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2018 MacBook Pro Review

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Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#311

Post by Fomite »

briandear wrote: post #277
bogomipz wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed and perhaps the height of absurdity - if you were to go buy a brand new iPhone 8 today, the cable that comes with the phone has a USB 3.0 connector not an USB-C connector at the far end. So you can't even plug a brand new iPhone 8 directly into a brand new Macbook Pro without buying a cable as a separate purchase.

Except you don’t need to, generally. Setting up a phone doesn’t require a computer connection and, since USB-A phone chargers are ubiquitous, it doesn’t make much sense to go Thunderbolt 3 on iPhone’s default cable yet because the days of the iTunes setup process are long gone. The primary use of that cable that comes with iPhone is for charging — and it does include a charger. Unless you are the .025% of iPhone owne…

I can't remember the last time I plugged my iPhone or iPad into my computer. And I can remember the last time I borrowed someone's USB-2/3 charger. It was like, two days ago.

I'm with Apple on this having been the right choice.

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#312

Post by jiveturkey »

keyle wrote: post #146
stupidcar wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost as if Apple aren't even basing their hardware strategy on what developers are complaining about on Hacker News.

I haven't met anyone saying nice things about the missing ESC key... And the touchbar is too fiddly and situational to be useful, even to power users.

and yet the complainers are still buying them

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#314

Post by lallysingh »

bigiain wrote: post #256
derefr wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In places other than the US, the majority of commuters are supporting the weight of their laptops on their backs (on public transit/walking/cycling), rather than having it sitting beside them (in a car.)

True - but I doubt that's really a significant factor in the MacbookPro target market. (They're much more likely to optimise them for being carried in artisan faux-vintage messenger bags by people riding share-scooters between home and the FAANG shuttlebus...)

That's maybe 100k units sold every 2 years. Not a big factor.

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#315

Post by geophile »

neonscribe wrote: post #16
geophile wrote: post #4

So they’ve caught up to Windows laptops on specs but still have that abomination of a keyboard. After all the complaints.

The report is that the keyboard is not the same. Quieter, but not necessarily more reliable. Reliability remains to be seen. Keep in mind that the uproar over keyboard problems started far too recently to have affected the design of the 2018 version.

TFA (and other reporting) says the keyboard is marginally more reliable. But 1) it's still a keyboard with almost no travel, and 2) not only is the touchbar still there, but the non-touchbar option is gone.

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#316

Post by lallysingh »

statictype wrote: post #237
lclarkmichalek wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I've been working with the USB-C only MBP as my only development machine for a year now, and I haven't once wished it had a classic USB port on it. At my desk it's plugged into monitors which have ports on them. Having a single cable for all my peripherals is quite nice.

Your monitor supports usb c and has ports on them? Do you feel this is a standard setup that more than 10% of the market have?

The Mac's market share is roughly 10%. But in the high end, where all the profit is.

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#317

Post by lallysingh »

Fomite wrote: post #309
1996 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might increase the thickness. It is not a given. I remember about old single slot pcmcia cards which had a push mechanism that would show a RJ-11 so you could connect a modem. Check the "XJACK connector" for pictures. It was technically possible. It still is.

I remember the number of people who had that snap off.

Equivalent to people with dongles that break off?

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#318

Post by bigiain »

slavik81 wrote: post #305
bigiain wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Macs with USB but no SCSI connector were a big cause of complaints where I was back then (I worked around lots of designers with SCSI Syquest and Zip drives, and all their client archives of high-res photoshop and page layout work on them), and _everybody_ in my circles thought Apple were insane for leaving floppy drives off... (These were a long time back though...)

To be clear, I remember those transitions being very smooth, but I was a Windows user. The first machine I bought without a floppy drive was my laptop in 2005 when CD-RW had long since replaced floppies on the Sneakernet. My school was mostly iMac G3s and I vaguely recall the lack of a floppy drive being annoying once or twice, but the Windows machines had floppy drives and you could easily share files on the network…

Heh - my school had AppleIIs and BBC Micros. My first year at Uni we used a VAX 11/780. I guess we had somewhat different experiences.

On the other hand, I think the most impressive and smoothest transitions I've ever seen in the entire personal computer space were Apple's transition from 68K to PowerPC processors, and almost as smooth their transition from PowerPC to X86. I'm still incredibly impressed with the attention to detail they showed getting those major changes to work so smoothly for users.

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#320

Post by copperx »

designcode wrote: post #234
godzillabrennus wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a 2017 model in February. It’s already had one keyboard replacement. The . Key stopped working. Can’t wait to have this thing replaced because the keyboard breaks regularly enough before the three years of AppleCare runs out.

Getting the keyboard fixed isn't dependant on Apple Care. They have a 4 year program to fix any issues, outside of warranty.

I wonder what happens if you have a keyboard issue AND your logic board dies at the same time after the first year? Will they replace the logic board for free, given that the keyboard was malfunctioning?
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