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New MacBook Air with M2

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Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#141

Post by tm-guimaraes »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #107
andriesm wrote: post #105

In promotional materials they often show pictures of the laptops without the notch. If the notch is such an obvious eye-sore, why aren't they abondoning it?

The notched area of the screen isn’t used in full screen mode. The remaining non-notched area of the screen is a standard size and ratio. The notch is a total non-issue during normal use because it only exists in the menu bar area. It basically looks like another item occupying your menu bar. If you go full screen you still have a notch-free experience. They probably show it that way in promotional materials because…

> The notched area of the screen isn’t used in full screen mode.

That’s the default setting. You can choose to have the menu bar there as well in full screen.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#142

Post by dr_zoidberg »

sokoloff wrote: post #135
dr_zoidberg wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

M2 is not a single core CPU, albeit it does have stellar single threaded performance. As for having the worst Mac, it's quite probable they were nerfing their last x86 models on purpose to make the jump to Apple Silicon even more impressive. Remember the models that had inadequate thermals? Now magsafe is making a comeback?

I read GP's as "combination of (single core CPU *plus* graphics) performance"

Sure, that's why I mentioned it having stellar single threaded performance -- I figure out what they probably meant, but it's not what is written. And I've been seeing a lot of misinformation lately about many things (in general, and in tech in particular), and people buying that without questioning , which is why I jumped to "correct" this detail.

The point about nerfing their last x86 models stands on its own though.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#143

Post by Darmody »

swozey wrote: post #102
Darmody wrote: post #70

Am I the only one around here that doesn't like MacBooks? The hardware is fine, yes, except the glossy screen but the software is horrible. Everything is a pain in the a*.

If you're coming from Windows or another OS it definitely takes time to get used to the "Apple way" of doing things. Also you need to expect that a lot of the applications you're used to being free in other OS cost $10-35+ each on Apple. Apps like SetApp are great for this and trying new applications out but that's a $10 monthly fee. It'd still take me awhile (a year+) to buy the apps I use at $10/mo so I just pay th…

I come from linux and I feel like I've been given a machine for computer illiterate people who are going to do some office work at Starbucks. Stereotypical, yes, but that's how I feel.

I need this basic software feature. Yeah? Too bad, the OS won't allow you to do that. Maybe you'll find a paid app that does it. I do pay for software but when you have to pay for basic stuff that should come out of the box, it's a no for me. To cover the basics you need to pay a lot of money.

Then there's the weird behaviour. Example. You have 2 Chrome windows on two different monitors. You're focusing one of them and on that same monitor witch to a fullscreen app and then go back. Now it'll raise and focus the Chrome window on the other monitor. In the worst case I just have to manually change the window, on the worst case, I'll use some shortcut on a windows that I'm not supposed to and break something. I wouldn't be the only one breaking/changing something in Jira because of this.

The file manager is a joke. Again, something fancy but useless if you need a bit of functionality. At least the OS has a good shell that you can use instead.

When I'm told to learn to use it "the Apple way" what I understand is, "shut up and get used to it, you have no saying in how your machine or you should work".

If I leave my current job it'll be because of the Macbook.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#144

Post by sascha_sl »

xbar wrote: post #136
noja wrote: post #85

Anyone know anything about SSD performance on the Air?

No samples have made it to reviewers hands, so no. But perhaps it will mimic the M2 Macbook Pro 13", whose SSD performance scaled with size (meh at 256GB, blazing when bigger).

Apple has discontinued the 128 GB NAND chip, so it's very unlikely. The first increase in storage (from 256 GB to 512 GB) also costs twice as much as subsequent increases.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#145

Post by pcarolan »

ricardobayes wrote: post #110

However the cat (inflation) got the laptop, in Europe it's now 1500€ instead of the 1050€ previous gen with same specs. I think it's unjustifiable for a normal consumer.

