Slashdot Mirror


Apple's New 15-Inch MacBook Pros Have Storage Soldered To the Logic Board (macrumors.com)

yoink! writes: The integration loop is complete. Apple's, admittedly very fast, PCIe storage modules are now built right into the main boards of their 15-inch, Touch Bar-equipped, Retina-screened, Thunderbolt 3-ported, MacBook Pros. A few forum posts over at MacRumors reveal the skinny on the quiet removal of the last user-upgradable component of their professional-series laptops. From the report: "MacRumors reader Jesse D. unscrewed the bottom lid on his new 15-inch MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar and discovered, unlike the 13-inch model sans Touch Bar, there is no cutout in the logic board for removable flash storage. Another reader said the 13-inch model with a Touch Bar also has a non-removable SSD. Given the SSD appears to be permanently soldered to the logic board, users will be unable to upgrade the Touch Bar MacBook Pro's flash storage beyond Apple's 512GB to 2TB built-to-order options on its website at the time of purchase. In other words, the amount of flash storage you choose will be permanent for the life of the notebook."

478 comments

  1. Next step... by ls671 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The next step is soldering the human brain to the board.

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    1. Re:Next step... by msauve · · Score: 5, Funny

      Buy or don't buy. There is no upgrade.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    2. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I love this "permanent"....

      Nobody has ever heard of a hot air station? LOL.

    3. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Smartbrain (tm)

    4. Re:Next step... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Upgrades are for frugal customers, Apple doesn't want any.

    5. Re:Next step... by hawguy · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Buy or don't buy. There is no upgrade.

      When I bought my last laptop a few years ago, I made sure to get one with plenty of upgrade potential -- extra drive bay, memory slot, etc. Since then, I've upgraded it exactly zero times, and still see no need to upgrade it.

      I used to feel the same about buying a phone without a replaceable battery or SD card slot.... then I bought my first Nexus with neither.... I've been very happy with my choice and haven't missed the upgradability.

      I'd imagine that a lot of people are like me -- they like the idea of having the option to upgrade, but don't actually *need* to upgrade so a non-upgradable laptop isn't all that unattractive.

    6. Re:Next step... by dgatwood · · Score: 5, Informative

      Don't buy. "Pro", my ass.

      To audio pros, the single most important feature in a pro laptop is knowing that when the logic board s**ts itself, you can take the thing in for repair, and you'll get back a machine that still has all your software on it. Without that, you get to experience the joy of spending several weeks on the phone with a hundred different software vendors trying to convince them to give you another device activation because your old machine no longer exists and you can't deactivate the existing installation.

      The other design screw-ups in the new "Pro" were obnoxious, but survivable. This one, however, represents a level of epic fail that is simply beyond acceptable. When you've had a long string of GPU-related logic board failures like Apple has experienced lately, soldering the non-volatile storage to the main logic board is just too incompetent for words.

      This is a show-stopper. This is not a pro machine. It is a disposable toy.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    7. Re:Next step... by msauve · · Score: 1

      There are a lot of people who lease cars, too. Easy - just exchange it every few years, but at a price because they're making more even more money from you.

      Be sure to buy the maintenance, too, because otherwise buying a new one makes more sense than getting it fixed.

      Myself, I'm more likely to buy a basic laptop with a minimal HDD, then upgrade it to SSD, ending up with more for less than the manufacturer offers. Same for RAM.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    8. Re:Next step... by chrism238 · · Score: 5, Informative

      The next step will be to solder your credit card directly to the ApplePay reader.

    9. Re:Next step... by lord+merlin · · Score: 1

      Apple doesn't care...a few thousand audio producers worldwide - 0.000000000001% of the market.

    10. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whatever happened to taking a backup? I get that it is more convenient just to swap a good SSD from a failed system into a good one but you can't really count on your drive not crashing in its own.. in that case what would your plan be?

      If you're a pro and don't take backups with tested bare metal restores then I'd say you're a fool.

    11. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      That's not their market influence. Their audience reach is greater than most.

      That's just the number of ears. On top of that, their opinion is valued more. It's not "NFL athlete Tom Brady is giving up Apple".

      It's already happening. They were solid macfags and now their faith is broken. "Hey guys, so my million-dollar studio has used Apple for years, but this release was bullshit. Me and the rest of the professional industry are not amused at having produce through dongles."

