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New Retina MacBook Appears in Early Unboxing Video

A few years ago everyone whined about the loss of ports and connections on the MBA. Yet, most non-geeky humans love it today. Let's see the opinions of the rMB in a few years (although I'm sure by then it will have 2 USB-C ports)
 
"If you don't want an ultra-portable, don't buy one..."
"If you bought one and don't like it, bring it back..."
 
Kilamite said:
MagSafe won't work with a laptop that light.
Click to expand...

Kilamite, I don't know why you don't have a million up-votes for this post. Super insightful! I think you are absolutely right...

Magsafe worked with big, heavy laptops, were the inertia of the machine would keep it in place and allow the magnet to break away. I am now certain, thanks to your post, that with this one, testing showed that with magnets of any strength, the whole machine would be jerked off the table anyway.

You answered my one big question: "Why would Apple stop using their awesome, massively proprietary, connector?" And the answer is, "Things have changed, and what used to be an advantage is no longer."
 
gmanist1000 said:
It just dawned on me that without MagSafe, we won't be able to get a quick glance to see if the computer is still charging or fully charged. Bummer!

I guess that aspect will have to be treated like an iPad or iPhone... turning it on to check battery life.
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Or, if you are like, just leave the iPhone and iPad charging overnight. It will be at 100% when I unplug it in the morning after I wake up. :D
 
Eumaeus said:
Kilamite, I don't know why you don't have a million up-votes for this post. Super insightful! I think you are absolutely right...

Magsafe worked with big, heavy laptops, were the inertia of the machine would keep it in place and allow the magnet to break away. I am now certain, thanks to your post, that with this one, testing showed that with magnets of any strength, the whole machine would be jerked off the table anyway.

You answered my one big question: "Why would Apple stop using their awesome, massively proprietary, connector?" And the answer is, "Things have changed, and what used to be an advantage is no longer."
Click to expand...

its 160 gr lighter than the 11" mba. i dont believe that makes it a big and heavy laptop but perhaps the new macbook is below some threshold.
 
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Iconoclysm said:
USB A to A connection cables have existed since the late 90's. They required software/drivers to do it but yes, you could transfer files from one to another.
Click to expand...

Wow I didn't know that... Does USB C to C require software drivers too then? I always wondered why when I have two computers right next to each other, the fastest way to transfer files is often to just send them over the internet...

Say you need to transfer 50 GB of data quickly and you don't have 50 GB of free space on an external drive lying around, it would be great to just plug them into each other and transfer directly, by having each computer's hard drive appear as an external disk on the other one.
 
poobear said:
A few years ago everyone whined about the loss of ports and connections on the MBA. Yet, most non-geeky humans love it today. Let's see the opinions of the rMB in a few years (although I'm sure by then it will have 2 USB-C ports)
Click to expand...

I know a few non-geeks who purchased the very first Macbook Air (2008) and had quite a few issues with it. After that, they never want to buy anything Apple again. Everybody loved the revised Airs however.

Though I agree with you that the next reiterations of the Macbook will probably have two USB-C ports and they will call it revolutionary.
 
Jiten said:
I know a few non-geeks who purchased the very first Macbook Air (2008) and had quite a few issues with it. After that, they never want to buy anything Apple again. Everybody loved the revised Airs however.

Though I agree with you that the next reiterations of the Macbook will probably have two USB-C ports and they will call it revolutionary.
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Yeah I have to agree here. I had the 1st gen Air as well, and I could boil eggs on that thing. The 3rd party app Coolbook eventually saved my lap, but not many non-geeks knew about that solution
 
themikedshaffer said:
I'm not happy or nonchalant to see MagSafe go...I just think it's a victim of physics (not enough surface area for the magnets to work) and (probably primarily) Apple's design criteria being that this is an iPad with a keyboard...and all the use cases for the iPad are successful with a hard connected Lightning for power, so this has it that way. Maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong. The market has decided that for iPads...they're right, but with the new Macbook, we'll see.
Click to expand...

