
Apple Registers Several New Mac and iPad Models in Eurasia - sahin-boydas
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/07/05/apple-registers-new-macbooks-ipads-eec/
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digitalsushi
My relationship with Apple at this point is like a homeless kid who got
adopted by a nerdy eccentric parent in 2002, who taught me UNIX and gave me a
little place to code; but lately that parent has been off listening to music
with people who don't care about any of this, and when I ask this metaphorical
parent for something I need, they wave their hands at me without looking and
say "yeah, yeah, there's some new laptops under the stairs in a box, I'm busy,
ask me again in a year". And I say, "you can log in with a blank root
password", and I hear them sigh and mutter something about even giving me an
OS at all.

~~~
rch
Mention something about CUDA being important for your job and they'll
completely lose it... perhaps by throwing away all the furniture and replacing
the couch with a soft blue orb that starts pulsing if you play the Black Eyed
Peas.

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mr_custard
I'm using the first Retina Macbook Pro from 2012. I'm ready to drop thousands
of dollars for you Apple, if you would just make a couple of sensible design
choices.

Please Apple, bring out another model like the Macbook Pro I already have:

* No Touch-bar. It's pointless & irritating & I'd prefer my money to be spent elsewhere, where it matters.

* A decent keyboard that will last 6 years like this one

* Magsafe

I use this machine to make my living as a software engineer. These things
matter a great deal to me.

And Apple, please please please don't make it thinner - I really don't care
about thinness like you think I do!

Is that so much to ask for?

~~~
snarf21
It is surely not too much to ask for. The problem is that the number of
software engineers that will buy a MBP every six years is a relatively small
market compared to the general public buying MBP every three years that are
more gadgety with crap like the touch bar. Apple wants growth and expanding
TAM is the easiest path forward.

~~~
mr_custard
That's an excellent point snarf21, and I don't disagree with you. I know that
you're right, really.

Another take on this, though, in terms of our value to Apple though is the
concept of "developer mindshare" (as well as power users). A small percentage
of customers can have a massive network effect in terms of sales. This whole
cycle of history seems to be repeating itself all over again. Right now when I
go to developer conferences, I still see MacBooks everywhere, but of course
this was't always the case. It only takes a few years for things to flip.

This whole cycle of tech history seems to be repeating itself all over again.
Which is a shame, because, on the whole I've benefited greatly from the
combination of macos, the hardware and "it just works"; it's allowed me to
simply get on with my work, unencumbered by faulty drivers, weird library
interactions and whatnot, and to earn a living without unwelcome distractions.

I continue to monitor the Linux options and don't want to use Windows. I like
Unix. I've been comfortable here with macos, but I feel Apple are "this close"
to blowing it with the hardware.

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thestepafter
Here is hoping they fix the keyboard, add more ports, get rid of the touchbar,
and add magsafe back for the Macbook Pro.

I've been holding on as long as I can with my mid-2012 model and if it dies
before the above is done I'll be switching.

Apple needs to get back to being a hardware company because being locked to
mediocre hardware because of an OS isn't going to cut it.

Apple needs a consumer model and a developer / pro model that gives developers
and creators what they need in a laptop.

Stop butchering the pro line!

~~~
kevin_b_er
Apple has fully adopted the philosophy of form over function. It looks pretty
and thus gets people to buy it. The "Pro" line is now more MacBook Plus than
Pro(fessional), where the screen is bigger and its got a few more toys, but
the same reduced reliability and usability in favor of looks. You are no
longer their target market. They are targeting people who still want a laptop
but want an Apple Fashion Statement.

~~~
berberous
Their philosophy of prioritizing form more than most is not really the issue
IMO. OP's complaints are really just flat out mistakes Apple has made. For
example:

1\. The low-travel butterfly keys would be fine for most folks (even if the
low-travel is less comfortable to some, thereby prioritizing form), _if they
didn 't break_.

2\. The touch bar seems useless to basically everyone, not just the HN set.
It's not driving sales the way other things to (such as the quest for
thinness)

3\. Only one port on the 12" Macbook is probably the right approach, but
becomes silly on the "Pro" machines.

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bmurphy1976
For the love of God give us a pro option with a real keyboard and without the
stupid touch bar.

~~~
dethswatch
touch bar is fine- it just CANNOT be used to replace actual buttons that
matter- like ESC!

So gosshake, they didn't even put the stinking ESC in the same place, they had
to indent it, ruining the billion times I've trained my hand to it.

~~~
refried_
They moved/expanded it in the updated physical function row too :-/

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IdontRememberIt
I feel back in time. I remember Apple before Steve Jobs came back. Same as
today: dongles everywhere, massive product line nobody understood, pro segment
frustrated, no more innovation, etc. As the messiah is dead, I did not wait
for a miracle, I went to Windows (impressive) with a lenovo x1 carbon
(hardware updated every years). Still using an iphone because overall better,
but the software is a terrible closed mess... :( So sad... Steve prophetised
Apple faith:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AxZofbMGpM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AxZofbMGpM)

~~~
some_account
It's because it's incredibly hard to reach the best result by group think and
consensus.

You need benevolent dictators, basically, to have the trust and authority to
innovate. Even Microsoft is catching up now with surface book 2 which has a
lot of invocation in its hardware (but Windows still suck). Apple will not be
number one innovator for long if they keep messing up.

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jhack
About time. Laptops with 8th-gen Intel processors have been out for over eight
months already.

~~~
mrkstu
Intel and Apple have gotten out of sync lately. I think this time is worse
than usual due to the butterfly keyboard issue.

Apple's size and the fact they are using the butterfly type keyboard
throughout their laptop lines, means that inertia in deciding to make a change
and then implementing it throughout their manufacturing chain is a fraught and
time consuming process.

~~~
holtalanm
will i get burned at the stake if i say i actually like the butterfly
keyboard?

~~~
LyndsySimon
I like it too - at least as well as the previous keyboard, and assuming it
continues to function.

I also spend a lot of time working on my laptop outdoors though, and every
time I get something under a key I hold my breath a little as I shake my
laptop upside down, hoping that this isn't the time that it finally fails
permanently and I have to send the whole machine back to Apple to replace a
single key.

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cpr
All these wishlists are quite well known, and I agree with many of them. (I
really like the butterfly keyboards on the latest 15" MBPs, and the fact that
they now have a warrantee extension makes it less of a worry.)

But in the end, I'll never switch, because they're good enough as they are,
and the quality/form factor is unbeatable. And macOS is fine and stable for
me, with all its warts.

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newscracker
Wouldn't be a bad idea to release a few Mac minis soon with user upgradeable
RAM, drive, etc. We know the Mac Pro is anyway not coming this year. It looks
like the new Macs will just be updates to the MacBook Pro and MacBook lines.
Hopefully some without the Touch Bar and with a newer and better (or older and
better?) keyboard.

