Apple To Refresh Entire MacBook Lineup Next Month, Air and Pro To Feature Kaby Lake (bloomberg.com) 234
Apple will unveil new laptops during its annual developer conference, known as WWDC, next month, reports Bloomberg. The company is going to refresh the MacBook Pro (as well as Air and just the 'MacBook' models) with new seventh-gen processors from Intel, the newest available, the report adds. Last year, Apple launched three new MacBook Pro laptops with older sixth-generation chips, which means people who already own the newer model may be a bit dismayed by Apple's refresh. From the article: Apple is planning three new laptops, according to people familiar with the matter. The MacBook Pro will get a faster Kaby Lake processor from Intel, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss internal planning. Apple is also working on a new version of the 12-inch MacBook with a faster Intel chip. The company has also considered updating the aging 13-inch MacBook Air with a new processor as sales of the laptop, Apple's cheapest, remain surprisingly strong, one of the people said.
Updates are always a danger (Score:3)
When you buy any laptop there's going to be an update before too long - even if Apple were not doing "new" models there's usually some kind of mid-year refresh you're going to not be getting.
At the time of the last MacBook Pro release there was a lot of technical analysis pointing out all of the things coming on-line in the next few years - the new intel processors, and with them mobile chipsets that could handle more memory efficiently. So it was pretty easy to judge at the time if you should buy a laptop then, or wait another year if you really wanted the Intel processor update.
Not everyone cares about all of the aspects of a laptop being at peak, it's always judging tradeoffs and deciding if a system will meet your needs.
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When Apple releases a new laptop, that's the laptop they're going to sell you for the next 5 years. (For better or worse)
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It sounds like they are going to 'refresh' the laptops they've been selling for, oh, about six months now. What a mistake people who bought the new 2016/17 Macbooks made. They're all obsolete in a little while.
And those are the most festering eager Apple customers.
Way to go, Apple.
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It's almost as if you've been ignorant of the computer market for the past 35 years.
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I looked at the Macbook Pro last year, looked at my 2012 15" model, and passed on the new one. I acutally like my old one better than the new one and it's actually not that much slower. I'm not paying out 2K for a laptop that's 100 dollars faster.
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There is a larger boost to be had (Score:2)
I agree the performance boost will be minimal... from the processor.
However what Apple will be doing is putting much more powerful GPU's into the newer laptops, and also allow for much more ram (I am thinking a cap of 64 GB).
That's because Apple heard all of the complaints about how they didn't have a "real" pro laptop and are doing an about face on that as quickly as they can. It's all part of the same drive that is totally re-working the Mac Pro, it's just they can tune up new laptops much faster.
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you just keep wishing that they do that.
apple doesn't care. they don't care about pro.
This time, we're taking away the SCREEN (Score:5, Funny)
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I figured as much. It's the only thing that's left.
Damn Youngster! (Score:4, Funny)
SCREENS were invented as a part of 1960s/1970s
Screens? In the 60's early 70's? Would have loved to have screens! We had teletype machines [wikipedia.org], line-printers with keyboards attached! You're "screen" was a roll of paper. Files edited one line at a time. You think they call 'em "carriage-return" and "line-feed" for nothing?
Gett^H off my lawn^H^H^H^HLAWN!
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Teletypes? Luxury! We had switches we used to load programs! And perfectly good incandescent status bulbs to read the output on! Later, we got paper tape punches and readers, and we were so happy!
==> ...still has copy of Tiny Basic on oiled paper tape, safe in a film canister
That paper tape (Score:2)
Nope, not that generous any more. Plus, I no longer have a paper tape reader. :) I'll probably sell it someday, so it doesn't get lost in some relative's WTF box at the time of my death.
However, I did write a complete emulation of the 6809 and the Flex OS, which you can get from here [datapipe-b...ystems.com], if you're so inclined. It's a few years later than the paper tape, but on the other hand, it's hugely more capable, just as one might expect. Plus, the 6809 is a dream to program, unlike any other microprocessor of its vintage
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An optical paper tape reader is a fairly trivial 'maker' project in today's world. You should try to find some kids interested in tackling it for you.
