MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge
arstechnica.com
arstechnica.com
Then I watched this keynote.
I'm buying a Macbook Pro.
Edit: Given the lack of real interesting updates in OS X since Leopard and recent iOS versions, I am actually quite interested in Windows 8 and Windows Phone after ~18 years of using Unix-like operating systems and ~5.5 years a Mac.
I really miss "all windows" Exposé; Mission Control is not a worthy replacement. Any word on Exposé changes in 10.8?
I love my Macbook but can't stand the direction of the operating system. It feels like I use more and more hacks like the above just to have a usable machine.
Good news! There is a system preference in 10.8 to ungroup windows (by application) in Mission Control.
Still, the "spaces bar" and dock show up every time you use MC, so there's less real estate than on 10.5. Dragging to the Dock stopped being useful in 10.6 IMHO, that's still the same in 10.8. (In 10.5, dragging an icon to the dock in Exposé would act the same as clicking the icon - e.g. for Skype it would open the window if it was closed.)
iTunes must be the worst offender. I always fullscreen it, because I seldom access it but want it to use all of my 13".
Then I start a video podcast. It runs inside the iTunes chrome. I hit cmd+F, it opens a new space. I finish watching the cast. The space closes and I land on the desktop instead of back in iTunes. What?
I wish any high-level blogger would start caring about OS X usability again. 10.7 needs more and not less public shaming. I don't think anyone even noticed that mouse/trackpad click-through is different again in 10.7, and for the worse IMHO. :(
It has ALL versions of Xcode.
This one won't exactly fit in a manila envelope.
Such announcements provide opportunity for a pivot point. It isn't so much the announcement itself as that the announcement provides a claimed justification for changing positions.
I bought my first Apple product ever a few months back (an iPad 3rd generation). Then I added an Apple TV (ridiculously good value).
I still use Android for my smartphone (and have no plans on changing that anytime soon, considering iOS a serious downgrade on the smartphone side), however I have to confess that this release provides me such a pivot point for my desktop/laptop use. I'd long considered getting a Mac but could never justify it. Microsoft is so rudderless and ill-directed now, and Apple is so large and in charge, this product such a technical powerhouse, that I will likely grab a new MBP "Air".
Uhh, are you joking? In the past few years, Microsoft has shown the most direction in 2 decades. Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox are all converging on the Metro UI (which is a true breath of fresh air), and Microsoft has finally stopped allowing big business to hold back innovation on Windows. Windows 8 dumps the Start Menu, and on ARM, you won't even be able to install any traditional "Windows" software - everything will have to be in Metro.
Windows 8 tablets are going to be usable for actual productivity, rather than the consumption-focused nature of the iPad. Tablets that can convert into laptops and vice versa are going to become popular in the corporate world in a way that iPads never will, due to their lack of native support for Office.
OTOH, there are a lot of people that have grown tired of iOS. It's been out for 5 years now, and little true innovation has taken place since the release of the original iPhone. Upgrades to the iPhone have mostly consisted of adding features that should have been present all along, such as a proper notifications system (which still has problems) and support for 3rd party apps (which should have been present from the beginning). You still can't have widgets on the home screen, and the chance of Apple adding some kind of split-screen view, like you can get in Metro, is extremely slim.
As for OS X, it's an absolute nightmare. The window manager is horrific, and things are only going to get worse as Apple starts restricting the installation of software from non-approved sources, all in the name of a more "beautiful" experience.
Microsoft is a disaster currently, their navigation being "react to where Apple was two years ago". It is telling that every Microsoft defense extrapolates some fantastic future of what will be in the world of Microsoft, never using what actually is. But yes, I'm sure your imagination of a Windows 8 tablet is vastly superior to an actual real-world iPad.
The problem is perspective. The types of people that spend time on HN don't spend time in the real world, where the current state of affairs is very different from what we think it is. Apple gets a lot of hype, and no doubt the iPhone is very successful (because it was a new type of product), but the iPad is no more than than a glorified toy. Once Windows 8 tablets are released and become commonplace, the iPad will stand no chance. The ability to use the same device for casual consumption and for productivity cannot be understated. Try getting out of San Fran for a few days, and you'll start to understand what I'm talking about. There was a similar issue with Android a few years ago, but it seems even the most hardcore iOS fanboys (such as Marco Arment) have finally gotten on the Android train.
And don't forget about the TV. The iTV simply will not sell, because people are not going to throw out their existing TVs just so they can get the latest shiny toy from Cupertino. OTOH, MS has huge market- and mind-share in the form of the Xbox 360 (which has been the best-selling console for more than a year). You can already watch Netflix and HBO GO on it, and Amazon Instant support has just been added. Kinect has proven extremely successful, and with Project Glass, all kinds of new mashups are going to become realizable.
> I'm sure your imagination of a Windows 8 tablet is vastly superior to an actual real-world iPad.
Have you been living under a rock? Windows 8 is coming out this October. Several consumer previews have already been released, and hardware has been demoed. Windows 8 tablets are much more of a real entity than you seem to think.
There isn't any value to be had in arguing that Apple has designed a terrible product that has no reason to exist when it does not, in fact, exist. When and if Apple releases a TV product other than the current Apple TV, I'm sure it will be fascinating to see what form it takes and whether or not it manages to capture any meaningful marketshare. Until then, you're needlessly attacking a strawman based purely on rumors and hearsay.
If you think this is the case, you really don't get it. You may as well be living under a rock.
Windows 8 is going to go over like a fart at the opera. It's Vista all over again. They're pissing off developers and consumers at the same time. They really don't know how to pick their battles.
>Have you been living under a rock?
No, but it seems you have.
If I've said it before I've said it 1,000 times: Just because it doesn't fit your use case doesn't mean it doesn't fit that of others.
This is quite the non-sequitur. Apple products are successful precisely because they appeal to people in the real world. Your comment about the iPad being a toy is a timeless refrain that has been leveled against every single Apple product since the original Macintosh. That time, they lost to Microsoft because A) the Mac was way too expensive, B) the ecosystem was too small, and only by the standardization of the PC was a viable ecosystem able to emerge and C) Adoption was driven by businesses who purchase by checklists rather than by personal appeal. These same downsides no longer exist, and the iPad launch is one of the most successful new products in the history of the world.
Probably most on HN are hoping for MS to hit a home run with Windows 8 if for no other reason than to foster competition and innovation. But the other thing you have to realize is that Microsoft's "no compromises" approach is insanely difficult to pull off. It's much harder than what Apple has done, and the risk of creating a confusing product that does not resonate with customers is incredibly high.
Windows 8 tablets will sell, but not to the same demographic.
As for Xbox vs a TV made by apple, you'll be wrong again, mark my words. Things that come out of cupertino sell. Project Glass sounds like a response to Airplay to me.
Overall, you're trolling because you're a microsoft fan.
Not true. I use my iPad every day. My use varies from maybe 30 minutes of email to a good few hours. On my iPad I write, I organise my day, I handle notes and document recipes for things I cook. I deliberately try to keep it a personal rather than business device but I still use it for work email, calendaring and a few bits and pieces (mostly notes). I read incessantly on the iPad and it's my primary source of daily news.
> Once Windows 8 tablets are released and become commonplace, the iPad will stand no chance.
You're betting on an unestablished fractured software experience against the main market leader? I can understand Windows 8 standing a chance against Blackberry, against WebOS and maybe against pre-ICS Android but it will take a long time for Windows 8 to catch up with Android if it blows Android out of the water. Once it's managed to get that far there has to be something seriously wrong with iOS for it to overtake. Also if you're planning on betting on Office to see you through, hate to be the one to burst your bubble but Office has been available for the iPad for months, and the iPad's had office-compatible document readers/writers that are good enough for simple documents for years.
> The iTV simply will not sell
You are right, but this is because the iTV does not exist for sale. Apple haven't announced it. There is no iTV product.
> Have you been living under a rock?
There really is no need for this type of thing on HN.
