First Touch Bar MacBook Pro models will become vintage on July 31
Apple will be placing its first models of MacBook Pro equipped with the Touch Bar to its list of vintage products at the end of July.
Apple regularly designates its hardware as "vintage" or "obsolete" over time, with a small list of much-loved products consigned to the vintage collection each year. For July 2022, the additions include the first Touch Bar-equipped products.
The list of products that will be vintage includes the 2016 editions of the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro, along with the 2016 12-inch MacBook, and the 2015 MacBook Air, an internal memo obtained by MacRumors states. The list also includes the 2015 21.5-inch iMac and 2015 Retina 5K 27-inch iMac.
Apple will also be deeming the 9.7-inch iPad Pro as vintage at the same time, the memo continued. All products will be designated as vintage on July 31.
A "vintage" classification is given to products five years after Apple stopped distributing it for sale. Vintage products aren't typically serviced as easily as non-vintage items, but it is possible for parts to become available and for servicing to occur in rare circumstances.
After seven years of unavailability, a product is deemed "Obsolete," and are not eligible for hardware servicing at Apple Stores or via authorized repair centers, with "no exceptions."
The addition of the MacBook Pro models to the list would be fitting for the Touch Bar, as it is a feature that Apple has almost completely distanced itself from in its current roster. Out of all MacBook Pro models available for sale, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is the last to use it.
Read on AppleInsider
Apple regularly designates its hardware as "vintage" or "obsolete" over time, with a small list of much-loved products consigned to the vintage collection each year. For July 2022, the additions include the first Touch Bar-equipped products.
The list of products that will be vintage includes the 2016 editions of the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro, along with the 2016 12-inch MacBook, and the 2015 MacBook Air, an internal memo obtained by MacRumors states. The list also includes the 2015 21.5-inch iMac and 2015 Retina 5K 27-inch iMac.
Apple will also be deeming the 9.7-inch iPad Pro as vintage at the same time, the memo continued. All products will be designated as vintage on July 31.
A "vintage" classification is given to products five years after Apple stopped distributing it for sale. Vintage products aren't typically serviced as easily as non-vintage items, but it is possible for parts to become available and for servicing to occur in rare circumstances.
After seven years of unavailability, a product is deemed "Obsolete," and are not eligible for hardware servicing at Apple Stores or via authorized repair centers, with "no exceptions."
The addition of the MacBook Pro models to the list would be fitting for the Touch Bar, as it is a feature that Apple has almost completely distanced itself from in its current roster. Out of all MacBook Pro models available for sale, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is the last to use it.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Monterey has by default an always on 'start using iCloud' nagware notification to 'Sign in'... Why is that...?
I have a borrowed M1 MacBook Air sitting to my right for compatibility testing, and while that keyboard is really, really nice, it feels slightly mushy in comparison.
The TouchBar was an awesome idea — I still love that I have a dedicated Panic button in MainStage, and the media overview/scrub functionality is really, really useful when you're constantly dealing with audio tracks/samples/bounces etc.
Alas, too few developers embraced it, and even Apple never built an external keyboard with Touch Bar that would have been godsend for studios. By the time they figured out a way to add Touch ID to the external keyboard, the Touch Bar ship had sadly sailed.
I am going to miss it.
Maybe Apple did a piss-poor job of educating users as to why they might find it useful??? You can't just throw things over the wall and expect people to automatically adopt them. Some things work like that (iPod scroll wheel); clearly the TB was not this.
And, it sort of leads one to say, "if the TB's usefulness was not immediately obvious to the broad swath of users then perhaps it wasn't really needed."
At the risk of stating the obvious, Ive's obsession with always-lighter, always-thinner went waaaay too far.
I didn't buy into any of that and continue to use older machines as a result. I have no need for those elements and feel that time has shown me I wasn't wrong.
An added negative point was that it required developer support.
Although I have a 2011 MacBook Pro that can still do a lot, it is very clear that it is not even close to being up to current standards. I can’t just do “light duty tasks”, I need to do what I would call “modest” multimedia work, some Photoshop and some video. But the 2011 era hardware is no longer up to the task, especially the GPU which is very weak compared to the system requirements of the latest software. My 2011 MacBook Pro aches and whines with its fans when asked to do modest photo/video editing tasks (those tasks would kill an Intel Air), but my M1 MacBook Pro barely needs to put forth any effort to do the same thing, and it does it much faster and much quieter. To the point where I would not go back to 2011.
If a 2011 Mac is powerful enough for you, that is a good thing, because if that Mac was to ever die, instead of needing a powerful new Mac, you could get away with a used 2014-2018, save a lot of money, and get a few more years of support.