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Apple Surveying MacBook Pro Users About Headphone Jack and Other Ports

oopsroger said:
If they remove this tiny IO port in a 15-inch form factor, I'm done with this company.
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But what is the alternative?

I got annoyed with the iPhone, so moved to Android. It's great and I have no real desire to move back.

But if I wanted to leave the Mac, what is there? Windows? Ugh. Google Chrome? UGH!
 
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shaunp said:
I'd had 3 macbook pro's. No email yet..... They've all been registered for Apple care too so it's not like they didn't know I had them.

Apple, leave all the current slots you have in the rMBP alone. Add USB-C/TB3 as we still need TB2 without the need of adaptors while we transition, make the laptop a bit thicker so it has enough space for you to put the ethernet port back in there - it's not like it was particularly light anyway so I don't mind a bit of extra depth/weight. And offer a matte screen option again!

I don't care if my rMBP is pretty. I want it as a work machine and I want to be able to use it without adaptors and dongles all over the desk. Cos that's something else I have to buy, something that breaks and on top of all that it makes your pretty design look damn ugly by the time everything is plugged in. Remember this is supposed to be a desktop replacement not some lightweight minimalist thing for someone to write their novel in Starbucks!
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Have a look at the XPS 15. I have one and can tell you that it is a very nice machine. I moved to this from a rMBP.
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And what about Windows compared to OSX?
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S3R6i0 said:
First the magsafe AC adapter, now this? Apple is finished. I will never buy a MacBook without a magsafe. Not in a million years.
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It still has magsafe, no?
 
chriscrowlee said:
Which is fine because it's designed to be used as a portable\travel computer. The pro needs to be port-heavy due to the different demographic who uses it.

Macbook and Macbook pro as they exist are two VERY different users... power user verses facebook\email user.
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Not really, would't want to be sitting next to someone playing videos on the train because they had no headphone jack
 
Any portable computer without a built in SD card reader and audio jack port will not be bought by me. I use them both on a daily basis and have no desire to drag around any extra adapters when traveling.

Software like Adobe CC has been identical on Mac and Windows-based computers for years now. If that is your main concern (like it is for me) it is very easy to make the switch with minimal impact on my daily workflow.
 
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sofila said:
So what we're going to see instead of the 3,5 audio jack? The same solution placed on iPhones?
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Bluetooth headphones.
It would be pointless to add lighting to the Mac just to allow users to plug in lighting headphones. They removed the 3.5 jack from the iPhone because they needed room for other components and it helped water resistance. But the Mac doesn't need to be water resistant, nor it desperately needs that tiny space. And, if they really need space, they can't put a lighting port because it would waste it.
When they announced the 12'' Macbook last year they said the future is wireless, I just hope it doesn't mean we say goodbye to the 3.5 anytime soon.
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thasan said:
No magsafe as far as i know.
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No magsafe on the 12'' Macbook, since there is only the USB-3 port. I hope it will stay on the MacbookPro, I love magsafe
 
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In view of the millions upon millions of Earpods with Lightning now shipping, I'm sure Apple will include a Lightning-port on all its devices in the future. Including Macs.
 
What Apple should do is to develop OSX as an standalone OS, like OpenSTEP in the NeXT years. This wouldn't be necessary 10 years ago, because the Mac was a great computer. But today, an standalone OSX is the only way we could get support for proper GPUs and proper computers. It's hard to understand how Apple has trashed most of the good stuff it used to have.
 
tentales said:
Seems to be the favourite point made by Apple apologists.
Those were computing legacy products that needed replacement and I was fine with that.
FYI, I've been in this industry since the 1980s and I wouldn't have been successful in my IT career if I'd be living in the past.

The audio-jack is way older than the personal computing industry. In fact it traverses industries.
Try telling a music professional that he should change his whole gear from dozens of vendors, just because Apple decides to bury the audio jack. This goes beyond you listening to your fashionable new Beats pods on your commute in the morning.

As for ethernet ports. They are still in heavy use and removal (or replacement by dongle) especially on Pro models is a disservice to many IT pros.

I've worked with Windows, Unix and every type of proprietary system out there in 35 years and "uprooting" means nothing to me. I chose Apple for the lower TCO, ease of integration with its other products and solid build construction, but I'm quite capable of doing this with other hardware. Hackintoshes are quite easy to build these days, albeit, not as "pretty".

My threat to leave is not just on the basis of the Audio jack, where it to come true, but a whole range of missteps that Apple has made wrt. computing professionals in the last few years. They've gone from being tech focused to being fashion focused.

