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Apple Unveils New MacBook Pro Featuring OLED Touch Bar, Touch ID - Powered By Intel Skylake Processor (arstechnica.com)
At an event on Thursday, Apple unveiled the new 2016 MacBook Pro. The redesigned MacBook Pro comes with "incredible extreme" all-metal body. The main attraction of the new MacBook Pro is an OLED touch strip at the top that Apple is calling the Touch Bar. The Touch Bar comes with a fingerprint scanner Touch ID that users can tap to log-in quickly to their computer as well as make online payments. The touch strip offers on-screen button that changes according to the application you're running. Schiller, Apple SVP, said it was time Apple gotten rid of the dedicated function keys. The new MacBook Pro is thinner and lighter than the existing model, and it is powerful too. It comes in two screen sizes: 13-inch, which weighs 3 pounds and measures 14.9mm -- down from 18mm from older MacBook Pro. The trackpad is larger too, Apple says, twice as larger than the older one. Also, it's Force Touch trackpad. ArsTechnica adds: Both laptops are still recognizably MacBook Pros, but in keeping with Apple's design priorities they've got slimmer profiles and smaller footprints. This is made possible in part by the move to USB Type-C ports like the one in the MacBook, all four of which support Thunderbolt 3. All four ports can be used to charge the system, too. Compared to the measly one port in the MacBook, the MacBook Pros are much more appealing to people who plug lots of stuff into their computers at once. Apple has also made the cowardly decision to retain the headset jack. Both systems include new Intel Skylake processors -- dual-core chips in the 13-inch Pro and quad-core chips in the 15-inch model, just like before. The 13-inch Pros ship exclusively with Intel Iris 540 GPUs, while the 15-inch models ship with Polaris-based AMD Radeon graphics at the high-end.The 13-inch model MacBook Pro starts at $1,799, whereas the 15-inch model starts at $2,399.
No, we have mapped caps lock to ctrl.
Mapping it to ESC makes no sense.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Virtual Fn keys
I prefer real f'n keys with real f'n tactile feedback. Virtual keys don't make any f'n sense to me.
The Touch Bar comes with a fingerprint scanner Touch ID that users can tap to log-in quickly to their computer
The courts have said a few times that compelling someone to unlock their phone with their fingerprint is not a 5th amendment violation (forcing them to tell a password would be).
So don't plan on using this laptop for anything you're not willing to show to the authorities....or anyone else who can mock up a dummy fingerprint, which is surprisingly easy to do. They can probably just lift a print from the case...
I would be happy if they did NOTHING but give it a matte display option, even for a few hundred dollars more. Actually, that would be preferable to what they did produce.
OK, I'll bite.
Macbook Pro, 15-inch (just announced):
- Intel "Skylake" (6th gen.) processor
- New! Improved! USB Type-C with Thunderbolt 3 support!
- AMD Radeon "Polaris" GPU
- $2399
Dell XPS 15 (available since November 2015):
- Intel "Skylake" (6th gen.) processor
- USB Type-C with Thunderbolt 3 support
- nVidia GTX 960M GPU
- $1699 ($1749 with Windows Pro instead of Home edition)
Seriously, Kaby Lake has been out and available at retail for 2 months now, with a focus on mobile. OEM's have already started selling laptops with Kaby Lake CPU's. Apple, however, cheaped out on the core part of their system, so what makes you think they won't cheap out on everything?
Then you have the puffery about USB-C and TB3. My Dell has had that for nearly a year. Marketing is one thing, but don't insult me with your lies, Apple.
Then there's the pathetic AMD GPU. Just make a goddamned nVidia driver for macOS already.
And finally, we have the enormous price difference. Now, granted, Dell has jacked their price up since I got mine, but it's only about $200 more, not $700 more like Apple is reaming their customers for.
This is why I'm not a Mac guy anymore. Well, this, and Windows is just as good as macOS these days. (And that's an opinion that is likely to piss off the cultists something fierce.)
Did you catch in one of the videos where the Touch Bar changed to show the Accept/Decline buttons of an incoming Facetime call? Imagine being in the middle of an important workflow, and as you move your finger to touch a virtual key, it suddenly changes its meaning, and because you shouldn't have to keep moving your eyes from the display to the keyboard, you end up affecting that call by mistake? The user should *never* have to look at the keyboard to confirm they are typing what they think they're typing. Hell, the way that Touch Bar works, even looking at it isn't good enough if the keys can change meaning right out from under your fingers.
One note: The Skylake chips used in the high end MBP are quad-core. The Kaby Lake chips that are shipping are dual-core and apparently Intel won't be shipping quad-core chips for several months.
You can't ship what you don't have.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
Here you go.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Ok but I wouldn't buy the Dell system if they paid me. Or HP. There isn't a good notebook vendor other than Apple, and now we're stuck with whatever Apple chooses to give us. Yay world.
Most people who hate Dell or HP base their opinion on low cost low quality systems ($500 to $700 range) which tend to fail more often due to cheaper components. Both HP and Dell have very nice high end quality systems, but you have to pay for the higher quality. I love my Dell XPS 13 laptop and I have several HP Workstation class desktops (Z640) running, all of which have been very reliable.