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We had some of them when I was at college. They were great for 1st year stats - you did the exercise on minitab, tore off the bog roll, added notes & comments, signed it & handed it in.
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You mean like a Mac mini?
I have one and I mostly use my phone as the SCREEN. Fortunately Mac OS X still comes with the screen command.
nix the Touch Bar (Score:5, Insightful)
Every time I try to use the calculator (and the top row of number keys) my fingers graze the Touch Bar, which then triggers an incorrect calculation because the Bar adopt some calculator function keys while open.
There is something positive to be said about having keys that have physical boundaries and limited functions, and having that well separated from a touch bar which, if it provided some actually useful function, had the versatility to change roles during use. They should have kept dedicated physical volume, brightness keys -- which now hide behind 2 finger presses on a strip that you have to look at carefully to find where to press.
Aside from that inconvenience, I have to date used the Touch Bar approximately 0 times productively. I am not a video manipulator, so maybe that's what it's designed for, but so far, nothing. I am not really in need of having quick access to emoticons when I chat, thank you Apple...
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Re:nix the Touch Bar (Score:5, Interesting)
Not sure if you know, but you can customize the touchbar. If you go to "System Preferences->Keyboard->Customize Control Strip" you can customize it... get rid of Siri, move things around, etc.
I had the same problem hitting the Siri button, but once I found this it made my life so much easier.
I still don't use the touchbar much, but I do love touch ID.
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I thought the traditional complaint was that OSX wasn't sufficiently customisable... now you're complaining that it's too customisable?
They just can't win.
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apple will lose people who take the bar in some st (Score:2)
apple will lose people who take the bar in some states with that pad.
I totally disagree (Score:2)
I like the touch bar, and think it's an excellent idea they just need to refine a bit.
In my case I agree that the Siri button is a little too easy to hit, because my finger will slide up off delete and graze it.
My solution would be either to make the touch bar pressure sensitive and require a bit more force to trigger Siri, or to put up some kind of small ridge between the keys and the touch bar so your finger could not slide up there from the row of keys below.
My only complaint about the Touchbar is that I
Re:I totally disagree (Score:5, Interesting)
See, I'm actually a bit surprised that Apple did a touchbar at the top of the keyboard. I think a couple other options might have been smarter:
1) A small screen on the outside of the laptop so that notifications can be seen while closed. New Macs have a feature called "Power Nap" which allows the Mac to do limited things while asleep (e.g. check email). It might be handy to be able to see if you've received PowerNap enabled controls and notifications without opening your laptop. On the other hand, I'm not sure there are many uses for this that wouldn't be better handled on a smartphone.
2) Turn the trackpad into a touchscreen. It's basically already a fairly large glass touchscreen that you're used to performing gestures on. All they'd have to do is put a display behind the glass. Then you could enable apps to assign functions to specific gestures to specific areas of the touchscreen.
To replace some of the keyboard buttons with a touchscreen, however, doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Power users are generally going to be accustomed to touch typing, so forcing them to look at the keyboard for some of those keyboard functions seems counter-productive.
Re:I totally disagree (Score:4, Interesting)
A small screen on the outside of the laptop so that notifications can be seen while closed.
I don't see it, my laptop when closed is in a case or backpack pretty much instantly. When I use it when closed, a small screen would have almost no value to me.
Turn the trackpad into a touchscreen
I still like the Touchbar as it is more than doing a touch-screen trackpad. Since my fingers are often hovering over or around the Touchpad I think it would be really hard to see the display compared to the Touchbar, which is always visible at the top fo the keyboard.
To replace some of the keyboard buttons with a touchscreen, however, doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
It makes a ton of sense to me and in practice is very useful. That's why I yearn for an external keyboard with a Touchbar.
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I don't see it, my laptop when closed is in a case or backpack pretty much instantly.
