There are plenty of use cases where using the speakers is simply not an option. Traveling (airplane, train, bus), cafes, office - basically any time you are out of the comfort of your home.
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What to Expect in the Third Generation MacBook
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There are plenty of use cases where using the speakers is simply not an option. Traveling (airplane, train, bus), cafes, office - basically any time you are out of the comfort of your home.
There are so many fragmented connection issues in the professional world, it doesn't make any sense to try and accomodate them all in a single device for everyone. I deal with IT people all day making presentations, hooking up to different equipment, and the only thing common among them is he need for adapters to address every environment. So no matter what your laptop has on it, an adapter to get what you need from it is the reality and likely a better solution.
All of my departments presentations are made on a large flat screen. Every IT guy has to provide a laptop with HDMI to get picture into it, or Component or composite video. There are no VGA inputs on TVs anymore. The only way to get those signals out of many laptops is via an adapter.
So sorry, but if your job is to give presentations, you're going to need to carry adapters.
I agree with you about the phones to a large extent, although the quality bluetooth headphones are not the monsters they were 7-8 years ago; now you can get something that's light and flexible, and lasts for multiple days for normal use. BT pairing has also gotten a lot more reliable over that time, it's not something I really concern over any more.
For a laptop though, I think the days of headphone connectors are numbered. USB-c will be the defacto standard for all wired connections going forwards. Wireless connections for all peripherals, and eventually will gradually push out all wires into niche use cases. Something like the headphone jack, display port, HDMI, USB-A/B, TB2, and a variety of single/limited use ports will be caught between a hammer and anvil, and gradually fade into history.
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Nah, those don't seem to be very common usage cases. There isn't really much of any usage of headsets in an office setting except the situations I mentioned, mostly for voice/video conferencing.
I don't really see much of anyone taking out their laptop on a train just to listen to music, and I ride the subway just about every day; actually the last time I saw someone doing that is over a year ago. Taking a city bus using your laptop every day is asking for it to be damaged at some point in time. So unless you are talking about a relic like greyhounds, then there isn't much of a chance anyone does that on a regular basis.
Flying, true. But that is a tiny fraction of most people's lives, and a mobile device would be more than adequate if you are listening for entertainment. I have flown a dozen times or so in the last year, and using a laptop in a cramped economy class, with someone leaning back is hardly a comfortable experience if you are looking for in flight entertainment, even for a laptop as svelte as rMB. Almost everyone on the plane uses a laptop to get some work done, or in preparation for the meeting/conference they are flying to. For watching movies and shows, you are much better off packing a tablet or a large phone; or even buy a cheap tablet just for that purpose if you do this often enough.
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Actually you make a very good point that I hadn't fully realized. One of the bigger complaints about removing the headphone jack is the incompatibility with all of the other stuff people need to plug their headphones into.
But the reality is, almost everything people plug headphones into these days has a data port of some sort. Phones and computers basically. Even home stereos have data ports, as do newer airplane entertainment systems, and automobiles.
The number of places a person is actually limited to a 3.5mm headphone jack are few and far between on a practical level, and usually involves legacy equipment, and fringe use applications.
Going forward, virtually anything a person will want to plug headphones into will have a data port of some sort. So really the 3.5mm headphone jack is done for all practical purposes. In a mobile world of small portable devices, it's redundant, limited function, and takes up a fair amount of space.
Yes there's going to be compatibility issues, which is unfortunate, but not so significant than a simple inexpensive adapter can accommodate, at least when it comes to digital. Adapting to old legacy 3.5mm equipment will be more expensive, but then again, it's getting left behind -- and when has legacy equipment ever been easily accommodated by new technology?
That may be right, but at the moment Apple has the upper hand. They have over half-a-billion customers invested in Lightning accessories and cables and expanding the use case for Lightning every few months (the only thing left are Macs). And many are customers who just replaced all of their 30-pin dock connectors, cables and accessories just four years ago, buying adapters in the process.
Now USB-C has little adoption at the moment. While it's widely expected to replace USB-A, it's not off to a flying start. Those few devices that have it, have almost no support. Now this could change in a hurry, but I don't see any significant expansion for at least a year, or more. Add to that the fact that there isn't even an official spec for USB-C audio yet, and not likely to be widely adopted until well after Apple announces Lightning audio.
So for the moment, Apple's sitting in the driver's seat as far digital connections go. And they have over 500 million potential customers for it! And that's not just Lightning but wireless too. Even if USB-C catches up to Apple at some point, and I suspect it will, and surpass Lightning, Apple will already have a strong Lightning infrastructure in place, as well as a head start on pushing customers away from Lightning and toward wireless. By the time USB-C audio becomes the new standard, Apple may have already propelled the wireless market into dominance with Beats leading the way.
