Clarus

This new 13" is a major step up from the previous base model, which was only dual core. However, from what I've read elsewhere, this base model still has a single fan instead of the two fans of the higher versions. The old fan was noisy; would like to know what the single fan sounds like under load, the previous base model single fan was whiny and irritating. The dual fans have a more gentle sound.

chasm said:

What the hell do you old codgers actually do with the FUNCTION BAR part of the function keys?

Oh that's right, nothing. You're also apparently ignorant of the fact that your precious function keys are literally one tap away on a touchbar. So sit down and shut up already! Your incredibly productive function keys haven't gone anywhere! #sosickofignorantwhiners #dosisdeadalready

There isn't much true in what you wrote. And commentary hashtags? Seriously?

I liked the function keys, and I used them in several applications that made good use of them, like Lightroom. The Esc key, I used even more, since it is a shortcut for clicking Cancel. I see where the Touch Bar could be quite useful in surfacing and encouraging discovery of important functions for beginning users.

And I'll tell you what. I went into the Touch Bar with an open mind. I customized it using the controls in macOS. I found that in Keyboard Shortcuts, you can make a list of applications where the Touch Bar should appear as function keys. Then I customized it further with Better Touch Tool, to a point where I liked how it was set up for various programs I use. In theory, it was all figured out.

Then I tried to actually use it.

I found that because I'm a touch typist, I'm never looking at the keyboard. I'm hitting keys while I look at the screen. That means I'm never looking at the Touch Bar. And it's not tactile, so if I try to hit a Touch Bar button by touch, I can't do it. I have to do what I normally don't: Look down at the keyboard. Sometimes, it's worth it to redirect my gaze downwards to use the Touch Bar. But a lot of times, it is not worth it. But the net effect is that my wonderful Touch Bar customizations didn't get used because I'm keeping my eyes on what I'm doing on the screen.

But there is another frustrating side to the Touch Bar.

With function keys, if I press a key without looking thanks to muscle memory, it does what it is supposed to do. But since the Touch Bar constantly changes depending on the context, you cannot rely on muscle memory. You have to look at the Touch Bar to make sure that what you are about to hit is what you thought was going to be there, because it might be something else. Plus, you have to look carefully to hit the right button, because you can no longer orient by touch for the four-key groups of tactile function keys.

It is too easy to brush against the Touch Bar and have something happen that you didn't want to happen because you didn't mean to activate a Touch Bar control. With function keys, if you accidentally brushed the key, it didn't depress because you didn't press hard enough; it resists. Well, with the Touch Bar there is no pushback, so if a finger accidentally brushes against a Touch Bar control it is simply going to execute that. And because the Touch Bar constantly changes appearance, if you hit it without looking, sometimes you're not sure what it is you just accidentally set off with the Touch Bar.

So not all of us are old codgers resistant to change. Some of us like change, and cool new things...but only when they're ergonomic and intuitive. Not a shape-shifting muscle-memory-eluding no-feedback Touch Bar.

I use a MacBook Pro but my favorite Mac keyboard right now is the one on the MacBook Air, which no other Mac has: You get a real tactile function key row plus Touch ID, which I find really useful.

GeorgeBMac said:

Samsung had been making smart phones since the 90's and later the things like the Palm Treo refined the product.  The only thing the iPhone really introduced was the larger screen and replacing the stylus with a finger.

That is factually incorrect. The iPhone introduced several innovations that are not covered by your comment.
The stylus was not merely replaced by “a finger.” The iPhone screen supported multi-touch gestures. That was huge. Nobody else had it. Because, the entire concept of multi-touch was just a tech demo that wowed everybody a year earlier (watch the 2006 TED talk video of it by Jeff Han) and that used an entire table. Everybody who saw that talk assumed multi-touch desktop screens would not be a reality for a few years. Yet 12-13 months later, here is Apple giving you multi-touch...in a handset! A single point stylus cannot match multi-touch.

Some other iPhone innovations were not in the hardware but were purely Apple recognizing that the entire ecosystem needed a major overhaul to really unleash the potential of the device. Before the iPhone, the OS and apps were controlled by the carriers. Nobody thought much about OS updates for their phones, especially major OS upgrades that would radically improve the phone. That came with iPhone, because Apple took the unprecedented step to negotiate ownership and control of the phone OS. The only reason the carriers agreed was they thought the iPhone was going to be some niche that would not affect the industry much, but when the iPhone blew up, the carriers found they did not have control over this hugely successful device, and Apple suddenly had all this leverage that Samsung etc. did not. Similarly, when the iPhone finally allowed apps, Apple took the unprecedented step of wresting apps away from the carriers.

You might nitpick a point or two here and there, but the fact is that with the iPhone you had an overall new combination of innovation found nowhere else: A multitouch display, an OS that would get significant fixes and upgrades, and later a wide selection of third party apps that was not under the control of the any individual mobile carrier.

ravnorodom said:

Greedy executives from Pantone company. Adobe needs to create their own color swatches and ditch these blood sucking leeches. 

