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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

#231

Post by cauthon »

IkmoIkmo wrote: post #150

Love the device but I can't get over how expensive it has gotten. A 20% price bump... Sure, there's still the old Macbook Air around, but it wasn't updated and is based on a decade old model with a CPU/GPU that's a 3 years old (5th gen i5 from 2015), and a 128 PPI screen, that's a bit ridiculous. If you want a modern machine you're looking at $1200 for the cheapest model. That isn't even too bad but when you go abroa…

> Love the device but I can't get over how expensive it has gotten. A 20% price bump...

I got downvoted for posting this as a top-level comment, but it's insane to me how Apple's hardware specs have stagnated while maintaining the same price.

In 2014 I bought an entry-level Macbook Pro with retina display, 2.6 GHz i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 128 GB SSD for $1300.

In 2018 I can buy the entry-level Macbook Pro with retina display, 2.3 GHz i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 128 GB SSD, still for $1300.

In 2018 I can also now buy an entry-level Macbook Air with retina display, 1.6 GHz i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 128 GB SSD for $1200.

I'm in the market for a new laptop and I'm seriously considering making the jump to Linux rather than paying the same price for the same specs that were available 4.5 years ago.

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

#232

Post by drfuchs »

realradicalwash wrote: post #120
drfuchs wrote: post #71

Never mind all that; it has an Escape key! (When they dropped it on the latest MacBook Pro, I feared that this portended its general demise on the whole laptop line...)

on their website / in their video, it has an escape key or am i mistaken? https://www.apple.com/macbook-air/

All recent 15 inch and higher-end 13 inch MacBook Pro models come with a "Touch Bar" where the Escape and Function key row ought to go. Sometimes a soft button will appear near the left edge of the Touch Bar that says "Escape", but there's no physical feedback when you touch it, and it doesn't protrude from the surface of the keyboard housing, nor have any key travel like the physical keys do, so all-in-all it's funky to touch-type. Not a happy thing for vim and emacs users, as well as for the korn shell, where it invokes command completion (as on the Tenex / Tops20 shell, for that matter).

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

#233

Post by Dunedan »

saagarjha wrote: post #38
microtonal wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can install Linux, if you can accept that a lot of functionality does not work. Even on most MacBook Pro 2016 models audio, suspend/hibernate, and WiFi don't work. https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux

This has nothing to do with the a T2 chip; that MacBook Pro doesn’t have one.

The MacBook Pro 2016 and 2017 have a T1 chip, the MacBook Pro 2018 has a T2 chip, the same which debuted in the iMac Pro last year and is now in included in the new MacBook Air as well.

The linked repository covers Linux support for more all MacBook Pro's (and some parts of the 12" MacBook) released since 2016, even though Linux support for the 2018 MacBook Pro is very dire.

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

#234

Post by gizmo385 »

benrbray wrote: post #25
SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #17

So TouchID is good enough for laptop but they “just can’t” make a phone with it anymore huh? Rabble.

I never really understood fingerprint scanners on phones. Is it really more useful to you than e.g. a headphone jack?

> Is it really more useful to you than e.g. a headphone jack?

Why are you presenting this as a dichotomy? Those aren't mutually exclusive features. If I had to choose between the 2, then I would most certainly choose the fingerprint reader, but there isn't anything that fundamentally prevents the two from being in the same phone (the original Pixel had both, for example).

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

#236

Post by microtonal »

AlphaSite wrote: post #130
dayvough wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was kinda disappointed they didn't touch the MBP lineup this time around but hey we might get something come WWDC.

It did get updated not 3 months ago.

Except for the MacBook Pro Escape, which didn't get a refresh, nor the butterfly mechanism update.

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

#237

Post by dwighttk »

notatoad wrote: post #97
ummonk wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's getting better every year, as peripherals and other devices switch over to USB-C. Apple's imposition of USB-C as the one cable has been very frustrating, but we're starting to see the fruits of it.

if apple were truly imposing USB-C as the "one cable" it would be less frustrating. it's crazy that still, three years after the macbook pro switched to all usb-c, if you go to the apple store and buy a brand new iPhone and a brand new mac, you need an aftermarket cable to connect the two.

>you need an aftermarket cable to connect the two.

or you can connect wirelessly.

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

#238

Post by jtbayly »

cauthon wrote: post #231
IkmoIkmo wrote: post #150

Love the device but I can't get over how expensive it has gotten. A 20% price bump... Sure, there's still the old Macbook Air around, but it wasn't updated and is based on a decade old model with a CPU/GPU that's a 3 years old (5th gen i5 from 2015), and a 128 PPI screen, that's a bit ridiculous. If you want a modern machine you're looking at $1200 for the cheapest model. That isn't even too bad but when you go abroa…

> Love the device but I can't get over how expensive it has gotten. A 20% price bump... I got downvoted for posting this as a top-level comment, but it's insane to me how Apple's hardware specs have stagnated while maintaining the same price. In 2014 I bought an entry-level Macbook Pro with retina display, 2.6 GHz i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 128 GB SSD for $1300. In 2018 I can buy the entry-level Macbook Pro with…

I'm sympathetic to the complaint about price, but if your contention is that the devices are basically unchanged, then why buy a 2018 model? Why not buy a 2014 model?

And if you don't want to make that sacrifice, then there's probably something different about the device that Apple is assuming is worth ponying up for the upgrade for you.

(For starters, despite the similar clock speed and processor names, the processors are not the same speed.)

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

#239

Post by reaperducer »

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…

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 decision more than a technical one.

Smells like a battery life compromise to me.

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

#240

Post by Dunedan »

microtonal wrote: post #16
saagarjha wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can install Linux in them, just like you can on MacBook Pro. There is an option to disable this feature, though, in the name of verifying the boot process.

You can install Linux, if you can accept that a lot of functionality does not work. Even on most MacBook Pro 2016 models audio, suspend/hibernate, and WiFi don't work. https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux

Well, we don't know for sure that Linux will boot on the new MacBook Air as well, as nobody has tried it yet, but I think it's safe to assume we'll have the same situation as for the MacBook Pro 2018. In addition to the mentioned limitations the MacBook Pro 2018 doesn't even support accessing the SSD from Linux yet. A few seconds after activating the NVMe controller it just reboots, apparently because the T2 chip isn't happy (see https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux/issues/71 for details). Help to figure out what's the issue would be really appreciated!
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