RIP Apple MacBook
sheep.horse
sheep.horse
I wrote "RIP Apple MacBook" in reaction to the barrage of over-the-top criticism bandied around in the wake of the MacBook Pro announcement. A lot of the complaints seemed ridiculous to me, I wrote this piece as my attempt at Swiftian satire.
For the record:
* replacing function keys with the touch bar is a great idea, a real step forward in usability
* MagSafe is a great loss but possibly made up for with standard charging ports
* No HDMI or SD port, at worst a minor inconvenience
* Thinner and lighter - I travel with a 2013 MacBook Pro everyday, there is no such thing as too light.
I am not in the market for a new laptop but the new MacBook would meet all my needs perfectly. Expensive though.
I thought the whole esc and esc button over and over again didn't make sense to me but I don't use Vi. So I just figured I didn't understand and skipped over that part.
This is the only thing the author really didn't get: the SD slot is for Raspberry PI.
I get that tech changes over time but seems crazy how fast ports keep changing and having to reinvest in buying all new things to work with it or adaptors if whatever you buy doesn't natively support the newer stuff.
Then on top of that Apple solders everything. So no ram or storage upgrades after your purchase. Seems like they are try to turn the Mac into just another iPad.
iPad is cool but more content consuming. I feel like there pro products are starting to lack.
Then ram is limited to 16GB. More than enough for most of the population. But be super useful for devs running multiple VMs testing things. Idk I like macOS a lot, so it breaks my heart a little bit that it seems like the Mac is being turned into just another client.
It sounds a lot like satire to me.
I think the new MBPs are a great step forward. Four ports that can drive an amazing amount of things with ease. This makes these machines much more flexible than anything that came before it.
Touchbar seems like the logical first iteration in the future of keyboards.
I also use my laptop for videogames, and I'd hate to have to pause and look down to find F4/F5 instead of using touch typing (ironically named, nowadays).
There are many people (including me) who don't care much about battery runtime. I mean seriously, a longer battery runtime than a typical work day? How many people work all day without access to a power socket?
If Apple wouldn't have waited so long and made an interim update, there would maybe not be so much gnashing of teeth. If you buy a MBP now, it will probably be good for another 4 years and you can't justify buying a new one with better CPU and RAM specs which might come out in 1 or 2 years.
Great to see that their longevity now counts against them.
He's being sarcastic towards those who make fun of the new Macbooks.
My 2012 MacBook Pro was crashing a lot and running really slow. I upgraded the ram and popped in an SSD and it runs like a brand new machine. Maybe even on par with the brand new MacBooks speeds.
Oh and then the battery is glued in too. I had to replace my battery too as it was expanding. Ordered the part of Amazon, unscrewed it, put the new one in. Easy. New Machines not so much.
Apple acts like they care about the environment, but the newer machines seem less modular and less repairable. So sounds like more stuff for the landfill.
But otherwise, that new touch bar does look pretty cool. I bearly even touch the F keys and have it defaulted to being used for media controls, brightness, etc. I like how the F buttons are still accessible on the touch bar in case you ever need them too. So I'd give them credit for that at least.
"I am throwing out my 3 year old MacBook and will be buying a Inspiron forthwith."
He's implying that all other laptops are a joke, however the Dell XPS 13 and HP Spectre both comparable to the Macbook Pro in features, styling, weight, etc.
All of my linux desktops/servers have system uptime measures in months and few in years.
Sure, you can configure the touchbar, but have you tried working/playing while having to look down at a keyboard?
Not sure why you need function keys to play it though.
I can see some uses for contextual keys, but I can also imagine some pretty annoying inconveniences with this implementation. For example, if I'm in an application that 'takes over' the function keys, is it possible to still access media playback controls? Do I have to switch to whichever app is currently playing audio to access them? Is it possible to disable the contextual keys altogether and have a static, traditional set? Or is there a hotkey to toggle between app-specific and 'global' function keys?
How does one go about getting arbitrary names like this these days?
Replacing the port hasn't solved that problem, though. A very common port that people struggled to configure has been replaced with an uncommon port that people struggle to configure.
That its not faster nor better than the old MBP I already have is why I won't be buying one though.
Oh, I dunno, by pressing Ctrl + [ instead?
I realise there are alternatives - I personally have caps lock mapped to escape, but I'm yet to get into the habit of using it - but that's not really the point. The point is that ESC is in common use, probably enough use to justify a real physical key on the keyboard, unless there is a reason to remove it.
So all in all I actually agree with everything stated in this article, despite the obvious snarky and satirical tone. Pretty sure that apple is going to kill their laptop game with this MBP bullshit move.
The only way this move makes sense is in the scheme of apples 'proprietary lock in' strategy where they try to force the user to stay in the apple eco system with bullshit like this.
And, most importantly: Apple barely makes any money from the sale of peripherals. Their own products have mostly moved to bluetooth anyway.
I can understand people who don't like the switch, although I tend to disagree. But the idea that they have a profit motive in doing so I find absurd.
I've also seen it all play out before:
"I'm a professional, I need a floppy drive!", "Amateurs may be ok without a CD-drive, but I'm a professional", "They're just trying to push their WLAN base stations, it'll never catch on. Professionals like me need a real network".
Well that is going to change now, since everyone and their mom now needs a few extra USB adapters + USB SD card reader + HDMI adapters etc.
> "I'm a professional, I need a floppy drive!", "Amateurs may be ok without a CD-drive, but I'm a professional", "They're just trying to push their WLAN base stations, it'll never catch on. Professionals like me need a real network"
You don't think that having to use an adapter for something as generic as a USB thumb drive will kind of be an obstacle in the day to day business of the casual user?
The the removal of useful fn keys is the future why do we still have CAPS LOCK key?
Apple could have eased the transition, say include a Thunderbolt 2 port so we didn't need to replace all adapters immediately.
But no that's not Apple's way 'cos they know best…
I'd like to try it out first (if they ever actually ship em to the store) before I purchase.
That being said, the $1800 price point is BS. and so is the touchbar-less starting at $1500 for $600 internals. tim cook is being an asshole here. people will still buy it though (me too, but only because I need a new machine)