'The MacBook Pro's One-Year-Old Signature Feature Touch Bar Has No Future, But Users Are Required To Pay a Premium For It' (chuqui.com) 284
Chuq Von Rospach, a former Apple employee and commentator, has criticized the MacBook-maker to force consumers to pay extra for the Touch Bar -- a signature feature of the last year's MacBook Pro lineup -- in order to have the highest-end MacBook Pro currently available. He writes: The current [MacBook Pro] line forces users to pay for the Touch Bar on the higher end devices whether they want it or not, and that's a cost users shouldn't need to pay for a niche technology without a future. So Apple needs to either roll the Touch Bar out to the entire line and convince us we want it, or roll it back and offer more laptop options without it. [...] So what's the future of the Touch Bar? I don't know. I'm not sure Apple does, either. I was fascinated that when Apple released the iMacs earlier this year not one word was mentioned about the Touch Bar or Touch ID and support for them via an updated keyboard or trackpad was nowhere to be found. I'm taking that as an indication that after the lackluster response to this with the laptop releases, they've gone back to the drawing board a bit before rolling it out further.
Not just the touch bar (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not just the touch bar (Score:5, Interesting)
The MBP 2016 keyboard with "butterfly" scissor switches also have wider keys with smaller gaps between them - and smaller gaps also make many typists press two keys at once more often by mistake.
Key spacing, key gaps, curvature, travel to actuation -- all those measurements that classic keyboards have, they were not grabbed out of thin air. They were developed after many studies of actual typists back in the typewriter era.
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I find the keyboard itself very nice and have no issues typing: my issues (keys repeating and being unresponsive) were confirmed by Apple service to be hardware problems and the top case got replaced twice free of charge under warranty.
The keyboard is nice imho, but so far the hardware has simply been unreliable.
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my issues (keys repeating and being unresponsive) were confirmed by Apple service to be hardware problems and the top case got replaced twice free of charge under warranty.
Hmm. I find that if I hit keys off-center they can get stuck down, causing repeats. I also have some non-responsive keys (the arrow keys are the worst). The latter I'm sure are problems with my unit, and repairable. The former seems like a design problem. Do you think it's not?
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My standard rule of hardware: If it fails once, it's a manufacturing defect. If it fails twice, it's a design flaw. From your anecdote, I can only conclude, then, that their new keyboard is a design flaw.
Re:Not just the touch bar (Score:4, Informative)
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This. I got the top case replaced twice in less than a year due to the keyboard having issues: repeated keys the first time and unresponsive keys the second...
The guys at the service center claimed it's a relatively common issue with the new 2016 keyboard.
If you have these issues ask for a repair: they will replace the whole top case which includes keyboard, touchpad and battery. In my case in the second repair they installed the 2017 version, which hopefully has some fixes to the keyboard's reliability.
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It's not just the touch bar, they FUBAR'd the entire keyboard. I'm nearly a year into using a MBP 2016 model daily and still make repeated typos due to low keyboard stroke depth. It's like typing on a piece of flat plastic.
+1
I got a 2016 MBP a few months ago, and I find I largely hate it. I like the four USB-C ports, a lot, especially being able to plug power into any of them, as well as being able to use my laptop power adapter to recharge my phone (Pixel XL).
The touch bar... meh. It doesn't really cause me problems, but I definitely don't love it. I might actually like it if they allowed me to configure which (touch bar-unaware) apps should use the touch keys as function keys. For most apps I prefer they have their defa
Serves no purpose and awkward to use (Score:5, Informative)
I have one and I just dont get it. First of all as a touch-typer I never look at the keyboard. Therefore, it's completely awkward to have to look down at the keyboard from the screen to see some shortcuts buttons that randomly appear. Also, the buttons that appear arent useful at all so far. Fact is I only got the model because I wanted the Touch ID button (which also not very functional compared to the iPhone).
This was a big goof up by apple.
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I could see it being marginally useful if they implemented the force based touch that they have on iPhones, and little nubs or something so that you could feel the divisions between the "Buttons" or a little nub or something just right on the center.. not sure which... basically make it so that for most things, it doesn't respond to just dragging a finger over it vs a reasonable press. Of course, that wouldn't make the whole slider thing work...
Of course, the current implementation of the touch bar is one o
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Also, the buttons that appear arent useful at all so far.
