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Apple’s expected Mac event on October 27 is official

9to5mac.com

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Re: Apple’s expected Mac event on October 27 is official

#91

Post by Alupis »

awalton wrote: post #82
Alupis wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a VMware developer, hehehe, you're funny. You seemingly missed my comment about Apple machines not being developer-oriented. A developer isn't Apple's target user. > As a user of a modern web browser, yeah, 8GB by default isn't going to cut it anymore You're clearly exaggerating this by quite a bit. Everyone knows modern browsers consume more RAM than ever before, but 8 GB's is extreme. (Anecdotally, I tend to h…

> You're clearly exaggerating this by quite a bit. No, I'm really not. 2785 waltona 20 0 9812.0m 6.289g 144100 R 74.5 40.2 13309:18 firefox 112 tabs right now.

That implies every tab is using around 73 MB's of RAM. That's ridiculous!

Do you have a certain tab that consumes more? Or an extension that's not friendly to memory (such as AdBlock). Regardless, 8 GB is not normal.

112 tabs isn't normal either, for an "average joe". Apple sells to, and caters towards, "average joe's".

Re: Apple’s expected Mac event on October 27 is official

#92

Post by russell_h »

bootload wrote: post #74
russell_h wrote: post #12

The new Macbook Pro is widely rumored to have a fingerprint sensor. I haven't seen anybody exploring how this will be implemented though: is Apple likely to borrow the secure enclave or other tech they use in the iPhone?

"The new Macbook Pro is widely rumored to have a fingerprint sensor." Wouldn't be happy with this carrying an mbp around with instant LEO access ~ https://duckduckgo.com/?q=fingerprints+iphone+fbi

Sure, but the reason I ask about the implementation is that I'm not particularly interested in the actual fingerprint reader (which I assume I'll be able to disable).

If Apple starts shipping a Secure Enclave or some kind of hardware-backed crypto store it will enable a bunch of interesting use cases that are decoupled from the fingerprint reader itself.

For example it might be possible to build tooling allowing an AWS signing key to be stored in-hardware where it can't be scraped by malware on a developer's laptop. Same for SSH keys. And once you have those primitives you can build whole new protocols on top (eg, https://blog.trailofbits.com/2016/02/09/tidas-a-new-service-...).

Re: Apple’s expected Mac event on October 27 is official

#93

Post by toyg »

Alupis wrote: post #75
awalton wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a VMware developer, hehehe, you're funny. As a user of a modern web browser, yeah, 8GB by default isn't going to cut it anymore. Browsers leak like sieves and routinely I have to kill them once they hit 10+GB. 32GB is not even outlandish. It's a simple upgrade. The memory controllers support it. Apple can charge a fortune for it since it's "memory down" instead of DIMMs. Why wouldn't they do it?

> As a VMware developer, hehehe, you're funny. You seemingly missed my comment about Apple machines not being developer-oriented. A developer isn't Apple's target user. > As a user of a modern web browser, yeah, 8GB by default isn't going to cut it anymore You're clearly exaggerating this by quite a bit. Everyone knows modern browsers consume more RAM than ever before, but 8 GB's is extreme. (Anecdotally, I tend to h…

> Apple machines not being developer-oriented.

Considering they're less and less art-professional-oriented (losing SD ports and HDMI, losing jacks, losing dedicated software...), what would these "Pro" machines actually be oriented to? Consumers buy tablets and phones (the laptop market is shrinking); companies buy plasticware with support contracts. Who else is left?

Apple machines are developer-oriented - in fact, I'd argue developers are now their most consistent target market for MBPs. But it's web and app developers we are talking about, so they have no need for special ports and software; they just want basic stuff (cpu/ram/keyboard/screen/usb/wifi) done extremely well so they can show off a bit. And this suits Apple absolutely fine, since they can sell relatively basic machines as "premium" and get nice margins out of it.

As it happens, several sub-segments of the developer category do, in fact, need more ram for VM and suchlike. The necessary chips have been around for some time now, so they're small enough to fit. And there's history: when the current MBPr debuted, in 2012, no other "pro" machine had 16gb in such a slim body; 16gb configurations were all as bulky as 32gb laptops are today.

The 16gb market has caught up now (see Dell XPS et al), so it makes perfect sense to jump ahead again. After all, they had 4 years to prepare.

> may in fact preclude "upgrade" revenues later

The 16gb option has been there since the very first MBPr in 2012. It didn't preclude anything - in fact, it was almost necessary to drive such a huge screen, animations were terrible otherwise. The 15'' was unusable with 4gb (do they even sell that option anymore? nope), and just ok with 8gb. I remember the long line of reddit posts from people who bought the 4gb only to exchange it for the 8gb shortly after (or endlessly moan they had bought a lemon).

> Because 32 GB is overkill in 2016 for majority of their customers.

That's like, your opinion, man. I'm sure that driving a large OLED strip will need a bit of extra memory, for example. And touting the capabilities of Thunderbolt 3 will require very large external screens in cascaded configurations. That stuff ain't gonna work without some serious kick.

Personally, I think the Pro line should (and likely will) have 8/16/32 options. Anything below that is really just for consumers and students, in this day and age - not for people ready to drop $3k on a laptop.

Re: Apple’s expected Mac event on October 27 is official

#94

Post by charlesism »

Stratoscope wrote: post #45

If an OLED panel replaces the function keys, that ruins it for me. I mostly run Windows on my late-2013 15" MBPR, and I use the function keys all the time . Especially for debugging. F5, F9, F10, F11 are burned into my brain. I used to be a huge ThinkPad fan, but their wilderness years of bad displays and constant keyboard rearrangement turned me off, so I thought I'd try using my MBPR for Windows work instead. Turns…

I'm not thrilled to lose "real" Fn keys. Nobody gets air time these days if they criticize Touch interfaces, but in many ways they are unpleasant to use:

- Lack of tactile feedback makes them imprecise (is my finger over the button?)

