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The new MacBook

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Re: The new MacBook

#511

Post by vidoc »

nkoren wrote: 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…

This is a very good point.

I'll also add to this what might still be the biggest burden of Macos: its file-system. It's amazing that they can get away still providing this horror in 2015!

Re: The new MacBook

#512

Post by egypturnash »

72deluxe wrote: post #349

I'm not sure if I'm an old fart or something (I'm 31) but this has to be the daftest MacBook I've ever seen. I have a 2012 MacBook non-retina, with DVD writer and all the ports I need (MagSafe, Gigabit ethernet, FireWire, ThunderBolt (also Mini DisplayPort so I don't need fiddly adapters to connect to TVs), 2 USB ports, an SD card slot, as well as headphone output, and line input (both switchable to digital optical S…

I'm a forty-something lady who is almost but not quite on the edge of replacing her 2013 Air with this.

My current machine has two USB ports, power, Mini Displayport, audio, and an SD card. I do not think I have ever plugged an SD card into this computer. I think I may have plugged one into one of my computers once. I was happy to ditch a DVD drive a few years ago when I bought my first Air; I think I used one of those maybe twice in five years. I've never felt the lack of Ethernet or Firewire.

I used to say that I'd never want a laptop smaller than a 15", but the higher DPI of the Airs changed my tune. I love my 13" now. Would a Retina 12" screen work for me? I dunno. It might, it might not.

When I'm on the road, the most things I've ever had to plug in to my computer are three: my Wacom tablet, a power brick, and a video adapter. That last only happens when I'm giving a presentation at a con; most of the time I just go out to a cafe with the drawing tablet and no other accessories.

And yes, there are adaptors to plug video/power/USB into that single USB-C connector at the same time.

The Air makes you angry, and this is an expression of the same ideas that drove the Air: small, light, and minimalist. It's no surprise you dislike this one too.

Re: The new MacBook

#513

Post by danpat »

Someone1234 wrote: post #385
stcredzero wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if someone can come up with a "mag-breakaway" adaptor for USB-C? It's a "null" adaptor -- it has USB-C female and USB-C male -- but it splits down the center and is held together by magnets. You can just put one on the end of your USB power adaptor. There you go: you have your Magsafe back again.

That sounds really cool. I'd buy that. Off the top of my head the only concern is: How do you turn on/off the flow as the magnets lose contact? Last thing you want is arching as it comes apart.

All connections arc as they come apart, it's just that the arc size is a function of the dielectric medium (air?), potential difference (voltage) and current. You design for "number of disconnects" and choose materials and power design so that the connector will survive as long as specified.

Apple MagSafe connectors are on the same voltage (20V) as these new Type C connectors, although Type C seems rated for a higher current (5A).

Looking at the pinout, the GND and VBUS are a bit longer, so will disconnect last upon removal. This may be to allow for the voltage to be dropped in anticipation of a disconnect, but you'd need enough intelligence at the power supply end to notice that. Lowering the voltage prior to disconnect would reduce the arc size.

Re: The new MacBook

#514

Post by Turing_Machine »

ssijak wrote: post #469
Turing_Machine wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Dell weighs 2.6 pounds compared to 2.03 pounds for the Apple machine, uses a Core i5 rather than a Core M, no USB-C, etc. Does the Dell have a camera? I don't see it mentioned on that page, so maybe not.

i5 is faster and better than core m.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/benchmarks/two-in-one...

Re: The new MacBook

#515

Post by swang »

pbreit wrote: post #461
nickysielicki wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry but when you ship a machine with ONE PORT for the purposes of charging and peripherals, this absolutely needs to be in the box. Nickel and $80'ering me on a $1400 computer is ridiculous. I'll stick with my thinkpad.

With Bluetooth, the cloud and AirPlay, who even needs those ports? People are up in arms every time Apple changes/deletes ports and are almost always wrong. Go ahead and stick with your thinkpad.

Maybe it's just not set up correctly, but my company has airplay in every conference room and we very rarely use it because its so fickle whether or not it'll acknowledge your MacBook. Maybe Yosemite fixed these problems but that's just trading one set of bugs/problems for another.

Re: The new MacBook

#516

Post by bduerst »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #76
bane wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It just means we're going to stay stuck in dongle hell. When I'm on the road the minimalism of a Mac is nice, but at my desk, hooked up to everything I really need for heavy work, my desktop is a cluster-f of cables and adapters and wires.

This seems like the fix for dongle hell to me. You plug everything into your monitor, tucking your cables away nicely, and then you have a single cable going from your monitor into your laptop.

Most monitors do this now with a USB hub, except you have two cables (video and usb).

Too bad USB-C didn't also do microphone in.

Re: The new MacBook

#518

Post by sytelus »

I'm actually quite unhappy with this obsession with "thinner and lighter" mantra which throws away features at the expense of saving 0.01mm of thickness. These new computers don't have interfaces like Ethernet, DVD player, common interfaces for video. All of these is supposed to be outdated while it is very clearly not. You can't even do trivial upgrades like RAM let alone putting in new bigger SSD. These things are way too expensive to be entirely replaced just because you need 8GB of more RAM.

When you travelling and wireless is painfully slow in places like hotels, wired Ethernet connection is truly a life saver. I hate to carry so many dongles and even worse, they are so easy to lose which can be devastating when traveling. I hate even more carryieng external DVD players because running Netflix is too choppy. When I'm presenting, I hate to carry dongles for VGA, DVI, HDMI etc to connect to projectors. Just few years ago, all of these were built-in to laptops and I used to carry zero dongles. Most people carry laptops in backpack which are often heavier and combined with the weight of all dongles it diminishes any weight reduction done on these devices. So these whole obsession looks pretty stupid to me and detrimental to getting work done for users.

Re: The new MacBook

#519

Post by nodesocket »

Are there any performance benchmarks of the Intel Core M (Macbook) vs 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (MacBook Pro). The new keyboard, new touchpad, new design, improved battery are awesome, but for nearly the same price, you can get a MacBook Pro.

Re: The new MacBook

#520

Post by mmcconnell1618 »

nkoren wrote: 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…

My guess is that somewhere deep in the basement they have an OS that unites iOS and OS X into a single system that will run on future devices. That OS will run both OS X apps in legacy mode and iOS apps. Apple is funding teams for the iOS versions of the apps because that is where they see the future.
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