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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

#181

Post by asdff »

SilasX wrote: post #65
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 also hate that MacBook Pro touchpads are oversized and easy to touch with your thumbs by accident. I had one issued for a job and had annoying, error-inducing swipes about three times a day.

That's probably the one common mbp gripe you can actually fix yourself. Tape up the perimeter and enjoy your brand new regularly sized trackpad.

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

#182

Post by asdff »

pier25 wrote: post #85
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…

While I agree with you I have to say there is real improvement Apple has made: eGPU.

If only the enclosure didn't cost almost as much as the card.

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

#184

Post by asdff »

HyperTalk2 wrote: post #155
opportune wrote: post #147

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…

I'm starting to think Apple is being subverted by high level employees who are carrying out directives from someone else, possibly a competing company.

They sure do have a knack to keep tumbling down the stairs every single product release since Jobs passed on.

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

#185

Post by tomjen3 »

reaperducer wrote: post #36
IgorPartola wrote: post #17

Why does choosing an Apple product always require a degree in Apple marketing and design? I generally like their products but you need to do so much research about everything from the weird ass product names (does Air even mean anything anymore?), to where exactly in the product cycle each product is. Am I about to buy something that will be upgraded in a week?

the weird ass product names IME, Apple's product names make more sense than virtually any other computer maker, or auto maker. Currently computers from Lenovo are: ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 6 Yoga C930 ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 5 ThinkPad X1 Extreme Legion Y740 MacBook (RIP), MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro make complete sense comparatively.

That is because it is a company for business/professional users. Other than you skipping over most of their product line, gen 5 is just generation 5, gen 6 is generation 6 and the extreme is the more powerful version.

You might as well mention the t series the p series and the x series (if they still make them) all of which comes with a bunch of numbers after them.

Anyway apple is a porche and thinkpads were russian tanks, lately some have gotten a cosmetic update. When you look at it like that it makes a lot more sense.

Written from my iPad

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

#186

Post by asdff »

snowwrestler wrote: post #169
leetcrew wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oddly enough, the 12" macbook is the only apple device I was ever interested in. it seemed like a great alternative to an xps 13 if I ever wanted to get into the mac world. lots of devs these days only need a computer capable of running an ssh client. if that's you and you also have a workstation, why not get the thinnest, lightest laptop out there that runs your favorite OS?

If all you need is an SSH client, then an iPad with a keyboard cover might work just fine.

iPad would be overkill. You could get by with an OG iPhone.

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

#188

Post by asdff »

pier25 wrote: post #97
mnm1 wrote: post #82

This is the final "fuck you and fuck off" to professional developers from Apple. I expect the next generation of MBPros (and MBAirs) that are rumored for later this year to continue in this direction giving us developers the middle finger and likely it will continue into next year and beyond. Apple doesn't care. The laptops look great from the outside and most people don't know any better. Everything that makes this…

If Apple was working on a complete redesign of the MBP with a new keyboard, how long do you think it would take them to release it? And if Apple were indeed working on that wouldn't it make sense to ditch the 12'' MB since it could not accommodate a thicker keyboard? I'm bitter too about what has been happening on the Mac front for the last 5 or so years, but I think Apple is correcting course albeit slowly.

Prev gen mbp was 2013-2015. The one before that was 2009-2012. This one is 2016-2019. I'd say we are due for a redesign any day now. Hopefully we drop this butterfly experiment and return to good old fashioned scissor keys and ports for pros.

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

#189

Post by mcculley »

geerlingguy wrote: post #5
areoform wrote: post #2

That's Courage. For real this time, one of the first things Steve Jobs did when he came back to Apple was that he slashed the product line and killed off a ton of things so that the company could focus on what truly mattered; building great computing devices. I am positively encouraged that Apple has grown to the point where they took feedback critically and have returned to a more Jobs-ian way of operating. As they…

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 don't care that the Touch Bar is there. (It was distracting to me at first in that it lights up and changes icons when I switch applications and it is usually sitting off to the side as I prefer to type on a real keyboard. I disabled most of the distractions.) But why can't we have both the Touch Bar and a set of real function keys and an escape key?

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

#190

Post by pier25 »

asdff wrote: post #188
pier25 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Apple was working on a complete redesign of the MBP with a new keyboard, how long do you think it would take them to release it? And if Apple were indeed working on that wouldn't it make sense to ditch the 12'' MB since it could not accommodate a thicker keyboard? I'm bitter too about what has been happening on the Mac front for the last 5 or so years, but I think Apple is correcting course albeit slowly.

Prev gen mbp was 2013-2015. The one before that was 2009-2012. This one is 2016-2019. I'd say we are due for a redesign any day now. Hopefully we drop this butterfly experiment and return to good old fashioned scissor keys and ports for pros.

Nitpick: the first 15'' retina was introduced in 2012 on which the 2015 model is based on.

Anyway I agree, a new MBP has to be in the works. Hopefully it will be released this year without the butterfly keyboard and the touch bar.

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