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Reactions to the New MacBook and Apple Watch
As the dust settles from Apple's press conference yesterday, there have been a broad variety of reactions around the web. Robinson Meyer at The Atlantic says Apple's $10,000 watch demonstrates the company has lost its soul. "The prices grate. And they grate not because they’re so expensive, but because they’re gratuitously expensive. ... To many commentators, this is unsurprising. It’s good business sense, really. Apple has made its world-devouring profits by ratcheting up profit margins on iPhones. There is no better target for these massive margins than the super-rich. But high margins do not a luxury brand make." Others suspect the high-end watches are targeted more at rich people in China.
As for the less expensive watches, perhaps they're around not so much to become a new major sales category for Apple, but rather to drive more iPhone sales. Meanwhile, the redesigned MacBook may signify a bigger change for the laptop industry than people realize: "We don’t need all those other ports, Apple says. We are living in a wireless world now, where we can connect most of our peripherals without cords." The new MacBook has also fueled speculation that Apple could be working on a more powerful tablet, something that could compete with Microsoft's Surface Pro line.
As for the less expensive watches, perhaps they're around not so much to become a new major sales category for Apple, but rather to drive more iPhone sales. Meanwhile, the redesigned MacBook may signify a bigger change for the laptop industry than people realize: "We don’t need all those other ports, Apple says. We are living in a wireless world now, where we can connect most of our peripherals without cords." The new MacBook has also fueled speculation that Apple could be working on a more powerful tablet, something that could compete with Microsoft's Surface Pro line.
...when they made the memory in the new Mac Minis impossible to upgrade and reduced their performance. The late 2012 quad-core model is still the fastest, best one they ever made.
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
The problem with wireless is density.
I can't use wireless mice, keyboards, speakers/headphones, wifi bridges, or anything else around here (there's more APs here than I can be bothered count, easily over 200) - the inteference is ridiculous, you literally can't even type of a wireless keyboard around here (CBD area).
If that's the future Apple wants us to have, goodbye.
Meanwhile, to be portable for meetings, you need to bundle in your bag additional adapters (eg. plugging into a projector). A slightly thicker laptop with no dongles will actually be more portable.
Given the millions of other blogged words on this topic in the past 48hours, Slashdot now needs clickbait too?
(Sigh.) This is cliche, but I can't help myself. If your objection to the 'click bait' was to not only click the link to the content but to interact with it by logging in and posting a comment... you're doing it wrong.
Yeah, its so much better having to rummage around in a bag for 2 minutes so I can plug in some headphones with a bog standard 3.5mm jack is soooooo much better... And woe betide you if you forget that adapter.
I do expect a minimum number of connectors in a laptop. At least 3 USB (keyboard, mouse and storage device), network (Ethernet), display out (HDMI is standard these days) and audio out (3.5 mm) are that minimum. So 7 connectors, none of which are legacy or even uncommon.
My idea of laptop hell is having to get an additional US$80 adapter just to plug in a device that plugs in fine to every other laptop in existence.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
> Apple could be working on a more powerful tablet, something that could compete with Microsoft's Surface Pro line.
What, really? Apple is designing a table that is only ever seen on Hawaii Five-0?
The strange and sad thing is, Surface Pro's are becoming more common in corporate environments because they're basically just Windows machines sans KB. So they're actually replacing laptops instead of pretending to replace laptops like Android and Apple Tablets.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.