New MacBook Pro beckons fanbois to become strip pokers Apple confirmed Thursday that its new Macbook Pro line will feature a touchscreen display to replace function keys. The new models, offered in 13-inch (33-cm) and 15-inch (38-cm) flavors, will be the first to sport the Touch Bar, a small Retina display strip that will sit just above the number keys in an area previously …
I've freelanced at two different motion graphics companies over the last year who finally got fed up and dumped all their mac pros for better spec windows pcs (and this despite them all being apple fans in general, they just couldn't deal with the limited spec hardware/lack of upgradeability any more). That's the way it's going to go in more creative companies, especially ones that do video and animation, unless Apple pull their finger out soon...
Don't like the features or price there are tonnes of other non mac intel based products to buy.
I like analogue watches, some sell for hundreds of thousands, some are much cheaper I have a choice. Just like cars, food, booze, clothes, You name it there are cheaper alternatives.
I don't understand the need to winge and moan because 1 company makes expensive stuff when others make cheaper alternatives.
They developed, built and marketed this, they get to choose the price.
You can't expect to buy a new BMW for Dacia money. They both do the same thing after all
People like macOS and some are nigh on trapped with investment in other compatible apple products. Don't like Surface kit? Then get a new up to date Lenovo with Win 10. Can't afford MacBook anymore? With new kit price increases, second hand costs more for less powerful kit and less functionality because you have little other choice.
Obviously don't get yourself hooked in the first place, but it is easier said than done.
...so take your brand new iPhone 7 out of its box, and your brand new MacBook pro out of its box.
Now, using the components given to you by this company, for these items launched but weeks apart, connect them together.
...
I'm waiting
...
Apple kit was always overpriced, but well thought out. Lately it's been lacking that utterly key latter ingredient.
3.5 mil Jack? Still not launched the airpods. Probably because they're shit for battery life and performance.
No standard Usb ports on a pro?
Only one port at all on a MacBook?
I used to think "hmm, might get a Mac, they look nice", bought an i7 (4 core + HT) spec mini topped with 16gb off the shelf ram as they came to replacement and it's looking a lot like I bought at peak. Everything since has been "meh".
Non-upgradable parts (not least for the mini); soldered RAM; halving the core count...
Apple have gone from "ooh, shiny shiny, but expensive" to "nice kit but slightly impractical, and expensive considering I may need upgrade some peripherals" to "that's a design choice that essentially unusable without upgrading evening in my house, on top of the ridiculous price".
And that's before I get on to their cocking operating system, or software.
Fucking. ITunes.
As I write this, I have an iPhone 6, an iPhone 6s, an iPhone 5s, an iPhone 4s and a Nexus 5 plugged into my Mac. Thats my normal Mac desktop.
I normally have an iPhone 5s and a Nexus 5 plugged into my Macbook when I'm out the office.
Some of us use our Macs for development, I know, I know, real work. I'm sorry, I can only apologise. Some of us don't have hip beards, checked shirts, trousers turned up to our knees and live in Hoxton.
Some of have to use Mac's as Xcode doesn't work on Windows or even Linux.
Some of us have to use real phones to test as as the idiots at Cupertino won't allow notifications to work on their simulators. Oh, GPS simulation is also fucking crap on the simulator, so you have to use a real phone. Since you can't use anything but a Mac (or Hack) for Xcode and for debugging, we need a proper reasonably powerful Macbook for real world testing.
So some of us in world actually need a proper USB port (or 2-5) for their real work.
Thats why we won't be running down to the Apple store for a new shiny Macbook with fuck all in the way of USB ports (without a dongle), without an Escape key (yes I know I can remap one), but why should I have to, and for a price hike of around 25%.
I have to say, that I've just about given up on Apple and their hardware. No decent high end expandable Mac, a laptop that costs a fortune and has less expansion ports, an iPhone 7 with no headphone socket forcing me to buy expensive headphones or use a dongle, no separate 5K display.
This 2012 Macbook Pro may well be the last Mac laptop we buy. I can't see a single reason to buy the new Mac laptop. Now I might well buy a older generation laptop (i.e. a week old) and see how long that goes for. I suspect they're going cheap around Shoreditch.
"Apple have gone from "ooh, shiny shiny, but expensive" to "nice kit but slightly impractical, and expensive considering I may need upgrade some peripherals" to "that's a design choice that essentially unusable without upgrading evening in my house, on top of the ridiculous price"."
Since the loss of Steve Jobs, Apple seem to have lost their way and their creativity. They increasingly seem to going for form over function and while their devices are increasingly pretty, they also seem to be becoming increasingly impractical which is a shame.
My guess is usb c isn't ubiquitous enough to force people to buy an adaptor for older machines.
If theres an iPad refresh in the spring maybe they'll ship the c-Lightning cable in the box with an adaptor...
But there does seem to be some incongruity in the adaptors from Apple at the moment.
@Blotto
Wireless is wonderful except when, for example, the OH's iphone starts BSODing due to update taking most of the internal memory, and then fails on update, causing a boot loop and you have to try downloading the update to the mac, then running the update from itunes.
Which incidentally didn't work and in the end I had to plug it into a Linux box, hack the thing, then re-run the update from itunes on the mac.
