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I actually wonder, if Apple still has any of the engineers left...
In my opinion: mediocre designers took over the engineering department long ago.
Tim Cooking innovation... ;(
 
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Good point. I have edited the wording in the original post to reflect this. One of the videos is an opinion piece (not a rant). The other one is definitely a rant, but a pretty darn funny one.

I've also been hearing pretty good things about the keyboard, much to my relief.

How are people who dislike the removal of features "entitled whiners?" exactly? I mean, if you liked Toyotas and then idiots took over and removed their ability to make left-hand turns, wouldn't that be deserving of some criticism?

I didn't call you and entitled whiner, just characterising a lot of the complaints that I've read here! I guess as a 12" Macbook owner I've discovered what a non-issue it is having only USB-C.

Im typing on the 12" Macbook keyboard as we speak. I actually prefer it over my 2013 rMBP. I heard that the new 2016 rMBPs have a bit more travel than these MacBooks though, which is what a lot of people haven't liked.
 
I just saw the touchbar rMBP in a sealed glass case in the Apple retail store. It looks really nice (aesthetically). But I already know it's gonna suck because I tried the non-touchbar version... The keyboard is trash, like the retina MacBook's. They made it super shallow, so the keys almost don't push down at all when you press them, making it incredibly hard to type on unless your fingernails have just been trimmed. Even then, I can't imagine it being very good because it feels like typing on an iPad screen. Darn. MacBooks keyboards used to be among the best on the market, and now they're among the worst.

The Apple Pencil with iPad, on the other hand, was pretty impressive, but I have no use for it. I guess I'll be buying a used 2015 rMBP eventually. :(

First of all, the keyboard is actually updated from the rMB. It has a new mechanism and i'd estimate a tiny bit more travel, typing on mine now. Second of all. after using the new keyboard for about a week, there iz absolutely no way I would go back to the old. You can type significantly faster with the new keyboard. I was also in the camp of not liking them but it's just a matter of getting used to them. I was typing on my friend's old Pro and they just feel so spongy and awful in comparison. Feels like an ancient typewriter now

I took the opportunity to visit my local Apple Store. Unfortunately they still didn't have the new MBPs with touch bar, but I did try the new keyboard on the non-touch bar 13" model. When I tried the MBP keyboard first and then the keyboard on the MB, I found it difficult to tell the difference. When I tried the MB and then the MBP, I could tell the difference in feel on the new MBP. It feels like there is more travel and it offers more tactile response. I would have to use it for a while to find out how well I could adapt to it, but I think it would be manageable.
 
I took the opportunity to visit my local Apple Store. Unfortunately they still didn't have the new MBPs with touch bar, but I did try the new keyboard on the non-touch bar 13" model. When I tried the MBP keyboard first and then the keyboard on the MB, I found it difficult to tell the difference. When I tried the MB and then the MBP, I could tell the difference in feel on the new MBP. It feels like there is more travel and it offers more tactile response. I would have to use it for a while to find out how well I could adapt to it, but I think it would be manageable.

I really would give it a try. The older keyboards just feel archaic to me now, it is quite literally a complete non issue. Hard to explain it but it truly is just a matter of getting used to, then typing is lightning fast on the new platform. I will disclose that it did take about a week to truly get used to it, but then there is no going back.
 
13" w/16GB ram due to arrive on Wed. I live in the middle of the pacific, if people
want a location of reference.

already have a dock and a few usb-c/usb-a adapters ready to go.
 
Have you used the touch bar? Be honest.

You don't think humans have the capacity to see something and understand that it's not practical?

I've used an iPad to type, and guess what? it sucks.

In the same fashion as an iPad, you'll have to take your eyes away from the screen to look down at the keyboard to see what key you're touching. Nothing will ever beat tactile keys in the realm of typing with your hands.

Watch how painfully delicate the tech blogger from The Verge is while typing, and keep track of how many times he has to hit the touch bar multiple times because he failed hitting the button correctly.


I refuse to pay $600 more for a down grade in productivity. Just because Tim Cook and the rest of his out of touch senior citizen team thinks it's cool, doesn't make it better.

So please, enough with the touch bar already.
 
I ordered in the first hour after the Apple Store went online again. Got a delivery date November 17-25, but my status is still "processing your order". Starting to get angry...
 
