zoetmb

rob53 said:

MplsP said:

Definitely good news! They don’t say whether the keyboard is more easily replaceable - that was another huge fail in the previous design. Batteries are another item that should be designed for replacement. Gluing them in and/or making them inaccessible makes no sense. It’s good to see the Apple engineers are making improvements in their designs. 

The more I hear about the new MBPs, the more I like them.

Did you watch their video? The batteries are removed using the adhesive pull tabs and if you go slow, they work perfectly. Even the middle batteries are accessible by easily unscrewing a bunch of bolts to remove the trackpad, which is very easy to remove (major improvement). iFixit only gives it a 4 because they feel everything should be removable and replaceable. I don't agree with that. I like memory and storage being part of the SOC, especially when you see benchmarks. Adding all the extra sockets for both is unnecessary and takes up a lot of room. 

Historically, batteries are the biggest thing I've had to replace on laptops followed by HDDs. I haven't had to replace an SSD yet even the original 3G and 6G versions. Increasing storage size is the only reason I can see to need to replace existing storage so I'm getting enough to last, using external storage for things I don't change often. The M1 is so fast using unified memory and storage and I don't think using externally connected RAM and SSD would be as fast. I also think the SOC will have fewer issues usually caused by sockets.

I disagree with you on memory and storage. They should be user replaceable like they used to be.  In my 2008 MBP, I think I upgraded the memory once and the storage three times.   You shouldn’t have to buy a new machine or be forced to use external storage when one runs out of space or need a new machine because upgraded apps have larger memory demands. 

laytech said:

Im sure someone has commented above but no Face ID, surely not. Are we still logging in with finger print? Surely not.

So?  I prefer TouchID and I would prefer it on the iPhone as well.    It's easier to stick a finger over there than to have to stare at the camera and be recognized.   Especially on the phone in the car.    I HAVE to buy a new IPhone because I'm currently using an iPhone6 and a lot of the apps won't work anymore and it's bugging me that they won't restore TouchID until next year, so I'm going to be stuck without it. 

When I watched the beginning of the overall presentation, it got me pissed off.   Maybe I'm just too old (I was around for the original Mac and the Apple ]['s before it), but I thought the music sucked; I'm not interested in Apple's earbuds because they don't fit my ears, I don't want Bluetooth in my head, I'm not buying earbuds that you throw away when the batteries can't be charged anymore and Apple's examples of playlists that you ask Siri for played music I would never want to hear.   And I don't believe one can really do immersive audio in two channels, although that nonsense may be more in Dolby's corner than Apple's.   

Then I got more pissed when I saw the HomePod Mini because I thought, "Apple's innovation is three more colors?    They've completely run out of ideas."

But then they brought out the new MBP's and I was completely blown away by how great they seem.    In spite of some rumors about an M2 processor, I really thought it would be the M1 (and there's nothing wrong with the M1) plus some slight enhancements.   But IMO, they've made major and incredible enhancements across the board and considering how Mac is now a tiny fraction of Apple's revenues, I was quite impressed with the effort.   Personally, while I would have liked to have seen a CFExpress slot instead of an SD slot, SD is still more universal, although it might not be five years down the road.     I would also have been happier to have seen lower prices on storage upgrades, but it is what it is.  (I just bought a 2TB Sandisk external SSD for $300).   

It will be interesting to see how the press reacts to these new machines and whether they recognize what strides Apple has made.  

9secondkox2 said:

darkvader said:

I was hoping that now that they've gotten rid of Ive that Apple would stop making stupid design decisions.  But no, Ive's minions are just as stupid as he is.

Ridiculous. 

IVe is the reason we have such great computing designs today.  

He revolutionized it with the translucent iMac. Then they ran with that for a while. Very fashionable for the time. 

But he is a perfectionist like Jobs. And so he transformed into. Timeless craftsman, creating designs that would look iconic brand new, yet stand the test of time looking great decades down the road. 

The flat design he ushered in with UI was the best most consistent implementation anywhere and was right on time. 

The new team either doesn’t change it much to be safe or makes it ugly. Power bricks that litter the floor, fisher price designs, and styles that are decent now, but don’t look to be lasting. 

Say what you want, but it doesn’t match with reality. 

Ive deserves every bit of good credit he gets. 

Apple is less without him. 

Not IMO.  Ive was obsessed with thinness over all else.  Secondly he was obsessed with having no seams in the case.   He always prioritized visual industrial design over usability.   With the iPhone, his obsession with the outer design elements were especially ridiculous because almost everyone keeps their iPhone in an eternal case anyway, hiding much of that design.    And who wouldn't have traded a slightly thicker iPhone for longer battery life?    On the Mac, Ive's obsessions gave us Macs where you can't change/upgrade the memory, storage or battery, a completely hypocritical design strategy from a company that pretends to be Green.     (I'll cut Ive somewhat of a break if those were someone else's decisions).   

What I do agree with is that the current design team doesn't really seem to have a design concept strategy, so we get more of the same (assuming that the rumors are accurate and that the MBP overall design isn't changing at all, aside from a potentially smaller bezel.   

verne arase said:

geekmee said:

Regardless, we are overlooking the most important part of this report…

Once again, Apple has taken all the oxygen out of the room!!

I think that once the M1x Macs drop there will be a lot of sleepless nights for those manufacturers on the x86 side of the fence.

I was just watching an Intel ad on YouTube where some supposed creative was saying he gamed and created and needed a lot of graphics power which he couldn't get on a Mac <snicker>.

A lot of those ads just won't work any more, and I expect to see pretty amazing graphics performance - without the Wintel copying graphic workload overhead - as well as some impressive battery life.

I disagree regardless of the level of the new Macs performance.  Users lock into hardware brands the way they lock into a political party or religion.  Once they choose to believe something, they stick with it.  And a very large percentage of Wintel users are in offices where users don’t get to choose their own machines and where bulk buys of Dells or whatever are relatively economical. 

Macs are still perceived by many as overpriced and Apple long ago lost its reputation as “it just works”.  

If you think about what most  users do on their computers: email, social media, photo organization and maybe some post processing, and streaming, with a relatively few doing high intensity tasks, the performance granted by the new processors  isn’t needed by most, with the potential exception of better battery life. 

IMO, the new machines might get more people to upgrade their existing Macs sooner, but I don’t think they’re going to attract many converts.

Unfortunately, Mac sales are becoming an ever smaller minority of Apple’s overall business.  

JMO.