In The Hard Thing About Hard Things Ben Horowitz says there is two types of really successfull people in the business word: Chaotic visionaries and orderly executioners, called type 1 and type 2.
I think Apple is a perfect example for this, with Jobs having been the visionary and Cook the guy who implements these visions.
Horowitz stated that a company works only well with the visionary at the top. We can see how true this as Cook just is not creative. I am sure he works really hard and is really smart but he should have never gotten to where he is now.
At first I thought he would only be a interim solution to manage Apple while they search for another creative genius but that seems not to be the case.
I thought Ives was the chaotic visionary now, with Cook the business leader. With such a string of success Ives has had I figure only a flop (imo like this) would give Cook the leverage needed for change.
1) Most of Apple design is now by committee, which is why the Settings in an iPhone are a maze of confusion, especially around iCloud. The iPhone was supposed to be easy to use. Maybe it still is as long as one pays for and trusts iCloud (didn't work out well for Jennifer Lawrence).
2) Ive isn't the the genius we all think he is. I think this is more likely the case. If I remember correctly, Jobs liked the "skeuomorph" design style (design based on the original object) but Ive did not. I do not think it is coincidence that iOS became much more "cartoon" looking after Jobs died. I personally do not like it. But I think it shows that Ive is in complete control. If he is, Ive is to blame why I have to provide tech support for iOS settings to my friends and family now. If you extrapolate this complexity to the rest of Apple, things are way off track from Jobs' vision.
He got to where he is now because the visionary put him there.
Like all reductionism, Horowitz thesis looks good in a business book, it makes the world simple.
Reality is complex and that statement ("a company works only well with the visionary at the top") it's kind of a self fulfilling prophecy (the company is doing good. His CEO must be a visionary, then, since he anticipated the needs of the market).
Why can’t you plug the Lightning headphones that come in the iPhone box into the new Mac? Why doesn’t the iPhone come with the right cable for the new MacBook Pro? Why doesn’t Apple make a screen that properly works with its own devices? Why did Apple highlight how great the Touch Bar is for Messaging, but didn’t even port most of the new iMessage features to macOS properly? Do I have to carry two pairs of headphones now? How do I charge my Lightning cable mouse? Why remove the HDMI port, a standard that’s still incredibly popular for plugging into TVs? Why remove the SD card, a popular slot for… creatives using cameras?
Yikes. I mean... yikes. I hope Apple has some good answers to most of those questions.
It's sad because when I first switched to Apple (~2008) I was extremely impressed by small things like the iPhone earphone remote 100% working when plugged into a Mac. It was a huge change from PC-land, where getting anything working was a challenge.
Apple are either in a transitionary phase (everything to USB-C and 5K screens!), or really have lost the plot. I guess we'll know in a year.
MacBook Air: it was nice knowing ye
MacBook 2015: Someone took "one port to rule them all" a bit too literally. This one could be good in a few years, the MacBook Air was an underpowered POS from 2008-2012
Mac Mini: Quad core option removed, mainly abandoned. I guess they decided laptops are good enough for "baby's first Mac".
iMac: fairly worthless form factor upgrade; it looks exactly the same from the side you will actually look at it from. No updates forthcoming for some reason that only Apple knows.
Mac Pro: Abandoned then updated with a lot of fanfare then abandoned again (WTF?)
/E
I forgot about monitors. Apple went from having a nice selection of decent monitors to having one and now none. It's not like they have forgotten how to make a nice screen, just how to put them in a case with a (whatever plug Apple is using now) cable on it.
As an exercise, assume Apple has, from their perspective, thought of these questions and have made the decisions they have in light of those answers. You may not agree with some/most/any of those decisions, and that's fine, and even to be expected. We're not all the same. It is very useful to be able to see something from someone else's perspective, even if you don't agree with them. The vast majority of people don't think they themselves are unreasonable :) I suspect with a couple minutes of speculation, you'll come up with some reasonable ideas.
"Why can’t you plug the Lightning headphones that come in the iPhone box into the new Mac?"
