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I'm not trying to rain on anyones parade or judge anyone...I'm just curious if I'm the only one who would feel guilty for buying one because I know I don't need it.

Then again I'm a regular visitor on Boglehead's and a daily Quicken user. Not everyone is.

I doubt anyone making >$150k a year would feel guilty buying a $2k laptop. It just has to be cute.

It's all relative.
 
Waiting on a rMB...

A lot of us "know your pain". You would have known that if you bothered to read any of the other threads of people talking about waiting on their orders.


Damn. Mac Rumors is brutal. You might be right though.
 
Damn. Mac Rumors is brutal. You might be right though.

I don't mean to be a jerk but there's been quite a few similar threads. There's no point in making more.

I'm waiting on my rMB (1.3/512/europe) just like OP is but I didn't go make a new redundant thread.
 
I don't mean to be a jerk but there's been quite a few similar threads. There's no point in making more.

I'm waiting on my rMB (1.3/512/europe) just like OP is but I didn't go make a new redundant thread.

I hear ya, and I am similarly waiting on my purchase (1.3/256/US). However, to a relative newcomer like me, it seems that thread importance here is more arbitrary than merit based. Case in point- I created the first MBr thread dedicated to battery life and got one response, meanwhile there is a thread going on in the iPhone section discussing iPhone colors and their reflection on you as a person titled "Black iPhone for guys, white for women" with almost 40 responses so far!

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1868753/
 
Oh Oh, and I just found the 68 post thread dedicated to the screen tilt angle. All in good fun though...
 
no, they have 3 of the baselines....silver.

i just can't convince myself to get one though.

See the difference is I own a maxed out mid-14 15".....and I DONT mind lugging it around.

Thats the thing, these laptops are for those who want a secondary traveling machine.

Not necessarily...
 
i canceled mine. now i'm waiting for store to get some... anything is better than 3-4 weeks of waiting

If you cancelled a 1.3 you won't be getting it at a store. BB and Apple will not stock the 1.3. BTO only.

I think the wait is half the fun as long as I don't have to fly before mine arrives.
 
I would have bought a Macbook 3 times this past week if any store actually had them in stock.

Today I saw Best Buy had them in stock with overnight delivery available.

I have a 1.2GB, 512GB ordered today, and being delivered tomorrow morning.

I truly hate Best Buy. Best Buy is the reason why most normals get bad advice on tech. But they can deliver quickly in this scenario.

Many models are still showing up as not backordered. Check it out.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/promo/new-apple-macbooks

Overnight shipping is an option though not free.
 
no, they have 3 of the baselines....silver.

i just can't convince myself to get one though.

See the difference is I own a maxed out mid-14 15".....and I DONT mind lugging it around.

Thats the thing, these laptops are for those who want a secondary traveling machine.

That may not necessarily be the case for everyone.

Many people are chugging along just fine on 5 or 6 year old machines, and they are happy.

There is quite literally an entire generation growing up right now on hand me down iPhones and iPads that are beyond joyed to get them.

Saying that this machine is for those who want a secondary traveling machine seems a bit disingenuous.

I'm going to try using this as my day to day work machine coming from a nearly maxed out 2013 rMBP (Core i5, 16GB, 512SSD) because the times I worked the CPU seemed very burstable. The Macbook bursts up to 2.4-2.9GHz, with the down clocking happening to maintain stability in high heat.

Based off of what I've seen with my varying workloads this seems about right. My rMBP spikes heavily really only when I'm running multiple VM's at once. In general when I'm working and actually looking at it it seems to be at around 20% CPU utilization for most tasks. I wouldn't recommend editing video on a Macbook, but I'd imagine that for most people that it works fantastically.

If you have a development centered workflow, I'd imagine using something like AWS, or Azure for builds and etc would actually be far more ideal then trusting a high wattage CPU thats running against your lap to give you better results.

The outliers for that I would imagine would be video editing, or huge Objective-C builds. If you have Objective-C builds that are so big that you can't edit text on a Macbook and get it to compile reasonable I'd recommend talking to your employer about setting up a Mac Mini build server. If your doing video editing I'd imagine a 12 inch screen wouldn't be ideal for you.

