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MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

arstechnica.com

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Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#421

Post by anextio »

saturdaysaint wrote: post #267
SiVal wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If things keep going the way they're going, Apple fanboyism will become less and less of a problem among hackers. Apple appears to be in a gradual transition process from MacOS computers to iOS "Don't worry, just watch the pretty pictures, and we'll tell you which PAY button to press" devices. Windows, not wanting to be left behind selling computers instead of devices (Yuck! Computers! That's SO 20th century), is mak…

Could you be more specific about what restrictions are in Snow Lion that aren't in past versions of OSX?

"Mountain Goat" is what I'm calling it.

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#422

Post by gmurphy »

lparry wrote: post #369
gmurphy wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except there's a 200ms delay on the Capslock key to prevent accidental activations. Because this is built into the hardware, it means that even if you remap, if you press the second key really quickly after the first, the character ends up getting inserted into your document. It's ridiculously annoying.

Source? My capslock is a control key and I use it heavily so I feel like I'd notice a 200ms delay, which makes me doubt it's done in hardware

Apple released a firmware fix that makes the Capslock key behave normally if it's remapped in OS X. However, I don't use OS X, and the keyboard doesn't send the event until after the delay (if I just tap the key quickly, Linux/Windows don't see anything), so I assume it's some combination of keyboard firmware + OS X.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1578 http://www.tow.com/2007/12/18/apple-wireless-keyboard-review...

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#423

Post by pbrumm »

masklinn wrote: post #134
cheatercheater wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm probably missing something: why have a HDMI port if you have two Thunderbolt ports? In fact, why not just have three Thunderbolt ports - even if one is only going to carry DP and not PCI?

> why have a HDMI port if you have two Thunderbolt ports? > [...] > In fact, why not just have three Thunderbolt ports Avoids needing a dongle when plugging into an HDTV or an HDMI overhead projector, I'm guessing. They probably considered the pros and cons and ended up thinking two TB ports were enough and HDMI was requested often enough it would make sense, especially as they'd axed both GigE and FW800. And one of…

I just noticed that it doesn't have a GigE port. that is just switching an hdmi adapter for a GigE - thunderbolt cable. it was probably necessary to get the form factor, but it is annoying.

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#424

Post by reitzensteinm »

reitzensteinm wrote: post #419
josephcooney wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Windows is notoriously hard to program for in a resolution independent way Really? Using which API?

Well, you can use WPF and that pretty much takes care of it from the ground up, but Win32 was never designed to do that. My point is that the long tail of apps in the wild are going to be problematic, regardless of what new apps do.

OK, so I set my DPI to 200% to check, and I found errors in every app I tried (list below), except for Dropbox, and MonoDevelop. Mostly the errors involve not everything scaling up; certain images or pieces of text will be too small.

That said, it was all purely visual stuff, and the errors were more subtle than I was expecting, so maybe my prediction was a little strong. Though if you track off the beaten path, I'm sure it gets worse - that VB6 App you use to track warehouse supplies may be completely broken.

I tried whatever I use day to day:

Opera, Firefox, Skype, MSN, FlashDevelop, Unity, VLC, UltraEdit, Dropbox, MonoDevelop, TPCView, SmartDefrag

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#425

Post by sahaskatta »

RandallBrown wrote: post #195
jiggy2011 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would happen if you ran Windows or Linux on the MBP? What resolution would you get?

Windows has had High DPI mode for quite awhile. Not sure if that will be compatible with the new MPB, but it should help. Too bad most windows apps are fairly broken in high DPI mode.

I've tried using the 125% and 150% DPI modes in Windows 7 on a 1080p display and the support is still rather primitive. My HP ENVY 15 actually shipped with 125% mode enabled by default. Lots of icons, graphical elements, and many fonts become blurry/pixelated when enabled.

I'm guessing a reason we haven't seen high DPI screens from Dell/HP/Sony/etc is partially because the Windows OS doesn't really support it that well just yet. Hopefully things have changed in Windows 8.

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#426

Post by staunch »

alecbenzer wrote: post #367
staunch wrote: post #283

Holy crap 2880x1800. I've been buying 15" 1920x1200 laptops for last 10 years because I love resolution, but this is just absurdly awesome. I only use Linux, but if no one else competes with this LCD I'll buy a Macbook Pro for sure.

Can't you throw linux on a mbp?

Sure, just not a fan of the premium price. I'd be willing to pay it though for that pixels-per-inch.

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#427

Post by neilparikh »

pbrumm wrote: post #68

Hopefully the macbook pro with retina display supports 16gb of ram. Everything else sounds amazing, but being limited to 8gb of ram for another few years is going to hold me back.

On the online apple store, the retina MBP is upgradable to 16GB of ram for $200.

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#429

Post by mitchty »

sliverstorm wrote: post #296
fjorder wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One further note on hardware quality: Perceived hardware quality is something Apple is fantastic at. Their laptops look and feel great. They feel like they'll last decades. This is misleading since they're actually built to be disposable. e.g. If you spill coffee on your Macbook Air, it's dead. You can't fix it because you can't remove the battery in a timely fashion and don't have the tools to open it. Apple won't f…

Agreed on the "perceived" quality. Based on my experiences, I'd bet money that if you compared a 3-year-old Thinkpad to a 3-year-old Mac, the Thinkpad would be in far better shape.

My macbook pro from 2008 survived a motorcycle accident and became accidental back armor. Still worked up until a few months ago until the mainboard went kaputt.

I'll rate that as damn good. Only damage was cosmetic other than that it was in great shape. I think you may be rating the macbook pro too low. I've seen people drop their thinkpad and having them go boom.

Yes yes anecdotal evidence blah blah. But I place a lot of props to that macbook pro surviving a motorcycle accident. Its been retired along with the helmet that saved me. Just my $0.02

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#430

Post by mitchty »

trimbo wrote: post #245
fjorder wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One further note on hardware quality: Perceived hardware quality is something Apple is fantastic at. Their laptops look and feel great. They feel like they'll last decades. This is misleading since they're actually built to be disposable. e.g. If you spill coffee on your Macbook Air, it's dead. You can't fix it because you can't remove the battery in a timely fashion and don't have the tools to open it. Apple won't f…

> Someone at Samsung is really dropping the ball and I hope they're shown the door soon Amen brother. It's astonishing to me that so much of what Apple creates is actually made by Samsung, and yet they constantly seem so far behind. Have you seen their new 15" Ultrabooks though? They are awesome. 15" screen and weighs more than a pound less than the new MBP (obviously, with tradeoffs) http://www.samsung.com/us/comput…

My bet is Apple is paying them to create the components and gets a time frame to keep them for themselves before they can be generally available.

That or Samsung just doesn't care about being the first to the gate.

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