
Apple, this time you made a mistake - andreash
http://andhennie.tumblr.com/post/152390980989/apple-this-time-you-made-a-mistake
======
SysArchitect
As a professional software dev/system architect using MacBook Pro's, I am
excited about the new MacBook Pro. I'll miss the SD card for my amateur
photography, but I'll live.

It's still got the 3.5mm for my headphones, with USB-C hopefully daisy
chaining non Apple displays will finally become a reality, and thankfully my
work has upgraded to using wireless technology for displaying screens in
conference rooms (which works from OS X and Windows).

The new context sensitive function bar is going to take some getting used to,
but I have been using Caps lock for escape for years now and OS X just got
native support for mapping that.

Grabbed a USB-C to lightning cable while I was at it. Now I can just bring a
single charger and charge either my Mac or my iPhone or both at the same time.
I rarely use USB drives, so unfortunately I'll need a dongle for that, but
it's not that big of a deal.

\---

I am more sad that there was no announcement for the Mac Pro/Mac Mini. Also no
Apple display, instead handing that to LG, so it looks like Apple is pulling
out of the desktop market (I wonder how long the iMac will last).

\---

Edit: There is one thing I will miss, and that is MagSafe. It has saved my
laptop many a time in it's lifetime. I am hoping Apple builds a USB-C to
MagSafe cable that provides the same functionality to save laptops from a
tripping hazard.

~~~
randomsofr
> I have been using Caps lock for escape for years

I didn't knew people were doing that :O, whats the benefit?, and how do you
turn on caps?

~~~
masklinn
> I didn't knew people were doing that :O

I rebind mine to control.

> whats the benefit?

Control is an actually useful key, in Emacs specifically but also in OSX in
general as all OSX controls have emacs-ish chords support (e.g. C-a C-e for
start and end of line). Having Control on a large well-placed key is more
convenient than have it on a small key in the corner, and I've literally no
use for capslock.

> how do you turn on caps?

I don't think I've ever wanted that in the last 20 years or so, every single
toggling of capslock has been by mistake. In fact one of my issues with
windows is there _still_ isn't a way to easily remap capslock, it takes 3
clicks in OSX (or ChromeOS), it takes installing third-party software or hand-
rolling custom keyboard layouts on windows.

~~~
amatheus
All the time I see people saying they never want caps lock. I develop in Java
and it's convention to have constants be caps lock; other languages do
something similar too. In that case what would be the solution without caps
lock, typing each character holding shift? I think I'll try it to see how it
goes but sounds weird to me.

~~~
masklinn
> In that case what would be the solution without caps lock, typing each
> character holding shift?

Yes, what little you need to type before autocompletion kicks in anyway, and
code is mostly not constants, writing constants is a much rarer case than
chording Control in emacs, terminal or cocoa text control.

------
AndrewStephens
What a whiney, content-free blog post. The author complains about removing the
function keys, MagSafe, HDMI, SD Card and the escape key but doesn't give any
examples of how they used those in the past or how those features' absence
will cripple their workflow.

Here are my thoughts:

Removing the function keys and replacing them with the touch bar is a step up.
The function keys have been annoyingly inconsistent on macOS for a few years
now, most programs don't make use of them like they could because by default
you need to use an awkward chord with the fn key.

The addition of the fingerprint scanner alone is a win, but having proper
context sensitive keys will be huge for discoverability and ease of use.

RIP MagSafe - it was such a great design. I would have kept it and ditched a
thunderbolt port, but that's just me.

Having HDMI built-in was pretty good for connecting to projectors, but HDMI
doesn't support many screen modes and is pretty out-dated these days. Buy a
$10 adaptor if you need it.

SD Card readers are also not used much these days. Buy a $10 adaptor if you
need it.

Lots of people are moaning about the escape key like it is their favorite
member of One Direction. My guess is that the escape key will be available (as
a touch bar icon) in any application that actually needs it.

I am not in the market for a new MacBook Pro, but I can see the appeal.

~~~
TeMPOraL
> _The addition of the fingerprint scanner alone is a win_

Interesting. Every other laptop has one these days, but I haven't really seen
people using it much. It seems more like a gimmick.

Fingerprint scanner on a phone makes more sense, because it lets you to unlock
it almost as quickly as if you didn't have _any_ lockscreen security, which is
a big convenience.

~~~
reustle
> It seems more like a gimmick.

Don't you use a password manager? Aren't you tired of constantly typing your
master password in to unlock your keys?

~~~
belovedeagle
Because having your password manager unencrypted (so that biometrics can
"unlock" it) is a great idea.

