Waiting for Skylake MBP thread

[Arline]

https://www.macrumors.com/2016/02/24/siri-mac-os-x-10-12-fall-2016-report/

This is exciting!
Perhaps a new and improved microphone to accompany the update in June?

I hope they also let us give Siri enquirers with typing. That would be less weird to use at the office.

 

[WRONG]

One thing is for sure though. If the stars and the moons align just right and the rMBP is announced in March, there is no way in hell they are going to release an upgraded version just 3 months after. We might see a 3 month gap between the release of the 13 and 15 inch rMBP but a new upgrade 3 months later, that's just gonna destroy Apple's reputation and make a LOT of customers angry

This is exactly why I don't see the new MBPs coming in March (but still I'm hoping for it).
Even a speed-bump won't make sense, if they are going to replace it after three months.
Still I would really appreciate to have a rMBP with Skylake, as I'm a little afraid by the probably upcoming redesign.
I'm praying for Polaris aboard the new MBPs.
Please, Apple.
You already make me suffer enough.

 

[IndigoDesign]

Okay since we're all waiting for ANY news or leaks anyways and got nothing to do besides checking this thread several times a day I might as well ask you guys for your opinion about my situation with my Mac and my workflow. I hope you find it somewhat interesting to get some insight into another person's use of a Mac and general work related preferences as I will find your opinions interesting. I hope this goes through with the mods as the outcome of the decisions I'm struggling with will ultimately decide if it is worth to get a MacBook Pro or not.

Let me explain.

I'm a graphics designer doing mostly Brochures, Flyer, Catalogues. I work from my home office on a late 2012 Mac Mini, top model scoring a 13.000 on geekbench. Best Money I ever invested, after upgrade to 16 GB Ram and SSD this thing flies and never let me down. Now my home office is a 9 quare metre "prison cell" (not really but I feel imprisoned) I spend between 6 and 12 hours a day in when work demands.

I'd love to free myself from the confines of this office, work on my terrace occassionally, or in my café of choice. Also, I'm sure people can relate to this, I finish up a project, send it to printers, then get dressed and drive off to an appointment, only to get that dreaded call from pre-print that there's some crappy pantones or unrecognized fonts or last minute changes to some ad in the brochures in my PDF. Now what? Missing the printing deadline is not an option most of the time, postponing or cancelling customer appointments is also not the best thing to do. Mostly I rush home, stressed out as it is, just to fix a PDF that takes around 5 Minutes and resend it. I don't carry my working computer to customers, if I need to show off some layouts I bring printed versions and a nice PDF on my iPad Air2. So there is no need for a mobile computer really besides "easing my life".

That's the situation. Now as I see it I have following options:

> Get a MacBook Air (would wait for a possible Update) 13 Inch with 250 GB SSD (enough for all my customer files) for around 1.300 Euro. Keep my Mac mini as stationary and primary workstation. I love the Airs and for occassional "fixing" or working on my terrace a Geekbench score of around 5.000 would be enough I figure, as I wouldn't work on that tiny thing for more than an hour a time. Also I would look cool sitting in a Café working on my novel... (lol, don't judge me, I guess we've all been there right? Haha...). I'd sync my fonts and customer folder with syncmate when leaving or coming home (I'm no fan of remote access working as it's slow, unreliable and I think it's a big security risk).

> Get a MacBook Pro Retina 15" Skylake. This would then be my primary computer, I'd have to get rid of my Mac mini to free up some cash, I wouldn't need to worry about data synching and could use the MBP in clamshell mode just like a desktop (did that before with black plastic MB back in the day) and always have full power at my disposal. Now the thing is, I'd really cry for that Mac mini because it's such good value, I'd feel a bit worried lugging around a MBP for around 2.500 Euro, yes I've multiple Backups running at home, but still, I feel it's risky with all the files, yet alone the value of the MBP alone... Also, is this really necessary for "occassional last minute changes" and "working from my terrace"? Thing is if I don't spec it out quite a bit, it wouldn't even reach the subjective performance of my Mac mini. Those quad i7s 2,6 GHz help a lot when writing a print PDF for a 300 page catalogue...

