I had a look at SIMD solutions for HEVC and saw that there were solutions back in 2015. I didn't check the level of SIMD instructions required for the decoding packages but I'd think that Haswell should have been good back in 2015.
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Waiting for the 2019 MBP [Merged]
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I had a look at SIMD solutions for HEVC and saw that there were solutions back in 2015. I didn't check the level of SIMD instructions required for the decoding packages but I'd think that Haswell should have been good back in 2015.
They did not have the Butterfly Keyboard on the 2015 MacBook Pro. I've read that they put it in the 2015 MacBook though.
Unlike many posts I've seen here, I actually really like the 2016+ MBP design: four powerful ports with tons of versatility, great sleek design, and the low-profile keys are nice to use.
However, the Touch Bar is completely useless and I want it to be removed or an optional add-on. It's completely disruptive whenever it's used. And the keyboards have major reliability issues that I've experienced twice already. If they can resolve these two issues while maintaining annual spec bumps to the latest and greatest, I'll be happy.
However, the Touch Bar is completely useless and I want it to be removed or an optional add-on. It's completely disruptive whenever it's used. And the keyboards have major reliability issues that I've experienced twice already. If they can resolve these two issues while maintaining annual spec bumps to the latest and greatest, I'll be happy.
Those four TB3 ports are awesome indeed. But the problem is, most of customers will need USB-A a lot, some will need sd card, and some hdmi. But who is going to use 4 (four!) TB3 ports at the same time? 2 would be more then enough, one USB-a, and one more 'legacy' port. That would be ideal.
Now as far as butterfly goes, some like typing on it, some not. But that thing is prone to fail, so no matter what anyones preference is, that thing needs to go away. Like yesterday.
My daughter asked for a laptop last year and she got an Asus RoG and it has:
1 USB-C
3 USB 3.1 Type A
1 Power
1 SD
1 GB Ethernet
1 Kensington
1 MiniDisplayPort
1 HDMI
Headphone Jack
The MacBook Pros beat the pants of the Asus when it comes to specs but it's a nice, thick, laptop with great airflow and a decent number of ports. I do expect to change over all of my accessories to USB-C someday but that day is not here yet and I expect that it will be an expensive endeavor. There are lots of laptops out there with both Type-A and Type-C.
If I am not mistaken Apple claims the failure rates are on par with earlier models. Not sure if this is true; however, it is irrelevant because if it happens after warranty expiration you're screwed because of the incredible costs.
So if Apple wants my trust back, they either have to announce a program to replace failed keyboards for free even if warranty is expired (for at least 8 years after purchase, considering the price).
Or they announce a redesigned MBP model where the keyboard is easily user replaceable and keyboards can be purchased freely.
I doubt either one is going to happen.
And some will want eSATA and some will want FireWire, and some will want wired Ethernet etc.
All of those ports have one thing in common: they’re single use. If you have hdmi and an sd card slot and USB-a ports no amount of adapters in the word will give you 10GbEth, or FireWire or any number of other ports.
The sooner consumers stop complaining when a pro laptop has ports that appeal to professionals the better.
Let’s be honest, the percentage of people who want eSATA, FireWire is Ethernet is pretty damn small in the consumer market.
@c0ppo is right, it’s just impossible to take advantage of 4 USB-C. People who even have big set ups with multi screen etc don’t want 4 wires hanging out their machines, they use a single dock at home and office so it is easy to just plug in - which takes a grand total of 1 USB-C.
What a lot of people do need though is USB-C because nearly everything is USB-C. All those random products that connect to computers just happen to be USB-C. Also the most popular connection to various outputs tend to also be HDMI or DP.
In a nut shell, I really doubt anyone would have missed two USB-C slots - even someone who used 3 monitors/e-GPU. But my god is it annoying when you just need another type of connection and now are doomed to carry an adapter.
Not long ago I upgraded from XPS 13 9360 to 9370. The 9370 got rid of USB-C (and went from full sized to mini SD) but man did it cause some issues. The 9370 even came with a dongle for USB-C to USB-A but I have to admit, there were too many times I didn’t have it but I needed one.
