2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats • Hacker News Board

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#51

Post by lvh » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:54 PM UTC

Siecje wrote: post #35

otterley wrote: post #9

We bought a 15" 2016 Macbook Pro ("Retina" is redundant; there are no 2016 MBPs that lack a Retina display.) We also bought a LG 27UD88-W monitor to go with it. (It's one of the few that has a USB-C input.) I have to say, I'm really impressed by the single-cable solution. The monitor charges the laptop (57W maximum, which is less than the Apple charger, but "good enough"), and the laptop sends both video and USB peri…

Why doesn't the Apple-supplied USB charging cable work?

The cable is a USB-C cable, but not a Thunderbolt 3 cable. This is confusing, because they use the same USB-C port. My understanding is that Thunderbolt cables have the thunderbolt logo on them.

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#52

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:54 PM UTC

Siecje wrote: post #35

otterley wrote: post #9

We bought a 15" 2016 Macbook Pro ("Retina" is redundant; there are no 2016 MBPs that lack a Retina display.) We also bought a LG 27UD88-W monitor to go with it. (It's one of the few that has a USB-C input.) I have to say, I'm really impressed by the single-cable solution. The monitor charges the laptop (57W maximum, which is less than the Apple charger, but "good enough"), and the laptop sends both video and USB peri…

Why doesn't the Apple-supplied USB charging cable work?

[deleted]

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#53

Post by lvh » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:54 PM UTC

abakker wrote: post #39

otterley wrote: post #9

We bought a 15" 2016 Macbook Pro ("Retina" is redundant; there are no 2016 MBPs that lack a Retina display.) We also bought a LG 27UD88-W monitor to go with it. (It's one of the few that has a USB-C input.) I have to say, I'm really impressed by the single-cable solution. The monitor charges the laptop (57W maximum, which is less than the Apple charger, but "good enough"), and the laptop sends both video and USB peri…

3 sounds like a doozy. Is there any way that the average person can learn to tell these apart once they are out of the packaging, or is it really just a guess and check?

My understanding is that Thunderbolt 3 cables should have the Thunderbolt logo on them.

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#54

Post by randlet » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:54 PM UTC

nilkn wrote: post #15

Tom1971 wrote: post #8

While, over time, a lot of today's annoyances with the new Macabook's will fade away, the lack of ESC key is a deal breaker for me. I tried it at the Apple Store and it's pretty much unusable. (It had the seen issue as the writer, apparently relying on the physical click to know whether or not I had pressed it. In addition, I also mistyped it a lot. Maybe hack to replace the whole touch bar as one single ESC key will…

Following the lead of Spacemacs I remapped Esc in vim to "fd". It works surprisingly well and is extremely easy and fast to type.

I use jk to exit from insert mode, but you still need an escape key to cancel actions when entering commands. For example if I type :wq and decide I actually don't want to quit, I still need to hit Esc to cancel. It would be nice if :wqjk (or :wqfd) would allow you to cancel but I don't think that's possible is it?

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#55

Post by nilkn » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:54 PM UTC

dom0 wrote: post #16

Bytes wrote: post #6

The problems with the new macbook "pro" seem to keep on growing. I am really surprised that Apple did not find the connecting to external display issue in internal testing.

I'm somewhat surprised by the whole touch bar thing, other manufacturers (e.g. Lenovo on the X1) tried it before and use acceptance was miserable.

I picked up a new MBP and I have to say I do like the Touch Bar. It's certainly not a must-have, but Apple's implementation is pretty polished. My favorite use is music/volume control. I can control music from both iTunes and a buried YouTube Safari tab at the same time through the Touch Bar.

