MacBook Pro Lineup Set For 'Most Significant Overhaul in Over 4 Years'

[Sedulous]

What general purpose applications can a MacBook not undertake? It works for me everyday using Office Suite, email and web browsing, Photoshop and Indesign. The MacBook is a perfect general purpose computer...though it's a few hundred bucks too expensive imo.

The only thing I need my MacBook Pro for now is Cubase and Logic X. But that is not general purpose software.

Seriously? It has one port that will require an adapter for most conventional things AND it is the only port for the power supply. Let's start with that.

I'm not saying the MacBook is a bad machine. It is a nice ultra portable for the niche that prioritize weight/size at a premium. But it is not really the heir to the MacBook name, it is the MacBook Air heir. And thus it leaves a huge product hole and an unfortunate choice between buying a slightly expensive ultra book or a very expensive "Pro" line.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Ok, thanks for clarifying your statement. A long thin touchscreen that replaces the top row of keys... obviously you are right and I cannot be certain of its intended purpose until/if it is produced. But a best guess is it would serve as an interface of some kind. But why would this be better than always accessible keys to control system-wide functions like screen/keyboard brightness, volume, etc? Sure, the interface could change depending on what program(s) are running... but why would this be better than the existing paradigm? It does not seem advantageous compared with program specific settings controlled on screen using the much more precise interfaces enabled by mouse/touchpad (where presumably one hand would already be). I'm sorry, it just screams gimmick... akin to an entirely touchscreen keyboard for a desktop. Sure, it would look cool but would not be more fit for purpose than a physical keyboard.

What they SHOULD have did was have that strip but also have CLEAR buttons over them so that you don't "lose" the function keys and yet you can still easily rename/reassign them and put any other indicators there that you could easily see through them. But by making it a touch strip, you lose ALL tactile feedback and everything from web browsers to most video games made over the past 30 years (including C64 emulators) will now lose their proper full touch keys and since Apple will most assuredly push this over all their iMac lines, etc. and separately sold keyboards, it represents a mess, IMO.

Meanwhile, I'll continue to use my Logitech wired illuminated keyboard with my Mac Mini Server. I can type very fast with it, use it in the dark and I don't have to worry about any wireless interception of signals. I use a wired Microsoft Mouse design from a decade ago (had to buy the last batch from someone who stocked a large supply). All Apple's mice have sucked. A touchpad is no replacement for a good mouse either, especially for gaming (I play lots of Borderlands 2/Pre-Sequel still). Apple forgets that not all of us just browse the web and do Facebook.... Once upon a time they made true general purpose equipment that could be upgraded and used to do whatever YOU want to do rather than what they think you should do.

 

[lowkey]

Seriously? It has one port that will require an adapter for most conventional things AND it is the only port for the power supply. Let's start with that.

I'm not saying the MacBook is a bad machine. It is a nice ultra portable for the niche that prioritize weight/size at a premium. But it is not really the heir to the MacBook name, it is the MacBook Air heir. And thus it leaves a huge product hole and an unfortunate choice between buying a slightly expensive ultra book or a very expensive "Pro" line.

You said the MacBook is not a general use computer, but your whole basis for that is the need to use an adapter when plugging in an old USB-a cable? LOL yeah the general computer user could never work out how to do that.

 

[SteveW928]

After AMD has failed Apple again and again with mobile GPUs, I'm not sure what always makes Apple trust them again.

 

[grahamperrin]

Let's start with that.

your whole basis

@lowkey when did a start become the whole?

 

[lowkey]

@lowkey when did a start become the whole?

When you gave no other examples of what general computing tasks the MacBook could not handle.

 

[grahamperrin]

When you gave no other examples of what general computing tasks the MacBook could not handle.

@grahamperrin is not @Sedulous

 

[lowkey]

@grahamperrin is not @Sedulous

Happy for you to help him out if you wish

 

[jblagden]

I guess i can continue dream of a 13" rMBP with 4cores...

Yeah. And discrete graphics.