The decision for Apple to remove the 3.5mm jack on the iPhone 7 has been discussed at length elsewhere. Another way to look at this is that Apple included a pair of headphones that you can use with the iPhone now, rather than wait to buy a dongle for your existing headphones or wait to buy headphones from another manufacturer.
"Why doesn’t the iPhone come with the right cable for the new MacBook Pro?"
There's always a period of transition when ports and connectors change. I suspect within the next year iPhones will come with USB C to Lightning cables. You'll likely have to buy a new cable or an adapter to charge your phone from your new MacBook Pro.
"Why doesn’t Apple make a screen that properly works with its own devices?"
It looks like Apple is getting out of the monitor business entirely.
On balance, it's likely not as profitable as other areas. People may not be as willing to pay a premium for Apple's displays. Others may be good enough.
I'm not sure what "properly works" is getting at. I'm not curious enough to take a look, though I don't deny some may exist. I can't recall ever having an issue with any Apple monitor I've used (I believe I've used at least 4), other than mounting the monitors on an arm using a VESA adapter. That's been a pain. I don't get the impression that's what the author is alluding to, however.
"Why did Apple highlight how great the Touch Bar is for Messaging, but didn’t even port most of the new iMessage features to macOS properly?"
I thought Thursday's Hello Again event was one of the most poorly executed presentations I've seen from Apple. I found some of the demos of the Touch Bar during the presentation silly, particularly the text suggestion portions. I'm able to separate the presentation from how I view the hardware. I find the current keyboard commands and suggestions works fine for that. I do think the Touch Bar will be useful for custom keys with good contextual awareness. And I think there's a lot of potential for other uses we haven't thought of yet. Most of us haven't had the opportunity to try it out. I actively use the ESC key as well has the hardware volume and brightness keys. I trust I'll figure something out. After all, I didn't have the volume and brightness keys until they were introduced.
I'm not familiar with the new iMessage features that the author is referring to (I'm still running Yosemite), though I'm happy to grant they exist. One of the benefits of software is that it can continue to be improved and updated at a much faster rate than the hardware. Also, Apple, like any other large company, has multiple teams. Tradeoffs need to be made to actually ship. Ideally everything would be perfectly developed and bug free. I think most of us can agree that's not realistic, however. We do the best we can.
"Do I have to carry two pairs of headphones now?"
Assuming this question is based on the iPhone 7 having only a Lightning port, and the new MacBook Pros having only a 3.5mm audio port and USB-C ports. If you're using headphones with a cable, then you can use an adapter for one or the other. You don't necessarily need two pair of headphones. Wireless headphones are also an option.
"How do I charge my Lightning cable mouse?"
With a USB-C to Lightning cable, just like you likely currently use a USB-A to Lightning cable. Yup. You'll likely have to buy a new cable or an adapter.
"Why remove the HDMI port, a standard that’s still in...
I think that any one or two of them could be reasonable, I think that all of them together form a distinct pattern which for some reason, you're choosing to ignore. I don't care to speculate on the reason for that; a fact which in turn is rooted in not caring.
Thanks for taking the time to slog through that. Would you share the distinct pattern you're seeing? I'm honestly not choosing to ignore anything. I've either not thought about it deeply enough or I'm just a fool. Either way, I'm participating in this thread because I'm interested. What am I missing?
So what are the answers then? Since when has blind trust been a good default? If they have the answers then let's see them. Until then all that we can do is speculate, and none of see good solutions here.
Please don't interpret me as promoting some blind trust in Apple. Some of the issues people raise I think are legitimate for their use cases. Some aren't backed up with anything. Perhaps I should, to use your words, "blindly trust" that their complaints are valid? I'd rather try to see both sides of the situation and decide for myself.
Apple is a large company and they've been successful for quite a while now. I don't think they're infallible. iTunes is a great example of something that I think should be right in Apple's historical core competency in terms of software and has been an absolutely horrible experience for years. I think the MacBook product line is fragmenting a bit, though I think that might be temporary--the expansion to include the MacBook Air is now once again contracting. How many iterations of iCloud have there been? (I think I still have a me.com account around here, somewhere.) I'd love a Mac Mini update.