> Windows 8 is coming out this October. Several consumer previews have already been released, and hardware has been demoed. Windows 8 tablets are much more of a real entity than you seem to think.
Can I buy a Windows 8 table now? No. Can I evaluate a consumer preview version of Windows 8 on an iPad? Yes. So in a way you're right, but given that the only real entities are the wrong devices running a prototype it's not fair to compare. However, having used the consumer preview in Parallels I have to say I'm not looking forward to metro on the desktop, but on the tablet it might work well.
- Xbox 360: 67.2 million (released 2005)
- iPad: 67.1 million (released 2010)
If I was working on the development team for the next generation Xbox I would be wearing diapers to work.
When you take out the expensive high-DPI touch-screen and the expensive battery, you're basically left with an AppleTV. Those sell for about third of the price of the current generation of the Xbox. If the next generation AppleTV had a nice Bluetooth controller and installable apps, it's very bad news for both Microsoft and Sony.
Sure; they're nowhere near being as focused purposeful as Apple is, but you can no longer say they are truly stuck in their ways. Whether that will translate into something tangible is another question, but it's hard to deny that something fundamental isn't changing at Microsoft.
Heck, I can't even honestly diss people's Windows mobile phones anymore, and that's nothing to sneeze at.
They completely overhauled Office. They've built wholesale online experiences, cloud services, and have purchased and entered new markets. They took the gaming market and owned it. They continued to make incredible progress with their development tools and runtimes/platforms.
The only difference this time is that they're risking it all because they're so afraid of Apple. They are essentially betting both their gaming and desktop experiences to desperately try to claw back in the smartphone industries. It is an incredible gambit that I think will prove to be a profound failure, but I think it's incorrect to see that as progress, any more than a salaryman betting it all on Red.
>They took the gaming market and owned it. Xbox360 is a distant second to Wii and only a nose ahead of PS3 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_wars#Worldwide_sales_fi...). While it's certainly done better than its predecessor, I think describing it as "owning" is a bit of an exaggeration.
After this announcement, though; the Retina display, awesome graphics, HDMI port (Macbook dongles turned me off for a while), 700MBPS read on the hard drive (I'll have to confirm this -- that just sounds too sexy) -- Even the 0.70 inch thickness (I've never really cared about thickness before, but holy hell that's really thin). There are probably some things I've misinterpreted from these announcements, but so far, this laptop far outweighs what I thought was possible through existing PC laptop vendors.
About the dongles: in my use I usually take the laptop to the same places all the time, so I just buy the right cable (here it would be a thunderbolt -> hdmi cable i guess). If I go to random places where I need to hook up to a monitor I won't know whether they'll have a hdmi cable just as much as I don't know if they'll have a thunderbolt cable, so I need to carry a cable anyways. What's the difference whether it's a hdmi-hdmi or thunderbolt-hdmi cable? They're likely to have DVI or DP anyway, so you still need to take the dongles with you.
Yes.
> [...]
> In fact, why not just have three Thunderbolt ports
Avoids needing a dongle when plugging into an HDTV or an HDMI overhead projector, I'm guessing. They probably considered the pros and cons and ended up thinking two TB ports were enough and HDMI was requested often enough it would make sense, especially as they'd axed both GigE and FW800.
And one of the TB port will often be used for e.g. a GigE adapter.
Personally, I'm surprised that the Thunderbolt<->GigE dongle is only $30. That's barely got to cover the cost of the TB chip in the thing.
Aye, the whole laptop has something like 0.05" over a standard ethernet port, so you'd have to carve the lid or something.
And again. People HATE buying, carying, and remembering dongles.
I don't know how much that will translate over to a computer, but it wouldn't surprise me if people who work with text a lot (including programmers) are able to comfortably use significantly smaller font sizes than they ever were able to before.
By all rights I should be the biggest fanboy ever. All my computers are Macs. I have an Apple TV. I stood in line to buy the first iPhone on launch day and have owned nothing but iPhones since. I have an iPad. I insist on using Apple services like iTunes so everything "just works" with all my Apple devices. I even converted my whole family from PCs to Macs and, yes, my "family tech support" calls have dropped.
But I'm not what you would call a "fanboy".
If someone asks why I like Apple products, I try to give rational reasons but I admit from the start that I'm biased and just "like them", plus I "think they're cool". I never sneer at PC users or people with Android phones. I don't make lame jokes about "Winblows" and such.
I guess my point is it's possible to become a total convert and still not annoy the heck out of everyone around you. I'm not saying you don't know that, just that you should monitor yourself. Once you become loyal to a brand (Apple, BMW, B&W loudspeakers, whatever) it's sometimes difficult to tell the difference between being a proud evangelist and an annoying cultist.
Luckily, I had some friends who helped me whenever I veered too far in the latter direction. :)
It's a well-built solid metal portable development workstation. With BSD UNIX. And a pretty layer on top.
Among programmers, I never need to explain why we would buy these things.
It's outside the programming groups that the conversation gets hostile. I find most programmers avoid this completely, knowing that they're simply using the best tool available for the job, and ignoring the hype, criticism, and fanboyism. Props, hackers, keep it up.
*edit: Wow, -10? Sorry, I was just sharing my experience of being mocked by people who proudly brag about their Windows 7 machine and are barely proficient at .NET programming who give me a hard time because "Macs are lame and Windows is for geeks".
Didn't know there were so many fucking yuppie Windows people to be so defensive. Jesus. Literally, 10 people downvoted this. Stay classy. (And the GP backed up what I said anyway, jerks)
<tongue-in-cheek>
The Linux users generally consider OSX a nice Linux-like OS that lacks a decent package manager ;-)
Much like Microsoft, the hardware is great.
</tongue-in-cheek>
Disclaimer: I am mostly a Linux user who also uses Macs for certain tasks.
And microsoft is actually really generous towards students, I can get basically any software except for office for free.
When I'm on a Mac, I'm a ports guy. MacPorts is probably the first thing I install on every Mac I lay my hands upon. That, iTerm2 and Cathode (who can resist that?)
> And microsoft is actually really generous towards students, I can get basically any software except for office for free.
The first one is always free. They will only bill you when you actually need what they offer. Chances are, when you do, you won't be able to easily move away.
Many of my teachers eventually would relent and realise that yes I was right. TCP/IP is one of the classes I took in which Windows was required. TCP/IP is a network protocol, it is available in all major OS's. I turned in entire assignments with a simple note "Windows required, don't have Windows." Luckily I didn't end up getting docked points because they realised I already knew all of the information in the course.
One thing that was really nice, and I am surprised none of the teachers used it against me was the fact that with MSDNAA I as a student had access to thousands of dollars worth of Microsoft software. You name it I could download a free legal copy of it for use during my tenure at college as a student. Microsoft seems to have that on lock. What better way to get students to play with your platform than to have them use all your tools and software free of charge. Windows 7, Visual Studio, SQL, SharePoint, Exchange and others.
The fact that I have at least part of the knowledge makes me more valuable for an employer.
I hope you have better experiences.
Look: I'm not singing the praises of these softwares, it's big clunky enterprise stuff and it is boooring... None the less: it's running some pretty important processes that combined run a large portion of the worlds I.T.
Now step back and read this comment, as well as your PowerShell response below, then rethink why I'd say that.
You're like a badly broken record no matter what it is you're spouting. Seriously where do you get off following me around talking about the same things over and over just to be an obnoxious ass? Just leave me alone, you're creepy and obviously have some misplaced superiority complex, well maybe inferiority given how much you seem to stalk and put me down.
These Mac vx. PC arguments now beyond ridiculous. To those of us for whom computers are tools and not just a way to get on Facebook the metric should not be emotion or fan-boy-ism but rather applicability, efficiency, utility, cost and other factors.
I have a roughly equal number of PC's and Macs. I use both. I enjoy both. I get angry at both. There are good things with both OS's and there are thorn-in-my-ass problems with both. Welcome to having choices. As tools they are both fantastic. I love having unix behind the scenes with MacOS. Brilliant decision on their part. On the PC side, I have come to appreciate the non-nonsense cost-effectiveness of the platform. I have very powerful workstations setup for FEA fluid and heat simulation that cost a fraction of what our nicely-equipped Mac Pro's cost. And they rock.
