Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug
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Their iPhones have reached a peak, where it appears people are no longer willing to pay so much for them. They are too damn expensive, with nothing to justify their costs. I am one of the morons who upgraded to the XS, but only because I needed the 512GB storage. If not for the increased storage needs, I wouldn't have upgraded and I know for a fact there is really no difference after using it for several months. I have no plans on updating to the next one, the first time since iPhone 3.
MacBooks are worse now than they were since 2015. I won't upgrade until they get rid of the TouchBar. I would rather go back to Windows than use that stupid TouchBar.
Apple software is terrible. iTunes is still the worst piece of software that I'm forced to use. The bugs they've had are inexcusable.
Apple is the richest company in the world, and instead of paying their engineers top wages, they are wasting it on stock buybacks. Until their revenues decrease year-over-year they won't change their ways.
To put it bluntly, Apple is extremely, extremely arrogant and I hope they will pay their price in the next few years. It feels like all product lines are either too expensive and/or worse quality than even a few years previous. Many people unhappy or unimpressed with their products, but they don't give a damn.
Any numbers saying that they earn just an average salary?
Also, why would the touchbar be an engineering issue? Some people like it. (I don't)
I do understand your concerns and I agree with some of them, I just don't believe it's because they pay their engineers less, or they are not good enough.
Some decisions come from top management. If there is only capacity to fix 10 bugs, well, that's it. I don't even see this large amount of features delivered on a monthly basis, so I assume their plan is really to invest just on their iPhones and hardware, maybe.
There's a ton of engineering and polish that went into that feature — from the way it can securely render the price of a purchase through Apple Pay to the way it communicates and transfers its frame buffer, to the UI components it can smoothly display.
It's just a pity I never actually want to use it.
They will probably fix the audio issue and use the opportunity to charge $500 more for the new improved Macbooks.
If that sentence caught anyone else's eye, know that it caught mine too and I did a quick sanity check. [0] It does seem that Apple is falling a bit short of other top companies, especially for the upper levels.
I know one guy making market and he’s in the video streaming product group.
That reminds me of the post from a few days ago on HN: "#### you: pay me!"
I think there comes a point in many (and I'd hope all, but I don't think it's true) peoples' careers where they realise that, in business, money talks and everything else is sadly just chatter.
Personally I totally happy with my current income and don't have any real interest in making more. I can pay my bills, buy anything that catches my eye, max out my 401k, travel to visit family. I don't turn down raises or bonuses, it is nice to have a little bit extra in case of emergencies. But an extra dollar doesn't mean much compared to the personal satisfaction of working on good projects.
I think this explains why Apple products-- software and hardware-- have fallen in quality: they hire people dumb enough to think working for Apple matters somehow.
For me, the keyboard kills it. It feels cheap. It almost feels like there's no keys at all like the glass surface that is rumored to come. I'm sure that's great for people who are media consumers but producers of media and software often like to have a keyboard. To me it feels like they missed the market and try to sell products at premium price to normal customers.
Also, the lack of HDMI and one USB-A port on each side would hinder my workflow.
Broken keyboard cannot be solved, and they break all the time.
Lets hope the 16” 2019 will fix at least the keyboard...
More and more monitors now support it, and a single cable to both charge your laptop, and extend your laptop to the display is a killer feature.
It may just be the good old fear of something new, but i'm usually not afraid to try something new - despite bad reviews - and i'm normally not picky when it comes to keyboards, but the Macbook one just didn't "click" :)
EDIT I would add that at least with adb its not the only option. Android is a reasonably open and flexible and open experience and there are lots of different ways you can manage your device. The iPhone for better or worse is locked down, the least Apple could do is provide something better than the lousy piece of crap that is iTunes.
You'll need iTunes the same way as you need adb. You don't.
Also, iTunes is not a "lousy piece of crap".
I commend you on your loyalty.
As for the pricing of the phones, nobody is forcing you to upgrade every year. I've done that ever since the original iPhone came out, but when i bought the X, i also decided to only upgrade every 2-3 years to justify the cost.
MacBooks are a sad story though. I'm "stuck" with my 13" retina with the last functional keyboard Apple made. I've tried the keyboard on the newer models (in store), and i'm not a fan.
Event taking into account miniaturization, waterproofing and just “luxury” tax, it’s insane that both products cost the same when their capabilities are so wildly different.
I know there are reasons (like paying licensing and cetification for the cellular stack, and pure greed), I just feel they are wrong reasons.
On my Android, I use a lot of open-source application that, I find, are often really the best app to do X or Y. They are also free, often without annoying advertisement, with the option to pay for a "premium" version (that usually add nothing but its to help the devs).
Because most OSS devs (with the exception of a few big project like VLC) don't have the money to pay for an iPhone and/or to publish their app on the App Store, there is almost no good open-source/free application on iPhone.
So not only do I have to pay a quite hefty price for a phone (which, to be fair, I find very good), but I also need to pay even more if I want to replicate the setup I have currently for free on an Android. Some application, don't even have good equivalent on iPhone.
I really hope one day Apple change their policy regarding OSS and open up iPhone programming like Google did with Android.
As for OSS, apple allowed free developer licenses for non-profits some time ago. https://developer.apple.com/support/membership-fee-waiver/
The cellular stack runs on a subsystem on it's own, and all communication to that system is done through the good old fashioned Hayes Command set (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayes_command_set).
This subsystem is responsible for everything cellular, and it is certified by itself, meaning when you make a new phone model, you put in the same certified chip as you did in the last n models, and it's automatically certified (wrt to the stack anyway).
There are still FCC/CE certifications to be passed for all electronic devices, as well as devices containing radio emitters, but those are cheap in comparison.
Apple has always priced their products on a level of what they think people are willing to pay. It is a luxury product, and they (used to) spend a lot of time making sure it feels like it. From the very moment you enter the store, to you open the box, to the onboarding experience.
Most Chinese manufacturers have more of less copied the experience since then.
>You either consent to being exploited by Google, or you pay a pound of flesh to Apple.
Meaning you're in camp 1, unless you've run lineageos or something similar. Also if you're just on the regular os, a $180 phone from 2016 probably doesn't get security updates at this point.
Total BS.
I switched to iPhone now.
Here in Denmark, where digitization of the society is well underway, you're pretty much lost without official apps. You _can_ use a browser for most things, but since there are apps, almost none of them are optimized or even usable on a phone screen.
Below is just a small portion of the things that would be impractical to live without with a "non supported phone". (impractical, not impossible!)
* Our country wide common sign on solution, NemID (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NemID) also has a smartphone app. The solution is used for authentication with all government and financial institutes, along with a lot others. The keycard remains a viable solution, for now.
