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Phil Schiller Says the MacBook Pro Doesn't Need an SD Card Slot (theverge.com)
Apple's new MacBook Pro models have upset many people for many different reasons. Some are unhappy with the inability to get more than 16GB of RAM, some are upset with the high-price, some are unhappy about the missing physical Escape and function keys, and many are unhappy because Apple didn't put an SD card slot in the MacBook Pro. But Apple has an explanation. From a report on The Verge: Speaking to The Independent (paywalled), Apple exec Phil Schiller said the company had dropped the SD card slot as it was "cumbersome" and because wireless transfer technology for cameras is "proving very useful" as an alternative. Schiller said, "Because of a couple of things. One, it's a bit of a cumbersome slot. You've got this thing sticking halfway out. Then there are very fine and fast USB card readers, and then you can use CompactFlash as well as SD. So we could never really resolve this -- we picked SD because more consumer cameras have SD but you can only pick one. So, that was a bit of a trade-off. And then more and more cameras are starting to build wireless transfer into the camera. That's proving very useful. So we think there's a path forward where you can use a physical adaptor if you want, or do wireless transfer."
Just take the er off his last name and you've pretty much summed the prick up perfectly.
Apple's idea of value is hilariously distorted. Let's charge more than everyone else and deliver less.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
http://www.apple.com/shop/prod...
$49.95
Here is a thought to all you people complaining about Apple's decision making on their products ... DON'T BUY IT.
The only way to get Apple to listen, is to vote with your dollars. If you buy their products, you prove them right.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Let's be honest. The last few changes from the Apple design team have afforded little or no explanation behind them, and they certainly were not done based on consumer input.
Provide all the weak-ass explanations you want Phil. We know the real answer is Fuck You, that's why.
The disgusting nature behind this behavior from vendors is the Fuck You mentality is becoming rather addictive.
Consumers, if you want design change that even hints towards what you may want or need, vote with your wallet, because all other channels have been effectively silenced.
Or, more likely, Apple just couldn't figure out how to get a SD reader into the stylishly small housing for the MacbookPro. Style over function - welcome to Apple's world.
In the near future, any Apple user will be easily identified by the bag of expensive dongles he/she would have to carry to maintain functionality. Wireless?! Gimme a break, anyone that shoots photos in volume with a DSLR (I routinely get over 1000 shots from a single live music venue shoot, low/variable light and moving subjects makes for a huge number of throwaway shots ) knows that wireless, even relatively current 802.11ac (which nearly no cameras have) can't keep up with a high volume shooting situation for even just still JPGs, let alone RAW files or video. The physically connected card has nearly an order of magnitude advantage in throughput. They are basically ceding the professional market to Linux/Windows machines.
I'm a guy that is full in the Apple ecosystem and I make money programming for apple devices. But the latest macbook pros are NOT pro.
Wireless from the camera? Is this guy that much of a dipshit? Go ahead and see how fast you can transfer these 36 Megapixel RAW images from my D810 camera. Yes I use the XDHC slot and I dont want to wait a week for these to transfer over wifi. slapping the card in the macbook was super fast and worked great.
Macbook pros are not for pros anymore. It sounds like they really want to eliminate any professional use of their products by removing features that pro photographers use heavily.
It is pretty sad when the last version of the product is significantly better than the latest version.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
That's because that's what makes a laptop a professional model: a bunch of parts that you may or may not ever use.
Any real business laptop these days has an HDMI or DisplayPort output, and probably even a VGA output, because conference room monitors use those connectors. You can't go to some customer site, where you don't know exactly what their conference room has (and they probably don't either, off the tops of their heads), and then bitch at them for not having some brand-new USB-c connection or not having an adapter for your laptop.
Real business laptops have Ethernet jacks, because many businesses (and governments especially) require them for security purposes. How exactly do you think you'd ever use a MacBook with no Ethernet on a secure government network? You wouldn't; those networks are NOT wireless.
A "professional" laptop is not going to require you to carry around a bunch of adapters for all the circumstances you might find yourself in and not anticipate beforehand. This is why *real* pro laptops have all these ports, even if it does make them slightly bigger and heavier. For cheap-ass consumer-grade computers, leaving out stuff that's not used as much may be just fine, but that doesn't work for serious business and professional users.
Where is the use case that they are lugging around a DSLR, lenses, lights, tripods, and a laptop but are really put out by the SD reader?
