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The new MacBook

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Re: The new MacBook

#711

Post by gcr »

zanny wrote: post #449
0942v8653 wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think about it. Eighty dollars just to get less than you had before (with the 11-inch Air). And you're already paying the Apple tax, plus that ugly adapter defeats the purpose of the whole making-it-pretty thing. All in the pursuit of a few millimeters.

I easily expect monitors to start supporting Type C input, where they feed the host machine power and do USB passthrough to a classic USB interface hub with maybe a daisychained type C port on there as well. Its temporary. In five years everything will have these ports and adapters will not be necessary. In the same way today you can get a DP to VGA adapter instead of having a bulky analog video output, even if it co…

That's what Apple said would happen for Thunderbolt.

I don't want to shell out another $900 monitor to replace my existing $900 monitor that adds no new features on top of what I had previously.

Re: The new MacBook

#712

Post by m_mueller »

npalli wrote: post #649
dignati wrote: post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Resolution of 2304x1440 which means at Retina this is 1152x720!. This is worse than the 11 inch air, much less the 13 inch 1440x900. I don't think people realize how cramped this will seem if you start doing work on this laptop You can still scale the screen resolution and get a higher resolution than the Air's 1440x900.

yeah, i know you can scale it. Will it look good though? In addition, it has a pretty weak processor, so we will have to see how the performance works out if you scale it. Especially if you drive a monitor.

> Will it look good though?

Yes, I scale my 15'' rMBP all the time according to what I currently need and the quality difference is hardly noticeable.

> performance

That one I'm also curious about. My takeaway from this new MB however is that it's pretty much unusable as a business laptop anyways. For a serious laptop I still need power, display, ethernet and at least one USB port available at the same time as an absolute minimum, plus connectivity to both HDMI and VGA when needed. Even if they offered all the dongles for that, it would still be a mess to work with on a daily basis. So, really, even if the performance were good, it wouldn't change anything for me. I'm curious how version 2 of that machine will be - didn't we already have a similar situation with the first macbook air and then they readded more ports later, because you know, they'd also actually like to sell these things rather than just having Jony talk about them in a soothing voice?

Re: The new MacBook

#713

Post by delsalk »

npalli wrote: post #468

Looks like apple has finally introduced a netbook or iPad with a keyboard. Frankly, I'm disappointed with this macbook as I was expecting a full scale retina macbook air. After seeing the Dell XPS 13, I was hoping apple will take the retinafy the regular air. Ah well, the wait continues. Let's see -- 1. Resolution of 2304x1440 which means at Retina this is 1152x720!. This is worse than the 11 inch air, much less the…

This also goes for all of the retina models. Even the 15" has a smaller retina resolution than the non-retina higher-dpi older 15" MacBook Pro.

Apple really needs to get to the "next-generation" retina displays with 25% or more density.

Re: The new MacBook

#714

Post by delsalk »

m_mueller wrote: post #712
npalli wrote: post #649

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, i know you can scale it. Will it look good though? In addition, it has a pretty weak processor, so we will have to see how the performance works out if you scale it. Especially if you drive a monitor.

> Will it look good though? Yes, I scale my 15'' rMBP all the time according to what I currently need and the quality difference is hardly noticeable. > performance That one I'm also curious about. My takeaway from this new MB however is that it's pretty much unusable as a business laptop anyways. For a serious laptop I still need power, display, ethernet and at least one USB port available at the same time as an abs…

Unfortunately scaling becomes useless if you need todo any graphical related work, where you really do need 1:1 (retina) resolution.

Re: The new MacBook

#715

Post by voltagex_ »

edvinbesic wrote: post #450
rm445 wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

While I agree with regards to iLife, the software overall just seems to have gone down in quality. Since upgrading to Yosemite I've had a ton of issues with Apple Mail (which is a staple for me) and wifi in general. Having to toggle your wifi on & off throughout the day gets pretty old pretty fast. Still a tough sell to go outside apple simply due to the hardware quality & resale value, but at least we have some cont…

Hopping on this thread: Printer discovery - does it work anymore? I had to toggle wifi on and off on a 2014 Macbook to get it to work

Re: The new MacBook

#716

Post by sitkack »

igl wrote: post #675
nsxwolf wrote: post #561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious - what do Finder complainers consider the gold standard of file browsers that Finder should aspire to be? I do most of my file management at the command line so I don't experience the pain of Finder very often, and I've generally been able to get Finder to do what I want without much fuss. Windows Explorer is, to me, a painful experience (but its 1980s DOS command line is so much worse) I've found the various…

Since nobody else mentioned it: Directory Opus. Looks big and clunky at first look but it's actually very fast and 100% customizable. You could strip it down to a dual list view and operate it purely by keyboard shortcuts. Buttons are defined in a copy pasteable xml format, are scriptable, come in various forms and let you bind events for left/right/middle click. The only caveat is: windows only. I would kill for a L…

Path finder on OSX comes close. DO on the Amiga circa 1992 is still superior with the commands down the middle, kinda like Midnight Commander but better.

Re: The new MacBook

#717

Post by moe »

eropple wrote: post #657
quaunaut wrote: post #342

I'm just supremely disappointed in the Macbook itself- I have a 3 year old Macbook Air, that is more powerful than this Retina. That's just absurd, that it's that much of a step back in terms of raw CPU. Luckily however, the new 13inch MBP is actually perfect. I'm rather excited about it.

"More powerful" is a little hard to isolate as tightly as you are doing here. The 1.1GHz model will burst a single thread at 2.9GHz. I'm disappointed there's no 16GB RAM model, and that'll keep me from buying it, but CPU perf is not on the list of my worries.

"More powerful" is a little hard to isolate

Not really. Just look at the Passmark scores:

  Macbook Air (Early 2014): 4159 [1]
  Macbook                 : 3096 [2]
The new Macbook is 25% slower than the MacBook Air.

[1] http://cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-4650U+%40+...

[2] https://cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+M-5Y70+%40+1...

Re: The new MacBook

#718

Post by gcr »

shirro wrote: post #491
cheald wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Before I got a Mac my first child knocked my old laptop over and the power cord ripped the power socket apart. I will not buy anything other than a child proof power connector. Sadly, nobody makes a serviceable laptop with one with easily replaceable/upgradeable battery, RAM and HDD anymore so I am using my old MBP until it dies. I understand there is a market for these paper thin, disposable machines but Apple has l…

Lenovo makes (well, made) a Thinkpad t430u, an ultrabook with a detatchable plate on the bottom. I think you can remove the battery, HD, and RAM. It opens with a latch -- no screws needed.

Video (sorry for linking to a Lenovo advertisement): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTZ7u5YNXV0&t=60

Re: The new MacBook

#719

Post by gcr »

foz wrote: post #565
cheald wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Maybe at 2 pounds, the laptop is so light that maybe magsafe is not effective any more.

There are also no moving parts on this machine.

No spinning rust hard disk, no fan.

I bet it could take a lick or two. Can't speak for the plastic or the glass screen though.

Re: The new MacBook

#720

Post by EdwardDiego »

settsu wrote: post #88
wnissen wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it never really took off outside the Mac world. This may be an improvement. I look at my Mac Mini that currently has power, Thunderbolt display, 3 disks, USB hub with 30-pin and Lightning, and DVD, though, and wonder WTF they are thinking about 1 port. IF the daisy chaining works and I can still charge my iPad, it could be really nice.

If you require so many peripherals concurrently, why would you consider a notebook?

Yeah, because anyone who wants to use two USB devices at the same time clearly bought the wrong computer.

People have different use cases to you. Deal with it.

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