I think the Touch Bar is a fantastic idea. I've never liked the idea of "touch-screen" notebooks—I don't want to gum up the screen with fingerprints, plus, a laptop or desktop screen is a mostly vertical surface, which means that to use it, you either have hold your arm up against gravity, or grab the side of the screen and use your thumb to scroll through pages. This would get tiresome after a while. Touch capability on an iPhone or iPad makes sense because they're built specifically for that capability, and they run an OS designed to utilize that. Nothing is tacked on as a fancy little gimmick. The Touch Bar adds functionality without trying to be all things to all people (like Windows is trying to do).
I think/hope that Apple is working toward more tight integration between iOS and MacOS, so that, while being different operating systems running on different hardware, they can work together more seamlessly (e.g. Hand-Off, cut and paste between any devices, whatever future integration they have in mind).
It's funny whenever Apple introduces a new product or feature, the press and naysayers say, "Meh, [insert company here] has had that for years!" But the truth is, Apple has never tried to be first; they've rarely rushed something to market in an attempt to meet or beat the competition *cough* Samsung Galaxy Note 7 *cough*. And when they have *cough* first iteration of Apple Maps *cough*, it's been a fiasco. Apple tends to take their time with a new product or feature to make sure that it actually works, and that it works well. Apple wasn't the first to use a fingerprint/biometric login system, but they created the most intuitive with TouchID. Apple wasn't the first to make a smartphone, but they made it easy to use. Apple wasn't the first to make a tablet, but they made it affordable and easy to use. In all of these instances, while Apple wasn't the first to make them, the rest of the industry is still playing catch-up.
Beside the Touch Bar, where is the Magsafe? Why take it out? Why....?
Very disappointed...
Why? Because Apple's backyard is full of broken cable MagSafe adapters. Because of historical reasons MagSafe is an incomplete product. It should exist on both sides but the right side of the Macbook was occupied by the SuperDrive. Since it happens to use Macbooks under very unusual placements, the cable breaks within time due to the stress on the magnetic end. Apple was aware of that and changed the orientation of the plug. But as we know that straight plug Lightning cables break too, this orientation change is not a definitive solution. Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C resolved this issue permanently and definitively.
So if your USB-C or TB 3 cable breaks, your loss is only a few bucks, but if your MagSafe cable breaks, your loss is $79.00 because you need to replace the whole adapter.
Griffin has an interesting magsafe style usb-c power cable called Breaksafe where the magnetic "break" point is within the cable, proving that magsafe and usb-c can coexist to get the best of both worlds.
Almost completely irrelevant to this particular thread but still relevant for some here who worked at NeXT: Keith Ohlfs has passed away at the age of 52. Heart attack.
One thing you can count on about Apple is consistency. They don't change things for change's sake. It avoid them having to alienate their user base with a new UI or input method
Microsoft's approach, especially with the surface studio is to make a splash, be the headline. But more times than not, those headlines don't translate to units sold, which means the product never resonated with people because the technology was something nice to look at but was never one people saw themselves use on a daily basis.
Time will tell, the surface studio may turn out to be the thing that changes the industry to the point that Apple is the one following instead of leading for once. But I'm willing to bet that won't be the case because apple's model of incremental changes and design towards consistency and usability still proven to work.
Surface Studio is a niche product. Most consumers are not going to be interested in a $3K 27" computer that turns into a drafting table. The hipsters at The Verge got a hard on over this but I'll bet most never own one.
Except, MacBook Pro itself was originally a niche product. Made for professionals, especially creative professionals. So both products should be judged by that standard.
MacBook Pro is more and more just an overpriced average consumer device that just looks nice. There is nothing exceptional about this new MacBook Pro.
Besides, Surface Studio is really more of a competition for Wacom tablets then MacBook Pro since one is a desktop and other is a laptop. They really shouldn't be comparing MacBook Pro to Surface Studio. And Wacom tablets are add-ons for PCs. Wacom is the only one that should be worried.
Comments
The Touch Bar adds functionality without trying to be all things to all people (like Windows is trying to do).
I think/hope that Apple is working toward more tight integration between iOS and MacOS, so that, while being different operating systems running on different hardware, they can work together more seamlessly (e.g. Hand-Off, cut and paste between any devices, whatever future integration they have in mind).
It's funny whenever Apple introduces a new product or feature, the press and naysayers say, "Meh, [insert company here] has had that for years!" But the truth is, Apple has never tried to be first; they've rarely rushed something to market in an attempt to meet or beat the competition *cough* Samsung Galaxy Note 7 *cough*. And when they have *cough* first iteration of Apple Maps *cough*, it's been a fiasco. Apple tends to take their time with a new product or feature to make sure that it actually works, and that it works well. Apple wasn't the first to use a fingerprint/biometric login system, but they created the most intuitive with TouchID. Apple wasn't the first to make a smartphone, but they made it easy to use. Apple wasn't the first to make a tablet, but they made it affordable and easy to use. In all of these instances, while Apple wasn't the first to make them, the rest of the industry is still playing catch-up.
Keith Ohlfs has passed away at the age of 52. Heart attack.
MacBook Pro is more and more just an overpriced average consumer device that just looks nice. There is nothing exceptional about this new MacBook Pro.
Besides, Surface Studio is really more of a competition for Wacom tablets then MacBook Pro since one is a desktop and other is a laptop. They really shouldn't be comparing MacBook Pro to Surface Studio. And Wacom tablets are add-ons for PCs. Wacom is the only one that should be worried.