I could say more but have to get back to work. There you go, a downvote with an explanation.
Ironic that I'm now at -15 for pointing out that in my situation, the opposite was true.
Seriously, which part of my comment has every Windows fan out there thinking I hate Windows? I don't know how that was the takeaway when I was merely remarking on the times where I, like the grandparent, was trolled by Windows users.
It's too bad that Apple is moving to MagSafe II with the new retina MacBook Pro. I guess we'll all have to carry around adapters now: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD504
If using a thinner connector let Apple fix that problem, that would be quite nice. Of course it's possible that it didn't. I haven't had a chance to try the new thing.
(http://www.speckproducts.com/satin-macbook-air-case-13-black...)
Then I saw the backward-compatibility adapter[1]. It's not so bad. You can probably just leave it on the computer (or cable) 24/7 and never notice it. It's _tiny_, and only $10. Whenever I end up with a device that uses it, I will probably just buy 10 of them and leave 2 or 3 in every bag I own.
Still debating if I want to drop $4k just for retina, as my current machine is the quad-3.4 iMac with 32GB. I will probably wait for a retina Air or retina TB Display.
Now, if they'd made it a clunky dongle, or charged more than $15, I would be sharpening my pitchfork. Connector conspiracy or no, I get the impression that this was a situation where this was the only possible way to get the new case just right.
It's not like they'd do this just to fuck with us - the thing has asymmetric _fan blades_, for fuck's sake.
I suppose I've read one too many "why does my computer use all its RAM?!?!" threads...
Grain of salt. Experiment. Do what works.
It's a jealousy tick.
I remember the same behavior in high school (which was a long time ago). People would make fun of you for anything you were really obsessive over.
It appears that both of the major computer platform makers have come to the same conclusion: they don't want to make computers that their customers can program for their own purposes; they want to make ever-more-tightly-sealed point-of-sale devices for buying digital products and services from the device maker and its partners.
In other words, if you think the sealed iPhone, tethered to giant companies with strict rules about what you may and may not do with it or put on it and its design esthetic of "enjoy the beauty, stop resisting, do exactly as we say, and why not buy something with it, you'll feel better" is your idea of a great "pocket computer" for hackers, then you should be happy about where our computers are going. Otherwise....
I think we hackers are going to be driven to Linux on the desktop over time, which I would have no objection to if only there were an "Apple for Linux" company making the hardware and matching drivers of Apple-level quality. I can live without MacOS, but the hardware is a big deal.
They're eating the seed corn, but they don't really care since they won't feel the effect for 15 years or more. I personally don't care much either, unless they manage to fully legislate their locked boxes as the only option... which they are trying to do whenever we aren't looking, by the way, the most recent being with Microsoft locking out other OSes on their ARM boxes.
Yes. It's clear that Apple considers the relative openness of Macs a defect which they're only keeping around for backwards compatibility.
unless they manage to fully legislate their locked boxes as the only option... which they are trying to do whenever we aren't looking
Or even when we are. Apple has been quite open about their desire to destroy Android with IP lawsuits, which would leave no significant mobile platform where you can legally run software of your choice. And I won't be at all surprised if the next version of OS X removes root access and the ability to run unsigned apps. (Neither of which you actually need in order to develop software for the app store; your test apps can be signed with a machine-specific key).
That said, I'm still getting the retina MBP as an upgrade from my 2006 model. AFAIK it still supports booting Linux if OS X becomes too user-hostile. It would be nice if every other PC manufacturer hadn't spent the last 5 years making their laptop displays worse, but oh well.
This is not remotely clear. Do you really think Apple wants the App store to dry up because they are the only people left who can develop for it? The Apps make the app store and they know this.
In order to keep such things being developed, Apple will need to provide an adequate development environment.
Thus, Apple has an incentive to keep both worlds alive.
The only thing to worry about is that, because they only have the incentive to keep their development ecosystem merely adequate, we won't see much improvement in developer tools – just slow, linear change. Fortunately Xcode has competition from Visual Studio to keep it going, but whether they will continue offering a competitive BSD development environment is a legitimate question. Most Linux distributions already provide a better experience in this respect, having package managers and user communities and such.
Ultimately, I find the attitude you present here to be a bit overreactive. Lion and Mountain Lion introduce a number of iOS-like features and integration, but as far as I know, the developer tools were not crippled in any way, only improved, a bit.
I absolutely love HomeBrew, it is modeled a lot after MacPorts/FreeBSD ports tree and provides a way to compile packages from source (some are even hosted as bottles... no compiling required). It is an excellent tool to download and install libraries and do development with. Will Apple keep all those tools around? Only time will tell, but so far it is looking good and I don't think it is in their best interest to move away from it.
Keynote was and is a great presentation application. But PowerPoint 2008 surpassed it, PowerPoint 2011 even more. The only major feature missing from Powerpoint is magic move. Other than that, PowerPoint has better table and chart tools, better graphics, and at the very least adjusts font sizes automatically when necessary.
By catering to them, Apple doesn't take anything away from you; though they do eventually entrap you as well with all that shiny and convenience, which I can understand being resentful about. It's a bit disempowering when a company thinks it knows what's good for you better than you do, and ends up being kinda right about it.
Disclosure: I own AAPL sharesI completely agree with you that making the computing experience simpler, more like poking buttons on a high-end blender, is what most consumers need. Satisfying what most consumers need is most likely what the companies need. The companies have as much right to want what's best for themselves as I do. They're not doing anything wrong, IMO.
That does not automatically make their design decisions a reflection of their superior knowledge of what's good for me, even "kinda".
Linux-like customization on top of Apple-quality hardware/driver foundations in form factors like the iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, and MacPro, would be what would be good for me, but I'm not saying anybody owes it to me.
I am thinking, though, that as the two major personal computer platforms become more closed, it gradually opens a market for some savvy company to go in the opposite direction: targeting those who want more customization, not less, without sacrificing hardware quality.
If that ever does happen, that will be what's good for me.
Even customization is becoming easier. Consider the ease of jail breaking iOS vs rooting an Android device along wth the push button tweakability that is Cydia and you quickly realize that even the tinkerer/customiser world is headed for liberation from complexity.
The world of code and hackers and the purity of possibility will always be there but bringing greater Technological ability to all people is an important goal, a worthy challenge and one that the major players all seem to be taking on.
This is a very, very good thing because the dream and power of technology is far too great to be bound to the world of 'power users' and the like. The are wonderfully intelligent and creative people in the world who happen to fall outside of that category and we all stand to gain from their contributions.
It's not abut what's good for you. It's about what good for us.
I see your point but that is what I was referring to.
My point (poorly made perhaps) is that I have heard people say, "Oh, don't worry about Apple's walled garden, anyone with technical knowledge can be out of it as soon as they want, with jailbreaking". However, there are clearly long periods of time when that isn't true.
Incidentally: I found myself in exactly the same position with iPad 2. It seemed as if it was all hinging on release date of the next iteration of the OS and I did wonder at tine if Apple had perfected their game of cat and mouse.
Good point dude(ette).
All 10 of them? Maybe VA Linux has a market after all.
I Hackintoshed my desktop (because we're never getting another Mac Pro) specifically because of driver support. It's actually better in Hackintosh-land than on Linux.
Did you submit any bug reports?
Sure, I like getting a new shiny thing just like anybody else. But it does seem a little less shiny once I've tried to put my employer's dev environment on it and found that Apple's customized version of a common C library broke the build. Or an Oracle dependency we (very unfortunately) have hasn't been upgraded by Oracle in a couple years and crashes on the new OS.
The lot of the programmer seems to be that you never get to have your tools "just work".
That retina display is dead sexy though.
- The unified menu bar makes sense and saves space, but it's still somewhat disconcerting to someone who is used to their menus having some spatial context with what they are controlling.