Looking around, I'm pretty impressed with the Surface Studio, in particular the Dial. I've heard Windows 10 is really good. I have no reason to doubt that, though I have no experience with it. I like what I know about ZFS. While I have issues with some of how DropBox is implemented, I think its overall user experience is great! I also wish there were a commercial product like 10gui (10gui.com).
I do think there are reasons for the decisions they've made, and likely the majority of them don't involve active attempts to alienate their customers or incompetence. I also realize that Apple isn't going to be able to make products that will please everybody.
Sure, I'd love to be privy to all of the decisions Apple makes. I don't think I'm necessarily entitled to them. And I also have faith that I can evaluate the products for myself.
What do you think? Am I being fair? Reasonable? An Apple apologist? Completely off my rocker?
The new MacBook pros remind me of Walter Isaacsons bibliography of Steve Jobs. The first thing Jobs did when returning to Apple was cut all the products down to theee core products. In 2016, it seems to be going the other direction again.
Thinner is one aspect of better and obviously not the only one. These machines are also faster, lighter (kinda important in a laptop), have better graphics, larger trackpad, a new screen that is much better, etc, etc, etc...
Like all products, they can be improved and compromising decisions had to be made during the design phase, but I find this Medium think piece really lacking in perspective and context.
Great, as long as the trade offs are reasonable (not convinced that they are)
>have better graphics
Yet still woeful in comparison to similarly priced machines from other vendors and, of course, OSX is a terrible gaming platform
>a new screen that is much better
Good
>etc, etc, etc...
What are those exactly? I can't think of anything to fill in the gaps, and we can certainly argue that taking away common interfaces is a bad move and the toolbar is little a gimmick.
Not a generation behind. Kaby Lake is still not available in the configurations these machines need. And even if they were, speed is comparable since the main improvement in KL is going to be video support.
Graphics are not only for gaming. Id say the Radeon cards they choose seem reasonable for the Macbook Pro line, pending further testing.
Lots of "etc": Much better sound, larger and more comfortable trackpad, faster memory and SSD, jump to Thunderbolt 3, better microphones...
Argue away, I think TouchBar is far from being a gimmick.
Really hits the nail on the head. This product is just confusing. It's not as if there aren't good things about it, but there are so many weird confusing decisions that it's like death by a thousand cuts.
It's baffling just to contemplate the number of new cables, dongles, and adapters I'd need to buy. I'd be shocked if it was less than $150 worth of things that add no new value.
I had planned to buy a new MBP this year. Based on this update I'll be waiting to see what they come up with next year.
I'm not sure why that is - partly because I've got one and like it. Also I guess now the Air 11" is gone we're supposed to but the 12" Macbook but it doesn't review as well - on the most obvious Amazon reviews the 11" has 81% 5* reviews and the new Macbook had 59%. It seems a shame that thin with few ports and shiny seems to be prioritized over user satisfaction.
I'll give Apple a hint how to solve this conundrum.
a) bring back that key row, people prefer physical keys over touch-strips and -pads and -screens for a reason - you can use them without taking your eyes off the screen
b) for those applications where you'd benefit from a visual representation of whatever data you're manipulating the keystrip is rather limited in space, but fortunately nearly all laptops already include a touch-sensitive area under the keyboard...
c) ...so just put an OLED-display under the touchpad? Have it run iOS for ease of development, not that developing for iOS is easy but there are loads and loads of developers who already know the platform. Add some haptic feedback to make it usable eyes-off and for those who have bad eyesight and you've got your next 'amazing' gadget.
As an added bonus it should be possible to use any iOS device as a 'remote' for applications which utilize the touchpad-with-pictures. Call it DisplayPad and you're done for the next show.
The same could be done by Google (Android on ChromeOS or whatever comes after), by Microsoft, by... anyone, really.
