361–370 of 872 posts
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To a large degree Apple is moving away from using wires altogether, and in the presentation space they appear to be doubling down on AirPlay 2. Neither advocating nor deprecating. Only observing.
This is what we do in our office. We use airplay or a Zoom screen share. Plugging in is a last resort. I never have to do that.
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Nothing wrong with USB-C and the big trackpad is fine too, and I would love to have touchID on my 2015MBP. But getting rid of mag power and the USB-A ports, HDMI port, and SD card slot was a big step back. Maybe you don't ever need to present anything from your laptop, but if you talk to anyone who does, they will tell you how awful it is to not have an HDMI port. The USB-C to HDMI is the worst adapter I've ever seen…
I think they really needed a transition design for 3-4 years that included USB-C but still had the "legacy" ports—in quotes because when they announced the C-only model I hadn't even seen a USB-C port or cable in real life yet. USB-A is nowhere near being on the way out yet. Especially when their own damn mobile devices still come with A cables. We're way into their attempt to push everything to USB-C but I went to T…
Turns out "the technology of the future today" is actually really inconvenient.
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> Hopefully this signals the end of the designers tyranny at Apple. Wait, how do you know it doesn't mean... - all toasters will be as thin as a slice of bread - refrigerators will now open and close like a laptop - washers and dryers will now be wireless (compatibility dongles for water and lint will be available)
Look at the building Jony Ive designed. People literally walk into walls. Maybe the world is better off if he works on computer hardware all day every day.
Where can I read more about people walking into walls, etc. ? (genuinely interested)
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If you remember the original iMac, they did the same thing with USB-A. Everybody was concerned that the iMac's only I/O port was USB (when others had serial, parallel, and maybe SCSI/USB as an afterthought), and it was completely incompatible with legacy peripherals. For many years USB accessories were considered specialty items for the Mac market. It kinda sucked at first... but it's not clear if USB would have even…
> but it's not clear if USB would have even caught on if Apple didn't do that. Here's the problem with that argument; Macs are a pretty small percentage of the computer market, and always have been. Consumer peripheral companies are driven by what people will buy, not moving the market forward. USB was always going to be what it is, and if you want evidence of Apple's lack of power here just look at FireWire. They pu…
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If you remember the original iMac, they did the same thing with USB-A. Everybody was concerned that the iMac's only I/O port was USB (when others had serial, parallel, and maybe SCSI/USB as an afterthought), and it was completely incompatible with legacy peripherals. For many years USB accessories were considered specialty items for the Mac market. It kinda sucked at first... but it's not clear if USB would have even…
> but it's not clear if USB would have even caught on if Apple didn't do that. Here's the problem with that argument; Macs are a pretty small percentage of the computer market, and always have been. Consumer peripheral companies are driven by what people will buy, not moving the market forward. USB was always going to be what it is, and if you want evidence of Apple's lack of power here just look at FireWire. They pu…
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It’d be interesting to see the results of a survey on this I think, I and I know many of my peers are of the exact opposite opinion. I like the move to usb-c, I like the new keyboard, I don’t mind (but also don’t really use) the Touch Bar but I can’t live without Touch ID at this point. The big trackpad is magical to me, and the thickness and weight of the 13” is just right. I have an older MBP as well, 2013 maybe, a…
Nothing wrong with USB-C and the big trackpad is fine too, and I would love to have touchID on my 2015MBP. But getting rid of mag power and the USB-A ports, HDMI port, and SD card slot was a big step back. Maybe you don't ever need to present anything from your laptop, but if you talk to anyone who does, they will tell you how awful it is to not have an HDMI port. The USB-C to HDMI is the worst adapter I've ever seen…
Seriously not awful at all.
When I do presentations in my department's conference room, I just AirPlay to the AppleTV connected to the projector. It was a great solution because it allows anyone on the team to do presentations. All they have to do is mirror their screen and bring their mouse or trackpad into the conference room. It's been a godsend.
If I have to do presentations in other buildings on campus (about every other week), I bring my USB-C to HDMI dongle. It's super small, weighs nothing, and always works.
I've heard that there are some off-brand USB-C to HDMI adapters from Amazon that are flaky, but the Belkin one that the IT department got me is rock solid. I've used it probably 30 times so far.
I doubt anyone who really had to do presentations minds carrying around a tiny dongle, compared to all the other things they'll bring to a presentation.
if you're a semi-pro photographer, the lack of an SD card slot is terrible
The pro photographers in my company's Communications department all say they hate built-in SD card readers. They all use standalone units. I don't know why, though. I'll have to ask.
And of course almost all accessories are still USB-A.
That's the same moaning people did about parallel and serial ports.
Given his penchant for thinness over function, I hope this means we can have a thicker pro laptop again, with all the ports back and a more robust keyboard.
It’d be interesting to see the results of a survey on this I think, I and I know many of my peers are of the exact opposite opinion. I like the move to usb-c, I like the new keyboard, I don’t mind (but also don’t really use) the Touch Bar but I can’t live without Touch ID at this point. The big trackpad is magical to me, and the thickness and weight of the 13” is just right. I have an older MBP as well, 2013 maybe, a…
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Maybe it's my lack of exposure to older iOS devices, but I haven't had any problems with it since getting my first iPhone last year.
They’ve done enormous changes since 7 to improve it. 7 was absurd - buttons looked like simple text everywhere. I always had to toggle on a function where buttons became underlined so I could use the thing. There was huge criticism even in knowledgeable design circles (see Nielsen Norman who do usability studies) that it was really really objectively worst because it was so confusing. It’s a lot better now.
I haven’t forgiven this guy for the latest “thin at any cost” 4th gen MacBook Pro we’ve had since 2016. He ruined the best programer’s laptop on the market. Maybe with him and his ego gone, they can fix the next generation and salvage the product line.
I travel frequently for work. I like having a pro machine that is light and thin. I am okay with compromises, but understand that the target audience feels differently. I believe my Macbook Pro goes more places than before due to the compactness. That includes using python, photo, design, and general office work.
Personally, I've settled on the 13" Surface Book as my travel machine. A bit heavier, but plenty of power, great screen, fine battery life, GPU if you really need it, and a keyboard that I don't hate. Now with WSL2 it doesn't have its previous drawbacks as a dev environment either.