 

[Steve121178]

After AMD has failed Apple again and again with mobile GPUs, I'm not sure what always makes Apple trust them again.

Easily explained. Let me help.

AMD sell Apple cheaper GPU's than NVIDIA and Apple are penny-pinching cheapskates.

 

[DVD9]

This all sounds good, but will there be a 17"?

I would be interested in a 17"rMBP.

Need Thunderbolt 3 ports too from my reading about that.

 

[JPNFRK7]

Any new Macbook Pro is a upgrade to my 2010 MBP. Cant wait to upgrade my Mac this year!

 

[dilbert99]

Everyone has his/her own workflow, but I feel like "But it doesn't have a file system!" Is kind of a weird thing to hold against iOS. I get it though--using the file system to move stuff around is a paradigm that has been around a long time.

Apple shouldn't force things on to users. If I need to put photos on a usb pen to take it to a shop. Then going via iTunes sucks. If I want to read files that someone has on a usb drive/hard drive/sd card then i'm out of luck. Those with android phones can do it easily.

Just because I can do a particular workflow doesn't make it better...my 2c worth

 

[cdpage]

Yep. Most of the complaints are purely industry standard these days. Removable batteries, easily upgradeable RAM and Optical drives are largely a thing of the past, even in Windows machines. Usb C is similar, thats where the industry is headed.

Just because other company's recognize that Apple made a move that will help the profit later on doens't make it right.

The complaints are justifiable.
[doublepost=1471283012][/doublepost]

I think thats more telling about what Apple is doing, not the customer base.

Currently, their laptops, especially the "pro" series is out of date. its not a terrible laptop by any stretch, but the components in it are now 3 generations old. Its not just pure horsepower that comes with newer generations of internals. It's more efficiency, better feature set, battery life improvements and expandibility. For users who prefer OSx, but need a computer that has some muscle behind it, and enough options of ports and configurations that it fits their work / business, 3-4 year old components, being sold at Today's prices is frustrating. hence the complaints that they haven't updated the rMBP lineup. These complaints are entirely justifiable.

and now that they are updating, and rumours are out (these are just discussions based on rumour / speculation at this point), there's serious concern that Apple is going to do the same thing they did with their other PC products. Remove features and functionality in order to be "thinner". They did it with the iMac, They've done it with the Mac Mini, they did it with the Mac Pro. So yes, there are people worried, and complaining that the so called "work horse" Macbook Pro is going to receive the same neutering that every other apple computer has received over the last revisions.

So while your post seems very antagonistic, and sounds like you think everyone should just shut up and swallow whatever Apple sells like good little robots, you have to understand that over the last couple Apple PC revisions, Apple has moved further away from the core group of people who used to buy their "Pro" devices, and have made them more geared at the average user, and not those looking for that work horse.

I think people would have less concerns / complaints if this wasn't the "MacBook Pro". But having that "Pro" in the title implies certain things to users. That the device will be usable in production workloads. be consistent in performance. Offer enough, and varied expand-ability to allow for multiple different workflows and usability. This is more than just a few USB-C ports and dongles. this is the capability of the hardware from natively being able to handle these different workloads, while also providing some ability to scale up (replaceable drives, memory, etc). If Apple goes down the route of further limiting the MacBook Pro's capability to make it thinner, then many of the complaints in this thread are 100% entirely valid, whether it applies to you or not. Many of these decisions that have been made in the last 5 years feel more like Apple is putting profit margins first, before trying to actually provide a top tier product.

Bang On!
[doublepost=1471283217][/doublepost]

Ugh I'm waiting for this computer for college, I was banking on the fact it would be coming out the September event, I can't go too long w/o a computer

That's Apples way of getting to buy an old machine so that year 2 or 3 you have to buy a new one.

Smart eh?

 

[Goldfinger]

If it keeps the SD slot and adds an LTE/3G radio it would be an instant buy for me (although I do think that losing MagSafe is the worst idea ever, I can't even count the times MagSafe saved my MBP). If they decided to release some completely neutered device then my 2011 13" MBP will have to do for the coming years, there's nothing wrong with it right now.

