Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

16-inch MacBook Pro

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

491–500 of 1001 posts

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#491

Post by reaperducer »

throwanem wrote: post #17

I'm astonished and pleased to see they walked back the two worst things about the original Touch Bar MBPs - the lack of a physical Escape key, and the full-size left and right arrow keys. The lack of physical function keys remains regrettable, and the Touch Bar is still no worthy substitute, but perhaps this is a sign that Apple is finally interested in listening to feedback from its long-term customer base, even if…

I was sorta kinda OK with the missing escape key. For me the biggest keyboard improvement is a return to the inverted-T arrow layout.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#492

Post by briandear »

input_sh wrote: post #168
dvcrn wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the Touch Bar a lot. Not having esc was the only gripe I had with it but I personally much prefer the multifunctional bar over some static f keys

I'm curious, do you usually blind type? If so, what advantage does it bring to you to look down on your keys? Also, in an optimal seating position (elbows at 90 degrees), do your fingers obscure the visibility of the touch bar?

What are you guys doing that you touch type using FN keys? Touchbar is far better — you can’t scrub audio or video. You can adjust things with more granularity with sliders. It’s contextual.

I don’t remember ever using a hardware F6 or F4 key in my life, but the touchbar I use all the time.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#493

Post by throw0101a »

throwanem wrote: post #17

I'm astonished and pleased to see they walked back the two worst things about the original Touch Bar MBPs - the lack of a physical Escape key, and the full-size left and right arrow keys. The lack of physical function keys remains regrettable, and the Touch Bar is still no worthy substitute, but perhaps this is a sign that Apple is finally interested in listening to feedback from its long-term customer base, even if…

> ... the lack of a physical Escape key, and the full-size left and right arrow keys.

Seems that if you scream hard enough AAPL listens:

> What Apple emphasized is simply that they listened to the complaints from professional MacBook users. They recognized how important the Escape key is to developers — they even mentioned Vim by name during a developer tool demo.

* https://daringfireball.net/2019/11/16-inch_macbook_pro_first...

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#494

Post by ben7799 »

64GB RAM is like "hallelujah". Doing enterprise dev with Docker + Java is pretty horrible with 16GB on my 2017 MBP.

The fact that this review didn't even once mention the fact that this machine is now thicker & bigger and yet they didn't add any useful ports back in is amazing.

I still hate that the 2017 one I have has only USB-C + Headphone jack. I appreciate that it still has the headphone jack.

But at our office we all got OWC Thunderbolt 3 Docks @ $300/desk and the whole experience sucks.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#495

Post by briandear »

insta_anon wrote: post #245
throwanem wrote: post #17

I'm astonished and pleased to see they walked back the two worst things about the original Touch Bar MBPs - the lack of a physical Escape key, and the full-size left and right arrow keys. The lack of physical function keys remains regrettable, and the Touch Bar is still no worthy substitute, but perhaps this is a sign that Apple is finally interested in listening to feedback from its long-term customer base, even if…

Agreed, as long as I am forced to use the TouchBar, it personally for me is not "the world’s best pro notebook".

What is your job? Just curious how pro you really are.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#496

Post by izacus »

cracker_jacks wrote: post #485

I agree that the improvements like the ESC key and 16" screen are good things. But is it strange to anyone else that a company that prides itself on being innovative and motto is "think different" is parading around a screen size change and a keyboard regression as the biggest selling points for a product launch?

No it's not strange. The MBPs are (were?) great, reliable tools on which thousands of professionals rely on every day. They also rely on being able to replace them with equivalent or better replacements when they break.

They work. There's no need for needless new gimmicks. It's fine to have a reliable, consistent tool available for purchase. Just like Thinkpads, hammers and multimeters. It's ok to be conservative on new things in some market segments.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#497

Post by eugeniub »

murgindrag wrote: post #469

I think my question will be ports. The article didn't say what they broke there. Will it only support Bluetooth headphones? Bluetooth monitors? No USB? No SD card slot? Especially for a 16" laptop, I'd like something without a mess of dongles and adapters. The 2015 15" Macbook was pretty good in this department, but Apple is on a port-cutting rampage.

Well the tech specs page is up: https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-16/specs/

4 USB-C ports and a headphone jack. Same as before.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#499

Post by bogomipz »

mstade wrote: post #251
ses1984 wrote: post #80

"I'm so glad this model has a touchbar" "I would buy a dell xps but only if it had a touchbar" things no one ever said.

I initially found the touchbar to mostly be a gimmick, new for the sake of being new and not really bringing anything useful to the table. A couple of years later and I'm a convert. If I had to buy a new MBP today I would definitely make sure it has a touchbar. It turns out app makers have found some nifty uses for it, like the ability to quickly mute/unmute when in conference calls, quickly changing volume/brightnes…

I'd be curious what IDEs support the touch bar for debugging or is that something you configured yourself?

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#500

Post by antonyh »

journalctl wrote: post #213
calbear81 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sure someone has suggested this at some point but why not physical keys with an lcd underneath each key? This would allow those keys to be fully customizable and be worthy of the “Pro” designation.

Because it’s expensive, bulky, and unnecessary. Something like this already exists: the Optimus Maximus keyboard. And while it’s a cool concept, it’s not without its rough edges. [1] [1] https://www.artlebedev.com/optimus/maximus/

I wanted one of these when I first spotted it, but in hindsight it would be too dependent on software to work and I'd probably end up spending ages setting it up when the right thing to do would be to get blank key caps.
Post reply on HN