I honestly don't see how all this whining is justified, except for the fact that you need dongles to hook up your shiny new iPhone and EarPods to your MacBook.
• People wanted Skylake, they got Skylake.
• They got faster GPU and I/O and great battery life. The numbers on these are impressive, especially the I/O.
• They got 4 ports of the fastest and most versatile interfaces for external devices ever. The removal of all other ports is really no worse than when the VERY FIRST iMAC went USB-only back in 1998! [1][2] We all see how the rest of the industry followed, as it will again when everything becomes USB-C.
• The Touch Bar is actually a cool new input device that brings context-sensitive multitouch to macOS without bastardizing the traditional desktop UI as Windows does. You wanted innovation, you got it. What do people expect to happen to laptops at this point anyway?? I don't see any good alternative ideas being offered.
• Lastly, and I'm amazed at how this is being overlooked in every discussion: The move to 30-BIT-PER-CHANNEL SCREENS! I have an iPad Pro and the difference that a wide color display brings has to be seen in person to be appreciated. Accurate color representation in consumer devices is a field which has languished for over 20 years. I believe mad props are due Apple for pushing everyone ahead, and up until now I don't think there were any good laptops for actually creating and previewing P3 content, without connecting them to expensive external screens.
----
Now the bad things.
I only recently purchased an iPhone 7 and a 9.7" iPad Pro. I love them to bits, especially their wide color cameras and screens, but I won't be able to connect them to an already-expensive new MBP, or use the new Lightning EarPods, without spending even more money on dongles and carrying around extra stuff with me everywhere.
Given the prices, I really think Apple should have softened this by at least bundling Lightning-to-USB-C with the new MacBooks. WHY fight within your own ecosystem?
The naming is also a disaster. I don't really mind them calling the 9.7" iPad "Pro" (it's an amazing device) but putting out a "MacBook Pro" without a Touch Bar really muddies the waters and only creates confusion. They should've just called it a 13" MacBook, and given it a choice of more colors.
These are the areas where they are justifiably deserving of ire, but on the whole I think all this relentless negativity is a bit excessive and feels like the work of competitor-hired PR firms, but I hope it pushes Apple to address the actual issues.
It's also much harder to differentiate "pro" and consumer products these days, especially with the x86 CPU and chipset development plateauing as it is now.
To have the same difference as there was between an early iBook and a Powerbook you'd have to pack the Macbook Pro with dual processor octacore Xeons, non-mobile graphics cards, etc. with all that entails (i.e. power draw, cooling, weight, price.) Few "pros" would be willing to return to lugging a 10lb "laptop" thick as an encyclopedia around, or pay twice as much.
iPad sales, while declining, is now double that of Mac.
I thought this was clear enough, consumers aren't even touching their PC anymore, at least that is where the trend is heading. The iPad, at those price point has taken over the cheaper segment what 11" Macbook Air was originally for.
So what Apple envisioned, is that anyone using a PC or Mac is either a prosumer or professionals.
And just like many other tech, Apple force their way in and make early steps for changes, Floppy, CD-ROM etc. No SCSI for iMac? Apple wanted everyone, or will force every USB to be USB-C type. And it is clear someday, 802.11ac / ad will be fast enough for wireless transfer between Professional Cameras. So they will get rid of SD-Card now.
Any Kaby Lake offers little to no performance improvement over Skylake. And if you are wondering, the 10nm 25W Mobile CPU wont arrive til 2018.
I honestly dont have any idea what people are complaining about in terms of tech.
The whining isn't justified? We wanted a better product, not a product that is more expensive and lacks basic connectivity. The reason people want THIN AND LIGHT laptops in convenience. What convenience do we get if we have to carry all kinds of dongles and adapters? And why do we have to pay money for them when the macbooks are very expensive. Why isn't AT LEAST a USB C to lightning cable included along with a USBC to USB 3.0? Explain that.
Someone else pointed out that the skylake included performs slower than the old processor and its already a generation old.
Battery life may be good, but lets not forget because of it, we can't go over 16 gigs of memory. That's a joke. 16 gigs may be decent for most people today, but I want 32 gigs, especially if its a year from now since they won't update these for a while.
