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Apple’s new MacBook Pro kills off most of the ports you probably need

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Re: Apple’s new MacBook Pro kills off most of the ports you probably need

#71

Post by dingo_bat »

kabdib wrote: post #50
usaphp wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is everyone keep saying that Esc key is gone, OS X allows you to customize that new touch bar, you can make the Esc button to always show on the same spot you had it before...

From a tactile point, not the same. I've rage-quit keyboards because of nerfed ESC keys before, so this one won't be the first. I put a piece of double-sided sticky tape on my ESC key just to make me notice how often I hit it. When I'm editing, it's all the time . The seeming last-minute addition of a remapping feature for ESC in OSX leads me to believe that the software people at Apple were railroaded by some hardwa…

I was thinking "meh I don't use esc at all". Until you reminded me of vim. Then I realized it may well be one of the top 5 most used keys for me.

Re: Apple’s new MacBook Pro kills off most of the ports you probably need

#72

Post by paulddraper »

flukus wrote: post #19
elchief wrote: post #14

I'm okay with the ports but 16 GB max RAM is a f-in joke. My mom's computer has 16 GB of RAM

What exactly are you and you're mum doing that necessitates more than 16GB?

It's not only the fact that it's 16gb, it's that it's soldered in, so 16gb must last for another five years or however often it is you upgrade.

Edit some movies, run some servers, launch Atom, repeatedly read lots of files, do some gaming, and it's nice to have a lot. Or just open a couple Chrome tabs.

Re: Apple’s new MacBook Pro kills off most of the ports you probably need

#73

Post by criddell »

douche wrote: post #52
eibrahim wrote: post #3

So disappointed. I had my wallet ready to order but this is no different than my current MBP. A half baked touch screen!!! Not worth the $3500 I was going to drop on a new MBP. I can't imagine going back to windows because I enjoy the terminal and vim but seriously considering it specially that now I can run bash on windows

It's really quite absurd to spend $3500 on a laptop. That's baffling. That's more than the down-payment on my pickup truck. That's more than we paid for the last two blade servers at work, that have a combined 96 cores and, I think, 288 GB of RAM. That's just a little less than the seven laptops I have owned in my entire life.

The laptop is a tool that many people use all day everyday. If the machine lasts you three years, that's about $5 per day which is pretty affordable.

If playing with software is your hobby, then spending $3500 over a couple of years on your hobby isn't outrageous. I know people that play guitar for fun and they wouldn't think twice about dropping that much on a used guitar.

Re: Apple’s new MacBook Pro kills off most of the ports you probably need

#74

Post by azinman2 »

jimmijazz wrote: post #39
Yodoshi wrote: post #16

Even worse is that there is no real option if you're developing for IOS. Imac is a no go due to not wanting desktop and other macbooks don't seem the right type for heavy multitasking, compiling etc. It's MBP or bust.

This is the most interesting point I've seen raised today. How can you lock developers into your OS with Xcode and then not give them a viable, portable option. If they could just beef up the '12 MBP I'd be soo happy.

How is it not viable?

Re: Apple’s new MacBook Pro kills off most of the ports you probably need

#75

Post by nathanaldensr »

eridius wrote: post #46
kabdib wrote: post #24

It's pretty bad. We use YubiKeys a lot, and there are no ports for them. So sad. Also: Magsafe is great (it's saved my bacon a few times). Gone. ESC key, gone. Don't know about the keyboard yet, but everything I've read doesn't point to it being decent. Probably not buying this generation of MacBooks. Might just bite the bullet and finally go to Linux on some decent hardware. So, what's a decent laptop for running Li…

I really don't understand why everybody seems to think the Escape key is so important. I almost never hit mine, and since the Touch Bar has a virtual escape key, I don't really see the problem. The best I can figure is everybody complaining is a Vim user, but if you're a Vim user I don't know why you haven't already replaced the cumbersome Escape key with something easier, like binding `jk`, or binding Caps Lock to C…

Your argument consists of "people who don't work like I do are wrong" and you imply they should pay the price... for using a key that's been ubiquitous since the beginning of computing time.