The most ironic thing is regarding your last post, professionals are the ones who suffered the most from this change and who have been the most vocal about it. It didn’t affect the average Joes’ who just use Facebook, Insta and YouTube in Starbucks.
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I couldn't agree more with this. The keyboard unreliability is one thing (if true). But it's the cost of keyboard repair that is the show-stopper for me. I am still using my 2010 MBP 17" and the keyboard is still going great. I'd expect at least 8 years of trouble-free keyboard use out of my next MBP too. The 4-year replacement program doesn't cut it for me (even if it did apply to the 2018 models, which currently it doesn't).
So perhaps they should buy a consumer laptop, and stop pissing and moaning about too much flexibility in what can be connected to a professional laptop.
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Right. Professionals who want super fast I/O always complain when they get it. It’s just how we roll. “What do we want? Super fast I/O! When do we want it? Not just yet...?”
How does having two USB-C type 3 not equal super fast I/O? Which professionals are taking advantage of 4 exactly simultaneously, who aren’t using some sort of a dock? I’m a corporate developer and I’ve yet to see it in my career.
It is usually when I am mobile/moving between meetings, office or working at home where I am not with a dock that having missing ports does affect me. However I don’t think I’ll ever be thankful of having 4 USB-C ports available.
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That isn’t even a thing.
Do you mean thunderbolt 3?
It means less I/O, because 2 is less than 4. It’s crazy how math works, I know.
A dock doesn’t give you more bandwidth it just splits it up. If you want an eGPU you can’t really daisy-chain anything else on that port without affecting performance.
Plenty of portable TB3 SSDs either have a captive cable or just a single port, so they can’t be daisy chained. My next order from OWC will use three ports (I could daisy chain two devices but that will affect speed).
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Well as it happens there are other jobs out there and the technical equipment required to do them varies.
The % of professionals who benefit from 4x TB3 is how many exactly compared to % who would be happy with 2, with USB/HDMI/SD card? We are talking 1:100 ratio and that is being kind.
Someone who needed that much bandwidth is in my opinion unlikely to be using a MacBook Pro in the first place.
I would actually bet the people who champion this decision are those who don’t even need or use them as designed.
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How many times have you used an SD Card slot for work? How many times have you used HDMI?
Right because portable SSD's don't exist, people never work from anywhere but an office, and who needs more than USB 3 anyway, right?
Fine, you don't see a need for higher speeds - just pretend they're all just plain USB-C ports and get on with your life.
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And I would bet that the people complaining about SD slots and HDMI and every other single-use port use just one of those ports, and simply see it as an aggregate argument "we want legacy ports".
I don’t need to use them but design/photography teams I’ve seen use them and still do today.
HDMI is used very often in my offices, wireless display tech unfortunately is not where it should be.
They existed before TB3 and frankly, no one really needs 4 full speed TB3 in the professional environment who use laptops, it is an anomaly. Again, I am looking at a profession who away from the office is needing 120-160 Gbps of bandwidth speed simultaneously.
The people who can make use of 4 could probably also make use of 8 if given the chance.
Again, the speed is welcome, but the vast majority of professionals will never utilise it x4. It is a theoretical benefit with real material inconvenience for many professionals.
We will just have to agree to disagree. What you call “legacy”, most in the professional world see as still heavily used ~3 years on since release of original TB3 MacBooks. Won’t be legacy for a long while yet.
Great so you at least recognise someone may have a use for a port you don't.
So, you personally don't use it.
Yes, they did. They were either USB and slow, or Thunderbolt 2, and fast.
I'm so glad you've got the entirety of people who use laptops professionally mapped out in your mind. You must be in great demand by product marketing types.
Aren't you tired, moving those goal posts all the time?
I've long said I think 6 should be included on the MBPs. 8 would be great but I don't know that the system has enough internal bandwidth to drive that many, so you'd need to be more specific about which ports (or how many ports) were used for high-speed devices.
Faster transfers, and thus less time waiting are only a "theoretical" benefit if you're happy to sit around and wait for things. I've worked in an office for someone else, I get it. "Waiting for data to copy" is the new "waiting for <foo> to compile", aka the office worker's break. My clients don't really expect to pay me to be sitting around twiddling my thumbs watching files move around, so it's a very literal financial benefit for me and my clients.