* Most mail is delivered through e-boks (https://www.e-boks.com/corporate/en), which includes bank statements, insurance policies, tax records, building permits, sanitation and other. The solution is open for every company to use. It is also possible to reply to a sender through this solution. (requires NemID signon)
* Banking is done through an app. (requires NemID signon)
* Person to Person payments (including the option to split a bill), and to some extent in-shop payment is being handled by MobilePay (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MobilePay). It's kinda like PayPal, but a local solution. (requires NemID signon)
* Communication with schools and kindergartens is done through "SkoleIntra" and "Børnenettet", or "Tabulex" for when school is over. This includes teacher to parent communications, homework assignments, parent to parent communication, vacation registration, calling in sick, and more. It's probably the most hated system in the world :)
* Even receipts from a wide selection of shops are digitized and delivered to an app (https://en.storebox.com/#/), allowing easy access (and tracking of your shopping habits / credit card usage)
* Even emergency services has an app that will allow you to call emergency services, and it will relay your position to the operators so they know exactly where you are.
Anyway, you had Blackberry which was well regarded in the business world. But they are losing to Apple and Android, and now a Blackberry is just another Android smartphone. They still provide physical keyboards though.
On the consumer side, you had Windows Phone that tried to compete with Android. It was actually a nice OS, coming from a companies that did smartphones before Apple, and with one of the best regarded manufacturers at the time (Nokia) on their side. It didn't work.
The other alternatives include the Samsung backed Tizen, and now Sailfish OS.
All that to say that we had some attractive alternatives, backed by major players, and yet, no one wants to leave iOS and Android, even when provided with a compatibility layer.
When did you write this portion of your post? 2013?
Otherwise I agree.
Windows had a distinct identity, a better home screen and an inbuilt dark mode that worked amazingly well with AMOLEDS. They also had great battery life and ran faster on low powered devices vs android of the time.
It died for good reason, but it certainly was a shame. I would love to see Windows take shot at it again, but I doubt they will.
At this point, Samsung or Xiaomi may be the ones best poised to take on the current duopoly.
There was great demand for stock buybacks, Apple resisted for a while.
I'm surprised to hear a need for 512GB storage, I'd be interested to know how that's used. The upgrade to XS is only minor from the X according to the reviews I've seen/seen summarised. A yearly upgrade isn't common, isn't their target.
How should I store my lossless audio files then? I have a 6s and I am continuously having issues with space but I won't give up the jack port and nothing can change that. HiFi audio needs additional 10 years before it becomes viable on wireless (battery times, quality, etc.).
You also most probably wouldn't hear the difference between high bitrate mp3 and flac, unless you are genetically gifted with superior hearing and use expensive headphones on top of that.
But I guess its easier to shell tons of money and complain later rather than work a bit on managing your music collection/expectations.
As commenter above noted, you probably don't need lossless audio on your portable device if you only listen through earbuds, but if you use connect it to some good speakers or high quality headphones, then why shouldn't you be able to?
As for the quality difference in general, I ripped my own CD collection at lossless quality many years ago because given the choice of the same quality or worse quality that I may or may not be able to discern, it's seemed more logical to take the former. The lost data would never have been recoverable later.
I just don't understand Apple's current product direction.
People don't stop buying gas when the price of gas goes up. They just conserve and figure out how to make it fit into their budget.
Also, Apple isn't (and has never) been trying to target the highest end phones at developing markets. They'll target those markets with the iPhone 6 and 6s.
Personally id rather have the dividend myself - that's real cash in my account not some vague if we spend x billion the share price might go up.
>Apple said Tuesday it has returned $275 billion in total capital to shareholders since 2012. ... Apple said it would be increasing dividends 16 percent to 73 cents per share.
Id rather have my share of that $100 Billion that as a special dividend - than some woo woo share buyback.
iPhones age better than other phones. You can also get them to a service and get a batter replacement and they're like brand new after two years of use. You can't really say the same thing about the other phone makers, it depends on luck really. I've had Nexus and Samsung phones die on me after less than 2 years.
This need to update your phone every year or every two years is insane, the peak of consumerism. And iPhones are now good enough that you don't have to do it. I've seen multiple people using the iPhone 6 and not upgrading to 6s, 7, 8, X or XS.
I mean, as a society, shouldn't we be glad that we're no longer buying a new phone every year? Think of how much junk that generates.
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> MacBooks are worse now than they were since 2015. I won't upgrade until they get rid of the TouchBar. I would rather go back to Windows than use that stupid TouchBar.
You're exaggerating. Personally I don't mind it that much. The only problem is the ESC key, otherwise I never touch typed the F keys. And I like having the fingerprint scanner.
You actually haven't mentioned the problem with more recent laptops (post 2017) which is the quality of the keyboard. Mine is still working after a year, fingers crossed, but I heard you can get it replaced for free.
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> Apple software is terrible. iTunes is still the worst piece of software that I'm forced to use. The bugs they've had are inexcusable.
Personally I don't use iTunes. I never understood people that do. You've also just mentioned the worst piece of software that Apple makes and it's kind of unfair because it's not representative of everything Apple makes.
I also have access to laptops using Linux and Windows and for me MacBooks still have the best ecosystem. And their laptops are still the best, even if overpriced.
If that weren't true, then you wouldn't see a majority of developers at software conferences with MacBooks.
Also, I too refuse to use any MacBook with that infernal touch bar.
I'd happily still use my iphone 4 if I could. The problem is the software bloat means that even the latest compatible version is really slow. Not to mention that it means that I no longer get the latest version of apps or security fixes (due to stopped software updates).
I believe a more apt comparison would be my current situation with an iPhone 6 which came out in 2014[2]. It works perfectly fine, albeit with a new battery. I do not plan on upgrading to any iPhone past the 6 unless the headphone jack comes back (my major personal gripe).
Ive must have burnt out.
No difference between what? X and XS? Sure. But in the same way that there is “no difference” between 6/6s, 7/8. It’s a speed bump (which from the X isn’t really relevant unless you use your phone for everything), camera improvement, and display improvement. All things that are noticeable if you have the two phones side by side, but that you will forget about in regular use.
I do agree on everything being too expensive now. All the MacBook lines are about $200 more than they should be, and the same goes for iPad. iPad now has much more amazing hardware compared to the mac lines, but it is hugely limited by its software.
With Apple’s recent leadership changes I think we are going to go into another era of lower cost hardware (while still keeping the newly formed top end, like the xs max.) All while they try to find what will sustain growth in the company post-iPhone.
I know regular consumers probably have no use for it, but as a die hard Vim user, it's kinda annoying.
And turn Caps Lock into Ctrl
Other people like to map caps lock to escape, which makes it even easier. I have even heard of people doing this that have a physical escape key on their keyboards.
I currently use karabiner-elements to get this functionality, it's pretty good.
