Though Off The Topic, Have You Ever Typed " Telex " Key Board ?
That Was Indespensable Pre-Historic Tool for ANYBODY Who Were Engaged in The Business Communicating with People World-Widely Instantaneously on The Wire Before The Real Curtain of http:// & E-Mail Era Opened.
What I Want to Say is I ReaLly Loved and Captivated by The " Touch & Feel " of The Key Board of Telex So Long - Very DEEP, PROFOUND STROKE with Real Hard & Heavy Response and Comfortable Clicking Sound - No Other Key Board of Computers Nowadays Developped in The Direction of " Thinner & Lighter " and Even No Other Typewriters Key Boards Can Match.
Probably Very First Period of Computers Key Boards Such As IBM Terminal that Appeared in The Video Clip of This Live Event and Commodore Ones Might Have Retained The Same Touch, and Even Apple II Maybe.
Of Course Those Key Boards Look Now Fossil Age Products - TOO HEAVY & TOO BULKY !
But I Still Want Any Vendor in The World Have Them Resurrect and Sell !!!!!!
I Have Never Ever Had Such " Orgasm " When I Typed Any Key of Telex Key Board with Any Developped Thin & Silent ( Real Physical Clicking Sound, NOT The Sound Out of Speakers ! ) Key Boards of Late.
The old Apple Extended keyboard had a similar feel because of the mechanical Alps switches. It was considered the best keyboard Apple ever made in terms of feel. A company called Matthias makes a modern version of that keyboard for Mac or PC, and you can find it here: http://matias.ca/tactilepro/ I've never used the modern ones, and they're not exactly cheap, but were supposedly highly regarded. Enjoy!
I use the Matias Tactile Pro keyboard with my iMac everyday and love it! It's awesome. Has great keyboard travel.
When Steve came back and ran Apple from 1999- 2010 we got the iMac, the G3 tower, the G4 tower, G5 Tower, Mac Pro, the "Pixar lamp" iMac, the switch to Intel processors, iTunes and the iTunes store, TV and movie rentals and purchases, Apple TV, a new Mac OS built from the ground up with a Unix kernel, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, the titanium PowerBook G4, the iBook, the MacBook Pro aluminum redesign, the Apple Cinema Display lineup with up to 30" flat panel, the iSight camera, FaceTime, iOS.
With Tim Cook in charge since 2010- 2016 we have thinner iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, the Apple Watch, and the decline and slow death of the Mac.
Really miss you Steve!
Me too. The main difference is that Steve was a visionary, and Tim Cook isn't. He's fantastic at running a business, but he relies on others--namely Jony Ive--to be the visionaries. That's why we are where we are now.
We knew Touch Bar was coming, but it's still cool to see.
This is Apples answer to those who think the actual screen should be a touchscreen (stupid idea, IMO - who wants to reach up to touch your screen and who wants fingerprints).
Now you have a smaller touchscreen in an area that's easy to access and fingerprints won't matter. Yet you still get all the contextual buttons/controls.
They could have just made the entire keyboard a e-ink touch screen. That solves many multi-lingual issues too. BUT...
No games.
The primary problem with removing mechanical keys is that you also remove the touch-typing and ability to play games that rely on WASD controls. The entire reason WASD controls exist is because the 101 key keyboard has the arrow keys on the wrong side of the keyboard. (Remember before WASD, it was typically the arrow keys and the ctrl/alt/shift key of the keyboard before FPS games pretty much made things stupidly complicated)
Of course the solution is to just use a gamepad, preferably a wireless one. However there's not a single MMORPG game that can be constrained to 12 keys, FFXIV just barely gets away with it by design, and they had to redesign the entire game once to get there.
Which comes back to the entire problem of using a Mac, let alone a laptop for gaming. If you are a "hardcore" gamer person, you don't use any of those wireless things because of the latency, and you don't use software-implemented things when there is hardware that does it (eg no wireless headsets, mice, keyboards, or joysticks/gamepads.) The trade off is that you typically have to spend "macbook pro" levels of money on a gaming laptop or desktop that isn't an Apple device.
But I do see what these MacBook Pro's are targeted at (eg Final Cut users) but this is still no replacement for a Mac Pro.
We knew Touch Bar was coming, but it's still cool to see.
This is Apples answer to those who think the actual screen should be a touchscreen (stupid idea, IMO - who wants to reach up to touch your screen and who wants fingerprints).
Now you have a smaller touchscreen in an area that's easy to access and fingerprints won't matter. Yet you still get all the contextual buttons/controls.
