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Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

businessinsider.com

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Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#201

Post by stcredzero »

jellicle wrote: post #187
Philipp__ wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! Thing is that situation with ports and adapters has never been worse, but Apple came there, wanted to be first again that will pull the plug on old technology and embrace the new one! But their execution was a miss. But anyway, my predictions are that from 2017. every Apple machine, wether it's computer or iPhone or iPad, will go down the USB-C route. Most probably next iPhone would use USB-C. And I just hope 2…

Apple has never gone with an open standard when a proprietary closed standard would do. More likely than using any sort of standard port would be Apple inventing yet another new proprietary port.

Apple has never gone with an open standard when a proprietary closed standard would do.

False. USB 1.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#202

Post by VT_Drew »

pash wrote: post #170
spilk wrote: post #135

Honestly to me the worst thing about the new MacBook Pro isn't that there are no legacy ports on it or that the battery may be smaller, it's that the new all-things-for-all-people ports it has are confusing. The ports are all Thunderbolt 3 ports, which I believe by definition means they are USB 3.1 ports as well. But some devices out in the world have USB-C ports that are not Thunderbolt 3 compatible. No longer can y…

> The ports are all Thunderbolt 3 ports, which I believe by definition means they are USB 3.1 ports as well. But some devices out in the world have USB-C ports that are not Thunderbolt 3 compatible. No longer can you tell what sort of devices will work with a port by its physical shape. For instance, I have a Windows desktop machine with a single USB-C port on the back, but it's not a Thunderbolt 3 port. So while I c…

>If you can plug it in, it will work:

Not if there aren't drivers written for your OS it won't. Unless you are the type of person who can roll your own drivers.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#203

Post by Bud »

72deluxe wrote: post #58
jjawssd wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In macOS 10.12 sierra you can option-click on the battery indicator and click on "show percentage". Now the fact that they are trying to obfuscate how low you are on juice is really damning

Oddly the underlying calls in the power api are all still there (so you can just write a quick app to query it) so I have absolutely no idea why in the world they have removed it, other than to completely irritate you. It's infuriating.

They removed it for the announced reason; at least at the moment, it's not accurate. It would be infuriating to display an indicator that is completely unreliable.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#204

Post by slantyyz »

rayiner wrote: post #78
alberth wrote: post #75

71.8 watt-hour: 2013 13" MacBook Pro [1] 49.2 watt-hour: 2016 13" MacBook Pro Touch [2] Why are so many people surprised that the battery life went down from ~10 hours down to ~7 hours? When the physical battery size is only ~70% of the previous model, it's no surprise the new MacBook Pro only gets ~7 hours of battery life. [1] https://support.apple.com/kb/sp691?locale=en_US [2] http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs…

The really disconcerting thing here is that this is the first macbook in 10 years to be a major regression on key points. Since the first Intel macbook, Apple has focused on core competencies: good touchpad, good screen, good battery life. Every generation got consistently better on those dimensions. PC vendors will do stuff like ship a great touchpad one generation and a shit one the next, but you could generally co…

The problem is that reducing thickness is a selling point/feature for a lot of people on Apple products, but the compromises made in exchange for thinness cause problems for people who don't value thinness over other things.

Having said that, it's important to note that CR did not give the Macbook Pro a Recommended badge (think of it as the equivalent to "Editor's Choice"), it doesn't mean they're telling people not to buy them either. The headlines are somewhat misleading about this.

Personally, even though I've left Macs because I don't like the direction Apple has taken, I'm still hard pressed to say that the current crop of Macs are horrible just because they don't cater to my specific needs. For the vast majority of people looking for a higher end laptop, they're perfectly fine (albeit pricy). I've gotten over the fact that "Pro" in Apple speak no longer means "Workstation Class" (or something close to it).

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#205

Post by IBM »

fpgeek wrote: post #173
IBM wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In practice most people aren't going to have multiple Macbooks, and if that's you you should go to Monoprice and just get different color cables for different types.

People? So Apple isn't interested in selling to families and couples anymore?

Families is fair, but I think my advice still stands.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#206

Post by floatrock »

Bud wrote: post #185
sfifs wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I suppose Apple has also made a healthy profit, either directly or through licensing on each of the purchases?

You suppose wrongly. It's clear from context that the user wasn't buying Apple adapters, and no, Apple doesn't get any licensing fees here either.

I get that the chinese manufacturers reverse-engineer everything, but you're saying that you can use "thunderbolt" on your packaging without paying some licensing fee to apple?

I mean, a bunch that just have the no-name plastic-bag packaging probably slip by on Amazon, but I would assume the lawyers wouldn't let you brand your cable "thunderbolt" without some official licensing fee process.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#207

Post by api »

I'm calling it the MacBook Vista.

Ouch.

After seeing the touch bar, I think it's really not all that useful. I would much rather have seen more battery, RAM, faster CPU options, traditional USB and HDMI, magsafe, and more SSD. Basically take the 2014-2015 MacBook Pro and beef it up and I will be very happy.

People say it's selling. Of course it is. Mac still has a near-monopoly on "Unix with good UI." But if they keep doing this, it will erode. Windows is becoming nicer in many ways, MS and other PC hardware is getting better, Linux desktop is steadily improving, etc. The ecosystem never stands still.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#208

Post by slantyyz »

Bud wrote: post #200
Fnoord wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They can make 32GB with current chipsets but chose not to for battery life. This is false dichotomy. There are alternatives, parallel decisions. They could've decided to not sacrifice weight or size for battery power. This'd have made the MBP Pro, not Air like it is now. You used to buy a MBP for several years, so it'd need good battery power. The new MBPs are all less good with battery power, than the 2015 version…

Absolutely no evidence for your "theory", which is the same old "planned obsolescence" canard we hear over and over about Apple. Always without evidence, and it always looks silly 3-4 years down the road when, lo and behold, all the machines in question are still working very nicely. Also, once the market catches up to USB-C, which will take 12-18 months, you'll no longer need those adapters. Lastly, it's just silly…

>> Lastly, it's just silly and inaccurate to call the iPhone "disposable", when in fact it leads the industry in terms of how long the product lasts, how long the OS is supported for older hardware, etc. By a wide margin.

That might be the case post iPhone 5 (maybe someone can verify this), but it wasn't the case before that. The last available update of iOS for every model pretty much made the iPhone 4S and earlier unusable to all but the most patient users, and that's with very little software installed.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#209

Post by IBM »

nilkn wrote: post #188

The only complaint I really have about the new MBP is the price. MBPs have always been expensive relative to the specs, and I've always been okay with that. But it seems Apple's pushing their margins up even higher and have eliminated more affordable options (e.g., a 15" model without a discrete GPU -- I personally have no need for the GPU, but really wanted the extra screen real estate). After Apple Care and taxes,…

I think price is the only real complaint I have as well. I've only bought Macbook Airs because they were thin and light even though I wanted the power and connectivity of Macbook Pros. This is the first MBP that I want to buy.

By the time I'm ready to replace my 2012 MBA I expect the price will have fallen.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#210

Post by organsnyder »

floatrock wrote: post #206
Bud wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You suppose wrongly. It's clear from context that the user wasn't buying Apple adapters, and no, Apple doesn't get any licensing fees here either.

I get that the chinese manufacturers reverse-engineer everything, but you're saying that you can use "thunderbolt" on your packaging without paying some licensing fee to apple? I mean, a bunch that just have the no-name plastic-bag packaging probably slip by on Amazon, but I would assume the lawyers wouldn't let you brand your cable "thunderbolt" without some official licensing fee process.

Apple doesn't own Thunderbolt: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/trademarks/thunderbol...
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