Huh? You *just said*:
My only complaint about the Touchbar is that I often use the laptop shut attached to an external monitor...
so I've gotta call bullshit here. Like I said, most functions that would be useful in an external display on a laptop would probably be better managed on a smart phone, but don't shoot down my admittedly flawed idea because "my laptop is never shut" when you just complained, "my laptop is always shut".
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Huh? You *just said*:
Yes, and they I *kept typing!*. Madness I know, but I can express more than one concept in a single paragraph.
Had you kept reading you would have found answers instead of confusion. From the VERY POST YOU REPLIED TO, directly after the period you ended at:
When I use it when closed, a small screen would have almost no value to me.
I don't know how I can be any more clear. Of what use is a tiny screen on the laptop when I am already looking at a very large external monitor? If I want a
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Whatever. You're full of it. You can't say that a small screen would be useless when you don't know what would be on it or how it would work. But you're complaining that you never have your laptop closed while also complaining that your laptop is always closed. You haven't thought anything through.
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I liked that idea a lot also at the time, but I think the Touchbar + real keyboard is a more practical compromise. It's also more flexible as it's nice to have areas of the display much larger than a single key.
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Removing the Touchbar would be a big admission of failure. I don't know if your feelings about it are widespread in the Mac user community but I'd be surprised if they removed the last big innovation they announced.
I would not be so surprised if they expanded it to replace physical keys elsewhere.
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I doubt they will do away with the touch bar, but might offer a model without one.
They already offer a model without one. So it's sorta the gp poster's fault he's having to deal with it interrupting his workflow now. The non-touchbar one was even available before the touchbar models iirc.
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Are the whole range of models available in a nontouchbar version? I haven't read that much about it since the initial hype, but I thought there were a few low-end models without the touchbar.
Re: nix the Touch Bar (Score:5, Insightful)
The only real criticism is
1) Is that instead of adding it, they replaced a row of perfectly serviceable physical keys.
2) they stuck it too close to the physical keys you acutally need to press.
The touchbar itself is a gimmick in my opinion; with a few limited good use cases for some people.
I'd have no issue with it, if it's presence didn't mean the loss of stuff I liked and used -- like a physical escape key, and physical function keys, and if it was out of the way so that it didn't get 'used' by accident more than on purpose.
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On macOS, the function keys aren't really used. In fact, I don't recall any Mac app using any sort of function key F1..F15 (back when Apple keyboards had all the way to F15). They've always been the various media and system control keys (brightness, volume, eject, etc) and I've honestly always left them that way. Granted, it's completely different from the Windows world where you use the function keys constantly. Bu
Re: nix the Touch Bar (Score:4, Insightful)
On macOS, the function keys aren't really used.
True. Unless you use the mac to RDP into windows, or SSH into a linux box...or fire up a virtual machine or bootcamp; and then suddenly you might use them a lot. The point remains... I use them a lot.
I'm also playing with typescript in visual studio code, and its nice that the hot keys are the same on both platforms. F5, etc...
So...I can see dropping the physical keys on the 'consumer' line, but on the *pro*? That was an indefensible thing to do to their so-called pro series; which is really isn't terribly 'pro' anymore.
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Go fuck your turtle, you ignorant shit-wad. I use Macs exclusively, and I can't recall the last time I used a function key as a function key. I'm sure it's happened in the past 5 years, but I don't remember any such events.
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you can set your Touch Bar to always display brightness and volume keys, exactly as you had on your older MacBook Pro. Or to always show F-keys. Or to show either when your press the Fn key.
I could still see a complaint that, being touch sensitive, those controls are a little too easy to trigger accidentally. Also, if you use function keys frequently, having a touch screen doesn't let you feel the separation between keys, which hinders touch-typists.
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The Touch bar needs to physically PRESS DOWN like the trackpad does.
The trackpad doesn't physically press down, it detects a firm touch, and activates a force-feedback little widget, giving a very convincing impression of having been pressed down. It's the same as the new iphone home button, it's not a button at all, it's just force-feedback. It's very impressive, and works extremely well, and is likely far more reliable than an actual button - which can give the impression of having been pressed without actually making contact.