> My stroke of genius. I just thought about that and would love to get your input on this. Get a 15" ASUS Republic of Gamers Notebook for "just" around Euro 1.600,- which is just 300,- more than the Macbook Air but it's a "proper" Laptop sporting a 4GB Nvidia GTX 960M, 16 GB Ram, fast PCIe SSD, giving it some serious OOMPH. There are programs that can sync folders between Mac and PC, I only need my customer folder and font folder. This would enable me to do short work-stints wherever I want around the house (as I'm running Creative Cloud, I have licenses for two installations and it doesn't matter if they are WIN or MAC, also the handling of Creative Software is identical between systems) and I could actually game quite decently, also carry it to my friend's house and LAN-party a bit with him.

So... if you took the time to read all this, I'm thankful as is, but I'd really be curious in your people's opinions about my situation. What would you do?

All Mac? I love them Macbook Airs and I would feel more "sophisticated" (kidding, only half serious about that).
Only Macbook Pro - the Premium solution with the least hassle but highest price and risk for loss of property/data.
Mac mini synched to Windows gaming Laptop (probably even an XPS 15 or Alienware 13 - though those are ugly).

Let me know!

 

[WRONG]

@IndigoDesign, if the 15" ASUS is enough portable for you, I would go for it; otherwise I'll go for the extremely portable yet powerful for your needs Air.

 

[IndigoDesign]

@IndigoDesign, if the 15" ASUS is enough portable for you, I would go for it; otherwise I'll go for the extremely portable yet powerful for your needs Air.

Thanks alot for your input, sure, judging portability alone the Air is a clear winner. I'm intrigued by that gaming thing though.
Also I'd love the new pro...
... damn...

 

[Baldrake]

Okay since we're all waiting for ANY news or leaks anyways and got nothing to do besides checking this thread several times a day I might as well ask you guys for your opinion about my situation with my Mac and my workflow. I hope you find it somewhat interesting to get some insight into another person's use of a Mac and general work related preferences as I will find your opinions interesting. I hope this goes through with the mods as the outcome of the decisions I'm struggling with will ultimately decide if it is worth to get a MacBook Pro or not.

Let me explain.

I'm a graphics designer doing mostly Brochures, Flyer, Catalogues. I work from my home office on a late 2012 Mac Mini, top model scoring a 13.000 on geekbench. Best Money I ever invested, after upgrade to 16 GB Ram and SSD this thing flies and never let me down. Now my home office is a 9 quare metre "prison cell" (not really but I feel imprisoned) I spend between 6 and 12 hours a day in when work demands.

I'd love to free myself from the confines of this office, work on my terrace occassionally, or in my café of choice. Also, I'm sure people can relate to this, I finish up a project, send it to printers, then get dressed and drive off to an appointment, only to get that dreaded call from pre-print that there's some crappy pantones or unrecognized fonts or last minute changes to some ad in the brochures in my PDF. Now what? Missing the printing deadline is not an option most of the time, postponing or cancelling customer appointments is also not the best thing to do. Mostly I rush home, stressed out as it is, just to fix a PDF that takes around 5 Minutes and resend it. I don't carry my working computer to customers, if I need to show off some layouts I bring printed versions and a nice PDF on my iPad Air2. So there is no need for a mobile computer really besides "easing my life".

That's the situation. Now as I see it I have following options:

> Get a MacBook Air (would wait for a possible Update) 13 Inch with 250 GB SSD (enough for all my customer files) for around 1.300 Euro. Keep my Mac mini as stationary and primary workstation. I love the Airs and for occassional "fixing" or working on my terrace a Geekbench score of around 5.000 would be enough I figure, as I wouldn't work on that tiny thing for more than an hour a time. Also I would look cool sitting in a Café working on my novel... (lol, don't judge me, I guess we've all been there right? Haha...). I'd sync my fonts and customer folder with syncmate when leaving or coming home (I'm no fan of remote access working as it's slow, unreliable and I think it's a big security risk).

