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Apple Said To Plan First Pro Laptop Overhaul in Four Years (bloomberg.com)
It's been a while since Apple upgraded most of its computer lineups. It has come to a point, where it's being advised that the Cupertino-based company should stop selling the dated inventories. But the wait will be over later this year, says Mark Gurman, the reporter with the best track record in Apple's ecosystem. Reporting for Bloomberg, Gurman says that the company will be overhauling its MacBook Pro laptop line for the first time in over four years, packing it with a range of interesting features. From the report: The updated notebooks will be thinner, include a touch screen strip for function keys, and will be offered with more powerful and efficient graphics processors for expert users such as video gamers, said the people, who asked not to be named. The most significant addition to the new MacBook Pro is a secondary display above the keyboard that replaces the standard function key row. Instead of physical keys, a strip-like screen will present functions on an as-needed basis that fit the current task or application. The smaller display will use Organic Light-Emitting Diodes, a thinner, lighter and sharper screen technology, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said earlier this year. Apple's goal with the dedicated function display is to simplify keyboard shortcuts traditionally used by experienced users. The panel will theoretically display media playback controls when iTunes is open, while it could display editing commands like cut and paste during word processing tasks, the people said. The display also allows Apple to add new buttons via software updates rather than through more expensive, slower hardware refreshes. [...] Apple is using one of AMD's "Polaris" graphics chips because the design offers the power efficiency and thinness necessary to fit inside the slimmer Apple notebook, the person said.
If you open a Macbook Air, the entire thing is filled with tamper-proof epoxy and glue and any type of serviceability is practically impossible.
i vote for getting rid of the sharp edge that's grating the skin off my wrists. i'd similarly welcome a computer that can keep itself cool without sounding like an asthmatic jet engine. it would also be nice to be able to fall asleep with a running computer on my chest/abdomen without being woken up by a burning skin sensation.
Fantastic. Nothing suits a keyboard better than having to look down at it to use it.
You can't even replace the traces between components without separating the board layers? Madness, everyone knows traces should be on the surface of the board where you can make a nice solder bridge if you so desire or fortune dictates!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Now how about a Mac mini overhaul? The last change was two years ago and it was actually a downgrade from the 2012 models.
There's something really wrong at Apple for still selling computers in 2016 with 5400RPM hard drives and only 4GB of RAM.
Great. Now what about their iMacs and Mac Minis?
The updated notebooks will be thinner
Fuck off
Who cares about thinner lighter for a _PRO_ notebook PRO means expandable. They should make it thicker and heavier, if it means I can install updated drives and memory a few years from now.
a touch screen strip for function keys
please no. i get it, its 2016 and everything has to look like the holodeck had sex with minority report but your original concept of function keys interlocked with brightness and UI controls is infuriating enough for unix/linux users.
a strip-like screen will present functions on an as-needed basis that fit the current task or application.
they already did that, they were called function keys. they didnt need to change to suit applications. again, it sounds like we're ginning up a product thats reached the end of its conceivable means of enhancement.
Apple's goal with the dedicated function display is to simplify keyboard shortcuts traditionally used by experienced users
then just keep the function keys where they are. you know, function keys, the things weve been using for 30 years simply and without the added complexity of a dedicated AMOLED strip of independently driven touchscreen representations of whatever you think the application needs. im sure fanbois will go nuts for this strip, but the rest of us just see this refresh as coming off desperate.
Good people go to bed earlier.
then just keep the function keys where they are
Personally I couldn't give a rip about the function keys. They generally aren't very useful to me anyway. What I'd like Apple to do is put a proper goddam backspace AND delete keys on their laptops. It's annoying as hell to have to hit Fn+delete on a Macbook.
And I still insist that non removable batteries are dangerous.
Based on what? Who exactly has been injured/killed in a manner that removable batteries would have solved? Failing that what is the theoretical but obviously extremely rare failure mode that having removable batteries would fix?
I don't have an argument that removable batteries are a good idea but I just don't see it as a safety issue.
On their thinkpad. It was an unmitigated disaster. They immediately went back to regular function keys on the next generation.
What gamer wants their thin and high cost hardware?
Let's see what is bad low ram count with high priced upgrades + soldered in so you can't DIY.
Some systems even have soldered storage starting small 128GB is not that much for gaming.