> They got 4 ports of the fastest and most versatile interfaces for external devices ever
Great. Remove the ports that we all use and love that are not going anywhere anytime soon. Give us ports that barely anyone uses or cares about. Why not have both? No one gives a shit about a port they won't ever use. What a dumb response you made. and with the iMac they made a mistake then and are making that mistake again. For what? To save a couple dollars of licensing fees?
> What do people expect to happen to laptops at this point anyway?? I don't see any good alternative ideas being offered.
You're just one person and you don't have any decent ideas. That's why you don't work to develop new things. Plenty of people I'm sure have cool and interesting ideas that are more useful.
> Given the prices, I really think Apple should have softened this by at least bundling Lightning-to-USB-C with the new MacBooks. WHY fight within your own ecosystem?
That's Apple. Milk the customer for every penny they got by selling nice looking outdated hardware and cutting out features and ports and making them pay more for it. I can't recommend an apple product to anyone, except for the iPhone which I will probably stop recommending when a decent competitor comes around. Many Apple users are pissed as well, I really hope they throw out the CEO. He's horrible and a lot of people don't like him.
> They should've just called it a 13" MacBook, and given it a choice of more colors.
But they can milk you for even more money by calling it a PRO!
> but I hope it pushes Apple to address the actual issues.
I'm pretty damn sure Apple doesn't give a shit about its customers. They do what they want like a shady dictator and not for the people. It's only about how much they can get out of every customer and they are playing customers like a fool. I'm glad I switched away years ago and I will never go back.
Why is this your only other comment on a 996-day old account? You didn't even read what I wrote (because you start with a complaint that I made too) and it all just seems pre-manufactured ranting.
38 comments
[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 83.5 ms ] threadI think Apple is a perfect example for this, with Jobs having been the visionary and Cook the guy who implements these visions.
Horowitz stated that a company works only well with the visionary at the top. We can see how true this as Cook just is not creative. I am sure he works really hard and is really smart but he should have never gotten to where he is now. At first I thought he would only be a interim solution to manage Apple while they search for another creative genius but that seems not to be the case.
1) Most of Apple design is now by committee, which is why the Settings in an iPhone are a maze of confusion, especially around iCloud. The iPhone was supposed to be easy to use. Maybe it still is as long as one pays for and trusts iCloud (didn't work out well for Jennifer Lawrence).
2) Ive isn't the the genius we all think he is. I think this is more likely the case. If I remember correctly, Jobs liked the "skeuomorph" design style (design based on the original object) but Ive did not. I do not think it is coincidence that iOS became much more "cartoon" looking after Jobs died. I personally do not like it. But I think it shows that Ive is in complete control. If he is, Ive is to blame why I have to provide tech support for iOS settings to my friends and family now. If you extrapolate this complexity to the rest of Apple, things are way off track from Jobs' vision.
This is what I was hoping would not happen, but figured would.
Like all reductionism, Horowitz thesis looks good in a business book, it makes the world simple.
Reality is complex and that statement ("a company works only well with the visionary at the top") it's kind of a self fulfilling prophecy (the company is doing good. His CEO must be a visionary, then, since he anticipated the needs of the market).
Yikes. I mean... yikes. I hope Apple has some good answers to most of those questions.
Apple are either in a transitionary phase (everything to USB-C and 5K screens!), or really have lost the plot. I guess we'll know in a year.
MacBook Air: it was nice knowing ye
MacBook 2015: Someone took "one port to rule them all" a bit too literally. This one could be good in a few years, the MacBook Air was an underpowered POS from 2008-2012
Mac Mini: Quad core option removed, mainly abandoned. I guess they decided laptops are good enough for "baby's first Mac".
iMac: fairly worthless form factor upgrade; it looks exactly the same from the side you will actually look at it from. No updates forthcoming for some reason that only Apple knows.
Mac Pro: Abandoned then updated with a lot of fanfare then abandoned again (WTF?)
