Apple to Introduce New Macs at October 27 Event

matt100 said:
I'm not saying I'm right I'm just saying an armchair conclusion about this sort of thing will probably miss various motivations, not just (or perhaps not even) cost.
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I love me some apple macbook pros but there is no logic behind not including a longer cable with this. Any justification is just an excuse. Yes you could say "without the magsafe you don't want a 5m long cable as it will get tripped over" but that is just ignoring the fact they A) took out the magsafe and could easily have included a little replacement adaptor to do the same job B) let users have a usable cable they simply have to take care with.

I would love to sit down with some of the Apple execs and ask them some questions. Things like:

  • How is 5 hours of actual use "all day battery life"
  • Why did you put a pointlessly large trackpad and larger speaker area in whilst sacrificing a fair whack of battery capacity.
  • Why is there an almost unusably short power cable
  • At what point will your machines be "small, thin and light enough"
  • When did you lose sight of the fact that there are a lot of people who wish to do serious, taxing work on their laptops.
  • Will you admit that the macbook pro pricing is impacting the number of people who will buy it and ultimately hurting apple.

I'm mainly a web/app developer by trade and the only thing keeping me on the platform at the moment is the *nix base of the OS. The current web community is still heavily tilted towards macOS however is this is apples grand vision for the future I think they will realise too late that they didn't look after their core customers well enough.
 
matt100 said:
Just a thought.. it could also be a tech guy saying "Our batteries are getting knackered because people leave their laptop senselessly on power all the time, how do we gently encourage people to experience the all day battery life?"

And so they make it like your phone, you charge it when you're not using it?

Just a thought, I mean the extra they'll make/save is likely a rounding error on a rounding error in relation to their overall profitability.
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Leaving a laptop on power all the time shouldn't do any harm at all. It's intelligent circuitry so should be smart enough to sort itself out. IIRC my old Lenovo work laptop running windows xp would occasionally discharge itself to around 50% then back up, if you constantly left it on power.
 
matt100 said:
A surface pro or a surface book? My other half was given a surface pro by work and it's a joke, the fans are on even with 1 non video chrome tab open, it sounds like a hair dryer half the time, the keyboard sounds like you're typing on cardboard (the proper type cover) and it's ergonomically flawed as a..... laptop.

Ridiculous machine with a useless tablet mode.

Surface book however.. lovely. Not cheap.
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Then there something wrong with it.
A Hair dryer...really?...sure you not exaggerating?
Again no idea what you are talking about keyboard wise, but then is has a USB connection so you can hook what ever you liek to it, thats handy thing to have isnt it? And the Tablet mode is pretty brilliant, sounds like you gave it 1 min and made your mind up.
Also, why would you compare the Tablet Surface against a MBP, get a Surface Book then, which still works out cheaper.
 
Yes yes I get all of this and I'm not apologising for them as I think the prices are hilarious and the lack of a credible air replacement/update basically leaves all the premium entry level (if there is such a thing) to other companies, plus the removal of things like USB A and SD card slots for USB-C is clearly idealogical rather than practical, they could find room for them if they really wanted to.

All I'm saying is when you're looking at a £2k machine the omission of a £5 cable is likely down to other factors than cost, probably idealogical as with the ports.

englishpremier said:
Leaving a laptop on power all the time shouldn't do any harm at all. It's intelligent circuitry so should be smart enough to sort itself out. IIRC my old Lenovo work laptop running windows xp would occasionally discharge itself to around 50% then back up, if you constantly left it on power.
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Just FYI, current rMBPs don't do that.
 
englishpremier said:
Leaving a laptop on power all the time shouldn't do any harm at all. It's intelligent circuitry so should be smart enough to sort itself out. IIRC my old Lenovo work laptop running windows xp would occasionally discharge itself to around 50% then back up, if you constantly left it on power.
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That sounds really stupid to me. So you leave your laptop plugged in, it will discharge through the battery, then when you want to take it somewhere it may be in that discharging phase leaving you with less than 100%?
 
fez said:
I love me some apple macbook pros but there is no logic behind not including a longer cable with this. Any justification is just an excuse. Yes you could say "without the magsafe you don't want a 5m long cable as it will get tripped over" but that is just ignoring the fact they A) took out the magsafe and could easily have included a little replacement adaptor to do the same job B) let users have a usable cable they simply have to take care with.

