
Apple’s Next Laptops Could Be More iPhone Than Mac - boramalper
https://www.wsj.com/articles/apples-next-laptops-could-be-more-iphone-than-mac-1528992149
======
dickbasedregex
I've been figuring for a couple years now I'd have to abandon macs once my air
dies. Apple seems bound and determined to shun developers and instead sell
facebook machines.

~~~
todd3834
I am a developer and I love using a Mac. The stock terminal app has improved
so much over the last few years that switching to any flavor of Linux always
leaves me wanting Mac OS. It also seems like >90% of the developers at all of
the companies I’ve worked use Macs. I’m sure that’s not the case for everyone
but that’s been my experience. What has Apple done to make you feel this way?
What am I missing?

Disclaimer: my current laptop still has an ESC key also I used to work for
Apple

~~~
ddon
Few things - not updating hardware for years, pretty much no innovation on the
desktop (both, hardware and software), getting rid of ports on recent laptops,
not having touch screens, horrible cables [1], etc...

[1]
[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=apple+broken+cable&t=ffab&iax=imag...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=apple+broken+cable&t=ffab&iax=images&ia=images)

~~~
Bud
Apple doesn't make horrible cables, iffy anecdotal gif-evidence
notwithstanding. Apple's reputation is quite decidedly for making high-quality
cables.

"No innovation on the desktop" doesn't really mean anything. Who else is
"innovating on the desktop" right now?

"Getting rid of ports" can also be interpreted as "moving to new and superior
ports". Apple has always been brutal in weeding out obsolete interfaces and
introducing new ones.

~~~
Larrikin
Every single Apple wire I've ever had up until the past couple years have all
been trash. Whatever that white coating was only ever intended to look good in
commercials. I never had a single wire ever fray on me besides theirs. It
seems like they may have finally fixed the problem they've had for a decade
since my latest replacement power brick seems to be going stronger than all
the other wires, but I am probably just lucky so far

~~~
ymolodtsov
They’ve actually changed all the wires a few years ago: they feel more
plasticky and are much sturdier.

------
nordsieck
> The company announced that its initial wave of 7nm chips will be available
> first to its data-center customers—who are driving its greatest revenue
> growth—not to the companies that build laptops and tablets.

Intel said nothing of the sort, in large part because their upcoming process
is called "10nm".

------
plassma
And complete their long slow transition from making computers to making
appliances for web browsing and word processing

~~~
SiVal
They don't care much about web browsing and care far less about word
processing. They are making appliances as interfaces to services, with as many
of the services as possible being ways to buy things from Apple. I'm not
saying this to be cynical. I'm being quite literal that that is their business
plan.

------
callesgg
For most romantics that should be enough. Essentially the same thing as a iPad
with keyboard.

ios is still to limited when it comes to usb storage but when that is "fixed"
i belive 80% of all computer users could be satisfied with IOS.

Neglecting the fact that users want torrent software and the likes.

~~~
vbezhenar
Are you expecting iOS? I'm sure that they'll ship macOS. There were rumors
about internal ARM build of macOS years ago.

------
ofrzeta
Really, I don't get why they just can't keep on doing incremental updates to
the machines they have. I am still using a Macbook Air 2012. I am actually
waiting for the successor to come out. This machine with 8GB and 512GB SSD is
fine as it is. It might be boring but from what I know it is also what the
majority of developers (or other users) want or need. Maybe NVM if there has
to be some innovation. And maybe put some effort into keeping (or improving)
the build quality. Can't be so hard. Oh, and fix the damn power supply cables
for that matter (Magsafe is great but what about those cables)!

------
geoalchimista
Looks like my dream of having an MacBook Pro 15'' with octa-core Intel
processors that support AVX512 and an Nvidia graphics card with which you can
run CUDA will never come true. Now I just wish they could keep the Unix kernel
of macOS, cuz I don't want a bigger iPad.

~~~
Bud
iOS is also sitting atop Unix.

------
illustrioussuit
No paywall: [https://outline.com/SBXeKp](https://outline.com/SBXeKp)

~~~
heyoni
And it works with reader mode. Bless your soul, child.

------
Theodores
Paywalled again. With 'could be' in the title rather than 'will'.

From this I guess they are guessing this based on the fact that Apple have
been slow to update their laptops recently?

So one day soon Apple are going to come out with new computers that are a
radical departure from the past, the x86 gone and their own chips powering the
next generation of MacBooks?

Sounds great but in the same timescale Google are going to bring out something
that is an Operating System but not as we know it, with A.I. baked in. Should
be interesting times.

~~~
adjkant
[https://outline.com/](https://outline.com/) works well to get past most
paywalls. There's a chrome extension version as well.

~~~
oldcynic
Thank you! Web search for WSJ bypass has been mostly failing lately.

Downvoting you for being helpful is a bit uncharitable, +1

~~~
adjkant
Glad it helped! No idea why I'm being downvoted. I have no affiliation FYI - I
post about it every so often here literally because so many people complain
about paywalls...

