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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

#471

Post by garganzol »

jarym wrote: post #418

Stupid Apple - I blame Schiller. They won’t support 32Gb ram because it might decrease battery life and requires them to reengineer the logic board but they’re totally cool with a fragile ass keyboard GLUED to a battery! Really there’s no way to call this anything other than insanity. I remember the media used to talk about the ‘halo effect’ - well I’m someone who has Almost every MBP between 2002-2012 and every iPho…

At same boat as you, and just have migrated all my activities to Windows on 64 Gb Core i7 8 gen CPU desktop. It's a real booster for my day to day work.

I love and miss the aesthetics of macOS and Magic Mouse swipes. However let's face it, Apple alone cannot stand the pace. It just cannot compete with hordes of companies from all over the world who do their part of job really really good. Gigabyte, ASUS, Samsung, Intel, Crucial, NVidia, AMD, Dell to name a few plus many other small and big suppliers vs Apple Goliath. Battle result is predetermined by the forces of nature. Apple gonna lose in the long run.

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

#472

Post by nothis »

tracer4201 wrote: post #342

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…

They should have kept the "Pro" line as the sturdier, thicker model for people who do not want compromises. It's a real design failure.

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

#473

Post by janekm »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #63
RobLach wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple losing the image of quality engineering will effect their entire product range, with consumers less willing to pay a premium and second guessing engineering achievements by keeping in mind side effects. If the next iPhone is 20 grams lighter but I can’t make phone calls after 6 months, will I buy one over a equally powered Android $300 less?

I think the story of Coach (now Tapestry, ticker TPR) should be the ghost story they tell at every Apple corporate retreat. What do they say, "years to build and seconds to destroy"?

What happened to Coach? I seem to have missed that news, and from what I saw in NYC they are currently moving into extremely expensive real estate so I thought they were doing rather well?

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

#474

Post by metargz »

keymone wrote: post #396
blhack wrote: post #189

I wish apple would just make a line of laptops aimed at professionals. They could give us back a real keyboard, give us back USB ports, give us back swappable batteries, and give us back SD card readers (although this could be microsd at this point). They could even call it "macbook professional" or something like that. /s There is just absolutely no reason for these changes. The lack of USB ports on this laptop is s…

> give us back USB ports, give us back swappable batteries, and give us back SD card readers also dvd, ethernet, hdmi, vga and floppy, yeah. sorry, i want neither of these in my laptop. i want it to be lightweight, small, solid and durable body without moving parts or too many holes. what you want is achievable with dock station.

> sorry, i want neither of these in my laptop. i want it to be lightweight, small, solid and durable body without moving parts or too many holes.

Thinkpad T480s weights about the same as the current MBP, has more useful ports (I find having hdmi, ethernet and older usb handy on a device I use in my work trips), good keyboard, replaceable hardware and whatnot. It is bigger, but Lenovo makes smaller Thinkpads too. Subjectively, I find it more robust than my MBP at work, but that's not the point.

The point is, the sacrifices Apple makes on their current Macbook Pros are simply design choices, not engineering tradeoffs.

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

#475

Post by jopsen »

yonkshi wrote: post #264
dleslie wrote: post #252

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

It's been great, just stay away from the new Thinkpad X1 Carbon 6th generation, Linux support is poor with lots of things that needs fixing.

But 5th generation had a smooth linux experience, I bet the same goes for most other laptops. I'm hoping 6th gen will be fixed in 6-12 months with newer kernels, etc. But at the moment it's quite broken.

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

#476

Post by ryenus »

vivan wrote: post #413

I was one of those annoying Apple evangelists for years. My 2010 MacBook Pro was my baby and I loved it. Eventually it got to the point where I had to replace it (after 7 years!) and when I went to look around at the new MacBook Pro range, I was so disgusted by all the problems that I ended up getting a Dell XPS 13. I consider my original MBP and the following models to be some of the best laptops you could buy at th…

The 2015 MBP is still available, though not that obviously: https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-2015/

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

#477

Post by garmaine »

neuronic wrote: post #356
tracer4201 wrote: post #342

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…

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 Apple released a new phone or laptop this September and specifically marketed it as being better built and longer lasting (and therefore thicker and heavier), I'd buy it. Am I the only one?

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

#478

Post by manigandham »

aninhumer wrote: post #453
manigandham wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You drop more weight just going to the bathroom in the morning. I find it extremely hard to believe that a few pounds makes a difference to any physically capable adult.

It's not about physical capability. Obviously people aren't getting exhausted moving around 5lb laptops instead of 3lb ones. It's about comfort and ease of manipulation.

Why is giving up a better keyword and battery worth the few ounces? How is that more comfortable overall? Do you hold it with one hand more often than you type on it?

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

#479

Post by fg_my_pw_again »

kanishkdudeja wrote: post #446
jarym wrote: post #418

Stupid Apple - I blame Schiller. They won’t support 32Gb ram because it might decrease battery life and requires them to reengineer the logic board but they’re totally cool with a fragile ass keyboard GLUED to a battery! Really there’s no way to call this anything other than insanity. I remember the media used to talk about the ‘halo effect’ - well I’m someone who has Almost every MBP between 2002-2012 and every iPho…

The Dell XPS 13 has been a solid work machine for me. Portable, powerful, comes with USB Type A and C ports, Thunderbolt 3 and comes with one of the best keyboards in laptops.

Well, the XPS13 has had its share of keyboard problems too:

https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-13-9370-Keyboard-Skip...

It took months for a BIOS release to make the keyboard workable.

Now if only they could get the webcam to work..

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