Anyone else abandoning ship?

[Queen6]

Indeed: even if they'd came up with a 4. gen "fixed" butterfly keyboard the issue is not exactly resolved for the real problem is not necessarily the keyboard's unreliability. The real issue imho is the fact its not user replaceable and repairs are ridiculously expensive. Sure, one could get Apple Care, but this just postpones the problem to a later point in time. Sooner or later warranty will expire. If a keyboard failure happens after expiration you're seriously screwed, left with only two options: have it repaired for a pretty hefty fee or hand the device over to garbage disposal; both options are not exactly convenient, especially given the original asking price.

In conclusion, if Apple wants me back as a customer they'd not only have to fix the keyboard, they'd also have to separate it from the upper casing and battery and not only make it user replaceable, but also offer replacement keyboards at reasonable prices.
To be honest, I don't think they are about to do any of this, which is why I can't see myself purchasing any Apple device in the foreseeable future.

AppleCare should be optional not as it is today mandatory, due to Apple's poor design philosophy. Right now Apple is milking Mac users for all their worth and then some, hence why I vetoed all Mac's...

TBH I think Apple want's to kill the Mac and it's doing a fairly decent job of it from what I see.

Q-6

 

[LeeW]

What would be nice is a modular keyboard. So you could pick the style you want.

Anything that works would do right now without looking for something different. I am using the surface book 2 right now, amazing keyboard to type on. Was just setting up some drivers on my wife's old Asus, perfectly fine.

The quest to become thinner has caused these issues on the MBP, nothing else.

 

[Altis]

I was looking at laptops the other day at BestBuy, and I have to say, the keyboard on the smaller Surface Go type cover had a nice feeling shallow key switch. It was smaller than a normal keyboard, so I didn't like it overall for that reason, but for such shallow keys, the switches seemed much better than Apple's butterflies.

 

[Queen6]

Anything that works would do right now without looking for something different. I am using the surface book 2 right now, amazing keyboard to type on. Was just setting up some drivers on my wife's old Asus, perfectly fine.

The quest to become thinner has caused these issues on the MBP, nothing else.

Exactly Apple wants the audience to be shallow and ask few if any questions, while inflating prices and stripping usability to save on manufacturing cost. Once 100% Apple today zero, message is very simple...

Q-6

 

[09872738]

TBH I think Apple want's to kill the Mac and it's doing a fairly decent job of it from what I see.
Q-6

It sure looks like it. Doesn't make any sense whatsoever to me however.
The Mac and macOS are still Apple's mainstays; in particular considering how fast paced the smartphone market is. They recently had a 30 % drop in iPhone sales. Another one or two quartals like that and they may appreciate they still got the Mac. And damn themselves to have largely ignored it for the last decade or so

 

[Queen6]

I was looking at laptops the other day at BestBuy, and I have to say, the keyboard on the smaller Surface Go type cover had a nice feeling shallow key switch. It was smaller than a normal keyboard, so I didn't like it overall for that reason, but for such shallow keys, the switches seemed much better than Apple's butterflies.

I replaced a 2015 Retina MacBook with a Acer Switch 5, it's a 2in1, comes with a backlit keyboard and pen. More on point the keyboard is magnitude's better to type on versus the MacBook, most importantly has no known reliability issues such as; jamming keys, repeating keys and USB C ports that become near unusable due to retention failure.

The Acer cost me just $650 and has yet to fail me. I held off replacing the MacBook for the new Air, another disappointment. For a 15" MBP to meet minimum requirements $4250 before local tax complete with multiple design issues just NO. Currently the Mac is just a joke...

Q-6
[doublepost=1558116058][/doublepost]

It sure looks like it. Doesn't make any sense whatsoever to me however.
The Mac and macOS are still Apple's mainstays; in particular considering how fast paced the smartphone market is. They recently had a 30 % drop in iPhone sales. Another one or two quartals like that and they may appreciate they still got the Mac. And damn themselves to have largely ignored it for the last decade or so

Maybe Apple is also looking for a 30% reduction in Mac sales? If so they're on the right track producing these piss poor keyboards and poor chassis designs that are aimed to push up the cost to the customer.

Q-6

 

[Altis]

I replaced a 2015 Retina MacBook with a Acer Switch 5, it's a 2in1, comes with a backlit keyboard and pen. More on point the keyboard is magnitude's better to type on versus the MacBook, most importantly has no known reliability issues such as; jamming keys, repeating keys and USB C ports that become near unusable due to retention failure.

