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.

Comments

sharp edge

[greenfruitsalad]

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.

Re:sharp edge

[Sir Holo]

i vote for getting rid of the sharp edge that's grating the skin off my wrists.

I bought a nail file, one with two different grits.

I filed down the case-edges where it hits the wrists. Also the two sharp edges of the "case-opener" indent. Problem solved.

Re:sharp edge

[bondsbw]

You are doing what to an Apple product? No!!!

The proper way to handle this is to pre-grate your wrists prior to using the magical device. The Apple Watch 2 is rumored to have it built-in.

Touch screen function keys

[Anonymous Coward]

Fantastic. Nothing suits a keyboard better than having to look down at it to use it.

Re:Touch screen function keys

[Solandri]

The only reason 90% of users have to look at the function keys to use them is because on 90% of laptops, some idiot accountant or designer decided that spacing the function keys equally was cheaper or looked cleaner than breaking them into groups of 4 like on a real keyboard. The few laptops which split the function keys into groups of 4 (the Thinkpads for one), I can use all day without looking at the keyboard.

What about the circuit traces?

[SuperKendall]

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!

Re: What about the circuit traces?

[Anonymous Coward]

That was a joke about circuit traces, in case you missed it. The OP was miffed about glued in batteries.

I'm more concerned about an AMD GPU. Nvidia Pascal would be much more efficient and powerful enough for 1800p60. Stop making the pro thinner! 2012 size is perfect. Larger battery and GPU is preferred Apple.

Great

[Yvan256]

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.

Piss on Apple

[geek]

The updated notebooks will be thinner

Fuck off

Thinner / Lighter ... who cares

[rvnash]

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.

Re:Thinner / Lighter ... who cares

[Anonymous Coward]

I had no problem upgrading the drive in my Mid2012 MBP. Memory is a different issue but I've never had a need to do so but the whole "you can't replace your drive!!!!1111!!!!" is on-its-face false.

Speaking of false, let me know how the hell you feel your Mid2012 MBP has any relevance in a discussion about how hard it is to upgrade their current line of hardware.

There are two things you can now upgrade after purchase in Apple laptops; Jack and Shit.

Re:Thinner / Lighter ... who cares

[alvinrod]

There are two things you can now upgrade after purchase in Apple laptops; Jack and Shit.

I heard that they were removing the jack on their products so it looks like you'll only be able to upgrade the shit.

Re:Thinner / Lighter ... who cares

[AmiMoJo]

You're doing it wrong. You are supposed to have a stack of Thunderbold HDDs and GPUs on your desk. And a USB hub or two, plus USB to HDMI and USB to ethernet dongles. Come on, why wouldn't you want all those cool accessories?!

Re:Thinner / Lighter ... who cares

[Voyager529]

I genuinely wonder exactly how much Apple cares about the creative segment anymore. You're right that PCIe SSDs are great for video editing (and even high counts of multitrack audio editing), but 1TB (the highest available in a MacBook at any price) gets really cramped, really fast. If Apple weren't trying to make their laptops look like a supermodel on a hunger strike, having a PCIe system disk and a 2TB, 7200RPM storage disk would be great...at the very least, two USB ports is ridiculous. The new GPUs are a welcome update, since the existing chipsets were being overtaken by even midrange, $800 Asus laptops...but it'll be interesting to see how Apple balances 'thin', 'heat dissipation', 'battery life', and 'performance'; I have a gut feeling that 'performance' is going to be the weak link.

On the software front, Aperture was discontinued, there's been no update to iDVD to allow Blu-Ray burning, Final Cut folks are starting to look into Adobe Premiere, and Logic Pro and Garageband are starting to become increasingly blurry; Ableton and FL Studio are both becoming solid contenders in the space while ProTools has become a lot more afforable than when Logic started making inroads.

I'd argue that the creative fields are more in a place where they need Apple more than Apple needs them. Windows (Win10 upgrade hell and telemetry concerns not withstanding) has done plenty of growing up since the Win9x days when Apple dominated the creative market for good reason, and with the exception of the first party Apple applications (Logic, FCP, Motion) nearly all the major creative production applications (Adobe Everything, Quark, Avid, Ableton) are cross platform, so it's not even that there's a whole lot of revamping established workflows or losing access to past projects that's much of a problem.

Switching to Windows, where hardware choices abound from the $600 budget-friendly Asus machines to the $3,000+ Origin/FalconNW/Sager hardware behemoths, has never been easier, meaning that plenty of the aversion to switching is the Apple lock-in, whether literal (e.g. an extensive backlog of Final Cut projects) or perceived (the file management learning curve between OSX and Windows), meaning that all Apple has to do to keep the Apple-or-bust creative market is to make sure the past 2-3 releases of those applications keep working with OSX, and as long as that takes place, Apple can keep slimming down their laptops to cater to the Facebook/Youtube crowd with little to no consequence. I'd wager that even if Apple went down to Intel Integrated graphics across their Pro line of MacBooks, Apple would probably still make more money than keeping dedicated nVidia/AMD chipsets, because they could tout "thinner", "doesn't run as hot", and "longer battery life" as features, all three of which matter a lot more to the majority of the present day Macbook purchasing crowd than disk I/O or render times.

cupertino a go go.

[nimbius]

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.

Re: cupertino a go go.

[dgatwood]

Their only useful purpose in OS X, realistically, has been for controlling volume and screen brightness anyway. Maybe this will cause companies to come up with more interesting uses for them. I'm not holding my breath.

The bigger concern is that they're making it thinner yet again. That probably means:

• No Magsafe 2
• Less battery life under heavy CPU load
• Still the same paltry 1 TB capacity as previous generations

Both of those are deal-breakers for me. We've already gotten to the point where my battery lasts for an average of only 2.5 hours on essentially brand new hardware because the battery capacity hasn't kept up with the CPU's non-idle power consumption, and several mission-critical apps that I run almost every day are horrible battery hogs (in no particular order, Chrome, Finale 2012, Lightroom 6, Photoshop CS6).

Want to know what would make me happy?

• Longer battery life when doing more than just playing around with a web browser.
• Reliable GPUs that don't overheat and unsolder themselves.
• The original MagSafe connector. The new MagSafe 2 falls off a little too easily when you bump it vertically.
• Storage capacities up to 8 TB at a reasonable price (translation: THICKER, with room for two HD bays).
• Third-party MagSafe/MagSafe 2 licensing for clip-on battery sleeves with MagSafe pass-through or
• A removable cover on the bottom with contact plates to allow an external battery to be charged by the laptop's charge circuitry in alternation with the main battery.

I couldn't care less about function keys. I couldn't care less about making the laptop thinner. I want the laptop to be more capable. And I think I speak for basically 100% of Mac laptop users when I say that. Absolutely nobody outside of Apple cares about making laptops thinner at this point. We passed the point where that matters at the point where it dropped below the thickness of a small paperback book—basically with the most recent pre-Retina MacBook Pro. Every bit of thinness after that is widely seen as engineers doing something solely because they can, rather than because it improves the product. And for the most part, the excessive thinness has made the product functionally WORSE with each generation.

If Apple is really serious about retaining actual pro users, they need to stop actively making the pro machines less functional and start moving in the exact opposite direction. What I'm seeing described here sounds like a MacBook, not a MacBook Pro. As far as I'm concerned, the last truly pro Macbook was discontinued about two years ago. Just saying.

Re:Ah yes, more soft keys

[EndlessNameless]

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.

What an OLED touch strip could be good for...

[jeffb (2.718)]

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.