Anyway, I agree, the touchbar should have forc
The good news is what's *not* going to be there! (Score:2)
Yes, in continuing the Apple tradition of removing useless external ports with each "upgrade", these will feature a single thunderbolt port and no external power connection. One. Single. Port!
Of course, you have to buy a new laptop after the 10 hour battery life is up.
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Of course, you have to buy a new laptop after the 10 hour battery life is up.
I think they can and will do better than that with a new MacBook Air. It comes in an empty box. Actually it's just the empty box, because it's Air. Now that's courage.
Sounds awesome (Score:2)
Sounds awesome. Intel is getting ready to launch its Core i9-series to compete with AMD's Ryzen 9, aaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnddddddddd Apple will be featuring neither. Tip your stock broker accordingly.
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I'd imagine that Apple would be one of the first to offer a Core i9 mobile part once Intel has one available, given that their buyers would be willing to pay extra for it. The desktop parts look like they are going to be power hogs from the specifications I've seen so far.
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Yes, but this is Apple we are talking about. The i9 will probably not happen for a long, long time, if ever, just because cooling it would make their laptops that much thicker.
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Any CPU is a laptop CPU if you attach a large enough battery to it. -> Net Admin 101
Buy a Mac Air *now* before they ruin it... (Score:3)
I've had two Airs in the past three years, and the 2nd one only because the first was stolen. It was covered by insurance, so I tried like hell take advantage of the situation as an opportunity to upgrade. But I ended up buying the exact same configuration. For my purposes, given it's not a primary device, the thing is perfect. Will go all day and then some, is almost as easy to carry around as an iPad, yet you can throw some moderately compute-intensive chores at it and performs admirably. The only thing it doesn't have is retina, but that would just add weight or subtract battery life or both---so no thanks.
But for the love of Pete, Apple, please don't trash this gem. I have nightmares of them going with two USB-C ports. Or going Retina. Please, just don't. Up the RAM max, update the CPU, give us more SSD capacity, whatever. Just don't fuck with the mag-jack, keep the SD card slot in there, and only put USB-C in as replacements for the USB3 ports that are there already if you must. But that's probably wishful thinking.
The current iteration of Air is about as perfect a light-to-medium workflow laptop as you can get right now, and now I fear it will be history.
(and before you trash me as a fanboi, my career has been Windows/Linux software development for 30 years, and I've gone through at least 5-6 generations of Dell laptops in the course of my work).
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I have nightmares of them going with two USB-C ports.
USB-C is awesome, though only two ports would be insufficient. Four like the MBP has would be good, and they're small enough it should create no issues, especially since you no longer need the thunderbolt or power ports.
going Retina
Why would you not want a higher-resolution screen? It makes everything much smoother and nicer looking.
Just don't fuck with the mag-jack
I prefer USB-C for power, though there are some downsides. The main one is the lack of a light to show charge status. I don't miss the mag jack. It always seemed like a clever idea, but it'
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It is better to accidentally disconnect than to put torque on the connector.
That's the theory, but I got my first laptop 23 years ago and I've had and used one continually since then. In all that time I have never broken a connector or a cord... and I'm not particularly careful with them. However, I regularly had problems with my MacBooks with the magsafe connector whenever I was sitting in an "abnormal" position (which is usually... if I want to sit down at a desk, I use my desktop). Sitting on my bed with my laptop on my knees, and the weight of the cord pulls down on the connec
Does this mean 2015 models are going away? (Score:2)
Like MF839LL models? :(
17" Macbook pro and I am sold (Score:2)
Until that I'm running a 2013 old one. See no need to upgrade, everything works. Price is no issue.
Re:Where's Mac Pro? (Score:4, Informative)
Mac Pro probably in mid-2018, is what they lightly implied last time around. Still too early to be sure, basically.
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I'm using a late 2013 27" iMac with the 2GB GTx 775M and 3.4Ghz i5.... And I just used a friend's late 2008 imac with dual quad processors or something like that, and I gotta say, the prices on ebay look tempting as an "upgrade" option. With PCI cards that can do USB 3.0 and possibly handle the newer graphics cards, any new Pro models next year had better really haul butt.
