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New 13-inch MacBook Pro

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Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#981
post #724

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…

On the contrary, I'd say the ESC key is even more important to normal consumers than programmers compared to, say, the backtick key. I mostly use it for coming out of fullscreen for youtube, netflix etc and I'm sure most consumers don't even know what a backtick is.

The physical key isn't what's important to consumers. The ability to back out and use the ESC function is and that's still there for everyone who has a Touch Bar machine.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#982

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…

> and find the utility of the Touch Bar for video and audio editing to be invaluable now. See, the problem is that I rarely use the laptop's own keyboard. Only in cases where I'm actually on the go. If I'm at the office or at home, I'll have an external keyboard (and monitor). While the laptop's own display remains useful, the keyboard becomes awkward to reach. The touchbar, even more so. Now, if Apple's external key…

At this point, I would definitely use an external keyboard or even just an external Touch Bar (unless Apple releases mechanical keyboards with a Touch Bar). I kinda rely on it for media editing/scrubbing.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#983

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The touchbar is not useless - that is an opinion I do not share. I do not use the Fn keys in MacOS - and having media controls, screen lock, and other data in the touchbar makes more sense for me. It was and is an experiment in user behavior and UI. Some like it, some don't. I'm not committed to it, but I don't want the HN bubble to think their "bad touchbar" is the only opinion.

I can see it can be, and it actually is useful for many users, but it's not for me, and many others share the same opinion. So having an option not to get the touch bar is important for us.

I hear you, but that gets to the core of Apple design: They don't have a million options for people.

Some want headphone jack, many don't. Some like the butterfly keys, many don't. Touchbar, USB-A, Magsafe, Touch ID, small OLED form factor... they pick a side and go.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#984

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you care about it, just buy a magnetic USB-C dongle: https://www.amazon.com/usb-c-magsafe/s?k=usb+c+magsafe Returning to magsafe would be a downgrade when you can just magsafe-ify any of the ports yourself with a cheap adapter.

Not an entirely bad idea, however I t should be obvious that having an adapter hanging out the side of ya laptop is less than ideal.

Well, I think it's a superior solution to having a special magsafe port when you can have more USB-C ports with the option to add magsafe to them.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#985
post #616

I’ve been dreaming of a 32G 13” for years but now that it’s here I wish it were 64G. This for me sums up the problem with the 13” offering. Attractive form factor (for me), always 2-4 years behind on specs. Apple apparently thinks that smaller form factor means the audience is “junior pro” or something. People who want smaller laptops are probably also running proportionally smaller workloads, thinks Apple. It makes…

co-dreamer here, do you have a recommendation for a 64G 13"?

I don’t know a good option. Currently I own a 15” mbp 32G, best compromise I could find when upgrading from my 2015 13” (I strongly considered a dell xps 13” at the time but the build quality and trackpad were a no go for me). If I were to upgrade I’d reluctantly get a 16” 64G mbpro. I keep sacrificing on size in exchange for build quality and specs.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#986

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.

The top shell and the bottom shell are thin aluminum but the rest of the laptop is plastic. The bottom assembly is a plastic body screwed into a thin aluminum shell. Unfortunately I don’t have a link but there are reviews on YouTube where people subject it to the “twist test” and the laptop body creaks and visibly twists under light manual force.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#987
post #794
post #788

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still feel minor electric shocks with my 2016 MBP if I charge it with my ThinkPad power plug and touch the chassis.

Are you in Europe perchance? I have a feeling that wiring in the EU is more prone to sparks than in the US, so maybe grounding behaves differently as well, due to some sort of variation in building and wiring codes.

No, live in the US.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#988

What's with the 8th gen processors on the first two models? also the Dota2 screenshot is cool hah

It's unbelievable, and feels like potentially misleading advertising. My 2019's MBP 16" can't really run Dota2 at the native resolution. The framerate is fluctuating widely, and it frequently drops to less than 30fps for me - without any real action going on and cosmetics equipped. And that's on supposedly much more performant Radeon Pro 5500M, not Intel Iris Plus. Also, not really cool as the "player" isn't even pre…

I've been playing it on mine without much issue, have you tried setting the graphics api to vulkan so it renders with metal instead of opengl?

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#989

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Dont make me jump through hoops to find computery stuff. I'm curious what "computery" stuff you're looking for? If you're trying to modify stuff a "normal user" wouldn't touch, you'd be better off on the command line. Finder isn't meant for people who want to muck around with the system because everyday normal users shouldn't be messing with system files. Personally I hardly ever use Finder. Cmd+Space to launch app…

I don't get why power users shouldn't be afforded the power of graphical file management. The command line is not an adequate substitute for quickly navigating and managing the filesystem to me.

I agree, and I think both options should always be available. to the user.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#990

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…

As soon as the escape key has been removed, I had to do a big switch. Use the caps lock key as escape key. Happy since then! The only hassle is to go set it up in the keyboard prefs.
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