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Apple Announces 12-Inch Retina MacBook With Revamped Trackpad, Starting at $1,299

lowercaseperson said:
First I have a hard time believing this is going to happen with any kind of regularity.

More importantly, there are almost innumerable FREE applications that take the place of USB drives. I have more than 100 GB of free cloud storage. I keep all of my data there. I can access it from my phone, my computer, your computer, your phone, literally anywhere I want to. So if I had this computer I wouldn't have a USB drive...and I wouldn't have this problem.

The people who will buy this computer have either figured out how to move their data to the cloud or just don't us USB ports in general. How is that so unbelievable?
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Hold on there sir.

That was just one of many usage scenarios where it would be more favorable to have at LEAST two ports.

For example, my current set up is that when I get home, I connect my Macbook to an external, 19" monitor. I close the lid, and plug in my USB Mouse/Keyboard and plug in the power. That way, I have more screen space.

I could buy a bluetooth mouse/keyboard... But then, it doesn't stop there anyways. Then I plug in my USB 3.0 HDD and do backups, for example.
Can't plug in the MBA when it's backing up? Oh crap.

Can't use my mouse while using a flash drive?

Cloud transfer isn't easy especially across eco-systems. Nor do I have a cloud service common between my School computers and my home computer.

There are many reasons that you'd want more than one port. I don't think it's fair to say that having one port and only one port is advantageous or even feasible.
 
Klaatu63 said:
Seems to me that if purchase the new MacBook 12in Retina I will need a USBC hub. Maybe Apple will include the hub in the box?
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From the looks of it, no. Check out the product page on store.apple.com.

The LEAST they could have done was throw in a USB-C to USB 3.0 adapter that has a pass through port to charge too. But nope.
 
okay, so no one is going to read this post since it will be on page 8 million.

But, uh. this is a $1,300 chrome book.
 
Kroner said:
Stronger dollar perhaps?
At least that is the reason why they increased the price in general for Apple devices early this year in my country.
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Yeah that's probably the reason, but still. The prices of Apple products in my country were always higher than most of the Europe, but now it'll be even worse. The cheapest rMBP is 1449€ (It used to be 1299) in Germany now, so here it'll probably be around 1550€ ><
 
lotzosushi said:
This is soooooo tempting... but I'm still disappointed they didn't do anything with the 15" MBP. :(
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This is a glaring omission that leads me to believe that's going to headline WWDC. I'm guessing 5K display and updated 15" Pro and Mac Pro to be able to use it.
 
Mr. Gates said:
I'm sorry to say, the Dell XPS13 is looking better and better at $800 with more ports, nicer screen, better graphic power, faster CPU and comparable battery life.

It's not OSX but Windows 10 is looking pretty good. I'd have to think a lot of people would be willing to give this a try. Only ONE PORT is a total freakin' joke.

Image
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The better comparison, IMO, is the Dell XPS13 to the macbook air. The new macbook gives up everything for size and weight. As I said in my previous post, those are not really tradeoffs I'm happy with, but the XPS can't compete with the macbook on those points.

The XPS is a pretty close comparison to the 13" macbook air, with there being some points going in each laptop's favor (e.g. screen on the dell, graphics on the mac, etc.).
 
hobspain said:
Except that it is horrible and plasticky.
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^^^ THIS

I messed around with the XPS 13 at the MS store in a local mall. It has better build quality than the usual DELL's, and definitely better than most other Windows laptops in its class. But it doesn't compare to any MB's [IMHO]. Id have to see it running Windows 10, but I wasn't overly impressed with 8.1 on it. I don't really care much about touch screens, so it's a feature that means nothing to me...
 
BrentD said:
Concerning to me is the SINGLE USB port, which doubles as the charging port. I hope the charger doubles as a powered hub. They should also be raking in the accessory money again with their new port no one uses yet.
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You have to keep in mind this is made for people that are constantly on the go.
 
lowercaseperson said:
First I have a hard time believing this is going to happen with any kind of regularity.
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It's not about regularity, it's about compromises. I've been known to compromise and unplug my keyboard when I need to use ethernet to move multi-gb files around. It's a compromise I'm not happy about, but do, because it happens so rarely anymore.

