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Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

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Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#241

Post by jonathankoren »

repsilat wrote: post #178
rmrfrmrf wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows is so terrible, though. I could never go back.

Twoish years ago I moved from Linux full time to Windows at home and whatever the Apple OS is called at work. The Apple one was a pain. Command line tools are almost but not quite right (zcat in particular just doesn't work) and I found the user experience pretty annoying at first but passable after that. Still don't really understand how "installing software" is supposed to go, and lots of struggle against Homebrew…

> The Apple one was a pain. Command line tools are almost but not quite right (zcat in particular just doesn't work)

That's because it's BSD, and are you sure you don't want gzcat?

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#242

Post by daseiner1 »

Firerouge wrote: post #113
sandmansandine wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question: Why didn't you mention the genders of the the people from "the "good old days"" but had to say over and over again that you were dealing with "Middle manager woman"

Your comment seems to be against multiple HN guidelines, particularly those regarding assuming good faith, not post shallow and dismissive comments, and the rule regarding ideological wars.

Gimme a break. Their comment is clearly not shallow, nor dismissive and is raising a legitimate, albeit fairly mundane, point in my opinion. And I’m sure we can all try to hold ourselves to a high enough standard to not initiate an “ideological debate war” over that sort of comment.

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#243

Post by mehrdadn »

paulcole wrote: post #221
mehrdadn wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, I never claimed it does.

So you’re not baffled by the use of “woman manager”?

In fact that question did pop up in my mind too, and hence I did upvote the other commenter's question asking about that.

But I find it curious that why you're pressing on interrogating me like this. Why the inquisition?

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#244

Post by bashinator »

FreakyT wrote: post #5
dheelus wrote: post #2

The entire Apple universe is bizarre. I've not used an Apple product except for the first gen iPhone but I did love it when I did. Since then, Apple has been behind the curve on every thing. I want to go back to using Apple since I really like their stance on privacy and security but feature wise they're usually 2-3 years behind a Samsung or a Microsoft. And now, this...

In terms of their computers, there has absolutely been a decline in quality, but in terms of their other product lines (and you specifically mention phones), I don't really think this is correct. I mean in terms of phones, the iPhone X is pretty much top of the line -- are there other phones that exceed it in a meaningful capacity? Bezel-free design, face recognition, fake-DLSR like camera effects, etc.

I loathe faceID. I cannot use my phone at a table without having to pick it up every five minutes.

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#245

Post by berti »

hsienmaneja wrote: post #16

Apple, please put back in full size up and down arrow keys

I'm curious what you use them for? I've always prefered WASD for directions (too many games in my youth!), and always saw the arrow keys as a waste of space, too far away to use regularly.

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#246

Post by justwalt »

rorykoehler wrote: post #112
mushufasa wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

System 76 (the small linux-only hardware manufacturer) just refreshed their Oryx Pro last month, which looks pretty capable and looks from afar to be really good build quality. https://system76.com/laptops/oryx I haven't found many/any reviews of it since the refresh -- does anyone on HN have one who can attest?

You can't be serious? The thing doesn't even have a centred trackpad.

This irks me as well. Even if it has a numpad, I’d still prefer the trackpad be in the middle.

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#247

Post by SyneRyder »

tedmiston wrote: post #213
deathanatos wrote: post #170

> [Apple quietly announced][1] that they were extending the warranty on their flagship laptop’s keyboard by four years. No, they didn't. If you read the very source the article cites for this, you find, > The program covers eligible MacBook and MacBook Pro models for 4 years after the first retail sale of the unit. The original warranty was 1 year[2]; this is a three year extension. "Extending by 4 years" is just too…

FWIW AppleCare for this price of machine has been the same duration and roughly the same price since forever, even before MBPs. What they have quietly changed is now you can only buy it in the first 60 days instead of the first year which was a big surprise to me buying a new MBP. It had been the first year for a very, very long time — since inception IIRC. Of course I learned of this change after I'd already had my…

Oh wow, I didn't know this either. Looks like the change happened in June 2017, so roughly in the last year:

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/06/21/applecare-plus-mac-ipho...

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#248

Post by gaius »

stcredzero wrote: post #120
yawn_010101 wrote: post #47

Having interfaced with Apple in a different way (apart from owning a new MBP and an iPhone X) I'd say the issue is, and continues to be, growing pains. They're certainly losing the lead in software engineer talent (giving it away to whom, I'm not sure). But the single most horrible experience I've had with Apple in the last year was trying to get software published on the App Store. That's a department that's so larg…

I'd say the issue is, and continues to be, growing pains. They're certainly losing the lead in software engineer talent (giving it away to whom, I'm not sure). I keep on interviewing recent Comp Sci graduates who have a 3.75 or a 4.0 and who can't tell me how to implement cycle detection -- to the extent that they could write a pseudocode function signature or some kind of concretely implementable design. Many of the…

who can't tell me how to implement cycle detection

You should read this before asking that again http://www.nihlos.com/2009/05/04/stupid-interview-questions/

When my Macbook Pro is "locked" it flashes an image of the desktop screen just before switching to the login prompt.

Same with my Mac Mini on the lock screen. Very easy to start a camera going (say an iPhone) waggle the mouse and get a screenshot of any locked Mac.

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#249

Post by tedmiston »

kylec wrote: post #204
hsienmaneja wrote: post #16

Apple, please put back in full size up and down arrow keys

Put back? They've never had full sized up and down arrow keys on the MacBooks. What I miss are the half-sized left and right keys - the empty space above them made it easy to position my hand over the arrow keys without looking.

I'm with you here — no generation of MB/MBP has ever had full-sized up/down arrow keys [1][2]. I guess perhaps people are meaning how the left/right arrow keys went from being half-sized to full-sized? I'd like to half my half-sized left/right back...

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Pro

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#250

Post by pmontra »

bdcravens wrote: post #123
joering2 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They will fix it. They have 100 billion dollars (!!!) in the bank to fix this issue, even if it takes next 100 years.

As for making the keyboard thicker, I doubt it. Once Apple makes a decision that dramatically alters their product in a way that users complain about, they generally don't backtrack. (floppy drive, CD drive, and Ethernet removal. Headphone jack removal. Losing Mac Pro traditional tower form factor. Flat design in iOS. etc etc etc)

But none of those changes cost them money. According to the article this is eating away their margin.
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