OOAAUWAAH Tim !!!!
I am sooooooo excited to stay with my current 2015 MBP - with uninflated keyboard and ports
 
My nearby Fry's has the new machines in stock.

Apple 15.4" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, Quad-core Intel Core i7 2.7GHz, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, AMD Radeon Pro 455 - Space Gray

For $2,799.00, shipping is back ordered but will go out by the 28th. Seems that in-store pickup/purchase is available. Will have to call them tomorrow and ask them to clarify. Same price as Apple. I suspect if you can grab the new machine from BH Photo Video, you can get by without paying sales tax. Though you are supposed to inform your state of your purchase and pay the tax. Wink wink nod nod. And then purchase Apple Care separately from Apple before your 1 year period is up.
 
Watch how painfully delicate the tech blogger from The Verge is while typing,…
…which has nothing to do with the Touch Bar and might simply be his personal style of typing.

…and keep track of how many times he has to hit the touch bar multiple times because he failed hitting the button correctly.
Five times. Exactly five times. At 0:30, 0:35, 0:48, 2:43 and 2:53. That's by far outnumbered by the times his touches are registered instantly and correctly.
 
You don't think humans have the capacity to see something and understand that it's not practical?

I've used an iPad to type, and guess what? it sucks.

In the same fashion as an iPad, you'll have to take your eyes away from the screen to look down at the keyboard to see what key you're touching. Nothing will ever beat tactile keys in the realm of typing with your hands.

Watch how painfully delicate the tech blogger from The Verge is while typing, and keep track of how many times he has to hit the touch bar multiple times because he failed hitting the button correctly.


I refuse to pay $600 more for a down grade in productivity. Just because Tim Cook and the rest of his out of touch senior citizen team thinks it's cool, doesn't make it better.

So please, enough with the touch bar already.
So I was watching this video again, and he says "I can touch this, I can drag that, I can select that" and I thought, you know what? I can just go ahead and buy a competitor's laptop with a touch screen and I don't have to look down to manipulate a setting that I want to access on the screen. If they want to replicate the phone/ipad experience, then let the screen be touched and build it to survive finger contact. The touch bar is more time consuming than a mouse/touchpad most of the time I'd guess.

See, the thing about heuristics is people will go down the path of least resistance and if it takes two taps to get a touchbar to go, it will die a rapid death. As people said, tactile immovable keys are great - motor-sensory memory is paramount - and the keys should be fairly conserved, even standardised IMHO. The exception is control keys and key combinations which we learn sparingly depending on our work flow, like programmers who learn many control key sequences to speed things up. If the tactile keys themselves had OLED or e-Paper display, then I would understand the idea of, say, displaying different language keys, or replacing function keys with emojis or whatever else people want to do. For that I'd pay $600, actually.

Whereas if I can emulate a single button mouse by touching the screen in a Dell XPS running OSX in a virtual machine, then I have something that beats a touch-bar, on competitor hardware! Go figure!
 
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…which has nothing to do with the Touch Bar and might simply be his personal style of typing.


Five times. Exactly five times. At 0:30, 0:35, 0:48, 2:43 and 2:53. That's by far outnumbered by the times his touches are registered instantly and correctly.
That's 3 mishits in 18 (and 2 in 10) secs...
Given his tone of voice, the guy is too excited/overexposed to control his actions anyway
In such circumstances, only a truly intuitive UI would work
 
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I am not happy with the prices, but finally gave in, as I need to replace my 2009 iMac to do some data analytics work.
Tried the non touch bar in the store. Have no issue with the keyboard, and for my use case it seems enough (don't need the emoji bar....)

Went with the cheapest config I could have for my work. Then setup an old quad core linux/hadoop server at home for remote access when I need extreme performance. It might have actually be the best setup, as I will replace the iMac with a mini or new iMac if I like the next version of them.

It is a beautiful machine, and it performs quite nicely compared to the 2015 13".
Just got a Samsung T3 for storage, and the darn thing flies. Now, if any could please come out with a USB-C hub with DP 4K@60hz support, I would be Golden....

Nevertheless, I am starting to move software licenses to the cloud....this might be my last apple machine if they keep the horrible attitude of the post-SteveJobs era....
 
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