kernapster

$1499 is affordable? For an i5 with 8gb of ram. Hahahaha. 

Well, my 17" MBP is almost dead. Will I replace it? Hell no. For the money I'd want more than this. At the very least the charger should contain all the ports they removed. Not compelling at all. Unlike Steve Jobs, there's no logic for what they are doing. Steve would have constructed an argument. This just came across as weak. Less for more rather than less is more is the new design philosophy. 

Removing it wouldn't be for any practical reason, but more for formal aesthetic reasons. The Macbook Pro is a pro machine for goodness sake. 

The decision is political, just not in the way he's saying. He wants political to mean 'arbitrary' with a them and us situation. But actually money filtered through these tax havens is through complex subsidiaries is associated with money laundering, tax evasion, organised crime and terrorism. That's the background. I think taxes owed to the US government is the point - Apple keeps its profits off-shore and even tried to lobby for a lower rate before repatriating any of it. Imagine if a Russian or Chinese company did that? Cook has let Apple exceptionalism go to his head. 

£8 per hour. Geez, I think one of the major German supermarkets operating the the UK pays more, probably for less hassle. £8 is standard for anything customer facing and unskilled in London - even for agency work. From a UK customer perspective, we find up-selling embarrassing and humiliating. The only time I ever set foot in Apple Store is for registering or collecting repairs. I find the open plan spaces and loud music in the flagship stores far from ideal. In fact I've found them rather tense. The Covent Garden store has a concierge, but that could be obviated by booking in yourself (via a booth if there was one) or signposting places to queue (prebooked and drop in). Without that, you end up floating around the front of the queue not sure where to do and the stairways became congested as a result. I feel sorry for the staff - I always joke and level with them but they can't say much. The lighting is nauseating. The people show a strong sense of entitlement (I've paid £100s for this, why doesn't it work?), there are endless numbers of them. If anything the staff seem weary. 

I have to say I agree with the people who are skeptical about ever thinner MacBook Pros. When ever I see dongles and adaptors I think 'it's a failure'. The design it meant to follow function, not compromise function at the cost of utility. Shaving pro machines down does not, by itself, make them better. The touch bar sounds like a way of creating custom input keys on an app by app basis which sounds interesting. However, MacBook Pros once offered value for money and a decent upgrade path. If it's thinner it's going to be compromised in terms of ports and internal storage. Ram will be soldered in. Where is the design taking pro users into account? Why can't the MacBooks do the thin and light stuff and the Pro tier have the flexibility and value it once had?