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MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

arstechnica.com

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Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#321

Post by X-Istence »

msutherl wrote: post #282
SiVal wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 mak…

The move toward integrated, worry-free, easy to use products for consumers is a good thing. In order to keep such things being developed, Apple will need to provide an adequate development environment. Thus, Apple has an incentive to keep both worlds alive. The only thing to worry about is that, because they only have the incentive to keep their development ecosystem merely adequate, we won't see much improvement in…

Apple decoupled the compiler/command line tools from Xcode specifically so that projects like MacPorts and HomeBrew can continue to exist on the Apple platform. There was a post on this a while back on HN!

I absolutely love HomeBrew, it is modeled a lot after MacPorts/FreeBSD ports tree and provides a way to compile packages from source (some are even hosted as bottles... no compiling required). It is an excellent tool to download and install libraries and do development with. Will Apple keep all those tools around? Only time will tell, but so far it is looking good and I don't think it is in their best interest to move away from it.

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#322

Post by wmf »

blubbix wrote: post #281
fjorder wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One further note on hardware quality: Perceived hardware quality is something Apple is fantastic at. Their laptops look and feel great. They feel like they'll last decades. This is misleading since they're actually built to be disposable. e.g. If you spill coffee on your Macbook Air, it's dead. You can't fix it because you can't remove the battery in a timely fashion and don't have the tools to open it. Apple won't f…

Do oter manufacturers except Panasonic cover spills? How is the machine milled MacBooks designed to fail at the first sign of trouble? The batteries are actually designed to last for many years and pretty easy to replace with a screwdriver. My MBP from 2008 is still going strong, and that's the less solidly built pre-unibody. Unlike many others, Apple extended the warranty because of the nVidia chipset bug.

I don't know about warranties for spills, but Thinkpads have a drain to greatly reduce liquid damage.

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#323

Post by sureshv »

ericd wrote: post #301
pkamb wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem will be when Xcode stops working on Snow Leopard.

I think it already has? That's why I had to finally bite the bullet and upgrade to Lion. My reluctance wasn't unfounded, it turns out.

Yes, I think with XCode 4.3 I had to upgrade to Lion from Snow Leopard.

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#324

Post by pkamb »

ericd wrote: post #301
pkamb wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem will be when Xcode stops working on Snow Leopard.

I think it already has? That's why I had to finally bite the bullet and upgrade to Lion. My reluctance wasn't unfounded, it turns out.

The Mac App Store version is dead for Snow Leopard, but you can still download 10.6 compatible builds directly from the developer portal.

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#325

Post by veemjeem »

dsirijus wrote: post #216
r00fus wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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." http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/

2 external displays at the full thunderbolt display (2560 x 1600) resolution. I'm betting you could do more displays if the resolution is lower, however I don't think you can buy external displays with lower resolution that use the thunderbolt port.

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#326

Post by veemjeem »

pippy wrote: post #320

I get little hints of Apple losing it's finesse. The plugs are on either side of the new MacBooks, a detail that Apple previously didn't miss. And two Thunderbolts? Does anyone here actually have a thunderbolt device?

thunderbolt display?

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#328

Post by wiredfool »

pooriaazimi wrote: post #130
jmsduran wrote: post #116

Earlier 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.

Try configuring an old style 15" MBP and new Retina 15" MBP with the same specs, 8 gig ram, 256mb ssd. The Retina one is $200 _cheaper_.

It looks like the big difference in price is not the display, but the hard drive.

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#329

Post by veemjeem »

stock_toaster wrote: post #65
rdl wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2010 Air did t have AES-NI either, which made FileVault slow. 2011 MBA just lacks 8gb; I think I will be sticking with mine since I do my heavy VM work on another machine. Lack of gigabit Ethernet on the big pro air makes me sad, though.

Integrated gigabit. There is apparently going to be a thunderbolt gigabit ethernet dongle, and thunderbolt can actually support gigabit speeds.

There's already a thunderbolt gigabit ethernet dongle called the "thunderbolt display", although it's probably too big for people to carry around with them.

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#330

Post by kylebrown »

blubbix wrote: post #306
jakeonthemove wrote: post #273

2880x1800 pixels on a 15.4 inch display? That's pretty impressive from a technical stand point, but I can't see how it's going to be useful in real life - I find 1680x1050 to be at the threshold of usability for me. 1600x900 is perfect on a 15.6, and 1920x1080 is the maximum I'd go for on a 17 inch display. Any higher and I'd just connect a bigger external display... Can anyone give me an idea of what this resolution…

It will work just like the iPad. GUI elements will stay the same size, only at a much higher resolution. Old apps will "see" a 1440x900 display and just look more blurry.

The @2x.png thing is already a kind of annoying work-around. Lack of fragmentation is Apple's pridepoint, but I guess this situation is going to get worse before it gets better..
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