~~~
r00fus
What do you even mean by that? On iOS any app can request a TouchID
authentication for upgraded privileges. Would be surprised if something
similar weren't possible. 1Password on iOS uses TouchID. It's certainly not
unencrypted at rest.

That's the goal - I provide my TouchID + maybe a PIN (or if for added
security, combined with separate channel factor).

------
neals
I LOVE Apple products! I treasure Iphone and it's safe and fun ecosysten. I
love the simplicity of OSX. I love the professional appearance of a Macbook
Pro... as a user. Or as an observer even.

Because professionally, I've been on Windows, Linux and Android for years. And
with Windows where it's at now, I've never been more productive.

Just can't seem to get that across to my Apple-friends and Apple-coworkers.

~~~
jaxondu
Any recommendation for a MacBook Pro equivalent running Windows?

One reason I'm stuck with Mac is the need to use it for iOS app development.

~~~
Bud
Yes, it's called the MacBook Pro. It runs Windows, natively, just fine. In
fact, PC World once ranked it as the best Windows laptop.

~~~
Akkuma
Macbooks run Windows, but the driver support is pretty horrendous from Apple.
Basically, they say it runs and stop supporting it after that. I cannot get a
graphics driver update at all. Another good example is that TRRS does not work
at all for Windows and this is 100% a driver issue.

~~~
dogma1138
I have no problems installing the Radeon drivers on my mid 2015 MBP and not
using the default Apple ones.

~~~
greyfade
Graphics drivers are by no means the only drivers that require updates.

~~~
dogma1138
I haven't said they were, they are however the most important ones since
everything else is pretty bog standard.

------
0x0
A maxxed out MBP costs €5000, which is $5447.95. And you can't connect your
iphone, your iphone headset, hdmi, magsafe, sd-card or usb. And you don't get
tactile escape keys or function keys. Or Nvidia. Or even an OpenGL
implementation from this decade! This show is over :(

~~~
pavlov
Apple sells a USB-C to Lightning cable, so you don't need a dongle to connect
an iPhone.

The rest of your points stand though.

~~~
0x0
For €5000 you can't connect your state-of-the-art iPhone to your state-of-the-
art Mac out of the box. You have to pay extra, and you have to carry around an
awkward dongle adapter and hope you don't forget it! Fucking lol.

~~~
mcphage
> you have to carry around an awkward dongle adapter

Huh? It's not a dongle, it's just a cable. You do need a cable to connect your
phone to your laptop.

~~~
seba_dos1
But that's not a cable that everyone has everywhere.

So many times around me poor iPhone owners couldn't charge their phones at
parties because nobody had their kind of cable around, while for microUSB
you've got plenty of helpful charger and powerbank owners.

To be honest, lately owners of phones with USB-C were having the same problem,
but I guess it's gonna change faster than with Lightning cables.

------
MBCook
"I liked your products. You changed things. I'm stating as a fact they're
worse without providing any evidence or opinions to back that up."

This is a low quality post.

~~~
Mithaldu
> This is a low quality post.

Good demonstration.

------
beaner
I think there are a lot of legit complaints about the new announcements and
lack of improvements, but this post seems pretty weak. Fn keys aren't really
gone, they're just present in another form (the touch bar). The other
complaint is just about ports. It's not so hard to have a dongle that has
these ports, and just plugs into the new one. Sure, a little annoying, but it
doesn't exactly kill your workflow.

~~~
masklinn
> The other complaint is just about ports. It's not so hard to have a dongle
> that has these ports

And the keikaku[0] is quite obviously to provide incentive for accessory
manufacturers to build type-c native stuff, and eventually have an all-type-c
ecosystem and little to no need for "dongles" (which incidentally should
mostly be basic cables)

[0] keikaku means plan

~~~
adrianN
It's nice that you're learning Japanese, but why not use "plan" instead of
adding a footnote?

~~~
masklinn
It's a joke/dumb reference from the internets:
[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/just-according-to-
keikaku](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/just-according-to-keikaku)

------
tinbad
I'm genuinely amazed every time there's an Apple keynote and people act this
surprised. With every major new release Apple has been taking away legacy and
pushing forward, often compromising compatibility.

~~~
aikah
> pushing forward

forward to what ? design over usability ? surely you understand why a lot of
people are pissed off. The touch bar is a gimmick, the lack of inputs make the
MBP only PRO in name, this isn't a "PRO" machine. This is just a Macbook air
rebranded as Pro. But to understand that you need to be able to read through
Apple's bullshit, which is hard for Apple fans that see the brand as part of
their own identity.

------
trackofalljades
FFS, they didn't remove the F-keys, you can still have F-keys if you
want...and they made all the ports do everything. They removed the card
reader. Whiny posts by people who didn't even pay attention are more annoying
than Apple.