> Get a MacBook Pro Retina 15" Skylake. This would then be my primary computer, I'd have to get rid of my Mac mini to free up some cash, I wouldn't need to worry about data synching and could use the MBP in clamshell mode just like a desktop (did that before with black plastic MB back in the day) and always have full power at my disposal. Now the thing is, I'd really cry for that Mac mini because it's such good value, I'd feel a bit worried lugging around a MBP for around 2.500 Euro, yes I've multiple Backups running at home, but still, I feel it's risky with all the files, yet alone the value of the MBP alone... Also, is this really necessary for "occassional last minute changes" and "working from my terrace"? Thing is if I don't spec it out quite a bit, it wouldn't even reach the subjective performance of my Mac mini. Those quad i7s 2,6 GHz help a lot when writing a print PDF for a 300 page catalogue...

> My stroke of genius. I just thought about that and would love to get your input on this. Get a 15" ASUS Republic of Gamers Notebook for "just" around Euro 1.600,- which is just 300,- more than the Macbook Air but it's a "proper" Laptop sporting a 4GB Nvidia GTX 960M, 16 GB Ram, fast PCIe SSD, giving it some serious OOMPH. There are programs that can sync folders between Mac and PC, I only need my customer folder and font folder. This would enable me to do short work-stints wherever I want around the house (as I'm running Creative Cloud, I have licenses for two installations and it doesn't matter if they are WIN or MAC, also the handling of Creative Software is identical between systems) and I could actually game quite decently, also carry it to my friend's house and LAN-party a bit with him.

So... if you took the time to read all this, I'm thankful as is, but I'd really be curious in your people's opinions about my situation. What would you do?

All Mac? I love them Macbook Airs and I would feel more "sophisticated" (kidding, only half serious about that).
Only Macbook Pro - the Premium solution with the least hassle but highest price and risk for loss of property/data.
Mac mini synched to Windows gaming Laptop (probably even an XPS 15 or Alienware 13 - though those are ugly).

Let me know!

I've been carrying around a 15" MBP for four years now, and it is the only computer I use for work. It's fine for moderate gaming, and has oomph for the programming and video editing that I do. I dock it with a TBD when I'm at work or home.

I wish it were a little lighter (hoping that the redesign we're all waiting for helps with that).

But over all, it's a good way of working. I would not try to switch between PC and Mac - there are occasionally little incompatibilities that get in the way of getting stuff done, especially if you are in a hurry.

The one caveat is, I would not get rid of the mini. Laptops fail, and you are not in a business where you can afford to be without any computer at all for a week while repairs are being done. If you can't afford to keep the mini, then you can't afford the MBP.

 

[IndigoDesign]

I've been carrying around a 15" MBP for four years now, and it is the only computer I use for work. It's fine for moderate gaming, and has oomph for the programming and video editing that I do. I dock it with a TBD when I'm at work or home.

I wish it were a little lighter (hoping that the redesign we're all waiting for helps with that).

But over all, it's a good way of working. I would not try to switch between PC and Mac - there are occasionally little incompatibilities that get in the way of getting stuff done, especially if you are in a hurry.

The one caveat is, I would not get rid of the mini. Laptops fail, and you are not in a business where you can afford to be without any computer at all for a week while repairs are being done. If you can't afford to keep the mini, then you can't afford the MBP.

Good points made. Hm.
So far I lean to the Macbook Air way.
Although I'd enjoy having just the one Macbook Pro... and yes I think the Mac mini is worth keeping as a backup machine VS selling it for just a few hundred.

 

[Nismo73]

Are these the CPU and GPU parts that the 15" could use?
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10085...-gaming-laptops-with-intel-skylake-processors

 

[koyoot]

Are these the CPU and GPU parts that the 15" could use?
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10085...-gaming-laptops-with-intel-skylake-processors

No.

 

[Dydegu]

iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV all have a Siri button. Siri is at the heart of all of these products and constantly at the tip of your finger.

