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This is amazing. The machine sounds like a committee decision. And no USB? PASS!

A bridge too far. No USB, no HDMI, and yet kept the 'ridiculous' headphone jack? Is there a method to their madness? It just doesn't seem to make sense. Well, except to sell more 'adapters'.
Yet, I can guarantee you, that you would have complained even more if the headphone jack were gone as well. This is a game where Apple cannot win: remove a legacy port and be castigated for it, leave it and be castigated for making a half-ass effort on a new computer.
 
Are you sure? I can imagine that they might be confused as to why their TB devices are running slower on one side then the other.
Yes, I am sure. The average consumer will never even come close to saturating the slower 20 Gbit/s ports on the right side. The only thing that could saturate them would be a 5K display and with that you very quickly realise that plugging it in on the right doesn't work while plugging it in on the left side does work.
 
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All of this whining on Macrumors is just a tempest in a teapot.

At the end of the day, Apple will post another record quarter of revenue:

75 million iPhones
10 million iPads
4.5 million Macs
lots of service revenue
lots of Apple watches

and nothing will change. The masses LOVE Apple.

Apple's finances have shown signs of plateauing for more than a year now. To make matters worse, there is no new ground-breaking product in the pipeline, at least for the next 6 to 8 quarters. Apple TV has failed. Sales of Apple Watch hasn't met their expectation. The only thing going for them is their tightly-integrated ecosystem which ensure a constant flow of service revenues. But their dominance in the mobile market is being slowly chipped away by Chinese Android phone makers and it seems their claim on being the company that fabricates the most aesthetically pleasing and advanced desktop is also being challenged by none other than Microsoft.

I still love Apple but don't ever think the combination of Microsoft and Google can't bring you guys back down to earth. Windows 10, Surface Studio, Pixel and Android are looking awfully good these days. They might just convince some Mac users to switch if things keep going the way they've been since Cook took over.
 
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Gets worse and worse.

What pisses me off the most is Tim Cook's cheery rainbows and unicorns everything is great attitude. Everybody's loving it! iOS 10 is getting such great positive response!

Um, no it's not. Do you ever go on the web, Tim? It's ok to fail Tim, at least acknowledge it.
 
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The PCIe lanes just aren't available and Apple has no control over that...Intel's Core i7 4-Core CPUs all have x16 lanes of PCIe 3.0 bandwidth that can be sliced up house with the different features (x16, x8+x8 and x8, x4 + x4). However, the dual-core Core i5 and i7 CPUs used in the 13" MacBook Pro only have x12 PCIe lanes, which means that the extra x4 PCIe 3.0 lanes aren't there to interface with the Alpine Ridge (JHL 6540 chipset). I suspect Apple pulled x2 PCIe 3.0 lanes from the HM170 or QM 170 chipset to power the right side TB3 ports, which means that the reduced bandwidth is close to 20Gbps for those ports. More than enough. Don't forget Apple also needs x4 lanes of PCIe 3.0 bandwidth for the flash storage as well. I'm guess that both the 13" rMBP and 15" rMBP (Touch Bar) each have two of those JHL 6540 chips in there to drive 4 TB3 ports and thats x8 PCIe 3.0 lanes right there.

For a more in depth explanation of how the PCIe lanes work in Intel's x170-series chipsets, go to Anandtech - http://www.anandtech.com/show/9485/...-asrock-asus-gigabyte-msi-ecs-evga-supermicro

Maybe the dual core version's of Kaby Lake will have more PCIe lanes, maybe not. Bottom line, Apple has done a remarkable job of engineering some massive high speed bandwidth into this laptop.
 
This is amazing. The machine sounds like a committee decision. And no USB? PASS!

A bridge too far. No USB, no HDMI, and yet kept the 'ridiculous' headphone jack? Is there a method to their madness? It just doesn't seem to make sense. Well, except to sell more 'adapters'.
It has USB 3.1 Gen 2.

There is a method. Apple has gone full throttle in adopting the latest and greatest port out there. There is nothing that the legacy ports do that Thunderbolt 3 can't. Even the "gimped" ports on the right outperform every other legacy port.
 
Yes, I am sure. The average consumer will never even come close to saturating the slower 20 GB/s ports on the right side. The only thing that could saturate them would be a 5K display and with that you very quickly realise that plugging it in on the right doesn't work while plugging it in on the left side does work.

If I have a niggle about 2 of the 4 USB ports being able to drive a 5K display, it's that you have to use the left side, instead of being able to use either the left or right side from a single port. That said, it's probably easier to train people to use one side or the other instead of having them use the closer or farther away port.
 
This is amazing. The machine sounds like a committee decision. And no USB? PASS!