    12. Re:Next step... by ckatko · · Score: 1

      Well, they seem to be getting smaller every four years.

    13. Re:Next step... by amiga3D · · Score: 2

      I've never bought a computer that I didn't upgrade. I've maxed Ram and HD on countless ones. I had an iBook G4 that I opened 3 times to upgrade stuff and it was torture to open that case. The HD though is a serious matter. I've had one computer logic board die on me with a hard drive full of stuff. A lot of it not backed up so I just pulled the HD and installed it in an external case. No problem. If you buy one of these new models you'd better be religious about backing up the system.

    14. Re:Next step... by technomom · · Score: 1

      This is not too far from the truth. The real money in the PC business is businesses. Generally they have the bucks to buy rather than upgrade. Apple doesn't really care too much about individual buyers anymore. That market has already raced to the bottom with low end Windows and Chromebooks being more than enough for Grandma, Grandpa and students who only use Facebook, Google, Google Docs or Office365 and TurnitIn for schoolwork.

    15. Re:Next step... by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 1

      "Your" software? You're speaking as though the machine had software on it that you own, as opposed to a bunch of rental agreements. Or maybe you think you've produced content that should remain under your control, instead of being wafted into the cloud. Clearly you're living in the past, and irrelevant to Apple's interests.

      I've been using Macs since 1985. Lately, though, every year's "progress" makes me feel less like a happy repeat customer and more like a stubborn fool.

    16. Re:Next step... by catchblue22 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I bought a Macbook Pro in 2007, and I'm using a Macbook Air right now. Apple's actions are really beginning to piss me off. The company is being run by a bean counter and it shows. Greedy greedy greedy. Gluing their batteries in. Soldering the SSD. I asked a student to save a document to Google Drive and then upload it from an iPad to my website. Apparently you can't upload files from Google Drive to a website on an iPad. Seriously. They just want you to use effing iCloud Drive. I get insult after insult from Apple when I want to do things my way. I want to set the battery warning percentage so that it is 20%, so that I don't kill my battery. Nope. No option to do that. So I end up running my battery down to 1% far too many times (which is exactly what they want). I want to change the colour profile on my wife's iPhone 5 to get some sort of a yellow coloured night mode. Nope. You can do it on an iPhone 6, but not on an iPhone 5. That is a bloody fake restriction, and it just pisses me off. I want control of my devices. I shouldn't have to jailbreak my device.

      I used to be an Apple fanboy. They made damn good laptops. They sold excellent software...FCP was bloody awesome. If I'm going to pay a 30% or more premium for my laptop, I expect the freedom to control and upgrade my device. I did exactly that with my Macbook Pro. New batteries, new HD, memory upgraded to the maximum. Even with my Macbook Air, I have gotten around their stupid storage restrictions with a 128GB low profile USB drive and a 200GB flush mount microSD adapter. Now there is no SD slot. Now they expect me to pay their premium and get a locked in device. Well fuck you Apple!

      --
      This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
    17. Re: Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      in this case, soldering iSheep to the collective and dispense visual experience per amount of coins deposited.

    18. Re:Next step... by GrandCow · · Score: 0

      So have a backup, holy shit. What would an audio pro do if their SSD failed? Restore from the backup you have, right?

      Time Machine is a pretty sweet backup option, built into the OS. Set it and forget it.

      --
      "Well kids, you tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try." -Homer Simpson
    19. Re: Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      You're missing the point here. It's almost 2mm thinner than it's predecessor. Now if that ain't worth a couple of days on the phone ...

    20. Re: Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You really need to read that comment again. The bit about "deactivate".

    21. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "Your" software? You're speaking as though the machine had software on it that you own, as opposed to a bunch of rental agreements.

      And your bullshit semantics have done nothing to address or dismiss the parents valid point regarding dealing with vendors that demand deactivation proof, which hardly exists in the "past".

    22. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cool story. On the other hand, I've upgraded everything in my laptop from the RAM and disk drives to the GPU and CPU.

    23. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      So have a backup, holy shit. What would an audio pro do if their SSD failed? Restore from the backup you have, right?

      When the failed hard drive is soldered to the fucking logic board, please elaborate as to how you're expected to use your magical Time Machine image without spending thousands on replacing the whole fucking system.

