I was hoping 2560x1600 13" pro, preferably in a fullsized body (instead of this Airy silliness). Instead just a overprized and oversized Air, and lackluster minimal refresh to real Pros.
MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge
211–220 of 541 posts
Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge
#212Looks like they dropped the 17" MBP and replaced it with the new 15" Retina MBP.
Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge
#213I have been a Windows user my whole life. As a hacker who has recently moved to San Francisco, I've continuously battled Apple fanboys and Linux fanatics alike on why I love Windows and absolutely do not understand why people want to switch platforms. Then I watched this keynote. I'm buying a Macbook Pro.
I've spent a reasonable amount of time using Windows, Linux, and OSX. All of them suck. All of them are also awesome, at different things.
If you want an living room PC for entertainment, Windows is king. Neither Linux or OSX support Bluray properly and Windows still has a huge edge in gaming. Windows also supports the most hardware. That's become unimportant to most people, but if you work in a research lab with various oddball computer controlled devices around, you are often forced to work with Windows simply because that's the only OS supported by drivers for a lot of things.
OSX is the perfect OS for your mother. There's the one "Apple way" of doing things, so if she needs help it's easy to give her some. OSX gets decent battery life (on mac hardware) and still has a few Unix friendly features that haven't been locked away by Apple yet. If you're looking for a ghetto linux workstation, OSX will do in a pinch. I actually spent the better part of last year working under OSX on a Mac Book air. I've used Mac's off and on for decades and this is just the most recent stint (The MBA hardware lured me in this time). It worked, but the OS still puts up too much fight you when you try to customize it. OSX has also gotten rather buggy. I'm relieved to have retired it. As I said, while it would be great for my mother I personally detest OSX. Also, Mac hardware is moving away from the DIY crowd. e.g. The MBA's actually use proprietary screws to keep you out of your own laptop's innards. If you've ever saved a laptop from a coffee spill by disconnecting the battery and opening it up and doing a little cleaning, just bear in mind you won't be able to do that with most future macs.
Linux is bug central. Don't get me wrong, it's come a long way from the days when Slackware was king. You can install Ubuntu and almost everything will just work. The devil is in the details though, and if you have a low tolerance for flakiness you'll have to tweak away. However, no other OS is as powerful and flexible. If you want it to do X, it can do X in dozens of different ways. If the journey is as important as the destination for you, Linux is your OS.
Windows is all things to all people, but entertainment first and foremost. OSX is for your mother or people who would rather not use a real computer. Linux is for those who embrace the quest. Decide (and be honest with yourself) what kind of user you are and your OS preference will become clear, although what you are forced to use may be different. I currently use both Windows and Linux extensively, and occasionally help my Mom with OSX.
Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just promise us that when you do, you won't become a rabid fanboy yourself. By all rights I should be the biggest fanboy ever. All my computers are Macs. I have an Apple TV. I stood in line to buy the first iPhone on launch day and have owned nothing but iPhones since. I have an iPad. I insist on using Apple services like iTunes so everything "just works" with all my Apple devices. I even converted my whole family fr…
IMHO Apple fanboyism is not a problem in the hacker community. It's a well-built solid metal portable development workstation. With BSD UNIX. And a pretty layer on top. Among programmers, I never need to explain why we would buy these things. It's outside the programming groups that the conversation gets hostile. I find most programmers avoid this completely, knowing that they're simply using the best tool available…
If things keep going the way they're going, Apple fanboyism will become less and less of a problem among hackers. Apple appears to be in a gradual transition process from MacOS computers to iOS "Don't worry, just watch the pretty pictures, and we'll tell you which PAY button to press" devices. Windows, not wanting to be left behind selling computers instead of devices (Yuck! Computers! That's SO 20th century), is making the same transition to Metro.
It appears that both of the major computer platform makers have come to the same conclusion: they don't want to make computers that their customers can program for their own purposes; they want to make ever-more-tightly-sealed point-of-sale devices for buying digital products and services from the device maker and its partners.
In other words, if you think the sealed iPhone, tethered to giant companies with strict rules about what you may and may not do with it or put on it and its design esthetic of "enjoy the beauty, stop resisting, do exactly as we say, and why not buy something with it, you'll feel better" is your idea of a great "pocket computer" for hackers, then you should be happy about where our computers are going. Otherwise....
I think we hackers are going to be driven to Linux on the desktop over time, which I would have no objection to if only there were an "Apple for Linux" company making the hardware and matching drivers of Apple-level quality. I can live without MacOS, but the hardware is a big deal.
Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge
#215As a 2011 MacBook Air user, my biggest envy is USB 3.0. Thunderbolt accessories have been few and far between, and then priced at an exorbitant premium. But hey, they finally made a Thunderbolt Firewire adapter cable.
I sure am glad that I bought a 2 TB USB 3.0 last year before I had anything with USB 3.0 ports!
Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge
#216I'm really hoping it can drive three external monitors... Looks somewhat promising: * Two Thunderbolt[/DisplayPort?] ports * One HDMI port * A Geforce 650M (capable of driving 4 active displays [1]). [1] http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-650M.71887.0.... EDIT: "Up to two external displays" (thanks dsirijus)
If you are hacking or doing office work (and not gaming), you can easily support an additional 1080p monitor over USB2 using DisplayLink tech. I did it in a former life using a 13" MBP and over a Belkin USB2 hub, even with no glitches. With USB3 now, you could probably run several. I bet you could get 4 HD monitors easy.
"Up to two external displays."
Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
> i.e. conference tables have MagSafe power adapters zip tied to them semi-permanently, since that's what almost everyone uses. It's too bad that Apple is moving to MagSafe II with the new retina MacBook Pro. I guess we'll all have to carry around adapters now: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD504
Dear god why? I am actually quite unimpressed by the entire WWDC lineup, but they made so many stupid mistakes like this. There is almost no advantage to using a slightly slimmer MagSafe, and moderate cost; there would be greater advantage to a smaller iPod Dock connector, but much higher cost, so I guess they'll do that too.
"Almost no advantage" = thinner laptops. Apple will go for thinner every time (see ethernet for an example).
Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge
#218I've never owned an Apple product before. I'll probably buy this thing, it's amazing, but I won't use OS X, no, no :P
OS X might be the only OS to take advantage of the pixel doubling for a while.
Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
Although I didn't watch the keynote, I tuned in to the live tweeting CNN gave. Don't get me wrong, Apple's Macbook Pro is a nice piece of hardware, but I failed to see anything earth-shattering in their recent announcements. At a high level, they're really just upgrading to Ivy Bridge, USB 3.0, and Retina displays across their notebook line. Nothing mind-blowing really.
A 2880x1880 screen, with top of the line CPU with highest build quality at $2199 IS mind-blowing. Those screens don't come cheap.
We need to remember that it's the nature of technology to continuously improve. We tend to take it for granted, but that is because continuous improvement has been that reliable. 2 MP 15" displays were available in 2002 and were a $2000-laptop technology by 2006 if not earlier. It is not surprising that 5 MP 15" displays are $2000-laptop technology six years later.
Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
So the Air do not have the retina display? The 15" pro would be good, but can not go back to a mechanical hdd.
No, but if you want you can get 11" or 13" ultrabook from Asus with a 1080p resolution.
Except that Windows doesn't have the HiDPI concept, which makes all your UI truly tiny and useless.