When to Expect the M1X MacBook Pros to Become Available to Order

[nquinn]

LOL @ people worrying about ports being "ugly". These are on the slim SIDE of your laptop that you can't even see while using it.

Laptops are about functionality. Load up the ports.

 

[Shirasaki]

So you can take 318,000 disks and install BigSur?

And a quarter of that amount gots degraded or damaged during burning process.

 

[Shirasaki]

No? What are you talking about? Are you mad that I want useful ports on the machine? I really don't get why someone would argue this hard about having default options, just because daddy apple tells them it's cool. Dongles are an extra expense, a point of failure, a thing you can forget, a thing that might not work with some system. They aren't as good of a solution as having a port on the machine. Whatever. I'm done with this thread. There is no point in trying to argue for things that most people will use and enjoy.

You can’t argue with apple fanatics and apple cults who sees nothing but apple overlords tell them.
Pity that they are not born in one particular region.

 

[citysnaps]

Totally agree with you. Dongle life is for the birds. Really a joke that a so-called professional device lacks even the most rudimentary ports.

No...the real joke is a so-called professional spending around $2K+ for a professional device and not spending around $20 for proper cables, choosing instead to live a dongle life. I put that in knee-slapper category.

 

[visualseed]

You're right here for sure. But the bonus is that Doug in accounting will be able to use his crusty old projector without dongles It's not just old projectors though, it's also new TVs / monitors, which is a huge bonus - jury is still out on how well Apple Silicon Macs will support Windows gaming etc going forward, but if they do at some point, this could be a decent bonus.

I'm not sure on whether they'll ditch HDMI as soon as USB / TB support 80Gbps. I really think the rumoured Apple monitor will include an HDMI 2.1 port, which massively opens up the potential audience for that display too, beyond just Mac customers. If that's the case, you'd hope Apple would continue to include HDMI 2.1 and beyond for a while yet.

I think it depends on how they plan to support data to the display. Will it have an iSight camera? USB and TB port hub on the back? These are the kinds of things we expect now on Apple displays. HDMI is fine for compatibility but that single Thunderbolt cable is elegant.

 

[jz0309]

When did HDMI become obsolete?

I didn’t say obsolete… and a HDMI port on a 2021 laptop is legacy

 

[mikethemartian]

Nice, the way Apple is headed they will bring back native faxing as an OS feature & make iPhones w/rotary dials on them to support all the professional users.

There are plenty of times when filling out forms for the government that you need to use a fax because they won’t accept emails.

 

[jz0309]

You can’t argue with apple fanatics and apple cults who sees nothing but apple overlords tell them.
Pity that they are not born in one particular region.

So I’m a fanatic because I do not want legacy ports back? And you’re not <enter name here> because you do?
Is it not ok that different people have different requirements? And am I not allowed to express those?
you are on MR here after all…

 

[visualseed]

There are plenty of times when filling out forms for the government that you need to use a fax because they won’t accept emails.

For about $70 you can buy a nice US Robotics usb fax modem and plug it in your MacBook. Oddly enough, it looks like a a dongle. If you are willing to roll the dice you, can find a no-name one for under $20.

 

[R3k]

3.5 or 5.25? I heard there's a comeback on 5.25

It’s like Vinyl man.

 

[visualseed]

It’s like Vinyl man.

You’re not spinning the bytes unless you are spinning old-school 8-inchers

 

[jz0309]

It’s like Vinyl man.

I’ve kept mine in boxes for the last 27 years 😀
I did not do that with my floppy drives 🤔😜

 

[blazerunner]

I didn’t say obsolete… and a HDMI port on a 2021 laptop is legacy

You didnt, but your stance on it sounds more like you did.

 

[whythefuss]

Oh one of those people, only thinking about themselves and how to troll people.
Here’s hoping we get one USB-A port for crying out loud or I am buying the 14” HP Spectre x360 once HP announces the refresh with the new OLED panel (that supposedly will use DC dimming).
EDIT: so it makes more sense what HP is supposedly doing later this fall with the x360.

Nope.. I certainly AM thinking of others when I declare that those limited function holes (SD card slot, HDMI, USB-A) should NOT be included in the design of these new MacBook Pros. All future owners of these new laptops would have less than optimal use of the interior volume of these tightly packed devices. The internal volume in the areas of those supposed holes is better used for speaker performance (bass resonance chamber).

 

[orthorim]

This is the most excited I've been for a new Apple laptop in years.

