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New MacBook Air with M2

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Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just inflation, the Euro has been getting crushed as decades of negligence by the ECB show up. That's not stopping any time soon and the ECB looks like it will be in the position to either destroy the Euro or destroy the bond market.

> It's not just inflation, the Euro has been getting crushed as decades of negligence by the ECB show up. the stream of anti ECB drones is frankly ridiculous the price has gone up in pounds as well. Does the ECB controls them too? Prices in Europe are taxes included, in US are before taxes. In Europe you have to add VAT, not only sales taxes, which are much lower in US anyway. Last but not least, custom duties are a…

Compared to the M1 Macbook Air, the M2 Macbook Air has: a £50 premium in the UK vs US. A €200 Euro premium in Ireland (for example) vs US.

So, you are right. Apple raised prices. I suspect exchange rates. It is easier to account for unfavorable exchange rates in new products than in raising prices of existing products.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#252
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It also predates Apple by a long time. Steve Jobs didn't invent this, though he did use it.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#253
I'm sorry if this doesn't add anything to the discussion, but one of MKBHD's latest reviews discusses the differences between the MacBook Pro 13 and this new MacBook Air. The video does a great job of shining a light on all of the tradeoffs between the two devices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSdKnNj7ozk

This little device is a beast!

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#254
post #5

I'm excited to get my hands on one of these. I'm a US citizen living in Hungary, and hoping to get my hands on a US version ASAP. I'm debating if it will be easier to order from Apple in the US and ship it via a third party to the EU, or order in the EU and have the keyboard swapped out after I get it. I'm mostly nervous that if I don't order right away, it will be sold out and hard to get my hands on for a few more…

What's the difference in keyboards?

This image illustrates the differences: https://appuals.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/1-11.jpg

The difference is that one keyboard is made for humans who touch type, and the other keyboard is made for people who like to lift up their hand and move it every time they want to hit return... or left shift.

The ones with the shorter left shift and narrower/taller return key are just bad designs. They make keys you use frequently less accessible, and the tradeoff is that keys you rarely use are now in reach.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#255

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.

I believe it’s also a branding and copyright protection tactic to prevent diluting the name.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really does seem very cult-like with the way Apple wants everyone to change up English for their product specifically...

If you think this is changing up English, you may not be speaking English as a first language? Referring to products as a proper noun is very common. E.g. Ford will tell you "Mustang offers a powerful engine... blah blah blah" not "The Mustang offers..."

English is my first language, and yes to me that sentence would sound odd. Perhaps that's something common in American advertisement and not elsewhere

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not just inflation, the Euro has been getting crushed as decades of negligence by the ECB show up. the stream of anti ECB drones is frankly ridiculous the price has gone up in pounds as well. Does the ECB controls them too? Prices in Europe are taxes included, in US are before taxes. In Europe you have to add VAT, not only sales taxes, which are much lower in US anyway. Last but not least, custom duties are a…

He might be being hyperbolic, but the euro is definitely not doing too hot right now - it's gone from $1.18 to the euro a year ago to $1.02. The Air in the UK is £1,249, up from £999 - a 25% increase. The EU price is €1,500, up from €1,050 - a 43% increase. At least some of that has to be explained by the euro dropping ~14% against the dollar. Take away 14% from the EU price and you get €1,290 - pretty close to the U…

Here is an example of data abuse.

You are comparing 2 different products' prices.

The M2 Air is up £49 compared to its US counterpart. A ~5% increase. And its up €200 compared to its US counterpart. An ~18% increase.

Exchange rates explain this easily.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it very hard to believe that Apple deliberately sabotaged a multi-billion dollar product line for ~5 years in order to (possibly?) boost sales when their incredibly risky and expensive investment into their own silicon came to market. People have been shitting on MacBooks since they removed MagSafe and brought in the butterfly keyboard in 2016. The i9 Pros with massive thermal issues came out in 2018. That's a…

> I wouldn't ascribe to malice what can be more easily be ascribed to incompetence While I usually agree with the sentiment, it's hard to believe that one of the most successful companies in the world can be subject to such levels of incompetence on one of their flagship products.

The rust belt is littered with the remains of what were at one time or another some of the most successful companies in the US or the world.

Corporations are ran by fallible people and are perfectly capable of running themselves into the ground. I'd argue it's nearly their natural trajectory to become bloated and inefficient over time. General Motors was largest and most successful auto manufacturer in the world right up until it crashed and burned in 2008 and had to be bailed out by the federal government.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#259
post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The last Intel Air (early 2020) is the worst Mac I've ever owned by an absolute mile. The fan is permanently on - it's like working on a hairdryer.

Honestly - Pretty much every laptop Apple released from 2018 to 2021 was a complete turd.

I have the 16 inch 2019 model (issued by work, I don't buy apple products) and it's... just not a good machine.

It gets amazingly hot, the fans run ALL the time, the usb-c ports are flakey at best (frequently stop working after a suspend/resume cycle, or if you unplug while the machine is closed).

It's got a shitty touch bar instead of function keys (although at least it reverted to a real esc-key, the touchbar only esc was literally a joke).

It has frequent rendering glitches and artifacts.

The battery life is bad (basically a given for how much power this thing is dumping right into my lap as heat).

----

Before the M line, I was about to go have a real fight with our IT department to get me issued literally anything other than another Mac. The last couple of models they've put out in the intel line are just genuinely bad machines, across both the pro and air lines.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#260
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the M2 Air supported two displays, I’d have no reason whatsoever to buy the expensive MacBook Pro. The M1/M2 Air is already so ridiculously overpowered for my needs. Which is probably why the Air doesn’t support two displays. Sigh.

Genuinely curious: can I hook up the Air with a single ultra-wide monitor that's exactly as large as two regular monitors side by side, or is the screen resolution limited, too? I'm thinking of something like [1], though it will probably make more sense to get a MacBook Pro instead at that kind of price. [1] https://www.amazon.com/LG-49WL95C-W-49-Inch-Curved-Ultrawide...

It should be fine. I'm typing this on an M1 MBP hooked to a Samsung CRG9.
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