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Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

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Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#41

Post by eyelidlessness »

lambdasquirrel wrote: post #15

On one hand, this seems like welcome news for many of us. Who doesn't miss MagSafe? A lot of the previous years was like someone at Apple read Calvino's Six Memos and took the notes on "lightness" a little bit too far. On the other hand, one wonders if we'll have to replace all the sleeves and bags that have been made with the previous dimensions in mind. Hopefully not. Even the new 16-inch MacBook Pro fits in sleeve…

Not only does the 16” fit the 15” sleeves, it’s nearly identical in dimensions and weight to the 15” models everyone praises before the bad keyboards. It’s basically a 2015 MBP with a slightly smaller bezel.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#43

Post by goatinaboat »

sitkack wrote: post #17

The keyboard! I have an M1 mac, I typing this from a 2012 macbook air. The new keyboards are utter crap! They are still crap. If I could have the M1 in an x220 shell, with the mac trackpad, I would be good.

The new keyboards are utter crap!

You can imagine the Apple of old hiring a team of researchers to determine the absolute optimal key travel and springiness. The Apple of today wants to make things that look nice on display and are never actually used.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#45

Post by dwaite »

lambdasquirrel wrote: post #15

On one hand, this seems like welcome news for many of us. Who doesn't miss MagSafe? A lot of the previous years was like someone at Apple read Calvino's Six Memos and took the notes on "lightness" a little bit too far. On the other hand, one wonders if we'll have to replace all the sleeves and bags that have been made with the previous dimensions in mind. Hopefully not. Even the new 16-inch MacBook Pro fits in sleeve…

> On one hand, this seems like welcome news for many of us. Who doesn't miss MagSafe?

I don't miss MagSafe 2. The laptops had gotten light enough that the selling point (would come detached if someone snagged the cord) meant that the magnet had to be weakened. The cord constantly came undone.

Bits attracted by the magnet would be lodged in the port sometimes, interfering with the charging in odd ways as well.

I had a lot of Magsafe 1 chargers, which compounded the frustration. I had to use a little magnetic dongle.

The cord was attached to the brick directly, so when it frayed (not if, when) you were out $100. Your brick was now a brick.

It was a big charger I couldn't use to charge anything else I travelled with (phone, ipad, headphones, etc), _and_ there were zero third party accessories (battery packs, etc) that worked with it because it was proprietary/patent protected.

If laptops have enough power to go 12+ hours on a single charge, the value of magsafe goes way down. I'm not operating the thing on a kitchen table with a cord draped down and across the room to the wall. I am charging it overnight.

Not to mention, there's a huge benefit of sitting down at a desk and having a single USB-C/TB cable to plug in to get connected to everything, including power.

If the choice was magsafe or USB-C charging, I'd pay extra for USB-C.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#46

Post by dingaling »

Pfhreak wrote: post #6

I am really happy that my macbook uses usb c. I'm sad to hear that it is going away. Today, my Mac interoperates with all my other devices, I can keep one charger running to the edge of the couch. It's not the end of the world to flip back to the magsafe, but it's definitely not ideal for me (and I suspect others.)

There are several USB-C cables with magnetically-connected tips on AliExpress, it wouldn't seem too difficult to make a breakaway junction in a cable using that principle:

https://m.aliexpress.com/item/4000374403062.html

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#47

Post by wodenokoto »

I think everybody is forgetting that apple repurposed the name “MagSafe”.

I think “MagSafe and new ports” translate to having a magnetic area where you can place a iPhone 12 MagSafe charger or charge your iPhone 12.

What new keyboard translate to, I have no good guesses, but I do have a feeling that if you think it’ll be 2015 keyboard you’re in for a disappointment.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#48

Post by speedgoose »

grishka wrote: post #42

The last paragraph mentioning touchscreens is weird. Please don't add a touchscreen to a device running a desktop OS. 99% of people won't be using it anyway, but it would lead to those atrocious spacious phone-style UIs I despise so much.

Give a MacBook to a child and she will likely try to touch the screen. Because at this point a touch interface is expected by people.

Even me who is used to non touch screens user interfaces, I tend to touch the screen on a non touchscreen laptop once in a while. It's frustrating that it doesn't work, because it does work on my ThinkPad and I enjoy it.

Apple not having a touchscreen option on their high end laptops is weird, since they did so well with the iPhone and the iPad.

At least that would help developers to implement touch interfaces for iOs. Or not feel dated for the younger generations.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#49

Post by dwaite »

asiachick wrote: post #40
genuine_smiles wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s working for me. I like being able to plug my laptop, tablet, and switch into the same charger.

which charger does USB-C smart charging on 3 or more ports and can provide however many wats the new MBP needs while also charging the other devices?

There are no chargers on the market that have multiple ports and over 100W output across those ports, so you are pretty close just plugging the MBP in and the other devices into the MBP ports.

With PD 3.0, I believe manufacturers now have the _capability_ to do what you are talking about, but I don't know of any products yet.

FWIW, the closest I've seen so far is Hyppr's 100W 2-port charger. I use this in my bedroom to have a phone/watch charging stand and a free USB-C cable for the iPad. However, it does a straight 45W split with two devices attached - neither the charging stand nor iPad need 45W though.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#50

Post by zxcvbn4038 »

This is a really exciting development! Everything I miss from the 2013 MacBook Pro - no final word on what ports are being added or if they are bringing back the SD slot, but MagSafe, a working keyboard, and an escape key are themselves welcome.

The touch bar ended up being completely useless except for muting/unmuting zoom calls and smashing the left hand side seventeen times in a row until it finally registers as an escape key - I guess Apple devs don’t use vi. I was thrilled to have Touch ID at first but ultimately it only gets used in the control panel because apparently Apple doesn’t let anything else use it. I largely stopped using u2f keys because it was too much of a pain to dig up a usb-a dongle and I didn’t want to spend $50 on a usb-c form key that still doesn’t work on iOS.

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