- I've always hated the "three gumballs". I much prefer Windows' minimize, maximize, and quit windows controls. Again, the "maximum useful size" feature makes sense, but it's almost never what I want. I really miss Aero snap. There are some programs that will help you out for this stuff. I'm pretty partial to Moom myself. UPDATE: Moom JUST got updated with a "snap to corners" feature. I like it!
- The Finder is still pretty brain-dead. Windows explorer is much better for a power-user.
- And then there's XCode. Oh how I miss Visual Studio. Yes, XCode is getting nicer by the year, but I also do Windows development on my Parallels VM so I'm constantly reminded of how much nicer it is to code C# in Visual Studio than Objective-C in XCode (and I don't even mind Objective-C as a language).
I'm thinking regular users don't use the finder either. My wife uses spotlight to find her stuff and apps.
> The Finder is still pretty brain-dead. Windows explorer
> is much better for a power-user
The new Windows 8 Metro UI will create an ever bigger gap between the two it seems.
All that being said, w/r/t an OS it seems like the one you're most comfortable on is the one you should use. Its really hard to say any one that is objectively better at this point.
It took some time to relearn my windows modifier keys (CMD = Windows Key; ALT is where the Windows key normally is), but after that expense I run Mac and Windows app in the same session, and more importantly, without switching hardware.
[edit: I've only used Snow Leopard]
There was a time (don't recall which iterations) in which the MAC OS finder didn't support those three for _files_ - but I think they've always worked for images/text/etc...
"Command-C" then "Command-Option-V" will remove the originating file.
I actually like it better; you get to decide how to treat the files when the operation is actually executed, not when you initiate it. This negates the need to go back and remove the files when you realize you meant to Ctrl-X instead of Ctrl-C.
A source: http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/29/cut-and-paste-mac-os-x-lion/
(And to the other replies: he means in Finder. Cutting files hasn't been possible prior to 10.7)
[1] http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lock-me-now/id464265594?mt=12
One constant, though: over the past 10 years, I've moved my life further and further into the Cygwin command line, so that I'm insulated from the frippery going on at the edges; with my setup, I'm approximately as at home on Linux, Solaris, Mac and Windows. I'm not optimistic based on what I've seen of Windows 8's direction.
Or a BSD.
Linux GUIs (Android only partially excepted), in my experience, are amateur in the worst way: dilettantish, faddish, inconsistent, incomplete, and replaced with something new and differently broken long before any stability emerges. I also really dislike the UI scaling: the font selection, border sizes, etc., KDE / Gnome defaults are all too widely spaced for my taste, and customizing it so that it would be acceptable seems to be a full-time job. As it is with Windows, I had to install Classic Shell to get a usable explorer tree view and start menu I could live with.
There isn't a single graphical app available exclusively for Linux that I'm jealous of. And for command-line / server stuff that's Linux-only, I'm perfectly happy with ssh running in mintty on Windows.
You don't like the KDE/Gnome defaults and don't want to spend time customizing. Fonts? Install from package manager. Themes? Install from package manager. Or download from gnome-look.org and install using gnome-tweak-tool. Yet you go out of your way to tweak Windows to your liking.
I don't have driver issues, but that's from researching purchases before buying.
And what about package managers? Cygwin has a package manager; combined with cygports, it has just about everything I need, resolves dependencies just fine. I also mirror both repositories locally, where the relatively smaller sizes (18G + 19G) pay off, and I don't have to be worried about internet connectivity to install an app.
Package managers on Linux (I run Ubuntu Netbook and Debian), Solaris (I run Nexenta NCP3) have given me plenty of headaches, mostly from packages disappearing from repositories, or repository servers going away. There's been times I've just wanted to e.g. update my text editor to the latest version, and started pulling on a thread that led to needing a new kernel - that never happens with Cygwin. Stuff starts failing to install because dependencies are no longer available. It's probably because I don't update enough, which is in turn because I don't want to break something that works (none of these machines are public facing); but I can go years between Cygwin updates without issues.
Look at the information density of Windows explorer details view - http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2GNT8vlZj48/SK54tc5PEzI/AAAAAAAAAC... - I could never get Nautilus to display data with this density, listview items always had huge margins around every item in the details view, like in this picture: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NwFlqMh7ZG0/Ty3Qrbk2gqI/AAAAAAAAAd...
Driver issues: I don't have any, and I don't have to research anything! When I need a new machine, I just buy the latest hardware (for example, currently I have an Nvidia 680GTX), download the latest driver from the vendor, and it works. Linux? Just look at this fun here: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTA4O...
That's what multiple workspaces are for. Tiling WMs are especially great when working with large and/or multiple monitors. You're not forced to always use tile mode, you can easily switch between layouts via hotkey: http://xmonad.org/tour.html
Also, a lot of smart people disagree with you: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3964530
> <Package management>
You don't want to update for fear of breaking something, yet you admit your problems stem from never updating.
Have you thought about Debian Stable/Ubuntu LTS releases?
Are you really complaining that Debian/Ubuntu package availability? Even if the main servers disappeared, you're ignoring the fact that there's plenty of mirrors. What happens if microsoft.com disappeared?
> <file browser density>
Hit Ctrl -: http://i.imgur.com/0xWSw.png
Explorer looks less dense, doesn't have tabs, split panes, copy queuing, real file modification tracking (Explorer requires F5 to see changes). It doesn't auto-adjust column widths, look at file size as an example. Not to mention the explorer.exe process doubles as the WM, so when it crashes all windows get reset.
Nautilus has a better hotkeys. Alt + Home to jump back to home directory, F9 to see symlinks to common directories, Ctrl + H to toggle hidden files, Ctrl + 1/2/3 to change views.
You could have not chosen a worse program to compare between the two OSes.
> <driver issues>
That's a result of market dominance, not anything intrinsically different between Windows and Linux. Congrats!
Have you tried installing a clean version Windows 7 on a laptop? Have you noticed how many proprietary drivers you have to download and install? I did this a few months ago with a new X220 and spent 4 hours finding, downloading, and installing drivers. If Lenovo.com disappeared, I'd be SOL.
Take any laptop and clean install Ubuntu and Windows without internet access. You will have a better working system with Ubuntu.
Due to lack of proprietary drivers, Linux actually has much better support for older hardware. Not to mention a large source of Windows BSODs are due to low quality, 3rd party drivers running in the kernel.
I can have multiple workspaces on Windows too, but it doesn't suit my work style. Don't care that smart people disagree with me; there isn't a person in the world with whom I agree on everything. I like to think the things I do differently make me better at some things than most people.
Updates: I don't want to break anything, that's correct. Updating for the sake of updating is an unnecessary risk; but you have it backwards. It's the experiences of broken updates that cause me not to update more often. If MS.com disappears, nothing breaks. I can still install all my stuff, without even going online. Even activation can be done on the phone.
Explorer density: that screenshot is actually from a post complaining about the lack of density in Vista's version of Explorer, you can read about it here: http://blog.barrkel.com/2008/08/venting-on-vista.html ; but I think you may be mistaken in what you think I use Explorer for. I use it almost exclusively for browsing filesystem contents, and for editing more complex Windows ACLs; I use the command-line for actual moving, copying, etc. Furthermore, Explorer file change tracking does actually work; part of my complaint in that blog post was how they changed file tracking in Vista such that it didn't wait for F5 to resort. I'm not a fan of auto-resizing of columns; it's a feature I'd turn off.
I have a way of working with Windows in conjunction with Cygwin that I've honed over 10+ years. I don't need F9 to see symlinks to common directories; common directories are symlinks in my Cygwin home directory, and in the rare occasions I want to browse them, I open them by typing "start ~/docs" or similar - but I usually don't browse them, because I mostly use Explorer for browsing unfamiliar files. My settings for Explorer is to never hide hidden files; my ls alias does. Things are set up and complement one another in just the way I like them.
Yes, market dominance; I can get the best of both worlds by using the dominant OS along with all the free tools provided by Cygwin. This is a good thing, selfishly speaking.
