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Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

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Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#431

Post by helmholtz »

harel wrote: post #399

Apple hardware is really top notch. I am a Linux person but if I squint hard enough I can use the Mac OS (with some swearing weaved in). But I cannot use that terrible keyboard. Why do I need key combos for page up/down? Why are they useless buttons like that top squiggle on the top left but no page up/down buttons (there is space for them). Why some things are Cmd+ and some are Ctrl+? Why no key travel?

I have the newest XPS. It's a 15" laptop, it's huge. And yet, they've gone and put Home and End under F11 and F12. Meanwhile, Printscreen is under F10, which no one needs, and NOTHING is under F9. Also, F5 is covered with the brightness key! I can either refresh or have brightness, while F9, which is used nowhere, is blank.

There used to be such a nice last column along the rightmost edge of the keyboard with Home, Page Up, Page Down and End. Bring them back! It's stupid design to have.

The other thing, which I take is the same for the macbook, is that the trackpad is so huge that the edge of the keyboard digs into the forearms, causing pain for any reasonable length of use.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#432

Post by behnamoh »

xirbeosbwo1234 wrote: post #368
csomar wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this the reason to push for no more ports than the USB-C. After the Macbook become USB-C only, manufacturers started to move to USB-C instead of USB-A and some of them include an adapter. The quicker we move, the better. It'll be a little painful at first, but then we'll have only USB-C for everything.

When I buy a computer, I want something that makes my life better. I do not want something that deliberately makes my life worse to achieve a strategic goal for Apple Computer. We saw the same thing with Flash. Apple didn't like Flash and wanted it dead. They couldn't manage to kill it off through negotiation or outreach or by offering a better alternative, so they instead decided to weaponize the iPhone by refusing…

My thoughts exactly. I don’t want to sacrifice my own convenience for the sake of a company, which by the way, doesn’t even bother including a freaking adapter in their other product, the iphone.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#434

Post by behnamoh »

numbsafari wrote: post #385
xirbeosbwo1234 wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I buy a computer, I want something that makes my life better. I do not want something that deliberately makes my life worse to achieve a strategic goal for Apple Computer. We saw the same thing with Flash. Apple didn't like Flash and wanted it dead. They couldn't manage to kill it off through negotiation or outreach or by offering a better alternative, so they instead decided to weaponize the iPhone by refusing…

They did offer something better: HTML5. Don’t blame Apple for Flash’s demise. Blame Adobe. They allowed it to become the inefficient, security rats nest that it was. The web is amazingly better now that Flash has been relegated to its best use: historical animations and games.

> web is amazingly better now that Flash has been relegated to its best use: historical animations and games

Is it though? All I see is millions of bloated websites that all look the same thanks to lack of Flash, and not much success with html5 to really replace Flash.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#435

Post by shrimpx »

cpgonzalez wrote: post #8

The article's criticism of the 12-inch MacBook are preposterous. The 2 lb Macbook is the best laptop I've ever owned, by far. Maybe I'm too sensitive about weight, but I feel an incredible difference between 3 lb and 2 lb laptops, especially if its sitting on your lap for extended periods of time. The keyboard and charger have never once been a hindrance to my workflow, as the article makes it out be. I really wish A…

Its drawback is poor performance but it’s ok for basic use — surfing the web, typing docs and notes. I almost got one in 2015 if I could code in it but I tested it and it was way too sluggish.

However a 12 inch MacBook M1 would be incredible.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#436

Post by strogonoff »

derefr wrote: post #308
veridies wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cameras are used for multiple professional purposes, including videography and commercial photography. SD cards are also used in devices such as Zoom audio recorders, which I often use for recording music. Especially right now, I'll loan a Zoom and a nice mic to a musician so that they can record tracks for me remotely. They're also the standard boot device for computers like the Raspberry Pi. Basically, they're a pr…

Regarding videography: professional digital video isn’t usually recorded to SD cards (nor was it ever, ever since “professional digital video” became a thing.) 4K RAW was “too big” when that was what videographers worked with; and 8K RAW is “too big” now. It’s not just that you’ll fill up the card before you’re done a single recording session; often an SD card just won’t have the IO bandwidth to persist writes at the…

Exactly, SD card support would be largely meaningless as far as professional work is concerned.

