First Impressions of New 12-Inch MacBook: Ridiculously Light, but Thin Keys and Trackpad Take Getting Used To

Parallels, Fusion, and BootCamp

Thoughts on how the processor will do with something such as Parallels? I often times use a VM for outlook and excel but love the mac for the rest of my tasks. This looks like it would be a perfect machine for me if it could handle the VM without much issue.

I guess the other option is to try and learn/use the new Office preview suite for Mac. It's finally getting close enough to the windows version.
 
spectrumfox said:
Wi-Fi won't help much when you have to deploy a 50GB image onto a laptop, son.
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You are not the only one on this thread with the same line of reasoning. If you need to deploy a 50GB image onto a laptop, then don't buy MacBooks for the office. Get MacBook Pros or a MacBook Airs. They are not gone, nor will they be anytime soon (well maybe the Air will, but not the Pro). The Airs are even less expensive now than they used to be. I have had a MacBook Air since 2010 and have maybe used a port other than the charger on average once a month. I have a desktop computer in the basement that connects to all my stuff and I can access it through the Air over Wifi. Different machines for different purposes.
 
swingerofbirch said:
This is a very unappealing product to me.

What if you're backing up the computer and then battery is about to die? You have to stop back-up to charge the computer.

What happens when the battery stops working (which will eventually happen)? With an ordinary MacBook Pro or Air you can continue working with AC power even if the battery no longer works, while you back up your data before sending it to have the battery changed.

Also, this is the only Apple product save Apple TV and Airport Extreme that has no headphone port. That seems to be an oversight.
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there IS a headphone port. and you can get the usb c adapter, allowing you to run on AC while using usb...
 
swingerofbirch said:
This is a very unappealing product to me.

What if you're backing up the computer and then battery is about to die? You have to stop back-up to charge the computer.

What happens when the battery stops working (which will eventually happen)? With an ordinary MacBook Pro or Air you can continue working with AC power even if the battery no longer works, while you back up your data before sending it to have the battery changed.

Also, this is the only Apple product save Apple TV and Airport Extreme that has no headphone port. That seems to be an oversight.
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You should probably read the article again...

They're selling the multiport adapters (http://store.apple.com/us/product/MJ1K2AM/A/usb-c-digital-av-multiport-adapter?), which let you pass USB-C power through to your adapter, along with a traditional USB peripheral (and your choice of HDMI or VGA). And the other of two ports on the machine is...an 1/8" headphone jack.
 
Apparently people don't understand where this product stand in the lineup. If you're reading this, it's not meant for you. If you still insist that it might be, then it should be a 2nd machine. There you go everyone. I just solved 15 pages of moaning and whining.
 
This thing is like a luxury item.

It's not essential in any way.

Existing apple products provide better bang for buck.

Nice screen though, and beautiful design.
 
drewyboy said:
Apparently people don't understand where this product stand in the lineup. If you're reading this, it's not meant for you. If you still insist that it might be, then it should be a 2nd machine. There you go everyone. I just solved 15 pages of moaning and whining.
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you think apple will keep all 3 (macbook, air and pro)? and you dont think that the design choices here will influence the other laptops designs?

apple takes a drastic step with one product and the rest eventually will follow.
 
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I was so excited to see this announced, and was planning on immediately replacing my 13" MBA, but the specs left me feeling underwhelmed. For my usage, I think it would be fine, actually, but it's definitely something I'd have to see before buying.

I'm not too familiar with Apple's update schedules. If the Core M Skylake coming out in October (I think) would give it a boost, would Apple actually update this 6 months after the launch, or do they usually wait for a year before updating products?

Either way - I do think it's a beautiful design. I can see it selling well, in spite of the single port, etc.
 
Wait a minute, hold on. The effective screen resolution is only 1152x720? How come no article is mentioning that? wow that's so cramped. My 13.3" rMBP has an effective screen res of 1280x800 and even that is a bit small.

And no, i won't scale :rolleyes:
 
chabig said:
That's not how Apple intends their products to be used. They don't have a touch OS for notebooks. Such a machine from Apple would be an abomination. I hear some Microsoft OEMs make those things though.
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It would run iOS when used in the way I described and OS X other wise.
 
AppleScruff1 said:
If they redesign the Air and add retina, it will be more than this one since it is has higher specs.
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As I said, I believe this is the new Air. I suspect the Retina uses too much power to pair it with the more powerful processors at this time. It's a compromise to keep the 9 hour operating time.

With regards to the ports, Apple is almost certainly skating to where the puck will be, not where it is right now. (Forgive me if I've mangled the metaphor, where I come from hockey is played on grass, uses a ball and we use 'ice' as a prefix to describe the game played overseas).

The way I see it they really believe most people don't need the adapter and so they are not including it. It is a shame it's so expensive. Hopefully third party ones will be cheaper and offer more USB ports.
 
proyectoalfonso said:
Please WHERE is my the Magnetic Connector in the 12".???

I don't mind that they left just one connector but they are taking one of the BEST features of Mac, THE Magnetic Connector.

