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Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

arstechnica.com

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Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#81

Post by ummonk »

atlasunshrugged wrote: post #7
ihuman wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No USB ports No USB- A ports. There are still 2 USB ports, but they are Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports.

Gah, just what I need, another adapter. I guess in this day and age pretty much everything is in the cloud but still, I like having at least one USB port. A little surprised they kept the mic jack

It's getting better every year, as peripherals and other devices switch over to USB-C. Apple's imposition of USB-C as the one cable has been very frustrating, but we're starting to see the fruits of it.

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#82

Post by masklinn »

emdowling wrote: post #57

Why is the 12 inch MacBook still in the line-up? The only benefit is that it offers an i7 processor at the top-end - beyond that, I can't see any benefit. Why not just unify the two lines?

> The only benefit is that it offers an i7 processor at the top-end

That's not really a benefit since it uses a 5W i7 (formerly m7) versus — I assume — a 15W i5 on the Air, it's just Intel's shitty branding confusion.

The 12" is quite a bit lighter (2.03 lbs to 2.75), is fanless, and has a smaller footprint (width of 11.04" to 11.97" and depth of 7.74" to 8.36").

That's pretty much it.

The Air has touchid, likely better performances, seemingly a better display, higher storage options, more ports, better ports (12" only has USB-C, MBA has TB3), more battery life.

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#84

Post by masklinn »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #40
erikstarck wrote: post #33

There's also, finally, a new Mac Mini! "The most specced-out Mac mini can feature 64 GB RAM, 4.6GHz 6-core Core i7 CPUs, a 2 TB SDD and 10 Gigabit ethernet."

Whoa, the internals aren't just a MacBook Air now?

The price has skyrocketed though, entry model is $800 (used to be $500), the top end with all options is $4200.

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#85

Post by gehsty »

masklinn wrote: post #84
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoa, the internals aren't just a MacBook Air now?

The price has skyrocketed though, entry model is $800 (used to be $500), the top end with all options is $4200.

Thats probably just inflation since the last update :)

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#86

Post by mariopt »

andr wrote: post #15

Given that 15 minutes later, in the iPad part of the event, they claimed the new iPad is faster than 92% of all notebooks sold in the last year, the writing is on the wall. For me, the next Macbook to be excited about, would be one with an ARM processor. Still, really disappointing that for the new Air they do not allow you to go to 1TB SSD, but they won't allow you upgrade from a dual-core i5. Feels like a political…

Even worse is the iMac lineup. In 2018, you've great 6 and 8 cores cpus in the market and it is still an overpriced quad core cpu.

The new Mac mini seems decent but still expensive for the package.

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#87

Post by wyldfire »

andr wrote: post #15

Given that 15 minutes later, in the iPad part of the event, they claimed the new iPad is faster than 92% of all notebooks sold in the last year, the writing is on the wall. For me, the next Macbook to be excited about, would be one with an ARM processor. Still, really disappointing that for the new Air they do not allow you to go to 1TB SSD, but they won't allow you upgrade from a dual-core i5. Feels like a political…

> new iPad is faster than 92% of all notebooks sold in the last year, the writing is on the wall ... For me, the next Macbook to be excited about, would be one with an ARM processor.

With Windows laptop vendors making Snapdragon-based laptop designs, it's almost a certainty that the market will shift here. Those windows laptops are intended to keep executing code, stay connected to networks when you shut the lid (like your phone does). That must be some enormous battery-life gains.

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#88

Post by masklinn »

Latteland wrote: post #70
izacus wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What, the annoyance every time you need to plug in a USB stick or a mouse you down own? Even now, after two years of USB-C macbook, it's still incredible how annoying having to look for those damn dongles is. You do understand that you can have BOTH ports on the laptop right - see for example how Lenovo Thinkpad Carbon engineers manage to stuff usable ports on the same chasis size.

The google pixel 2015 was the top of the heap for ports. 2 usb-c ports, headphones!, 2 usb-a, sd card. All laptops should have this. It's just endless pain. Certainly 2 usb-c ports are better than 1. But why not put 4? Even better usb-c + usb-a.

> Certainly 2 usb-c ports are better than 1. But why not put 4? Even better usb-c + usb-a.

Because they're not just Type C ports, they're TB3 ports, Intel's stinginess with respect to PCIe lanes & TB3 controller integration means it's hard to put many of those in a machine especially on low-end CPUs, and I guess Apple prefers uniformising capabilities to an extent (even if performances can differ see e.g. the 13" MBP) to having multiple ports with the exact same connector but completely divergent capabilities.

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#90

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

asdff wrote: post #76
saagarjha wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was probably done to only require a single Thunderbolt controller.

You can't run a ribbon wire to the other side?

Or even traces on the motherboard, if the thickness of the ribbon cable is an issue
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