That is an impossible solution, Adobe has little influence here. Pantone is a proprietary industry standard used well beyond software. It was used in design, commercial printing, textiles, etc for decades before personal computers ever existed. A more realistic solution is everybody switch to another widely used color system, but none of them are open, all developed by private companies.

elijahg said:

I notice the price is the same as before, so rather than dropping the price due to cheaper CPU and increasing accessibility for people, they're just absorbing the extra profit. Great, that's the Cook Way. ߙ䦬t;/div>

So we pay the same price as the lame Intel MBA, but now we get an 8-core CPU, an 8-core GPU, much longer battery life, much cooler operation meaning maybe less throttling for much faster sustained performance?

What a...disappointment...?

ericthehalfbee said:

I wonder if the addition of the T2 chip affects this. Encryption on the fly could be the reason for the reduced write speeds.

What you're wondering about is actually the opposite of what has happened.

On older Macs without the T2 chip, only one component can encrypt/decrypt: The CPU. If you need the CPU for something else, it can be tied up by encryption. I would encrypt hard drives and it would tell me how many hours it would take to finish. It was always quite a few hours.

On newer Macs with the T2 chip, encryption/decryption can be handed off to the T2 chip. This has resulted in fast background encryption plus zero load on the CPU, which no longer has to be concerned with encryption. With the T2 chip, volume encryption is basically painless now.

So the addition of the T2 chip did affect encryption. It made it much, much faster and easier!

jeffharris said:

Only 10Gbps transfer speed? 

That kind of blows, especially since the new mini has Thunderbolt 5 ports.

If you sit down and think it through, both decisions make complete sense.

10Gbps for the SSD is because the dock is a USB-C hub, and the 10Gbps max data rate of USB 3.2 is what is limiting the speed. So having the slot is like getting a free USB 3.2 SSD enclosure, because that is exactly the max speed of the $30 NVMe SSD enclosures you get through Amazon which I have several of. (10Gbps is fast enough for most uses.) No disappointment there.

Now, you can go and be an armchair quarterback and say “But SSDs can do 6000MB/sec and Thunderbolt 5 would let that happen, therefore this dock is useless.” OK cowboy, again, think this through: To achieve that, the hub would have to be upgraded to support Thunderbolt 5. But the problem is this hub is a replacement for their old Mac mini hub which the article said retails for around $100. And you are not going to find any Thunderbolt 5 peripherals (except a cable) on sale today for anywhere as low as $100. 

If you buy a 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 SSD enclosure today, the going rate is about $120. That alone is already a higher price than what this dock is supposed to cost. Based on the current prices for Thunderboltl 4/5 hubs, a hub like this supporting Thunderbolt 5 through the SSD slot and multiple ports would probably cost no less than $300. Satechi could probably sell a few of those, but Satechi knows they will sell a lot more $100 USB-C docks.

So I like to think of this dock’s SSD slot as a free $30 10Gbps USB SSD enclosure that saves a port. And that is a nice feature.

jeffharris said:

A couple extra USB-C ports would be nice, too. Aren’t we all trying to get rid of USB-A?

We have not seen a full spec sheet yet, only a pre-announcement. I also hope there are more USB-C ports. But by including USB-A, Satechi has again been smart. If you have actually read comments on the new Mini, one of the biggest complaints is no more USB-A ports. Yes, I am trying to get rid of USB-A myself, and all new accessories I buy are USB-C, but I still have several 10-15 year old USB-A devices that are still doing their job and do not need to be thrown out just because. A lot of people are like that. (Yes, of course we could all go out and buy more USB-A to C adapters, they’re cheap. But sometimes it’s nice to just plug it in.)

Two Franklin series? They should just combine "Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin" with "Franklin":

It is about Benjamin Franklin's journey during the American Revolution. Being 70 years old and having no diplomatic training, he struggles to fit in with the Peanuts gang, until Franklin discovers the neighborhood kite competition. He teams up with Charlie Brown to build an innovative new "lightning kite" and an even greater friendship.

bonobob said:

Good.  The ungrammatical “Think Different” has always annoyed the hell out of me. 

It’s supposed to. The fact that it annoys you means it worked…it was effective in getting your attention, which was the entire point of them doing it that way. Bad ad grammar did not start with Apple, it has been a known branding strategy industry-wide for decades.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/advertisers-attract-attention-with-grammatical-errors-1.2764884

The other reply about it being easier to trademark is true too. Many “normal” words and “correct” phrases were already trademarked by somebody long ago. And your lawyers will tell you that your multinational brand must be legally available in all countries you do business in, which makes it even harder.

It was probably much easier to trademark “Flickr” than “Flicker”. Also this is why Amazon is full of nonsense-word brands; a Chinese tech gadget company will never be able to trademark “Apple” in the US but can get away with selling “Reddfruit” USB cables.

gatorguy said:

Apple said Retina Display which was qHD or QVGA.

Part of your unhappiness may be from over-simplifying at least one of those terms.
Because you definitely over-simplified Retina.