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

Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

macrumors.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 145 posts

Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

#31

Post by c12 »

atonse wrote: post #17

The most dangerous thing here is that the public is increasingly getting the message and idea that Apple's mac hardware is decomposing. They really need to make this a priority. I fear that the success of the iPhone is blinding them to the importance of the mac. And you can tell because they're kicking ass when it comes to iOS devices. They're so far ahead in certain areas, it's not even funny. This is reminding me o…

Remember when Apple killed their server devision? It wasn't because it wasn't profitable - because it was. They killed it because it wasn't profitable enough to be anything other than a rounding error on their accounts.

I fear the same is happening with the MacBook line up when compared against the profits from iOS devices.

Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

#32

Post by nottorp »

masklinn wrote: post #7
bogle wrote: post #4

The keyboards. The failure rate makes them a risky purchase. You could be just out of warranty and locked out of your machine. This is happening and driving people away. I personally am really going to miss that perfect trackpad as it's not going to be another MacBook Pro for me until this is fixed.

Touch bar as well, the theoretical upsides were few and didn't really pan out. It would have been an interesting and possibly useful addition to function keys (especially at a $300 markup) but it's just awful as replacement.

Laptop wise, the touch bar is useless and the non touch bar model is castrated.

Worse, I like to use my (2012) mbpro in an open balcony. Judging by all the rumors, you can't do that with a 2015+ model because the first grain of dust that the wind brings in will ruin your keyboard and put you on the hook for a $700 top case replacement. No thanks.

Couple that with no expandable desktop available since 2012...

Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

#33

Post by ballenf »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #10
bogle wrote: post #4

The keyboards. The failure rate makes them a risky purchase. You could be just out of warranty and locked out of your machine. This is happening and driving people away. I personally am really going to miss that perfect trackpad as it's not going to be another MacBook Pro for me until this is fixed.

Aren't they on the third iteration of those keyboards now, I wonder if the failure rate is still high. I guess we will find out when the next revision of laptops comes out, if they really are unreliable then Apple will fix it as it is clearly doing them some reputational damage.

The currently shipping keyboard is the one with the most problems. The earlier keyboards weren't that bad once you got used to them -- they didn't choke on a speck of dust.

Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

#34

Post by [deleted] »

metabrew wrote: post #18

Mid-2012 MBP with SSD, retina, and 16gb here. I've got an HDMI port, SD card reader, two USB ports, two thunderbolt ports, magsafe power, and a proper, reliable keyboard. I despair at the current crop of mac hardware. If this machine dies on me before some decent mac hardware arrives, I'm not sure what i'll do - but it definitely won't involve buying a new macbook with the touchbar, stupid keyboards, and no ports.

[deleted]

Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

#35

Post by dschuetz »

I'm having a deja-vue. 25 years ago Apple was facing a similar decline in product diversity, innovation and novelty. With Steve Jobs gone forever I don't think Apple will survive that one. By a long shot Apple will burn through their cash very fast, with mediocre products and no innovation in the pipeline. And I don't see another innovation genius like Steve Jobs with a determined vision to come around at Apple these days. Good luck with that!

Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

#36

Post by Shivetya »

August 15th is the date I am concerned with because that is when the iMac was introduced. That is such an ideal date to release the next upgrade to the iMac line. There have been rumors floating about of a new chassis which would provide separation from the new iMac Pro.

I am still one of those dreamers who would love a headless Mac with some ability to add drives and even swap a video card. however Apple has not even bothered with a new display in ages so I doubt they would have a new headless mac without one.

Still happily using my 2013 iMac 27 780M video, last of the models that is not Retina

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac

Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

#37

Post by dstroot »

Apple needs to differentiate it’s lines further. The MacBook can be 2 mm thin and light as a feather for those who value those features. However, the MacBook Pro should be a true pro machine with a great keyboard, great screen, necessary ports, and built like a tank. Thinness obsession has gotten a bit far IMHO.

Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

#38

Post by RhodesianHunter »

Spooky23 wrote: post #6

I sadly gave up on the Mac. My next personal device is a Dell XPS. The platform is great, and I liked the (declining) 3rd party ecosystem, but if the company doesn't give a crap about the platform, why should I? It's probably too late, but Apple needs to break the industrial design team's stranglehold on the platform. You can only focus on things that the customer doesn't care about for so long. I pulled the plug whe…

I'm 2 months into owning mine and still trying to figure out the right combination of cables to plug into everything I used to plug into my 2010. If I hadn't sunk so much money into it at this point I'd be throwing it against the wall.

Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

#39

Post by bootsz »

metabrew wrote: post #18

Mid-2012 MBP with SSD, retina, and 16gb here. I've got an HDMI port, SD card reader, two USB ports, two thunderbolt ports, magsafe power, and a proper, reliable keyboard. I despair at the current crop of mac hardware. If this machine dies on me before some decent mac hardware arrives, I'm not sure what i'll do - but it definitely won't involve buying a new macbook with the touchbar, stupid keyboards, and no ports.

Amen

Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

#40

Post by cremp »

H1Supreme wrote: post #9

For years and years, I've advocated that Apple should just release the OS like Windows. It runs fine on a lot of PC hardware you can buy off the shelf (I've built a few PC's that do just this). And, with the Nvidia drivers that were released a year or two ago, most graphics cards people want to run are available. I realize that there's a lot involved with suddenly trying to support an array of hardware. But, maybe re…

Technically, you can build the Darwin kernel from source, since they have it out there, along with some of their other, basic apps.

The rub for me was you needed to compile the kernel on a Mac to start with.

This was all years ago, and a lot could have changed since.

Post reply on HN