Offline Linux? I've tried that numerous times, particularly from 1996 through to 2002, when I gave up on Linux for a long spell and doubled down on Cygwin. The biggest pain? Needing to install an app, going into work where there was internet access, downloading a .deb or .rpm, then trying to install it - without luck, because it needs dependencies, recursively. It was a nightmare. With Windows, the apps I need are generally .zip, .exe or .msi, and include everything.
Every laptop I've ever bought, I've reinstalled the OS from scratch; I've never owned a Windows PC with an OS I didn't install myself. I wouldn't touch the drivers from Lenovo for hardware I could find anywhere else; OEM drivers are usually out of date, and often include "utilities" that you don't need, with a half-dozen icons in the notification area and another dozen services running in the background. It's the OEM setup that make me clean reinstall the OS.
First thing to do when reinstalling the OS on a system is to collect a manifest of all the hardware in it, and locate drivers before the install rather than after. I used to work as a computer hardware technician before I became a developer; I've built, upgraded and fixed hundreds of PCs, reinstalled MS OSes countless times.
Biggest source of Windows BSODs in my experience? Bad RAM :) (Probably followed by failing or corrupt HDD causing kernel paging errors. Reasonably rare to be a bad driver - in my experience; usually poor drivers are associated with cheap hardware.) Lack of drivers for older hardware has never been a problem; I generally never run hardware more than 18 months old.
<rant>
Linux support for new hardware is so crappy, it's unbelievable. I couldn't even launch ubuntu GUI setup because it preloads noveau, which causes kernel panics on my video card (nvidia gtx 560 ti). You have to spend hours in google to get anything to work, and it's embarrassing and humiliating at the same time.
Also, cough, fonts, cough.
</rant>
At a high level, they're really just upgrading to Ivy Bridge, USB 3.0, and Retina displays across their notebook line. Nothing mind-blowing really.
Not all areas of tech allow this kind of big jump. For instance, battery life, or spinning disk access times.
So the new display technology is notable in that regard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_T220/T221_LCD_monitors
So I'm having issues with the statement that technology continuously improves. In many areas that's just not true.
Stagnating for decades?
Two decades ago (1992), where was your high-resolution LCD monitor?
The link shows a high-res flat panel monitor that was announced for production at $18,000 about a decade ago. Technology improves, price comes down. Call it about a 20% year-over-year cost reduction for the decade.
It may be more accurate to say that technology mainstream technology improves in leaps and surges, rather than "continuously". Sometimes the same technology gets cheaper, sometimes new technology replaces older technology, but next year's is almost always better and/or cheaper than last year's.
That said, I am delighted that the improvement in laptop displays is shifting back to "better" instead of just "cheaper".
It looks like the big difference in price is not the display, but the hard drive.
But you're absolutely right. There's nothing in this one single keynote that's like WAPOWW!!!!
Edit: Oh, and as soon as I have a job, I'm getting one! I've been drooling over Ivy Bridge specs for months.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4000-Benchmar...
EDIT: found a nice resource for the specific models http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/474/Intel_Core_i5_Mobile_i5...
Unless you use that other text editor, you know, the one that makes you always have to reach for the escape key...in that case, I suppose you should map it to escape instead.
echo 'inoremap kj <Esc>' >> ~/.vimrc # works like a charmNonsense. Map caps lock to control regardless of whether you're an emacs or vim user. If you use vim, control+c does the same as escape and since vim does still use control sometimes, it makes sense to keep control easy to access and just use that (IMHO very easy to press) key combo instead.
But ctrl-[ is exactly the same.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1578 http://www.tow.com/2007/12/18/apple-wireless-keyboard-review...
If you want an living room PC for entertainment, Windows is king. Neither Linux or OSX support Bluray properly and Windows still has a huge edge in gaming. Windows also supports the most hardware. That's become unimportant to most people, but if you work in a research lab with various oddball computer controlled devices around, you are often forced to work with Windows simply because that's the only OS supported by drivers for a lot of things.
OSX is the perfect OS for your mother. There's the one "Apple way" of doing things, so if she needs help it's easy to give her some. OSX gets decent battery life (on mac hardware) and still has a few Unix friendly features that haven't been locked away by Apple yet. If you're looking for a ghetto linux workstation, OSX will do in a pinch. I actually spent the better part of last year working under OSX on a Mac Book air. I've used Mac's off and on for decades and this is just the most recent stint (The MBA hardware lured me in this time). It worked, but the OS still puts up too much fight you when you try to customize it. OSX has also gotten rather buggy. I'm relieved to have retired it. As I said, while it would be great for my mother I personally detest OSX. Also, Mac hardware is moving away from the DIY crowd. e.g. The MBA's actually use proprietary screws to keep you out of your own laptop's innards. If you've ever saved a laptop from a coffee spill by disconnecting the battery and opening it up and doing a little cleaning, just bear in mind you won't be able to do that with most future macs.
Linux is bug central. Don't get me wrong, it's come a long way from the days when Slackware was king. You can install Ubuntu and almost everything will just work. The devil is in the details though, and if you have a low tolerance for flakiness you'll have to tweak away. However, no other OS is as powerful and flexible. If you want it to do X, it can do X in dozens of different ways. If the journey is as important as the destination for you, Linux is your OS.
Windows is all things to all people, but entertainment first and foremost. OSX is for your mother or people who would rather not use a real computer. Linux is for those who embrace the quest. Decide (and be honest with yourself) what kind of user you are and your OS preference will become clear, although what you are forced to use may be different. I currently use both Windows and Linux extensively, and occasionally help my Mom with OSX.
Perceived hardware quality is something Apple is fantastic at. Their laptops look and feel great. They feel like they'll last decades. This is misleading since they're actually built to be disposable. e.g. If you spill coffee on your Macbook Air, it's dead. You can't fix it because you can't remove the battery in a timely fashion and don't have the tools to open it. Apple won't fix it because their warranty doesn't cover spills. They won't even open it up and help you clean it up. They'll just tell you it's now off warranty and to kindly buy another or PFO. This is the big apple lie. Their stuff feels like heirlooms, but it's built to be binned at the first sign of trouble or obsolescence (or when the non-user-replaceable battery inevitably fails).
For some strange reason Apple has managed to put retina displays in their laptops before LG or Samsung (who probably manufacture those panels) manage to put them in their own laptops. While other laptop manufacturers are pretty timid about doing new things these days, they are getting faster at following in Apple's footsteps. We'll likely see Samsung or LG putting out their own laptops with retina displays within a few months. At least some of them will have proper screws that you actually own a screwdriver for.
Samsung really has the potential to be an industry leader. They make everything. SSD's, memory, displays, you name it. Some of their efforts (e.g. the Series 9) have actually been innovative in certain small and specific ways. It's frustrating to watch them sit back and let Apple do things "first" with their own parts though. Someone at Samsung is really dropping the ball and I hope they're shown the door soon.
Amen brother. It's astonishing to me that so much of what Apple creates is actually made by Samsung, and yet they constantly seem so far behind.
Have you seen their new 15" Ultrabooks though? They are awesome. 15" screen and weighs more than a pound less than the new MBP (obviously, with tradeoffs)
Biggest tradeoff being the Samsung has a low voltage (slow) dual core vs a full speed quad core plus a massive GPU. I don't think we'll see anything much lighter than the Macbook just due to the need to vent the heat. It's considerably lighter than any other quad I know of.
That or Samsung just doesn't care about being the first to the gate.
The batteries are actually designed to last for many years and pretty easy to replace with a screwdriver.
My MBP from 2008 is still going strong, and that's the less solidly built pre-unibody. Unlike many others, Apple extended the warranty because of the nVidia chipset bug.
From what I hear, Apple can sometimes be nice about accidents, but other times they're sticklers about the rules.
There's nothing strange about this. Apple has been pushing very high resolution as a differentiator for 2 years now. They've made huge investments in new factories for Toshiba, Sharp and likely other display makers. They've signed huge contracts taking almost all the production from other vendors. It's not like tomorrow Samsung Mobile can say "shit tear up that $3 bln deal with Apple we want to make a 2880x1800 laptop now"
"Samsung really has the potential to be an industry leader."