I disagree. The colorful consumer oriented mac ibook clamshell g3 was USD $1,599 when it came out in 1999. That's $2,800 in today's dollars and it was orders of magnitude less powerful than this Macbook Air. The value per dollar you are getting is simply staggering.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#146

Post by adrianN »

pcarolan wrote: post #145
ricardobayes wrote: post #110

However the cat (inflation) got the laptop, in Europe it's now 1500€ instead of the 1050€ previous gen with same specs. I think it's unjustifiable for a normal consumer.

I disagree. The colorful consumer oriented mac ibook clamshell g3 was USD $1,599 when it came out in 1999. That's $2,800 in today's dollars and it was orders of magnitude less powerful than this Macbook Air. The value per dollar you are getting is simply staggering.

Go back twenty more years are computers were even more expensive. I don't think it makes sense to compare to prices that long ago.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#147

Post by napkin »

NoraCodes wrote: post #28

Looks like a neat laptop. I don't really understand why apple feels the need to forgoe articles for their devices, however. For instance, they write "MacBook Air features..." rather than "The MacBook Air features..." as would be grammatically correct in English.

Heh, my mother was recently alarmed by the following iOS notification:

(password-at-risk-blah-blah)... 'iPad can help you re-secure your account.'

She associates poor grammar with phishing attempts, so assumed this could not have been a genuine notification from Apple. When I checked my own devices, it seems clear that their approach is at least consistent.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#148

Post by pavlov »

bluedino wrote: post #129
carlycue wrote: post #39

This thing is going to sell like hotcakes. The combination of single core CPU and graphics performance, device thinness, battery life in this laptop is unmatched. It’s funny how Apple came back from the worst the Mac has ever been to the best in a span of few years. Johnny I’ve doesn’t dictate things around Apple anymore but the silicone chips team now does.

> the worst the Mac has ever been Which one was that?

The 2016 MacBook Pro was a turd. The butterfly keyboard would inevitably break. I went through several of these laptops. To add insult to the injury, this model's unique innovations were "Touch Bar" and "no ports"...

I've been buying Macs since 2000, and the 2016 MBP is definitely the worst Mac I ever had. It was enough to drive me to purchase a Surface Book as an alternative.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#149

Post by hbn »

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #120
NoraCodes wrote: post #28

Looks like a neat laptop. I don't really understand why apple feels the need to forgoe articles for their devices, however. For instance, they write "MacBook Air features..." rather than "The MacBook Air features..." as would be grammatically correct in English.

Ooo yes, it's so stilted and unnatural and transparently done on purpose. It's nearly as bad as people referring to a baby as just "baby" rather than "the baby" or "your baby".

Referring to their products as a proper noun is an old Jobs-ism that he intentionally did. I'm pretty sure it goes all the way back to the original Macintosh, that he wanted to be referred to as just "Macintosh" in all the marketing material, and his on-stage announcement.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#150

Post by nicoburns »

thrwawy283 wrote: post #108
senttoschool wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you're downvoted because of fanboys. I think you're downvoted because: 1. Linux is coming to Apple Silicon sooner or later. You can buy now, enjoy macOS, and then install Linux later. 2. It's not reasonable to expect to use it for 10 years. Even if Apple stops supporting it, you can still use it. In addition, Macs have insane resale value. So you can sell it in 5 years, and then buy a new one. This is a…

1) We are now 2 generations in without full Linux support for the hardware. 2) I used my Powerbook G4 for 12 years; this is mostly because I was a kid with no money. When I got something else, my sister used it for another 3 years. With thermals as they are in this device, instead of selling it after 4-5 years I'd rather keep it for one-off projects as a server like a Mac Mini. I know laptops aren't designed for serv…

You have pretty good support except for the GPU at this point (admittedly I'm waiting for this until I install it on my machine). They've had to write all the drivers from scratch, so it was bound to take a while. But on the plus side the hardware interfaces seem to be stable across generations. M2 parity with M1 was implemented in 48 hours! So I'm pretty confident it will mostly be case of linux support continuously improving rather than resetting with each new generation.
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