For laptops starting price of $2000 for a lower end gpu with a high res display.
Removable batteries can be inspected visually for defects that generally precede failure.
Typically, this means bulging, but unusual hot spots are also good indicators (assuming you've handled the battery enough to know how it feels normally).
It is also very easy to hard reboot a device with a removable battery and to ensure it is unpowered when opening it up to troubleshoot or upgrade.
Laptop batteries are capable of producing dangerous electric shocks, and it is the most basic safety measure to isolate all sources of energy before working on any equipment.
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According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
I get that gamers like to mess with hardware, but who in their right mind would consider them expert users?
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Give us a real pro macbook.
17" 4K screen and a 8 core XEON processor with 3 SSD 0.2 slots to raid with. and a killer dual video card setup make this a $5000 STFU Windows Fanboi powerhouse.
Sadly they dont care about us professionals that need screen and processor power coupled with raw speed. They cater to the "i surf the internet" crowds with this low power long battery life that care about thinner and lighter more than actually having a computer that can run anything.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I seriously wonder sometimes why Apple, who makes 30% on all media and app purchases, all of which is profit at this point, feels the need to lock customers into non-upgradable hardware. Yes, it's nice to be able to charge $350 for a $10 SSD upgrade, but there comes a point where you have to decide whether you want all these devices to end up as landfill after 2 years. I know it's not 1992 anymore, and computers are "cheap," but it's still expected IMO to be able to add storage capacity or RAM to the "pro" machines in your lineup.
Also, Lenovo tried the touch-screen function key thing on their ultra-small ThinkPads -- everyone hated it. Apple folks might be a little different because they basically have no native need for function keys in MacOS, but I imagine there are a fair number of MacBook Pro users who dual boot Linux or Windows.
Personally, it's enough for me to have a reasonably portable, powerful laptop with productivity-enhancing features. Even if it's a little more cumbersome to haul around, typing on a constrained keyboard isn't worth the hassle just to have a smaller machine. Lighter? Sure. But just admit that the "normal" laptop form factor is the most comfortable for extended work and pursue the lighter goal without worrying about the smaller/thinner. I still use T- and P-series full size ThinkPads for that very reason -- Lenovo (post-design brainfart 2 cycles ago) keeps making them lighter but doesn't mess around (too much) with a working model.
Nothing suits a keyboard better than having to look down at it to use it.
In reality, because I don't use them much, I have to look down when I want to use the current function keys to make sure of what I'm hitting. Why would this new feature be any different?
I do know it would substantially increase my use of the function keys. I wish that all key-caps were customizable so that I could see what actions would be performed from each key when a modifier key (like Alt) was held down...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Wow. Are there really that many folks out there who touch-type with their function keys? I mean, I honestly don't know -- maybe there are, but I certainly haven't seen them.
Think about how awful Apple's current scheme is, where fkeys are overloaded for brightness control, volume control, keyboard backlight control (really?), and whatever else.
Now picture mapping those controls onto a touch-strip with a display. A small cluster of controls to the left (right, whatever), one for screen brightness, one for volume, one for keyboard backlight (again, whatever).
Touch one, and a slider control expands out from it. Slide left to decrease, slide right to increase. Maybe, if extensive user testing supports it, "drag off the bottom" to commit your new setting or "drag off the top" to cancel it. Or maybe just lifting your finger commits it, and cancel isn't needed; we certainly don't get "cancel" with the current up/down key controls. Maybe touch detection only gives an x-axis value, but if I were sitting on Apple's patents, I'd certainly add at least a rudimentary y-axis measurement, and multi-touch detection.
Double-tap (or "mash") the volume control to mute or unmute.
Double-tap or mash screen brightness to blank or restore the screen.
Don't want controls? Map a simple out-of-band gesture (again, drag-up or drag-down seems ideal) to move between fkeys, system functions, and application functions.
I don't have any idea what Apple will actually do with this strip, but I hope it's less of a disappointment than their touch keyboard and multitouch stuff so far. I used the FingerWorks Touchstream keyboard for years, and I'm still bitter that Apple hasn't used more than 30% of the gestural technology they got when they bought out and shut down that company.
Will Intel release a new CPU that has more then a few percentage points better performance then the ones from 4 years ago? It not worth a few thousand to replace a perfectly working laptop for a barely noticeable performance increase.