I held out with my 2012 MBP forever, then finally caved in 2019 and got a 16" - it's solid but not exactly breathtaking due to the absolutely retarded i9 Intel chips which are good for heating the room but not much else. $3000 ticket to confirm that the touch bar was a very bad idea.

Got 2 M1 MacBook Airs by now, they are fantastic but it's a small screen. Absolutely love the M1 air, probably the best Mac to ever ship. There's no fault I can find with it. It's thin, light, pretty, crazy good keyboard (how'd they do that??), and faster than my 8 core i9, no fan, no sound, never really even gets warm. The M1 MacBook Air is a magical machine.

And now I am very excited to get a big screen version of it. Doesn't even need to be faster.

Huge amount of pent up demand so I don't expect to get my hands on one before December here in Asia. In the USA different story of course.

 

[mikethemartian]

I'm sorry, but if you are referring to hdmi and sd card as "legacy" ports, it's proof that you aren't doing professional work. Photographers are dying for an sdcard port. If you do any type of public speaking or presenting, an hdmi will make a tremendous difference. Just because you don't use them, doesn't make them legacy.

The SDUC standard can support up to 128 TB.

 

[xunker]

I'm hoping for a built-in floppy drive.

5 1/4 inch or 8 inch?

 

[mikethemartian]

Do you people not actually do professional work? Do you honestly like dongles that much? I hate showing up for a conf talk and having to guess if my setup will work because they have a simple hdmi in. On the road shooting and need a dongle to look with some resolution my latest shots? There is some weird elitist "apple told me to not like it, so I don't like it" energy in denouncing useful ports.

Some how it makes them feel superior to be snobby about ports. Reminds me of that episode of Louie when his friend is dissing water.

 

[ahurst]

Interesting that HDMI and SD are (rumored to be) coming back, but not a single USB-A. I don't have a USB-C only Mac yet (holding out for an M1X MBP), but on my current laptop and iMac I use USB flash drives and other assorted USB-A devices regularly, and it would be super-convenient to have just one traditional port for using things like that without fumbling for an extra dongle. I mean, I'm not gonna boycott the new MBP over it or anything, I'm just saying it's at the top of my "nice to have" list if we're talking about adding back a legacy port.

I've always had to use an adapter for HDMI and I don't use it nearly as much, so its absence isn't much of a bother. I appreciate the SD reader in my iMac but usually only use it 2-4 times a year. Am I in the minority as someone who'd prefer USB-A to either of the above?

 

[mikethemartian]

As my father would say. “Only an amateur calls himself a ‘pro.’ A true professional lets his work speak for him.”

Which Apple doesn’t do since they use the Pro moniker.

 

[nquinn]

There's simply no reason to skip including ports on machines like these unless they are like 20 years old. Adding more functionality in no way harms a machine in any meaningful way, and I'd also not even visually since they are on the side of your computer.

The only negatives I can think of:
- negligible cost to Apple
- maybe some negligible additional power dry for things like media card readers/circuits

To Apple they probably introduce incremental testing & quality costs they don't want, but that's an Apple problem not a consumer problem.

My dream machine would have 3 USB-C ports, 1 USB-A port (I can let this go), 1 HDMI slot, 1 SD slot. Ethernet is a bit too thick otherwise I'd take it.

Why?
- Still a zillion devices running USB-A
- Expensive DSLR cameras, drones, and other devices still cards
- Ethernet is still the standard, with moves to 2.5Gbps commercial and others moving to 10Gbps.

These are old standards but not unused standards. Big difference.

I don't understand people who want less ports. What does it do for you? Absolutely nothing. It's not like these are phones we are trying to waterproof more.

 

[wilhoitm]

5 1/4 inch or 8 inch?

Forget about 8 inch floppy drives! I need for the new Macbook Pros to have cassette tape support because I am a Pro! I used a cassette tape for storage on my Timex Sinclair 1000!

 

[rhett7660]

I’m hoping for new Mac MINIs with HDMI 2.1 ports, pretty please Apple.

You and me both!!!! Come on Mac Mini's!

 

[mikethemartian]

For about $70 you can buy a nice US Robotics usb fax modem and plug it in your MacBook. Oddly enough, it looks like a a dongle. If you are willing to roll the dice you, can find a no-name one for under $20.

Actually about ten years ago I tried to use one with a Mac. The problem I encountered was that the fax app in OSX didn’t allow a transmit log to be saved so I would have no proof that I sent the document in by the deadline.

 

[windowsblowsass]

People on message boards get so extremely upset about the word pro being used in the branding of a product. It gets to the point where people get kinda unhinged.