"Siri is at the heart of OS 10.12. We've seamlessly integrated Siri into every aspect of your experience. How do you launch Siri, you ask? This tiny button up here in the menu."

That doesn't add up completely, especially since the menu bar isn't always visible. I understand a keyboard shortcut could work. A new trackpad gesture would be even better as well. This would all be fine for older devices, but I think we'll see something new for the new devices. If things like Launchpad and Mission Control have dedicated keys, why not Siri? Imagine a Siri / Home Key on the bottom row, near the spacebar or command / option keys (or somewhere), beautifully back-lit and doubling as Touch ID.

If only there was an entire line of devices with keyboards due for a refresh that could utilize such a key...

 

[IndigoDesign]

iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV all have a Siri button. Siri is at the heart of all of these products and constantly at the tip of your finger.

"Siri is at the heart of OS 10.12. We've seamlessly integrated Siri into every aspect of your experience. How do you launch Siri, you ask? This tiny button up here in the menu."

That doesn't add up completely, especially since the menu bar isn't always visible. I understand a keyboard shortcut could work. A new trackpad gesture would be even better as well. This would all be fine for older devices, but I think we'll see something new for the new devices. If things like Launchpad and Mission Control have dedicated keys, why not Siri? Imagine a Siri / Home Key on the bottom row, near the spacebar or command / option keys (or somewhere), beautifully back-lit and doubling as Touch ID.

If only there was an entire line of devices with keyboards due for a refresh that could utilize such a key...

I feel kinda trolled getting news like that instead of news about new MBPs...
To me at least this kinda thing is a GIMICK with no real use besides maybe dictating some eMail or thought-protocol.

 

[TheralSadurns]

Okay since we're all waiting for ANY news or leaks anyways and got nothing to do besides checking this thread several times a day I might as well ask you guys for your opinion about my situation with my Mac and my workflow. I hope you find it somewhat interesting to get some insight into another person's use of a Mac and general work related preferences as I will find your opinions interesting. I hope this goes through with the mods as the outcome of the decisions I'm struggling with will ultimately decide if it is worth to get a MacBook Pro or not.

Let me explain.

I'm a graphics designer doing mostly Brochures, Flyer, Catalogues. I work from my home office on a late 2012 Mac Mini, top model scoring a 13.000 on geekbench. Best Money I ever invested, after upgrade to 16 GB Ram and SSD this thing flies and never let me down. Now my home office is a 9 quare metre "prison cell" (not really but I feel imprisoned) I spend between 6 and 12 hours a day in when work demands.

I'd love to free myself from the confines of this office, work on my terrace occassionally, or in my café of choice. Also, I'm sure people can relate to this, I finish up a project, send it to printers, then get dressed and drive off to an appointment, only to get that dreaded call from pre-print that there's some crappy pantones or unrecognized fonts or last minute changes to some ad in the brochures in my PDF. Now what? Missing the printing deadline is not an option most of the time, postponing or cancelling customer appointments is also not the best thing to do. Mostly I rush home, stressed out as it is, just to fix a PDF that takes around 5 Minutes and resend it. I don't carry my working computer to customers, if I need to show off some layouts I bring printed versions and a nice PDF on my iPad Air2. So there is no need for a mobile computer really besides "easing my life".

That's the situation. Now as I see it I have following options:

> Get a MacBook Air (would wait for a possible Update) 13 Inch with 250 GB SSD (enough for all my customer files) for around 1.300 Euro. Keep my Mac mini as stationary and primary workstation. I love the Airs and for occassional "fixing" or working on my terrace a Geekbench score of around 5.000 would be enough I figure, as I wouldn't work on that tiny thing for more than an hour a time. Also I would look cool sitting in a Café working on my novel... (lol, don't judge me, I guess we've all been there right? Haha...). I'd sync my fonts and customer folder with syncmate when leaving or coming home (I'm no fan of remote access working as it's slow, unreliable and I think it's a big security risk).