I used to defend Apple long ago when it wasn't fashionable, before the new generation of Apple fanboys, in fact before the term fanboy, but to me and a whole bunch of longterm Apple users, the company is becoming too arrogant and ignorant its Pro user base.
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A "music professional" doesn't use 3.5mm jacks.
 
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tubeexperience said:
I use my headphone jack daily and Apple better not remove it.

I already decided to skip the iPhone 7.
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Are you not buying another iPhone until they bring it back? I love people that talk a big game. Let me know what happens in 2 years.
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TigerWoodsIV said:
I never use my headphone jack since I just connect a USB DAC/Amp to it. So it wouldn't bother me, but it does seem odd to remove it. It's so small on such a large device. What difference does it really make even if only 10% of people use it?
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Royalties
 
Oh God, please no. What the heck is wrong with Apple? This is a hoax poll right?

MacBook Pro should maintain its current ports as it is supposed to be a pro laptop.

If the remove the headphone then I guess my early 2015 MBP will be my last MacBook Pro. My next primary machine will be a windows laptop.

This is getting out of hand.

And why not st least one USB Port on the MacBook PRO. Why thug are they still even calling it a pro laptop.
 
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Come on Apple... Leave the jack... And when you're at it bring back the serial and parallel ports I miss those! Really honest. We don't need to move forward and upward. Let's stand still or go back. /s
 
SeaFox said:
I had the same response when they removed the wired Ethernet. Apple must think everyone works in some stupid new-age open floor office where everyone sits on bean bags and connects on wi-fi, instead of the real world.
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I was pissed as well at Apple for removing the Ethernet port. It is more reliable than wifi and often faster.
 
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Mildredop said:
And what about Windows compared to OSX?
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It still has magsafe, no?
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There are differences, absolutely, and a lot will come down to personal taste. Some people just don't get on with Windows 10 at all, others love it and the rest of us are somewhere in the middle. There are things I miss in OS X like messages and the integration with iPhone, and multi monitor support is better. Other than that I prefer Windows. File management is much better, Office works better on the PC and I can have a proper version of Visio. Fusion works better using virtual desktops than VMware Workstation does trying to do the same thing, but only just.

Overall I'd forgo a few of the smaller point of OS X just to get the hardware flexibility these days. Apple's hardware just isn't that good any more. the competition have caught up and are more flexible in terms of options.
 
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The removal of magsafe is a bizarre one too, if it turns out to be true. It was one of those great little ideas which everyone immediately saw the benefit of and took to heart. How many times have your laptops been saved by that idea? It's baffling to remove it and just reeks of cost saving - unless they've come up with a great successor... but knowing how they're behaving lately, I doubt it.
 
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kimmen said:
In view of the millions upon millions of Earpods with Lightning now shipping, I'm sure Apple will include a Lightning-port on all its devices in the future. Including Macs.
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Doubt it. Makes more sense for Apple to simply include or sell a USB-C to lightning adaptor than dedicate a port for a female only Lightning port which serves no other purpose.
 
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Our experiences will vary-preferably I would be able to go without dongles most of the time.

Personally-
SD card- ever use it -won't miss it
Mag safe charging- in and out of classrooms during day- kids-some clumsy- keep
USB-A -keep- tons of 'legacy' USB A connections
Lightning - other than buying new USB-C to vga adapter, could live without- definitely don't require second one
Headphone jack-keep- tons of regular speakers around the district

But they didn't ask me running around 75 MacBook pros in the district- In think Apple needs to add USB-c and run a refresh with all the ports they already have and give us time to readjust to the new ports.
 
To be honest, I think for most people, removing the headphone jack wouldn't be as big of a deal as people are making out.

Don't get me wrong, i still think it's a crappy more when people do still use it, but I think apple are testing the waters with the iPhone 7, and are looking a few years in the future.

10 years ago we had FireWire (remember when that was a thing?), DVI, Ethernet ports (if you're using Ethernet, you're tethered anyway so an adapter isn't really an issue). Heck, there were still express card slots.

Imagine in 10 years time if every single device you owned connected via USB-c or Bluetooth? Want two pairs of headphones connected? No problem. It would be so much easier. Yeah, in the meantime it'd be adapter hell. But personally I'm all for having a single unified connector. After all, all the different ports do is provide i/o in a slightly different format - if they were unified, life would (eventually) be much simpler.

I think the MacBook is a bit ahead of its time, removing everything at once is a bad idea. But removing things gradually, giving people time to adapt? I think it will work. I really wouldn't be surprised if, in 10 years time, we see posts along the line of "remember when we used to have to use a specific port just to use headphones? How backwards was that?"
 
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