Or backing the thing up prior to running updates, because Apple beta testing it's software on users never causes issues that will require rebuilding the bloody thing from scratch. I'm not sure how long it would take to back up a 128gb iphone wirelessly, but I'd imagine using USB3 is a bit faster.
And if you haven't backed up your iphone 6 then I'm assuming nothing or there is of any value to you.
...so take your brand new iPhone 7 out of its box, and your brand new MacBook pro out of its box.
Now, using the components given to you by this company, for these items launched but weeks apart, connect them together.
...
I'm waiting
...
----------------------
Bluetooth? 802.11ac? Oh, you want wired connectivity. How 1990's of you (ok 1999, but still, a few years ago!).
Alas another neat feature gets thrown out for no this incessant drive for thinness. MacBook gets thinner but every cable must now go through conversion dongles. I thought present Thunderbolt-to-RJ45 ethernet adapter was silly but if I get the new MBP, ethernet will be double-dongled!
Joy oh joy.
Since I look after a range of Apple gear going back a decade, looks like my IT kit bag will expanding.
Need more time with the Chiropractor!
I'll now have to carry;
Thunderbolt2 to Ethernet Adapter
Thunderbolt2 to Firewire Adapter
Thunderbolt3 to Thunderbolt2 Adapter
Promise Thunderbolt2 to 10Gb Ethernet Adapter (along with the above Thunderbolt 3 to 2 adapter)
Thunderbolt disk caddie for drive diagnostic and recovery.
LaCie 2.5" Firewire Disk (for older Macs)
USB3 Disk for slightly newer macs
Seagate Thunderbolt2 Disk for even near Macs (along with the above Thunderbolt 3 to 2 adapter)
Add to that all the standard cables needed + tools and Ill need a sherpa to carry my gear…
Guarantee that I loose at least one dongle/accessory every few months.
On the bright side, going to a LaCie event today to test out Thunderbolt3 RAIDs.
Shame I couldn't take a new MBPro to test or at least test with the new Thunderbolt3 to Thunderbolt2 adapter with existing Thunderbolt MBPro.
Still cannot find any rag including the Reg that can say which generation of processors are now being used.
Shame on you all as all you can do is marvel at the function key replacement.
Pricing is designed to screw you to max as well. If I want 512gb SSD & the new "function" keys you have to opt for the most expensive model. Clearly Apple has refined its miking of fanbois even further,
Yeeeaaahhhh....I think you will find the Marketing door over there.
The simplest reason for not finding the information you require is that Apple haven't released it. Which is, you know, one of the things they are famous for. Right behind the patent for Smug®
"Shame on you all as all you can do is marvel at the function key replacement."
I hope this was sarcasm?
*typed on an increasingly valuable 2012 macbook pro.
> 2000 euro's
Oh man.
Must be all the free money from the ECB floating around like lipid mass in blood vessels.
I suppose prices for Hipster Coffee in Disposable Polystyrene Cups will go through the roof too now. The price of bog-standard beer is already at various levels of painful.
OK, I'm a huge Apple fan, too much kit and use a MacBook Pro as my work computer. I appreciate the CPU performance increase, however overall I am disappointed. The touchbar is an interesting idea, but does strike me as a "square steering wheel".
What is more interesting is that the analogy is much more worrying when you wiki the vehicle with the "square steering wheel", "The key factor that British Leyland can now be seen to have missed is that a much more useful and popular form of car, the hatchback, was emerging in Europe" -
I guess my message - Apple you have some of the prettiest, most reliable, ergonomic, powerful and EXPENSIVE IT kit out there. But where is the innovation?, where are the regular power boosts?, where is the 64Gb of ram ?, where is the new interface?, where is the excitement? -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Allegro
As Mac user for nigh on 30 years, my current macbook is most likely to be the last. A touch-bar? big fat, so what? A RSI inducing nightmare. The removal of all ports, the drive for thin, thin, which is now at a point that I don't think anyone cares any more.
Are Apple going to have the 'courage' to drop the imacs and mac pros?
Microsoft's hardware is looking more attractive these days though I struggle with Windows, but least Microsoft are doing something, VR etc. whereas Apple are pushing up the price and providing less.
Spot on. I think Apple may well miss sales targets this year with this uninspiring and undifferentiated release.
There is a lot of pent-up demand for new Macs but most developers I know would be looking to have at least 16 GB of RAM. We don't mind paying a premium for Apple kit but only if we get what we need. These machines seem to come with little else than swingeing price increases, and it seems they have not learned the lessons from recent I-Phone launches: people won't splash out on new gear if it doesn't seem significantly better than what they already have.
I wonder if they'll be an equivalent of the 5c for the Mac Books?
As an Apple buyer since 1998, I can also add my voice to the list of people who feel their current hardware from them may well be their last. I liked the 'whole-system-works-well' but it is getting too clever and bloated. I tried a Rasberry pi recently and really like the bare minimum set-up you get - maybe Linux next time....
I know many people who have been fans for years who feel similarly and have moved away or will do soon. It saddens me as there are many aspects of Apple I like, but they [Apple] seem to always be coming up with new ones I don't.
Hint to Apple: 'Sony'
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