no physical escape key.. I suspect this will negatively impact vi/vim experience.
One can always type Ctrl-C or Ctrl-] . Also, remapping ESC to CapsLock is also possible and even preferable to some people.
MacBook Pro
251–260 of 1001 posts
Re: MacBook Pro
#252I was very intruged by the Dell XPS 13/15, especially since they come in a developer edition which runs Ubuntu. I've been holding off on a purchase because I wanted to see what Apple would come up with, Dell looks pretty strong today.
Re: MacBook Pro
#253$1200 upgrade cost for 2TB option. 16GB RAM maximum. edit: Jeez. For 15" with 1TB UK buyers will be paying £3,059.00
This + 6th gen Intel is disappointing.
I used to buy macbooks to put linux on them. I'm happy with my switch to Lenovo (20g ram, 6th gen Intel, 512g nvme). Oh, and ports.
Re: MacBook Pro
#254I'm surprised (and a bit disappointed) by the lack of HDMI and DisplayPort/Thunderbolt ports. I'm even more surprised by the lack of a physical escape key. I'm concerned that it could break some applications (Vim, Emacs, all kinds of command-line stuff), even if isn't as big a deal with Apple's non-developer user base. ... At least they kept the 3.5mm jack.
Map "esc" to caps lock should work.
But that is where my control key goes!
Re: MacBook Pro
#255Looking at the various missing keys and the touch strip, I couldn't help but laugh and cry. Less is more, right? I think we all know this is aimed at casual users, but it's still fun to poke at it.
The first thing that came to mind is any time now that I walk into a coffee shop, if I see someone passing themselves off as a programmer on a new Macbook, I'll know they are just screwing around or otherwise extremely angry (and should not approach). I guess carrying around your own keyboard is going to be more of a thing for people who like to work outside the home/office. As an Emacs user and someone who spent at least some time in Vim and Vi over the years, wow, I can't imagine the inner rage of some people I know if they tried to use this.
The other thing I thought of is hasn't this quite often been a problem for other people who tried similar approaches? For example, we tried the UI with not looking at the main screen with things like the WiiU, did we not? Obviously gaming is different than productivity, but still, the screen is the primary focus. Could we also not just throw dynamic UI like this on in other ways?
A few I've seen/heard of or could be a future tech:
* Remapping an icon or otherwise minimal custom glyphs/text per key.
* Remote style. Ex: Second display like they had with Vista or other things, but via iPhone or other devices - put it next to you, in front, whatever, boom - extra contextual touch screen. Apple even does this for many apps like Logic Pro X.
* Perfecting tactile response better and using a full dynamic keyboard like on some laptops out there right now (but with more mechanical response). Obviously easier said than done.
The problem with all this is I wonder who is looking down so much or wanting to look down. If you have time to look down, is it really such a problem then to use the OS UI to get the same thing done?
Probably the only time most people I know that can actually type decently tend to look down at a keyboard is to orient themselves again in some way. I know sometimes when I switch languages/locales on my machine to type in some other languages, it takes me a second depending on the language. But this tech doesn't help at all with that except giving me a button to flip, that is already a keyboard chord anyway.
Re: MacBook Pro
#256Any word on max memory? 16GB is standard on 15" but can it be upgraded to 32GB?
16GB is the max :( http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/
Reminder that Apple has a solid history about lying regarding maximum RAM in their hardware.
Wait 'til it's out to get people's actual feedback. ;)
Re: MacBook Pro
#257Apple has replaced the MacBook Pro with a faster MacBook Air labeled "Pro". I have no idea how they could think that professionals would use a MacBook Air (no ports, shallow keyboard, no expansion, no innovative features, marginally lighter). A tiny ribbon display is completely useless to me. They removed the escape key. Twenty years of using Macs and I'm not sure what my next laptop is going to be.
The Macbook Pro they're boasting as a possible replacement for the Air has the new key tech which they mentioned in the keynote as having more travel distance, it keeps the old FN keys, and it has two thunderbolt ports. So yes, changing the ports isn't ideal and only having one to use to plug in peripherals which will most likely mean a hub is required is a bit of a pain, but the low end doesn't even include the touc…
The non-Touch Pro is perfect... except for the lack of ports. If it had 4 USB-C and/or USB/HDMI/etc posts it'd be awesome.
Re: MacBook Pro
#258The touch bar examples shown are a usability disaster. You're going to hide UI from the screen and make me keep looking at the keyboard to find functionality? I stopped looking at the keyboard every 10 seconds when I learned how to touch type. The presenter spent most of his time looking at the keyboard and not the screen. This gimmick will disappear when Apple decides a touch screen is needed to complete the slow me…
I think Apple is prepping to do away with the keyboard entirely. Within a couple years they will release a refined version of this http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/9/2/12769094/len...
All the keys will be virtual, and they will have haptic feedback. The shallow key travel now is to prepare people, similar to the coke new coke conspiracy.
Then they will make the keyboard half of the laptop an ipad. Then they will release two ipads that hinge together. Then they will figure out that ios/macos dichotomy is causing problems and finally go through with some hybridization.
Re: MacBook Pro
#259This event was by far the most disappointing Mac event in the history. A lot of the time was wasted in: - Mildly funny jokes and comparison with 90's technology. - 90% of the talk was about the touch bar. - Awful demos of Photoshop & some cringy DJ. I was hoping we would see: - A new MacBook with all day battery life and touch bar, even thinner design. Ok, I understand that they are trying to consolidate their produc…
> Microsoft really hit it out of the park yesterday.
Did we watch the same event? Microsoft introduced a $3,000 desktop PC in an era when nobody uses desktops anymore. It introduced a minor update to the Surface Book that starts at $2,300 with dual-core CPU, only 8GB of RAM, and last-gen graphics hardware.
For the same price as the new Surface Book i7, I can get an MBP 15" with bigger screen, twice the RAM, and a quad-core CPU, and it's Microsoft that hit it out of the park?!
Re: MacBook Pro
#260Seems like the mac mini is dead.
I rather liked that one :(