Even with that said, I'd think that even large Objective-C builds would probably be fine within the burstable range of the Core M.
 
rMB purchase is probably a luxury gadget for many of us...

Why would we feel guilty about buying it?

I can somewhat understand the potential to feel guilty for an "unnecessary" purchase.

Probably most people posting on Macrumors already have one or more Mac computers, or at least have constant access to a computer at home or work.

And probably the majority of those computers are of similar, if not greater, power than the rMB, so buying an rMB is not necessarily an "upgrade" in the performance department.

So, while the rMB is a great piece of design and engineering, for many users the primary advantage is its lightweight and nice display. Now, this may well be a serious consideration for someone who can benefit from a highly mobile computer.

For others, and I suspect the majority fall into this category, it's an object of desire, and an attractive addition to ones collection of electronic devices. Whether you actually *need* one is highly subjective. I have an rMBP 15, which I carry to work every day in a back pack. Would I like a lighter computer for use on less intensive tasks? Yes, sure - it would be great to carry around to meetings, to lunch, for business trips and on vacation. Could I, hand on heart, say I needed one? No, not by any means. I can carry my rMBP, and deal with the extra weight, and somewhat reduced battery life. It's very much a first-world problem.

Hence, if someone pays considerable money for something which is an unnecessary luxury, one might feel a tad guilty about the indulgence, either because you might otherwise use the money for something more "creative" (e.g. investment, savings, education, gifts to loved ones, charitable donations), or because you're aware that the money you drop on an rMP would be a huge deal to 90% of the world's population.

The difference is that we can justify an rMB as "a tool". Someone who spends $20,000 on a diamond ring, a designer dress or such like, has to find some other "justification" to themselves. Either that, or they just live in a world of privilege without giving much thought to those with less purchasing power.
 
The amounts that I spend on my other purchases, bags and clothes, holidays etc would dwarf what I've just spent on the rMB. However these items are all considered purchases, I don't just run and buy what I fancy and I can afford to buy them. As long as my bills are paid and my home is taken care of first then I will buy what I like, sans regret or guilt.
 
As I said, it's my personal philosophy and I'm not about to tell people how to manage their own cash. That would make me pretty ignorant, I may be coming off the wrong way, I'm just trying to shed some light.

If it makes even one person go "hmm maybe I will think a little more financially sound from now on" then hey...thats awesome.

I think if more people took the time to sit down, have something like Quicken or YNAB on their laptop, they would really see how much their spending on things they don't need.

There is a ratio of frugality you should hold, this doesn't mean that you can't enjoy your money.
 
As I said, it's my personal philosophy and I'm not about to tell people how to manage their own cash. That would make me pretty ignorant, I may be coming off the wrong way, I'm just trying to shed some light.

If it makes even one person go "hmm maybe I will think a little more financially sound from now on" then hey...thats awesome.

I think if more people took the time to sit down, have something like Quicken or YNAB on their laptop, they would really see how much their spending on things they don't need.

There is a ratio of frugality you should hold, this doesn't mean that you can't enjoy your money.

Well like I said, my Mac is my workhorse. Of course I'm going to upgrade to the best machine possible for my uses. The rMB is a serious laptop to me.
 
As I said, it's my personal philosophy and I'm not about to tell people how to manage their own cash. That would make me pretty ignorant, I may be coming off the wrong way, I'm just trying to shed some light.



If it makes even one person go "hmm maybe I will think a little more financially sound from now on" then hey...thats awesome.



I think if more people took the time to sit down, have something like Quicken or YNAB on their laptop, they would really see how much their spending on things they don't need.



There is a ratio of frugality you should hold, this doesn't mean that you can't enjoy your money.


I think that the discussion you are trying to have would fit in better in some kind of personal finance forum. It is kind of like preaching vegetarianism in a steakhouse.
 
I think that the discussion you are trying to have would fit in better in some kind of personal finance forum. It is kind of like preaching vegetarianism in a steakhouse.

Well, not exactly. Here the long knives are only verbal. In the steakhouse... ;)
 
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