/E
I forgot about monitors. Apple went from having a nice selection of decent monitors to having one and now none. It's not like they have forgotten how to make a nice screen, just how to put them in a case with a (whatever plug Apple is using now) cable on it.
"Why can’t you plug the Lightning headphones that come in the iPhone box into the new Mac?"
The decision for Apple to remove the 3.5mm jack on the iPhone 7 has been discussed at length elsewhere. Another way to look at this is that Apple included a pair of headphones that you can use with the iPhone now, rather than wait to buy a dongle for your existing headphones or wait to buy headphones from another manufacturer.
"Why doesn’t the iPhone come with the right cable for the new MacBook Pro?"
There's always a period of transition when ports and connectors change. I suspect within the next year iPhones will come with USB C to Lightning cables. You'll likely have to buy a new cable or an adapter to charge your phone from your new MacBook Pro.
"Why doesn’t Apple make a screen that properly works with its own devices?"
It looks like Apple is getting out of the monitor business entirely.
http://www.macrumors.com/2016/10/28/apple-out-of-display-bus...
On balance, it's likely not as profitable as other areas. People may not be as willing to pay a premium for Apple's displays. Others may be good enough.
I'm not sure what "properly works" is getting at. I'm not curious enough to take a look, though I don't deny some may exist. I can't recall ever having an issue with any Apple monitor I've used (I believe I've used at least 4), other than mounting the monitors on an arm using a VESA adapter. That's been a pain. I don't get the impression that's what the author is alluding to, however.
"Why did Apple highlight how great the Touch Bar is for Messaging, but didn’t even port most of the new iMessage features to macOS properly?"
I thought Thursday's Hello Again event was one of the most poorly executed presentations I've seen from Apple. I found some of the demos of the Touch Bar during the presentation silly, particularly the text suggestion portions. I'm able to separate the presentation from how I view the hardware. I find the current keyboard commands and suggestions works fine for that. I do think the Touch Bar will be useful for custom keys with good contextual awareness. And I think there's a lot of potential for other uses we haven't thought of yet. Most of us haven't had the opportunity to try it out. I actively use the ESC key as well has the hardware volume and brightness keys. I trust I'll figure something out. After all, I didn't have the volume and brightness keys until they were introduced.
I'm not familiar with the new iMessage features that the author is referring to (I'm still running Yosemite), though I'm happy to grant they exist. One of the benefits of software is that it can continue to be improved and updated at a much faster rate than the hardware. Also, Apple, like any other large company, has multiple teams. Tradeoffs need to be made to actually ship. Ideally everything would be perfectly developed and bug free. I think most of us can agree that's not realistic, however. We do the best we can.
"Do I have to carry two pairs of headphones now?"
Assuming this question is based on the iPhone 7 having only a Lightning port, and the new MacBook Pros having only a 3.5mm audio port and USB-C ports. If you're using headphones with a cable, then you can use an adapter for one or the other. You don't necessarily need two pair of headphones. Wireless headphones are also an option.
"How do I charge my Lightning cable mouse?"
With a USB-C to Lightning cable, just like you likely currently use a USB-A to Lightning cable. Yup. You'll likely have to buy a new cable or an adapter.
"Why remove the HDMI port, a standard that’s still in...
Apple is a large company and they've been successful for quite a while now. I don't think they're infallible. iTunes is a great example of something that I think should be right in Apple's historical core competency in terms of software and has been an absolutely horrible experience for years. I think the MacBook product line is fragmenting a bit, though I think that might be temporary--the expansion to include the MacBook Air is now once again contracting. How many iterations of iCloud have there been? (I think I still have a me.com account around here, somewhere.) I'd love a Mac Mini update.
Looking around, I'm pretty impressed with the Surface Studio, in particular the Dial. I've heard Windows 10 is really good. I have no reason to doubt that, though I have no experience with it. I like what I know about ZFS. While I have issues with some of how DropBox is implemented, I think its overall user experience is great! I also wish there were a commercial product like 10gui (10gui.com).