My Sigma fp has to record 12-bit CinemaDNG to an external SSD (SD cards larger than 64 GB can’t maintain the required throughput and 64 GB is enough for probably minutes). I might use the SD recording capability if I take the camera for a leisure photowalk (as far from professional work as it gets); I keep reminding myself to simply get a Wi-Fi enabled SD card so that I never have to take it out.

A memory card format that might be a bit more relevant here is CFexpress; but then again, it’s unlikely that as a professional you’d ever use your laptop’s built-in reader for this as opposed to sticking it into a box that automatically copies everything onto a 4TB HDD while you fill up another card.

By the way, tethered operation (wired or wireless) is used in professional photography as well, not just videography.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#437

Post by spijdar »

yarcob wrote: post #381

The nice thing about my 2015 Macbook Pro is that it's useful without any accessories. I can just throw it in a bag and walk out the door. It's got enough battery life that I usually don't need to bring a charger. It has all the ports that I ever need. I can hook it up to a projector with the built in HDMI port, I can put in the SD card from my camera, or I can quickly copy files from someones thumb drive. I don't nee…

It's great that the built in ports cover all your needs, but my experience with laptops has been more complicated.

You use a projector as an example of a use for your HDMI port. In my limited experience doing presentations, I've run across a mixture of HDMI, VGA, and even DisplayPort for some reason.

Once, even though I was using a Dell Precision with built in HDMI and VGA, I ended up using a usb-c dongle with combo HDMI+VGA+DP ports I keep in my bag. My coworker had to wait for someone to get a more specific passive converter for their laptop which didn't have usb-c.

Obviously YMMV, but I've found the combo of usb-c plus a compact multi port adapter to be indispensable, even on a laptop with a crap-ton of ports.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#438

Post by emdowling »

gambiting wrote: post #82
emdowling wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like everyone else, I love the MacBook 12. Give me one with a M-series, at the same (or less) weight, with Touch ID and the new keyboard. Like others, I don’t need more than 1 port. Not discounting anyone else’s need for it, but after living with it for a few years I really don’t need additional ports.

The thing is that while you might be reasonable about this, there seems to be a completely baffling number of people whose argument seems to be "I don't need it, therefore they shouldn't include it". It's like.....no one is forcing you to use these extra ports? But it's very nice to have them and some people will need them. If it doesn't increase the weight or thickness of the device(and it definitely doesn't to add…

My entire point was that people decry a lack of ports as a specific downside of the MacBook 12 and, in my opinion, that wasn’t an issue for me (or it seems several others).

Not all products have to appeal to all people, and products involve hundreds of trade offs. If more ports doesn’t mean increased weight or thickness, I’m not opposed!

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#439

Post by shrimpx »

harel wrote: post #399

Apple hardware is really top notch. I am a Linux person but if I squint hard enough I can use the Mac OS (with some swearing weaved in). But I cannot use that terrible keyboard. Why do I need key combos for page up/down? Why are they useless buttons like that top squiggle on the top left but no page up/down buttons (there is space for them). Why some things are Cmd+ and some are Ctrl+? Why no key travel?

Btw that squiggle button — I assume you mean ~ — is completely instrumental to programming and using a shell. It’s also the switcher key between windows of the same app (cmd-~ as opposed to cmd-tab).

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#440

Post by bebna »

hatchnyc wrote: post #137

I use two MacBooks for programming for several hours each every single day, my personal machine has a touchbar, my work machine does not. I realize this is blasphemous to say and I did think I would hate the touchbar for all the reasons, but I actually ended up liking it. I had imagined myself tapping virtual function buttons and the whole thing seemed silly and useless and worse than having physical keys, but VS Cod…

nobody hates the touchbar, they hate that a row was sacrificed for it, instead of just adding it on top.
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