The annoying thing is that it's not physics: The height of the new Macbook is much greater than that of the Magsafe 2 or even Magsafe adapters. The sole reason why they had to get rid of traditional USB connectors as well as Magsafe was because of the "Form over Function" design decision to taper the edges of the Macbook. Pretended thinness over practicality. This was already the reason why they had to have the flimsy drop-down ports on the original Air. I bet some higher-ups within Apple are responsible for this clinging to these bad design ideas for many years. It was the same with the small iPhone screens they refused to change against all market research, and giant bezels on their laptops. It takes them years to admit bad ideas, simply because they can take years because there is no meaningful competition.
 
macbook123 said:
The annoying thing is that it's not physics: The height of the new Macbook is much greater than that of the Magsafe 2 or even Magsafe adapters. The sole reason why they had to get rid of traditional USB connectors as well as Magsafe was because of the "Form over Function" design decision to taper the edges of the Macbook. Pretended thinness over practicality. This was already the reason why they had to have the flimsy drop-down ports on the original Air. I bet some higher-ups within Apple are responsible for this clinging to these bad design ideas for many years. It was the same with the small iPhone screens they refused to change against all market research, and giant bezels on their laptops. It takes them years to admit bad ideas, simply because they can take years because there is no meaningful competition.
Click to expand...

The reason they ditched MagSafe was because the chances of it working on a two pound laptop are nearly nil. I've owned 11" MBAs and you can pull the computer around with the MagSafe charging cable. There's a big question whether MagSafe is worth the expense on any laptop, even though it's definitely a cool piece of engineering. On a computer as light as the rMB, it's pointless.
 
newellj said:
The reason they ditched MagSafe was because the chances of it working on a two pound laptop are nearly nil. I've owned 11" MBAs and you can pull the computer around with the MagSafe charging cable. There's a big question whether MagSafe is worth the expense on any laptop, even though it's definitely a cool piece of engineering. On a computer as light as the rMB, it's pointless.
Click to expand...

You're wrong. Magsafe much easier to plug in and take out than digging a stick into your laptop. Magsafe is more elegant than USB-C. The only reason they left Magsafe (as well as USB ports) out is because they valued dishonest design over functional one, and decided to taper the edges so pretentious people could could pretend that their laptop is even thinner than it is.
 
macbook123 said:
You're wrong. Magsafe much easier to plug in and take out than digging a stick into your laptop. Magsafe is more elegant than USB-C. The only reason they left Magsafe (as well as USB ports) out is because they valued dishonest design over functional one, and decided to taper the edges so pretentious people could could pretend that their laptop is even thinner than it is.
Click to expand...

Read my post. I didn't say anything about elegance or ease od use. It won't work reliably. I had a MBA 11" for a couple of weeks recently. It weighs almost half a pound more than the rMB and on low-friction surfaces it doesn't disconnect reliably. Unless they put sticky rubber feet on the rMB, MagSafe wouldn't accomplish the goal.
 
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newellj said:
Read my post. I didn't say anything about elegance or ease od use. It won't work reliably. I had a MBA 11" for a couple of weeks recently. It weighs almost half a pound more than the rMB and on low-friction surfaces it doesn't disconnect reliably. Unless they put sticky rubber feet on the rMB, MagSafe wouldn't accomplish the goal.
Click to expand...

It has sticky rubber feet. And whether it slides or not, it's always better to have a magnetic connection than a tight fitting plug in connection.
 
macbook123 said:
It has sticky rubber feet. And whether it slides or not, it's always better to have a magnetic connection than a tight fitting plug in connection.
Click to expand...

Why? If all connections on a MacBook were Magsafe, I'd understand your argument. But it's just the power - there's still all the USBs, HDMI, Thunderbolt etc. that can still drag a computer off a table.

Magsafe annoys the hell out of me. When my MacBook Pro is plugged in, almost everytime I move, the power pops off and falls to the floor. Very frustrating.
 
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