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Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

arstechnica.com

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Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#101

Post by philjohn »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #34
andr wrote: post #15

Given that 15 minutes later, in the iPad part of the event, they claimed the new iPad is faster than 92% of all notebooks sold in the last year, the writing is on the wall. For me, the next Macbook to be excited about, would be one with an ARM processor. Still, really disappointing that for the new Air they do not allow you to go to 1TB SSD, but they won't allow you upgrade from a dual-core i5. Feels like a political…

If Apple could sell you a quad-core CPU as an purchase-time $1000 upsell they would. They don't because it doesn't fit the power budget.

And thermal envelope budget.

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#103

Post by notatoad »

falcolas wrote: post #58
reustle wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My phone, Sony camera, battery bank, and now laptop are all usb-c. I welcome this with open arms.

In contrast - my USB hubs, external USB drives, and CD reader are all USB A. My phone is Lightning. My spare chargers are two flavors of magsafe. The cords I've begun to accumulate to work with a USB C computer have varying capabilities, to the point where I can't safely interchange them for fear of blowing past their tolerances accidentally. I'm not so keen on this change.

>for fear of blowing past their tolerances accidentally

this is not how USB-C works. you might end up with a cable that doesn't support high voltage, but it simply won't upgrade to a higher voltage and your device will charge slower or not at all.

I agree that it's frustrating that all USB-C cables aren't interchangeable, but to imply they're potentially unsafe is wrong. There was a bunch of out-of-spec cables on the market shortly after USB-C came into use with the nexus phones and the macbook pro, but that problem has almost entirely been solved, and is still a much smaller problem than cheap aftermarket USB-A charging bricks sold by the same sketchy vendors.

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#105

Post by cbhl »

falcolas wrote: post #58
reustle wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My phone, Sony camera, battery bank, and now laptop are all usb-c. I welcome this with open arms.

In contrast - my USB hubs, external USB drives, and CD reader are all USB A. My phone is Lightning. My spare chargers are two flavors of magsafe. The cords I've begun to accumulate to work with a USB C computer have varying capabilities, to the point where I can't safely interchange them for fear of blowing past their tolerances accidentally. I'm not so keen on this change.

> The cords I've begun to accumulate to work with a USB C computer have varying capabilities

USB-A had these problems back in 1998. It's early days for USB-C, but I think a few more hardware iterations and hopefully things will start settling down.

Right now USB-C controllers are too complex and expensive to fit in low-end devices (think $49 TV dongles).

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#106

Post by vesrah »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #100
masklinn wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The price has skyrocketed though, entry model is $800 (used to be $500), the top end with all options is $4200.

It would be interesting to compare that to an equivalent Intel NUC, my guess is you are paying a lot for the ability to run macOS.

There aren't NUCs that compare. You can't buy a NUC with an i7 6 core, one with 64GB of memory, or one with 10GBit.

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#107

Post by minhazm423 »

andr wrote: post #15

Given that 15 minutes later, in the iPad part of the event, they claimed the new iPad is faster than 92% of all notebooks sold in the last year, the writing is on the wall. For me, the next Macbook to be excited about, would be one with an ARM processor. Still, really disappointing that for the new Air they do not allow you to go to 1TB SSD, but they won't allow you upgrade from a dual-core i5. Feels like a political…

>Given that 15 minutes later, in the iPad part of the event, they claimed the new iPad is faster than 92% of all notebooks sold in the last year, the writing is on the wall. For me, the next Macbook to be excited about, would be one with an ARM processor.

hey not a huge technocrat when it comes to pc parts, but could u explain that part to me?

what is the writing on the wall?

what is arm exactly?

and what makes u think its better than whats being offered currently and that it will be in a macbook soon?

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#108

Post by tptacek »

Ratiofarmings wrote: post #99

So they finally removed the last computer with mag safe and a good keyboard from their lineup. I am not at all happy about that. All this computer needed was a new cpu, memory and a type-c port.

Magsafe is done. The writing was on the wall when the rMBP switched to USBC. If you want a magnetic breakaway USBC cable, just buy one.

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#109

Post by ascagnel_ »

nkkollaw wrote: post #75
Digory wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

New keyboard has a "4x more stable butterfly mechanism." I'm still limping along on a 2012 Air. This could finally be the upgrade.

What does "stable" mean? Keys don't stop working because of dust anymore..?

Having recently been switched from a 2013 MBP to 2018 MBP -- the older keycaps could wiggle a little bit if you rested your fingers on them. The new keys don't exhibit this behavior, but don't feel as nice to type on.

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#110

Post by [deleted] »

minhazm423 wrote: post #107
andr wrote: post #15

Given that 15 minutes later, in the iPad part of the event, they claimed the new iPad is faster than 92% of all notebooks sold in the last year, the writing is on the wall. For me, the next Macbook to be excited about, would be one with an ARM processor. Still, really disappointing that for the new Air they do not allow you to go to 1TB SSD, but they won't allow you upgrade from a dual-core i5. Feels like a political…

>Given that 15 minutes later, in the iPad part of the event, they claimed the new iPad is faster than 92% of all notebooks sold in the last year, the writing is on the wall. For me, the next Macbook to be excited about, would be one with an ARM processor. hey not a huge technocrat when it comes to pc parts, but could u explain that part to me? what is the writing on the wall? what is arm exactly? and what makes u thi…

[deleted]
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