The fast follower strategy has been ingrained into Samsung for what, decades? I don't see how it's frustrating to watch them execute the strategy they've been very successful with and I don't expect them to turn around and bet the farm on a new market leading approach.
My Thinkpad is only a few years old, and the cooling system is acting up, I'm also having keyboard issues (even after replacing it) and just isn't worth bothering with. My old Macbook Pro on the other hand still practically runs like new, and never had to be repaired for anything.
I wish people wouldn't make claims based on speculation.
The only thing the newer macbooks would beat mine on would be games, and I just don't play very many. When I do its usually casual like Plants vs Zombies or whatever.
It's lasted longer and fared better than any other laptop I've owned (14" vostro, 13" inch vaio, 17" HP). It has simply been the best laptop I've every owned.
I have done upgrades, the best of which being an SSD. Without that, I'm sure I'd be feeling the pain of old hardware. I pulled the optical drive out and moved my mechanical drive to that bay for extra storage.
The casing has a few very minor nicks, and I did take it in to the apple store to get new rubber "feet" a few months back (under warranty).
I love my macbook pro. Someday I'll upgrade again, if the logic board gives out or something. Probably to a new macbook pro. Perhaps not though, the other manufacturers are catching up with their ultrabooks.
This laptop has been the first computer I've owned where I haven't felt like I was "fighting" with it to get work done.
The "retina" display is the first thing they've done that has me actually wanting to buy new hardware.
I've never used a Thinkpad, though, so I can't say whether it would have fared better or not.
Well... my 2006 T60p is in great shape. Original hard drive, battery only 14.7% down from its original capacity.
My 2004 X31 is still ticking and it's been through a lot. Zero problems with the electronics although to be fair I did upgrade the hard drive in 2007.
The latest T's and X's are better, but your average 60p has a better monitor than nearly all of the current tpad line.
Looking at the IPS-equipped X220 for my next laptop :)
I'll rate that as damn good. Only damage was cosmetic other than that it was in great shape. I think you may be rating the macbook pro too low. I've seen people drop their thinkpad and having them go boom.
Yes yes anecdotal evidence blah blah. But I place a lot of props to that macbook pro surviving a motorcycle accident. Its been retired along with the helmet that saved me. Just my $0.02
In the end, I took a 6 year old computer to an Apple store and walked out with it looking more or less new, for free.
Apple's service is nothing short of amazing. I doubt IBM would have done that to your Thinkpad.
Battery replacement is $99.
For some strange reason Apple has managed to put retina displays in their laptops before LG or Samsung (who probably manufacture those panels) manage to put them in their own laptops.
Windows probably doesn't support retina properly (which is sad, considering that MS has been working on retina support since Vista). Also, Apple may have outbid Samsung for the panels.
Samsung really has the potential to be an industry leader. They make everything.
Except software.
I've replaced the batteries for them, actually, I've had Apple give me new batteries due to them failing early... but I've never had issues with Apple not servicing my laptop. They have dents in them, they have scratches from wear and tear, they have stickers all over them, but they still work extremely well. Still run the latest version of OS X, still run all of the software I use on a daily basis.
I used to own an iBook that I had purchased in 2004, an iBook G4, when I purchased my new MBP in 2007 I sold my iBook to my dad and he used it till 2010. The iBook is still up and running, it is simply too slow for my dads needs so he bought a new MacBook Pro and absolutely loves it.
This is basically a longwinded way of saying that I disagree with your assessment that they are disposable machines. The amount of life and longevity in a Mac are to be envied, and the way they hold their value even after a couple of years is simply awesome.
Agreed -- I just sold my 2007 MBP and got enough back to buy a new iPad (retina version). That's more money than most brand new low-end Windows laptops go for (are there any non-low-end Windows laptops? I looked but couldn't find much from the major stores).
If you think about the original price that I paid (£1100) minus the sale price (£400), the total cost is really not that bad...
Looking into it further at the time there's actually a good chunk of your macbook that you can fix yourself it's just not officially blessed by Apple
I'm still typing on it today. But man, those new retina MacBooks are tempting.
Plus, unless you have an OS that can take advantage of it, higher resolution in a 11" ultrabook machine does not make sense.
What's gone wrong with them?
MBP - The case is full of dents, and the screen is starting to get dark. It's balls slow these days and Apple really doesn't want to support it anymore.
Netbook - it can't detect how much battery is left anymore, but otherwise seems fine. It's also balls slow, and there's not really a way to support it.
All that being said, replacing my netbook with something similarly priced will cost me $300-400 and get me a hell of a lot better piece of hardware. Replacing my MBP is going to cost me a pretty penny that I'm not looking forward to.
Note: I actually did "replace" my MBP with a Dell Studio a couple of years ago for about a thousand bucks and got a ridiculous amount of hardware for that price. It still looks almost new, but it "feels" cheap and fragile, even if it hasn't actually shown any wear and tear. My MBP on the other hand feels incredible, but has collected so many battle scars from fairly undramatic handling that I wonder if aluminum really is a good case material in the long run. The metal around one of the ports in the back is so buckled the port is no longer usable.
Note 2: It's interesting, being an East Coastie, that when I see MBPs it's usually young professionals at Starbucks or some such putting together business consulting slide decks or something. It's mildly unusual to see developer types out here with Macs (or see them with Macs not running Windows). I'm sure it's an effect of banking and government on the ecosystem. But it's almost always non-tech types using Macs here...usually as a response to having crappy corporate Windows XP/7 systems forced on them in their cubes at work.
Note 3: I'm not really a developer type, so personally I think Macs are "OK". I can see why West Coastie Web Startups use them. The Unixland is decent enough, the GUI is pretty good etc. For folks who want to do that kind of stuff the ecosystem is pretty nice.
For me, most of the stuff I want to do with a computer either isn't as good, doesn't exist, or is a second class citizen in the Mac world (it's mostly music composition, retrogaming, other entertainment) but is miles ahead in maturity and choices in the PC world. Portable software practices make lots of that go away when I'm stuck on my Mac and want to have some fun, but it still feels less mature than the Windows counterparts.
For business, almost none of my customers are using Macs, so I'm back into Windows land again.
It's frustrating, I'll sit down to really work with my Mac for a bit (and did for a few solid years), but find myself inevitably drawn back into Windows world to "just get shit done" in many cases.
Running Windows on an expensive MBP seems silly as the hardware seems to be about as durable, but the Windows machines are virtually disposable they're so cheap...and I couldn't care less about the feel of the machine.
I think changing work environments to a different kind of shop would probably offer me a better opportunity to stick with OS X, it's a kind of network effect.
But outside of some personal frustrations, I can see why either ecosystem would be a perfectly valid choice.
Why do I think I should buy Macbook Air? Because laptop should be that light and thin.
Why I use Linux? It's dead simple. A single command or a simple script can make system management and other tasks so straight forward and no brainier. I have total control on what I want on my system. Of course their is a learning curve but that's the main reason I visit HN.
And not just because of their advantage in hardware; Windows is notoriously hard to program for in a resolution independent way, and the first double resolution laptop displays are going to cause early adopters no end of pain. Even if Windows 8 brings APIs to fix it, the long tail of apps are not going to be updated any time soon.
I expect this to be an unusually large and concrete reason for everyday people to choose a Mac laptop for the next few years. Side by side, Macs will look amazing. Looked at a 3GS recently? Eww.
Of course, this is assuming OS X has resolution independence nailed; though I'd be amazed if they shipped this if that wasn't the case.
(This is a repost of my comment from a rumor thread; not much has changed)
Really? Using which API?
My point is that the long tail of apps in the wild are going to be problematic, regardless of what new apps do.
That said, it was all purely visual stuff, and the errors were more subtle than I was expecting, so maybe my prediction was a little strong. Though if you track off the beaten path, I'm sure it gets worse - that VB6 App you use to track warehouse supplies may be completely broken.