The Acer cost me just $650 and has yet to fail me. I held off replacing the MacBook for the new Air, another disappointment. For a 15" MBP to meet minimum requirements $4250 before local tax complete with multiple design issues just NO. Currently the Mac is just a joke...

Q-6
[doublepost=1558116058][/doublepost]

Maybe Apple is also looking for a 30% reduction in Mac sales? If so they're on the right track producing these piss poor keyboards and poor chassis designs that are aimed to push up the cost to the customer.

Q-6

I replaced my MBP with a Lenovo L470 that I got 6 weeks old for about $275 USD (but in Canada). 1080p IPS, the ports I use, great keyboard, detachable/user replaceable battery (gets me about 12-16 hours on the extended battery)... hard to beat! I only need pretty basic stuff on the go, so it's perfect, plus I don't have to be concerned about it. I feel like I've been set free.

 

[MBAir2010]

February i realized how embedded i was in their ecosystem were my mini, ipads mbair tv all intertwined and my computing and entertainment relied solely on these components.
Monday im boxing everything but the air hoping someone buys these useless annoying things.

 

[Queen6]

I replaced my MBP with a Lenovo L470 that I got 6 weeks old for about $275 USD (but in Canada). 1080p IPS, the ports I use, great keyboard, detachable/user replaceable battery (gets me about 12-16 hours on the extended battery)... hard to beat! I only need pretty basic stuff on the go, so it's perfect, plus I don't have to be concerned about it. I feel like I've been set free.

I was the same in 2016, so tired of Apple's limitation and it benefits systematically eroding in order for Apple to solely boost profits. I would never consider the Switch 5 as a primary portable, equally it's fast becoming one of my favourites as it consistently performs, never presents issue. In short it does what Apple used to do; under promise, over deliver and offers tremendous value.

Apple is now just a phone company, that's applying the same "recipe" to it's computer line up; thinner for the sake of it, no upgrades, near zero reparability. Difference being a decent spec 15" MBP runs $4K nor do they stand up...

Q-6

 

[SDColorado]

I was looking at laptops the other day at BestBuy, and I have to say, the keyboard on the smaller Surface Go type cover had a nice feeling shallow key switch. It was smaller than a normal keyboard, so I didn't like it overall for that reason, but for such shallow keys, the switches seemed much better than Apple's butterflies.

The Surface Pro keyboard cover is more pleasant to use than the MBP butterfly keyboard. Cheaper to replace if it eventually fails as well.

 

[Queen6]

The Surface Pro keyboard cover is more pleasant to use than the MBP butterfly keyboard. Cheaper to replace if it eventually fails as well.

Exactly, portable Mac's are a joke now. I rather expected such detachable keyboards as Surface and my Switch 5 to be inferior due to the nature of the design, yet we have basic clamshell Mac's that are vastly inferior.

Subjectively the Butterfly Keyboard is one of the worst to keyboards to type on, objectively unreliable. Does Apple even bother with QA/QC these days? If so it's clearly a very small budget, with little consideration for the end user...

Q-6

 

[LeeW]

February i realized how embedded i was in their ecosystem were my mini, ipads mbair tv all intertwined and my computing and entertainment relied solely on these components.
Monday im boxing everything but the air hoping someone buys these useless annoying things.

There is nothing wrong with being embedded in it, there are risks of course, but, Apple and their eco-system largely works and works well. The cost of being in it is something different if you have a lot of their devices. They all need to work well for the prices charged.

But having said that, Apple has simply achieved what others wanted to. Microsoft & Google want their own eco-system that they can tie people into but have thus far failed. Others have tried.

It's pretty much the holy grail for tech companies that Apple has achieved, imagine what more they could do if they cut that margin!

 

[Queen6]

There is nothing wrong with being embedded in it, there are risks of course, but, Apple and their eco-system largely works and works well. The cost of being in it is something different if you have a lot of their devices. They all need to work well for the prices charged.

But having said that, Apple has simply achieved what others wanted to. Microsoft & Google want their own eco-system that they can tie people into but have thus far failed. Others have tried.

It's pretty much the holy grail for tech companies that Apple has achieved, imagine what more they could do if they cut that margin!

Cut margin Apple More chance of the Red Sea parting...