- Imperfect sensitivity means even if you touch the correct area, 5% of the time the touch won't register. If it does, there's still the problem of response time (eg: it's easier to quickly type "AAAAA" on a mechanical keyboard).

- "Hover hand": resting your fingers on a touch screen is risky, so the ergonomics aren't great. If you relax with your hand on a touchscreen, you're liable to accidentally trigger a command.

I can live with it, if it's just the Fn keys, but I consider it a slightly unfavorable trade-off.

What really ruined this event for me is the rumor sites. Nothing Apple announces this month could possibly interest me as much as the rumored 2018 E-Ink keyboard. I've wanted such a keyboard since the Lebedev first announced their LED model, back in 2007 (earlier even?). I can't wait!

Re: Apple’s expected Mac event on October 27 is official

#95

Post by tgb »

falcolas wrote: post #70
tgb wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just bought a new keyboard. There is literally none on the market that has the keys I want in the right places. This makes some sense since there are too many possibilities, but damn is it annoying to have to make tradeoffs. Please someone make a customized keyboard business. I ended up giving up on have a small (in width) keyboard with F keys, separate media keys, and pg up/dwn. Now good luck finding a laptop with…

> There is literally none on the market that has the keys I want in the right places. If you're referring to laptop keyboard layouts, I agree. So much wasted space on your average macbook for the scrunched up keys they give you. If you're referring to keyboards in general, well, I disagree. There's a lot of custom options out there for almost every keyboard layout you could ever want.

I was referring to a standalone keyboard. You're right that there are some customizable keyboards out there (this one looks particularly good [1]), but unlike most people looking for a customizable keyboard, I'd like it to be both wireless and without mechanical keyswitches. I haven't seen those available. And for mechanical keyboards you tend not to have dedicated media keys (ideally, they'd feel differently so that you can hit them without looking or in the dark -- I'll never remember which order the volume keys, mute, and pause song buttons are in since it's non-standard).

[1] http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/

Re: Apple’s expected Mac event on October 27 is official

#96

Post by 6nf »

kylec wrote: post #14
rch wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, new macs = different plugs. Awesome.

As long as there's at least one standard USB-A port, I'm OK with this. I can just replace my Thunderbolt cables and dongles.

Sorry, no USB A ports on the new macbooks

Re: Apple’s expected Mac event on October 27 is official

#97

Post by Stratoscope »

toyg wrote: post #69
Stratoscope wrote: post #45

If an OLED panel replaces the function keys, that ruins it for me. I mostly run Windows on my late-2013 15" MBPR, and I use the function keys all the time . Especially for debugging. F5, F9, F10, F11 are burned into my brain. I used to be a huge ThinkPad fan, but their wilderness years of bad displays and constant keyboard rearrangement turned me off, so I thought I'd try using my MBPR for Windows work instead. Turns…

> I mostly run Windows on my late-2013 15" MBPR It's safe to say you're not really Apple's target market :) Personally, I won't believe this OLED thingie until I actually see it with my own eyes, but with the right support in the OS APIs, might turn out to be a shot in the arm for the laptop concept. Imagine replacing the whole keyboard with an ipad-like touchscreen? Sure, abhorrent for a programmer, but quite exciti…

Sorry you got downvoted. FWIW, I upvoted your comment - I pretty much always upvote replies to my comments, whether I agree or not, just to thank people for engaging in a conversation with me. The only exception is when someone is rude or nasty, which you certainly weren't. :-)

That said, I'm not sure I agree. It's not just programmers who benefit from physical keyboards, but everyone who types. And that's a lot of people. I've tried typing on an iPad and an Android tablet, and it's pretty awkward compared with a physical keyboard.

OTOH, a friend has a touchscreen ThinkPad, and while she is a touch typist, she uses the touchscreen all the time. It makes me a little crazy to see her tapping the screen to do things that would be much easier with the TrackPoint or touchpad and buttons, but I just bite my tongue and let her have at it. :-)

Re: Apple’s expected Mac event on October 27 is official

#98

Post by grzm »

toyg wrote: post #69
Stratoscope wrote: post #45

If an OLED panel replaces the function keys, that ruins it for me. I mostly run Windows on my late-2013 15" MBPR, and I use the function keys all the time . Especially for debugging. F5, F9, F10, F11 are burned into my brain. I used to be a huge ThinkPad fan, but their wilderness years of bad displays and constant keyboard rearrangement turned me off, so I thought I'd try using my MBPR for Windows work instead. Turns…

> I mostly run Windows on my late-2013 15" MBPR It's safe to say you're not really Apple's target market :) Personally, I won't believe this OLED thingie until I actually see it with my own eyes, but with the right support in the OS APIs, might turn out to be a shot in the arm for the laptop concept. Imagine replacing the whole keyboard with an ipad-like touchscreen? Sure, abhorrent for a programmer, but quite exciti…

Or maybe replacing/expanding the trackpad, something similar to 10gui?[0] Less downside to replace the function row as a trial balloon than the trackpad. And keep the keyboard!

[0]: http://10gui.com

Re: Apple’s expected Mac event on October 27 is official

#100

Post by dman »

izacus wrote: post #51
ddorian43 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vote with your $. According to $, they're doing pretty great.

So how do I vote with my $ when I need a OSX machine for work with good CPU performance?

https://github.com/AndrewDryga/vagrant-box-osx
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