There's a fine line between courage and stupid, and I think we know which side of the line Apple ended up on this time
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Microsoft Says 'Disappointment' of New MacBook Pro Has More People Switching to Surface Than Ever Before
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When I read this stuff I always think of things like 3 people each month switch, when the number bumps up to 4 it's easy to market because you just say more people than ever before. I'm sure this number is a lot higher than my examples, but I'm almost willing to bet a quarter that it's maybe 1% higher than it was previously.
It's probably true, in a Bezos accounting way. One is more than none and therefore more than before. I'm not saying it's one, but a lack of numbers (like the Watch or Fire products) is essentially meaningless in any empirical fashion.
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Now now, just because Jony likes any ports he must include perfectly balanced, doesn't mean it's stupid, does it? Maybe there's a fine line between genius and just obsessive.
Atleast I can use my fancy new lightning headphones that came with my IPhone 7 in the new MacBook Pros.
Deal-breaker for me was the lack of ports, namely the SD slot and one USB. I went for a XPS 13 and couldn't be happier. I do miss the simplicity of MAC OS, though. 
There will not be DVD drives in Apple laptops ever again. And I would be shocked if future Apple laptops had USB-A ports.
The USB-C port is a standard. Even if you skip this 2016 Macbook Pro... the USB-C port will still be there on the next one.
It will be the port for the next 20 years.
That's a long time to not buy a Macbook Pro.
I feel contributions by Ive have Jumped-the-Shark after the passing of Jobs.
And Jony is likely Burnt-Out - he's been a full-time Apple employee since 1992.
The new "Designed in California" coffee table book feels more akin to an Apple visual memoir book for Jony.
Thing is avid (or premiere) gives you flexibility in hardware. Get the more expensive perpetual...done. Which we can argue over 5 years of sub based stuff you are there anyway. People tend to stay loyal to their tools, 5 years and beyond not a stretch really.
Why video editing converts I know left the apple ecosystem. Desktop wise in a company like mine there are budgets. Your 5 station buy at $3500 a piece approved...gratz. Now enters supply. Puts an EOL of 4-5 years as per the finance overlords. Make it last, early retirement before its authorized date means red tape and paperwork to justify that.
Enter the bypass...solid workstation build, CPU and such don't change much all in all...2 years later you can go buy a new better video card. Potentially on a less regulated budget. Don't have to ask CFO for approval....your boss/director/etc can go to store/online and do this from section funds. Voila...mild to wild system refresh to last 2 more years not needing CFO approval.
Laptops same thing. I am eyeing some 2000 wonders. But it will last like 2-3 years tops says the apple faithfull. I have a 2011 that died at 4 years and change....did an apple update, reboot and one very nice looking paperweight is what it became. I bought the 2015 before it died because my spidey sense was noticing some things off prior fortunately so all good there in a way.
A 4000 MBP (what one specs out for me) or 2 2000 laptops in 4 years, same cost. Thing is that 2000 wonder....has more refreshed hardware.
WHy I am looking at avid or premiere soon. I am still on FCP since end of year I have a few video projects going (shows, recitals, etc) and can't beat down other options in testing. I need what works and what I know to appease the masses. Now after next week and my last big video project shot, edited and put out...I get a break to install demo's and test drive these better.
If I can I get off the FCP, I can get off apple hardware dependency if I don't see turnarounds I'd be want to see in 1-2 years. I am actually hoping apple turns this ,imo, bad trend they are on around. But the optimism fades.
Since FCP is my last mac os only app left (well BBEdit too and while great...I can go back to others on windows easily ) plans to kill that dependency already started as a plan b all the same lol. Apple sadly taught me this. I had optimism about aperture too. That optimism did not pay out very well.
I'm over 60, I may very well be on my last notebook now.There will not be DVD drives in Apple laptops ever again. And I would be shocked if future Apple laptops had USB-A ports.
The USB-C port is a standard. Even if you skip this 2016 Macbook Pro... the USB-C port will still be there on the next one.
It will be the port for the next 20 years.
That's a long time to not buy a Macbook Pro.
That could indeed be very true.
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It's not just what I want, it's what many people want. Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc can all manage it, but if you've bought into the Apple eco system you want Apple to produce something too. I don't see why not - one thin and light laptop, and one full featured one. Dell managed to get 32GB RAM into the XPS 15, which is lighter than the old rMBP. Apple just seem incapable of providing any real choice and are obsessed with thinness.
So yes I am absolutely calling the new MBP an iToy. It's underspecced and overpriced. It's too small for it's own good and delivers absolutely no improvement over the previous model which was released 4 years ago. It's a gimmicky little piece of junk!