I too would love to see a return of the 17" form factor, I had the last model they made and loved that very much. It's still used to this day by my wife though mostly for remote VPN into her work...
That said I have found that a pretty good replacement is the 15" Macbook Pro and using the iPad Pro as a second screen via the Duet app. Then it's practical to carry a second screen with you, and I'd have the iPad with my anyway for development...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I quite agree. The only keyboard of Apple that I like is their on-screen keyboard in iOS, where I use a stylus anyway. But otherwise, I like the wider keyboards on Wintel computers that have a separate numeric keypad.
Actually, given the way Apple has been trying to converge iOS and OS-X, one thing Apple could do would be base the thing on the A9, or whatever the latest CPU from PA-labs is. That way, the same apps that run on iPad can also run on their Macs
>> a strip-like screen will present functions on an as-needed basis that fit the current task or application.
Oh, you mean like "function keys" do?
>> to simplify keyboard shortcuts traditionally used by experienced users... it could display editing commands like cut and paste during word processing tasks
Yes, because a "key" that only exists some of the time, and has no tactile feedback is easier to use without looking at it than ctrl-C.
Look - programmable OLED keys are neat, I get it. But two things: 1) if you're at the point where the keyboard is slowing you down in a particular software package, then you *are* an "experienced user", and you can probably spare the three brain cycles it'll take you to learn the keyboard shortcuts you need.
2) The laptop keyboard was already perfected, by IBM/Lenovo, circa 5-10 years ago. (Nipple and all, thanks.) As they've since abandoned it in favor of a whirling moshpit of chicklets that changes every hardware generation, perhaps they won't mind if all the other manufacturers just adopt their Platonic ideal of a design? I get that it may make a few keyboard designers redundant, but those resources can be diverted to the much more important goal of making everything one molecule thick.
3) Get. Off. My. Lawn.
Pretty sure function display stuff was done before even Lenovo and the like.
But the reason to cheer Apple doing this is that unlike third parties trying to promote an accessory, this will be a standard feature on laptops sold, and as such will get a lot more application support and cool uses of the tech.
Also hoping for the force feedback stuff they use in the trackpads now to go into the function keys so they "feel" pressed when you tap them.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
MacBook hardware isn't the problem. Sure, it's perhaps a little dated. But it's still more than good enough.
The problem is OSX. It's been unloved for years now. Finder is an abject embarassment. iTunes is a complete, unholy mess of bloat and inconsistency.
It's very obvious OSX is an unloved legacy for apple; iOS is where it's at. Refreshing OSX could deliver a much better user experience, even without any significant hardware upgrade.
Unfortunately that won't happen. Significantly improving the OS is a lot harder than whacking some new hardware components on board. And new hardware gets the review sites dribbling over improvements to the performance metrics du jour. No doubt the only "improvement" we'll see in OSX is further incursion into privacy.
"The webcam just spotted you were about to pick your nose. Please log in to iTunes to continue"
Still, look on the bright side: MacBooks made a great machine to run a nice OS on; one that's being actively developed and cared for. Like ElementaryOS for example...
Paying up front for capacity you'll need only later may make sense for a house, but not for a laptop.
When I bought each of my Mac laptops, I knew I'd want to upgrade their memory eventually. In general, "maxing them out" would have entailed spending thousands of dollars for memory that I wouldn't need for another year or two -- at which point I'd be able to buy it from a third-party seller at a tenth of the cost. Same thing with storage.
It's actually even worse than that -- for my first pro-level laptop (a G3 in 1999), the largest Apple-supplied memory configuration was 384MB, but third-party upgrades took it to 768. For my current daily driver (a last-of-the-line 17" MBP), Apple specs said its maximum RAM was 8GB, and that was all they'd sell you. I bought it from Apple's refurb store in 2012 or 2013, I think, when I saw that there would be no new 17-inch models. I immediately upgraded it from the stock 4GB to 16GB, at a total cost of something like $95 (I forgot to send in the $10 MIR). Buying an 8GB instead of a 4GB model would have increased the price by hundreds of dollars. And then there's storage -- I put up with the stock 500GB spinner for a couple of years, then popped in a 1TB SSD I got for under $300. When 4TB or 10TB SSDs are cost-effective, if I want one of those, it's another easy swap.
