151–160 of 201 posts
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…
Still has the annoying Touch Bar
Still doesn't have a physical ESC key
Still has an annoying port situation requiring a half dozen dongles
Still is no user serviceable RAM / SSD / battery
= Still not a "Pro" laptop
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…
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…
Must be something wrong with your palms ;) I have never thought about this issue, but reading these comments I tried it out. I can't move the mouse cursor with my palms, it is virtually impossible. The "Apple palm rejection tech" is really good. Data point from a Mac Book Pro, 2017.
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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 Not really. I had a 2011 MacBook. In 2015 I was able to upgrade the RAM to chips that didn't exist in 2011. Technically they weren't supported, but they worked just fine. I couldn't have done that if the chips were soldered to the board. I also upgraded the drive from spinning disk to a much larger SSD. Again an upgrade I couldn't hav…
It's also had an admirable run, so I'd be happy to buy again at some point... but a matte screen matters to me. As does a good keyboard. And being able to swap out the drive. All more than any spec or form factor improvements that have happened subsequently.
So while I'd be happy to have replaced this laptop by now, maybe even more than once... Apple simply does not sell replacements for this laptop. They sell laptops which have a mix of regressions and somewhat improved performance (and they're thinner!). And past a point of meeting certain demands, the regressions matter more than performance gains or ounces lost.
Maybe when it finally dies, I'll see if I can find a serviceable 2015 model. Or maybe by then WSL will be an acceptable alternative and this will be the last of half a dozen Apple machines I bought.
And they'll be as happy about it as I will, because as many pundits, product managers, and fans like to say: maybe people like me just aren't part of their target market anymore.
Considering a 128Gb SSD costs $47 and a 500Gb SSD costs $78 Apples's $400 "upgrade" to 500Gb over the base model's 128Gb disk represents a 6-fold price hike on its market value. Why do we put up with this? Now it's soldered on so we don't even have the freedom to upgrade our own machines.
What rubs me the wrong way is that Apple outfits all their cheapest devices with unpractical storage sizes, so you are essentially forced to upgrade.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can’t stand using Any trackpad, but the huge Mac one literally deters me from buying a Macbook. I am very much sold on Trackpoint, which I find to be all of conveniently positioned, not nearly as accident prone, and quite precise. Some also don’t realize this, but if you hold the middle button while pointing the trackpoint, it scrolls, which is super useful; I hardly have to move my hands to operate the pointer. A…
Apple's trackpads are in a class of their own and their large size is a feature given how good they are. I also liked the trackpoint when I had a thinkpad, but I think Apple's trackpads are better. The trackpoint is nice, but can hurt your knuckle after a while (and I'd argue it's not quite as fast).
I don’t have any issue with trackpoint hurting my knuckle, though I will concede it may not be as fast. I still have a surprisingly good time hitting precise targets with it, though.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 palm rejection tech is so good that I can't recall a single time I ever accidentally triggered it. In fact, it was so good I didn't even consider that it had palm rejection tech until I read about it, I just never considered that it was a problem.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 Not really. I had a 2011 MacBook. In 2015 I was able to upgrade the RAM to chips that didn't exist in 2011. Technically they weren't supported, but they worked just fine. I couldn't have done that if the chips were soldered to the board. I also upgraded the drive from spinning disk to a much larger SSD. Again an upgrade I couldn't hav…