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Don't get me wrong - I've been an Apple bigot since the mid-80's (when we purchased our original Mac Plus). But I do think the company, like Microsoft in years past, has been coasting recently. I just came across these comments today:Less than a decade ago it was Microsoft on the cusp of a resurgent Apple, the same company that reinvented the smartphone and tablet, launched the world's most successful app stores, and seemed poised to lead technology well into the 21st century.Full article here:
What happened?
Apple seems to have fallen asleep and cranks out products more slowly than ever, and hasn't conquered a new technology industry since the iPhone itself. iPad sales are down to stagnant. Mac sales are down. The only hopefuls in the Apple quiver are the Watch and Services, both of which are profitable but cannot carry the iPhone maker much beyond where it exists today.
Apple has a Microsoft problem in that Microsoft is playing like Apple played just a decade ago, while our favorite Mac maker seems to have dozed off.
Follow Ups:
It happens that when something gets lazy it are comfortable.
Sleeping giants wait sometimes 100s of years to make a change, play chess?
The new MacBook Pro really doesn't lend itself to the power user anymore.Just look at this gamer computer and what it delivers for $3K:
Edits: 11/03/16
Most 'Pro' users of MacBooks were developers, journalists and photo editors, etc.
Most with a focus on producing stuff for the internet.
Hearing a LOT of complaints about the keyboard from folks who do a lot of publishing, both journalists and coders(many who prefer to code from a desktop with costume keyboards but frequently use a laptop when traveling).
Photographers will miss the SD card slot but with larger physical format memory cards the norm for pro cameras and WiFi communication built into many cameras, this shortcoming will fade in time I suspect.
Don't expect to do a lot of Photoshop with just 16K of RAM though.
Guessing most serious 'gamers' buy serious game machines. Never been an Apple market, at least among 'gamers' I know.
Don't expect to do a lot of Photoshop with just 16K of RAM though.I think you meant 16GB of RAM. There have been plenty of Photoshop activity on MacBook Pros over the years with 16GB of RAM, or less. There has never been a MacBook Pro that supported more than 16GB.
How have you been hearing a LOT of complaints about the keyboard when the new MacBook Pros became available only 7 days ago? Do you know a LOT of people who have bought them and complained? I'll have to try out the keyboard next time I'm at the Apple store.
Edits: 11/03/16
The new MacBook Pros have been in the hands of reviewers and a few selected 'fan bois' (Gruber, Marco, etc.) for a while. Also read the first reports of the folks who attended the 'hands-on'. That, plus I understand the MacBook Pro 'ESC' is out.
Better than the super thin MacBook? Yes, but not by much.
I could run Photoshop on my MacBook Air, but I don't.
For me, the new MacBook Pro line represents little more than an upgrade to the MacBook Air which is what I use now so why not be happy? OK, the keyboard sucks but I didn't care much for the old one anyway having learned to type on a manual typewriter half a decade or more ago.
My desktop machine has an old IBM type 'clicky' keyboard with 'inches' of key travel! =:-0
Link to one review (Vlad Savov) is below:
The reviewer you linked to seems to like the keyboard. I too learned on a manual typewriter and grew up on the clicky IBM keyboards but try fitting any of those on a laptop! I tend to adapt to whatever keyboard I'm on fairly quickly as many others do.
The entry 13" MacBook Pro that omits the touch bar has the usual 'ESC' key in place. And at Apple's own launch event they stated that it is probably the best choice for those upgrading from the 13" MacBook Air. It is significantly more powerful with a much better display. The MacBook Air display was way past it's prime. No, you probably wouldn't want to run Photoshop on it.
I would miss the SD slot if camera SD cards were still somewhat low capacity and I needed to transfer my photos to my laptop in the field. The reality is, I never fill up my current 32GB SD cards in my cameras. I upload my photos to my laptop (or desktop) at home where I have a multimedia reader hub or just an SD adapter. For many mainstream consumers, their photos from an iPhone get uploaded to iCloud anyway and are immediately and automatically shared among other iDevices or Macs that they own. Fact of the matter is, dedicated cameras have been on the decline for years since smartphones have come on the scene. I guess Pro photographers may need to carry a dongle.... but Pro photographers are used to carrying a bag full of clunky photo-junk anyway. ;-)
Dongle Madness!
But I agree with the reviewer to some extent. Apple has gone all-in on the USB-C/Thunderbolt port (eliminating the rest) forcing us into the future. But hey, they were either the first or one of the first to ditch floppy drives, DVD drives, serial ports, SCSI, and even spinning disk drives. Apple hasn't had a hard disk based laptop for several years. They clearly prefer to move too fast rather than too slowly when it comes to ditching technologies that may be past their prime.
Dedonglify with a multiport Thunderbolt / USB-C hub
The physical 'ESC' key is out on the models with the touch bar because the bar is a fully programmable touch display strip that can show an 'ESC' key, or any other key. Additionally, macOS has the ability to remap the 'ESC' key to a physical hardware button if you wish.
I could run Photoshop on my MacBook Air, but I don't.
You probably wouldn't want to. The Air has the low power (slow) CPU, low-end integrated graphics processor, and an antiquated low resolution display. However, people run Photoshop all the time on MacBook Pros even with a 'lowly' 16GB of RAM.
For me, the new MacBook Pro line represents little more than an upgrade to the MacBook Air.
For you perhaps this is true but there are huge differences between the MacBook Pro line and the MacBook Air. There always has been. The only MacBook Pro model that represents an upgrade to the MacBook Air is the new entry model 13" MacBook Pro without the touch bar.