Stop buying external enclosures. Even if you have to use a dongle, the BlackMagic Design Multidock II is the best thing to happen to my studio since the SSD. Just buy bare drives and swap as needed. iCloud is not encrypted and is not a bargain.
Performance boost is just Intel being slow. Even with Kaby Lake you would have similar results (but more power consuption).
Well that just got added to my Christmas want list.....WoWzers.....Didn't know that existed.
One of the biggest reasons at my last company for migration to Avid workstations is workflow sharing. It's expensive but it makes strict timelines much more manageable. FCPX does not seem to have good collaboration tools compared to Avid though I am not exactly caught up in FCPX world in the last couple years.
Regarding meetings with Chromebook/ipad, remember devs such as myself are already on a mac laptop and have our environments set up. It makes it easy to handle impromptu demo / code requests as well as do work during meetings (I know this is blasphemy)
Good question. I had heard "not bad" things about Windows 10 and wanted to give it a try. So I did.
I took the Lenovo laptop back the next day, got a refund, and bought a refurb Macbook Air from Apple.
I learned my lesson.
Which Lenovo model, and what was the deal-breaker for you? (I'm on the Windows 10 with Avid fence.)
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It will change your life. I might pick up a second and configure it as a RAID. I can still hang a 2nd display off of the unit's 2nd Thunderbolt 2 port. No more enclosures, no more spinners except for CCC and TM backups.
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There will not be DVD drives in Apple laptops ever again. And I would be shocked if future Apple laptops had USB-A ports.
The USB-C port is a standard. Even if you skip this 2016 Macbook Pro... the USB-C port will still be there on the next one.
It will be the port for the next 20 years.
That's a long time to not buy a Macbook Pro.
Shave a zero off of that 20.
I'm calling it. USB-D by mid-2018. And we'll shake our useless dongles at the Apple gods in the sky... Make use of what's working and create content now. Don't wait. Don't compromise. Life's too short.
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Shave a zero off of that 20.
Naw... they've finally got a plug with 24 pins that can be almost anything. USB-C is a miracle plug!
USB-A was great at the time... but it was somewhat limited to simple devices like storage and mice/keyboards and other low-ish bandwidth things.
And you still needed separate plugs for video.
It was great when we got rid of analog VGA ports and switched to digital DVI ports.
But even after the switch from analog to digital... how many video plugs did we see after DVI?
Let's see... HDMI, Mini-HDMI, Micro-HDMI, DisplayPort, Mini-DisplayPort... and they all did the same thing. And we still needed USB-A for everything else!
But USB-C fixes all that. One plug to finally do it all. Data, audio, video, etc.
So I'm not seeing why USB-C will need to be replaced in two years.
That's interesting. I got a Dell XPS 15, and while I like Windows 10 (I'm using it on my desktop to write this), I find the trackpad on the XPS a bit hit and miss with regards to palm rejection. I also don't like the screen that much. However I used Windows 10 on an old Lenovo (T440P) and it worked much better. This is the one where everyone complained about the trackpad, but it worked for me, and the non-QHD matte display also worked better for me. Personal preference I guess. If it was Windows you didn't get on with, fine, but if it were the hardware then try something else as there is plenty of choice.
After trying a Surface Book with Windows 10 and returning it I just ordered a 2015 rMBP 15''.
I would have bought the 2016 model but the keyboard, GPU problems, battery time, and touch bar were deal breakers for me.
The Surface had it's fair share of hardware problems. In particular the pen, display, and battery time of the tablet. I couldn't really find any other Windows laptop that convinced me. Razer looks good on paper but so many QA problems and their support is horrible. Since I don't live in the US that was out of the question. The Dell XPS line is full of coil whine problems and the specs that are available in my country aren't that good for the price.
The 2015 rMBP is a proven workhorse with abundant performance for my needs, great keyboard, super fast SSD, no issues with the GPU or the battery, and all the ports I need. The screen is flawless for the sRGB space and I couldn't care less about a thinner or smaller machine.
Windows 10 is actually good. Super stable, fast, and decent aesthetically. The deal breaker for me was something I hadn't even considered. The Windows ecosystem is plagued with old software that doesn't support scaling on hi DPI, or that simply can't satisfy my spoiled workflow with the great macOS ecosystem.
Some example of apps I use constantly and there is nothing that compares on Windows:
I would have bought the 2016 model but the keyboard, GPU problems, battery time, and touch bar were deal breakers for me.