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You think Apple hate the Mac Pro? Have you seen what they've done to the Mac mini?
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This. A thousand times this. The latest version is such a disaster that the previous-generation 4-core Mini was still selling for above-retail prices a couple of years after they discontinued it. It went from being the perfect low-end server to a toy in a single generation.
To be fair, that's partly Intel's fault for using a different pinout for the four-core version, but still....
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We've seen the future, and the future is touch-boards!
Apple saw how popular its touchbar equipped models were with people who have too much money and no technical experience.
Studies with a focus group of this demographic have revealed that people are sick and tired of keyboards that aren't a flat piece of glass over a backlit LCD panel.
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OS X used to be the go to for graphics and rendering, now it's what? Table-top hood ornaments?
Was that during the era of the Power Macs? Looks like one can't have both: if one wants to go to a CPU that does a good job in energy saving, which was the whole point of abandoning the PowerPC in favor of the x64 (not that it applies here, on the Xeon), then one will lose the performance. Although I have no idea why Apple doesn't prefer NVIDIA's video cards.
Honestly, I think Apple should migrate its entire line to its A* CPUs, so that it has a single uniform architecture that can be leveraged from
Re: Where's Mac Pro? (Score:4, Interesting)
They don't need (and I really wish they would not consider) a case redesign. The 2008/2009 cases were (still are) fabulous. Great cooling, hugely serviceable, expandable, plenty of room for drives, rackable, plenty of I/O, good looking, tough, quiet, reasonably secure...
All they actually need to do is abandon that trashcan thing as a (really) bad idea and cook up a new tower-fitting motherboard, for which I have no doubt whatsoever Intel has readily available sample electrical designs, add the I/O sauce of the day to it, change a few cutouts for the case to match, and ship the damn thing.
That whole "sometime in 2018" could mean they're going to do something "courageous" again. Otherwise there's little excuse for the timing. Well, unless they're not starting until 2018. Which might be the case. [lies:] No pun intended.
It's possible the new "courage" will be something worthy, but based on the trashcan and the headphone screwups and the lack of wired networks on various models and the withering of the mini's capabilities... I think "courage" has failed them as far as actually making something, you know, better. I just wish they would go back to the tower. Maybe pop out a mid-tower for the masses, too.
Here's hoping. I'd almost certainly buy a new mac pro with current CPU and (upgradable) GPU hardware and upgradable memory and drives and so on. Unless they screw it up. Again.
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IMO, the trashcan thing is great. Internally, I think they could improve the cooling if they had 6 boards instead of 3, connected like an equilateral hexavon. For an equilateral triangle, it's likely that the cooling doesn't reach the vertices or the connecting points of the boards
Have the Kaby Lake processes reached the Xeon? If not, there's the answer - of why they're not yet refreshing the Mac Pro.
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All I really have to say to that is I don't consider internally non-upgradable desktop machines to be anything I could describe with "great" other than greatly undesirable. And that's what the trashcan design is to me: a machine that's frozen in its capacities as soon as I buy it, short of littering my desk with power warts, easily stolen / damaged drives, an external PCI cage, and a nest of unwanted cables. Which kind of obviates that "neat small cylinder" idea pretty thoroughly. Not to mention being a sec
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They've confirmed that the next Mac Pro, which will be using a modular approach that should allow for easier customization and upgradeability, is already in the works, but that it shouldn't be expected until 2018.
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Proprietary modular design? I can't see them doing anything less than that.
So they're gonna make an SGI O2? That went really well. Look at how well SGI is doing.
Re:Where's Mac Pro? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Hopefully they'll allow more RAM (Score:4, Interesting)
i wouldn't equate adding ram to innovation, however, fact is, the only reason i held off buying new mbp is 16gig ram ceiling.
i want (almost need) 32gig in my next laptop.
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...this. I have an older Macbook Pro. The Intel Core i5 CPU is okay for what I need. But the 8 GB max RAM is laughable. Newer models I see on Apple's website have a little more horsepower of late. But a year or so ago I was specking out some higher-end Mac workstations for our marketing/advertising staff. Either I could get a model with a lot of RAM, but an older Intel CPU. Or vice-versa.
