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Apple Updates Air, Pro Laptops, Kills Off the MacBook

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Re: Apple Updates Air, Pro Laptops, Kills Off the MacBook

#141

Post by inferiorhuman »

RohMin wrote: post #80
inferiorhuman wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't stand the current MBP trackpad. It's too big and too easy to accidentally touch.

This thread is a perfect example as to why Apple will never please everyone.

I mean, I'd live with it if the keyboard weren't utter shit and if there weren't reliability issues (keyboard and displays failing, unregulated power through the USB ports). I don't like the soldered RAM and storage, the glued on battery, but I still bought a (refurb) 2015 MBP last year. But as long as each revision of the MBP continues to have additional flaws with little benefit, I'll continue to consider alternatives. With this trend my next laptop will not be an Apple one.

And, for the record, I don't like the flashygizmotouchbarthing, but if they had kept a hard power and escape button it wouldn't have been a deal breaker. I don't use vi all that much, but I do use the escape key to navigate dialog boxes and web sites.

Re: Apple Updates Air, Pro Laptops, Kills Off the MacBook

#142

Post by jammygit »

chrischen wrote: post #11
geerlingguy wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if the whole post or only part is /s, but IMO they need to have the courage to drop the Touch Bar. Everything else I can live with, but now there’s literally no MacBook Pro I will buy. I have the 2016 Function Key model, and maybe my next upgrade will be to a 2015 Pro... or to a non-Apple laptop (sigh).

I'm certain people who are OK with the touch bar don't care about it as much as the people who hate it, but I for one prefer that they are iteratively innovating on the keyboard for macs. I'd rather they do that than make a thick brick of a laptop with a row of mostly useless function keys that a vocal minority has been harping for.

I use my function keys constantly as text editor shortcuts

Re: Apple Updates Air, Pro Laptops, Kills Off the MacBook

#143

Post by kartickv »

ppeetteerr wrote: post #81
wwweston wrote: post #38

Macbook Pro "improvements" over the last 3-7 years: * No more matte display * RAM soldered to the board * SSD soldered in * remove all ports except USB-C * make keyboard worse * remove function keys, replace with touch surface that's redundant at best But it's very thin! And even thinner was the recent Macbook, and if the law of "diminishing returns" matters as little as the usual defenses of all the above tradeoffs…

I really (really!) appreciate how thin they are. The new 15in is as heavy as the old 13in. Really nice when you have to carry it around all the time. The biggest pain point is the lack of ports (4 ports including power) is not enough. The older models had around 5+ ports and still required dongles. Everything else aside from the keyboard is a minor issue (e.g. getting more ram today versus in the future is just a que…

> getting more ram today versus in the future is just a question of deferring costs

I see as giving you more flexibility, because you don't always know how much you'll need. Without this flexibility, you choose low, and are stuck with a slow computer, or you choose high, and you may end up paying a ton for a computer you may not need.

Re: Apple Updates Air, Pro Laptops, Kills Off the MacBook

#144

Post by AlexandrB »

Zarel wrote: post #120
cold_fact wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my 2015 Pro is so much better than mycompany 2017 Pro w/ touchbar like people are saying, most people just don't care about the touchbar. It does get annoying at times (as a vim user). Why WHY do they hide the esc key and have it take two inputs to increase the volume/brightness by more than 1 tick (sliding is terrible). Other than that, I totally agree, the real focus should be the keyboard. Because it's shit. Here…

For your keyboard problems, just get it repaired. It's free under a four-year warranty, and it usually only takes one day: Just drop it off at an Apple store, and pick it back up the next day. (Also, if you're a vim user, you should really remap Caps Lock to Esc. There's a pane in System Preferences for it, and it should be done whether or not you have a touch bar.)

Caps Lock is better remapped to CTRL in my opinion. However, with Vim I always use CTRL+] instead of ESC because I think it’s easier to reach.