I agree, this is a better solution than touchscreen. I hate the touchscreen monitor because it's a pain ergonomically, not to mention my arms feel awkward and tired faster, and it took a second slower to reach out to monitor, while it's a second faster and easier to reach the keyboard.
What I want to see is a hot swap that dynamically changing depends on the interaction on the screen. For example, when I am using Safari, the LED should automatically display all the click-able buttons and links by scrolling horizontally.
Apples vision of the future is one where people carry around laptop that's 15% lighter. And an extra pound or two of adapters and USB C cables... Dumb!
Just curious how a company that prides itself on it's integrated ecosystem has its two brand new 2016 devices, iPhone 7 and MacBook Pro that can't connect to each other without an out of box dongle or cable purchase.
You can't be serious. What solution do you propose other than never moving from USB-A?
Um, do what they did with every other MPB port migration in the past. When they moved to FW800, there was a model of MBP that had both FW800 and FW400. When they moved to Thunderbolt they had a model that had both Thunderbolt and FW800. In both of those cases, the outgoing port would easily have been considered a niche market, and yet Apple included it so that users could have time to transition their devices/peripherals to the new standard while still being able to conveniently use their old devices.
USB Type A is easily the most prolific port standard in computer history, not niche like FW was. Literally every device most of us own and use daily is going to require an adapter. You'll either need to buy many adapters, one for each device, or be constantly swapping them. And always carry one with you in case someone hands you a thumb drive with files you need. You'll need a different cable or adapter depending if you are charging your phone/watch/table/etc from your laptop vs wall charger.
Removing the headphone jack from the iPhone was a fairly bounded and manageable problem. The vast majority of people will only ever use one set of headphones with their iPhone. If you used 3rd party wired headphones, one $10 adapter solves 99% of the problem. A laptop needs to be able to connect to a much larger, ore diverse, and, for some of us, constantly changing set of devices. "Get an adapter" is neither a convenient or elegant solution.
I know you are going to disagree and probably go into a rage about how stupid and stubborn I am, but in my opinion, they should have provided a model with both Type C and Type A and then gone C-only with the next iteration (along with Kaby Lake) just like they have with the port migrations in the past.
Not stubborn and stupid, but shall we say unsympathetic to engineering and production challenges. Each compromise wth past standards in the machine not only represents thousands of hours of engineering time, millions of dollars of resources as the compromises are prototyped back and forth, but most important they introduce fatal distractions and dispiriting rats nests of pointless finessing over obsolescences that should just be cut and done with. You have to think like Jobs did. Just buy an adapter.
I get all that stuff. I really do. But don't you think that you are exaggerating just a little bit saying that having a Type A port in place of one of the Type C ports is THAT big of an engineering challenge? As several have already pointed out, the adapter is around $10, how complicated could that possibly be to put that miniscule amount of technology inside of the case? If that requirement had been a primary specification from the beginning, it would have been a far, far less challenging technical accomplishment than making the MBP a few mm thinner! Apple has some pretty smart people on their payroll. I'm confident they could have figure it out if they had wanted to.
Oh, and those "transition" MBP models I mentioned in my post that supported both the new and old standards were under Jobs' watch. So I'm not so sure he thoughts were always just buy an adapter.
I never assume that engineering these works of art are easier than I imagine, but harder than I can possibly imagine. I get this from long experience with one form of "moving metal around" or another. You will remember that Ive took an uncharacteristic swipe at people who don't do that for a living. It's "really, really hard" to make these things with total integrity, or st least the best you can do at the time.
USB A would be an obscenity on these machines. Wait till you see how they're put together before you second-guess these hardware guys.
When Steve came back and ran Apple from 1999- 2010 we got the iMac, the G3 tower, the G4 tower, G5 Tower, Mac Pro, the "Pixar lamp" iMac, the switch to Intel processors, iTunes and the iTunes store, TV and movie rentals and purchases, Apple TV, a new Mac OS built from the ground up with a Unix kernel, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, the titanium PowerBook G4, the iBook, the MacBook Pro aluminum redesign, the Apple Cinema Display lineup with up to 30" flat panel, the iSight camera, FaceTime, iOS.
With Tim Cook in charge since 2010- 2016 we have thinner iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, the Apple Watch, and the decline and slow death of the Mac.
Really miss you Steve!
Me too. The main difference is that Steve was a visionary, and Tim Cook isn't. He's fantastic at running a business, but he relies on others--namely Jony Ive--to be the visionaries. That's why we are where we are now.
