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Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

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Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#401
post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worth noting that in some jurisdictions (e.g. Australia), consumer protection law extends beyond manufacturer warranties by establishing consumer guarantees, e.g. a guarantee that products will be of acceptable quality, and that they will be reasonably fit for any disclosed or represented purpose.[0] This often extends beyond the period of the express manufacturer warranty. On a semi-related note, Apple has recently…

Doesn't Apple often snob this laws? Have they changed their behaviour? If I remember correctly, in EU, up to just one or two years ago they were refusing to service products under warranty older than one year if you didn't have Apple Care even though the law mandates a 2 year warranty period.

The UK has a nice catch all for such things in addition to the EU laws;

From the 'Sale and Supply of Goods Act 1994'

~~~ For the purposes of this Act, goods are of satisfactory quality if they meet the standard that a reasonable person would regard as satisfactory, taking account of any description of the goods, the price (if relevant) and all the other relevant circumstances.

For the purposes of this Act, the quality of goods includes their state and condition and the following (among others) are in appropriate cases aspects of the quality of goods—

(a)fitness for all the purposes for which goods of the kind in question are commonly supplied,

(b)appearance and finish,

(c)freedom from minor defects,

(d)safety, and

(e)durability.

~~~

I don't think a reasonable person would regard a £2000 laptop being unusable after 2 years of regular careful use as being 'Fit for purpose'.

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And why do you think that a lot of people who are painfully aware of all the issues you mention still refuse to use Linux on a laptop while happily using it on servers? There is a riduculous repetitiveness about this debate. For me and many others, Linux on a laptop has always been unstable, insecure, hot and noisy. Many specific issues can be fixed if you put in the effort, but on almost every dist-upgrade something…

> For me and many others, Linux on a laptop has always been unstable, insecure, hot and noisy. I've successfully converted many people with similar claims over to Linux and here's what I've found; most of them were trying Linux on a subpar, non-standard laptop, (Like an old MacBook or a slow Celeron), to lower their investment if they don't like it, which is fine, but then comparing the experience to their high end M…

Did you try converting Windows users? Did you face these problems with them? If not, what did you face?

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#403
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say the issue is, and continues to be, growing pains. They're certainly losing the lead in software engineer talent (giving it away to whom, I'm not sure). I keep on interviewing recent Comp Sci graduates who have a 3.75 or a 4.0 and who can't tell me how to implement cycle detection -- to the extent that they could write a pseudocode function signature or some kind of concretely implementable design. Many of the…

> When my Macbook Pro is "locked" it flashes an image of the desktop screen just before switching to the login prompt. This used to happen to me and I was very annoyed. Felt like a major security hole. But now I get a scrambled image before the login prompt. Are you on the latest macOS?

I got this just two weeks back, fully up to date 2015 MPB. I was shocked that this could happen; I could even click around on the desktop for a few seconds before it locked up, and I had to hit Esc for the login screen to appear. I didn't even realise it was locked the first time it happened. A very visible reminder about software quality at Apple.

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows is so terrible, though. I could never go back.

For me OSX is a nightmare for usability. Just the window management alone can drive you insane. I am not a person who has one just application open at a time.

Have you explored the multitouch gestures for all this? I work on a 40" 4K monitor and I can't live without OSX's window management exactly for that reason. Windows wants you to fullscreen everything, while OSX has nice little touches like making the windows subtly magnetic or letting you resize symmetrically by holding alt.

Not to mention OSX is the only OS where you can drag the file icon out of a window's title bar to do stuff with it (eg. upload a file you have open) or right clicking the title to see the folder structure it resides in.

All these little affordances exactly where they need to be, and invisible when you don't need them. In my experience OSX is designed with a degree of consistency unheard of elsewhere, and that's why it gets accused of being unusable: people keep looking for the crutches you need on other platforms instead of just interacting directly.

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#405

I like machines that are built to take a beating. My penultimate laptop was an HP Mini 101; I only replaced it on a whim, and still use it from time to time. The keys have been worn to be smooth, concave and most are missing the printed text. When I last opened it up to add an SSD a suprising amount of sand came pouring out; having been taken to many beaches, tossed in bags, and generally used outdoors it had accumul…

How’s the Linux battery management for laptops? This and driver compatibility are usually my biggest concern. I remember 2/3 windows laptops I used were having trouble sleeping/waking up when lids were shut

My T480S running Pop!_OS is stellar in that department.