A bridge too far. No USB, no HDMI, and yet kept the 'ridiculous' headphone jack? Is there a method to their madness? It just doesn't seem to make sense. Well, except to sell more 'adapters'.

Ahh sorry you must have misread the article and the specs. It has four (4) USB ports. Not 0. 4.
 
Where did it all go wrong for Apple? I don't believe it was just demise of Steve Jobs. A company that big, with that much resource, expertise, collective intelligence and reach should not have failed like this. It's painful to watch Apple fail as a twenty year customer and at one-time a sort of self confessed fan boy, I guess. But this...this is just a diabolical train wreck of a company now who's products have totally lost focus and functionality. Apple seem to want to take anything that works and change it, break it, just so they can say they've changed things. While I never thought I'd say it, I think I'm likely to try out the new Microsoft Surface Studio - this is the sort of product Apple was meant to make. Microsoft is the new Apple. I never thought, in a million years I would ever say that, but there you go.

Because Apple is now essentially run by Jony Ive who priorities form over function and whose arrogance and detachment manifest in every product he touches.
 
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I suspect that answer is no because the battery will have a max electrical input that it can take, but would like someone with better understanding to confirm: Could you plug more than one C connector into wall chargers and have the laptop charge more quickly?
A simpler comparison would be MagSafe chargers with different wattage. For example, the MBA ships with a 45 W charger, the 15" MBP with an 85 W charger. But the MBA wouldn't charge faster with the 85 W charger (it might charge faster with the 85 W charger if the computer was used heavily during charging or rather it might maintain its charging speed despite being used heavily).

An exemption to that rule is the 12.9" iPad, it does charge faster with the 29 W (MacBook) charger than the bundled 10 W charger (but even then not 3x faster, more like 2x faster).
 
These are a joke. No SD card slot either. I know all "Pros" love carrying around adapters and having several flopping around off their laptops. Maybe Apple should get out of the computer business. They aren't even trying anymore.
 
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Because Apple is now essentially run by Jony Ive who priorities form over function and whose arrogance and detachment manifests in every product he touches.
Right. Jony Ive even dictates a limited number of PCIe lanes in intel CPUs and chipsets. What a jerk!
 
Yeah, there is stored up anger that is pouncing at any opportunity, as small as it may be, to vent itself.

No kidding. For work, I have an HP Studio G3 15" laptop, which is the competitor for the 15" Macbook Pro. I don't mind using it, but this laptop has design issues out the yingyang that this forum would absolutely explode over:

  • Plastic fantastic interior
  • Windows 10 came on a DVD instead of a USB key (machine shipped with Windows 7...sure hope you are comfortable rolling your own USB flash drive off an OEM copy of Windows 10 Pro, because HP gives you zero guidance on that. You CAN'T use a downloaded ISO either because it's an OEM copy tied to your computer)
  • only 2 USB-C ports
  • a hinged Ethernet port that is so poorly designed that it is almost impossible to actually use.
  • cannot charge off of USB-C - at all
  • Cooling fan hysteresis so severe that all you hear all day is WHOOSH-silence-WHOOSH-silence every few seconds. They STILL haven't released a BIOS fix after months of this laptop being available!

Apple is still ahead of the competition here...but hey the HP comes with an HDMI port so it must be better. :eek:
 
You think "most people" use their Mac with a docking station? I seriously doubt that.

I figured the rest is wireless, i.e. WiFi plus bluetooth keyboard and mouse/trackpad.

Personally, I have a wired keyboard and mouse, and ethernet via the Apple USB-Ethernet dongle. But you don't need a docking station for that, you either hook it up to your monitor or you have a USB hub.

In that case, you'd replace the USB-A cable with a USB-C cable. Done.

The whole USB-C thing makes this fantastic. No need for ugly dongles, just replace the cable and be done.
 
Right. Jony Ive even dictates a limited number of PCIe lanes in intel CPUs and chipsets. What a jerk!

He's the mastermind behind the thinness cult. A relentless drive for thinness limits the kind of hardware Apple can put in their pro lineup. Nice try with the sarcasm though. :rolleyes:
 
Because Apple is now essentially run by Jony Ive who priorities form over function and whose arrogance and detachment manifests in every product he touches.

Could you explain to me how it's "form" and not "function" to have 4 reversible and universal USB ports that can all be used for powering the device, being video out, and supplying I/O communication data in the most future-forward method we've ever and in the computing world.

The new MacBook Pro ushers in an amazing advancement and demarcation point in the computing industry. It kind of got started with the 12" MacBook and Chromebook, the latter of which is how I wanted the 12" MacBook to hit the market with a USB-C port on either side for powering the device.

