Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines • Hacker News Board

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#361

Post by hennsen » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 11:56 AM UTC

tokenizerrr wrote: post #359

glogla wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried that for half a year, and it has some issues: - Linux applications have a lot of trouble with the HiDPI screen - Coil whine - Shitty battery life - Shitty touchpad So as whatever is Apple doing is annoying faddy bullshit, it's still the better option, especially considering the XPS 13 cost as much or more than MBP.

I'm using my XPS13 for like a year now. > - Linux applications have a lot of trouble with the HiDPI screen Honestly haven't noticed a single thing. > - Coil whine None of that. > - Shitty battery life What's shitty? It lasts 5 hours of me working with VMs. I don't think expecting more is reasonable. It's much less laggy than my collegue's MBP, which leads me to assume that Mac just throttles the CPU down to achieve l…

Thanks for the details! :)

No idea why people flag that post. Flagging should be used to mark stuff that’s really useless nonsense or against community standards by attacking people personally... not to downvote opinions people don’t like. But the HN thoughtpolice seems to think different.

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#362

Post by wycy » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 11:57 AM UTC

usaphp wrote: post #120

arthurofbabylon wrote: post #119

I’m a non-tech savvy person who happens to work in tech. I find the touch bar very useful. This is what I believe: the touchbar is for people like me... people who never learned to use the F keys, people who aren’t obsessive about shortcuts but appreciate them when discovered. In short, it’s for the 90% of software users that float between general public and pro users. It works.

> In short, it’s for the 90% of software users that float between general public and pro users. It works. Then they should have not called it a “MacBook pro” there is nothing “pro” about touch bar, it’s something useless that I have to pay extra for and I don’t need it at all.

"Pro" doesn't stand for "professional developer," it just stands for "professional." Professional includes designers, executives--anyone using the laptop for work.

Pro doesn't even imply computer power user. It just means the opposite of home/personal.

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#363

Post by dahauns » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:04 PM UTC

rkangel wrote: post #316

cottsak wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't wonder, see for yourself: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Retina+D... https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Touch+Ba... Not a lot has changed in the past few years. Macbook Pros are NOT easy to mod/change or swap parts. This is very clearly the intention of Apple.

> Not a lot has changed in the past few years. Macbook Pros are NOT easy to mod/change or swap parts. This is very clearly the intention of Apple. I don't think they've done it on purpose, this is just how it has ended up because of other priorities. I think their priority is tight packaging - across every hardware line they have, doing that well has allowed them to ship more hardware features (and/or more battery li…

Yeah, and then there's the Fujitsu Lifebook U93x. As thin and light (920g) as the MacBook (non-Pro), with comparable battery life.

But: 15W TDP CPU; RAM&SSD not soldered; USBA, USBC, HDMI, SD, SmartCard and even Ethernet(!).

Or the HP Elite X2 1012. Surface-class tablet/convertible with similar specs, but...well, 10/10 on iFixit.

Sure, those devices may have other issues (that trackpad on the Lifebook...), but tight packaging is not an excuse for unmoddability.

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#364

Post by anentropic » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:04 PM UTC

makecheck wrote: post #3

The big problem I see is that my laptop is hooked up to a display half the time, lid closed. It wouldn’t be useful for showing anything that isn’t also on the main display. And it can’t have a set of bar-only controls (if Apple were serious about that use, they would have released an external keyboard with Touch Bar by now).

exactly, if they had a USB keyboard (please, no pointless wireless battery powered nonsense) with TouchBar I might even try it out

it would be bigger so they could keep the 'real' Esc key etc and avoid most of the problems people encountered

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#365

Post by amdavidson » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:08 PM UTC

hennsen wrote: post #355

hennsen wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why people downvote others who just report their experiences, and not even have the balls to write a word about it... i share your opinion that it seems so that we can only chose between things that suck least and have no generally great option

I wonder why people downvote posts who wonder why people downvote posts in which others state personal experiences...

"Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading." [0]

0: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#366

Post by gambiting » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:17 PM UTC

glogla wrote: post #332

adambyrtek wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dell XPS 13 has build quality comparable if not better than MacBooks, comes with Linux preinstalled, and has an optional high resolution QHD+ screen. http://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptops-notebooks-and-2-in-1-...

I tried that for half a year, and it has some issues: - Linux applications have a lot of trouble with the HiDPI screen - Coil whine - Shitty battery life - Shitty touchpad So as whatever is Apple doing is annoying faddy bullshit, it's still the better option, especially considering the XPS 13 cost as much or more than MBP.

Same here. Mine has an idiotically loud coil whine and sometimes fails to go to sleep(the screen switches off but the computers stays on, resulting in a scorching hot laptop when you pull it out of your bag). The touchpad is horrendous, frequently jumping the cursor when you click on it. I've had the motherboard replaced 3(!!!!) times now, and all of those issues are still present, and from what I heard they are not exclusive to just one generation of the XPS - it's almost like Dell engineers can't make a small laptop without coil whine.

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#367

Post by oftenwrong » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:18 PM UTC

aiham wrote: post #245

hellofunk wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every professional vi/vim user I know does not use the Escape key.

How do they escape input mode?

There are many ways:

http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Avoid_the_escape_key

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#368

Post by KillerRAK » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:23 PM UTC

I refuse to buy the new MBPs for corporate use. Just keep buying the older model. The new one is an unmitigated, overreaching, disaster. Oh and BTW, if Apple discontinues the older MBP, I will NEVER buy a MBP with a Touch Bar. Utterly ridiculous. I look forward to reading about what a stupid technology blunder this was years from now in a listicle of tech mistakes.

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#369

Post by KillerRAK » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:25 PM UTC

KillerRAK wrote: post #368

I refuse to buy the new MBPs for corporate use. Just keep buying the older model. The new one is an unmitigated, overreaching, disaster. Oh and BTW, if Apple discontinues the older MBP, I will NEVER buy a MBP with a Touch Bar. Utterly ridiculous. I look forward to reading about what a stupid technology blunder this was years from now in a listicle of tech mistakes.

And don't get me started about removing the glowing apple logo on the back of the screen. No reason for it -- now the back of the MBP looks just as shitty and cheap as every other craptop on the market.

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#370

Post by bpicolo » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:28 PM UTC

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #336

glogla wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And give up the only good desktop operating system, retina screens and the only usable touchpad in laptops.

Give up the only usable trackpad if you move away. Endure an objectively terrible keyboard with a massive failure rate if you stay. (Ironically my £3K touchbar MBP return key failed to register a press right on cue when typing this comment)

The new keyboards drive me nuts, too. Old ones were 100x better. How did they not notice how quickly and crappily the keys turned to degraded mushstate? Never left the clean room?