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#406
post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure how this can fly over peoples heads, but the point is marketing. There is virtually zero disadvantage in making the phones 2mm thicker and add to their robustness and battery life this way. Virtually zero... except _marketing_ and hence sales.

If sales increase when it is thinner, it stands to reason that customers want thinner devices. Just because you disagree with them doesn’t mean you’re not wrong for saying there is zero disadvantage. The disadvantage is not giving customers what they want.

Correlation is not causation. If the only new products in the Apple ecosystem is thinner, have a non-removable battery, no headphone jack, no SD card slot, no magsafe power, then it is easy to reason that all people who brought new Apple products wanted those features. The problem is, they never had the choice.

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#407
post #366
post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cameras need fast full size SD cards.

My full frame RX1Rii shoots 20+MP raw just fine onto micro SD.

All will, the underlying technology is the same and the 'micro' just refers to the plastic shell; the adapter is just a spacer with electrical contacts.

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#408
Apple. This issue is seriously simple.

Take the previous design, you know the one from late 2012 to 2015.

If you must (sigh), take out the SD card, HDMI, USB A, MagSafe and replace with USB-C. I don't know who suggested this, but whatever.

Don't add in a touch bar. Don't add in an over sized touchpad. Leave the keyboard alone. The layout of the model is amazing.

I purchased a late 2012 in Jan '13. It's been my daily driver for 5 years now, without a single issue and it's an amazing piece of equipment. It allows me to just get on with my work, rather than focusing on the issues with the OS (looking at you Windows 10).

Want to make the product much better? Upgrade:

- the screen to 4k

- the memory to 32GB

- the SSD speed and give me options of 1TB and 2TB.

- the CPU to the latest i7 and more cores the better.

Listen, you can even charge $5k for the privilege. I don't care at this point. My needs for it just working and allowing me to work without the issues of running Windows 10 are the only things that matter to me.

-------

Ok, I understand. We are negotiating here.

- $6k...

- $7k...

- $8k...

- $9k...

- $10k... ?

Sure, I'll pay $10k for a PRO laptop. One that lasts 5+ years. I'm happy to depreciate it over a period of time, because for me. It's not an ACCESSORY. It's a workhorse!

I really hope someone at apple listens. You guys had an awesome laptop. Then you made it crappy.

--------

I'm literally praying to "Lord Jobs" on the other side, that I don't run into any issues for at least another 3 years and Mojave is my last OS it seems. I'm STILL on El Capitan!

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#409
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say the issue is, and continues to be, growing pains. They're certainly losing the lead in software engineer talent (giving it away to whom, I'm not sure). I keep on interviewing recent Comp Sci graduates who have a 3.75 or a 4.0 and who can't tell me how to implement cycle detection -- to the extent that they could write a pseudocode function signature or some kind of concretely implementable design. Many of the…

> When my Macbook Pro is "locked" it flashes an image of the desktop screen just before switching to the login prompt. This used to happen to me and I was very annoyed. Felt like a major security hole. But now I get a scrambled image before the login prompt. Are you on the latest macOS?

I get sometimes scrambled image and sometimes normal desktop before login, it could be rendering something from uninitialized buffer.

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#410

I honestly don't understand all these quality sacrifices just to make things thinner. It makes the product actually feel somewhat cheap and brittle. The same thing confuses me with smartphones. Everyone keeps making these bacteria and finger print magnets thinner... the minute you drop it, it's shattered or unuseable... and so then you're buying a case to protect it from scratches and shatter... so what's the point o…

> Everyone keeps making these bacteria and finger print magnets thinner

I fear it might be worse than that; I have a Moto C, which is nice enough as a cheap phone. But they've made the case out of the slipperiest finish I could imagine, I have a silicone case just to trust I can hold it.

Now, if that's the cheapest finish they could make to get the price bracket they want, fine. But I can't shake the feeling that some designer chose that finish to make it _feel_ thinner. Just like a rough heavy weight paper makes something _feel_ valuable.

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