Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New 13-inch MacBook Pro

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

921–930 of 1001 posts

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#921

Post by kmonsen »

torgian wrote: post #891
faizshah wrote: post #815

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The touchbar is for sure a gimmick, but I found some use for it in PyCharm. There’s a lot of commands you can run from the menubar in pycharm so its kinda useful to skip a complicated hotkey and just add it to the touchbar. Maybe in video editing programs theres some use?

I imagine it might be more useful for content creation than others. Then again, maybe not. I was forced to remove several buttons from the touch bar, because when I go to type numbers I will occasionally brush the bar with my fingertips, interrupting my workflow as something random suddenly pops up. I hate the Touch Bar.

I got my first touchbar enabled MacBook this month after holding out as long as I could and I find I accidentally hit it all the time when browsing the web.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#922

Post by checker »

vbezhenar wrote: post #908
mekster wrote: post #786

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back then, MacOS X didn't have enough third party apps to replace Windows workflow but the OS kept advancing on every release. Now we have better third party apps on macOS than Windows but OS stopped advancing but who cares about OS anymore? It's all about apps nowadays.

My apps on Windows: KeePass, Chrome, Thunderbird, Putty, Oracle VM, Idea, EditPad Pro, Paint.NET, Battle.net, Discord, foobar2000. My apps on macOS: Chrome, Thunderbird, OracleVM, Idea, Battle.net, Discord. Can replace Putty with Terminal ssh (I like Putty more, but that's not a big deal), can replace KeePass with text file (less security, but not a big deal either), can replace EditPad Pro with TextEdit (worse repla…

If you just want a unix shell this is going to be way lighter than a full-blown VM: https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/tutorial-ubuntu-on-windows#1-ov...

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#923

Post by kmonsen »

arcticbull wrote: post #655
dkonofalski wrote: post #641

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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've used the touch bar for years, and frankly, it's provided me zero value whatsoever. The only thing I use it for is occasionally adjusting volume or brightness but of course I can no longer do that without looking down at what I'm manipulating. Third party apps have totally ignored it. The physical escape key is the second useful thing in the entire function row, but hey at least it's got two useful things now (an…

I find it a lot harder to adjust the volume with touchbar compared to the old keys. It used to be something I could do really quick and accurate, now I have to look down and try to adjust a slider.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#924

Post by nl »

ajmurmann wrote: post #874
dividedbyzero wrote: post #767

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the actual, underlying problem is, the Touchbar is bad UX for a bunch of software engineers, but pretty great for most everyone else. Think about it – you lose some keys you never really had a use for anyway except as media keys, and you get almost analogue-ish volume and brightness controls, apps can give you context-dependent options that are really discoverable (which F-keys totally aren't) and can adapt t…

How does it help with emoji? I've found CMD+Ctrl+space to already work really well.

There is no way to discover Cmd+Ctrl+Space.

I've used Macs full time for 6 years and your post here right now is the first time I knew that was possible. OTOH I've been using Emojis in the touchbar since I got a Mac with one.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#925

Post by woah »

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…

I have an xps-13, and it has been pretty unreliable. The first one I got died mysteriously, luckily I was able to exchange it for a working one. After a couple years of occasional use, the screen died (my guess is it was probably just the cable).

I still don't use it unless I need more processing power, preferring to use my 2016 Macbook 12" for everything other than compiling Rust code. The Macbook has held up great, and I even did the infamous glued in battery replacement myself.

I will probably get a Macbook pro in the next few years instead of another non-mac computer.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#926

Post by NathanWilliams »

morsch wrote: post #760

Honestly, the take away from these discussions is to get a desktop PC.

I hope one day you grow as a person, and realise different people have different requirements, preferences and trade-offs.

I value macOS, I work away from a desk more often than on one, and my past Mac computers have lasted for longer than any other commodity desktop or laptop.

I'm currently replacing a perfectly functional 2011 MBP, and only because I have some bonus money, otherwise it would have gone another couple years without issue.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#927

Post by woah »

alexggordon wrote: post #707
shrimpx wrote: post #591

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The xps is a plastic laptop with a plastic hinged small trackpad. The mbp trackpad alone is worth the extra money. I keep a laptop for 4-5 years. It’s not worth interacting thousands of times a day with an outdated subpar input device to save $10 a month. I’ve been watching the xps closely and the internal stats are good but the “plastic laptop with a small hinged trackpad” aspect of it make it a no go for me at the…

Per the specs on the dell website, it's a milled aluminum chassis. Guess that could technically mean there's plastic somewhere, but they seem to be selling the fact it's not plastic.

Through some kind of engineering magic, they've been able to make it out of thin aluminum while still retaining the creaky plastic feeling Dell is known for.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#928

Post by voisin »

abhorrence wrote: post #476
voisin wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why they haven’t replaced touchID with FaceID on MacBooks. There’s a camera and I find FaceID to be so much more seamless.

I suspect it's because of the target thickness the lid -- and the camera is located in the part that tapers.

Does the sensor need to be in the same place as the camera or could it be at the bottom of the screen?

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#929

Post by xzel »

samatman wrote: post #870
dreamcompiler wrote: post #733

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "real" Escape key is essential. I'm using a new 16" MBP at work and it's quite nice, but without the real Escape key I'd probably be cursing the computer every day. I thought I'd hate the touchbar, but I actually thought it was cute -- for about an hour. Then I realized it was just a useless gimmick and reset it to "Expanded Control Strip" which is Apple's euphemism for "Make the touchbar look and act just like t…

The last time this came up on HN (that I read) someone recommended Pock, so I'll pass on that recommendation. https://pock.dev This takes the touchbar from 'annoying' to 'ok this is kind of useful actually', for me at least. I spend a lot of time on a keyboard + trackball combo, but keep my laptop propped a bit for TouchID, zooming, and one or two other useful idioms. I've been hiding the Dock for a solid decade, and…

Thank you for this post. This seems incredibly useful for casual settings when you're on another computer and you want to pull up another app.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#930

Post by wheels »

tolmasky wrote: post #759

I decided to switch back to the (new) MacBook Air instead. I feel that had the butterfly fiasco never happened, this generation of laptops may have just dumped the Touch Bar entirely, but instead, there were so many general keyboard complaints (escape key specifically, general Touch Bar complaints, and of course the butterfly keyboard complaints), that it is reasonable that they are trying to see if this new "reduced…

I'm considering switching to the Air as well. How have the first impressions been? I'm somewhat worried about using an Air for development performance-wise.

For me the big factors are that I actually use functions keys (in Emacs, mostly) and just cost. My previous Macbook Pro (2011), which is in its death throes, at the time a top-of-the-line 13", was $1200. With aftermarket 8 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD, I managed to keep it usable for almost a decade. At the current MBP configurations, I'd almost certainly end up shelling out a mind-blowing 3-4x that much.

This gives me pause for three reasons:

- All of the soldered on crap means that I can't use aftermarket upgrades to extend the life

- It sounds like an ARM switch is in the cards in the next 1-2 years

- I just don't like having a $3000-5000 portable device. I have my laptop out with me quite often, and I don't relish the idea of having something worth > $4000 with me that may get lost or stolen.

Post reply on HN