They may have reached peak growth, but the numbers show that outside China (which in hindsight appears to have larger economic issues), millions of people buy iPhones.
Are all the current iPhone users going to suddenly switch to Android? Very unlikely.
By all accounts the XS is a great phone. If I had anything other than the X, I would have upgraded.
> Apple is the richest company in the world, and instead of paying their engineers top wages, they are wasting it on stock buybacks.
You realize that Apple has so much money they can do both. This is not a binary decision.
A much bigger issue for Apple is that they need more stores. They have a huge advantage over any other phone maker in that people can walk in and get service and support. The stores are so busy now, that it has become a challenge. Hopefully the departure of the head of retail shows that Apple has realized they have not grown the store base fast enough.
Not with the same dollar. We shouldn't forget what giving money back to shareholders means. It means that Apple cannot think of anything to invest that money in that's more promising than what investors can find elsewhere.
You could say it's prudent and honest. Instead of wasting all that money on stuff that never yields a return they're handing it back their owners.
But I still find it surprising that a company like Apple with the enormous leverage of billions of (the wealthiest) users and a brand name second to none doesn't think that it can make great things happen with that money.
I don't think I'm best placed to tell them what that could be. But there are clearly some huge gaps in their strategy.
For instance, they keep pushing AR, because AR is an area where latency matters so much that you need expensive devices for it.
But AR would be so much more valuable in combination with all the information that only Google Maps and Google Street View has. Even more so if you think about the data that's going to be needed for (and generated by) self driving cars.
I imagine it's hugely expensive to gather that information. Apple Maps is second rate. They have nothing like Street View and no self driving car project. I think owning information that makes high end devices far more useful than low end devices is exactly what Apple needs.
There aren't going to be many players in that market exactly because it's so expensive. Only the biggest global tech companies can really do it. That moat will be one of the widest and deepest ever.
Gaming is another area where expensive devices make a difference. Playing games is something almost everybody does on their iPhones. I find it baffling that Apple isn't one of the biggest gaming companies.
Where are Apple's contributions to new user interaction paradigms? The touch bar? Is that it? Apple just isn't thinking big enough. That's why they have so much money left to pay back.
Anyway, you can completely disregard _my_ ideas on what they could do with that money and still be surprised that _they_ can't think of anything.
Apple has traditionally not be an acquirer of large companies. I know many people argue for them to do some big acquisition. I'm not sure that's a good idea.
Apple Maps specifically has improved a lot since release. I can't remember the last time I used Google Maps. Apple is also collecting street view data [2].
Apple has plenty of areas to improve, but it is not from the lack of R&D spending.
[1] http://dashboards.trefis.com/no-login-required/MCeJl2Yc?from...
They can only spend each dollar exactly once. In that sense it is binary. But of course they can decide to do buybacks and invest in stuff. That's what they're doing.
My point is that I don't get why a company like Apple doesn't see great investment opportunities for every last dollar they earn. Especially as they have really huge gaps in their strategy.
They are not on a great trajectory right now. The services business they want to expand on does not look that strong to me in spite of growing reasonably fast right now.
Likewise, all of AR doesn't need the kind of information only a few companies have. Think of assembling something at home, like furniture. Or a car mechanic. Or astronaut. Or soldiers. Different companies may control relevant data sets in different domains, and some may not even be data-intensive like furniture assembly.
Nobody said they couldn't do it. The fact is that they aren't.
I upgraded to XS Max from 7+ and I regret it. LTE issues due to Intel modem are bad enough to launch a class action lawsuit.
All the things you say about Apple might be true, but the alternative is substantially worse. Microsoft dropped the ball way more than Apple ever did with Windows 10. And hardware quality among laptop manufacturers is frustratingly inconsistent, even within the same brand.
My last Lenovo worked great for 5 years despite being a low end machine. My much more expensive new Lenovo has had a keyboard replacement and significant performance issues in one year.
There are upsides and downsides to either of them. The Ubuntu is super snappy low latency desktop, it's a pleasure to type on it (running i3 as window manager); but the sound randomly disappears so much that I'm forced to use bluetooth speakers; and the backlight / network managers controls randomly stop working on upgrades. When I'm tinkering with stuff, I can hunt what's wrong and fix it, but when I'm working, I want stability.
So the MBP is the workhorse. But it struggles a lot with a high res external monitor connected via DisplayPort, and even worse, the UI starts to hiccup when I'm running a heavy load, like executing the test suite in parallel. The Linux scheduler is much better in this regard.
My other use case is writing. A LOT. I really need a good keyboard for it. The older MBPs had great keyboards. The newer ones, not so much. Outside of Apple, the only competent keyboards I've seen are on Thinkpads
There’re other alternatives than Windows. I’ve been using Linux near-exclusively on my personal machines for almost two decades now, and I’m quite happy with it. Then there are the BSDs.
I differ on the cause, however. Steve Jobs was an artist - a product artist. There was a team in place that balanced his vision with an ability to execute. That is not true anymore.
It is one of the more interesting things to think about: how do you produce an iPod versus a Zune? Or what a Mac versus what we have now.
Personally, I don't think the issue is they don't give a damn, I think they don't have a clue as to how to give a damn.
But you don't HAVE to use it, right?
What was super frustrating was that the specs are almost the same after a three year gap. I still have 8GB or RAM and still have a 128GB SDD. The processor and has double the cores, but overall it's not the kind of improvement you'd expect from a three year difference.
Instead it's thinner and only has USB-C inputs. I would have never chosen to buy this machine on the merits alone.
I'm in the same boat with the iPhone by the way. I have an iPhone 6 and really see no reason to upgrade. It works well enough for me and I have no appetite to spend 500 or 1000 dollars on a phone that will do the same things for me.
And yes iTunes is a disgrace. I've switched to Spotify for podcasts and most music and it's far better.
Well that could have been 32GB and 2TB in the 2018 if you wanted?
> Their iPhones have reached a peak, where it appears people are no longer willing to pay so much for them. They are too damn expensive, with nothing to justify their costs.
I went into the apple store the other day with my wife to finally get her off of Android and onto an iPhone XS. We planned to pay cash and walk out with it, doing activation and migration ourselves. I had to get put onto a special iPhone waiting list until a specialist was ready to sell me the phone. I was surprised. There is a decline in the buzz around the phone but the demand is certainly still there.
> To put it bluntly, Apple is extremely, extremely arrogant..
Hmm. That's quite an attack.
The MBP keyboard, I hate it. I saw here on HN about the cable to the display is fixed to the display, so a previous $6 repair part is now many $100's, AND they fail after a year with lots of use. And this is all because of the touchbar--the cable has to go under it and it's thinner than before, so it fails quicker.
I've been waiting to get my CEO on a 32GB MBP for years. He's on Windows with VMware running large Linux VMs. 16GB can't get it done. I haven't upgraded him because of all the problems with the latest line.