~~~
0x0
But you can't FEEL them. So you can't use them without looking down at your
keyboard. Which is a pretty horrible proposition for touch typists.

~~~
Bud
Touch typing doesn't involve the Escape key, really, which is the only key
that's relevant here.

For those who need it, Esc will be readily-mappable to a hardware key combo.

Also, it's simply false that you can't use a Touch Bar key without looking
down. It's just a simple motor skill like anything else. Very very slightly
harder than having a hardware Esc key. Trivial.

~~~
0x0
I don't know about you but I "touch-type" F6, F7, F8, F9, F10 all the time
while single-step debugging. It looks like the Touch Bar can change to
anything at any moment, such as "answer facetime call" so I wouldn't trust
blindly touching it. And I don't have a spare physical button to map escape
onto because I already use all the remaining buttons for their intended
purpose, including caps-lock.

------
midnightmonster
If you say (in effect) "The latest macbooks would mess with details of my
high-end pro workflow...so I'm thinking of switching to Linux" you either live
in the terminal or you're not really thinking this through.

~~~
larrik
That's a pretty outdated viewpoint. Linux has been my professional platform
for 6 years, and I find it to be vastly superior to Windows or Mac. The short
time I had to use OS X for iOS development was very painful.

~~~
midnightmonster
I'm not saying Linux is bad. I'm saying switching from Mac to Linux is going
to be a much bigger adjustment to your workflow than getting a new dongle or a
few different shortcut keys (considering that at a minimum you're going to be
switching cmd to ctrl for nearly everything--unless you already live in the
terminal).

~~~
jablan
It's really not that hard. I am forced to use Mac at work, while using Linux
at home (also with very different keyboards), and getting use of making a
mental switch when needed is matter of months. It is not much different than
learning to use more than a single keyboard layout.

------
oldmanjay
I'm reminded of all the people who think saying they'll leave the US if a
given person is elected president is actually meaningful

------
Corrado
I have two problems with the new keyboard/touch bar layout. One, the ESC key
is not on the far left of the touch bar - it ignores the "Mile High Menubar"
concept. Now instead of just reaching up and blindly smashing the top-most
left-most key on the keyboard, I have to look down to find the ESC key that's
close to, but not quite in, the upper lefthand corner of the keyboard area.

The other problem is that they left in the Fn key. Why would I need a Fn key
when I have a touch bar? Maybe we can map ESC to the Fn key. :/

------
JoelBennett
Do we know why they removed the MagSafe power cord?

I always thought it was a smart design. It seems kind of silly to remove it.

~~~
grzm
Tradeoff between the break-away design for a single-purpose port and the
multiple multi-purpose ThunderBolt 3 ports.

~~~
r00fus
Personally if they could've had an Apple accessory that mitigated that (ie,
something built-in like Griffin's breaksafe - maybe recess the port so the
accessory could be flush), it would've been a coup.

Everyone needs to plug in their laptop; Not every one needs 4 connectivity
ports.

~~~
grzm
I'm a MagSafe fan myself. I remember pre-MagSafe laptops taking a flyer now
and again, and being the worse for it.

That said, I can understand why they did it. Laptops are lighter now, so the
corresponding damage may be less as well. And I don't know how snugly the TB3
ports fit. Maybe they disconnect more easily than, say, Firewire 400.

I've got a couple of years left in my current laptop. I'm hoping there's a
solution that incorporates some type of break-away power connector.

------
joeevans1000
I've been noticing a trend toward linux among devs for a while now, so this
will just hasten that. The lenovos are really sweet with linux, as an example,
and I'm seeing them increasingly at programming events.

Apple has been moving it's product line towards catering to the idiocracy,
anyways, so it's not surprise. Add to that the increasing loss of interest in
iphone and devs moving to android, in spite of all it's problems, and you have
a sea shift.

I think it's been an interesting dichotomy all along. There were the consumer
apple products, and the professional ones. The professional products were used
to build for the consumer ones. I think Jobs really understood the need to
have a two pronged approach in this way. It seems that new management now is
trying to unify it all, and the wind up is that apple will no longer be the
cool dev's choice, and the result will be a rapidly declining ecosystem,
offering, popularity, and, finally, revenue.

------
steve1969
I have to agree on all points. As a vim addict losing the ESC key is bad,
although I've been trying to re-learn to use ctrl-[ instead which is more
ergonomic anyway. Touch bar for volume, brightness, etc. is going to take some
getting used to.