 

[spiderman0616]

Apple shouldn't force things on to users. If I need to put photos on a usb pen to take it to a shop. Then going via iTunes sucks. If I want to read files that someone has on a usb drive/hard drive/sd card then i'm out of luck. Those with android phones can do it easily.

Just because I can do a particular workflow doesn't make it better...my 2c worth

Apple isn't forcing anyone to do anything. If you don't like the iPad's approach to file transfers, there are plenty of other machines out in the world that you can buy.
[doublepost=1471309837][/doublepost]

Just because other company's recognize that Apple made a move that will help the profit later on doens't make it right.

The complaints are justifiable.
[doublepost=1471283012][/doublepost]

Bang On!
[doublepost=1471283217][/doublepost]

That's Apples way of getting to buy an old machine so that year 2 or 3 you have to buy a new one.

Smart eh?

Er.....no. That is not the strategy here.

 

[jblagden]

Just because other company's recognize that Apple made a move that will help the profit later on doens't make it right.

The complaints are justifiable.

Yeah. Apple started making non-upgradeable machines which are sealed-shut and Mac sales didn’t stop. Other companies noticed that Apple was getting away with it and decided to do the same thing. Non-upgradeability became an industry standard because Apple started the trend. Apple started going down the solder-brick road and other companies decided to go with with them. They thought: “If Apple can get away with making non-upgradeable computers, so can we!”.

 

[spiderman0616]

Yeah. Apple started making non-upgradeable machines which are sealed-shut and Mac sales didn’t stop. Other companies noticed that Apple was getting away with it and decided to do the same thing. Non-upgradeability became an industry standard because Apple started the trend. Apple started going down the solder-brick road and other companies decided to go with with them. They thought: “If Apple can get away with making non-upgradeable computers, so can we!”.

The percentage of people who actually want to open up their computers and mess with the guts is very, very small.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

The percentage of people who actually want to open up their computers and mess with the guts is very, very small.

One can't help but wonder if there's a correlation between the average IQ on the planet Earth and the number of people capable of upgrading a traditional computer (or say something of similar difficulty like say frying a hamburger in a skillet without burning it to hell or making a proper toasted cheese sandwich the same). I'd have to personally conclude, yes, there's a direct correlation. There are a few people who are top chefs and quite a few more who can make a lousy grilled cheese sandwich that's edible and there's even a few people who can design space probes for NASA out there...and then there are the BILLIONS of people who would probably die if their life depended on them cooking anything more complicated than a pop-tart in a toaster (and half of them would still burn it if it wasn't a "smart" toaster that had a pop-tart button already on it and 50% of the remaining half wouldn't even know how to use the pop-tart button!

Let's face it. We live in a world where 98% of all VCRs ever put into use had their freaking digital clocks blinking for their entire electronic lives because the humans that plugged them had no freaking clue or intelligence thereof to set the damn clock and no patience to read a manual to find out how (and quite a few others that cannot even read despite being shoved through the K-12 system). We live in a world where the two leading candidates are both proven liars and ego-maniacs and despite most people claiming they hate and/or don't trust them, voted for them in the primaries anyway and then complained that they have no one good to vote for now.....

Yogurts I say. The trains and buses have all left the stations. People think knowing how to "tweet" is a job skill and people truly believe that they are roughly 10 million times more important than they are thanks to Facebook. These people played with their phones in school, learned nothing and now want $15 an hour for a job at a fast-food restaurant that has pictures of milkshakes and hamburgers on the cash register keys and they STILL can't figure out how to take an order properly.... They're told everyone is a winner and everyone should get a trophy for just showing up and easily manipulated by YouTube videos and negative commercial advertising for political candidates (because if it's on "Media" and negative, it MUST BE TRUE).