No update to the Pro line... this has been flogged to death.
It's heartbreaking to watch Apple drop the ball, because every single time I have to use Windows it is a complete shitshow.
It's not like Macbook Pros are getting more expensive. A 15" Macbook Pro with Touch Bar starts at $2,399. When I bought my first 15" Macbook Pro in 2008, the base model was about $2,500. That's the price range of a Macbook Pro.
When it comes to iPhones, considering the sales trajectory without the broader industry context doesn't reveal much. It's not like Samsung and LG phones are selling as fast as they used to either. BTW, their flagship phones cost about as much as an iPhone these days. Phone sales in general are slowing down. Apple continues to compete very well in that space.
People have been complaining about Apple's arrogance for as long as I can remember. I'm not trying to discount the way you feel, I'm just saying that your feelings are not necessarily representative of Apple's future prospects. Apple threads on HN have attracted similar comments for as long as I've been reading here. I mean, people were complaining about iTunes 10 years ago, and look at Apple sales over that time.
1. It replaces the F keys, which I actually want to use.
2. Unlike real keys, if you even brush the touch bar, it detects a touch and performs whatever action is assigned to the region you accidentally came into contact with.
I know I am definitely in the minority, but my iPhone SE with 32 GB never gets full now that I use Google Photos to backup the images and delete them from the phone whenever it gets full.
Like, off the top of my head, the x1 carbon is still loved by most Linux users (that I have encountered) despite the fact that out of the box, sleep literally does not work on it for Linux systems. You have to install a BIOS update. Yet Lenovo doesn't seem to get nearly the attention that apple does for this and the myriad of other mistakes I have discovered with them.
To be fair though even without S3 sleep it is easy to drop Linux power consumption on the X1C6 to ~2.5-3W with display off and no Linux user worth their salt is afraid of installing a BIOS update which literally adds a 'Linux' mode for sleep after which it's flawless.
The BIOS update even installs without needing Windows now a days - LVFS even.
So, it is even Thinkpad guys who can't write proper bioses these days?
Is there a single laptop out there where you can say the bios is truly flawless?
Board firmware (laptops, desktops, servers) is pretty much always crap.
This is the same point that’s often made about developers. But if it’s not developers and it’s not music producers, what is the large market for Macs that dwarfs everything else? And are they at least getting the products and features they want?
Hipsters?
For real work on the road I use my t410s and ubuntu (although the hinge has now gone, which is a right pain), but most of the time I do real work I'm at home and use my z440 HP workstation (also with ubuntu)
There are legitimate reasons to buy macs, but I'd say most people want them because they look nice and they consider them a status symbol.
I just tried switching from my MBP to a Surface Laptop, and the bullshit that win 10 makes you deal with is just insane O_O
Alas I took the MBA back and got a refund and grabbed my spare Thinkpad T440 out of the cupboard and put windows 10 on it. The OS is a shell to run Chrome, Excel, Word, Putty, iTunes, kicad, LTspice, WSJTX and I use Fastmail for mail. Literally nothing gets in my way. It just works. And everything like photos and videos are in FILES not weird opaque containers and buggy as crap apps. The CPU is about the same speed, I've got more RAM in this, it's got a FHD display which is good enough and the keyboard is amazing compared to anything Apple had to offer. Plus it cost me literally 1/5th of the cost.
Also comparing OSX to windows, you can actually mostly drive windows from the keyboard without resorting to hand warping shortcut combinations reminiscent of Megadrive Streetfighter cheat codes.
I think after switching back I just had stockholm syndrome.
As a long-time Win user, having wrist pain, this is the killer thing for me. Everything about a Mac feels extremely unergonomic to me. Many things are not doable from keyboard at all. AFAIU most of the Mac developers do all stuff with touchpad so they don't care though.
It focuses the menubar, at which point you can navigate the menus by typing/arrow key, Spacebar to focus, and Enter to select.
It helps me avoid a lot of mouse usage.
...come to think of it, I should probably give that a binding on my ErgoDox somewhere.
Only complaint is you have to actually enable Full Keyboard Access from system preferences before you can use the keyboard to do things like select buttons in dialog boxes.
https://gist.github.com/jakub-g/e893ffa9e91d08c6098966080978...
I've been using Windows 10 more and more over the last 2 years. Its fine. For the first time in a long time I don't feel like Windows is slowing me down, especially now it has sub-system for linux. Its still annoying that processes can lock access to files... but thats small potatoes.
I’ve actually been thinking about writing a keyboard assistant using the accessibility API. In theory it should be easy to drive anything that’s built using UIKit.
Afaik, Windows is perfectly fine for casual users.
Apart from updates needing restarts and windows being inconvenient for programming, I don't see any clear disadvantages of using windows.
[1] I left about a decade ago when I saw where things were headed with iOS-ification of the platform in general. I'm a developer so I feel/felt your pain as a member of one of the groups Apple used to care about. I moved to Linux which I know is no help to you... power user/pro audio features and software on Linux are still lacking.
[0] - https://supercollider.github.io/
[1] - https://puredata.info/
The hardware budget from my employer also helps.
For you perhaps. I've used desktop/laptop linux for nearly 20 years and it works just fine, millions of others do too.
Developer tooling is really damn nice and using the command line is a joy. With proton on steam I can play a lot of the games I like.
But no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't get sound to work properly. I'm using a FiiO E10K and a pair of Sennheiser HD650 and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't get it to sound right. I tried editing whatever configuration file I could find and I still couldn't get it to sound not choppy. Eventually I gave up and went back on windows. Maybe when I'll change my amp I'll give it another try.
I'm glad it's working for you though.
And here's your MP3 player, iTunes...
The Mac user experience is great in part because Apple is willing to compromise on backwards compatibility. This allows them to innovate in the user interface (which Microsoft also does) while at the same time keeping it relatively consistent, which is what Microsoft is prevented from doing.
Also, since Apple relies on selling directly to consumers, they really have to prioritise the user experience.
https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home-page/2019/2/7/pro-tool...
Yes. A specialist system integrator can sell you a Windows machine with reliable low-latency audio performance and modern components. A lot of people can make do with a 2013 Mac Pro and don't want to deal with the inconvenience of switching; plenty of others have switched because they simply can't tolerate working on a machine with an Ivy Bridge processor and a maximum of 64GB of RAM.
I have worked in environments where vendors actually give a proper legally binding guarantee that Windows boxes work as expected and they charge accordingly.
When you sell packaged software you'd better make sure it runs with the next version of the OS. All registered Apple software developers have access to beta software, including OSs, for a very long time before launch, precisely to prevent things like this.
The trouble with the beta was it wasn't exactly the same as what shipped which caused delays of several months in most instances.
