beauty category I would put it at the bottom of the bunch.

KDE Plasma 5 is gorgeous. I couldn't stand KDE4's "windows XP" look but now KDE is one of my favorite DEs.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#374

Post by scholia »

adamlett wrote: post #371
d3ckard wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not agree. It is not about magic, it's about neglecting the user group that made them rich in the first place. Apple actually stopped making pro hardware. They're unpredictable when it comes to upgrades(15 Retina ethernal Haswell, 2013 Mac Pro, even iMacs), they do not seem to have an idea how the platform should evolve and they're obsessed with thinness, while in the pro market performance and battery life are…

It was not the pro users who made Apple rich. It was the consumers buying iPods, and later iPhones. Pro users are at the same time extremely demanding and extremely conservative. Apple has never done much to cater to that market, and the fact that they have so many pro users these days is a happy accident which has more to do with how awful these people used to be treated when they were Windows users, and not a lot t…

> Apple's mission has always been to make computing accessible to the masses (remember the slogan: "The computer for the rest of us"?), not to make it better for the elite few who already know how to use one.

Except the masses buy Windows 10 laptops that cost $199 or whatever. The Mac has never been "accessible to the masses" because they won't pay Apple's prosumer prices...

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#375

Post by lethargic_meat »

sliken wrote: post #299
lethargic_meat wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ram limitation, similar to the limitations on processor are Intel's fault, not Apple. Mac's latest version uses LPDDR3E which tops at 16G. For 32G you would need LPDDR4 or LPDDR4E and a processor compatible. http://fixmibug.com/if-the-macbook-pro-32-gb-of-ram-the-desi... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_DDR https://ark.intel.com/products/88972/Intel-Core-i7-6920HQ-Pr...

There's plenty of x86 laptops that handle 32GB ram. Of course would mean designing for the CPU and not the thickness of the laptop. Apple's such a slave to the thickness that they put a smaller battery on the high end 13" than they do in the base model.

32GB ram laptops don't utilize LPDDR3, as in Low Power DDR3, which is used to reduce power consumption. If you're happy carrying a "portable" jet turbine, be my guest.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#376

Post by jasonsync »

w0utert wrote: post #345
jest3r1 wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to explain. Price. I've been wanting a mac laptop the size and weight of a MacBook Air 13" ... how about the size and weight and price?? They removed a bunch of ports, reduced battery life and upped the price. USD $1799 to $2799 (with touch bar). Pricing is out of reach. Especially if you live outside of the USA where exchange rate kills it completely. I love the 13" Macbook Air, just wish they would add re…

>> It's easy to explain. Price I second that. I also agree with the OP that the amount of complaining about the MBP is a little weird considering it's still one of the nicest laptops you can get for the vast majority of users, but the fact that they found it necessary to increase the price even further really is somehwat insulting considering the few improvements they added compared to the (already very good) Macbook…

Apple actually recognized that price is the issue.

By lowering the price of all the dongles shortly after launch, they confirmed that they may have underestimated how price sensitive their "Pro" market has become.

Mostly because the Pro market now encompasses everyone wanting to upgrade their lower-end MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs. Because there's no upgrade path for these users at the moment (other than the iPad Pro which is a non starter for so many reasons).

A new, 13" MacBook would be a good step towards bridging the gap, and providing an upgrade path for everyone else.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#377

Post by bitwize »

It's one thing to be committed to the Mac. But do they see the Mac as a Mac, or do they see it as an iPad Super?

If they're going to commit to the iPad Super at the expense of the Mac that professionals have come to rely on, they are going to have a seriously disgruntled user base.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#378

Post by wildmusings »

yoz-y wrote: post #280
72deluxe wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to use Windows all the time at home but as my Windows 10 installation believes it is up to date (but is clearly an old build number, irritatingly/stupidly only visible in the settings app and not my computer > Properties), it really is not up to date and I have no idea when Microsoft will decide that it is. It's rubbish. And the lack of consistency throughout the OS (icons different everywhere, duplicati…

Just to chime in that my windows 10 also still does not want to go to the Anniversary version. I have tried the auto update and the manual installer to no avail. Reinstalling the whole system did nothing as well. I have a standard 2014 mbp so the configuration is all but banal. Everybody is raving about the Linux subsystem but as far as I am concerned it does not exist.

My understanding is that if your computer tries and fails to upgrade, it will only retry a certain number of times before giving up. Your best bet is probably to do an upgrade install with an Anniversary Edition ISO, which I believe you can download from Microsoft directly. Upgrading with install media is a totally different mechanism, more akin to a clean install + data and app migration, than Windows Update and should get you back on the update train again as well.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#379

Post by bunderbunder »

adamlett wrote: post #371
d3ckard wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not agree. It is not about magic, it's about neglecting the user group that made them rich in the first place. Apple actually stopped making pro hardware. They're unpredictable when it comes to upgrades(15 Retina ethernal Haswell, 2013 Mac Pro, even iMacs), they do not seem to have an idea how the platform should evolve and they're obsessed with thinness, while in the pro market performance and battery life are…

It was not the pro users who made Apple rich. It was the consumers buying iPods, and later iPhones. Pro users are at the same time extremely demanding and extremely conservative. Apple has never done much to cater to that market, and the fact that they have so many pro users these days is a happy accident which has more to do with how awful these people used to be treated when they were Windows users, and not a lot t…

I think that the more "pro" market might overestimate its own representativeness. Sure you can go to a tech meetup and see a sea of glowing Apple logos, but dominance in a relatively small portion of the market is still a small chunk of market share.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#380

Post by lethargic_meat »

untog wrote: post #101
lethargic_meat wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ram limitation, similar to the limitations on processor are Intel's fault, not Apple. Mac's latest version uses LPDDR3E which tops at 16G. For 32G you would need LPDDR4 or LPDDR4E and a processor compatible. http://fixmibug.com/if-the-macbook-pro-32-gb-of-ram-the-desi... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_DDR https://ark.intel.com/products/88972/Intel-Core-i7-6920HQ-Pr...

...so why didn't Apple use them?

This is LPDDR vs. DDR RAM types. There was no intel processor that supported LPDDR4 during the MBP design.

If you wanted to add 32G in a laptop, then DDR4 and reduced battery life are your only options.

A good example is the XPS 15, which trades battery life for DDR4.

Post reply on HN