The Surface had it's fair share of hardware problems. In particular the pen, display, and battery time of the tablet. I couldn't really find any other Windows laptop that convinced me. Razer looks good on paper but so many QA problems and their support is horrible. Since I don't live in the US that was out of the question. The Dell XPS line is full of coil whine problems and the specs that are available in my country aren't that good for the price.
The 2015 rMBP is a proven workhorse with abundant performance for my needs, great keyboard, super fast SSD, no issues with the GPU or the battery, and all the ports I need. The screen is flawless for the sRGB space and I couldn't care less about a thinner or smaller machine.
Windows 10 is actually good. Super stable, fast, and decent aesthetically. The deal breaker for me was something I hadn't even considered. The Windows ecosystem is plagued with old software that doesn't support scaling on hi DPI, or that simply can't satisfy my spoiled workflow with the great macOS ecosystem.
Some example of apps I use constantly and there is nothing that compares on Windows:
- Alfred
- iStat Menus
- Karabiner
- BetterTouchTool
- FontCase
- iTerm
There have been posts on MR essentially saying about the Mac what you said about the surface book.
We have 2 mbp's in the house as well as an sp4. The mbp's are okay, but other than consumption I reach for the sp4.
They're sitting on huge piles of cash - so what'll likely happen is what's happened to RIM / Blackberry: they keep living in their delusion until all the cash is gone and after that it's too late for a comeback.
I'm typing this on a 15" MBP 2016. It cost me 3100$. It's an ok machine (except for the oversized trackpad which isn't working that well, the keyboard isn't comfortable to type on and is way too loud), it's reasonably fast, it's light (switched over from a 13" model because I wanted a bigger screen and the 15" model is now light enough to be carried around all day), but it sure isn't worth 3100$ to me. I've had a bad feeling about this laptop ever since I got it. We're not poor, we have two decent incomes in the household, but having to pay that much for a laptop that doesn't have the specs I would have liked (really wanted a 1tb SSD rather than the 512 I have now, but ultimately couldn't bring myself to shedding another 500$) just goes against everything I believe in.
I understand that Apple is a premium brand, but they've been pushing it for a quite a while now and with the recent massive price hikes for their computer range, they've finally done it: I've used Macs almost exclusively for the last 20 years, but I have the distinct feeling that the computer I'm typing this on is the last Mac I'll ever buy. The next one is going to be the next iteration of the Surface Book. They might not be realising this yet and sales figures at the moment might be justifying their course because people had been holding out and have now (like me) bought one anyway despite their better judgment, but in 1-2 years time, the crash is coming. People have already started flocking to Microsoft devices and I'm pretty darn sure that I'm not the only one thinking about a permanent switch at this time.
Microsoft devices are also expensive, but they're slightly less so and simply offer better productivity.
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A year ago I didn't think I'd ever be defending Microsoft, but here goes:
- Microsoft support has been absolutely fantastic. I live in Switzerland. When my wife's Surface Book 3 died half a year ago after having been pushed off the desk by our cat, they had it picked up by Fedex (if memory serves right)within a day, fixed it and returned it within a week. Last time I had to get my iMac fixed, I had to drive 90 miles to the closest Apple Store and it took them 2 weeks to get it fixed and although it had clearly been a warranty case (the GPU had died within less than 2 months of ownership), I was treated like I had deliberately destroyed it.
The Surface Book had its fair share of issues when it was first released and it took Microsoft too long to get them fixed, that's a fact. But if you actually install all the software- and firmware updated that are available for the Surface Book, the latter runs buttery smooth. I've literally never had any kind of issues with it. The pen has never been a problem and neither has the display (what on earth are you talking about?). Battery life of the tablet part isn't great, but it's enough for what it's intended to be - the Surface Book is a laptop first and foremost. If you need a tablet, go with the Surface Pro instead. The Surface Book's overall battery has been dramatically better than my current 2016 Touchbar15" MBP's, that's for sure.
As for the tools / apps you're citing: I've literally never heard of a single one of these. But citing the app ecosystem in defence of the Mac is a bit ridiculous.
Here's a video of the pen tip touching the display pretty hard and not registering any data. You should be able to hear the tip touching the screen (with headphones or increasing the volume). This problem I've only seen mentioned only in a single review by an artist. Also the pressure needed to register data was inconsistent.
Here's a video of the pen registering data at 1cm of distance. Glitches like this only happened occasionally, but it's unacceptable for an expensive device.
Here's a slow motion video showing ghosting of the screen when scrolling text. This was terribly annoying. I showed it to a couple of friends and everyone could see it.