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The new MacBook

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431–440 of 1001 posts

Re: The new MacBook

#431

I see they are pushing tethering to an iPhone. Does you still have to pay the carrier for that feature?

I know that at least AT&T isn't charging for this right now. In fact, my bill went DOWN when I switched from a 250mb/450minute/limited texts plan to a 1gb/unlimited talk/texts plan that included tethering. The tethering isn't a separate item on the bill. But it's possible that older plans won't "support" it - I think that was the case with mine.

Re: The new MacBook

#432
post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

first to adopt USB Do you mean they were the first to bring out a desktop/laptop with usb?

I mean first to make it an explicit part of their product strategy that the only peripheral connection standard they would support was USB. Now, to be fair, Apple had been in a ghetto of their own making for peripherals with their DIN serial ports and ADB keyboards, but the iMac's total switch to USB happened when PC makers were still mixing USB with parallel and serial ports (and I still have PS/2 and 9-pin DIN port…

Ok I see, good point. Made me thinking: how did Apple got into this position where they could pull such tricks without customers going completely mental but sometimes even rather the opposite: craving for the newer device? I mean, imagine it's the year 2000 and a company like Dell or HP says: 'we drop the parallel port'. Hell would brake loose.

Re: The new MacBook

#433

Seriously? Couldn't they have put _two_ ports in it so you can plug something in while it's being charged without lugging around a usb hub?

Apple is primarily a profit-driven company. They front noble reasons for "optimizing" down to 1 port for everything, but the reality is they're mandating that you buy their $79 adapter.

Re: The new MacBook

#434
post #413
post #2

USB-C as the "one connector to rule them all" is the big news. That's the end of MagSafe and the exploding era of USB-C docking stations that work for multiple devices. I think we'll start to see an era of expandable computing coming up soon: USB-C is a perfect connector to push your data and state into a larger desktop experience. Why not carry around your laptop in tablet form when you are mobile? [1] [1] https://g…

As a guy with small children, the loss of MagSafe is actually a huge downgrade for me. The number of times MagSafe has saved my laptop and/or power cable from damage after a child blitzed through the living room and tripped over the power cable is not insignificant.

i think the idea is not to have it plugged in to power while using it, only charge overnight

Re: The new MacBook

#435
post #416
post #261

This is a beautiful machine. Once again, Apple excels at hardware. But what the living hell is going wrong with Apple's desktop software? OS X and Apple's applications suite have been getting steadily worse with every release. Look at the App store: the latest releases of OS X, iPhoto, iMovie, Pages, and Numbers are (in stark contrast to earlier versins) all rated at 2.5/5 stars, with the plurality being 1-star revie…

That's a very good point - Apple's desktop software is definitely not a highlight in the last few years. What's not clear is: (i) how much it matters - the core desktop experience is very solid, and between web browsers and MS Office it's not clear how much the iLife(?) apps actually get run. And (ii) whether it's a symptom of some deeper malaise - Apple still seems to be killing it in other areas so perhaps it's jus…

Maybe overlooked rather than resource-starved. Apple's sitting on $100B in cash. Resources shouldn't be an issue in any department.

Re: The new MacBook

#436
post #92

Man, there's something about a gold laptop that just makes me want to never give money to a company again.

There are market segments (hint: china & others) that LOVE the gold color. You don't have to buy it.

Yep, I was saying that too!

Re: The new MacBook

#438
post #95
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not an uncommon practice. I believe there was a non-Retina Macbook Pro in the product line for quite a while after the introduction of the Retina Macbook Pro.

There's still one left (I just got one). The pricing model of the Retina MBPs is just craziness to me. To get larger storage sizes you have to jump entire model lines to get it, you can't just upgrade storage on them.

I was thinking long and hard about maybe getting a refurbished 15.6in MBP. I ended up with a HP Omen gaming laptop instead, because I could get it with a 512GB SSD and 16GB of RAM for $1700, instead of about $2500. I'm giving up battery life of course, and then there's the issue that it runs Windows...

However, I've been pleased so far. The keyboard takes a little getting used to (because it is in the exact center of the laptop), but is good for typing overall. Good feel, no flex. The display is good too, with a wide viewing angle.

Re: The new MacBook

#439
post #217

Why wouldn't they include 4G/LTE in this? It's a serious question. It's basically a "mega-tablet," a high-end mobile device with a "real OS." It's designed for doing serious work in an ultra-portable fashion. I can tether to my phone of course, but this seems like an option they should have considered.

Do you really enjoy getting a separate phone bill for your laptop? I always thought that was pretty dumb.

For the record I also think a camera with its own GPS is dumb.

Re: The new MacBook

#440
post #283
post #2

USB-C as the "one connector to rule them all" is the big news. That's the end of MagSafe and the exploding era of USB-C docking stations that work for multiple devices. I think we'll start to see an era of expandable computing coming up soon: USB-C is a perfect connector to push your data and state into a larger desktop experience. Why not carry around your laptop in tablet form when you are mobile? [1] [1] https://g…

Thank god. The magsafe adapter is cool, but has some serious flaws to it. Namely: it's magnetic, so any sort of [ferrous] metal dust will accumulate inside of it, preventing you from getting a good seal on the connector. If you work in any environment other than a sterile coffee shop, this will be a huge problem for you. I spend almost all of my time working in a hackerspace, and fiddling with my power connector on m…

I use my Air and used my old Macbook (the white plastic one) in my workshop, where we make shoes by hand. So I have lots of nails (and thus, lots of tiny metal scraps from the nail boxes, as well as nail pieces when we need to cut some down) lying around and lots of knife-sharpening dust around our (unplugged, since we usually keep the computer away when hammering/sharpening, but we just leave the connector in his usual place) Magsafes and have seen no problem in the connector.
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