Not picking on you, but you'll do as an example of the wrongheadedness that is so disgracefully on display here.
When these machines are recognized for what they are, and every other PC maker is either copying them — or sticking to the obviously obsolete past like they mostly do — you'll wish you hadn't said what you are saying.
You just missed your chance to welcome a revolution that's happening right before your eyes. An entirely new interface was introduced today. That should be enough for an initiator.
Not worthy of "hello again". That now looks a bit desperate. Still, as I've said before, states of optimization exist and are dictated by human anatomy and physiology. In this device space, we're close. As we approach the optimized state, the "wow" is gone. Tiny tweaks replace huge new changes. This is it and I think it's a lovely execution.
Time for AR advancement. That's the next fertile frontier.
When Steve came back and ran Apple from 1999- 2010 we got the iMac, the G3 tower, the G4 tower, G5 Tower, Mac Pro, the "Pixar lamp" iMac, the switch to Intel processors, iTunes and the iTunes store, TV and movie rentals and purchases, Apple TV, a new Mac OS built from the ground up with a Unix kernel, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, the titanium PowerBook G4, the iBook, the MacBook Pro aluminum redesign, the Apple Cinema Display lineup with up to 30" flat panel, the iSight camera, FaceTime, iOS.
With Tim Cook in charge since 2010- 2016 we have thinner iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, the Apple Watch, and the decline and slow death of the Mac.
Really miss you Steve!
Me too. The main difference is that Steve was a visionary, and Tim Cook isn't. He's fantastic at running a business, but he relies on others--namely Jony Ive--to be the visionaries. That's why we are where we are now.
Not picking on you, but you'll do as an example of the wrongheadedness that is so disgracefully on display here.
When these machines are recognized for what they are, and every other PC maker is either copying them — or sticking to the obviously obsolete past like they mostly do — you'll wish you hadn't said what you are saying.
You just missed your chance to welcome a revolution that's happening right before your eyes. An entirely new interface was introduced today. That should be enough for an initiator.
It's a thinner version of an existing machine with a touch-strip that uses decade-old technology. Stop smoking whatever you are smoking and come back to reality for a second. I am not saying that the Touch Strip isn't innovative, and that it doesn't have the potential to elevate user interactivity, but this is nothing mind-blowing. Hell, the iPad is a giant Touch Strip.
It's also incredibly myopic not to see the Touch Strip's limitations. Most notably, it's not a physical key or set of keys. There's a reason that people prefer to type on a mechanical keyboard than on a screen -- hell, the iPad's keyboard is a PITA to type on. There's no mechanical feedback, and you have to look before pressing. Yes, the taptic engine will permit some physical feedback Touch Strip, but there's a reason that Apple didn't replace the entire keyboard with a touchscreen.
The iPod was revolutionary. The iPad was revolutionary. Both of those devices legitimately changed how people interacted with technology, hardware, and content.
The new MacBook Pro, while a wonderful machine, is a hardware update. And given that it is aimed at professional users, many of its drawbacks are substantial.
So maybe that's why many of us are a bit down on the new the MBP: Apple seems to be continuing its trend of ignoring its actual professional user base, and instead focusing on making a produce to up-sell it's current MacBook Air customers.
Most professionals I know that use Mac don't care if it's .2 inches thinner. Most professionals I know don't particularly care about the new keyboard mechanics.
They do, however, care about ram, storage, ports, GPU power, and battery life. Other than the AMD Mobile 460 GPU (offered as a user-config upgrade), which is a pretty solid GPU, this entire computer does not seem to be aimed primarily at professionals.
Nonetheless, it would be mistaken to call the new MBP a bad product -- it clearly looks well made and well designed. I'm just not sure that it really deserves to be labeled as a "Pro" product.
The pricing is complete crap. TBH, Apple COMPLETELY screwed this up. Why remove *essential* and necessary ports? Why remove MagSafe? These were completely fine, and all of these technologies are still extremely relevant. And what the hell is the pricing on these? Completely unnecessary to jack up the price by $200+. N0 Mac Pro or MBA update? This was a complete joke. I think it's time to say goodbye to Tim.
Thunderbolt 3/USB C is likely to be the last port we ever need or use before everything goes wireless. I’d say it’s more essential to standardize everything down to a single port FOR ONCE.
No Mac Pro or MBA update?
I’m upset there were no new desktops, myself. A new Mac Mini wouldn’t go amiss.
The solution is simple: If you feel the product isn't worth the expense, don't buy it.