Re: Apple’s new MacBook Pro kills off most of the ports you probably need

#76

Post by rayiner »

I'm okay with the port situation--there is an elegance to the 4 completely symmetrical USB-C ports. Also super excited to ditch Magsafe. It'll be awesome to be able to just replace a USB-C charger cable instead of the whole brick when it inevitably frays.

I'm bummed out about the huge reduction in battery capacity. The 13" model loses 1/3, and the 15" loses 1/4. With the addition of the touch bar, this will probably be the first MBP to see a battery life regression.

Re: Apple’s new MacBook Pro kills off most of the ports you probably need

#77

Post by choudanu4 »

BigJono wrote: post #47
dlevine wrote: post #2

To be fair, if you need these ports, it is easy to get a hub that provides them: https://www.amazon.com/HyperDrive-Through-Charging-MacBook-C... And over the next several years, it is likely that people will switch to USB-C peripherals.

I'm completely out of the loop here. Why would peripheral makers choose USB-C over USB 3?

USB-C and USB-3 aren't mutually exclusive. One describes the shape (Type-A, Type-C) of the connector. The other describes the speeds supported by the port (USB2, USB3, USB3.1).

Re: Apple’s new MacBook Pro kills off most of the ports you probably need

#78

Post by franciscop »

It's funny how Americans (USA) use the freedom as in this situation "they are necessary connections that offer you freedom" but don't even realize that's the same "freedom" they are stuck in the Imperial system; lack of standardization.

I for once welcome these changes; if companies were not brave enough to let go of old ports to standarize the USB we'd be stuck in the old days with dozens of dongles. At the speed of USB-C adoption, in ~5 years I hope it's the most used port and in ~10-15 I hope not to need any other port for any peripheral.

I wrote a small article about USB-C adoption: https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/27/apples-new-macbook-pro-jus...

Re: Apple’s new MacBook Pro kills off most of the ports you probably need

#79

Post by kobayashi »

minikites wrote: post #59
kobayashi wrote: post #44

Throughly enjoyed the Apple ecosystem for the past 13 years. Multiple AirPorts, Watch, iPhones, iPads, Macs. Never have I ever been so extremely disappointed with Apple. Actually, I'm not sure that I've ever before been rather disappointed Apple. I wasn't a fan of the Sierra release because I don't like using Siri but ultimately it didn't ruin then OS, it was just a new feature that I wouldn't use. But now? The prici…

When the Mac is less than 10% of their revenue, why should they bother to care? They can coast on their reputation and they have a captive audience of iOS developers who will buy any Mac because they have to.

This was a company that said they cared. That made products which were far and away better than the competitors. I paid the Apple Tax, but it was worth it because I didn't have Windows headaches and because I had a better quality system that was truly optimized for both easy use and for power users. It was great. I actually feel crushed by this news. I valued the trust I had in Apple.

And I don't say all of this lightly. I've read the threads the occur after every major Apple release. They're always replete with naysayers. I've never been one of those people. This seems different.

Re: Apple’s new MacBook Pro kills off most of the ports you probably need

#80

Post by indspenceable »

eridius wrote: post #46
kabdib wrote: post #24

It's pretty bad. We use YubiKeys a lot, and there are no ports for them. So sad. Also: Magsafe is great (it's saved my bacon a few times). Gone. ESC key, gone. Don't know about the keyboard yet, but everything I've read doesn't point to it being decent. Probably not buying this generation of MacBooks. Might just bite the bullet and finally go to Linux on some decent hardware. So, what's a decent laptop for running Li…

I really don't understand why everybody seems to think the Escape key is so important. I almost never hit mine, and since the Touch Bar has a virtual escape key, I don't really see the problem. The best I can figure is everybody complaining is a Vim user, but if you're a Vim user I don't know why you haven't already replaced the cumbersome Escape key with something easier, like binding `jk`, or binding Caps Lock to C…

I use the keys on that row, and having physical keys gives me the useful tactile feedback that I've pressed a key. Sounds dumb, but it's real - it's the reason that keyboards are much better to type on than touchscreens.
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