A USB-C to USB-A cable costs.. maybe $10? A USB-C to HDMI cable is.. $20? and a USB-C Card Reader (which supports more formats than a MacBook Pro ever did built-in) costs $15. You've already admitted you personally don't use a card reader or HDMI - so how many USB A-to-C cables do you need? Maybe we can have a MR whip-around if your company somehow won't provide them?
This is the problem, I've yet to see USB C utilised natively anywhere. There's absolutely nothing wrong with USB C/TB-3, equally stripping all other ports that will remain to be in use for years to come is plain inconvenient at very best, unreliable in some situations.
Biggest complaint regarding the MBP I hear is the keyboard, ports and for some stability. Personally I see fewer and fewer Mac's on the ground. Most I know don't have time to deal with flaky keyboards, don't care for the ultra low travel and dealing with adapters just to attain basic connectivity that was given with the MBP.
This is why many are dropping the Mac as it's literally working against them, personally I've never seen so many dump the platform. By the time USB C/TB-3 is ubiquitous the Mac will be ever closer to irrelevance in many professional realms where it was once highly regarded.
In short people need their hardware to work for them not against them...
Q-6
Not so expensive, it literally costs $1 or less to convert ANY USB-A device to USB-C.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/5-Pack-USB...USB-3-0-3-1-Compatible-Converter/382619128621
USB-A is going to be around for quite some time, but the rationale for asking people to convert their USB-A devices to USB-C is sound. USB-C can do things that USB-A can't, like support TB3 and deliver power both directions. You give you someone four USB-C ports, those ports can be adapted to do anything from now and into the future with just a $1 adapter. You change 3 of those to USB-A ports and you're stuck with the limitations of 3 USB-A ports forever.
Spend the $1/device. It's easy and future proof.
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USB-A is still used more then USB-C/TB3. And so is HDMI. And that will remain the case for a long, long time.
But reading your posts later on, I see that you will try to defend everything Apple does.
But I have yet to see anyone utilise 4 TB3 ports.
PRO laptop is often used in a wild. So when you forget your little dongle, well, complain to your client why he doesn't have usb-c this and that. That will work out great for you.
Great. That's irrelevant. My shaver charges via USB, so my laptop doesn't need high-speed I/O? Brilliant logic here.
Just as well you can adapt TB3 to almost any other port, and use it for what you need huh? Let me know how a Compact Flash or Memory Stick card work in that SD slot? Or how a DisplayPort cable works in the HDMI port?
What dongle? The only "dongle" I have is to run 2 4K displays from a single TB3 port. If I'm going "in a wild" I'm hardly going to lug a couple of 24" displays am I?
Why would my client need to have anything? They're paying me to solve some problem, so I ensure I'm prepared. Although I don't carry a gen-set with me, so I guess I do expect them to have power....
Well in 10 years of business I haven't needed anything from a client besides power and occasionally data - neither USB-C or TB3 changes that really - it just means the things I take are quicker than they were 10 years ago.
I would suggest that you have no clue of the working environments and locations.
Q-6
If you're a pro, you prepare for the unexpected and don't forget your tools. I didn't have the right connector for a client's projector one time 4 years ago. It was a VGA projector. I didn't think I still needed to hook into those. That's the last time that'll ever happen. That was a Friday. By Monday I was packing a VGA, DVI Single, DVI Dual, and HDMI adapters.
I have a bag full of dongles, adapters, hubs, scratch and sniff stickers, etc. I always have them and I've packed those items long before I had a laptop with 4 USB-C ports. I really don't get how people were getting by on just their laptop ports. I never had enough ports for everything I needed to connect.
Should I somehow forget a USB-C adapter, I have at least one in the car and a couple in my travel bag. They're so cheap there is no excuse to not be over-prepared. Don't blame your gear if you're not prepared.
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Indeed, logic isn’t my strongest side.
I could never compare shaver to a 3000$+ laptop.
In that regard, one could say that bananas are yellow. So is my car. So my car is a banana.
Once again nice use of logic right here. Because what you need and use is what everyone needs and uses.