I would love to sit down with some of the Apple execs and ask them some questions. Things like:

  • How is 5 hours of actual use "all day battery life"
  • Why did you put a pointlessly large trackpad and larger speaker area in whilst sacrificing a fair whack of battery capacity.
  • Why is there an almost unusably short power cable
  • At what point will your machines be "small, thin and light enough"
  • When did you lose sight of the fact that there are a lot of people who wish to do serious, taxing work on their laptops.
  • Will you admit that the macbook pro pricing is impacting the number of people who will buy it and ultimately hurting apple.

I'm mainly a web/app developer by trade and the only thing keeping me on the platform at the moment is the *nix base of the OS. The current web community is still heavily tilted towards macOS however is this is apples grand vision for the future I think they will realise too late that they didn't look after their core customers well enough.
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Answers to all those questions are:
Our main customers are fashionable wannabes. They'll sell their kidneys for a flashy laptop and that's all we cares about. #innovation
 
This made me chuckle before - https://blog.pinboard.in/2016/10/benjamin_button_reviews_the_new_macbook_pro/

Benjamin Button Reviews The New MacBook Pro

The new MacBook Pro shows that Apple is finally becoming serious about developers.

Gone is the gimmicky TouchBar, gone are the four USB-C ports that forced power users to carry a suitcase full of dongles. In their place we get a cornucopia of developer-friendly ports: two USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt 2 ports, a redesigned power connector, and a long-awaited HDMI port.

Photographers will rejoice at the surprising and welcome addition of an SDXC card reader, a sign that Apple might be thinking seriously about photography.

The new MagSafe connector is a bit of Apple design genius. The charging cord stays seated securely, but pops right off if you yank on it. No more worries about destroying your $2k laptop just by accidentally kicking a cord.

What hasn't changed: Apple has kept the beautiful Retina display, and storage and memory are the same as before. The new machines will be slightly thicker (to accomodate the USB ports) and 200 grams heavier, but it's not clear how this will affect battery life.

Interestingly, Apple has removed the fingerprint reader and its associated dedicated chip, perhaps assuming that developers would not comfortable with a machine they don't fully control.

The most obvious change is the redesigned keyboard. Removing the Touchbar creates room for a row of physical function buttons and, in a nice touch, an escape key. This isn't a perfect solution: the function buttons map to a confusing series of actions that can send windows flying around the screen with an errant keystroke, and the new physical off switch is too close to the backspace key. But it is certainly a huge step forward, and it will be interesting to see how software developers take advantage of this clever new feature.

Everything about the new machine seems designed for typists. The trackpad has been made smaller, so you're less likely to brush against it with your palm. The keys themselves are much more comfortable to type on, with improved key travel, a softer feel, and more satisfying tactile feedback. You no longer feel like you're tapping on the glass surface of an iPad. And not having a TouchBar means no longer having to look down at your hands all the time.

Despite the many improvements, Apple is actually dropping the price on its flagship 15" MacBook Pro by $400, another sign that they're serious about winning over developers.

The release is an encouraging sign of life at Apple, whose products have not seen significant changes since the company introduced a separate operating system for its laptops in 2019. There's even speculation that Apple may refresh its antiquated Mac Pro and desktop macs, neither of which have been updated since their release in 2022.