TBH, Apple COMPLETELY screwed this up.
This is what I've been waiting for. Better, even.
Why remove *essential* and necessary ports?
Which ports do you consider essential and why does this sound like the same bellyaching when Apple moved to USB (Type-A) and pulled the rest of the PC world along with it?
Why remove MagSafe?
Why keep it? Why would you prefer to use a proprietary PSU can connector when USB-C cables and PSUs with a USB out-port are universal and cheap?
If you really need a magnetic connector because you're weirdly tripping over your power cable and the shallow USB-C still won't pop out properly, even though the original MagSafe was born out of a replacmetnt for a long power cable that went relatively deep into your Mac, then why not get one of the 3rd-party solutions?
Personally, I love that the wonderful USB-C will be the go-to connector for the entire industry for power, data, and video. This means lower costs for power cord replacments and being able to have multiple power cords in various places without the high cost of needing to pay Apple for extra PSUs.
These were completely fine, and all of these technologies are still extremely relevant.
They were fine. So was VGA and parrell port printer cables when Apple moved to USB. Do you still want that back? How about the CD/DVD drives? No, it's less relevant since it's not being replaced with a propriety solution and Macs then had a useable battery life of 2-3 hours and now they can get you through a full work day.
And what the hell is the pricing on these? Completely unnecessary to jack up the price by $200+.
Why is it unnecessary? How can you determine what is necessary or unnecessary for Apple? What you mean to say is "I wish they didn't make it more expensive for me"; and that's fine. You don't have to like that it's more expensive, or that these wonderful features don't appeal to you. You even have the right to complain that they aren't using Kaby Lake processoers that don't yet exist for Apple's needs. It don't mean you sound reasonable, but you have the right to say stupid things.
N0 Mac Pro or MBA update? This was a complete joke.
No desktop Mac updates. A lot of wish they had updated these machins. They didn't. Get over it.
As for the the MacBook Air, it was updated today. It's not the entry-level 13" MacBook Pro without the Touch Bar.
I think there's going to be a run on the older models. While USB-C may be the "One Connector to Rule Them All" (Oh, except for Lightning on the iPhone) in a few years, right now many people have 3.5mm headphones, USB-A peripherals, SD cards, etc. and won't want to carry around a half-dozen adapters - even if they only need one or two of them the vast majority of the time.
If Apple has just declared USB-C to be be the one true connector, then what is the future of Lightning? I'd expect the next iPhone to adopt USB-C. If so, why would anyone want to be saddled with a 7 and its soon to be "legacy" connector?
I can't see how 16GB max RAM is "Pro". Perhaps the comment that fast SSD will make the smaller RAM unnoticeable is true, but I suspect the graphics, video, music, software dev, etc. crowds will be very skeptical. Early adopters are welcome to the new machines, but I think a lot of people who just need to get work done will stick with the old machines for a while.
Just curious how a company that prides itself on it's integrated ecosystem has its two brand new 2016 devices, iPhone 7 and MacBook Pro that can't connect to each other without an out of box dongle or cable purchase.
You can't be serious. What solution do you propose other than never moving from USB-A?
Um, do what they did with every other MPB port migration in the past. When they moved to FW800, there was a model of MBP that had both FW800 and FW400. When they moved to Thunderbolt they had a model that had both Thunderbolt and FW800. In both of those cases, the outgoing port would easily have been considered a niche market, and yet Apple included it so that users could have time to transition their devices/peripherals to the new standard while still being able to conveniently use their old devices.
USB Type A is easily the most prolific port standard in computer history, not niche like FW was. Literally every device most of us own and use daily is going to require an adapter. You'll either need to buy many adapters, one for each device, or be constantly swapping them. And always carry one with you in case someone hands you a thumb drive with files you need. You'll need a different cable or adapter depending if you are charging your phone/watch/table/etc from your laptop vs wall charger.
Removing the headphone jack from the iPhone was a fairly bounded and manageable problem. The vast majority of people will only ever use one set of headphones with their iPhone. If you used 3rd party wired headphones, one $10 adapter solves 99% of the problem. A laptop needs to be able to connect to a much larger, ore diverse, and, for some of us, constantly changing set of devices. "Get an adapter" is neither a convenient or elegant solution.
I know you are going to disagree and probably go into a rage about how stupid and stubborn I am, but in my opinion, they should have provided a model with both Type C and Type A and then gone C-only with the next iteration (along with Kaby Lake) just like they have with the port migrations in the past.