As for losing the ports -- seems like a great opportunity for someone to come
up with an all-in-one usb-C to SD, HDMI, VGA, DVI, USB3, etc. Wouldn't need to
be very big or expensive...

Even so, the old macbooks and macbook airs with SD slots could be "upgraded"
with a low-profile SD card that is left in all the time. This series of
macbook pros appears to be completely bereft of renegade upgrade
opportunities.

I use a mac now, and like the tight integration with ipad and iphone, but
unless they come out with a better macbook that restores some of what has been
taken away my next laptop will likely be running Linux.

------
hokvel
I am really concerned about where the whole mac train goes.

It is so clear they did not consider touch-typists when they designed touch
bar. They could have used textured glass to cover it, or aligned its keys to
0-9 row, or added haptic feedback, or at least kept 2 options for keyboard as
they did with 13 inch model.

Seeing Craig Federighi when he tried his best to show the demo was hilarious.
Is it how they see professionals working in the next decade? It turned out
that Microsoft has better understanding of it. At least is see Surface Dial
being used.

I can cover that ugly "MacBook Pro" branding by duct tape. I can buy dongles
for SD/HDMI and magsafe-like USB-C cable. But... the whole story of giving up
on professionals seems to be unforgettable.

------
Osiris
I agree. I have no plans on upgrading my MacBook Pro (2015). I'm very
forgetful, so I know that I'd lose any adapter dongles due to the
USB-C/Thunderbolt ports replacing everything else.

Well, it makes it easy to save a few thousand dollars this year.

------
malux85
Can anybody recommend a good laptop to replace my current macbook -

I would like 17inch screen, and runs Ubuntu ... bonus for NVidia GPU - I deep
learn in the cloud but having a GPU to test on would be great.

Anybody know of this mythical unicorn?

~~~
striking
Here you go, pal!
[http://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/predator-17x-series](http://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/predator-17x-series)

17in 4K IPS display, desktop-equivalent GTX 980.

~~~
malux85
Wow, I'm in love. Thanks.

~~~
chrisper
Just know that Acer laptops have a history of overheating. I even experienced
that myself.

------
ch4s3
I'm pretty ambivalent about everything but the usb ports. I get they its an
overloaded standard and probably needs a replacement, but its a lot to give up
in the name of progress...

~~~
tekklloneer
The hard fact is that there's still a LOT of usb devices out there. Even one
USB port would greatly alleviate the pain.

If they don't include a usbc->usb+hdmi adapter in the box, it's going to be
extremely painful for users with workstations who find out that their
peripherals don't work.

~~~
SysArchitect
No adapters in the box.

------
alain_gilbert
I can't wait to have a macbook pro with unlimited energy and slim as a piece
of paper... (read I'm pretty sure the next upgrade is gonna be a "batteryless"
laptop)

------
striking
> function keys, MagSafe, HDMI, SD Card AND the Escape key

I'm an HDMI guy too, SD cards are great, and MagSafe has saved my bacon more
than once. But the function keys are being transformed into something a bit
more interactive and app-specific, and if you need Escape in a terminal
emulator, Ctrl-] has been around just about forever.

I think Apple's doing something new and interesting with function keys.

(But I agree, I'm not sure I agree with their all-in strategy on
Thunderbolt/USB-C either.)

~~~
verandaguy
While it's nice that Unix systems have an alternative (^]), many people don't
know about that, and you'd probably be hard pressed to find anyone who prefers
it over just <Esc>.

~~~
striking
You can use it with both hands on the home row, though. Left pinkie down to
Ctrl, right pinkie up to ]. You don't need to move your hand up or rotate at
the wrist. So in a sense it's actually kind of an improvement.

------
awqrre
I think that a cellphone with one button was also a mistake but I've never
been a fan of Apple... I wish cellphones still had a slide out keyboard...

------
tekklloneer
While I appreciate USB-C, it's still too early to go USB-C only, especially on
a "professional" laptop. And, the transition to lightning headphones is a
glaring example of the left hand SOMEHOW not being aware of what the right
hand is doing.

Plus, the touch bar sucks. Compensating with indentations and force touch
could have made it an amazing and useful tool.

