docno42

omasou said:

Yes, we have stepped back but not in a good way.

How so?  None of the things you cited cost you one thing in functionality.  You can simply ignore their presence (as you already are!) and they don't impact or impede you in ANY way.

However if any of those are missing for people that do need them it's a HUGE inconvenience to work around their exclusion.  

Your take on the HDMI port, in particular, is utterly laughable.  While I applaud you for being able to avoid having to interact with people and present to others while out and about, I assure you that you are in the vast minority. For anyone in a normal business setting, presenting in conference or meeting rooms and hooking up to external displays is a ROUTINE requirement and finally being able to once again do so without the need for a flipping dongle is a godsend.  

Thank god Apple pulled their head out of their ass and stopped designing crap for some future that is never going to happen and once again started meeting their customers where they live TODAY and will continue to be forced to live for a long time.  I would love to be in the same bubble you are; sadly I can't will everyone else around me to enter the USB-C/Thunderbolt only world.  If I only had that power....

MplsP said:

you lose nothing unless you actually need 4 TB 4 ports (and even then you've got the MagSafe so you're not using a port for charging. So far I've seen exactly one person who says they use all 4 TB ports. If the sight of it is that offensive to you you can take some silver epoxy and fill it in so it disappears.

Absolutely.  A port you don't need doesn't do a damn thing if it's there, but if it's not there and you need it then it's a huge PITA to deal with.  If someone really needs 4 TB ports then, since (according to them) dongle's aren't a big deal, they can just carry a thunderbolt hub with them.  Problem solved.  

You can daisy chain Thunderbolt devices.  Just buy better devices that have multiple ports built in or suck it up and carry *your* dongle (hub) of choice 

As for the whole empty port offending their delicate sensibilities - they should just stick with the consumer laptops and leave the pro models to the pro's. 

mcdave said:

Because post-Jobs/Ive Apple has transitioned from skating to where the puck is going to be to skating to where the puck was a few years ago. If the vocal minority want "faster horses" - new Apple delivers! They'd rather pursue marketshare than product excellence, sacrificing the portability of a portable computer to add a load of old, redundant ports.

lol - you don't think marketshare and product excellence are directly linked?  This has to be one of the dumbest takes I have seen expressed in a while - and there have been some dumb takes.  

Again if you don't need the extra ports - congratulations. Their presence costs you NOTHING.  But for those of us who still rely on them for our regular workflows, they greatly improve our daily customer experience using these products.

Respecting your customers NEEDS and enhancing their experience with their products is absolutely delivering on excellence - and is why these PRO notebooks are indeed a home run.  I can't help it if your an antisocial nit picker who doesn't have to interact with the broader world but can live ensconced in your USB-C and Thunderbolt only world.  I suspect you are in the VAST minority.   Thank god Apple was "brave" enough to actually listen to their customers and once again deliver products that better meet all their customers needs, not just the uber fan-bois in their isolated bubbles  

seanj said:

Sticking old versions of HDMI and SD reader utterly pointless. You’ll be able to get Thunderbolt 4 to HDMI/SD adapters that will offer higher performance than these built in ones, for those that one these.
Myself, like the vast majority of people will never user these ports. 

The extra ports are FAR from pointless.  Unused ports cost you nothing.

However for those of us who need them, carrying a bag full of dongles around is a PITA. And what do you do if you don't have a dongle with you?  You have a useless piece of junk instead of a useful tool.  Apple is an experience company.  Useless tools because you may not happen to have an adapter on you while on the go is the ultimate in a shitty use experience.  

Suck it up and ignore the "pointless" ports.  Adding them back was Apples smartest move with these new machines.  When the rest of the world including our PC brethren go fully USB-C then Apple will be justified in removing them.  Good luck waiting for that to happen any time soon. 

M68000 said:

zimmermann said:

I was shocked to see the new MacBook Pro. It really looks fat. Heavy. 

It is.  For anybody who likes to travel, the 14 inch seems better and the 16 inch looks to be one pound heavier in weight.  I’d do the 14 inch if I was considering one.

I was pleasantly surprised that the 16" easily fit into my work/commuting backpack.  The old 17" absolutely would not have fit.  For me the larger screen is well worth the extra pound.  If you are going to shuttle a laptop from desk to desk then yeah, the 14" would be a no brainer.  I use my laptop as a laptop - on my lap the majority of the time, so the extra screen real estate is amazing.  I've never had such a high resolution display on any laptop and I'm in heaven.  I used this thing all day yesterday without plugging it in once too.  I didn't even realize that until the end of the day.  I still had over 40% battery.  These machines are a home run in just about every way for me.