Not stubborn and stupid, but shall we say unsympathetic to engineering and production challenges. Each compromise wth past standards in the machine not only represents thousands of hours of engineering time, millions of dollars of resources as the compromises are prototyped back and forth, but most important they introduce fatal distractions and dispiriting rats nests of pointless finessing over obsolescences that should just be cut and done with. You have to think like Jobs did. Just buy an adapter.
I get all that stuff. I really do. But don't you think that you are exaggerating just a little bit saying that having a Type A port in place of one of the Type C ports is THAT big of an engineering challenge? As several have already pointed out, the adapter is around $10, how complicated could that possibly be to put that miniscule amount of technology inside of the case? If that requirement had been a primary specification from the beginning, it would have been a far, far less challenging technical accomplishment than making the MBP a few mm thinner! Apple has some pretty smart people on their payroll. I'm confident they could have figure it out if they had wanted to.
Oh, and those "transition" MBP models I mentioned in my post that supported both the new and old standards were under Jobs' watch. So I'm not so sure he thoughts were always just buy an adapter.
I never assume that engineering these works of art are easier than I imagine, but harder than I can possibly imagine. I get this from long experience with one form of "moving metal around" or another. You will remember that Ive took an uncharacteristic swipe at people who don't do that for a living. It's "really, really hard" to make these things with total integrity, or st least the best you can do at the time.
USB A would be an obscenity on these machines. Wait till you see how they're put together before you second-guess these hardware guys.
And therein lies the problem! Apple (and you) look at these as works of art. I just want to get work done, including not dealing with adapters for literally every accessory device I own. I've been around technology my entire life and have taken apart every Mac I've ever owned (11 and counting) except my Mac Classic. The ONLY reason there isn't a USB A port is because Apple didn't want to include one. Not because there was any non-trivial (relative to the overall design effort) technology issues.
And I'm not second-guessing the hardware guys. They built a great machine meeting the requirements they were given. I'm second-guessing the requirements guys. I bet if the requirements were to include a USB A port the hardware guys would have built an equally impressive machine. Maybe it would have been 1/20 mm thicker...that would add 0.25 in^3, more space than you'd need for a USB A port.
Yeah, I'm not happy with the removal of the SDXC card slot. My DSLR and camcorder uses SDXC cards. But tell you one thing, the MacBook Pros are supposed to be road warriors. With storage capacities of 256 and 512 GB doesn't cut it for me. One TB storage capacity should be the minimum for the MacBook Pro. Yeah, the 2 TB CTO for the 15 inch seems reasonable to me (but the price is crazy). Within reason, I want every possible port in the MacBook Pro. I just hate carrying dongles for the new MacBook Pro when it isn't needed. I like the new Touch Bar. I have an old late 2008 MacBook Pro that can't run Sierra officially. Looks like I'll be getting a used MacBook Pro from eBay instead. Thanks Tim, I feel like a red-headed step child.
With storage capacities of 256 and 512 GB doesn't cut it for me. One TB storage capacity should be the minimum for the MacBook Pro.
I understand wanting/needing the extra ports (even though I'm glad they've replaced with a wonderful, universal port interface), but I don't understand why the minimum capacity storage should 1TB simply because anything lower doesn't satisfy your needs.
Including myself, I know 4 people that have already bought the new MBP, and every single one got 512GB or 256GB. All my real data is is on a local server and my job doesn't require excessive amounts of data on my system* so I don't need 1TB or more on my portable MBP. I could even get away with 256GB but decided to get 512GB because of potential growth needs, resale in 1–3 years, and for increased read/write performance.
* Actually, there's an argument that my job could be slightly helped by putting the 2.1TiB of a 4TB external drive synced via BitTorrent Sync onto my MBP for some additional simplicity, but they don't offer a large enough SSD to suit that need and I only need access to those large image files infrequency, which makes it a moot point.
The solution is simple: If you feel the product isn't worth the expense, don't buy it.
TBH, Apple COMPLETELY screwed this up.
This is what I've been waiting for. Better, even.
Why remove *essential* and necessary ports?
Which ports do you consider essential and why does this sound like the same bellyaching when Apple moved to USB (Type-A) and pulled the rest of the PC world along with it?
Why remove MagSafe?
Why keep it? Why would you prefer to use a proprietary PSU can connector when USB-C cables and PSUs with a USB out-port are universal and cheap?
If you really need a magnetic connector because you're weirdly tripping over your power cable and the shallow USB-C still won't pop out properly, even though the original MagSafe was born out of a replacmetnt for a long power cable that went relatively deep into your Mac, then why not get one of the 3rd-party solutions?