The "just buy all the machine you'll need up front" approach is wasteful. You'll get more capacity and spend less money in total by starting with just enough, then upgrading. But if cost is no object, or you're solidly committed to just replacing your machine every year, knock yourself out. At least with Apple gear you get good resale value.
I work in a building full of people using MBPs and MBAs and there has never once been an explosion or fire. So, I'm going to disagree with your assessment about non-removable batteries. What matters is the quality of the batteries and the circuit that controls charging and draw.
Are agnostics skeptical of unicorns too?
Real pros want reliable closed systems that function without modification.
Which professionals are you talking about here? Are you talking about salesmen, executives, or develops? Because, there's a different machine for different needs. If you're a traveling salesman or executive, the MacBook Air would be the better options. Student, or SoHo user? Macbook. Developer that needs to expand capability with their future needs? Macbook Pro all the way baby!!!
I need a machine were I can drop in a larger M.2 SSD. I need a machine were I can run multiple VMs (VMWare Fusion) at the same time for testing; simulating domain or cluster environments prior to deployment. I need a machine were I'm burning through so much CPU cycles that I'm constantly charging and discharging the battery pack - it too will need to be replaced every 2 and half years or longer (if I'm lucky). I need a machine with CRUs (Customer Replaceable Units /parts) festooned in the build. I DO NOT WANT FIXED ALL ON ONE MOTHERBOARD. Fuck - that - shit!!!
Life is not for the lazy.
> graphics processing abilities have been good if not amazing (because I need a system I can connect a 4k monitor to, not that must have the ultimate framerate for gaming).
Maybe you don't mind crappy 30 FPS, but us graphics guys certainly need some beefy power. The nVidia 750M, on my Mid 2014 MBP is getting a little long in the tooth.
Thank-god for Bizon Box eGPU where I can use a real GPU. I need to get one of these bad boys -- I see that it supports my GTX 980 TI with the option to remove the front plate.
Item 1: Most Apple laptops with discrete graphics chips have problems. If they give up on the Iris Pro models, I don't want to know what happens.
Item 2: Pretty OLED touch bands are for content consumers (remember that part of the world who is calling Apple users "sheep"? Maybe they were right.). Content producers (programmers, designers, whatever) need physical keys with tactile feedback because they don't look at the fucking keyboard when working.
I switched to Macs from WinTel boxes with Linux on them like 5 years ago. It sounds like it's time to switch back...
I apologize for the lack of a signature.
My anecdote beats your anecdote's ass! So there! Pffft!
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Laptop batteries are capable of producing dangerous electric shocks
No circuit in a laptop anywhere exceeds the safe touch threshold. You can't get an electric shock from these batteries.
They produce a lot of current and are capable of creating burns and even setting themselves on fire, but that is not an electric shock. The only component capable of producing an electric shock in a laptop is the plug pack, and there's never a reason to open those.
Replacing a MacBook Air battery depends entirely on having the right screwdrivers. I've done one in a 2012 MacBook Air, but the same procedure works for newer models as well.
Attack its weak point for massive damage!
If a function key's label changes to give a helpful description of what the key actually does, a user is far more likely to use function keys at all.
And then, because the keys are finally starting to be used, eventually users will not have to look at them any more.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
the excessive thinness has made the product functionally WORSE with each generation.
We're in the uncanny valley of thinness. Someday they will literally become razor-thin, and we'll be able to shave with them!
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
I opened one of those once. I had to have a bit of a sit down after the capacitor in there nearly killed me.
That will make it disposable--err professional.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
Well, if you just need simple external monitor connectivity, you scream 'marketing exec'. You'd be better served with a regular macbook assuming apple made one with a thunderbolt port. Of course, the current one has usb-c, so you'll need to carry around a converter for that. Just what everyone wants: to carry another converter around. The plain macbooks were meant originally to cater to people who care more about weight and simplicity.
'Real pros' whose workloads regularly hit the limits of whatever they're using DO want performance, expandability, as well as connectivity. They don't want to haul around an extra USB3c hub to plug everything in either. Even if it doubles as the power converter, it's not always taken along esp with today's 8hour batteries. The IO should be in the machine itself: ethernet, tons of USB ports, firewire for those legacy drives/cams out there, media card readers, hell, maybe even an optical drive as an option. User-swappable battery would also be nice. So what if it's a little thicker? For these people, it's better than an ultra thin machine plus a whole bag of add-ons just to mate the damn thing with whatever they're using, while still being lighter than one of those Clevo chassis.
