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Surface Book – It’s Easy to Switch from Mac to Surface

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Re: Surface Book – It’s Easy to Switch from Mac to Surface

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For all the complaints about Apple dropping magsafe, I'm happy to finally have industry standard charging. Brick is easily replacable. Cable is easily replacable. Should work with any new computer, or even to cell phones and tablets (with a C to Lightning cable if you're an iPhone person). Apple made a similar switch from one proprietary charging connector (magsafe 1) to another proprietary connector (magsafe 2) and…

>> I'm happy to finally have industry standard charging. Real question to people in the know - is this truly the case? I get that the port is industry standard, but are there electrical protections put in place? If I use a 100W non-Apple charger on a MacBook Pro that uses a 63W charger will it damage the battery? Will a USB-C phone charger (with presumably very low wattage) work as well (albeit slower)? While I reall…

Apple's official note says "You should not connect any power supply that exceeds 100W, as it might damage your Mac." [1]

This is the maximum wattage allowed under the USB Power Delivery spec [2], so any USB-C power supply should work. Maximum voltage/current is negotiated between the supply, cable, and computer, which should select the highest amount supported by all parts of the system.

If you're using a cheap 3rd-party charger that doesn't follow the spec and decides it's going to tell the computer "I support 100W, let's do that!" and then jacks up the voltage beyond the USB power delivery limits, then yeah, expect to have problems.

The problem that I actually imagine happening is people getting a 20W rated cable with their cell phone, trying to power their computer through it, and wondering why the battery continues to drain.

[1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207256

[2] http://www.usb.org/developers/powerdelivery/

Re: Surface Book – It’s Easy to Switch from Mac to Surface

#92
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like both the touch bar AND the function keys, but the touch bar will be more versatile than just OLED/e-ink displays on top of keys. You can actually use it as a slider. You get more surface area to display controls. You can offer something more than just a symbol for the controls. I don't know how well it'll work (none of us do, it's not shipped and reviewed yet, not fully at least). But the potential for m…

As an addition to Fxy keys I am fine with it. Replacing Fxy keys like what Lenovo did to their X1 Carbons with their "Adaptive keyboard" ended up angering too many developers (though to be honest it was also Windows/Lenovo SW issue as you had to do some registry hacks to add apps that were supposed to use active keyboard and this ended up super inconsistent). Also, some people say touch bar is a poor man's touchscree…

Well, even adding a touch screen still requires a redesign of applications. Buttons need to be larger, interfaces need to be designed for touch screen. macOS isn't targeted towards that (yet, I feel Apple's anti-PC touchscreen statements are too strong as it's an inevitable development). Consequently, the interface would be, alien. I've used Windows tablets (Windows 7), with a pen input device. It works, but it's awkward. Even if they'd had an iPad-quality capacitive input for fingers, with non-touch screen apps it would still be awkward. That's the same experience I'd anticipate using a touch screen with today's macOS and apps.

They need to layout a roadmap for this development, rather than dropping the hardware in without the software to support it. Chicken and egg problem.

Re: Surface Book – It’s Easy to Switch from Mac to Surface

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is hilarious because they all miss the mark. Winning the Designer/developer crowd is about applications and software.

The Adobe Creative Suite is available on Windows. I don't see that being a major impediment. And developers keep insisting that all we use is Vim and a terminal, which you can do just as well with Linux Services for Windows.

And if you've ever used CC on Windows the usability difference is night and day.

CC aside, the designer community is moving towards independent applications. All of which initially launch on macOS, and in the case of Sketch (a product I use all day every day) they stay on macOS.

Developing on windows is a nightmare too. I remember the days in college when I couldn't afford a mac and wanted to do some rails dev on my windows machine. That was motivation enough to use Ubuntu. That doesn't even cover the fact that XCode only works on macOS.

Re: Surface Book – It’s Easy to Switch from Mac to Surface

#97

The image on the top of the page seems to feature a 2nd gen macbook pro (the one before retina display). Hmm, a bit shady...

You mean the non-retina Macbook Pro that was sold as the base model until last week?

No, he means a macbook from 7 years ago: http://www.laptopmag.com/uploadedimages/review/laptops/2009/...

Here's a retina one for comparison: http://core0.staticworld.net/images/article/2013/10/15in-rmb...

Macbook that Microsoft used in its ad has been discontinued for 3+ years.

Re: Surface Book – It’s Easy to Switch from Mac to Surface

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean the non-retina Macbook Pro that was sold as the base model until last week?

Macbook pros were retina before last week.

The base model 13-inch Macbook Pro was not retina before last week. It was also significantly thicker than the other models, because it had a chassis that was released in 2012. See here: http://www.macrumors.com/2016/10/27/apple-discontinues-non-r...

Re: Surface Book – It’s Easy to Switch from Mac to Surface

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean the non-retina Macbook Pro that was sold as the base model until last week?

No, he means a macbook from 7 years ago: http://www.laptopmag.com/uploadedimages/review/laptops/2009/... Here's a retina one for comparison: http://core0.staticworld.net/images/article/2013/10/15in-rmb... Macbook that Microsoft used in its ad has been discontinued for 3+ years.

No, a non-retina model was sold until last week. It was an older model originally released in 2012. It was different from the retina models it was sold alongside. See here: http://www.macrumors.com/2016/10/27/apple-discontinues-non-r...
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