16-inch MacBook Pro • Hacker News Board

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#831

Post by hinkley » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 10:18 PM UTC

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…

If you look closely, not only is there a physical escape key, there's a physical fingerprint key, and the touch bar is also elevated. You still might not to be able to use the touch bar without looking at it, but at least you can find it without looking at it.

I was half expecting them to use haptics on the touch bar. Still no luck there.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#832

Post by aluskuiuc » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 10:18 PM UTC

fermenflo wrote: post #808

blhack wrote: post #373

It's hilarious to me that their own marketing image has two dongles plugged into the laptop so that the user can still use USB. Apple please for the love of usability: please give me back USB. I AM the pro that you want to feature in every one of your marketing videos. I have a music studio in my house, I build interactive lighting installations for the biggest music festivals in the world, I build custom hardware co…

No, USB-C is a step in the right direction. It's superior in every way imaginable to USB. It can handle almost every type of transfer (data/power), its orientation-agnostic, it's slim, etc. I could list the pros for days. Having to deal with dongles for a couple years while the rest of the market catches up isn't a reason to push against the best port standard in decades.

It's decidedly inferior in its lack of hubs. If you don't have enough USB-C ports, you're SOL (and given I have a 2-port macbook pro, I feel this acutely).

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#833

Post by CM30 » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 10:19 PM UTC

Hmm, so they improved the keyboard? Kinda makes me wish I'd waited a bit longer to buy a MacBook Pro, since I think I would have preferred this version of the keyboard to the one on the version I'm using right now.

Still, the important thing is that Apple seemingly listened to feedback. Too many double down on bad decisions regardless of feedback.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#834

Post by jimktrains2 » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 10:20 PM UTC

wwweston wrote: post #712

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…

It turns out that people who buy laptops -- a mobile-ish form factor differentiated from a tablet by its keyboard -- might really really care about keyboards as the main interface between user and device. I'd concluded that Apple didn't really think much of laptops anymore, and had simply moved on to caring more about other form factors: it seemed a logical conclusion if one assumed that people at Apple were in fact…

I feel like laptop keyboards continue to get worse. I mean, they're usable, but there are better key designs out there.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#835

Post by luckydata » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 10:23 PM UTC

Is it me or this laptop is eye-wateringly expensive? I'm no Mac noob but it's getting a little hard to justify the expense to stay in the ecosystem.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#836

Post by m463 » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 10:24 PM UTC

fermenflo wrote: post #808

blhack wrote: post #373

It's hilarious to me that their own marketing image has two dongles plugged into the laptop so that the user can still use USB. Apple please for the love of usability: please give me back USB. I AM the pro that you want to feature in every one of your marketing videos. I have a music studio in my house, I build interactive lighting installations for the biggest music festivals in the world, I build custom hardware co…

No, USB-C is a step in the right direction. It's superior in every way imaginable to USB. It can handle almost every type of transfer (data/power), its orientation-agnostic, it's slim, etc. I could list the pros for days. Having to deal with dongles for a couple years while the rest of the market catches up isn't a reason to push against the best port standard in decades.

I can't sum it up in any other way than to say it's a user-hostile decision.

They should at a minumum have included a few choice dongles with the system. (usb-c to usb-a, and maybe usb-c to HDMI)

Additionally, they should have completed the ecosystem too. a mac-to-mac upgrade requires a dizzying variety of dongles, where one firewire cable was all that was required in previous systems.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#837

Post by suyash » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 10:26 PM UTC

No NVIDIA GPU means No CUDA :(

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#838

Post by hinkley » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 10:26 PM UTC

trymas wrote: post #399

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 wonder if the screen reflective coating is better too. AFAIK, since introduction of retina screens of MacBooks (2012) it's a matter of time that the reflective coating will start to peel off and will leave ugly blotches.

Does anyone else remember when the macbooks came with two options for screen coating? The original anti-glare coating cost a few nits of brightness and some people had Feelings about this. I can't even recall now when they got rid of the option. Probably when the backlight got more powerful?

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#839

Post by m0zg » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 10:27 PM UTC

Pricing is shot across the bow to Lenovo: higher end configs of Carbon X1 Extreme have similar prices, even though they aren't really comparable in terms of brand recognition and in some aspects of hardware quality. Good. Then there's also the fact that X1 Extreme is troublesome when it comes to Linux compatibility, so if you want a proper Unix-like experience, Mac is still one of the best options, although Microsoft is really trying nowadays. If someone from Lenovo is reading this: I like Carbon X1. I'd buy X1 Extreme if it ran Linux as well as plain X1 does. I'm not price sensitive. But Windows is not really viable for me when it comes to professional use.

Looks like Apple will be getting another $3K or so of my money 6 months from now after other people beta test the new MBP for bugs.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#840

Post by m463 » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 10:28 PM UTC

dublin wrote: post #763

blhack wrote: post #373

It's hilarious to me that their own marketing image has two dongles plugged into the laptop so that the user can still use USB. Apple please for the love of usability: please give me back USB. I AM the pro that you want to feature in every one of your marketing videos. I have a music studio in my house, I build interactive lighting installations for the biggest music festivals in the world, I build custom hardware co…

If Apple cared about what its users thought about cables, they never would have replaced MagSafe with the wretched USB-C. Interestingly, if you want a MagSafe-like charger now, you have to buy a Surface...

Which magsafe? Magsafe 1 or magsafe 2?

(why a second incompatible magsafe - this is beyond me)