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MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros

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Re: MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros

#342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the article they cite the MBP as being the most popular notebook for developers so this niche must be important, otherwise why list it?: > Already the most popular notebook for developers around the world, the new MacBook Pro can compile code faster and run multiple virtual machines and test environments easier than before. What we want is a functional keyboard. They are losing this market-share quickly but you're…

The niche is not developers themselves; the niche is a (vocal) sample of the developer community. I'm a developer and I like the 2016 MacBook Pro keyboard with touchbar. In particular: What we want is a functional keyboard. This is your opinion, but it's not necessarily the majority opinion. For example, I would rather Apple focus on other parts of the computer than the keyboard. The keyboard just isn't that meaningf…

So I use a lot of different keyboards - my main ones are a whitefox with blue switches and a CODE with greens. I actually like the MBP keyboard - key stability and clickiness are the parameters I like, and the MBP has both.

My problem with the keyboard is just reliability - I now keep a can of compressed air at my desk just because a key is going to get screwed up at least once a month. And I have one key that is particularly bad, so I assume some piece of dust is just trapped under the key and the compressed air pushes it somewhere until it eventually falls back into place. I'm waiting a little longer to bring it in for repair in hopes that they start using this new v3 keyboard as a replacement - maybe it secretly fixes the dust issue (And they don't want to say it because that would be admitting that there was a problem.)

Re: MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros

#343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Internet hearsay (Apple store/reseller staff quoted in podcasts etc.) often mentions that the MacBook Air is (was?) their best-selling laptop. It has no TouchBar, more keyboard travel, a smaller trackpad, arguably more useful ports, and longer battery life. If the trade-offs in the latest MacBook Pro were universally loved, why wouldn't they spread into Apple's other, more popular product lines? I honestly don't see…

The Air is their best-selling laptop because: (1) it's by far the cheapest and (2) it's tiny. It's also extremely outdated -- people universally love the retina screen but the Air doesn't have that either. Also, rumor has it the Air is being replaced this fall, so we won't see what features make it downstream until then. The above is to disagree with all of your specific arguments, but I do not disagree with your imp…

Fair enough. In any case, the MacBook Pro hasn't been Apple's laptop for the masses in a long time, unlike what r0fl implied. We can't infer from its design what 90% of customers want.

Re: MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros

#344
post #47

It's not possible to buy it without the TouchBar any more :( I really wanted to like it, and the concept could perhaps eventually be good, but the current implementation is infuriatingly bad: • I need more than one tap to change the brightness, volume or skip to the next song. • The buttons are in different locations depending on context, so it's not possible to use it by muscle memory. • TouchBar automatically goes…

The touchbar is awesome--you can immediately blow away all the worthless function keys and have a minimalist setup. I keep the escape key and the volume/brightness sliders, that's it. Keeps the entire setup feeling clean. People actually use the touchbar for context-dependent tasks?

Its great for scrubbing through video. Tap and hold for fast, fine grained control.

My only complaint with the touchbar is its too easy to accidentally engage Siri.

Other than that it’s a good idea IMO.

Re: MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros

#345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple really doesn't seem to grok that small doesn't necessarily equal low-end in customers' minds. People want small laptops and small phones for reasons other than spending less money. They keep making this mistake with the iPhone SE too.

I'm not sure it's an issue with them not understanding, but rather straight up physics. It's an engineering marvel to get the components into the 15" as they do. Now try cramming that same tech into 77% of the space. There are going to be compromises. I would guess it's a similar story with the iPhone.

They could probably do it with the iPhone if they didn't insist on also making the phone inexpensive. After all, the SE is significantly thicker than the current generation phones.

And they could probably do the same with a variant of the 13" MBP if they were willing to sacrifice a bit of battery life or just go back to the thickness of the 2015 models.

Re: MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros

#346

I'm looking forward to the very first "real development takes 64GB RAM, 32 just isn't enough" complaints. Honestly, this looks like a good revision. I've been wanting a quad core 13 inch for a while. Hopefully the keyboard revision helps with all of the issues people have had.

I did too, but the fact that they limit it to touchbar models means I'm out.

Re: MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros

#347

I'm looking forward to the very first "real development takes 64GB RAM, 32 just isn't enough" complaints. Honestly, this looks like a good revision. I've been wanting a quad core 13 inch for a while. Hopefully the keyboard revision helps with all of the issues people have had.

That's next year complaint.

Re: MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros

#348
post #87

I’m glad to see that Apple has finally updated its MacBook Pro line, but it’s a little too late for me. After using Macs for nearly 12 years, I bought a Dell XPS 15 9570 a week after WWDC 2018 (I couldn’t put off a new computer purchase any longer), and I couldn’t be happier. It turns out that Windows 10 really shines on a computer with six processor cores, a 4K display, and a NVMe SSD, a dramatic improvement from th…

> (namely the prevelance of ads)

Where are all these ads that people complain about? Is it the half pre-installed apps that come with your computer that you can promptly uninstall?

Re: MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros

#349
post #30

After ongoing problems and repairs with my gen 2 butterfly, I switched to Linux (Ubuntu). After many months, I'm still a little shocked at how much worse the desktop experience is. 11 year old OS X Leopard is more consistent, intuitive and usable. Hardware is slightly less polished, but no major complaints there (except for how poor the buying experience was). Still, keyboard works. It would take something amazing to…

What hardware did you settle on?

I recommend Lenovo T480 for Linux. Supports 32GB ram as well.
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