Apple Is Listening • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Is Listening

#31

Post by ladberg » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 3:21 AM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #11

kjhughes wrote: post #4

I'll believe it when they produce a MacBook Pro that developers love again or a Mac Pro that (not yet independently wealthy) developers can afford again.

As far as a desktop Mac, a suitably configured iMac is more than powerful enough for development. A $2100 5K iMac - 6 Core I5 3Ghz (turbo boost to 4Ghz), 256GB SSD, 16GB of RAM. The RAM is user upgradable and an external SSD drive would be as fast as any normal internal SSD drive. As far as a laptop? I'm not spending my own money on a development class laptop. I hate developing with just a laptop. I have a dual exter…

What external thunderbolt SSD has as low latency as an NVMe drive?

Re: Apple Is Listening

#32

Post by scarface74 » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 3:26 AM UTC

ladberg wrote: post #31

scarface74 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as a desktop Mac, a suitably configured iMac is more than powerful enough for development. A $2100 5K iMac - 6 Core I5 3Ghz (turbo boost to 4Ghz), 256GB SSD, 16GB of RAM. The RAM is user upgradable and an external SSD drive would be as fast as any normal internal SSD drive. As far as a laptop? I'm not spending my own money on a development class laptop. I hate developing with just a laptop. I have a dual exter…

What external thunderbolt SSD has as low latency as an NVMe drive?

As a developer are you really going to be able to tell the difference?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/external-vs-internal-ss...

Re: Apple Is Listening

#33

Post by the_pwner224 » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 3:29 AM UTC

linguae wrote: post #28

I’m glad that Apple is finally updating their Macs again, but at the same time Apple has doubled-down on its refusal to sell user-serviceable, upgradeable, and expandable hardware at prices that are within reach for most customers. The laptops have soldered RAM and soldered storage. The Mac Mini and iMac Pro thankfully have DIMMs, but in order to keep the warranty, you have to visit an Apple-approved repair center to…

> in order to keep the warranty, you have to visit an Apple-approved repair center to have a specialist perform the upgrade, which costs more than doing it yourself

At least in the US (and presumably in the EU which is much better about this sort of stuff) this is not legal. You can upgrade it on your own and Apple still has to honor the warranty.

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2018/04/ftc-s...

Re: Apple Is Listening

#34

Post by scarface74 » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 3:29 AM UTC

kjhughes wrote: post #20

scarface74 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as a desktop Mac, a suitably configured iMac is more than powerful enough for development. A $2100 5K iMac - 6 Core I5 3Ghz (turbo boost to 4Ghz), 256GB SSD, 16GB of RAM. The RAM is user upgradable and an external SSD drive would be as fast as any normal internal SSD drive. As far as a laptop? I'm not spending my own money on a development class laptop. I hate developing with just a laptop. I have a dual exter…

A "$2100 5K iMac - 6 Core I5 3Ghz" is not a substantial improvement over my late 2013 MacBook Pro (2.6 GHz, 4 core i7), which can both travel to client sites and directly drive 2 x 3840 x 2160 pixels on my desktop displays. No new MBP's have been worth buying. The new Mac Pro is nice but crazy expensive in a configuration I'd expected to be buying in 2019.

No normal non pro computer is a substantial improvement since 2013. Computers have been "good enough" for awhile.

Re: Apple Is Listening

#35

Post by jdminhbg » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 3:29 AM UTC

linguae wrote: post #28

I’m glad that Apple is finally updating their Macs again, but at the same time Apple has doubled-down on its refusal to sell user-serviceable, upgradeable, and expandable hardware at prices that are within reach for most customers. The laptops have soldered RAM and soldered storage. The Mac Mini and iMac Pro thankfully have DIMMs, but in order to keep the warranty, you have to visit an Apple-approved repair center to…

The problem is that, statistically, nobody cares about the issues you raise. You can maybe get your problems addressed by a niche retailer, but Apple has bigger fish to fry.

Re: Apple Is Listening

#36

Post by Skunkleton » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 3:35 AM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #32

ladberg wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What external thunderbolt SSD has as low latency as an NVMe drive?

As a developer are you really going to be able to tell the difference? https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/external-vs-internal-ss...

Disk latency is a limiting factor of compile times for large projects.

Re: Apple Is Listening

#37

Post by dusair » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 3:37 AM UTC

saagarjha wrote: post #29

secstate wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fair. But, they also haven't said anything publicly about the keyboard being shit, despite two attempts now to make it not (with middling results). All this means is that the Mac Pro was a complete failure, while the MBP keyboard is only a train wreck with no casualties. And don't even get me started on the touchbar, which you may have noticed, no one has bothered to copy yet :)

They've said that it's had issues, but you're right: they haven't said that they're going to replace it anytime soon (though rumors point towards this). Also, note that the Touch Bar is quite difficult to copy, even if companies wanted to.

Five years ago Lenovo did a ThinkPad with a similar touchscreen replacement for the Fn key row. It was not well received.

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/thinkpad-x1-carbon-2014-s...

Re: Apple Is Listening

#38

Post by ianai » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 3:37 AM UTC

colmvp wrote: post #10

Back in 2012, I bought the original rMBP. It fit everything I needed: it was thinner than my previous laptop as it had no optical drive, it was lightweight, it had a gorgeous screen, good enough keyboard, and seemed like a reasonable price for a higher end laptop work computer. I've used it everyday since 2012, and aside from the battery which I eventually replaced, it's been functioning without a hitch. From the 90s…

The oled touchpad is ridiculous. I never use it “as intended” and it wrecks my function key muscle memory. My laptop is actually expanding because of the battery. I’d like at least a dock that does decent, active cooling.

Re: Apple Is Listening

#39

Post by mkozlows » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 3:37 AM UTC

saagarjha wrote: post #21

secstate wrote: post #6

I think I might just be done with Apple. That culture of saying nothing and the surprising customers with things is like betting in Vegas. And unfortunately for Apple, the house always wins. They can repair the damage of the Mac Pro debacle with a new Mac Pro, but they haven't owned the train wreck of a keyboard on the Macbook Pro. Sure, they might be ready to hit it big on a double down on black, but in the meantime…

> That culture of saying nothing and the surprising customers with things is like betting in Vegas. Note that Apple quite publicly said that they had issues with the "trashcan" Mac Pro design and that it would take them a couple of years to resolve them.

Yeah, they said that in 2017 -- four years after it was introduced in 2013 and left to languish.

And even then, you had to cross your fingers and hope that what they came up with would be good for you. (And based on the pricing of the new Mac Pro compared to the old ones, there's probably a lot of people for whom it won't be a good replacement.)

Re: Apple Is Listening

#40

Post by dcosson » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 3:37 AM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #11

kjhughes wrote: post #4

I'll believe it when they produce a MacBook Pro that developers love again or a Mac Pro that (not yet independently wealthy) developers can afford again.

As far as a desktop Mac, a suitably configured iMac is more than powerful enough for development. A $2100 5K iMac - 6 Core I5 3Ghz (turbo boost to 4Ghz), 256GB SSD, 16GB of RAM. The RAM is user upgradable and an external SSD drive would be as fast as any normal internal SSD drive. As far as a laptop? I'm not spending my own money on a development class laptop. I hate developing with just a laptop. I have a dual exter…

Biggest annoyance with the iMac though is you can’t, say, work from home with your work laptop and plug it into the screen.

This is another case with macs where the situation 8 years ago was much better since they used to have target display mode. From what I understand, they killed it because they needed to use a custom format to drive the 5k screen initially. Now regular DisplayPort 1.3 and 1.4 have enough bandwidth for it but there’s been no mention of bringing the feature back.