I tried whatever I use day to day:
Opera, Firefox, Skype, MSN, FlashDevelop, Unity, VLC, UltraEdit, Dropbox, MonoDevelop, TPCView, SmartDefrag
In contrast, with this announcement, I've probably bought my last Apple product.
On a wider note, I feel myself... drifting away from all of this. In previous years I would have been all over WWDC live blogs and so on- this year I'm already fed up with my Twitter stream being filled with it, and am dreading the Hacker News front page being liberally coated with Apple. I am happy to just read the post-game analysis after the fact. Reality Distortion Field Fatigue, perhaps?
Lack of gigabit Ethernet on the big pro air makes me sad, though.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD463ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA3Ng
Presumably the logic is that its all wifi these days anyway.
Kind of silly given that the new Macbook Pro Air HD Super 15 has a better display than anything else I own, so I'm not going to necessarily want to put a 1920x1200 24" or even 2560x1600 30" in the center of my desk with it -- I'd treat the laptop display as primary, on a stand, with a keyboard. But Apple doesn't make a docking solution, and the Belkin/Matrox docks have been vaporware for over a year.
Keys/wallet/etc. remain in pockets when not in use, though -- so they're a LOT less likely to be abandoned than something which is small, connected to another long cable, etc.
Their thunderbolt ethernet adapter is $30: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD463ZM/A
Even when setting up hotdesks for guests, it's unclear if you could put just a TB display in them -- enough people will have non-TB macs, or non-macs, to require something else. Maybe you could have some percentage TB display, but a good third-party dock + a display which can take multiple inputs (DVI, HDMI, MDP via adapter, TB to adapter to monitor) seems like a better choice. Uglier, yes.
For personal/home use in a dark room with only 2011+ macs, and if you have a spare 15" for other temporary use, then sure, it's a good option.
But if you're going to do that, just sell your existing Air and buy a new one..
Personally, i think the 2011 Air is a great machine and offering 8GB on it now is all that needed to be done to keep it a great machine for another year.
But definitely, certainly, the 2010 to 2011 update was important in terms of performance.
That happens. In my case, it's the "seen it all before" effect.
It would be exciting if something really noteworthy was happening, but a bump in resolution or a new I/O interface are not groundbreaking changes in computing.
As I understand, the "Retina display" label takes into account the recommended viewing distance from the display. An iPhone display will be held much closer than someone (with proper posture) at a laptop.
Supported resolutions: 2880 by 1800 pixels (Retina); scaled resolutions: 1920 by 1200, 1680 by 1050, 1280 by 800, and 1024 by 640 pixels
I guess we'll have to see how that works out.
I'm guessing a reason we haven't seen high DPI screens from Dell/HP/Sony/etc is partially because the Windows OS doesn't really support it that well just yet. Hopefully things have changed in Windows 8.
Hopefully the Linux devs will start taking this into consideration.
Full screen apps with the magic pad swipe between them mitigates this somewhat for apps like Mail, Sublime Text, or Terminal, but 1440 x 900 is a poor choice for dual page word processing.
That said, after development, my second most common activity is photo triage and editing. For this, the 15" retina display could present a far truer representation of what can be expected in the final print.
But I'm concerned about the "less glare" feature. I've also always and only purchased the matte screens. They have no glare, and no false brilliance from the glossy screen. For photo editing for print work, the matte screens have always felt more accurate. I'm curious if they've gone to a single screen surface, based on glossy, but with somewhat less glare. I'm not sure I'd be interested in that.
On the plus side, a MBP 17" only fits in carry on bags that can't quite go in a commuter jet's overhead bin, while the 15" will fit easily in most any commuter jet compatible bag.
That said, the iPad 3 64GB with iPhoto and SnapSeed can ingest and edit a great deal of photos even at today's DSLR resolutions. On recent trips, I carry an iPad 3 plus a Nextodi external portable photo HDD with integrated card reader. I edit one day's worth of photos on the iPad, while archiving the full memory cards on the Nextodi.
(Example: http://www.phillips-safety.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=...)
I think you've confused "resolution" with "my preferred resolution". The new MBP has both a higher density and a better resolution then what you're looking for. You may be disappointed but I bet Apple thinks it can make more money by selling 2880x1800 MBPs.
You can imagine an alternative scenario to this in which everything on the screen is half as big as it used to be yet equally detailed, with four times as many icons fitting on the home screen as before. This is what it would be like if the full resolution of the retina display were utilized just to provide more real estate instead of more detail.
"Supported resolutions: 2880 by 1800 pixels (Retina); scaled resolutions: 1920 by 1200, 1680 by 1050, 1280 by 800, and 1024 by 640 pixels"
This is odd.
I.e., the approach they've taken is fully scaleable from current resolutions to high resolutions, but it'll take some cooperation from third-party software.
In the end, you'll be better off.
That may be true, but they're going to need a monocle if they want to see 9-pt courier at native resolution on one of these bad boys.
That said, the one thing that continues to concern me with Apple is the continuation of their closed philosophy. The Mac App Store being the latest incarnation of their quest for total control. I, frankly, don't know what to make of it.
An Apple ecosystem would have no competitors. Like it or not, Microsoft enabled an incredible level of global competition that, ultimately, has been responsible for bringing us the Internet as we know it. Stop and think about what I just said before you disagree. Nearly all of the hardware developments in the last thirty years have come on the backs of the MS platform. You can build inexpensive and powerful servers today because of MS. Same with Linux and other advances. They lit the fire that triggered an incredible evolutionary chain in both consumer and professional computing.
While I understand why Apple does it this way --and they are fully entitled to do so-- I would not want to see a world where their computers are adopted en-masse unless they let go and break the chains.
That's pretty rich. Networking was a fundamental feature of many operating systems that predate Microsoft's existence . The first web browser was developed not on Windows, but the precursor to OSX (NextSTEP) and MS played catch up in basic browser features around the web's early years. The vast majority of servers are Linux based.
It's silly to attribute the rise of commodity PC hardware to them as well - it's only their lawsuits that prevented Linux from seeing widespread distribution, which would have enabled just as much innovation.
I did not attribute the Internet to Microsoft.
What I said is that "Microsoft enabled an incredible level of global competition" and it is this competition that, in turn, allowed the internet to evolve into what we have today.
Yes, networking existed way before MS.
Yes, TBL wrote the first browser on NS.
Yes, MS played catch-up with browsers.
That is not the point.
Linux didn't begin life until 1991. By that time the MS-ecosystem-driven PC evolution was very well under way. Linus Torvalds wrote the initial version of Linux on a '386 based PC. By that time PC clones ruled the world. The evolution had gone through the 8086, 80186 and 80286 processors. Machines cost a fraction of what the original true IBM PC cost, were faster and did a lot more.
None of this would have happened with a closed hardware model. In fact, it did not. Apple was around at the same time, of course. They focused on keeping it all to themselves. MS, in turn, just did the software and let everyone else figure out the hardware. Yes, it was chaotic but it worked.
As the internet begun to heat-up it was Linux running on PC hardware that made it explode. The internet required hardware to grow and explode into every corner of the world. It was the cheap PC hardware that resulted from the evolution of the PC around the MS software that, among other things, enabled the internet to explode like it did. Nobody can even attempt to credit Apple with any of that.
Again, I am not anti-Apple here. Among other things, I develop iOS apps and have a nearly equal number of Windows and MacOS machine in the shop. I will likely buy more Apple hardware in the next few months. No issues there.
My original post was not about bashing Apple, it was to highlight my concern for the increasing closed-everything (not just hardware) approach Apple is taking --which is a fact. In some cases it is almost despotic. As a developer, that concerns me a great deal. As a consumer, I prefer to see competition at all levels. I'd really like to see Apple open-up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Apple_Inc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_personal_computers#The_IBM_PC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_browsers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldWideWeb
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(web_browser)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_web_browsersMicrosoft had nothing to do with the openness of the PC architecture. By the time MS had any influence, the PC market had already been well established with several manufacturers churning out PC clones.