You mean like how you could just press volume up and down keys before, but now you need to look down, press the volume button to expose the slider, then slide your finger, then hide the slider? Now that's some value added!
Former employee (Score:5, Funny)
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Uh...Whoosh?
Re:Former employee (Score:4, Insightful)
I know him, too, and I happen to agree with him. But I don't think that was intended as a cheap shot at him, so much as a cheap shot at Apple for the whole headphone thing. :-)
Click-Bait (Score:2, Funny)
This post is 100% Click-Bait. No where in the article did the author say anything remotely like the headline for this post. So why is it in quotes? Author was actually pretty neutral overall. Said he wants to give the touchbar more time to develop and would either make it ubiquitous among all macs or optional on high end.
Assuming that nothing changes (Score:2, Insightful)
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Could Apple use the same tech and make the entire Track Pad double as a screen?
You mean capacitive touch screen technology? How cutting edge! I don't have a pocket sized device that can do that, nor have I had one for the past decade, so that would be totes amaze!
Wait...
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Could Apple use the same tech and make the entire Track Pad double as a screen?
You mean capacitive touch screen technology? How cutting edge! I don't have a pocket sized device that can do that, nor have I had one for the past decade, so that would be totes amaze! Wait...
Yeah because PC's with touch pads that double as programmable MFD's are a dime a dozen out there.
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Yes, they're a dime a dozen, you can
Re: Assuming that nothing changes (Score:2)
They will be a dime a dozen when someone figures out they can stream advertising to the things.
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https://arstechnica.com/gadget... [arstechnica.com]
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Apple has been using force sensitive trackpads for a couple of years ago. The "click" of pressing down on it is now simulated using haptic feedback, same as it is with the home button on iPhones and what not. This bit I need to give them props for, the "Click" is, in my opinion, incredibly convincing. http://www.pocket-lint.com/new... [pocket-lint.com] for more info.
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Could Apple use the same tech and make the entire Track Pad double as a screen?
Please show me where I said "Apple would be the first to implement a capactive touch screen" I never said it. I didn't even say in that sentence that Apple would be first. Either you are imaging words that don't appear or you are lying.
And what I actually did was point out that what you describe is, in fact, a touch screen, which we've had for literal decades. So, no, Apple would not be the first.
Again, what is your point? Me: Apple could implement technology in this way. You: "It's been around for decades, you fanboi, and they aren't the first." It's like you arguing that if LG comes out with an 10K TFT monitor, but you start arguing that TFT displays have been aroun
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Please show me where I said "Apple would be the first to implement a capactive touch screen"
You asked it Apple might be able to implement a specific bit of tech which, as you described it, happens to be a touch screen. Since they've actually done so, the answer is yes, in case you weren't yet able to discern that from my previous comments. We'll get to the whole "first" thing, don't worry.
I never said it.
You did, just not in a single post.
I didn't even say in that sentence that Apple would be first.
Indeed, you did not. You asked if Apple would be able to implement it, as though nobody else had; the implication, then, is that they would be the first.
Either you are imaging words that don't appear or you are lying.
Or, you literally said (
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You asked it Apple might be able to implement a specific bit of tech which, as you described it, happens to be a touch screen. Since they've actually done so, the answer is yes, in case you weren't yet able to discern that from my previous comments. We'll get to the whole "first" thing, don't worry.
No I did not. Please read what I wrote. I wrote specifically that Apple could use the technology which is both a display and an input and merge it into their TrackPad which is also force sensitive. I never once Apple was the first to use capactive touch screen. Not once. Stop lying.
You did, just not in a single post
Stop lying when you are proven wrong.
Indeed, you did not. You asked if Apple would be able to implement it, as though nobody else had; the implication, then, is that they would be the first.
Again not what I said. You said everyone has had this for decades when it's clear no one has yet to implement this combination. Again, stop lying.
But, of course, they would not be, since the technology already exists and has existed for decades.
Wow you are not beneath lying are you? That's
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No I did not. Please read what I wrote. I wrote specifically that Apple could use the technology which is both a display and an input and merge it into their TrackPad which is also force sensitive.
No, you wrote (and, again, this is a direct quote):
Could Apple use the same tech and make the entire Track Pad double as a screen?
Since you clearly don't trust me quoting it, here's the fucking post in which you said it [slashdot.org]. Go ahead, call me a liar again. I dare you.