Edit: I could only find articles from 3rd party sources - NI did not release the statement on their website, but through their newsletter. For example it is mentioned here: https://www.native-instruments.com/forum/threads/critical-co...
Also, I said "from memory [...] last year" but it was 2015! Wow, time flies! :-O
That's hardly the same thing as a bunch of developers installing an aftermarket OS on a midrange laptop. And even then, "you have to install a BIOS update" is just shorthand for Lenovo fixed the problem, right?
I mean, a topped out x1 carbon is pretty much the non-macbook business laptop, so this is a bit unfair.
I know we aren't talking about servers but not-self-serviceable hardware with strict limits is what I usually associate with mid-range, not professional users, not even prosumers.
That laptop costs around 2000€ though. The price itself is enterprise-level indeed.
I love that several distributions of Linux are basically turnkey solutions for most systems (I run Ubuntu on both of my Thinkpads!), but it's not quite fair to compare Lenovo hardware running a 3rd party OS with Apple's vaunted "it just works" hardware/software combination.
That's not a connection that should be made in a QA engineer's mind, it's a connection that should be made in an architect or team lead's mind, or better yet, one that should already exist as part of the internal documentation. You don't throw tarballs over the wall at the QA team yelling "you dudes, tell me if this breaks!". You know what's being developed and how, and you design your tests to validate that. Otherwise there are infinitely many tests to run.
As for the connection: the article is low on technical details, and https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/anvufc/psa_2018_macs... suggests there might be several bugs at work here. That being said, if there were a list of top 5 things that could get screwed by date and time change, synchronous playback would definitely make it on that list.
If anything, the output from one of the bug reports ( https://openradar.appspot.com/46918065 ) hints that one of the thing that happens as part of the update is pausing the audio engine. The person who introduced the bug may not have figured it out at the time (which is okay, we all make mistakes), but the whole thing should have gone through code review, at least one round of documentation, and a testing process that's built to spot new problems along with the old ones, based on knowledge about what's new in the code. With the right process in place, there's no way that hits the market without serious testing, not at a pro-oriented company anyway.
Edit: tl;dr: IMHO, that's definitely a testing scenario that should have existed. By spending and commitment, the pro audio industry is probably 1/3rd of the Macbook Pro market, synchronous playback issues routinely creep up in software whenever time and clocking are brought into discussion, and (for at least one of the bugs) the source is not some strange interaction but a deliberate action in the code.
Citation needed - I seriously doubt that the the professional audio market is large enough.
Pro audio users have been loyal Apple customers through thick and thin, but a lot of us have lost faith in Apple's ability or willingness to serve creative professionals. The poor price-to-performance ratio of the trash can Mac Pro was a major source of frustration, especially given the loss of functionality compared to the "cheese grater" Mac Pro; it's really not fit for purpose without spending an extra $1500 on a Sonnet xMac rack kit. The complete lack of hardware updates since 2013 added insult to injury, leading a lot of people to defect to Windows out of sheer desperation. This bug isn't just a nuisance, it strikes at the heart of why musicians continue to pay a serious premium for hardware that often isn't particularly well suited to their needs.
I think Apple are seriously underestimating the risk to their brand of losing creative professionals. The ubiquity of Macs in recording studios and edit suites and on DJ stages said something powerful about the kind of company Apple is and the kind of people who use Macs. It justified the status of Macs as the premium choice for serious creatives. It created an aspirational halo, even if you only really use your computer for web browsing, Google Docs and editing a few photos. Apple are haemorrhaging their most loyal and influential customers, because they don't seem to care about the Mac platform.
That doesn't really matter right now, because they're still selling huge volumes of iPhones at healthy margins, but it could come back to haunt them in a few short years. Chinese smartphone manufacturers are stealing Apple's lunch in emerging markets and making a serious dent in the west; iPhone revenues are declining and it's entirely plausible that the decline could mark the start of a long-term trend. Apple have in effect become a luxury brand that happens to make phones, which has created the existential threat of simply falling out of fashion.
Those ultra-slim butterfly keyboards didn't invent themselves. Likewise the Touch Bar. Not developing it and sticking with Fn keys would have been a heck of a lot cheaper and easier. All the things 'everyone' complains about took a huge amount of attention and investment to deliver. Even the jet engine Mac Pro took a lot of work to screw up so badly. They just seem to have got it wrong.
Apple is constantly under pressure to innovate, from themselves as much as externally, so they just feel they can't sit still even when where they are is actually the best place to be.
On the other hand I got a 5K iMAC when it came out and ... oh... m... g... is that thing gorgeous to use. But a lot of the very pretty, very well engineered, innovative bits and bobs they've come out with recently have just been wrong.
It's also important to understand the context. We spend thousands of dollars on near-field monitors, cables, interfaces, and other kinds of external hardware. If it's a fully rigged up studio, we're talking millions. The "Apple tax" is not really an issue for us, because it's one of the least expensive purchases in our tool chain. I own plugins that are more expensive than the laptop I use to run them.
Edit: You could argue that the people who are really getting burned here are the "prosumer" bedroom producers. That has to be put in quotes, because some of these "bedroom" folks are basically pro-level producers. I'm sure there are lots of people running USB 2.0 interfaces for an in-the-box rig with Ableton or whatever. They are paying the Apple tax, and they deserve way better.
For anyone curious about this statement, allow me to introduce you to Vienna Symphonic Library. It's the industry standard virtual orchestra, it's used by the vast majority of professional composers and a license for the complete library costs $14,332. We're not talking about a desperately price-sensitive market.
Most linux users expect some problems when deciding to go the linux route. When you decide to use linux as your daily driver, you expect to sometimes get your hands dirty. Also, companies like system76 offer laptops created for running linux so you are bound to have a much much better experience out of the box.
Developing audio-plugins (AU) make you use a lot of DAWs (digital-audio-workstations). There's some issue with Logic Pro X that has been logged for quite a while now.
A few days ago I heard the reason it isn't addressed for more than a year now... The developer in-charge on that feature isn't allowed to access other parts of code needed for fixing the issue.
Apple quality-control in the past years has been totally wracked. What concerns me isn't this issue, but the future of it: - it might won't be fixed at all! (arghghgh) - it might be fixed after very long time (and who know maybe they'll break or regress something else).
- They bought Camel Audio and got Alchemy. - They've added more nice instruments to their arsenal. - They did a UI redesign. - They've add ARA2.
Compare those updates to other mature products (Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Cubase) it's not bad.
I feel that recent Apple laptops are no longer premium machines regardless of the premium price tag.
1) not testing stuff thoroughly - the i9 mbpro overheating saga ("fixed" by firmware upgrade), this T2 usb2 dropout (which probably isn't fixable at all) - unacceptable.