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#56

Post by illumin8 » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:55 PM UTC

Siecje wrote: post #35

otterley wrote: post #9

We bought a 15" 2016 Macbook Pro ("Retina" is redundant; there are no 2016 MBPs that lack a Retina display.) We also bought a LG 27UD88-W monitor to go with it. (It's one of the few that has a USB-C input.) I have to say, I'm really impressed by the single-cable solution. The monitor charges the laptop (57W maximum, which is less than the Apple charger, but "good enough"), and the laptop sends both video and USB peri…

Why doesn't the Apple-supplied USB charging cable work?

It's for charging only. This seems to be a huge disadvantage to USB-c... you have to buy different cables for different purposes, even though they have the same physical connector.

Can you imagine if AC power had the same plug for both 110V and 220V? And you just had to "guess" which one was the right one?

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#57

Post by lvh » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:55 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #45

stormbrew wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that it's specifically the thunderbolt-2 adapter that doesn't support further adapting to other alternate mode mechanisms. This might be because of incompatibilities between TB2 and TB3/USB3.1 alternate mode implementations? It doesn't mean it can't do DP over a specific type-c to DP cable/dongle, which presumably are or will be a thing (eg: https://store.google.com/product/usb_type_c_to_displaypo…

There are USB-C to DisplayPort cables. You need some sort of converting cable anyway--the old MBP had Mini DisplayPort and I've never seen a monitor with a MiniDP input.

(Author here) The Dell P2515Q I have has both DisplayPort and mDP2 in and out (for chaining).

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#58

Post by rebootthesystem » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:55 PM UTC

It is starting to feel like the "Pro" is actually more of a consumer toy for gaming and messing with Facebook rather than a real professional machine.

I need to buy a new laptop today. For development, not to play games. The unix underpinning of MacOS always made their machines attractive, expensive, but attractive nonetheless.

I'll go visit the Apple store and see but it is starting to look like it'll be a waste of time. It looks like I'll make a detour over to Best Buy and get one of the high end HP laptops with 17 inch screen, full keyboard, lots of ports, etc.

I can then install VMWare Workstation with Ubuntu Desktop. Add another couple of VM with Ubuntu Server, run them all at once in a virtual network to simulate application and DB servers and develop on Linux.

Done deal. Probably half the money. With what's left over I can go buy that TIG welder I've been eyeballing.

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#59

Post by UnoriginalGuy » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:55 PM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #5

Not supporting DisplayPort with an adapter is just insane. Apple's new top-end laptop is incompatible with the most common way to connect external monitors? I've been willing to give Apple and the new MBP the benefit of the doubt on this stuff, and in particular I don't mind that it needs dongles now if that means we get universal USB-C adoption faster. But the dongles need to actually exist and work now!

> Apple's new top-end laptop is incompatible with the most common way to connect external monitors?

You mean HDMI? On non-Apple/non-Microsoft laptops HDMI is by far the most common way to connect external displays followed likely by VGA and then finally DisplayPort.

Re: 2016 Retina MacBook Pro Caveats

#60

Post by mikeash » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 5:56 PM UTC

stormbrew wrote: post #34

mikeash wrote: post #5

Not supporting DisplayPort with an adapter is just insane. Apple's new top-end laptop is incompatible with the most common way to connect external monitors? I've been willing to give Apple and the new MBP the benefit of the doubt on this stuff, and in particular I don't mind that it needs dongles now if that means we get universal USB-C adoption faster. But the dongles need to actually exist and work now!

My understanding is that it's specifically the thunderbolt-2 adapter that doesn't support further adapting to other alternate mode mechanisms. This might be because of incompatibilities between TB2 and TB3/USB3.1 alternate mode implementations? It doesn't mean it can't do DP over a specific type-c to DP cable/dongle, which presumably are or will be a thing (eg: https://store.google.com/product/usb_type_c_to_displaypo…

Yes, it sounds like it's doable, it's just insane that Apple doesn't offer the necessary adapter (and further insane that Apple doesn't make it clear that the TB2 adapter won't do the job).

I'm OK with the computer using USB-C exclusively, but Apple needs to make adapters available for other common ports. Relying on third parties for something as common as DisplayPort is not good.