As for the rest of your post, I refer you to what I wrote in reply to you asking the same questions in another post:
Primary vs secondary display really just comes off as you nitpicking to be "right", which ultimately falls flat when you can't even get the details of what you initially said right even when they're right there on the page in front of you.
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But, there you have it. There's your "one manufacturer with a touch-sensitive trackpad that doubles as a screen."
What are you smoking? That's a laptop/tablet combination. The trackpad doesn't function as a secondary display. It doesn't have a force sensitive trackpad. You don't have any idea of what I'm talking about do you? When I said "screen" in the context of an article about the TouchBar, I'm talking about a display because that's what a Touch Bar is: A display and a touch sensitive trackpad all in one.. Very specifically I said that Apple could use that technology and make their Trackpads also as a secondary dis
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I'm talking about a display because that's what a Touch Bar is: A display and a touch sensitive trackpad all in one.
And a touch screen is chopped liver?
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I said specifically with TouchBar technology, Apple could make their TrackPad into a force sensitive secondary display.
Actually, no. As I've quoted multiple times now (and as you can scroll up to read for your damned self if you don't want to trust my quoting abilities), you asked if they could. And I pointed out that "TouchBar technology" is, literally, touch display technology that we've had for decades, which should have rendered to you as an unequivocal "YES! THEY COULD!"
Primary vs secondary display really just comes off as you nitpicking to be "right", which ultimately falls flat when you can't even get the details o
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Actually, no. As I've quoted multiple times now (and as you can scroll up to read for your damned self if you don't want to trust my quoting abilities), you asked if they could. And I pointed out that "TouchBar technology" is, literally, touch display technology that we've had for decades, which should have rendered to you as an unequivocal "YES! THEY COULD!"
Please. You're just wrong and are willing to lie at every turn. I specially ask for a force sensitive secondary screen. FORCE SENSITIVE SECONDARY SCREEN. All those words mean something. You want to equate any touch screen as ample. That's not specifically what I asked
Primary vs secondary display really just comes off as you nitpicking to be "right", which ultimately falls flat when you can't even get the details of what you initially said right even when they're right there on the page in front of you
Those are details was what I was talking about in the very beginning. Again this was my original post: "Also there is the underlying assumption that the Touch Bar never changes. Could it become a force touch sensitive in the next iteration? Co
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I specially ask for a force sensitive secondary screen. FORCE SENSITIVE SECONDARY SCREEN. All those words mean something. You want to equate any touch screen as ample.
First of all, the distinction between primary and secondary display is a quibble at best. Second, as I've stated time and time again, capacitive touch interfaces are inherently force sensitive. Third, no, not any touch screen, just capacitive touch screens, for the aforementioned (and much repeated) reason.
Those are details was what I was talking about in the very beginning. Again this was my original post: "Also there is the underlying assumption that the Touch Bar never changes. Could it become a force touch sensitive in the next iteration? Could Apple use the same tech and make the entire Track Pad double as a screen?" It was there at the start. Many posts down the thread, you call those details which I mentioned at the start as "nitpicking."
So you finally quote the question I answered in my initial post. Yes. Yes, Apple could do that. It's simply touch screen technology that we've had for decades and secondary display technology that almost
they would be paying less in the long run (Score:2)
In the long run this will be cheaper than mechanical keys. You still want mechanical keys for typing but you don't type on that top row. So even if all it did was permenantly show the F-keys it will not be costing extra. and if it works out it could have a lot of other uses such as more expressive touch modalities without the nuiscances of a full touch screen. cheaper too.
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Wait, you want the touchpad -- the flat part that advanced users don't even look at as they use it -- to become a secondary screen?
I dont' know about you but I look at my laptop keyboard all the time in in glancing. Unlike my desktop keyboard, I have to continually re-position my hands all the time while using a laptop.
Can you imagine the neck strain of having to look straight down to figure out what in the heck you are doing?
You do understand that a MacBook is a laptop, right? You are looking down all the time while using a laptop.
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Our goal with MacBook was to do the impossible: engineer a fullsize experience into the thinnest, lightest Mac notebook yet.
It's literally the first proper sentence on the page, and also an important distinction as the older plastic MacBooks and the PowerBook line before them were termed laptops; Apple began recommending against laptop use and started calling them notebooks instead of laptops when people started complaining of burns from the first unibody MacBook Pros.