But what happens when you can't even compromise. I can't choose between a keyboard or mouse and ethernet. Now, I have to choose between power and, well, anything else.

For 99% of the people, 99% of the time, it won't be an issue.

But for 1% of users, maybe 1% of the time, it's suddenly no longer an issue: The answer is "No".
 
vandammage said:
ive owned a macbook air for 5 years and never used any ports. except for headphone jack.

im curious why you need ports on a portable machine?
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Some of us actually do work on our computers and not just watch movies or listen to music.
 
yeah, seems like its a beta product. I know many people are going to see broken ports. I guess, the consumers are going to test that new touch pad. another gimmick.
 
80 bucks for USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter........:eek:

2 pound notebook with a 1 pound adapter......:apple:
 
USB 3.1 is 10 Gbps. Apple quotes the USB type C port as being 3.1 but at 5 Gbps. What? :confused:
 
Mr. Gates said:
2.5 lb compared to 2 lb is nothing. If half a pound is too much for all the added features, may I remind you the Dell XPS 13 is a 13 inch and this Macbook is only 12, that should justify the weight
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I'm not sure exactly what to say when one is not impressed by shaving another 30% off the weight of what is currently one of the lightest laptops made. Innovation shouldn't stop just because.

SarcasticJoe said:
I'd say this is proof that they've just let Ive do whatever he wants actual functionality be damned...

This really is a machine designed with form before function with the way that the only IO port on it is the USB type C connector. How are you going to use this with an external monitor and charge it at the same time? Are we going to have to buy something similar to a thunderbolt dock from Apple? We're literally going towards the same kind of territory as that Mad TV sketch with the Macbook that had nothing but an iPod scroll wheel.

I'm also slightly disappointed with how they updated the 13" Macbook Pro, but not the 15" models. However Intel hasn't released any new chips for them, so I guess it's understandable.
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Usb-c is a standard so there will be tons of adapters available to let you connect whatever you like. If this machine doesn't suit you, buy one that does. There is nobody compelling you to choose this one!
 
Did anyone notice the lack of RAM options? And the 480p camera? There's a lot of compromises being made for this form factor.

Also, starting the MB Air at 4 GB RAM is a crime.
 
USB C is a Killer

What a wonderful design and beautiful notebook. What a shame, just like the first Thunderbolt port MacBooks, this will have a useless port for external storage peripherals. First there will have to be a USB C to USB adapter which adds bulk - assuming one will be available. Then we will likely wait months if not ears for any affordable USB C peripherals. First there was FireWire, then Thunderbolt and now a generally useless USB C for much of anything except power. :(

As for those who say there will be "tons of USB C devices because it is a standard" - history is not on your side, certainly not in the near term.
 
capathy21 said:
LOL I guess it is a figment of my imagination that I am currently running Chrome with 8 tabs, MS Word, Excel, Mail, iTunes, using Duet to make my iPad a second monitor, iMessage, calendar and pdf editor and am comfortably in the green on memory pressure with a measly 4GB of ram.

I cannot understand how people still think you need 8Gb of ram minimum on a Mac.
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Here here! Replace Chrome with Safari, add the iWork Suite in with the Office Suite, add a little MS RDP for access to some remote servers into the mix and that's my daily workload. I even ran a 2GB RAM Win 7 virtual machine for a year with no real noticeable performance issues...more heat than anything else.

Never had any memory pressure problems, ever, with my 2011 11" Air. 8GB will be more than enough for this type of workload for years to come.
 
ByteTheBooty said:
So many people seem negative....I Actually started screaming when I realised that they were offering a 265gb and 8gb ram for 1299..... I was expecting a 4gb and 128 for that price...

And I can't wait to get a Space grey MacBook to go with my space grey iPhone ipad and watch
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People are negative because for the past year we were expecting a remodeled MBA which would mean not downgrading the 1) CPU 2) GPU 3) Battery life 4) RAM options of the current MBA

Instead, what we got was a reboot of the plastic white MacBook; A freshman college student commodity laptop with Apple price premium (cause it comes in gold).

I don't think this is at all an upgrade from my MBA13
 
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