Re: Apple Updates Air, Pro Laptops, Kills Off the MacBook

#145

Post by SilasX »

SllX wrote: post #94
farisjarrah wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You complained about the best part of the Macbook, the trackpad! I wish I could get that Mac trackpad on my thinkpad x1

Unless you are really good at keeping your hands off the trackpad when you rest your hands, the previous generation trackpad was overall better in day to day use, and anything bigger is better as an external peripheral. The problem is, Apple’s palm rejection tech just isn’t good enough, and if you have to write fancy software to cover a deficiency in the size of a piece of hardware, then you’re better off going with…

>The problem is, Apple’s palm rejection tech just isn’t good enough, and if you have to write fancy software to cover a deficiency in the size of a piece of hardware, then you’re better off going with the smaller size.

Subtle jab at the Boeing 737 MAX?

(Just noticed I have a similar username.)

Re: Apple Updates Air, Pro Laptops, Kills Off the MacBook

#146

Post by mattigames »

b212 wrote: post #104
bgeeek wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is utter nonsense. The university research group that I worked in replaced Dell Linux-based laptops for Macbooks. Hardly toys for rich kids.

I’ve seen homeless people in Copenhagen using Macs. It literally blew my mind.

Denmark is a different world, people just throw away something as soon as they get a better version or starts malfunctioning in the slightest way.

Re: Apple Updates Air, Pro Laptops, Kills Off the MacBook

#147

Post by opportune »

Why the fuck is Apple getting rid of the option to not have a touch bar on Macbook Pros? They already made it so high-performance macbooks require them but at least you had the option to pick a worse performing model with the actual keys.

Does the touchbar really do that well in focus groups? It is pretty universally reviled among all the techie people I know. It breaks one of the most basic principals of a keyboard interface which is that you don't need to look at it to know which button you're pressing. That would be fine if it was just settings like brightness/volume you don't change very often but putting the escape key there was just such an idiotic move

I used to consider myself a big macbook pro fan. I would probably continue buying reskins of the 2013 model forever as long as they kept updating the hardware. I would rather the product stagnate than have apple repeatedly make it worse

Re: Apple Updates Air, Pro Laptops, Kills Off the MacBook

#148

Post by codeisawesome »

jasonhansel wrote: post #49

For all the devs wondering how to replace their MacBook Pros: I highly recommend running Linux on a Lenovo X1 Carbon. I've also heard good things about System76.

My concerns with switching to a Lenovo X1 Carbon:

1. I won't use Windows. Will my battery life and WiFi performance be as good on Ubuntu? How much worse will it be?

2. Lenovo injected malware into the BIOS before. It was a different laptop division but it's still the same company. I am just finding it impossible to trust ever again.

Re: Apple Updates Air, Pro Laptops, Kills Off the MacBook

#149

Post by jasonhansel »

codeisawesome wrote: post #148
jasonhansel wrote: post #49

For all the devs wondering how to replace their MacBook Pros: I highly recommend running Linux on a Lenovo X1 Carbon. I've also heard good things about System76.

My concerns with switching to a Lenovo X1 Carbon: 1. I won't use Windows. Will my battery life and WiFi performance be as good on Ubuntu? How much worse will it be? 2. Lenovo injected malware into the BIOS before. It was a different laptop division but it's still the same company. I am just finding it impossible to trust ever again.

I find the WiFi and battery fine (though I'm on a slightly older model). You can always mess with cpupower & other settings to improve battery life--Linux gives you a lot more power than Windows.

I don't know about the BIOS though.

(PS. Don't use wayland. It seems to have issues with HiDPI apps, at least on my laptop.)

Re: Apple Updates Air, Pro Laptops, Kills Off the MacBook

#150

Post by jslabovitz »

bredren wrote: post #76
bluedino wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 11” Air was one of my all time favorite laptops and the 12” rMB was such a great replacement.

The 2015 11" Air was the best performance / value macbook Apple has ever made.

Still using mine. It's great. I'm gonna be really sad when it falls out of the supported lineup.
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