In short, if you're looking down at your Apple notebook, you're clearly using i
Apple. It's time to press ESC on this!!! (Score:2)
Oh wait, you can't. Not without looking down to check if virtual ESC button is there and where it is. And not without looking down to see if it actually "pressed" or not.
Touch bar has got to go. And give the ESC key back or lose developers, who will quit you just on the principle of not supporting this design-dumb idea.
Suggestion: Put a touch bar (perhaps vertical) to the right of the touch pad. If you need gimmicky stuff like audio volume slider etc.
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What the fuck kind of shitty IDE are you dweebs using that relies so heavily on function keys and esc? Xcode doesn't, IntelliJ doesn't, Android Studio doesn't. Don't tell me you're still writing code in some piece of shit text editor Richard Stallman hacked together in the 80s? I'm glad Apple doesn't hold everyone back just for a couple useless baby boomers.
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Seems like a touchy subject (Score:2)
*rimshot*
Debugging and password manager (Score:2)
I expected more, but in principe it's not bad.
When you start debugging in Xcode, the TouchBar changes and you get buttons for step in/over/out, plus continue running. However since I consider myself in the high-risk RSI category, I use an external keyboard (Kinesis Freestyle 2) and I know the shortcut keys by heart now, but that took a loooong time since I'm not in the debugger every day.
TouchID: In and of itself, it's not bad either. However when you use a password manager, it goes from bad to great becaus
Force? Required? (Score:2)
Is Apple putting a gun to these people's heads?
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No, they're putting a false choice down: You can get an upper-end MacBook with a touch bar or you can get a MacBook without a touch bar.
Imagine if every pick-up truck with more hauling capacity than a low-end SUV had double rear wheels, even though only super-high-capacity trucks can carry a load exceeding a four-wheel vehicle's rear two wheels. Then, they tell you you can get the truck with six wheels, or you can get a four-wheel truck.
The key to that analogy is that mid-tier trucks can't carry enou
Been there, done that (Score:2)
I don't use a Mac because I am part of the Sheeple or bought into Apple's marketing. I use a Mac because I am (despite strong efforts from Apple to make it otherwise) more productive using it compared to the alternatives. I have a very nice employer-provided Windows laptop that I have to use as well and it reminds me daily how much easier it is to do my job on a Mac.
I need to upgrade my Late 2011 MacBook Pro. I can still do what I need to do on it, but technology has marched on and the faster processors,
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When this happened to me, I went with a Dell Precision running Ubuntu. It's got different irritations than my 2012 MBP, but overall I'm pretty happy. About 2x the hardware for the same price plus all the ports was what sold me on it. And Apple dropping magsafe was the icing on the shit cake. I loved my MPBs for a decade or so, but they're ridiculously expensive and crippled now, with most of the things I valued gone.
My current laptop doesn't replace an old MBP, but it handily trumps the new MBPs. S
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This is Apple? I thought Touch Bar was an attempt by an overly-enthusiastic Gentleman's Club to attract new patronage.
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I spend more time interacting with applications running on an computer than the operating system.
I don't even write code for Windows, but it doesn't get in the way of development.
New sales strategy for pros... (Score:2)
There's no less than two companies (and maybe more, I just haven't been looking that hard) that make better MacBook Pros than Apple, with the single feature they can't do better is that you can't (legally) run macOS on them.
https://www.razerzone.com/gami... [razerzone.com]
http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop... [dell.com]
Both have better displays, better GPUs, better RAM capacity, better CPU options, and are maybe slightly heavier, but not when you figure on all the dongles you'll have to pack around with you on the Mac to plug in shit you
Meh, how about real change (Score:2)
Meh, considering how much I paid for a fully loaded MBP the touchbar cost is insignificant. It's not that bad, though since I am not usually looking at it I am ignoring most of what's on it. That, and it takes a bit longer to modify brightness and sound than I'd like.
I would like to see Apple provide more tools for using it to input things like Unicode symbols used in Perl 6! While we are dreaming I'd like to exchange my screen for a multitouch capable one that opens flat to the table and use with a pen. Oh
video card (Score:2)
the touchbar uses an extra monitor driven by the graphics card to provide the seamless extensibility that it does — so i dont think you could easily add something like that to any old USB keyboard — because you would also need the support of a graphics card to do so.
it is only possible on the macbooks because the graphics card is already rolled in to the same package as where the touchbar is.
