Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

businessinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–320 of 440 posts

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#311

Post by pyrophane »

pansen wrote: post #166

I was getting the MBP 2016 13" a couple of days ago; best equipment you can buy in 13", 3300 EUR brutto. Before (or still) I have a MBPR 13" Late 2015, also with max RAM, max CPU; 2400 brutto until 2 months ago. That is still running on El Capitan, the new one Sierra of course. System was migrated, so simlilar software stack (besides the OS version). My typical application list looks like: Pycharm, PHPStorm (~3 proje…

It is the JetBrain software. I use IntelliJ with various language plugins. It does a lot of work in the background to provide advanced features like completion, even for dynamic languages like Python.

The problem, of course, is that the new CPUs are optimized to provide better battery life under typical usage. If you've got something running in the background that is constantly re-indexing your source code, then the CPU optimizations aren't going to help you and a smaller battery is still a smaller battery.

Also, a lot of that indexing can take advantage of multiple cores, so the jump to a quad-core proc as in the 15" helps more than the minor boost in clock speed is going to. I'm usually fine with a dual-core processor unless I'm either trying to do big compilations (especially in Scala) or using JetBrains IDEs. God help me if I'm trying to do both.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#312

Post by aninhumer »

Daviey wrote: post #260
slantyyz wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or not American

Indeed, I'm British and certainly not young. Never heard of it over here... and I just asked around and nobody around me has.

It's the US equivalent of Which?.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#314

Post by pyrophane »

skizm wrote: post #153
rbanffy wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would have been if Intel had released a 32GB capable mobile chip that's not slower than the last generation. Probably it got delayed after the overall shape and size were set in stone, so Apple had to go with the previous gen and work a miracle. Or it was a conscious decision since this shape/size will be the base of all laptops for the next few processor generations and will be supported for the next 10 years or so.

How does the Dell XPS 15in or the Razer Blade laptops have 32gb of ram if Intel doesn't support that much? Do they use different chips in their laptops?

Apparently the battery life on the 32GB XPS 15 suffers quite a bit. The RAM the are using isn't the low-powered RAM that future Intel chips will support.

My only complaint with Dell's approach of offering the 32GB option is that they don't seem to advertise the fact that it comes with a significant trade-off in terms of battery life. I'm all for "let the users decide," but they should have given the users the information they need to make the choice. As is someone buying an XPS 15 is sort of left with the impression that the 32GB option is a straight-up upgrade.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#315

Post by labster »

macintux wrote: post #310
eropple wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Or...y'know...FireWire. Also known as IEEE 1394.

I remember overhearing a Best Buy employee describe the FireWire port on the back of an iMac as a Sony proprietary camera connector. Not sure why I didn't correct him. Apple rarely goes proprietary with their ports. The original 30-pin iPod port. Lightning. ADB in the mists of time. All of which were I believe better than what was available.

MagSafe 1 and 2.

They are better, but we also have a situation where the only port on an Apple device is proprietary with the latest iPhone.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#316

Post by marssaxman »

mistersquid wrote: post #116
SakiWatanabe wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't use arrow keys, it shifts the center of gravity when typing. You want to use hjkl for movement, even better, try not to use hjkl at all and use movement commends such as w b e etc for movement. First thing I do when setting up vim. 1. unbind arrow keys 2. bind jk to Esc 3. Set up tmux + vim integration with clipboard / mouse support Love the new MBP the keyboard is great to type on.

I'd never heard of using hjkl for cardinal directional movement. I am familiar with ijkl where jl W E and ik N S (used in Lode Runner and BurgerTime for the Apple IIe). I honestly don't know: is hjkl standard in a command line app?

Only for vi users. Everybody else thinks they're weird.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#317

Post by alanh »

logicallee wrote: post #301
amluto wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah, you didn't get the specs quite right. That's: USB-C to DisplayPort -> DisplayPort++ to HDMI But a DP++ device in a non-++ port won't work, and I'm not sure how anyone is supposed to know this. Anyway, Google sells a bunch of high-quality adapters for about half the price of Apple's.

Googling displayport++ returns a bunch of confusing pages - can you summarize what the ++ signifies in your own words and with some examples?

As an owner of a Mac Mini from 5 or 6 years ago, I am fairly confident in guessing that this refers to what Apple calls “Mini DisplayPort with Audio”. My Mac Mini can use a Mini DP to HDMI adapter just fine — but it won’t include audio. Newer Mac Minis do support audio over Mini DP.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#318

Post by api »

dashoffset wrote: post #290
api wrote: post #207

I'm calling it the MacBook Vista. Ouch. After seeing the touch bar, I think it's really not all that useful. I would much rather have seen more battery, RAM, faster CPU options, traditional USB and HDMI, magsafe, and more SSD. Basically take the 2014-2015 MacBook Pro and beef it up and I will be very happy. People say it's selling. Of course it is. Mac still has a near-monopoly on "Unix with good UI." But if they kee…

I really hope that better "Unix with good UI" laptops will exist in the future. Right now, I'd rather buy a 2015 MBP than any of those "Dev Edition" machines.

Over a decade of crawling on its belly at the bottom end of the market has really taken a toll on PC hardware and the whole PC ecosystem. The bundling of actual malware with PCs marks what I think is the low point. Dell's XPS machines are starting to climb out of that hole, but it'll take some resolve.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#319

Post by eric_h »

thought_alarm wrote: post #81
mmjaa wrote: post #19

I've had mine for a week now, and have been able to use it alongside my late-2014 rMBP, which has been a solid workhorse. I'm starting to notice very subtle preferences for the 2017 model creeping in - after an hour of typing, for example, going back to the old keyboard feels really, really inefficient and antiquated, and my typing rate is lower than on the new rMBP. I also really enjoy the Touchbar - it hasn't been…

How do you deal with the arrow keys? I like the feel of the keyboard, but I found absolutely no way to orient my fingers over the arrow keys. There is no way tell whether I'm hitting the up arrow or the right shift. As someone who works with text, it's a deal breaker for me.

In almost every Mac OS X application/text field, the emacs keybindings (Ctrl-p,Ctrl-n,Ctrl-b,Ctrl-f for up, down, left, right, respectively) work. I, personally, very rarely use the arrow keys for navigating text.

Ctrl-a, Ctrl-e, Ctrl-k and Ctrl-y also all work for beginning of line, end of line, kill and yank.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#320

Post by realityking »

pyrophane wrote: post #303
spilk wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the main source of the confusion is that the connector is called USB-C, but devices that use the connector may not be USB devices at all, since they can fully expect to only be used with devices that support a specific alternate mode (e.g. Thunderbolt). Yes, they all have to support USB at some level to negotiate the alternate mode (i'm not sure if for USB-C this is a passive signaling like sense resistors or…

Yea, it used to be generally true that "if you can connect them with a cable, they will be compatible." Ports were single-use, and if two ports weren't compatible, then they would be physically incompatible. If you could get a cable to connect two different ports, they would probably be compatible because who would make the cable otherwise, right? Now we have something like your "omnibus" port in USB-C, so you have p…

To be fair, that already hasn't been case with Thunderbolt 1 and 2 which reused the Mini DisplayPort.
Post reply on HN