~~~
Bud
a) you haven't used the Touch Bar. Seems a tad early to conclude that it
sucks. b) what transition to Lightning headphones? The MacBook Pro keeps the
old headphone jack. Do your homework before reflexively criticizing, please.

~~~
extra88
You can't use the headphones that came with an iPhone 7 to listen to anything
other than another iOS device, including this new MBP.

The mistake people are making is thinking the iPhone's transition is from
3.5mm analog audio to Lightning digital audio. It isn't, it's a transition to
wireless audio, including the Lightning headphones is a compromise.

------
dandare
Google trends "macbook alternative" and "macbook windows" shows clear spike
after the announcemenet.

[https://www.google.co.uk/trends/explore?date=now%201-d&q=mac...](https://www.google.co.uk/trends/explore?date=now%201-d&q=macbook%20alternative,macbook%20windows)

~~~
grzm
Any comparison with previous MacBook announcements?

------
dreamcompiler
Apple only cares about impressing Apple newbies who walk into their stores,
and this laptop is a prime example of that attitude. They haven't given half a
damn about power users, enterprise users, or developers since Steve died. It's
all about the bling now.

------
mastre_
Serious question: how will us vim users get by w/o physical escape key? If
it's just a touch in the same position as old physical key, I think it'll be
fine (may actually be nice, as it will _feel_ different, for a very special
key).

------
techtivist
I never thought I could move to a touch only phone because I do a lot of
"proper" typing on my phone, which is why I stuck to my Blackberry until my
first iPhone which was a 5 (yes that long). Which is to say, I don't think we
will miss the tactile escape and function keys. And same goes for dedicated
HDMI port and microsd card slot (seriously how often does one use the latter)

Remember when apple got rid of the floppy drive and then the disk drive? Do we
still complain about those?

Headphone jack on iPhone is a different concern, since bluetooth headphones
are still not as ubiquitous and having something else to charge a headache.

But none of these concerns (except for maybe the absence of Magsafe) is really
a dealbreaker.

------
Lidador
"it’s not like I can buy laptops with MacOS (which I’m completely addicted to)
from someone else." <\- No, you can. Just check Microsoft Surface Pro running
macOS ;)

------
laveur
I see a lot of comments about apple getting rid of USB. Thats not exactly true
at all. They have removed the USB-A ports and replaced them with the updated
USB-C ports. Which also double as charging ports, thunderbolt ports, and HDMI
(with a dongle yes). I think its dishonest to say they did away with USB
because they haven't they have done away with the port you are used to.
Doesn't mean USB is gone. Its still there with a better connector!

------
randomsofr
I've been holding on my 2012 non retina. I hate that every newer model comes
with almost everything soldered.

~~~
r00fus
I'd love to see a plot of resale prices for the 2012 15" non-retina - I bet
they go up from here. The 13" is still for sale, but the 15" is gone.

------
intrasight
If your a professional using your computer all day, then you shouldn't be
using the crappy built-in keyboard or crappy built-in display in the first
place. The Macbook is your computer - add the display and keyboard and mouse
that make you productive.

------
jbrambleDC
am I missing something? the demo clearly showed an esc key configured on the
touchbar. I could care less about removing the ports.

------
gwbas1c
Did they remove the USB port? That's pretty brain-dead stupid.

~~~
masklinn
> Did they remove the USB port?

No, they put 4 instead of the old 2, and they quadruple up as charging, video
and high-speed interconnect.

~~~
jakebasile
And also made them incompatible with practically all existing USB devices.

~~~
Bud
And yet forwards-compatible with practically all USB devices that will be made
going forward.

In other words, they did what you must do in order to move forward to a new,
superior standard which gives 40 Gbps performance plus power in AND out on all
4 ports.

~~~
jakebasile
I don't need 40Gbps to run my mouse, and I shouldn't have to spend more money
on an already egregiously overpriced machine to get an adapter. I don't want
another adapter to output to my monitor. I don't want another adapter to
connect to ethernet.

USB C doesn't need to be all or nothing. They could include 2 USB C and 2 USB
A and solve half of these problems. Throw in a MiniDisplayPort or an HDMI and
we're set.

~~~
masklinn
> I don't want another adapter to connect to ethernet.

You're about 4 years too late there.

> USB C doesn't need to be all or nothing.

It has to be if your ultimate goal is for it to become universal eventually.
As long as legacy interfaces are available accessory manufacturers have little
incentive to build type C devices as they can keep plugging away without, so
they won't.

> They could include 2 USB C and 2 USB A and solve half of these problems.
> Throw in a MiniDisplayPort or an HDMI and we're set.

You're set, and they have to support these interfaces they don't want forever.
Because don't be mistaken, that's what their endgame is, that's what Apple has
been looking for since they removed the floppy drive and started moving "slow"
IO to USB back in 1998.

~~~
jakebasile
If the only reason an accessory would use USB C is because no alternatives
exist, it doesn't need USB C.

Also, I don't care what Apple wants to do here. I want a computer that I can
use comfortably.

