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New 13-inch MacBook Pro

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Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#911

Post by geoelectric »

gowld wrote: post #715
williamdclt wrote: post #699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can program your touchbar with something like BetterTouchTool. It's laughable that Apple ships the touchbar with such useless functionalities, but you can turn the touchbar into whatever you want, it's an amazing tool. For example, when I open iTerm I have buttons for my local development env (DB, redis, api, frontend, various microservices) color-coded by status and can start/stop them by tapping a button. You c…

Nothing you describe relies on touchbar, only Fn keys

I think the bit where the labels change is a pretty big differentiator, for things that are per-app.

Are you old enough to remember when PC applications came with templates that fit over a 101 key keyboard to show you what all the fn keys did? That's why very little outside professional tooling uses them for anything but system-wide shortcuts anymore. They're horrible for discoverability so unless you live in the app enough to thoroughly memorize them they aren't terribly useful.

As much as I don't care for the Hot Bar in general, it is far better for per-app shortcuts that are used rarely enough not to require (and thus develop) muscle memory. You'd need one of those OLED keyboards to do much better.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#912

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

alexggordon wrote: post #125

I was curious how the 13 inch was priced so I compared it to a new Dell XPS 13. Dell has a better processor (maybe, [2]) , but I couldn't find the option to upgrade the Dell to 4TB internal SSD, so I compared both with the 2 TB option. Ram is the same at 32GB. Dell came out to $2399[0] USD and Apple came out to $2999[1] USD. Dell Pros: * Row of function buttons (I've used BTT to customize my touch-bar to the point wh…

When I buy a Mac, I don't buy a computer.

I buy an operating system.

In my case, the Apple OS gives me exactly what I need. Apple holds all the cards, and are able to set the price. Wish it was lower, but I am glad the OS works as well as it does. The control that Apple has over both the hardware and software is key to that.

For others, Windows is exactly what they need (I see this a lot with hardware hacker stuff. It's very hard to get Apple versions of a lot of the tools I need). They do have a lot more choices, but I prefer my experience. Well worth the difference in price, for me.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#913

Post by Thorentis »

alexggordon wrote: post #125

I was curious how the 13 inch was priced so I compared it to a new Dell XPS 13. Dell has a better processor (maybe, [2]) , but I couldn't find the option to upgrade the Dell to 4TB internal SSD, so I compared both with the 2 TB option. Ram is the same at 32GB. Dell came out to $2399[0] USD and Apple came out to $2999[1] USD. Dell Pros: * Row of function buttons (I've used BTT to customize my touch-bar to the point wh…

Dell XPS + Linux Mint seems like it would be an incredible development machine. I used to love OS X because everything "just worked" and you still got a real bash environment. I think Linux has caught up in terms of UX. I installed Linux Mint on my desktop recently and Cinnamon is really nice. All the tools I need are there, and I had no drivers issues whatsoever.

I see little reason to continue buying into the Apple ecosystem. I switched from iPhone to an S9+ a couple years back and plan to keep this phone for at least another few years unless it dies.

I think in general people are getting sick of the upgrade cycle. Gadgets are getting good enough that they can last multiple release cycles. I think consumer electronics companies are going to need to find a way to evolve, or they really will be running into the classic "not enough consumers" problem.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#914

Post by labcomputer »

tw04 wrote: post #226
alexggordon wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best way I can sell Thunderbolt 3/USB-C to myself is that at Apple's size, they need to be able to sell (to consumers, courts, governments) that they aren't being anti-competitive, so by switching to designs that are open and standardized (Thunderbolt 3 is a spec, not a patent) they can better sell their market dominance as not driven by patents and lawyers.

I personally wish Apple would make something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Adapter-Connector-Quick-Char... Before any of you see that and go "awesome, exactly what I was looking for!" - I've had several coworkers try various models of those adapters and all have told me they universally suck. Don't waste your money. I trust Apple could do it with quality - frankly I'd be willing to spend $50+ for a relia…

It seems to depend on what you use them for.