2cents from toronto island
john p
BAR test and other banned places make it so that y (Score:2)
BAR test and other banned places make it so that you need an system with the same base power but without this.
This is why people make hackintoshs apple does not (Score:2)
This is why people make hackintoshs apple does not offer choice that people need.
The Imac pro seems like it is going to fail. As the start price price is to high and due to apples push for thin and looks. Most people will be forced to pay apple pricing for RAM / Storage / CPU upgrades. As few will want to void the warranty and deal with unglueing reunglueing the screen Just to upgrade the ram.
Apple may change $600-$1200+ to go from 32 GIG to 64 GIG. right now an 4 stick 64 GB DDR4 ECC kit is about $800-$10
Makes Macbook unusable (Score:2)
Like many people, I'm in the habit of resting my hands on the keyboard. On a Macbook with a touch bar, I'm constantly performing random actions (often starting Siri) by mistake. No doubt with time I could learn not to do this, but I'm not willing to pay extra and have to relearn using the keyboard, for no significant advantage.
Be fair (Score:2)
The touch bar is clearly a gimmick, but please name a single OEM who doesn't charge for every feature they build into their computers, even the ones that aren't wanted?
It's unfair to single Apple out for doing the same thing as literally every manufacturer in the history of manufacturing.
It's not so exciting (Score:2)
Absurd to say TouchBar has no future (Score:2)
You all sounds just as whiny as the people complaining the new models only have USB-C ports...
The TouchBar is not amazingly useful yet, but over time we'll see a lot of value as apps integrate it. For me the one thing I think the TouchBar really needs is haptic feedback. Well one more thing - we need to have a TouchBar on external keyboards too, the lack of that is what is really lowering adoption even for a lot of laptop owners.... including it would also mean iMac users could join in the TouchBar fun.
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You all sounds just as whiny as the people complaining the new models only have USB-C ports...
It wasn't the inclusion USB-C ports. It was the low number of USB-C ports, as well as the lack of well-established and not yet out-of-date ports.
If Apple had put just left the HDMI port and one regular USB port, alongside the 4 USB-C ports, I would've upgraded to the new model and tried to fight my way through the inferior layout of the new keyboard. Instead, I passed up the port-short new rigs and just had my ne
Wrong (Score:2)
Apple don't need to do anything. Sorry Chuq, but Apple doesn't need to even listen to you.
They don't even need to acknowledge your existence. You haven't worked for Apple in over 10 years.
When you did it was as tech support and internal email systems.
Now you're an expert on product development and marketing?
mmm (Score:2)
2015 and older models were better. (Score:2)
None of the new stuff and forced hardware changes with USB3, no lame touchbar, etc. I am bummed that Apple no longer offers to customize and order 2015 model online like its MF839LL (http://apple.com/us-hed/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro?product=MF839LL/A&step=config). The defaults are crap like the small SSD, RAM, etc. sizes. :(
Re:Nothing has really changed... (Score:4, Funny)
Apple has always made its customers pay for high-end features that they did not want.
I agree. Back when I owned Macs it was sad to see how many features they forced down our throats.
First it was USB. They took away my awesome ADB, Modem and Printer ports.
Then they added Gigabit ethernet to all of their machines.
Finally they shoved out this thing they called 'Airport' back when I was happy dragging around my 10-BaseT ethernet cord around the dorm room.
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Re:Nothing has really changed... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Nothing has really changed... (Score:5, Informative)
Apple Desktop Bus was actually kinda cool.
Developed by Woz himself. First model that had it was the Apple IIGS.
A serial daisy-chained protocol, designed to be hot-swapped and to make it possible to bit-bang the bus with an inexpensive microcontroller.
Unfortunately the hardware designers then messed up, so it was not considered safe to hot-swap it.
Compare that to USB, which requires a complex software stack in the device firmware .. and if you want to "daisy-chain" devices you would have to implement a separate hub - which means that few devices even have one.
And don't even go into how overly generic and all-encompassing the USB HID protocol for keyboards and mice is, which means that operating systems don't support everything in a complete or consistent manner.
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Apple Desktop Bus was actually kinda cool.
Developed by Woz himself. First model that had it was the Apple IIGS. A serial daisy-chained protocol, designed to be hot-swapped and to make it possible to bit-bang the bus with an inexpensive microcontroller. Unfortunately the hardware designers then messed up, so it was not considered safe to hot-swap it.