So it's a small wonder that people would never even THINK about upgrading a computer when they're told they should just go buy another new one every year or at least every other year (particularly true of phones) and you don't need to access a "battery compartment" because you'll buy another phone by then anyway and besides, who the hell knows how to change batteries these days anyway? You'd have to be Albert Freaking Einstein to do something so damn complex!!! I can't IMAGINE how anyone ever figured out how to calibrate CRT based televisions, repair radios when you can just buy a new one or solder copper pipes together before the invention of the shark bite or plastic plumbing parts (and that's for those trained plumbers; real people think plumbing is MAGIC and thus the dark lords of plumbing must be consulted to change the flapper on a toilet at a cost just under that of a brand new toilet even though the part only costs like $4 to do it yourself if only the GODS had given thee the ability to perform such magic!

Yay, I must be the devil-spawn child of the gods to know how to do such things! Or perhaps an alien masquerading as a mere human to enslave the child-like minds who cannot comprehend anything more complicated than food goes in the opening under your nose and comes out the one below your back. Who needs real computers when we can all spend $2300 every other year for a brand new sealed computer with the same parts as the $800 one you could have built yourself. Ah, but I keep forgetting that everyone has jobs that pay six figures so they have money to burn! After all, why learn to make a toasted cheese sandwich and open a can of tomato soup yourself when you can go to a restaurant called Panera Bread and pay 10x as much for the same thing and then complain later that you feel stressed from having so much credit card debt?

 

[grahamperrin]

Non-upgradeability became an industry standard

I think not.

 

[JoeG4]

So, suppose the new MBP will have that GTX 10 series GPU?

 

[fastasleep]

Yeah. Apple started making non-upgradeable machines which are sealed-shut and Mac sales didn’t stop. Other companies noticed that Apple was getting away with it and decided to do the same thing. Non-upgradeability became an industry standard because Apple started the trend. Apple started going down the solder-brick road and other companies decided to go with with them. They thought: “If Apple can get away with making non-upgradeable computers, so can we!”.

No, this is the normal progression of technology. We don't need cobbled lego machines anymore, and almost nobody wants to crack open their case to fiddle around with the insides. I've done this for much of my life and I don't want to do it anymore, and don't want to have to for any reason.
[doublepost=1471332308][/doublepost]

One can't help but wonder ...

Yes, everyone else in the world is stupid because they don't want to micromanage their computing devices.

Maybe, just maybe the company that makes many many millions of these things and has extensive data on how they fail and what percentage of their users are able to make what sorts of repairs on them might have a better idea of what to do or what kind of repairability is important to the user. If you think that there was ever a time where most computer users were able to fix their own machines (software or hardware-wise), you're seriously mistaken.

 

[lowkey]

One can't help but wonder if there's a correlation between the average IQ on the planet Earth and the number of people capable of upgrading a traditional computer (or say something of similar difficulty like say frying a hamburger in a skillet without burning it to hell or making a proper toasted cheese sandwich the same). I'd have to personally conclude, yes, there's a direct correlation. There are a few people who are top chefs and quite a few more who can make a lousy grilled cheese sandwich that's edible and there's even a few people who can design space probes for NASA out there...and then there are the BILLIONS of people who would probably die if their life depended on them cooking anything more complicated than a pop-tart in a toaster (and half of them would still burn it if it wasn't a "smart" toaster that had a pop-tart button already on it and 50% of the remaining half wouldn't even know how to use the pop-tart button!

Let's face it. We live in a world where 98% of all VCRs ever put into use had their freaking digital clocks blinking for their entire electronic lives because the humans that plugged them had no freaking clue or intelligence thereof to set the damn clock and no patience to read a manual to find out how (and quite a few others that cannot even read despite being shoved through the K-12 system). We live in a world where the two leading candidates are both proven liars and ego-maniacs and despite most people claiming they hate and/or don't trust them, voted for them in the primaries anyway and then complained that they have no one good to vote for now.....