> Get a MacBook Pro Retina 15" Skylake. This would then be my primary computer, I'd have to get rid of my Mac mini to free up some cash, I wouldn't need to worry about data synching and could use the MBP in clamshell mode just like a desktop (did that before with black plastic MB back in the day) and always have full power at my disposal. Now the thing is, I'd really cry for that Mac mini because it's such good value, I'd feel a bit worried lugging around a MBP for around 2.500 Euro, yes I've multiple Backups running at home, but still, I feel it's risky with all the files, yet alone the value of the MBP alone... Also, is this really necessary for "occassional last minute changes" and "working from my terrace"? Thing is if I don't spec it out quite a bit, it wouldn't even reach the subjective performance of my Mac mini. Those quad i7s 2,6 GHz help a lot when writing a print PDF for a 300 page catalogue...

> My stroke of genius. I just thought about that and would love to get your input on this. Get a 15" ASUS Republic of Gamers Notebook for "just" around Euro 1.600,- which is just 300,- more than the Macbook Air but it's a "proper" Laptop sporting a 4GB Nvidia GTX 960M, 16 GB Ram, fast PCIe SSD, giving it some serious OOMPH. There are programs that can sync folders between Mac and PC, I only need my customer folder and font folder. This would enable me to do short work-stints wherever I want around the house (as I'm running Creative Cloud, I have licenses for two installations and it doesn't matter if they are WIN or MAC, also the handling of Creative Software is identical between systems) and I could actually game quite decently, also carry it to my friend's house and LAN-party a bit with him.

So... if you took the time to read all this, I'm thankful as is, but I'd really be curious in your people's opinions about my situation. What would you do?

All Mac? I love them Macbook Airs and I would feel more "sophisticated" (kidding, only half serious about that).
Only Macbook Pro - the Premium solution with the least hassle but highest price and risk for loss of property/data.
Mac mini synched to Windows gaming Laptop (probably even an XPS 15 or Alienware 13 - though those are ugly).

Let me know!

Been in a similar situation a couple of years ago.

First with a Win Desktop PC and a black Macbook.
Then with an iMac and the same Macbook

It was a darn hassle. Keeping two machines up to date with all settings, software, files.

Hhen when the time came for upgrading I switched to an early 2011 17" MBP + Thunderbolt Display.

Was it pricey?! Yes.
Was it worth it?! Also yes.
My best investment ever.

Hassle free it still serves me until today. For gaming it is now showing its age, obviously, but other than that it still flies.

And with a Time Machine backup and an off-location secondary backup + internal SSD (rather than a HDD) everything is also pretty safe.

But YMMV.

 

[IndigoDesign]

Been in a similar situation a couple of years ago.

First with a Win Desktop PC and a black Macbook.
Then with an iMac and the same Macbook

It was a darn hassle. Keeping two machines up to date with all settings, software, files.

Hhen when the time came for upgrading I switched to an early 2011 17" MBP + Thunderbolt Display.

Was it pricey?! Yes.
Was it worth it?! Also yes.
My best investment ever.

Hassle free it still serves me until today. For gaming it is now showing its age, obviously, but other than that it still flies.

And with a Time Machine backup and an off-location secondary backup + internal SSD (rather than a HDD) everything is also pretty safe.

But YMMV.

Thanks,
makes sense.
Might bite the bullet and go for the MBPr, maybe not TOP spec, have 2 backups and keep the Mac mini just in case...

 

[cmChimera]

I feel kinda trolled getting news like that instead of news about new MBPs...
To me at least this kinda thing is a GIMICK with no real use besides maybe dictating some eMail or thought-protocol.

"Hey Siri, play this song"

"Hey Siri, remind me to do this"

"Hey Siri, show me documents worked on yesterday"

"Hey Siri, make a note of this"

"Hey Siri, add this to reading list"

I mean, I'll stop there but the utility seems pretty obvious to me.

 

[nicovh]

"Hey Siri, play this song"

"Hey Siri, remind me to do this"

"Hey Siri, show me documents worked on yesterday"

"Hey Siri, make a note of this"

"Hey Siri, add this to reading list"

I mean, I'll stop there but the utility seems pretty obvious to me.