With wireless charging on the horizon, and advances made in wifi, wired connections of any sort may be short lived in mobile devices by the time USB-C achieves any sort of real market dominance, at which point it will be moot, and Apple customers will have avoided yet one more cable and accessory conversion.
I hope so. When I upgrade my 15" MacBook Pro, those are my only two requirements. I'm dropping down to a 13" Pro unless the rMB comes out with those specs. Though if I am able to get 1.5TB in the Pro at that time, I'll go with that.
Really hope Apple allows for 2TB options in the new Pros, though I doubt they will. I would certainly hope 1.5TB options will be available, though I doubt they'll be affordable :\
It's sad when you can get a 1TB Samsung SSD for $350, yet Apple still charges $500 to upgrade from a 512GB to a 1TB drive in their MacBooks.
Apple is a multinational company that makes its products for more than just a handful of countries. Use cases differ by a wide, wide margin. What you don't see around you, maybe ridiculously common some place else, and being a company that sells products across the globe, Apple needs to cater to all demographics.
They even told us why they included a single USB Port. It wasn't because they wanted to encourage accessory makers to support C. They included the USB C port because it was a port that could be used for power or anything else. In fact, they'd rather you not use it as anything other than a power port they'd rather you use wireless everything.
But that's marketing more than anything else. There's no way Apple could have introduced a notebook without an industry standard (or soon to be) data port.
If what you're saying were 100% true (and I've no doubt that Apple means some part of that statement), they would have just put a Lightning 2 connector on there instead and kept it all in the family.
No? They wanted a port that could do those traditional port things if needed, but that's not what they want to prepare everyone for. Apple pushes wireless. Apple has always pushed wireless for as long as wireless has been a thing. But even they know they can't get away with not having a traditional port, or something that's going to hook into one.
It's not the type of thing that is said on stage. Of course they want to push wireless, but the people that it's aimed for already do that and hardly use ports. Apple plans in years, and if they want to replace all USB A ports with USB C on Macs they want native accessories/cables. This is their way to trigger the production of accessories otherwise the port wouldn't be taken seriously, and maybe treated like a Thunderbolt.
If you can't see beyond what Apple say then you must think they offer a 16GB so that they can 'spend more on other parts'.
I have the same issue with a replacement 12" macbook i just received. I am convinced it is refurbished.
Did you get a replacement because of a bad battery? What is the battery health and how many cycles is your 'new refurbished' ?
At this moment I am at 85% @ 324 cycles. base 2015 model. 15 months old.
This adds a lot of useful information. 4K video should be good in next year's MacBook.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10610...s-six-notebook-skus-desktop-coming-in-january
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10610...s-six-notebook-skus-desktop-coming-in-january
Just that youtube and Netflix will stop using the codec vp9 and go to av1. Resulting in yet again shorter battery time.
http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/What-Is-.../What-is-AV1-111497.aspx
If I summarize this argument, nobody should use their laptop to listen to music anymore, be it while working, travelling or other. Well, I do almost every, in some of the situations mentioned above. If I am working on my laptop in a café, train, station, plane, airport, and if I want to listen to music, I would rather have a single device out, and plug my headset to my laptop. My colleagues and graduate students seem to all do pretty much the same...
I see Apple keeping the one port this time around. They may bump it up to TB3 once Kaby Lake processors are ready. I think this because, and i have a feeling, that Apple will introduce "true" wireless charging capabilities into the MacBook, and therefore the single port will be used only for data transport. This is something I see happening.
I also see it adopting OLED, which I think was one of Apples reasons for ditching the glowing logo. Although microLED would be better, that seems too far off, perhaps 8th generation?
I also think we're going to see a 14' variant introduced alongside the the 3rd gen. That is the model I'll buy.
I also see it adopting OLED, which I think was one of Apples reasons for ditching the glowing logo. Although microLED would be better, that seems too far off, perhaps 8th generation?
I also think we're going to see a 14' variant introduced alongside the the 3rd gen. That is the model I'll buy.
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I will not complain about the lack of ports if they include one more usb c port. That's all I want. I can live with everything else the way it is. Oh and a 720p webcam. Then I'm done. That's all I want.
And yes, a 14" screen would be great too. 14" screen at 2.5 pounds? YUM.
And yes, a 14" screen would be great too. 14" screen at 2.5 pounds? YUM.
A MacBook with one more port,a bit more power,a better webcam and a $999 starting price could be the best laptop in the market.
You mean in the Retina MacBook? There will likely be one more port, but it will be Lightning replacing the headphone jack. At least that will let you charge your rMB without taking up a data port. You can of course use it as an optional data port, but it will still require a dongle.
I think the third generation MacBooks will be available in the new iPhone colours. Can you imagine one in the new (matte) "Black"? The thought of the colour alone is making me froth at the mouth haha
Wonder if they'd bother making them in Jet Black, it'd probably be way too impractical..
Wonder if they'd bother making them in Jet Black, it'd probably be way too impractical..