Rumors are also swirling that the company will add a headphone jack to its already popular iPhone. The announcement could come as early as this month.
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deFiniLoGy said:
Answers to all those questions are:
Our main customers are fashionable wannabes. They'll sell their kidneys for a flashy laptop and that's all we cares about. #innovation
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Thats not really true. There were models that were aimed at the cheaper end of the scale but they have always aimed their MBP at professionals and that is their main customer still.
 
matt100 said:
A surface pro or a surface book? My other half was given a surface pro by work and it's a joke, the fans are on even with 1 non video chrome tab open, it sounds like a hair dryer half the time, the keyboard sounds like you're typing on cardboard (the proper type cover) and it's ergonomically flawed as a..... laptop.

Ridiculous machine with a useless tablet mode.

Surface book however.. lovely. Not cheap.
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Dunno what your on about.

The Surface pro i had diddnt sound any louder then my macbook pro!

Keyboard is fine for travel, i can always attach a proper keyboard to it. minor.
 
jonneymendoza said:
Dunno what your on about.

The Surface pro i had diddnt sound any louder then my macbook pro!

Keyboard is fine for travel, i can always attach a proper keyboard to it. minor.
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I'm on about the fact that the over £100 keyboard for the surface pro sounds and feels like typing on cardboard, to suggest it's in any way a match for any decent laptop keyboard, especially a macbook pro is laughable. I'm only suggesting I've discovered what most reviews of the thing have said.

And yes you can attach a keyboard, you can attach SD card readers, USB hubs and god knows what else to a macbook and that doesn't appear to be minor?

My impression of the surface pro 4 in real world use is that it's a noisy tablet with a keyboard, not a laptop.

Very fast, beautiful screen etc etc.. but honestly, if you're in that market just get a surface book.
 
matt100 said:
I'm on about the fact that the over £100 keyboard for the surface pro sounds and feels like typing on cardboard, to suggest it's in any way a match for any decent laptop keyboard, especially a macbook pro is laughable. I'm only suggesting I've discovered what most reviews of the thing have said.

And yes you can attach a keyboard, you can attach SD card readers, USB hubs and god knows what else to a macbook and that doesn't appear to be minor?

My impression of the surface pro 4 in real world use is that it's a noisy tablet with a keyboard, not a laptop.

Very fast, beautiful screen etc etc.. but honestly, if you're in that market just get a surface book.
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The keyboard is fine though! Just because it's not as good as a macbook doesn't deem it useless. I code all day on the surface pro keyboard and its bloody good.
 
The keyboard on my 2011 11" Air are better than the 2015 13" MBP. Much less rattle and with a more solid feel. Key travel is the same. Both are easy enough to work with, and better than anything I've used so far from Acer or HP.
 
WuMyster said:
Isn't the MacBook keyboard deemed ****.
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Yes, the butterfly mechanism of Macbook (non Pro), the new MBP keyboard is now based on is considered quite buggy and step back from old keyboards.

Have you guys read yet that the two extra USB-C ports on the "no escape" MBP are not full speed? According to cultofmac even the startup chime is gone. What? Seriously, it's like a knock off 1st of April...
 
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v0n said:
Yes, the butterfly mechanism of Macbook (non Pro), the new MBP keyboard is now based on is considered quite buggy and step back from old keyboards.

Have you guys read yet that the two extra USB-C ports on the "no escape" MBP are not full speed? According to cultofmac even the startup chime is gone. What? Seriously, it's like a knock off 1st of April...
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I don't think that is quite right, they all offer full speed USB-C but the ones on the right are not full speed Thunderbolt 3. That only applies on the 13", the 15" offers full speed on all of them.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207256

I do agree with the April 1st comment though, the more I think about it the more I am amazed that they have stripped an SD reader, USB 2.0, Magsafe, Function keys, etc from a laptop aimed at professionals. In their place we get what is frankly a gimmick for most users and a blooming expensive one too.

I'd been planning an upgrade of my 2012 13" MBP and the only upside for me is that there will be a good supply of second hand 15" MBPs to choose from soon :)
 
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