In my experience, they're good for power. Driving a 2.5k monitor over DisplayPort works reasonably well if the computer is on a solid surface (not your lap).

But they don't work well for 4k video (especially with a direct HDMI adapter) or USB 3.0 data.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#916

Post by rrdharan »

geoelectric wrote: post #902
bashinator wrote: post #892

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This didn't work for those of us who map Caps Lock to Control, like god intended. IIRC, it wasn't possible to map the left Control key to ESC for some reason.

I actually use Karabiner now to do Ctrl if held, Esc if tapped. It’s a little tougher to walk people through though: 1) install karabiner elements 2) select complex modifications 3) add rule 4) import more from internet 5) import change caps lock key v4 6) add rule change caps_lock to control if pressed with other keys, to escape if pressed alone ...is my actual current setup, along with a bunch of other key mapping.…

Is karabiner going to stop working in 10.16? Because of the kext lockdown/deprecation?

I'm very afraid of getting too used to it and then having it stop working.

https://github.com/pqrs-org/Karabiner-Elements/issues/2149

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#917

Post by shmoogy »

gowld wrote: post #708
MaintenanceMode wrote: post #632

Bringing back the escape key is such a admission of their original screw up. I'm glad they admitted it and reversed the design decision. But I'm still on a 2012 15" MacBook that's running strong. I normally would have updated but using my work 15" has been horrific between the dongles, the keyboard randomly dropping keys (last week "G" would not work, now it's back. The most infuriating thing about the touch bar, out…

Apple just launched a $300 keyboard for iPad Pro, with no Esc key.

I mapped it to caps lock, but my Blink already allowed that.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#918

Post by climb_stealth »

vehemenz wrote: post #426
FillardMillmore wrote: post #216

What's the real value in paying more for this compared to getting a new MacBook Air?

The big thing is thermal design. In the new MBA, a moderate load spins up the fans really loud, whereas in the MBPs, it takes a pegged CPU/GPU to even turn the fans on. Honorable mention: better screen in terms of colors and brightness. Probably a faster SSD. More TB3 ports.

I'd love to see this tested with the new MBP. My 2015 13" MBP behaves as you describe, you pretty much never hear the fan unless you are pegging the CPU. But on my 2018 13" MBP the slightest load will get the fan going and it's terrible.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#919

Post by gumby »

geoelectric wrote: post #902
bashinator wrote: post #892

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This didn't work for those of us who map Caps Lock to Control, like god intended. IIRC, it wasn't possible to map the left Control key to ESC for some reason.

I actually use Karabiner now to do Ctrl if held, Esc if tapped. It’s a little tougher to walk people through though: 1) install karabiner elements 2) select complex modifications 3) add rule 4) import more from internet 5) import change caps lock key v4 6) add rule change caps_lock to control if pressed with other keys, to escape if pressed alone ...is my actual current setup, along with a bunch of other key mapping.…

Karabiner also lets you disable the Touch Bar escape so you don’t accidentally trigger it.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#920

Post by nl »

dkonofalski wrote: post #641
MaintenanceMode wrote: post #632

Bringing back the escape key is such a admission of their original screw up. I'm glad they admitted it and reversed the design decision. But I'm still on a 2012 15" MacBook that's running strong. I normally would have updated but using my work 15" has been horrific between the dongles, the keyboard randomly dropping keys (last week "G" would not work, now it's back. The most infuriating thing about the touch bar, out…

I'm still surprised that so many people are stuck on the Escape key but it's probably no surprise that the ones that are stuck are all developers using vi or emacs. I love the Touch Bar and had no problem adjusting/remapping and find the utility of the Touch Bar for video and audio editing to be invaluable now. I wasn't sold on it before but, over the last year or so, I'll be really disappointed if they remove it. Ad…

I too love the touch bar.

For example I love that apps written to use (eg VS.Code) now have labelled buttons rather than imposing on me to remember strange function buttons.

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