And yet most of us did so on an almost daily basis to no ill effect, FWIW.
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Apple has always made its customers pay for high-end features that they did not want.
I agree. Back when I owned Macs it was sad to see how many features they forced down our throats.
First it was USB. They took away my awesome ADB, Modem and Printer ports.
Then they added Gigabit ethernet to all of their machines.
Finally they shoved out this thing they called 'Airport' back when I was happy dragging around my 10-BaseT ethernet cord around the dorm room.
We can add some to that list can't we? Those evil bastards cut the weight of a laptop from a feather light 4 kilograms to a spine distorting 1 kilogram, they reduced the thickness of a laptop from that of an average Unix programming manual to an utterly unacceptable one and a half centimetres and they had the unmitigated gall to shove UHD laptop displays down our reluctant throats. I feel your pain brother! We all do...
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Re: Nothing has really changed... (Score:5, Insightful)
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What happened to the decade after 10 base T cable?
Nothing. I bought a new "Quicksilver Mac when I went away to college in 2001.
My dorm was one of the first to have Ethernet so it was the last to get upgraded. We only had 4xT1s for the whole campus so it didn't matter much.
We also had a Hub instead of a switch which means you could arp poison and 'listen in' on peoples traffic.
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Whatever made ADB so great didn't really matter, since it was only really used for keyboard and mouse.
The RS-422 serial ports were superior to RS-232, but made annoying by using DIN plugs instead of conventional serial ports.
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A new bus design with every new generation throughout the 90's
SCSI instead of internal expansion slots
round mice
proprietary connectors everywhere
replaced Mac Pro towers with unmaintainable, but aesthetically pleasing, trash-can Mac Pros with no expansion capabilities
replaced maintainable Power PC MAC tower and iMac designs with unmaintainable iMac designs that save 1/2 an inch of thickness
Wireless mice with the charging ports on the bottoms of the mice so that you can't charge the mouse while you use it
quie
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...The current [MacBook Pro] line forces users to pay for the Touch Bar on the higher end devices whether they want it or not...
Apple has always made its customers pay for high-end features that they did not want. Why do you think Apple's products are marketed more as a fashion statement than something that is useful? You can get more people to pay for unwanted features when they are "fashionable."
Just to clarify, every fucking vendor is now selling products riddled with bullshit features no one asked for in order to drive massive profits.
Apple is hardly the only one doing this crap now. They're merely the best at it.
Re:Nothing has really changed... (Score:4, Insightful)
A lot of anti-Apple people like to say that, and if they've rarely used Macs, they probably believe it. But there really is something to "It just works". I say that as a user who is fluent in Windows, macOS and Linux. Obviously, it doesn't ALWAYS "just work" - it's a computer and nothing is perfect. But compared to my Windows and Linux boxes, for day-to-day stuff, I have to do far less fiddling with my Macs.
Yes, Apple users do pay a premium, but for most of them, they do so for the ease of use and reliability, not for some naive devotion to fashionability.
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...A lot of anti-Apple people like to say that, and if they've rarely used Macs, they probably believe it....
I do not say that because I am anti-Apple, but I say it as an Apple customer who has used Apple products (including Macs) and came to that opinion as someone who did not see the value of Apple's fashion statements.
My Windows PC "Just Works" (Score:3)
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I'd also point out that it's not always much of a premium. A lot of times, when people complain that Macs are super-expensive, the complaint is something like, "That Macbook Pro is $1,300?! I can get a Dell laptop for $300. What a rip-off!" But then if you look at it, the Macbook is thinner, lighter, more powerful, has a better screen, and uses higher quality parts than the $300 Dell laptop. The model that's closest is probably the XPS model, and when you price out something with comparable features, y
Re:Nothing has really changed... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Nothing has really changed... (Score:5, Interesting)
I was offered a Mac mini at work a few years ago. Since I didn't have to give up anything (my existing Linux and Windows workstations), I gave it a go.... a good, solid go. Not an hour or two, but a month. I simply didn't like it. I didn't like the windowing, the lack of mouse acceleration that I couldn't just change, a lot of windowing issues like borders, from where you could resize. Some things couldn't be changed, and the things that were fixable (like acceleration) were either crazily stupid, or you could buy something to do tweaks. And that's the thing about apple users - they just keep paying, and in that case, for features they had in older versions of the OS.
