Introducing the next generation of Mac • Hacker News Board

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#221

Post by gruez » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 7:58 PM UTC

qz2 wrote: post #85

geoffeg wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing that since the RAM is now on the SOC instead of on separate chips creating models with more RAM becomes more difficult not only from a space constraint on the die but a cost to manufacture more variants?

I imagine they all are made with 16Gb on and the ones that are broken get sold as 8Gb. What worries me is my desktop has 64Gb of RAM which cost 1/3 of Apple’s usual upgrade mugging. I think I’ll walk away from this. Edit: just seen £200 to upgrade from a 8Gb unit to 16Gb. 8GB of RAM for £200 is “get fucked” territory. I paid £240 for the 64Gb in my desktop.

> I imagine they all are made with 16Gb on and the ones that are broken get sold as 8Gb.

that gets done for GPUs and CPUs because they're a monolithic die, but AFAIK that's not done for memory chips.

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#222

Post by frank2 » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 7:58 PM UTC

kzrdude wrote: post #17

Is this the first time they call their laptops "notebooks"?

I read somewhere about 15 years ago that the term was introduced when laptops would get so hot that the legal departments at laptop vendors started to worry about their liability if they kept calling them laptops and they got sued by someone whose lap got burned.

Now that Apple's laptops run much cooler, my guess is that they continue to say "notebook" because Apple owns an important trademark that ends in "Book".

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#223

Post by stevewodil » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 7:58 PM UTC

saagarjha wrote: post #162

stevewodil wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by this? The commenter is stating how the 2016-2019 MBP 13" had 4 thunderbolt ports, and this new one only has 2

Not every 13" MacBook Pro has had four Thunderbolt ports; the base model always had just two. This computer clearly replaces that one, and Apple will launch another MacBook Pro in the future to replace the rest.

Oh that's right there was the model without the touchbar that had two ports and was a carryover from 2017, thanks for clarifying

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#224

Post by breck » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 7:58 PM UTC

kbar13 wrote: post #40

SamuelAdams wrote: post #6

Super interesting how they kept the touchbar on the Macbook Pro keyboard but not on the Air. As a software developer, I'm going to be more likely to buy an Air just due to the keyboard.

as a software dev who went for air before the current gen of pro macbooks with hardware esc, dont do it the air is really sluggish for anything but the lightest of tasks. there was even extremely noticeable latency using gmail.com

I've been using Airs as my primary machine since 2010. I don't use bulky software (XCode, Adobe suite, Office, etc), so if you use any of that I wouldn't recommend it, but for software dev it's been plenty fast and a real joy to use.

The only time I'm speed constrained is deep learning, but generally I just run tiny test sets locally and then run full jobs on a cluster or the cloud.

In the mid 2010's I had a desktop with like 64GB of Ram and four million processors, and I found programming on the Air I was still more productive. Productivity wise I think it's a very high dimensional space to consider.

(P.S. Can't wait to get this new Air!!!)

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#225

Post by ataylor32 » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 7:59 PM UTC

jedberg wrote: post #190

plorkyeran wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of them? I use the function keys regularly and it's much harder to hit the correct one without looking at the keyboard with the touch bar.

What do you use function keys for? I was thinking about this, and I don't think I've used a function key in years.

I'm not the person you replied to, but I frequently use the play/pause key and also the volume keys. I occasionally use the function keys in my text editor too.

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#226

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 7:59 PM UTC

nottorp wrote: post #138

dcchambers wrote: post #37

The 16GB RAM limit is unfortunate. Five years later and I still can't buy a new 13" laptop from Apple with more RAM than my 2015 MBP. Edit: Apparently you can configure a (Early 2020) Intel-based 13" MBP with 32GB of RAM - I was not aware of that. Hope they bring that option to the ARM versions ASAP, especially if the performance gains are as good as Apple claims.

It's worse. The 13" intel MBP can go up to 32 Gb, but the intel Mac Mini can go up to 64! 16 is basically useless for dev purposes, unless you're only doing web stuff. And maybe not even then, containers/vms?

[deleted]

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#227

Post by cactus2093 » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 7:59 PM UTC

Have they said anything about hyperkit on the new platform? And being able to run stuff like Docker for Mac?

I've seen lots said about the lack of Bootcamp support but I've actually never even used Bootcamp, Linux VMS are much more relevant for me and I imagine many other developers.

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#228

Post by tarasmatsyk » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 7:59 PM UTC

SamuelAdams wrote: post #6

Super interesting how they kept the touchbar on the Macbook Pro keyboard but not on the Air. As a software developer, I'm going to be more likely to buy an Air just due to the keyboard.

Almost exactly what I thought, however specs are too low for me to ditch the bar no matter how useless it is comparing to physical keys

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#229

Post by masklinn » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 7:59 PM UTC

jklein11 wrote: post #175

entropea wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I reading right that it only supports one display output? I may be reading that incorrectly....

I was under the impression that Native display port would be able to drive 2 external monitors. I do not consider my self to be an authoritative source on this.

DisplayPort 1.4 can chain up to 6 displays at 1080p. It can only chain two 4K@60Hz.

However that requires MST support which afaik is missing from OSX entirely.

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#230

Post by WillPostForFood » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 7:59 PM UTC

egypturnash wrote: post #180

tobr wrote: post #31

Surprised that they didn’t take the opportunity to update the industrial design, especially of the MacBook Air which retains its wedge-shaped heft.

How would you improve on the Air? It's such a beautiful, sleek little thing. I've currently got a 13" Pro and it just feels so damn clunky next to the succession of Airs it replaced.

Weight? It is almost a pound heavier than the discontinued Macbook 12".