The Air defined and dominated the light and thin Ultrabook segment before the term was even coined by Intel. The goal included long battery life but back in the day that meant slower but more power efficient processors. Apple will drop the 13" MacBook Air because the entry model 13" MacBook Pro is significantly better and fills in for the old 13" Air. So it wouldn't make much sense for anyone to buy a new MacBook Air today. For ultimate portability there's the 12" MacBook. Between the 12" MacBook and 13" entry MacBook Pro, the 13" MacBook Air will get squeezed out of existence. They completely dropped the 11" MacBook Air.
Yes, there's an ESC key - or any key you want
My wife currently uses a late 2011 13" Air which has served her pretty well for doing basic photo-editing in Photoshop Elements. But she hit the screen with a sharp metal corner and its cracked all the way across. I hooked her up with my old Dell 2407 monitor, but the wifi radio is not great in her studio. So this new machine, which we've been waiting for is going to be perfect. We went down to the Apple store to play with the basic model and found the keyboard fine. The Air was $1400 when new, and this one configured for her with the bar will be just over $2k. It is a lot for what it offers in terms of power, but the industrial design, size and weight are perfect for her and with 3 years of Apple Care, the screen will last at least that long in her dangerous hands... ;-)
My wife is a teacher, so she gets $100 off. That helps and I will probably write it off too. This will be her workhorse for producing her fashion blog and I'm excited to get one on the way. I hesitate to put up her url, since there's really only horny old men left here. Not sure that's what I want to imagine on the other end of her photos.
Good to hear that the keyboard feel is decent. I'll have to test drive one myself next time I'm at the mall Apple store.... which is next to the Tesla car store and the Microsoft retail store. It's interesting that Microsoft is trying to emulate Apple with their retail location in the mall. They opened it almost 2 years ago.My wife is a retired elementary school teacher and we bought her a 13" Retina display MacBook Pro 1 year ago. Her previous Toshiba laptop was at least 6 or 7 years old and very clunky by today's standards.
I'll probably wait until next year to upgrade since I don't NEED a new laptop at the moment. My 2012 13" non-Retina MacBook Pro is working great and it's still in near mint condition as I use it mostly from home with an external Apple bluetooth keyboard and 22" HP display. It doesn't get dirty or bumped around very much. ;-)
If I upgrade I'll probably look to the higher-end 13" model for work. My company won't pay for it but we have a corporate agreement with Apple for employee discounts since Apple uses a lot of our products for their back-end 'enterprise' infrastructure. We get about 6% off on hardware and 10% on Apple Care.
My company will supply us with brand new Dell or Toshiba Windows laptops but I'm such an Apple fanboy (so I've been told) that I'd rather buy my own. In other words, I'd rather pay for the pleasure of using an Apple laptop than take a free one that runs Windows. ;-) Same for several coworkers in my group.
Edits: 11/07/16
As long as you can attach the peripherals needed for computer audio, I don't see a big problem as external SSD's get bigger and cheaper.How long before we see a Thunderbolt Optical drive?
My biggest fear is that Itunes will be reconfigured so that it can only play low-res files. But, then who wants a MacBook Pro IPOD?
Edits: 11/04/16
The point I was trying to make was that the gamer machine offered more performance for the about the same price of a MacBook Pro.
I think that ASUS is geared toward the power lifter. ;-)
ASUS Item Weight: 9.5 pounds
MacBook Pro Weight: 4.0 pounds
But OK as replacements for the MacBook Air.
Limit of 16GB RAM and crappy keyboard are the two main complaints of the 'Pro' class users.
PCIe SSD buss instead of SATA is an improvement not talked about much. Much faster, as I understand it.
Will also miss the SD card slot as that was a convenient place to stash photos on my MacBook Air.
Dongles!
We got DONGLES!!!!
I have a MBA 11 that I got nearly 6 years ago for travel use. It still works fine, but I really want to upgrade to a better screen and more performance and SSD capacity. I skipped the 12" MacBook due to the keyboard, lack of ports, and I wasn't sure about the 8GB max RAM. I was hoping the new MBP 13 would be the answer, but the keyboard, USB-C ports, smaller battery, and high price are negatives. I'm really torn now between getting a maxed out MBA 13 and living with the old screen and hoping 8 GB RAM won't be a problem, or trying to find a previous gen MBP 13 with 16 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD. I've been searching around trying to find the latter, but since it was a special order configuration they're not readily available.
My MBA 11" with 4GB ram works great as a travel laptop mostly for email & web or if I need to do a spreadsheet or a couple quotes for customers while on the road. The screen is a little small but the whole point is to keep size and weight to a minimum while traveling. I use mine whenever I'm on the road and have no need to upgrade it for what it does.
I understand your dilemma. The MBA 11" has a screen resolution of only 1366 × 768. Even though you won't get the hi-res "Retina" display in the 13" MBA you do get the larger screen, 1440 by 900 resolution, faster integrated graphics processor, and 8GB RAM. And you also get more battery life than the 11" MBA. It's definitely an upgrade over the old MBA 11". IMHO 8GB of RAM is plenty for this laptop and it's intended purpose and it's cheaper (and lighter) than the new entry 13" MBP.
But love the iPhone.
I wouldn't switch phones now.
We also have one of their tablets that I like. It always works.
Unfortunately, I'm too happy with these devices and don't feel the need to replace them anymore.
Microsoft is gradually perfecting their PCs, but with a LOT of hipcups. I like the configurability of a Windows machine, despite all the problems it often causes.
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