Yogurts I say. The trains and buses have all left the stations. People think knowing how to "tweet" is a job skill and people truly believe that they are roughly 10 million times more important than they are thanks to Facebook. These people played with their phones in school, learned nothing and now want $15 an hour for a job at a fast-food restaurant that has pictures of milkshakes and hamburgers on the cash register keys and they STILL can't figure out how to take an order properly.... They're told everyone is a winner and everyone should get a trophy for just showing up and easily manipulated by YouTube videos and negative commercial advertising for political candidates (because if it's on "Media" and negative, it MUST BE TRUE).

So it's a small wonder that people would never even THINK about upgrading a computer when they're told they should just go buy another new one every year or at least every other year (particularly true of phones) and you don't need to access a "battery compartment" because you'll buy another phone by then anyway and besides, who the hell knows how to change batteries these days anyway? You'd have to be Albert Freaking Einstein to do something so damn complex!!! I can't IMAGINE how anyone ever figured out how to calibrate CRT based televisions, repair radios when you can just buy a new one or solder copper pipes together before the invention of the shark bite or plastic plumbing parts (and that's for those trained plumbers; real people think plumbing is MAGIC and thus the dark lords of plumbing must be consulted to change the flapper on a toilet at a cost just under that of a brand new toilet even though the part only costs like $4 to do it yourself if only the GODS had given thee the ability to perform such magic!

Yay, I must be the devil-spawn child of the gods to know how to do such things! Or perhaps an alien masquerading as a mere human to enslave the child-like minds who cannot comprehend anything more complicated than food goes in the opening under your nose and comes out the one below your back. Who needs real computers when we can all spend $2300 every other year for a brand new sealed computer with the same parts as the $800 one you could have built yourself. Ah, but I keep forgetting that everyone has jobs that pay six figures so they have money to burn! After all, why learn to make a toasted cheese sandwich and open a can of tomato soup yourself when you can go to a restaurant called Panera Bread and pay 10x as much for the same thing and then complain later that you feel stressed from having so much credit card debt?

The fact that you think billions of people cook pop-tarts in toasters proves your correlation incorrect

 

[cdpage]

Changing / Adding More RAM to a computer is NOT a complicated matter. it's as complicated that changing the battery in most products these days.

USER MANUAL FOR CHANGING RAM

Adding more RAM:

STEP 1: remove cover
STEP 2: Click in RAM
STEP 3: replace cover​

Replacing RAM

STEP 1: remove cover
STEP 2: Remove RAM
STEP 3: Click in new RAM
STEP 4: replace cover​

My God, Could you imagine if people start tossing all their TVs every other year because they couldn't change the battery in the Remote? garage door openers, watches, Kids toys...etc.

Replacing RAM / Batteries / Even Hard Drives IS NOT and NEED NOT be complicated.

I don't work for NASA, but I (WE ALL) can change an ***** Battery or stick or RAM.
[doublepost=1471366917][/doublepost]

The fact that you think billions of people cook pop-tarts in toasters proves your correlation incorrect

while i agree with your semantics. the sad thing is. there are still Millions.

 

[NT1440]

Changing / Adding More RAM to a computer is NOT a complicated matter. it's as complicated that changing the battery in most products these days.

USER MANUAL FOR CHANGING RAM

Adding more RAM:

STEP 1: remove cover
STEP 2: Click in RAM
STEP 3: replace cover​

Replacing RAM

STEP 1: remove cover
STEP 2: Remove RAM
STEP 3: Click in new RAM
STEP 4: replace cover​

My God, Could you imagine if people start tossing all their TVs every other year because they couldn't change the battery in the Remote? garage door openers, watches, Kids toys...etc.

Replacing RAM / Batteries / Even Hard Drives IS NOT and NEED NOT be complicated.

I don't work for NASA, but I (WE ALL) can change an ***** Battery or stick or RAM.
[doublepost=1471366917][/doublepost]

Tell that to the millions of consumers that are too afraid to try. Changing RAM is as easy as playing with legos, but in my nearly 10 years of IT work I've come across maybe a handful of people that are even willing to try.