Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac • Hacker News Board

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

#581

Post by tristor » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 8:35 PM UTC

Gracana wrote: post #465

pronik wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ThinkPads are well-designed and do not feel cheap. There are just two things they are not: extra-thin and shiny.

I disagree. They used to be heavy duty and well designed, now they just look heavy duty (and well designed if you squint). The best example of the slide downhill is their heavy-duty metal hinge... covers. Inside it's the same hinge everything else has. At my last job we had a recent thinkpad of some sort in the shop, and the media keys rattled around under their wavy bezel, and the bottom of the LCD bezel could be fl…

This is what happens when a US company that built it's reputation on bulletproof reliability sells the division to a Chinese company that built it's reputation on high-quality knockoffs. Just saying...

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

#582

Post by graeme » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 8:57 PM UTC

adamlett wrote: post #445

d3ckard wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said that pro users made them rich, I didn't say that they had done it by buying stuff. Apple has been reaping rewards from the pro market for years. It's been those pro users who have been advocating the platform among friends and family. It's been those pro users who have been the perfect subject for those marketing campaigns showing how awesome new products are. It's been those pro users who write tech blogs and…

If you believe pro users have that kind of clout, you are delusional. The iPod most certainly didn't succeed because it was endorsed by pro users, nor did the iPhone. In fact the reaction from the pro market to those products when they were introduced, was one of dismissal ('No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame'). These products succeeded on their own merits by being fantastic products and -- to a lesser extend…

I can count at least one imac, one macbook air and one iphone directly attributable to me. That's to my parents and a frugal friend who normally doesn't buy expensive things.

In my parents' case I simply couldn't provide them tech support since I switched to mac. So they switched over.

And then indirectly lots of clients and people in cafes have seen me using a mac, an iphone or an ipad. I'm sure that's contributed. And I doubt that's an unusual amount for the typical pro user.

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

#583

Post by ivm » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 9:02 PM UTC

novembermike wrote: post #113

gurneyHaleck wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But don't actually LIKE the mac mini. It's not something I particularly want. I do kind of want the huge cinema displays. But they're expensive. I do kind of want the cylindrical mac pro. But it's expensive. Apple's laptops are the sweet spot. I want them. The price is right. And they have performed. Tablets and touchscreens suck compared to a solid laptop. Mac minis are borderline indistinguishable from any other ma…

I don't think anyone really wants the mac mini. What I want is a stackable, modular mac desktop. On top goes the core unit, with the CPU, Ram and integrated graphics. Below that, you can attach a graphics module if you want graphics, Storage modules, expansions etc. It's very possible with today's connectors and it feels like a very Apple thing to do. They don't seem to have an interest in really pushing desktops tho…

I use Mac Minis for 5 years as main machines and don't want anything modular or iMac, only a newer Mac Mini.

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

#584

Post by rz2k » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 9:12 PM UTC

colomon wrote: post #571

rz2k wrote: post #531

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For $150 the ssd is twice as fast at the least. The options for external monitors are also much, much better.

Twice as fast as the previous generation's SSD?

Yes!

    MBP Model        Read      Write 
    Jul 2014 15"   1.1 GBps  1.0 GBps
    May 2015 15"   2.0 GBps  1.5 GBps
    Oct 2016 15"   2.9 GBps  2.2 GBps

These numbers come from different posts found on BareFeats[1]. Official claims, and other sources of benchmarks show approximately the same numbers for large sequential data throughput. It is moving from PCIe 2.0 to PCIe 3.0, and an increase in the number of data lanes that have allowed these rapid improvements. SATA III of older models is limited to about 0.5 GBps up and down.

[1] http://barefeats.com/

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

#585

Post by Lio » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 9:12 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #541

Lio wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've not heard of any games or VR software released to the market that use Metal yet. I've heard it mentioned about projects still in development but so far that's all. Do you have any examples of things using it?

Some games: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vainglory/id671464704?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sky-gamblers-storm-raiders/i... https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/radiation-island/id923760656... https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/asphalt-8-airborne/id6103919... Adobe After Effects https://blogs.adobe.com/creativecloud/after-effects-cc-2015-... Adobe Premier Pro https://blogs.adobe.com/creativecloud/up-next-for-premi…

Sorry I should have been more specific, I meant macOS. Still it's cool that Adobe are using it.