Its not about the 'lugging it around'; its not even about the cost; it's about the sheer blind arrogance and idiocy of making a tool less useful. The 'pro' series stuff is supposed to be a TOOL for PROFESSIONALS.
Tools are supposed to be functional. When they are less functional for absolutely no good reason, people who use them get pissed.
Nobody thought that macbook pro was too big, nobody wanted it thinner. Nobody wanted them to remove the sd card.
Meanwhile apple comes out with this nonsense...
"and because wireless transfer technology for cameras is "proving very useful" as an alternative"
You know how a photographer works? They fill a card, pull it out, and put in the next one and keep going. They don't sit around for 2 hours doing an 8 or 16GB wireless transfer.
" Then there are very fine and fast USB card readers,"
And it used to be built in.
"and then you can use CompactFlash as well as SD"
Great idea Apple. Add a CF slot. That would be an actual feature.
"we picked SD because more consumer cameras have SD but you can only pick one"
Bullshit. You can pick more than one. You've got all that space from taking the DVD out, and the expresscard slot out, and the SSD is a fraction of the size of the old hard drive... so room isn't a problem. Add the 2nd most popular slot, and watch people actually get excited about the new laptop instead.
Better still make it a modular part, so if it breaks, it's easy to replace. That would be how you design a professional tool.
Oh... you took all that space and made it thinner instead... nobody wanted it thinner.
Imagine you used a heavy duty pickup truck for work.
Then the next years model is announced its new truck, basically a Porsche 911 with a trailer hitch.. And the maker told you, well... this is better because people need to carry different cargo... and this way you can buy exactly the trailer you need!! Oh and with the availability of courier services (aka 'wireless transfer') a lot of people don't even need a truck bed at all... they just make a phone call and the cargo shows up at the destination!!
And just look at this new 'truck' its smaller, and lighter, and handles great. Look how sleek it is. (Well.. until you actually hook up a trailer (aka usb dongle) to it and then its unwieldy as shit... but we didn't REALLY want you to use a trailer with it... did we mention you can get a courier to move stuff for you!!)
Oh, and it's virtually un-serviceable except at specialized dealers; so keep it in the city and maybe the highway -- don't take this truck onto farm roads and mountain roads. Its just not built for that. If you need something from a farm or mountain road... it has this great built in phone you can use to call real professional with actual tools to do it for you!
That's about apple's recent approach to dealing with 'professionals' who need 'tools'.
Any other REAL "pro" laptop will do the job. You know laptops with USB, HDMI, .. ports, SD card, more than 16GB RAM, a full keyboard, ...
Will $CURRENT_YEAR be the year of the Linux Desktop?
Don't worry, "macs4all" will be here filling the comment section with rebuttals to everyone's anti-Apple comments and telling us how Apple can do no wrong.
That is nearly accurate, except that *every* professional would appreciate a USB port and a Gigabit Ethernet port. They may not always use them, but they are just essential for a lot of different jobs. On the SD card I half agree: I like it, I use it a lot, but it is getting less common.
Of course the elephant in the room is that both USB port and SD port can be used for (cheap) storage extensions. And Apple absolutely wants to prevent that. So I think that is the real reason: form and money over function.
I have one of those wireless capable cameras. Nearly worthless feature.
First, you have to connect your laptop/phone to the camera's wireless AP, not the other way around. Goodbye internet while transferring files, and having to fuck around with the wireless settings. Want to transfer files to desktop? Nope.
Second, on the cameras I have experience with (Olympus and Sony), you have to use the manufacturers app to transfer files. Want to simply access the files as a disk? Nope. Want to transfer RAW files? Nope.
The only thing the wireless feature is useful is as a remote shutter trigger and viewing the LCD screen when the phone is on a tripod.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Make it a modular part? That's a great idea. Like, maybe they could make it detachable, and then it would be easy to swap. They could use a standard interconnect for it, maybe with a standards based cable that's really fast, so you don't have to worry about bandwidth.
Modular is good, that way people that don't need it don't have to have their laptop burdened with a useless port.
Not all people that buy Mac Pros are photography professionals. We have a Nikon D3s at home--a pro level camera--and it uses compact flash, so we've NEVER used the SD card slot. My point-and-shoot camera uses a mini-SD card, so I still can't use that SD card slot. Just give me a USB port and an adaptor so I can put WHATEVER thing I want there.
Not all professionals are the same, and not even all professionals of the same type have the same needs. More ports, yes, but more multi-use ports.