It was the cheap PC hardware that resulted from the evolution of the PC around the MS software...
Isn't it the other way around? At least in the beginning, the MS software seemed to evolve around advances in the PC hardware. At some point Microsoft probably got enough leverage to influence the process, but another company (or a consortium of companies) would have probably got to do that if MS had not been around.
"...another company (or a consortium of companies) would have probably got to do that if MS had not been around." I am glad it wasn't Apple or another one with an Apple-like vision. It would have been a curse on the computing industry.
* Two Thunderbolt[/DisplayPort?] ports
* One HDMI port
* A Geforce 650M (capable of driving 4 active displays [1]).
EDIT: "Up to two external displays" (thanks dsirijus)
With USB3 now, you could probably run several. I bet you could get 4 HD monitors easy.
Even with just Visual Studio and normal office usage, I found it very frustrating using a 1080p screen over USB. Very choppy and annoying.
It looks and I would guess it would be magsafe 1 compatible. Maybe it has extra features or power to it. Pretty much any MB* can be charged on any power adapter albeit slower (or not at all if heavily using it).
My two guesses: 1. The entire window draws as doubled pixels, as if it didn't support Retina at all 2. The window gets two separate paint events, one retina and one non-retina.
Anyone know how this works yet?
Source: manual testing under 10.7.4 with HiDPI resolutions activated using QuartzDebug
Unless there's a "just one more thing" with these, it seems that the Mac Pro appears more and more dead.
1- The transcode from h.264 (what my D7000 outputs) to Prores 2- Transitions, overlays and basic comp'ing effects 3- Export from FCP 4- Transcoding from Prores to h.264 again
The editing itself, no, it isn't that bad really anymore. On my old Macbook Pro (2009 model?) it was pretty hard still. Yet, everything surrounding the render is just terrible. I feel that with a 16/32 core Mac Pro, 64GB+ of RAM that that many of these problems would go away. I saw where someone had built a Hackintosh the other day that was 16/32 cores and 128GB RAM... which is very tempting currently.
My intuition for the cause, is that the more surface area of the screen, the harder it is to consistently manufacture the panels without defects. But I'm not convinced because I'd imagine such incredibly high resolutions on laptop panels must be pretty demanding technology as well.
I just want 2880x1880 30" monitors for my office :)
Since you're comparing with "most desktop rigs", you should also remember that most 15" laptops are 1280x800 or 1440x900.
Today, most are the appalling 1366x768. I have to give Apple major points for sticking with decent resolutions and 16:10.
However, with laptops, you can only keep making them so big (and indeed, it seems that the 17″ MacBooks are getting axed). Similar to phones, the only innovation that makes sense in this market is to increase DPI.
But hey, they finally made a Thunderbolt Firewire adapter cable.
I throw a lot of data around. I like backups. The difference between USB2 and USB3 will be non-trivial for me.
http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-ST0022U-Plastic-Docking-St...
all the thunderbolt ones are very expensive.
For perspective: my (larger) 2010 MBP 15" w/SSD gets very warm even when not doing anything with the GPU. Compiling in IntelliJ will get it to burn your lap off. When I've tried to use it to play games, it practically melts itself.
Still doesn't explain a higher price.
I hate the glossy screen and was happy to pay extra for matte on my current MacBook.
edit: Apple Store Berkeley says no.
Exhibit A: http://instagr.am/p/LvfFx3CPKI/
I ordered online.
1600x900 is perfect on a 15.6, and 1920x1080 is the maximum I'd go for on a 17 inch display. Any higher and I'd just connect a bigger external display...
Can anyone give me an idea of what this resolution can actually be useful for?
I prefer Windows--I'm going to try this out vs. the new Macbook Pro, but I may indeed pick up the ASUS.
Sadly, screen resolutions have been decreasing and moving towards 16:9 ratio. It's nice to see Apple emphasize the screen again and push competition.
At work I have a Core2Duo Mac Mini that runs Windows 7 in a VM for my "work stuff" on a second monitor. At home I have the current Core i5 Mac Mini for my main system, with an AMD Bulldozer-based Windows box for games and things that require Windows. Sure, I prefer *nix, but I'll admin and use whatever gets the bills paid.
When it comes to laptops, I have a 2010 Macbook Air 11", a 2010 Macbook Pro 13", a Thinkpad T61 with Ubuntu, a Lenovo G470 with Win7, and a Thinkpad X120e running Windows 7.
A couple of hours ago, I sold the MBAir and MBPro to friends and ordered the new Core i5 11.6" Air with 128G SSD and 8G RAM. It's not often that I will buy the "current" machine without waiting for a refurb to be available.
granted its not an air, but - are you sure you want one?
I think the 15 inch macbook as just announced is a far better option, with a single weak point (7 hrs) compared to an air-style form factor which would be weaker at everything - except weight and slightly thinner form factor.
basically, if all someone wants to do is type on it and not have to think about carrying it with them or not (e.g. a reporter for stories, student for essays, CEO for emails), a 15 inch air was not announced today. for everyone else, what was just announced is better than the 15 inch air.
Air 11": R$2699 -> R$3699 (1849 USD)
MBP 13": R$3599 -> R$3999 (2000 USD)
MBP Retina: R$9999 (4500 USD - WHAT??)
MBP Retina maxed out: R$15973 (~8000 USD...)
Apple prices went from ridiculous (buy a Mac or buy a car) 6 years ago to very competitive, until this update - apparently the good days are over.
Also I love the hardware and design. They only company who comes close to Apple's design is Asus in my opinion and even then they are still not quite there.
Does anyone know if the SSD is a standard SATA drive or a custom built in one (i.e. not user upgradable)?
Anyone who would know (an Apple employee) isn't going to comment publicly today.
This combined with on-board RAM and on-board SSD storage... are any of the components in these new retina display MacBook Pros replaceable?
Details here: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/campaigns/back_to_school
I guess it wasn't selling as good as the 15inch, ans is obsoleted by the retina one. But it's funny how there is so little mention of it, even if it was the top of the line for so long, representing the "everything's on board" mentality, just as the mac pro is.
And yes, thunderbolt devices are really, really fast. I have a TB RAID and a TB display on my MBP.
The most common use is probably external monitors, via mini-DisplayPort adapters.
Having a USB port on each side is nice, IMHO. For example, I have a pair of external speakers where the right speaker connects to the USB port, which is a bit awkward when you only have USB ports on the left side of the laptop.
Back to waiting...
I only use Linux, but if no one else competes with this LCD I'll buy a Macbook Pro for sure.
Did all Macbooks get Ivy Bridge update or not?
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macboo...
So what you're saying is carriers are not "technically" prepared to handle it? I wonder if 4g has any new technologies to handle making more efficient use of resources?
From my understanding of LTE, there's a lot of cool things being prepared in the specifications for 4G that make this scenario less burdensome. For instance femtocells are likely to become more common. I personally know of a specific carrier that's working on a technology so you can share resources between two sectors. OFDM in particular is good for minimizing interference which should allow networks to become more dense, I believe as technology evolves there's a lot of benefits to even the carriers to allow users to use 4G from their laptop.
No. I said what I meant; it's not a technology problem. Demand exceeding capacity in the short-term is a capital/resource allocation problem.
Capacity isn't constrained by a need for new specs or new hardware. It's constrained by most of the cell towers only having <50mbps backhaul for 3G. New towers need new radios, new equipment to drive it, and new backhaul to provide enough bandwidth to share among the connections. It takes a lot of time and money to upgrade and build out the network.
The carriers are carefully managing demand through pricing and service limitations so that it doesn't outstrip the rate at which they make those upgrades.
In the meantime I got myself this[1] and can highly recommend it. No more fiddling with USB-dongles, you can just leave it in the bag and a single button press gives you a Wifi->3G bridge (for up to 5 clients).
[1] http://www.amazon.com/UNLOCKED-HUAWEI-HSDPA-MOBILE-Velvet/dp...
Edit: I'm curious, why the downvotes?