VR with laptop video? Good luck. Even the top end gamer laptops with the fastest mobile gpus are mediocre for that. Such a gpu would require a thicker chassis just for heat dissipation alone.
No they're not.
I live in dual worlds, I do mostly development with pretty large codebases in some cases, but also a lot of photography including some semi-professional stuff.
For the development I prefer dual screens at least, but can live on one high res screen - although I liked the 17" laptop the 15" retina at least has the same resolution so that has been fine... I got enough flash storage that mostly I've been happy, and enough memory that development tools run well.
For photography it would have mattered how much on-board storage I got because it would not have been enough, I have an Aperture library nearly filling a 4TB drive now, and much more storage holding raw images. But again thunderbolt has been great in that regard because I get fast access to external storage, and also a 4K monitor works quite well attached to the laptop. Image processing and raw conversion are OK though I am looking forward to something of a speed boost after three years...
For connectivity the combo of a few USB-3 ports along with Thunderbolt has been more than enough. I can connect to the storage and monitors I need, and I've not really felt like the inability to upgrade anything has held me back, while I have enjoyed how very reliable the machine has been compared to developers at one of my clients who all use Windows laptops to develop on.
As for ethernet ports - come on. I don't use those in real life, pretty much ever - I did use the thunderbolt to ethernet adaptor once when speaking at a conference a few years back, but in case you haven't noticed more than half the physical network connections you find in the world around you are dead (especially at hotels). I can also use an adaptor for firewire but why? Everything I cared about has long since migrated to a Thunderbolt device.
VR with laptop video? Good luck.
I don't need good luck, it actually worked OK with the Oculus dev units (I got a discrete graphics card with my Macbook Pro). I just need a system, that can support the release specs for things like the Vive and Oculus, which the article claims it will have.
Such a gpu would require a thicker chassis just for heat dissipation alone.
The newer nVidea/ATI cards have greatly reduced power needs for equivalent levels of graphics performance, the newer systems should run fairly well. The desktop models already offer a pretty big boost in performance over what was around just a few months ago... they do not require a thick chassis or extreme cooling.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Indeed. In an isolated AC-DC converter there are low value 400V capacitors (typically 2 or more) on the primary side of the transformer.
Also worth noting is a similarly high value high voltage capacitor is in all cameras to power the flash. That one could also ruin your day.
A removable battery means the machine is more fire resistant.
Provide objective evidence that by making the battery removable that the device is any more resistant to fire when attached to the device. Bear in mind that NOBODY detaches removable batteries from their phones as a routine matter. A battery that combusts or substantially malfunctions will be dangerous to handle whether or not it is removable. Making it removable does not solve the problem.
And you can make sure it is really powered down, as pointed out the above reply to the AC.
This is a genuine advantage of removable batteries. There are some other advantages as well. I do not see compelling evidence that safety is among them.
I just lost an iPhone because the battery swelled up (didn't burn) and destroyed it two weeks after not using or charging it. If it were removable, it would have just popped the cover off, I could have bought a new battery, and still have a working phone.
How convenient for purposes of this discussion... Honestly I think you are making this up and even if you aren't you are proving my point. Removability does not equate to safety. At best it might safe the device from a few rare failure modes. It won't save anybody from injury.
Non removable batteries are a real danger and should not be allowed.
Billions of non-removable batteries in active service with close to zero problems says otherwise. The rare battery that begins to combust isn't going to be removed from the device while it is malfunctioning in a dangerous manner. Doesn't matter if it is removable or not. Making the battery removable does not solve this failure mode.
If we can prohibit the use of antifreeze in baby formula, we can prohibit this.
WTF? This is irrelevant nonsense. If you want to prove your point show me a study or corroborated example whereby ANYONE was saved from an actively malfunctioning battery by the sole fact that the battery was removable.
Considering recent statements about 5+ year old computers, I guess Apple really didn't have any choice.
17" MPB's are going up in price on the used market. It's the only computer that is gaining in value.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Trolls work best in a stack anyway. At least until they overflow.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
So how long until our air-books and the old notebooks are pumpkins and can't be used anymore?