I will now be able to charge my Mac whilst driving, as well as re-image a drive using a USB-C-to-SATA adapter that I bought from Monoprice. Before USB-C that adapter would require an AC outlet.
 
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Could you explain to me how it's "form" and not "function" to have 4 reversible and universal USB ports that can all be used for powering the device, being video out, and supplying I/O communication data in the most future-forward method we've ever and in the computing world.

The new MacBook Pro ushers in an amazing advancement and demarcation point in the computing industry. It kind of got started with the 12" MacBook and Chromebook, the latter of which is how I wanted the 12" MacBook to hit the market with a USB-C port on either side for powering the device.

I will now be able to charge my Mac whilst driving, as well as re-image a drive using a USB-C-to-SATA adapter that I bought from Monoprice. Before USB-C that adapter would require an AC outlet.

Right back at ya. Could you explain to me how it's "function"and not "form" now that I can't charge the top-of-the-line smartphone Apple makes with the top-of-the-line laptop that Apple makes?

And I guess you're one of the rare few that charge laptops in your car, rather than at home, before you actually get in the car.:rolleyes:
 
Are we going to have scan the fine print for gotchas with everything they do these days?

macOS Sierra has PICTURE IN PICTURE!!!*

*Only works on certain select sites and only after you right-clicked twice with your left hand and left-clicked 3 menu items with your right, said the magic word and walked 3 times around your desk while chanting and sprinkling salt. It has to be salt from the western slopes of the Himalayas otherwise it won't work.

You can unlock your Mac with your APPLE WATCH!!!*

*Note that your Mac must be shiny and new and that you have to jump through 130 hoops that are all on fire. They include finding obscure security settings, discovering that they're greyed out, searching the web for what to do next, finding a rushed blog post by some guy who discovered how to do it 15 minutes earlier, upgrade the Apple ID security by first reverting from two-step to "What's the name of your pet?" and then enabling two-factor on all your iCloud devices which is very noisy and takes ages. Once you completed the hoops challenge it should be up and running, and it will work approximately 50% of the time. If it doesn't work, switch to flight mode and then back to normal. Then go find your iPhone (we hope you don't have to ping it tho since you just cut the connection) and disable flight mode because that can't be done remotely since it's in flight mode, duhh.

Your 13" MBP has FOUR THUNDERBOLT 3 PORTS!!!*

*Except... (drumroll)
 
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Yes, it is the "pro" line... This Notebooks are more Powerfull than the most of us will ever need.
Please think about the maximum Bandwith which is available to connect external devices! It's really crazy fast! Editing 4K Movies ist no problem over USB 3.1 on an external SSD. So why should it be difficult with limited TB3 Bandwith? Limited will probably mean 20 Gbit's or something. Go, buy a Dell or something with Windows and use your worktime for Windows Updates.
Enough of the childish "go buy a Dell" garbage. You missed the point entirely. I am sure pencil manufacturers can make ever thinner pencils but at some point the pencil becomes unfit for purpose. Maybe it is too thin to hold or structurally unsound or they have to remove the eraser because it cannot be secured to the top. Apple's entire product line is a confused mess. MacBook is supposed to be the entry level... compromised on performance but certainly capable (i.e. integrated GPU only, perhaps fewer ports, etc), the MacBook Air was supposed to be the ultraportable (i.e. thinness/size/weight at the expense of performance/IO options), and the MacBook Pro is supposed to be uncompromised performance (thinness/size/weight only a tertiary consideration with priority on maximum power/IO options/upgradable parts). Same is true of the desktop line.
 
I figured the rest is wireless, i.e. WiFi plus bluetooth keyboard and mouse/trackpad.

Personally, I have a wired keyboard and mouse, and ethernet via the Apple USB-Ethernet dongle. But you don't need a docking station for that, you either hook it up to your monitor or you have a USB hub.

In that case, you'd replace the USB-A cable with a USB-C cable. Done.

The whole USB-C thing makes this fantastic. No need for ugly dongles, just replace the cable and be done.

I can't imagine dropping $2k on a pro/workstation laptop and not dropping the $150-$200 for a good docking station. Are there seriously people who like to plug in 6-10 cables each time they move their laptop? I only plug three cables into my laptop (power, USB-C dock, USB-C to DP cable to third display) and I wish my laptop supported power over USB-C so it was only two cables...
 
There is no such thing as "uncompromised". Engineering is compromising.
Compromised as in "well we had to drop useful things or compromise on architecture/chipset because those things will meltdown in such a thinner!™ enclosure". Because Pros are begging for thinner!™ much more than performance.
 
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