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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

#481

Post by novok »

shrimpx wrote: post #435
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.

TBH I'm surprised apple didn't make the 12 macbook M1. The air is already fanless and the M1 chip is only 10W. I guess they really wanted to impress everyone with battery life numbers.

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

#482

Post by vb6sp6 »

i_am_proteus wrote: post #473
yarcob wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hope that you're right, but to be honest I'm not holding my breath. I also don't think the 2015 Macbooks were perfect, it's just that I don't care about any of the new things Apple has introduced. What I would really like would be a cellular modem so I don't have to bother with hotspots on the train and maybe a stylus for marking up screenshots. For my use cases, Apple expects me to carry a Macbook, an iPad,…

Why are you envious of Windows folks? Windows hardware is generally cheaper, so if you're using Macintosh, you could ostensibly afford Windows.

if your workflow depends on macOS then it doesn't matter how cheap windows is

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

#483

Post by mrgordon »

chrisseaton wrote: post #327
mrgordon wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really believe most people don’t use USB-A devices anymore? Even the iPhone 11 is USB-A and that was the newest until like three months ago lol

> Even the iPhone 11 is USB-A Not sure what you mean - the iPhone 11 is Lightning, which is usually plugged into a charger not a laptop. I doubt many people plug their phones into the laptops anymore - syncing has been done over wireless for many years now.

The lightning is the iPhone end, that hasn’t changed to USB C. The USB A that goes to either the wall block or your computer to charge only became USB C three months ago. People constantly plug their phones into their MacBooks or other computers in order to charge them. It’s often not convenient to plug the phone into the wall and use it since the outlet may be behind furniture. It’s much more convenient to use the phone while it’s plugged into the laptop you’re already using.

It’s not about syncing at all

If you don’t understand this use case, then I wouldn’t make bold claims that *most* users never use USB A as it’s certainly false

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

#484

Post by mrgordon »

bradlys wrote: post #408
chrisseaton wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even the iPhone 11 is USB-A Not sure what you mean - the iPhone 11 is Lightning, which is usually plugged into a charger not a laptop. I doubt many people plug their phones into the laptops anymore - syncing has been done over wireless for many years now.

I doubt 95% of users even sync anymore. The only reason you used to do that was for podcasts, music, and backing up. Now, that’s mostly pointless thanks to streaming services and backups you can do in the cloud.

It has nothing to do with syncing. Many people charge their phone off their laptop using the cable.

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

#485

Post by je42 »

novok wrote: post #476
weaksauce wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He wanted an objectively perfect, extremely thin portless wireless machine. i mean that is the ipad pro with a keyboard. (not perfect comparison i guess but is closer to that ideal) The mbp is supposed to be for professionals and that comes with a need for flexibility and functionality. the quest for thinness was misguided in my opinion.

The iPad Pro fails at many laptop-esque tasks. I tried during a vacation, and it was way more work and way slower than it needed to be, and it wasn't because it wasn't powerful enough, it was the OS. Dumping photos from an SD card with not apple photos ran into a lot of annoyances and was a lot slower than doing the same thing with a 5 year macbook pro at that point, something that is objectively slower in the CPU re…

Yeah i would be totally sold to a M2 macbook pro 2 in 1 with decent GPU and Pen support. This enables to run things like blender with pen and other stuff.

Right now, there are only windows 2 in 1 laptop which i find subpar on build quality.

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

#486

Post by gorbypark »

manicpolymath wrote: post #454
jessriedel wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me too, but I'm not holding my breath. The idea has been out there for a long time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimus_Maximus_keyboard

The Optimus Maximus keyboard showed why OLED was a bad choice for the keyboard. Chyrosran22 did a review of a used one that had severe burn in on all the keys. It would be interesting if someone could make a screen key cap that was compatible with Cherry MX or Alps switches. The problem is with communication and power delivery, though. Could NFC power a tiny E-Ink display? https://youtu.be/qj7GYU-wedo

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen NFC powered eink displays before! Here’s a random one after a quick Google search, https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/03/7-5-inch-e-ink-displ...

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

#487

Post by Kognito »

yarcob wrote: post #463
shrimpx wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My take is Jony Ive went extreme on form factor and totally lost his grip on users. He wanted an objectively perfect, extremely thin portless wireless machine. Now that he’s gone the design team is descending from the Ivery tower and undoing his work, meeting users halfway again.

I really hope that you're right, but to be honest I'm not holding my breath. I also don't think the 2015 Macbooks were perfect, it's just that I don't care about any of the new things Apple has introduced. What I would really like would be a cellular modem so I don't have to bother with hotspots on the train and maybe a stylus for marking up screenshots. For my use cases, Apple expects me to carry a Macbook, an iPad,…

Given Apple have gone cellular with everything all the way down to the Watch, I’m always amazed they never included it in a Macbook.

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

#488

Post by [deleted] »

mrgordon wrote: post #484
bradlys wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt 95% of users even sync anymore. The only reason you used to do that was for podcasts, music, and backing up. Now, that’s mostly pointless thanks to streaming services and backups you can do in the cloud.

It has nothing to do with syncing. Many people charge their phone off their laptop using the cable.

[deleted]

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

#489

Post by hugey010 »

Jonovono wrote: post #475
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…

Interesting, I would think most programmers touch type which at least for me make the touch bar useless. Since it's always changing I have to look down to see what button I am about to press. For me, if it's something common enough that the touchbars ability to change makes that functionality useful I would have found or made a keyboard shortcut for it. I just upgraded from a MacBook pro to a MacBook air for the main…

In many situations, you don't have to look at the touchbar to know what the keys are. For example, when using terminal, vim / ide emulation, I know left is Esc key. It does make spamming Esc feel less weird to me.

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

#490

Post by wartijn_ »

behnamoh wrote: post #257
gambiting wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I agree. Reading all these comments made me realize how selfish some people could be.

I think that's a weird realization. Those other people don't use those port so they want everyone to have a MacBook without them. You want those port so you want everyone to have a MacBook without them.

Or wanting either of those tings is selfish, and you should've realized that what you want is selfish, or both aren't.

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