Personally, I love that the wonderful USB-C will be the go-to connector for the entire industry for power, data, and video. This means lower costs for power cord replacments and being able to have multiple power cords in various places without the high cost of needing to pay Apple for extra PSUs.
These were completely fine, and all of these technologies are still extremely relevant.
They were fine. So was VGA and parrell port printer cables when Apple moved to USB. Do you still want that back? How about the CD/DVD drives? No, it's less relevant since it's not being replaced with a propriety solution and Macs then had a useable battery life of 2-3 hours and now they can get you through a full work day.
And what the hell is the pricing on these? Completely unnecessary to jack up the price by $200+.
Why is it unnecessary? How can you determine what is necessary or unnecessary for Apple? What you mean to say is "I wish they didn't make it more expensive for me"; and that's fine. You don't have to like that it's more expensive, or that these wonderful features don't appeal to you. You even have the right to complain that they aren't using Kaby Lake processoers that don't yet exist for Apple's needs. It don't mean you sound reasonable, but you have the right to say stupid things.
N0 Mac Pro or MBA update? This was a complete joke.
No desktop Mac updates. A lot of wish they had updated these machins. They didn't. Get over it.
As for the the MacBook Air, it was updated today. It's not the entry-level 13" MacBook Pro without the Touch Bar.
I think it's time to say goodbye to Tim.
Did you create a new account, Sog?
Nice retort.
Change brings an outbreak of mass insanity, and we're only 12 hours into the new order. A week from now, most people will have digested the news and will have moved on.
Some won't.
Tomorrow we can get on with complaining about Apple shorting deliveries of the MBP to increase hype...
why does this sound like the same bellyaching when Apple moved to USB (Type-A) and pulled the rest of the PC world along with it?
I always chuckle a little bit when people bring up the original iMac that brought USB to the table as if the situations were equivalent.
First, it was a desktop so having to use adapters is much less of a hassle. Connect it and forget it. It's not going anywhere and I don't need to carry adapters around with me.
Second, exactly what did the USB port replace? 1) SCSI, which very, very few people used. 2) ADB, but Apple included USB keyboard and mouse so ADB was no longer needed. 3) Serial, a valid loss, but other than a printer what was being connected to this port (modem and Ethernet were built in)?
It also lacked a floppy drive, but you could get one to plug into that USB part...see first point above...plug it in and forget about it.
But now we are talking about a portable computer that travels to other locations and needs to be able to interact with a large number of devices from flash drives, to iDevices, GPS sport watches, cameras, printers, network adapters, etc, etc. None of these things will function if I don't have an adapter. As I've stated previously, on portable Macs up until the recent MacBook, Apple has recognized this and provided transitional models to help bridge the gap between the old and new port standards.
I agree with you that USB C/TB3 is the future. It will eventually be the port to rule them all...eventually. But that doesn't get things done today.
With storage capacities of 256 and 512 GB doesn't cut it for me. One TB storage capacity should be the minimum for the MacBook Pro.
I understand wanting/needing the extra ports (even though I'm glad they've replaced with a wonderful, universal port interface), but I don't understand why the minimum capacity storage should 1TB simply because anything lower doesn't satisfy your needs.
Including myself, I know 4 people that have already bought the new MBP, and every single one got 512GB or 256GB. All my real data is is on a local server and my job doesn't require excessive amounts of data on my system* so I don't need 1TB or more on my portable MBP. I could even get away with 256GB but decided to get 512GB because of potential growth needs, resale in 1–3 years, and for increased read/write performance.
* Actually, there's an argument that my job could be slightly helped by putting the 2.1TiB of a 4TB external drive synced via BitTorrent Sync onto my MBP for some additional simplicity, but they don't offer a large enough SSD to suit that need and I only need access to those large image files infrequency, which makes it a moot point.
Hello Soli;
Sometimes when I'm at the family ranch, we have no Internet service for the current MacBook Pro that I have, I would like to have the necessary applications/files with me. Yeah, I have the SSD down to the bare minimum for what I do. I do have an iPad Air 2 that has mobile data service but don't want to pay extra for the tethered service. Yeah, my current late 2008 late MacBook Pro has a 1 TB SSD and it's nearly filled up.
Comments
No games.
