Steve Jobs must be turning over in his grave.
https://medium.com/charged-tech/app...ea-who-the-mac-is-for-722a2438389b#.pkiod5sri
https://medium.com/charged-tech/app...ea-who-the-mac-is-for-722a2438389b#.pkiod5sri
This is a picture of the keyboard of the 2014 Thinkpad X1 Carbon. I own one of these machines:
View attachment 29659
... as you can see, it has the exact same touch bar as the new Macbook Pro - only that Lenovo implemented theirs with backlit LCD rather than OLED.
I HATE IT. In fact, lots of X1 owners hated it. The complaints poured in to Lenovo, so the 2015 X1 Carbon got rid of the touch bar and went back to normal function keys.
So I was rather bemused when this is the supposed signature feature of the new Macbooks. Oh, just you wait ... before long you'll be screaming for the function keys to come back. In fact, I was reading the comments of one IT manager who manages a fleet of Macbooks that this new implementation will break the usability of the software that they use, so they will be ditching their fleet of a few thousand Macbooks and switching to Thinkpad. A number of people could not understand why he required hard function keys instead of soft ones, and he gave this example - his wife is an accountant, and she needs the numeric keypad. I am sure most of us can't remember the last time we used the numeric keypad - put me in a keyboard without one, and I won't miss it. But for her, not having a numeric keypad will slow her down considerably and make her less productive. Same goes for function keys for some people.
That's the problem with Macs. If my PC vendor of choice released a dud product, I would just go buy a product from another vendor. Not so with Macs - if they decide to get rid of the Esc key, and you nee the Esc key ... you are stuck with nowhere no move, except to leave the ecosystem.
I prefer to be able to feel the buttons. I don't have to look at them if they're done well, I can feel what I'm doing. Having to look is a pain.
I don't actually understand the trend towards massive touch pads either. My regular sized one gets touched too often by my palms as is! Very annoying. I disable it and use a mouse most of the time.
wisnon,
That's how often I usually upgrade my Macs, to get a slightly faster CPU, or a bit more memory, or more HD space... Before, I'd get some of that, plus new, useful features and ports, like the card reader, or HDMI.
Now, I'm not willing to drop all my ports for some slightly faster CPU. As I said, maybe if the screen is dazzling, and much superior to mine, I might upgrade. But either way, reading people's reaction online, I don't remember such an overwhelmingly negative reception to an Apple product in such a long time. The last one that comes to mind is that dreadful round mouse they did for the original iMac...
Alex, why would you be looking to replace after ONLY 2 years? Its not like Macs change very much from release to release.
I am perfectly happy with 5 year old Mac portables which all have i5 chips!
Following comments from someone whose family owns about 10 laptops and desktops and about the same mumber iPads and iPhones;
While I understand the complaints, most of that is coming from owners who have had Mac's for a very long time. Now loyalty is great but when your market share is around 10% and you are the 4th in sales for laptops you might want to try and appeal to a wider audience. Only time will tell if these laptops will do that.
Bought my first Apple product in 1982 and pretty much had their products continuously since. I've managed not to worry about getting all the latest and greatest. What I like most about both the laptops and desktops is how long I can keep them and they remain useful. Worrying about what comes out every year is for the fanboys. Most companies and even small businesses aren't looking to replace hardware on a yearly cycle anyway. Yes it can be a letdown if you need a new computer and the release isn't as sexy as you like but wait and next year could be it or move on and dump your Nikon gear for Canon while your at it.
I'm using a 2012 retina as I type this. The reason I'm irked is that this old dog is finally getting creaky. It sucks that the logical replacement has less ports and more (IMO) useless doodads and no significant gain in internal memory. While I have a family G desktop, my laptop is my personal hub. That structure really breaks down as they are trying to turn Powerbooks/MBPs into what amounts to glorified Airs.
I've come to hate tablets after a few years. The games have stagnated, the typing sucks, they are awful for your posture and worst of all one ends up wasting so much time with one in hand. So, for me a powerful, flexible laptop is a must. For what Apple charges, that's what they should deliver, like they used to. I've got muscles on my arms dammit, you can keep some grams on. Not everything has to look like a razor blade and be light as paper.
I'm using a 2012 retina as I type this. The reason I'm irked is that this old dog is finally getting creaky. It sucks that the logical replacement has less ports and more (IMO) useless doodads and no significant gain in internal memory. While I have a family G desktop, my laptop is my personal hub. That structure really breaks down as they are trying to turn Powerbooks/MBPs into what amounts to glorified Airs.
I've come to hate tablets after a few years. The games have stagnated, the typing sucks, they are awful for your posture and worst of all one ends up wasting so much time with one in hand. So, for me a powerful, flexible laptop is a must. For what Apple charges, that's what they should deliver, like they used to. I've got muscles on my arms dammit, you can keep some grams on. Not everything has to look like a razor blade and be light as paper.
Steve Williams Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator | Ron Resnick Site Co-Owner | Administrator | Julian (The Fixer) Website Build | Marketing Managersing |