2) releasing significant GPU upgrade 2 months after a flagship mbpro release - I and many others were screwed by buying the latest and greatest (the most expensive laptop I've ever bought) only to be obsoleted 2 months later by 90% faster GPU that doesn't overheat, with no chance for customer exchange at that point.
Inexcusable, I pay the Apple premium to avoid crap like this, now I'm wondering what I am paying 2x for?
https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/30/18042572/apple-amd-vega-...
So now, you've got a hub to get two USB-C ports, then you've got a USB-C -> 3.5 dongle on one of them (some USB-C hubs have built-in 3.5 ports, but these don't generally support audio passthrough, and the DACs inside the hub are shit compared to Apple's official ones). If you've ever owned a big USB-C hub like this, you'll know that they get Hot. Like, "that's uncomfortable to touch" Hot.
All they had to do is put two USB-C ports on it. That's fine; I get that headphone jacks are thick and "last gen". But they couldn't even do that.
Nevermind the fact that Apple's official $9 audio dongle also only has a barely acceptable DAC in it.
My butterfly keyboard repeats keys. This easily halves my typing speed. (Or rather "Itt easily halves my ttyping speed")
Yesterday my machine got stuck booting with a black screen after running out of battery with the backlight turned off.
Also, the keyboards have gone from making virtually no sound to making loud clicking sounds.
I have also had a glitch where the sound gets distorted.
Obviously it would be better if the keyboards didn't break so easily to begin with, but at least you may not have to put up with it :)
I have to say Apple's support experience is stellar. I can't imagine having that with a Dell or Lenovo.
I've owned a 2013, 2016, 2017, and 2018 MBP (most of them through work).
I'm typing this message on a 2018 MBP, which wasp urchased 3 months ago, and I've decided that I'm not . going to go back and fix all of the sticky spaces that it errantly injects. I could take it in, but then I'd h ave to give up the device for a few days, and its my work machine.
The 2017 had a similar . issue where keys would more visibly just get stuck down. Sent it . in twice; four months later the issue cropped up again. My company decided to just upgrade to the 2018.
The 2016 had a host of issues. Ironically the keyboard was fine, but the battery pretty quickly started failing (there's a recall program for them now, which started a year after mine started showing symptoms and I was t old by a rep that "there's nothing we can do here, we can send it to Cupertino but you'll be without it for about 2 weeks"). The single fan in the machine eventually stopped working.
I know that expecting better service than that is asking a lot, because no one else does much better (except maybe Microsoft, if you have a MS Store nearby their on-site support is far better than Apple's as they're authorized to do device replacements surprisingly often). But that's not what I expect; what I expect is for these things to stop failing so often such that support is necessary. Its not that hard; they had a perfect formula with the 2013-era devices. But they won't admit . that they made a strategic mistake with these new body designs and revert back to something that actually works.
This is my current situation. I am eligible for a free keyboard repair (2017 MBP), and I need one owing to sticky keys, but last I checked the estimated repair time was over a week. I would be hard pressed to go one day without this device. I cannot suspend my livelihood for 7+ days.
The more this problem festers the more I am tempted to buy a solid laptop and dip my toe back into development on Windows, or try my hand at Linux. That transition would be at least as disruptive as the keyboard repair, but it would enable me to untether myself from this decreasingly reliable maker of tools.
Incidentally I got to live with the new butterfly keyboard for a week or so. I've been hearing horror stories about it for years at that point, but turns out it was okay. Not gonna win any awards, but after a few hours I got used to it like any other keyboard, had no problem touch typing, and didn't notice any increased rate of errors. The arrow keys did take some getting used to, though, and the lack of physical Esc and function keys was a nuisance in a small number of scenarios.
I was on a film shoot recently and actually felt so self-conscious that the noise of my butterfly keyboard would show up on the recording that I just stopped working all together that day.
Been on loads of shoots with my pre-butterfly macbook and never worried about that.
Seriously, it’s maddening. It has halved my typing speed.
https://www.apple.com/support/keyboard-service-program-for-m...
That plus this audio bug makes me REALLY hope they let me keep this one as a back up.
Form over Function. I'd bet that most OSX devs probaby use an iMac now.
As someone who works with a lot of pro audio gear on the Mac, I can say that it's hard to describe what a show stopper this is. Glitches and dropouts are a catastrophic problem for almost anything involving sound, and they're right: If you're having those kinds of problems, you run immediately to the interface manufacturer.
Still, I'm not sure many people using pro-grade audio interfaces (mine cost almost as much as the computer itself) are still using the USB 2.0 bus. Thunderbolt has been pretty enthusiastically embraced by the industry.
Audio AD/DA hasn't changed a lot in the past 10-15 years. A good USB 2 interface is still perfectly valid as long as the manufacturer provides drivers. For example the legendary RME Babyface Pro.
https://www.dpreview.com/news/2610969677/some-macbook-pro-ow...
(RIP my 2018 Macbook Pro speakers, they sounded great when they worked)
As a workaround, I have to go to the audio app and explicitly pause, which I frequently forget to do if the audio is muted. My desk mates have heard way more samples of my library than they'd like, I'm sure.
Also begs the question of the reverse. If I muted my headphones and then slightly raised the volume, did I intend for my speakers to start very softly when I do go back to them?
if (unplugged) {
mute = false;
}
I have worried a lot about the keyboard breaking but so far it has been fine. I actually really like working on it now with the exception of the TouchBar which is the most useless change to keyboard design in years.
I really enjoy this laptop. I bought it after two years of pain buying, replacing and ultimately returning sub-par Windows laptops from Dell, Lenovo and Microsoft.
Apple gets a lot of hate in the tech press (and regular press sometimes) whereas people seem to accept far worse issues from only-slightly-cheaper Dell, Microsoft, etc. laptops.
The Dell XPS 15 9570 has far worse audio issues (DPC latency, crackling/popping speakers), coil whine on the majority of units shipped, keyboard issues (ironically I had more keyboard issues with my XPS 15) and much worse thermal throttling compared to the MBP 2018. Sleep issues (honestly just support S3 ffs)
I had a Surface Book 2 with a whole host of issues as well. From thermal throttling, constant BSOD/crashing when de/reattaching the performance base, pen input skipping and a whole host of silly-but-annoying software issues and of course sleep issues because not even Microsoft's own hardware works properly with their new S0i3 Connected Standby crap.
The MBP isn't perfect. The constant anxiety that something will kill the keyboard sucks but on the whole it is without a doubt the best modern laptop I have used in that it has the least issues. It sleeps when I close the lid, it also comes back on instantly, it never needs to be rebooted to get things working again, screen is stunning, runs cool and quiet when not being pushed with no random spinning up of the fans for a few minutes, etc.