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Anything from 2013 to 2015 can be upgraded to 16 GB - not the ultimate of 32 or 64 but it IS a laptop.
16 GB in my 2015 MBP is fine. 8 is really limiting the machine. YMMV.
But come on, a minimal processor refresh is not particularly exciting nor unexpected. Maybe some ports this time. Or at least a custom sleeve with dongle pockets.
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The Mid 2012 MBP will accept 16 GB also. I bought one specifically to max it out and use for app development. All together I spent just shy of 550 bucks.
Good used Macs were never this cheap or this good relative to the new models. It really illustrates the slow pace of PC innovation by Apple and maybe the industry as a whole.
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Typing as we speak on my originally purchased in 2012 macbook pro (101 base model) with maxed out ram and ssd upgrades. Its so bizarre...im on a 6 year old laptop that I feel no need to upgrade...
and storage on a M2 card the same ones used on pc' (Score:2)
and storage on a M2 card the same ones used on pc's
That's not on Apple (Score:3)
Last year's MacBook not allowing 32GB of RAM was on Intel [idownloadblog.com], not Apple.
For sure that is the biggest driver behind the early update, so you'll see expansion up to 32GB (possibly beyond) with the newer laptops.
I also also question the wisdom of filing RAM increases under "innovation" while ignoring last year they added the Touchbar....
Re:That's not on Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
No, that's not "on Intel". Other laptop integrators have had no issue adding 32 gigs of RAM. You just end up with less battery life as a result. Apple's refusal to address the market segment is 100% on Apple.
Still not on Apple (Score:3)
No, that's not "on Intel". Other laptop integrators have had no issue adding 32 gigs of RAM. You just end up with less battery life as a result.
A LOT less battery life. It's not on Apple to refuse to sell what is essentially a crippled system because of limitations Intel imposed. It's not like you can on the fly switch to acceptably low power RAM for a laptop!
To me it's funny that Apple moved away from Motorola because they were screwed by system limitations, than Intel screws them over the same way years
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> My old Dell Latitude E6440 with 16 GB of low power memory used to last about 50 minutes on battery power
50 Minutes? that's horrible - even for a Dell.
But they claim to have 500+ minutes according to this marketing blurb! So you're getting 1/10th the listed battery life?
https://marketing.dell.com/Glo... [dell.com]
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Nope that's top of the line. Mobile Mark assumes a standard office workload, not smashing your computer to the point where you crave a faster CPU and more RAM.
I challenge any computer to last longer than an hour when running absolutely flat out.
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If every computer company refused to put in more than 4GB in developer machines my system would run much more efficiently. The assumption that an OS can gobble 2 GB of memory out of the gate, and that crap.app can eat another 500 MB for no discernible reason is a huge problem.
Have you looked at the memory requirements for zip recently? It's something like 2MB + twice the buffer (which tops out a 4MB or something). Now THAT is good software.
Re:Hopefully they'll allow more RAM (Score:5, Insightful)
Steve Jobs dies and everyone in Apple forgets how to think.
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then ressurrect jobs ffs. Timmy is making a titanic out of apple lol...
Don't worry. They have a big ring-shaped new building to use as a life preserver.
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My MacBook, single USB C, does 'real work' just fine. The MacBook Pros will do more of it, should you need to. The aim isn't a million dongles, the point is you've bought the start of the new normal.
Re:Not gonna bite... (Score:5, Insightful)
Right, because buying the newest model of laptop and phone from the same company and neither one comes with a cable that connects the two together, is "the start of the new normal." In what fantasy universe is that even remotely justifiable? That the iPhone doesn't come with a USB-C cable is proof that the claim that USB-C is the future is flawed and that Apple isn't putting its money where its mouth is. If they truly wanted to have people adopt USB-C, they would convert their entire product line over and flood the market with natively operating cables, all for relatively low cost. One could even argue that they should do away with packaging USB-A connectors in their products.