Your first example is a question i ask Siri almost everyday. Would be fantastic if I could use it on the new rMBP, wouldn't have to switch tabs/programs, find the song then switch back. Ooooh would I love that hahaha

 

[Adam620]

https://www.macrumors.com/2016/02/24/siri-mac-os-x-10-12-fall-2016-report/

This is exciting!
Perhaps a new and improved microphone to accompany the update in June?

They will only preview 10.12 in June at wwdc and launch in September with iOS 10, or at least that's been the trend the last few years.

This points maybe to a release in March and Fall, more on pace with refreshes ever 250 days (avg)

Side note: I also feel apple won't dive into Polaris right away given there problems with Gpu's in the past, maybe give a few months to work out any kinks before adding it?

 

[Serban]

Seems pascal will be released in june

 

[Guate7]

"Hey Siri, play this song"

"Hey Siri, remind me to do this"

"Hey Siri, show me documents worked on yesterday"

"Hey Siri, make a note of this"

"Hey Siri, add this to reading list"

I mean, I'll stop there but the utility seems pretty obvious to me.

Siri is most practical for setting alarms in my experience. It is either i say "wake me up at 9:30" or open the alarm app and scroll down to the right minute, then scroll down to the right hour. It took my a while for me to really embrace it, so if you don't now, i imagine you will more when it improves and can literally fetch every thing much faster than you can find them yourself (she already can find songs in my music faster than i can along with setting the alarm thing). It would be nice to say something like "SIRI copy my music folder into itunes" and she does it like wam bam.

 

[Quasselstripper]

Sometimes they also ship "larger" OS updates when new products are released.
Think of iOS 9.3. This will be released when the new iPhone 6c and iPad Air 3 are announced with additional features.

The same will be the case for the new retina Macbook Pro, which are released in March. TouchID for Mac requires additional software components, which are not yet implemented in OS X, but should be easily compatible by integrating parts of the iOS code into Mac OS. They've done that already before. Think of LaunchPad, SplitView, Fullscreen Apps. So why not bringing other new features back to the Mac? Yes, exactly there is no reason why it shouldn't happen. It will happen. The OS X will get a bigger update in March. They're already testing it. I'm feeling it!

 

[nicovh]

I'm still kind of sceptical towards the whole TouchID on Mac idea. But if Apple implements it, hopefully Johnny comes up with a good design. Unlike the iphone battery cases

 

[volcomvenom]

Anyone believe that apple will?

 

[Mattsasa]

I just want a retina 2016 mbp, who cares what the specs are I just want it no matter what.

If you don't care about specs? whats wrong with the 2015 rMBP?

I hope Anandtech or ArsTechnica can review this quickly so we can see how much Intel has improved compared to the IRIS 6100.

Yes Please, I just ordered the Vaio Z flip, with Iris 550, I will update benchmarks

Waited so long, might as-well wait for kaby lake at end of this year. Full hardware accelerated 10bit H.265 / VP9.

Lol, there will be no kaby lake at the then of this year!
Kaby lake MBPs will probably come late 2017.

On the topic of finances, has anyone used Barclays to finance an Apple product before? Any issues or problems? Maybe Apple will adopt a MacBook Upgrade Program akin to iPhone

I use Barclay a lot for apple products, works great! would recommend.

 

[volcomvenom]

If you don't care about specs? whats wrong with the 2015 rMBP?

.

I just want the newest product and I want it now! Who cares about specs!

 

[Wowereit]

There is a reason it's called Macbook Pro.

 

[frosse]

With the talk of Siri (and possibly Touch ID) on MacBook Pros I fear we're talking about a June revealing. These are both features of the upcoming OS X, which debuts at WWDC.

If there's a dedicated Siri button and Touch ID, Apple can't show new MBPs in March.

Edit: On the other hand: the new OS X isn't due until fall so then we're really in the **** here.

"Here's our new MBP, it has a Siri button, but you can't use it until September/October when we release 10.12."