I do think there are reasons for the decisions they've made, and likely the majority of them don't involve active attempts to alienate their customers or incompetence. I also realize that Apple isn't going to be able to make products that will please everybody.
Sure, I'd love to be privy to all of the decisions Apple makes. I don't think I'm necessarily entitled to them. And I also have faith that I can evaluate the products for myself.
What do you think? Am I being fair? Reasonable? An Apple apologist? Completely off my rocker?
>Apple used to be focused on making their devices better, now they're just focused on making them even thinner.
Think that is really accurate.
Like all products, they can be improved and compromising decisions had to be made during the design phase, but I find this Medium think piece really lacking in perspective and context.
And already a generation behind on the CPU front
>lighter (kinda important in a laptop)
Great, as long as the trade offs are reasonable (not convinced that they are)
>have better graphics
Yet still woeful in comparison to similarly priced machines from other vendors and, of course, OSX is a terrible gaming platform
>a new screen that is much better
Good
>etc, etc, etc...
What are those exactly? I can't think of anything to fill in the gaps, and we can certainly argue that taking away common interfaces is a bad move and the toolbar is little a gimmick.
Graphics are not only for gaming. Id say the Radeon cards they choose seem reasonable for the Macbook Pro line, pending further testing.
Lots of "etc": Much better sound, larger and more comfortable trackpad, faster memory and SSD, jump to Thunderbolt 3, better microphones...
Argue away, I think TouchBar is far from being a gimmick.
It's baffling just to contemplate the number of new cables, dongles, and adapters I'd need to buy. I'd be shocked if it was less than $150 worth of things that add no new value.
I had planned to buy a new MBP this year. Based on this update I'll be waiting to see what they come up with next year.
Apple has a history of removing things (floppy, cd drive, ethernet port, firewire, etc) and not backtracking.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12817332
I'm not sure why that is - partly because I've got one and like it. Also I guess now the Air 11" is gone we're supposed to but the 12" Macbook but it doesn't review as well - on the most obvious Amazon reviews the 11" has 81% 5* reviews and the new Macbook had 59%. It seems a shame that thin with few ports and shiny seems to be prioritized over user satisfaction.
a) bring back that key row, people prefer physical keys over touch-strips and -pads and -screens for a reason - you can use them without taking your eyes off the screen
b) for those applications where you'd benefit from a visual representation of whatever data you're manipulating the keystrip is rather limited in space, but fortunately nearly all laptops already include a touch-sensitive area under the keyboard...
c) ...so just put an OLED-display under the touchpad? Have it run iOS for ease of development, not that developing for iOS is easy but there are loads and loads of developers who already know the platform. Add some haptic feedback to make it usable eyes-off and for those who have bad eyesight and you've got your next 'amazing' gadget.
As an added bonus it should be possible to use any iOS device as a 'remote' for applications which utilize the touchpad-with-pictures. Call it DisplayPad and you're done for the next show.
The same could be done by Google (Android on ChromeOS or whatever comes after), by Microsoft, by... anyone, really.
• People wanted Skylake, they got Skylake.
• They got faster GPU and I/O and great battery life. The numbers on these are impressive, especially the I/O.
• They got 4 ports of the fastest and most versatile interfaces for external devices ever. The removal of all other ports is really no worse than when the VERY FIRST iMAC went USB-only back in 1998! [1][2] We all see how the rest of the industry followed, as it will again when everything becomes USB-C.
• The Touch Bar is actually a cool new input device that brings context-sensitive multitouch to macOS without bastardizing the traditional desktop UI as Windows does. You wanted innovation, you got it. What do people expect to happen to laptops at this point anyway?? I don't see any good alternative ideas being offered.
• Lastly, and I'm amazed at how this is being overlooked in every discussion: The move to 30-BIT-PER-CHANNEL SCREENS! I have an iPad Pro and the difference that a wide color display brings has to be seen in person to be appreciated. Accurate color representation in consumer devices is a field which has languished for over 20 years. I believe mad props are due Apple for pushing everyone ahead, and up until now I don't think there were any good laptops for actually creating and previewing P3 content, without connecting them to expensive external screens.