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It's not about the cost of the cable. It's about convenience and what Steve Jobs once used to say, "it just works." It's about Apple as a company being able to stand behind their design decision to put ONLY USB-C ports in their pro laptop, from which it is only logical to promote USB-C adoption by including the required cables in their other products, even to the point of excluding USB-A, if that is how serious and sincere they are about USB-C adoption. As it is now, their approach is half-assed. If they
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Some people are more eager than others to buy all new USB-C based peripherals that work with their shiny new Macbook without an adapter. Personally, I'd like to wait for the price to come down on them first.
I'd imagine that most businesses will drag their feet as long as possible. If we learned anything from the latest cryptolocker fiasco, there are a bunch of them still running 10 year old PC's with Windows XP.
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Also agreed with the business one too - but then, look what happened to them...
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The iMac was wrong to not have a floppy drive. It was very difficult to get data on or off of that thing, right up until the point that it was totally obsolete garbage, at which point almost every PC around could read and write USB. What did everyone who bought an iMac do? They also bought a fucking floppy drive to plug into it.
It's success was DESPITE its lack of floppy, not BECAUSE of it. It was a bad call at the time, historical revisionism aside. No one was arguing that a max 2 megabyte standard di
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On a desktop, you could make that argument. On a laptop, it needs to actually work with random crap you get in conference rooms and classrooms. People don't want to take a ton of dongles with them everywhere for ethernet, USB C to A, HDMI, DVI-D, VGA, and any other ports I'm forgetting. I don't carry a purse. I don't like huge computer bags. I want something small, light weight and portable with a laptop but I also want to avoid 20 dongles.
Apple should have at a minimum:
1 usb A, 1 usb c
ethernet
HDMI
mini disp
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Yes and no.
Microsoft still thinks USB-A is the normal for instance.
I will compare it to consumer electronics moving over the decades from dual RCA to 3.5mm jack. This doesn't change the basic feature of getting sound in or out, except for a few special jacks like headphone + mic on the same jack or non standard playback controls.
And if you get a DJ mixer or an AV receiver etc., it's still full of RCA inputs!
Tho in fairness, nobody really cares.
My other point is contrary to the 90s, a computer isn't a rare t
USB is the new normal (Score:4, Insightful)
...as long as Apple expects us to keep using dongles,
They do not, they expect you to use USB-C devices.
That will be more and more true. Already this last month, I went looking for a slim external hard drive case and the best one I found was... USB-C. So I have to use a dongle to use it with older equipment...
Because USB-C is so much more versatile the changeover is going very rapidly. Why do you insist on staying behind the ENTIRE (not just Apple) computer industry? Many high end Android phones are also USB-C now...
My guess that the iPhone switches to USB-C this year or next. There is no reason to keep Lightning since USB-C has all the same advantages (basically the main one, being able to plug in either direction plus it is small).
Re:Not gonna bite... (Score:5, Interesting)
A pro-level machine needs pro-level connectivity.
True. I went for a refurb of last-year's Pro, just for the ports. A photographer friend of mind is suffering with his Touchbar model because he HAS to have USB Type-A style ports for his cameras and other equipment, so he's got this cheesy-looking third-party multi-port dongle that keeps falling out when he moves the machine from place to place because Type-C is so damn small and doesn't grip that hard.
Apple should take notice that PC laptops don't all stink anymore... and they all feature a full variety of ports. USB Type-A, in particular, is not going away soon, nor is it likely that the thumb-drive your co-worker just handed you has a Type-C connector. Maybe for the tiny Macbook a single Type-C with Thunderbolt is ok, but for the bucks you throw down on a Pro model, it's just irritating that you have to shell out yet more bucks (and space in your bag) for at least a Type-A dongle, which makes comparably equipped PC's that much more attractive.
and so-what that the Type-C can be used for power... stop showing off and bring back the MagSafe connector.
Re: (Score:2)
How many USB-C devices do you currently have? Not 5 years from now when you will have replaced your laptop, now?
And no, you dongles don't count.
The right thing to do would have been to include at least 1 USB-A port.