I don't know about the rest but with out this my computer would fly like 3 times a day and it would be dead by now.
:(
Apple I really didn't like this change. DON'T SCREW IT UP. please....
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Yep - not for my daughter.
Destroyed at least 1 notebook per year
Until I got her MBA with magsafe
 
planetMitch said:
My question would be why didn't the committee that was working on USB-C make the port be a mag-safe kind of port? What's wrong with that kind of forward thinking? (modest aren't I?)
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The majority use case of it would probably make a mag-safe style port more of a disadvantage than advantage.

I regularly nudge my magsafe connectors enough to briefly disconnect them. Not really an issue with power, but could be bad for storage devices.
 
I'm glad its "stronger" because a lot of people are going to miss that magsafe port when they kick it off their table and probably also bust up the usb-c port for bonus points.
 
MarvinHC said:
But it's thinner.... :rolleyes:

And I know it has been said many times before but: Come on, at least a SECOND USB (or USB-C) port would have been too much to ask for? Yes, plenty of things can be done wireless but as long as I need to plug in my iPhone somewhere to charge it a USB port would have been nice.
And yes, I can bring a separate charger, same as I can bring a separate adapter, USB hub.... and soon I carry more in accessories (weight) than the Macbook itself. That is progress.... not.
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They should have put a few USB ports into the new power brick so it could double up as a USB charger and hub.

Probably a bit too innovative. ;)
 
I think it is a brilliant product. They have turned the Macbook into an ultra thin advanced notebook that is way ahead of anything else out there. People on Facbook and Windows sites are in all their glory bashing Apple because they are so evil for being a business and trying to make money. They also say that Steve Jobs was the biggest jerk ever who stole designs and copied everything.

This new Macbook is yet another example of why Apple is the best. They focus on designing high quality, beautiful products. A lot of thought went into the engineering of this thing. Features like the keyboard design and new trackpad are the kinds of things that make Mac products so much better than their PC equivalents. I'd gladly pay $1200 for an Apple notebook vs a similar PC laptop for $1000. That PC is not going to have OS X but Windows with most likely a bunch of bloatware in addition to old technology that has been used over and over again. Apple continues to innovate and improve products year after year.
 
Neepman said:
I'm glad its "stronger" because a lot of people are going to miss that magsafe port when they kick it off their table and probably also bust up the usb-c port for bonus points.
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Which of course would be great news as you would destroy the only available port.... Let's quickly back up the data before the battery runs out given that I can't charge it anymore! Oh, wait a moment.... :rolleyes:
 
drsmithy said:
The majority use case of it would probably make a mag-safe style port more of a disadvantage than advantage.

I regularly nudge my magsafe connectors enough to briefly disconnect them. Not really an issue with power, but could be bad for storage devices.
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In theory a connector could have both a magnetic and a more secure option. Like perhaps have divots on the inner sides of the port which data cables would click into, while power cables would "ignore".
 
Renzatic said:
When it comes to $1300+ computers, they usually do.
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Search the forum complaining about gaming performance on any MacBook. Lackluster graphics cards isn't holding back Apple's success on college campuses.

Nerds are a very loud minority. There isn't a good cross section of Apple's customers on forums posting about specs. Most people just want a Facebook and Ms Office computer.
 
drsmithy said:
They should have put a few USB ports into the new power brick so it could double up as a USB charger and hub.

Probably a bit too innovative. ;)
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I had the same idea but given that they have not presented it I guess this will be for the updated version....

By the way this already exists (at least for charging) from third party producers for the 'old' Macbooks:

TB2VHBLbXXXXXXvXpXXXXXXXXXX_!!362426318.jpg
 
jmorrison0722 said:
I'm shocked by this new macbook.
Out of the box it can't connect to an external display, read from a DVD, read an SD card, or connect to anything USB while charging. Wanna do any of these...drop an extra $79 on an adapter? How do I import my pictures from SD cards? Two adapters?
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There's definitely a category of people that don't connect their MacBook to an external display, read DVDs or SD cards with them.
I do connect my MBP to an external display for work, but I've yet to use its optical drive or SD card reader. We watch Blu-Rays (or DVDs) on the TV via a dedicated player or game console, we get media (pictures, movies, etc.) syncing with iPhones (USB or wireless), from NAS storage via wireless or directly from the Internet over Wi-Fi.
The only scenario in which you'd need plenty of ports are mostly for work, which is arguably not this model's main focus.
 
spectrumfox said:
I'm saying Apple's PR is fooling you into thinking a laptop functions better without an optical drive, yes.

Thinner and lighter isn't everything. The laptop still has to maintain an aura of functionality and compatibility with the world.

And, no, optical drives are not that big these days. Apple is simply on a quest to have the thinnest and lightest laptops, at any cost. If they can convince people it's obsolete, more power to them. It'll help them sell thinner laptops.
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Yep, Apple did such a good job of fooling me into thinking a laptop functions better without an opticsl drive I havn't used one in + 5 years. I guess i am easily fooled.
 
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