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

#586

Post by darrylb42 » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 9:44 PM UTC

crummy wrote: post #455

matwood wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Linux doesn't handle my mix of high DPI and normal DPI monitors (every month I'm told Wayland is going to support it "soon") so I can't use it. This, this, this. I have been trying off and on for a couple years to move from MacOS to Linux and the HiDPI situation is a mess. Apparently it's not much better in Windows, so maybe if someone is coming from Windows they are used to problems. But, coming from MacOS where I…

I had similar experiences with Windows hiDPI support but they've all been resolved in the last year with recent software updates.

Windows support it pretty well. Some/Most applications don't. I am running windows on a MBP at 150% and a second monitor at 100% somethings are zoomed on the second, some are very small.

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

#587

Post by colomon » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 9:52 PM UTC

rz2k wrote: post #584

colomon wrote: post #571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twice as fast as the previous generation's SSD?

Yes! MBP Model Read Write Jul 2014 15" 1.1 GBps 1.0 GBps May 2015 15" 2.0 GBps 1.5 GBps Oct 2016 15" 2.9 GBps 2.2 GBps These numbers come from different posts found on BareFeats[1]. Official claims, and other sources of benchmarks show approximately the same numbers for large sequential data throughput. It is moving from PCIe 2.0 to PCIe 3.0, and an increase in the number of data lanes that have allowed these rapid i…

Wow!

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

#588

Post by wineisfine » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 9:53 PM UTC

mattkevan wrote: post #342

hollander wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never get these screenshots of desktop backgrounds. It's background-porn. The fact that it's made on Linux and has a Linux menubar and different fonts than Windows or Mac - who cares? I've used Ubuntu since seven years at work, the mac since 17 years, Windows not anymore since seven years, unless when helping others. I would change to Linux anytime if all would just work, meaning Photoshop and other software that n…

Don't get it either. Most themes or skins or whatever for Linux desktops (including the default ones) are pretty terrible - the fit and finish is generally poor. If I'm going to be staring at something for 8+ hours a day the inconsistencies really start to grate. Most of those desktop screenshots remind me of Winamp skins from back in the day - yes it's a great piece of software and endlessly customisable, but most o…

Maybe someone should do a kickstarter project for this: to get a decent Linux distro well designed. Hah!

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

#589

Post by w0utert » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 10:16 PM UTC

jasonsync wrote: post #376

w0utert wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 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 Pr…

>> 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

That's exactly the boat I was in myself, my 2012 MacBook Air just wasn't cutting it anymore for my light Xcode use, but none of the MacBooks would have been much of an improvement in terms of computing power. Because I'm really not prepared to give up OS X yet I was basically forced to stick with the MBA, or buy a MBP at an even higher premium than before.

That said, I decided to close my eyes and plunk down the cash for a tbMBP anyway, and from a hardware perspective I love the machine, as I'm not affected by any of the (IMO for most people mostly artificial/overblown) 'problems' people are complaining about. None, except the price, which still leaves me with a bad taste. Something I haven't experienced with any of my numerous previous Apple purchases...

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

#590

Post by hashhar » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 10:25 PM UTC

joshlemer wrote: post #573

hashhar wrote: post #568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out Razer Blade or the Blade Pro, any Alienware, any System86 machine, most of the Dell XPS series. Don't touch HP with Linux (really bad firmware and driver compat issues).

I just bought a Razer blade and it has not been flawless with Ubuntu. Specifically, when I close the laptop lid, and then open it again, I keep getting logged out every ~15 seconds, until I restart the computer. As a work-around, I must manually suspend the laptop before closing the lid.

I have the Blade Stealth and haven't had any problems with it yet apart from an update that caused my fans to keep on spinning. It's been fixed since then.

I do agree that Linux has very variable performance and experiences across machines. I really do like the laptop though. I'm looking at the Razer Blade Pro (that machine is a beast but looks sexy still) and some Dell Precision laptops for an upgrade (will be passing on the Blade to my brother) but the Pro is extremely costly at the moment.