The primary problem with removing mechanical keys is that you also remove the touch-typing and ability to play games that rely on WASD controls. The entire reason WASD controls exist is because the 101 key keyboard has the arrow keys on the wrong side of the keyboard. (Remember before WASD, it was typically the arrow keys and the ctrl/alt/shift key of the keyboard before FPS games pretty much made things stupidly complicated)
Of course the solution is to just use a gamepad, preferably a wireless one. However there's not a single MMORPG game that can be constrained to 12 keys, FFXIV just barely gets away with it by design, and they had to redesign the entire game once to get there.
Which comes back to the entire problem of using a Mac, let alone a laptop for gaming. If you are a "hardcore" gamer person, you don't use any of those wireless things because of the latency, and you don't use software-implemented things when there is hardware that does it (eg no wireless headsets, mice, keyboards, or joysticks/gamepads.) The trade off is that you typically have to spend "macbook pro" levels of money on a gaming laptop or desktop that isn't an Apple device.
But I do see what these MacBook Pro's are targeted at (eg Final Cut users) but this is still no replacement for a Mac Pro.
What I want to see is a hot swap that dynamically changing depends on the interaction on the screen. For example, when I am using Safari, the LED should automatically display all the click-able buttons and links by scrolling horizontally.
I never assume that engineering these works of art are easier than I imagine, but harder than I can possibly imagine. I get this from long experience with one form of "moving metal around" or another. You will remember that Ive took an uncharacteristic swipe at people who don't do that for a living. It's "really, really hard" to make these things with total integrity, or st least the best you can do at the time.
USB A would be an obscenity on these machines. Wait till you see how they're put together before you second-guess these hardware guys.
Not picking on you, but you'll do as an example of the wrongheadedness that is so disgracefully on display here.
When these machines are recognized for what they are, and every other PC maker is either copying them — or sticking to the obviously obsolete past like they mostly do — you'll wish you hadn't said what you are saying.
You just missed your chance to welcome a revolution that's happening right before your eyes. An entirely new interface was introduced today. That should be enough for an initiator.
Time for AR advancement. That's the next fertile frontier.
It's a thinner version of an existing machine with a touch-strip that uses decade-old technology. Stop smoking whatever you are smoking and come back to reality for a second. I am not saying that the Touch Strip isn't innovative, and that it doesn't have the potential to elevate user interactivity, but this is nothing mind-blowing. Hell, the iPad is a giant Touch Strip.
It's also incredibly myopic not to see the Touch Strip's limitations. Most notably, it's not a physical key or set of keys. There's a reason that people prefer to type on a mechanical keyboard than on a screen -- hell, the iPad's keyboard is a PITA to type on. There's no mechanical feedback, and you have to look before pressing. Yes, the taptic engine will permit some physical feedback Touch Strip, but there's a reason that Apple didn't replace the entire keyboard with a touchscreen.
The iPod was revolutionary. The iPad was revolutionary. Both of those devices legitimately changed how people interacted with technology, hardware, and content.
The new MacBook Pro, while a wonderful machine, is a hardware update. And given that it is aimed at professional users, many of its drawbacks are substantial.
So maybe that's why many of us are a bit down on the new the MBP: Apple seems to be continuing its trend of ignoring its actual professional user base, and instead focusing on making a produce to up-sell it's current MacBook Air customers.
Most professionals I know that use Mac don't care if it's .2 inches thinner. Most professionals I know don't particularly care about the new keyboard mechanics.
They do, however, care about ram, storage, ports, GPU power, and battery life. Other than the AMD Mobile 460 GPU (offered as a user-config upgrade), which is a pretty solid GPU, this entire computer does not seem to be aimed primarily at professionals.
Nonetheless, it would be mistaken to call the new MBP a bad product -- it clearly looks well made and well designed. I'm just not sure that it really deserves to be labeled as a "Pro" product.
Thunderbolt 3/USB C is likely to be the last port we ever need or use before everything goes wireless. I’d say it’s more essential to standardize everything down to a single port FOR ONCE.
I’m upset there were no new desktops, myself. A new Mac Mini wouldn’t go amiss.
This is what I've been waiting for. Better, even.
Which ports do you consider essential and why does this sound like the same bellyaching when Apple moved to USB (Type-A) and pulled the rest of the PC world along with it?
Why keep it? Why would you prefer to use a proprietary PSU can connector when USB-C cables and PSUs with a USB out-port are universal and cheap?
If you really need a magnetic connector because you're weirdly tripping over your power cable and the shallow USB-C still won't pop out properly, even though the original MagSafe was born out of a replacmetnt for a long power cable that went relatively deep into your Mac, then why not get one of the 3rd-party solutions?