So it really comes down to perhaps being more difficult, but extremely customizable (like Linux... which, while difficult, also has vastly more helpful resources on the net... and also really only difficult if you want to customize the UI because of so many options), to really rigid and easier to use because of it (MacOS), with Windows somewhere in the middle. I simply didn't like it. I don't berate other people's personal choices, though... some people like it, so it's great we have choice.
Now, as far as TFS goes, "So Apple needs to either roll the Touch Bar out to the entire line and convince us we want it, or roll it back and offer more laptop options without it" is just ridiculous. Apple doesn't need to do jack. People that want it, buy it, unwanted features and all. That's what life is like, and if Apple is happy with sales, they don't need some ex-wife telling them how to run the company.
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I gave it a go.... a good, solid go.
Me too. I used a Mac on a daily basis for a couple of years, and never really got used to it. Nothing about it is intuitive to me, and I spent a lot of time just trying to figure out how to do things that should not have been complex.
But that's the beauty of having options! Macs don't work well for me, but they do for others.
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I gave it a go.... a good, solid go.
Me too. I used a Mac on a daily basis for a couple of years, and never really got used to it. Nothing about it is intuitive to me, and I spent a lot of time just trying to figure out how to do things that should not have been complex.
But that's the beauty of having options! Macs don't work well for me, but they do for others.
I've had no significant problems. I can bring up a shell, type unixy things at it, compile LaTeX, C and run many more froo froo languages. People running a window system on Linux - now that's odd behavior. Haven't these people heard of screen?
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I'm not sure what reality show you were on, but wow. Perhaps had you asked someone well-versed in macs, you'd have gotten responses to your issues that may have opened doors. If you can deal with Linux's flaws, then there's no mac issue. FWIW, I don't use Launcher nor Mission Control, or a host of over available things, yet I manage running multiple applications and documents with ease. Mouse acceleration? It's been under the "Mouse" preference panel forever, from what I recall, haven't been there in years.
Ok, but a month's not enough, IMO .... (Score:2)
I've been primarily a Mac user since around 2000-2001, when OS X was a new thing and I was bored with the same old DOS and Windows routine.
The #1 thing that took me MONTHS to warm up to and embrace on the Mac was the handling of the application menu bars. If you're used to other GUIs, it really is kind of painful getting used to the idea that the "Finder" (essentially the desktop you're working with to do everything else) has its own menu bar that only has focus when you click on some unused portion of your
Re:Nothing has really changed... (Score:5, Informative)
"it just works.... so long as you only do what we explicitly allow you to and never want to actually USE your computer."
Hogwash. A MacBook comes with a full development stack preinstalled, and no limit on "what you can do with it" other than your own ability. An out-of-the-box MacBook is more capable than an out-of-the-box Windows computer, and roughly equivalent to Linux.
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No, instead they force you to store it on their poorly protected cloud so retards can get a copy of your naughty pics. Much better.
In the long run it's cheaper than mechanical keys. (Score:2)
Useless things PC owners paid for
5.25" floppy drives, parallel ports, Rs-488 serial ports, premium sound cards, Mouse ports, and these days they pay for CD players. All of those were niche market items when the rest of the world had long moved on to newer technologies but still installed by default on generations of PCs.
On the other hand who's to say a context sensitive touch bar won't catch on? A decade or more ago every bond groaned when yest another serial port was added to PCs already festooned wit
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GalliumOS (Score:3)
This. You can have a fully functional Linux laptop for $100. It's cheap enough to be disposable, and still powerful enough for dev work at least.
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The problem is that the F-keys are the worst possible design usability-wise. Being soft keys without labels, just by looking at them there is no possible way of knowing what they do. Quick tell me, what does the F9 key do? There is no way to say what it does, because the answer is different for every program. So, narrow it down a bit. You just installed a new CAD suite/Image editor/IDE/other professional software you just spent $$$$ on. Quick, tell me what does the F9 key do in your shiny new app? You don't
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We shopped recently to replace a very aging MB air that my wife used. Five minutes of prodding and typing in the Apple store and we picked the non-touch-bar MBP. The killer feature being a working escape key. Seriously, the escape key is to the new MBPs as the headphone jack is to the iPhone 7.