----
Now the bad things.
I only recently purchased an iPhone 7 and a 9.7" iPad Pro. I love them to bits, especially their wide color cameras and screens, but I won't be able to connect them to an already-expensive new MBP, or use the new Lightning EarPods, without spending even more money on dongles and carrying around extra stuff with me everywhere.
Given the prices, I really think Apple should have softened this by at least bundling Lightning-to-USB-C with the new MacBooks. WHY fight within your own ecosystem?
The naming is also a disaster. I don't really mind them calling the 9.7" iPad "Pro" (it's an amazing device) but putting out a "MacBook Pro" without a Touch Bar really muddies the waters and only creates confusion. They should've just called it a 13" MacBook, and given it a choice of more colors.
These are the areas where they are justifiably deserving of ire, but on the whole I think all this relentless negativity is a bit excessive and feels like the work of competitor-hired PR firms, but I hope it pushes Apple to address the actual issues.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac#History
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy-free_PC
To have the same difference as there was between an early iBook and a Powerbook you'd have to pack the Macbook Pro with dual processor octacore Xeons, non-mobile graphics cards, etc. with all that entails (i.e. power draw, cooling, weight, price.) Few "pros" would be willing to return to lugging a 10lb "laptop" thick as an encyclopedia around, or pay twice as much.
And just like many other tech, Apple force their way in and make early steps for changes, Floppy, CD-ROM etc. No SCSI for iMac? Apple wanted everyone, or will force every USB to be USB-C type. And it is clear someday, 802.11ac / ad will be fast enough for wireless transfer between Professional Cameras. So they will get rid of SD-Card now.
Any Kaby Lake offers little to no performance improvement over Skylake. And if you are wondering, the 10nm 25W Mobile CPU wont arrive til 2018.
I honestly dont have any idea what people are complaining about in terms of tech.
For me, apart from... Price.....
Someone else pointed out that the skylake included performs slower than the old processor and its already a generation old.
Battery life may be good, but lets not forget because of it, we can't go over 16 gigs of memory. That's a joke. 16 gigs may be decent for most people today, but I want 32 gigs, especially if its a year from now since they won't update these for a while.
> They got 4 ports of the fastest and most versatile interfaces for external devices ever
Great. Remove the ports that we all use and love that are not going anywhere anytime soon. Give us ports that barely anyone uses or cares about. Why not have both? No one gives a shit about a port they won't ever use. What a dumb response you made. and with the iMac they made a mistake then and are making that mistake again. For what? To save a couple dollars of licensing fees?
> What do people expect to happen to laptops at this point anyway?? I don't see any good alternative ideas being offered.
You're just one person and you don't have any decent ideas. That's why you don't work to develop new things. Plenty of people I'm sure have cool and interesting ideas that are more useful.
> Given the prices, I really think Apple should have softened this by at least bundling Lightning-to-USB-C with the new MacBooks. WHY fight within your own ecosystem?
That's Apple. Milk the customer for every penny they got by selling nice looking outdated hardware and cutting out features and ports and making them pay more for it. I can't recommend an apple product to anyone, except for the iPhone which I will probably stop recommending when a decent competitor comes around. Many Apple users are pissed as well, I really hope they throw out the CEO. He's horrible and a lot of people don't like him.
> They should've just called it a 13" MacBook, and given it a choice of more colors.
But they can milk you for even more money by calling it a PRO!
> but I hope it pushes Apple to address the actual issues.
I'm pretty damn sure Apple doesn't give a shit about its customers. They do what they want like a shady dictator and not for the people. It's only about how much they can get out of every customer and they are playing customers like a fool. I'm glad I switched away years ago and I will never go back.
Yes, at the end of 2015, not at the end of the skylake cycle.
> They got faster GPU
Still way behind what Nvidia is doing with the 10 series.
> The move to 30-BIT-PER-CHANNEL SCREENS!
This I agree with you.