Personally, I love that the wonderful USB-C will be the go-to connector for the entire industry for power, data, and video. This means lower costs for power cord replacments and being able to have multiple power cords in various places without the high cost of needing to pay Apple for extra PSUs.
They were fine. So was VGA and parrell port printer cables when Apple moved to USB. Do you still want that back? How about the CD/DVD drives? No, it's less relevant since it's not being replaced with a propriety solution and Macs then had a useable battery life of 2-3 hours and now they can get you through a full work day.
Why is it unnecessary? How can you determine what is necessary or unnecessary for Apple? What you mean to say is "I wish they didn't make it more expensive for me"; and that's fine. You don't have to like that it's more expensive, or that these wonderful features don't appeal to you. You even have the right to complain that they aren't using Kaby Lake processoers that don't yet exist for Apple's needs. It don't mean you sound reasonable, but you have the right to say stupid things.
No desktop Mac updates. A lot of wish they had updated these machins. They didn't. Get over it.
As for the the MacBook Air, it was updated today. It's not the entry-level 13" MacBook Pro without the Touch Bar.
Did you create a new account, Sog?
If Apple has just declared USB-C to be be the one true connector, then what is the future of Lightning? I'd expect the next iPhone to adopt USB-C. If so, why would anyone want to be saddled with a 7 and its soon to be "legacy" connector?
I can't see how 16GB max RAM is "Pro". Perhaps the comment that fast SSD will make the smaller RAM unnoticeable is true, but I suspect the graphics, video, music, software dev, etc. crowds will be very skeptical. Early adopters are welcome to the new machines, but I think a lot of people who just need to get work done will stick with the old machines for a while.
And I'm not second-guessing the hardware guys. They built a great machine meeting the requirements they were given. I'm second-guessing the requirements guys. I bet if the requirements were to include a USB A port the hardware guys would have built an equally impressive machine. Maybe it would have been 1/20 mm thicker...that would add 0.25 in^3, more space than you'd need for a USB A port.
Is Tim Cook's Apple email address is either [email protected] or [email protected]?
Yeah, because of my disappointment in the new MacBook Pro, I really don't care if my post gets down voted. Just doesn't feel happy now.
Including myself, I know 4 people that have already bought the new MBP, and every single one got 512GB or 256GB. All my real data is is on a local server and my job doesn't require excessive amounts of data on my system* so I don't need 1TB or more on my portable MBP. I could even get away with 256GB but decided to get 512GB because of potential growth needs, resale in 1–3 years, and for increased read/write performance.
* Actually, there's an argument that my job could be slightly helped by putting the 2.1TiB of a 4TB external drive synced via BitTorrent Sync onto my MBP for some additional simplicity, but they don't offer a large enough SSD to suit that need and I only need access to those large image files infrequency, which makes it a moot point.
Change brings an outbreak of mass insanity, and we're only 12 hours into the new order. A week from now, most people will have digested the news and will have moved on.
Some won't.
Tomorrow we can get on with complaining about Apple shorting deliveries of the MBP to increase hype...
Same as it ever was.
First, it was a desktop so having to use adapters is much less of a hassle. Connect it and forget it. It's not going anywhere and I don't need to carry adapters around with me.
Second, exactly what did the USB port replace? 1) SCSI, which very, very few people used. 2) ADB, but Apple included USB keyboard and mouse so ADB was no longer needed. 3) Serial, a valid loss, but other than a printer what was being connected to this port (modem and Ethernet were built in)?
It also lacked a floppy drive, but you could get one to plug into that USB part...see first point above...plug it in and forget about it.
But now we are talking about a portable computer that travels to other locations and needs to be able to interact with a large number of devices from flash drives, to iDevices, GPS sport watches, cameras, printers, network adapters, etc, etc. None of these things will function if I don't have an adapter. As I've stated previously, on portable Macs up until the recent MacBook, Apple has recognized this and provided transitional models to help bridge the gap between the old and new port standards.
I agree with you that USB C/TB3 is the future. It will eventually be the port to rule them all...eventually. But that doesn't get things done today.
Sometimes when I'm at the family ranch, we have no Internet service for the current MacBook Pro that I have, I would like to have the necessary applications/files with me. Yeah, I have the SSD down to the bare minimum for what I do. I do have an iPad Air 2 that has mobile data service but don't want to pay extra for the tethered service. Yeah, my current late 2008 late MacBook Pro has a 1 TB SSD and it's nearly filled up.
Hope this makes sense to you.