I mean, to an extent you expect that from Microsoft (certainly their whole Surface line has been pretty buggy). People are more annoyed at similar issues with Macs because historically they haven't had them (or at least have had them less than other vendors).
To be honest, I suspect the 2018 MBPs _still_ have fewer weird issues than most of the competition (imagine how Apple users would react if it routinely shipped with coil whine, or the sort of screen quality issues that are common on the Surface line...) but it definitely feels like Apple have slipped a bit, and given that their whole thing was always "it just works", that's not great.
Every Apple device and software product ever has had a number of issues, many significant. As you mentioned, however, the competitors hardly do better -- the litany of absolutely devastating faults with Dell devices I've experienced (paramount being that they never lasted more than a small fraction of the promised battery life) makes Apple look untouchable.
Apple should do better. For one MBPs should have something better than a cheesy 1 year warranty, especially given the fears about keyboards et al -- it essentially forces an AppleCare+ purchase. But the claims that this is a deadly direction seem dubious.
I constantly hear the phrase "This wouldn't have happened under Jobs" and it pisses me off. Apple had loads of problems with hardware under Jobs.
You're right Apple should do better. I always factor AppleCare into the machine cost the same way I used to with Lenovo's 3 year on-site warranty upgrade after they changed it to depot by default and Dell's Plus warranty option, etc.
IMHO Apple isn't any better or worst than they have ever been but they are getting cheaper with things like removing the AC extension cable, not including a USB-C to USB-A dongle like Dell, etc. do
Considering how much of a lottery it is buying a Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft laptop is though there isn't much you can do. Apple is usually 20-30% more expensive but I have easily wasted 200+% in time waiting around for Dell engineers or shipping a unit back to Microsoft (as they don't even offer on-site in Europe!).
I can think about two main use cases for system time: Measuring time elapsed, most notably for timeouts, and scheduling something in the future (which can be done with a timestamp instead of time elapsed). Maybe I'm already missing some important ones here.
In the time elapsed use case a time shift into the future might delay something for these few seconds, which shouldn't result in more than a lag. A shift into the past might trigger a timeout, but a timeout that triggers on a few seconds should be a handled error.
In the schedule use case a time shift into the future shouldn't make any difference. You can't assume it's run at exact times anyway and always use "should happen after", i.e. greater than timestamp. A time shift into the past might only delay it a bit, still no reason for a bug.
What am I missing?
I'll confess that testing that my software works while a user (or daemon) changes the system clock is something that I don't think has ever occurred to me, and now I'm wondering what other edge cases also haven't occurred to me.
What is a realistic code example that might have problems with system clock updates?
But as long as you only need to track time for dealing with time intervals in an abstract fashion, you can get away with a nice continuous and monotonous scalar representation of timestamps.
There is plenty of code that has problems with time shifts, simply look at how often software crashes or misbehaves when there are leapseconds. Cloudflare experiences some of their code crashing because over a leap second, the time a request took suddenly became negative.
And I'm unsure if you're an Apple fanboy or not, but you maybe missing the big picture aside from this article: Apple is now just like supermarket produce - pretty, tasteless garbage. The facts are:
- Those low-profile keyboards are loud, uncomfortable and frequently break
- Glued in batteries basically destroyed if removed
- Overpriced
- Many MLB failures causing all sorts of random problems
- Many overpriced dongles required to do anything
- Non-Apple USB-A to -C adapter disconnects WiFi, but works fine on all other brands. Not just one adapter, multiple peripherals cause this issue.
- All sorts of other random quality issues and first year breakages
- No official parts channel
- Hidden/proprietary tools for diagnostics, repair and dead MLB SSD transfer
- Soldered in RAM
- Soldered in SSD
- No available schematics for repair
- Apple declares almost every model "vintage" at six years, preventing repairs and further OS upgrades
In conclusion, if someone is willing to take all this abuse when Apple clearly tells them "FU," what should an observer think? To me, it says: SJ is gone, a bean counter and a Bentley-chauffeured designer don't have a clue, so it's time to give up on Apple's computers until they find some vision and awareness.
I can see why some of the things on this list might be frustrating for some users. To offer a different perspective, I actually like many of the things you consider "tasteless garbage." For example:
1. I like Apple's low-profile keyboards. As I get older, I find myself suffering more and more from RSIs unless my keyboard is absolutely flat and I don't have to lift my fingers too much to hit the keys. Before I started using Apple computers, I'd buy TypeMatrix and low-profile Logitec keyboards for the same reason. Apple's low-profile keyboards feel pretty good to me. I cannot use mice anymore either, and there isn't anything on the market that compares to Apple's trackpads (both built-in and external).
2. When I buy a laptop or desktop, I always max it out with memory at the time of purchase, so I don't really care about removable RAM. Even on machines I build myself, I max out the RAM and never touch it again. Since soldered-on memory (and batteries and SSDs for that matter) result in a slimmer profile and less weight, I prefer this in a laptop. I can see why this would be an issue for some though.
3. I think, the "Apple products are too expensive" argument is largely a myth. Maybe other people have different experiences but I've used both Windows and Apple computers throughout my career and my Windows machines are always more expensive over time. When I buy an Apple laptop, the OS and all supported updates are free, productivity tools and all supported updates are free, the best version Apple has to offer of its development environment is free, and most of the other software I use is a lot cheaper than similar Windows products. Apple machines may cost me more up front (which isn't always the case), but Windows machines have always cost me more in the long run due to the cost of software and upgrades. For example, buying VisualStudio's standard subscription alone adds $1,199 to the cost of my Windows computer the first year and $799 every year after, easily eating up any savings I may have had at the time of my original purchase. If I want to update Windows at some point, that costs more as well. Productivity tools are now subscription based and add to the cost over time, too. I typically use a laptop for three years and then buy a new one. I've always spent more on my Windows laptops during those three-year periods than I have on my Apple computers. My use case is probably different that other people, so this may not hold true for everyone.
4. I've been using Apple laptops since 2007 and never had a problem. I know there have been publicized failures (just like there have for Dell, HP, and components for DIY computers), but I'm pretty happy with Apples 12 year track record with me personally.
5. I've never used a dongle on my MPB. I do have some USB devices (e.g. audio interfaces), but I just bought a couple of cheap USB-C to USB-B cords. No need for expensive dongles. I guess that's the price of progress. I don't use my serial/parallel port cords anymore either.
I'm not saying you don't have some legitimate complaints. I'm just saying my experience and opinions have been different. I've always been satisfied with my Apple purchases.
I use an iMac pro, I’ve definitely noticed it over the last few weeks, typically when several chrome tabs are open or heavy use it seems. I also noticed it pretty bad when using a Universal Audio Arrow device, and web midi also.
Currently I close chrome and reopen to fix. Happens every 1-2 days.