Q-6

 

[EdwardC]

It's actually pretty easy to use a Windows machine while being deep into the Apple Ecosystem. I have a PC and use Mailbird for my iCloud email which is seamless and does not add any additional folders to the clean version on both of my iPhones and iPad. I use the Windows version of iTunes which is almost identical to the Mac OS version. I use the iCloud Drive app which allows seamless sharing (drag and drop) to my Mac. I set up an Outlook account on my Macs and I-devices only for the calendar and to do / reminders. Really works very well between all devices. With that said I busted out my spare late 2012 Mini i5 with 16 GB of ram running Mojave and am really surprised how well this thing still works. Using it right now sharing a monitor with my PC. I really enjoy using my Macs but for AutoCAD I need a PC and they are now all tied together.

 

[MBAir2010]

I did get my ipods to sync with the dell using something app were i ditched itunes for good on everything i own.
Foobar plays music much fuller!

 

[sg9]

What would be nice is a modular keyboard. So you could pick the style you want.

I'd like to see Macbooks with detachable magic keyboard.

 

[richinaus]

It's actually pretty easy to use a Windows machine while being deep into the Apple Ecosystem. I have a PC and use Mailbird for my iCloud email which is seamless and does not add any additional folders to the clean version on both of my iPhones and iPad. I use the Windows version of iTunes which is almost identical to the Mac OS version. I use the iCloud Drive app which allows seamless sharing (drag and drop) to my Mac. I set up an Outlook account on my Macs and I-devices only for the calendar and to do / reminders. Really works very well between all devices. With that said I busted out my spare late 2012 Mini i5 with 16 GB of ram running Mojave and am really surprised how well this thing still works. Using it right now sharing a monitor with my PC. I really enjoy using my Macs but for AutoCAD I need a PC and they are now all tied together.

Just wondering why you dont use autocad for mac?

 

[Jg75]

I sold my 2015 15" mbp. Now on top spec 2017 MBA (i7, 500GB). I love this computer to death.
I am now joking around with different linux distributions on an acer laptop. When the pain becomes too large I will make the switch. I hope that doesn't happen because I love the Apple software on all platforms. On the other hand, Apple doesn't seem to back down on their hardware, so it will probably happen when this computer dies. Good news, I have many years to prepare for that, and to learn the linux system and transfer my stuff.

 

[EdwardC]

Just wondering why you dont use autocad for mac?

I like the Windows version better and I own a perpetual license on Windows vs. paying a subscription.

 

[Jg75]

Oh, I forgot to mention, this was Steve Jobs' masterpiece. The man was a genius. I also liked his phone, the iPhone SE. Now I have accepted the iPhone 8 size (barely). It has a much better screen than the 4" SE, but the size is just acceptable (barely). I can accept this improvement (barely). The other phone manufacturers have lost touch with reality completely..
Of course, if Apple abandons 4.7", the next step is KaiOS.

 

[LeeW]

Of course, if Apple abandons 4.7", the next step is KaiOS.

They will and should, I mean, I liked the SE, but really, the market has changed. It's accepted these days that using a phone to talk is the least common activity, sad, but there you go, a sign of times. a 4.7" screen is not big enough for modern use.

 

[Jg75]

They will and should, I mean, I liked the SE, but really, the market has changed. It's accepted these days that using a phone to talk is the least common activity, sad, but there you go, a sign of times. a 4.7" screen is not big enough for modern use.

Lee, how old are you?

 

[LeeW]

Lee, how old are you?

46

 

[Jg75]

46

That was astonishingly quick. I'm 44 in less than 1 month. How big do you want a phone to be before you're satisfied.You know you can surf the fake news in a brilliant way with a Mac or iPad Pro?

 

[LeeW]

That was astonishingly quick. I'm 44 in less than 1 month. How big do you want a phone to be before you're satisfied.You know you can surf the fake news in a brilliant way with a Mac or iPad Pro?

Indeed, but again, its what the majority wants. The Xs is just about as big as I would want, in fact, I was going for the Xr but it was just too big to hold in one hand whilst being able to reach the top to bottom with my thumb.

Everywhere I go people are using bigger phones and I understand why, on the train, sitting in a coffee shop or just at home. They are watching a video, playing games, surfing the net.

A mac is no use on the move, an iPad Pro whilst ok is still not as portable or convenient as a phone that can do everything the iPad can anyway.

Not everyone has the need or money to afford both so a large screen phone is often the goto device.