The other glitching problem I've had is in Ableton Live, where every thirty seconds or so the sound from the audio inputs glitches and breaks up, which makes Live useless for any kind of recording.
This is a known Live bug that has been around for a long time. It seems to be caused by the built-in audio devices competing with external hardware.
Certainly Apple are a long, long way from "It just works" now.
The quality of their laptops is sub-par relative to the price point. At this point, the software / OS is the strongest selling point (to me, at least), but my patience is wearing thin and at a certain point I'd rather just go back to Linux rather than deal with this absurd form-over-function design-uber-alles paradigm they've embraced.
Interestingly yes I experience issues with my USB2 interface (RME Babyface Pro) but also when using the MBP's headphone jack or the interface via USB ports on my LG Ultrafine 5K monitor (which has its own USB chip). I do wonder if the root issue may be along the lines of this poster's theory about poorly written Apple driver code (since Apple probably wrote new driver code to accommodate T2): https://www.gearslutz.com/board/showpost.php?p=13492144&post...
Had my MBA for 6 years and worked perfectly the whole time, just needed to install a new battery after 4 years but that was a personal preference.
I've had my MBP w/o touch bar for 13 months and I seriously regret spending $2300 on it.
- The keyboard is continually sticking, the left Command key is now completely separated from the keyboard and falls out all the time. I make so many typos now compared to the MBA and people also complain about how loud the keyboard is when Im typing. - The battery life barely lasts more than 2 hours while the MBA lasted 5 hours for exactly the same use case. - If someone trips over the power cable then the whole laptop moves, on the MBA the magsafe just disconnected and no harm done. - Having to use adaptors for USB devices is now getting really tedious.
Im at the point where I doubt my next laptop will be a Mac unless they do some serious adjustments to these ridiculous keyboards. I just want the old keyboard back.
Last week I started migrating back to the five-year-old Air. Would've done it if not for the fact that my home directory is larger than the free space on it, I should try reinstalling the Air from scratch and see if that clears up enough space. Or just look into getting a new SSD for it.
This is definitely a manufacturing defect with your battery and you should take it in for warranty repair. It should never do that unless the battery is severely degraded (1000+ cycles)
230 cycles, 65% capacity, seven months old.
Because it not since 2017, but since the 2016 MBP. The 2015s aren't perfect, but they were really good. When we had wished the next iteration would itch closer to perfection, they made a bloody mess of it.
> and people also complain about how loud the keyboard is when Im typing.
We must not be using the same keyboard. The mbp is quietest I've even used to date. Everything else doesn't even come close.
> The battery life barely lasts more than 2 hours while the MBA lasted 5 hours for exactly the same use case.
That's weird. Mine lasts 8-10 hours. It lasts a good 6-7 hours of daily work, watching videos, compiling C code, playing an intensive game and extensive Chrome browsing.
> - If someone trips over the power cable then the whole laptop moves, on the MBA the magsafe just disconnected and no harm done. - Having to use adaptors for USB devices is now getting really tedious.
The mbp is supposed to be a desktop replacement computer. Get a usb-c hub. You'll be able to charge the device, connect all your devices (and screens!) from one single usb-c. Put the hub close to the Mac. But yes, I do miss the magsafe.
I've lots of complaints about the new MBP but none of the points you mentioned above. I suggest you take it to an Apple shop for some diagnosis.
1.Keyboard
2.Screen for weird glitching issues
and now the wifi refuses to connect to 5ghz bands
i use a bluetooth mechanical keyboard now...
There is something either seriously wrong with your Mac, or you're running every core full-tilt continuously.
But I can share the charger with my phone, so I guess that's nice
I recently switched to an Android phone, because the price-point of buying a new iPhone is just not justifiable any more. Android feels a bit spammy, but overall it does what I need it to do. I will stick with Android for now.
I was looking at the iPad Pro recently, because I could need a second screen when I’m working e.g. from a co-working space. It looks beautiful, but things like no-headphone jack makes it too much trouble for me. I don’t want to bring my dongles all the time. As others have mentioned using Bluetooth headphones for music production just isn’t good enough because of latency. Also I prefer having devices without a battery. Less to think about when leaving the house.
I am using my MacBook Pro 2014 daily for 10+ for work and as a private computer. It’s about time to upgrade for me, because I could save quite a lot of time with a faster CPU. While I would love to have a more powerful device running macOS (so a newer MacBook Pro), from what I heard they are just worse than my 2014 MacBook Pro. I still use a lot of USB 2/3 devices, I want a keyboard, which feels good and does not get broken easily. I don’t care about it being thin at all. I want performance and an SD slot.
Because it is clear that there is no such machine produces by Apple right now (and probably in the future) I had to look for alternatives. The Surface Book 2 by Microsoft is really interesting. They even have a Nvidia GPU, which can be used for Deep Learning and graphical experiments. A big advantage over the GPUs used by Apple imo. Sadly from all what I hear Windows 10 just isn’t good enough to use it daily as a programmer. I spend many hours researching and found a lot of comments from former macOS user who switched. Windows will (still) drive you nuts if you are used to things just working they say.
The only alternative, Linux, would mean a serious commitment to figuring out stuff by myself, spending time making my system work. I am currently stuck with macOS, and therefore my laptop from 2014. I’m quite sure I will switch to another OS in the next two years, but it is hard to figure out which is the better option for me.
But, YMMV (written from a macbook)
Sure, the typical software engineer isn't their target demographic. But I would argue that tech-oriented users should be the bellwether for key issues related to performance and usability since as a demographic they tend to do things that will identify the flaws of your product.
Has anyone found that this workaround on reddit solved the issue? https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/anvufc/psa_2018_macs...
On a forum linked in the cdm.link article someone mentioned blocking the time services via firewall: is there a list of everything needed to be blocked?
I had such a spark of hope when I saw this title. Alas, my fix for coreaudio HALC_ProxyIOContext::IOWorkLoop: skipping cycle due to overload Audio still eludes me.
Is it so hard for laptop designers to create decent looking machines?
No matter how much Dell and Lenovo call their offerings professional, I just can't see a professional working on a 13" 16:9 screen.
Things I don't like about the Matebook is that the warranty and repair services are basically unknowns, there is no next business day, on-site warranty and of course, they aren't battle tested —though quality issues seem to be all the more common for Lenovo, Dell an Apple nowadays. Had a friend joke the other day _your Huawei is the only one sure to keep working, its main purpose is surveillance and if it brokes down, it can't perform its duty_. :)
More of a long term problem is the fact that USB C/TB3 is a totally unsuitable connector for professional use. It's far too prone to coming out of the port through lack of locking mechanism, insufficient friction. On MBPs the ports also wear very quickly.
I can't believe they don't know that themselves and act accordingly. How much more incentive do you need? What the heck is going on at Apple?