      Needless to say your "sweet" solution isn't so fucking simple anymore.

    24. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some software needs to 'report in', and if anything changes it will stop working.

    25. Re:Next step... by tsa · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not only the pro's that are complaining. Even the fanbois are now lamenting the removal of the MagSafe and the SD slot. Apple has lost its way since Steve's ideas have dried up.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    26. Re:Next step... by tsa · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I feel the same way. The ways to work around Apple's arbitrary restrictions are all getting blocked now. I love OSX/MacOS but if Apple keeps going on like this my next computer will be a self-built running Linux again.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    27. Re: Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I have a 4 year old Asus UX-31A. To this day one of the thinnest machines out there. I swear the thing can cut you if you run your finger along it wrong.

      The battery and SSD are allegedly not user replaceable, and for most users they're probably not. But I've changed both no problem because they're properly plugged and socketed, and the bottom has simple Torx screws. The RAM is soldered in which pisses me off because if not for that it would still be my daily use machine.

      Apple's "this is about making it lighter and thinner" excuses are total utter bullshit and I'm glad to see at least some people waking up to that.

    28. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How the fuck is this desire unique to an "audio pro"? Do "audio pros" not understand the concept of backups?

    29. Re:Next step... by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      Blah blah, hatorade, blah blah.

      1) If your system is that mission critical you'll have a spare system anyway.

      2) Time Machine + Migration Assistant = non sequitur on using a new computer with a different board.

    30. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On the other hand, having fewer components by soldering their contents onto the same board makes the machine more reliable. And for me as a pro, reliability is the single most important feature. And if a software company let me down for weeks in such a situation, I'd say goodbye and would happily look for an alternative.

    31. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Single component upgrade are bad anyway. e.g.: after you upgrade your gpu, you find that new game are cpu bound.

      Only storage matter, and on a laptop it dosen't. All the work will be rsync to nas anyway. Carrying only what is required is acceptable for a portable solution.

      My only concerns is about destroying storage medium when changing computer or removing it when sending the laptop for repair. But these days the cpu has so much cycle to waste that we might as well do full disk encryption and avoid that headache all together. Also fuck the NSA. Donald Trump will pardon Snowden and abolish that waste of taxes payer's money. I am sure he will do it, just like Obama closed Guantanamo.

    32. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Nah, that would be incredibly stupid. It would limit Apple Pay to a single credit card.

    33. Re:Next step... by Buchenskjoll · · Score: 1

      Diehard Apple fanboys have been doing that for years.

      --
      -- Make America hate again!
    34. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Your" software? You're speaking as though the machine had software on it that you own, as opposed to a bunch of rental agreements.

      Maybe he is not in the US, but somewhere like the EU where if it quacks like a sale, it is a sale.

    35. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple has zero penetration in biz/corporate for Macs. Apple direct and the channel literally do not care, unless you're a school (in which case, you get a ~15% discount and the same service levels from Apple).

      The entire Mac market is sales to individuals and some professional services types. The SME market's attitude around IT is largely "make it cheaper", not worth Apple's time or effort. Bigger businesses want proper management tools, which Apple have discontinued or neglected.

    36. Re:Next step... by Gussington · · Score: 1

      I'd imagine that a lot of people are like me -- they like the idea of having the option to upgrade, but don't actually *need* to upgrade so a non-upgradable laptop isn't all that unattractive.

      And I'm one of them. I'm also one of the people that bitched loudly when Apple released products with no changeable battery, memory card etc, but I can't remember the last time I upgraded anything. My highest turnover item is my phone, and I get about 3 years out of that. The last one cost $800 which is less than $1/day. It's not worth worrying with upgrades for that minimal outlay.

    37. Re:Next step... by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      So in that case where the logic board died and the drive was full, what would have happened if the drive had died instead?
      Hard drives fail far more frequently than logic boards...
      There really is no excuse for not keeping backups, on any system.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    38. Re:Next step... by Bert64 · · Score: 2

      Swapping the drive is the first option and gets you immediately back up and running, restoring a backup is the second choice option and takes longer.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    39. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To audio pros, the single most important feature in a pro laptop is knowing that when the logic board s**ts itself, you can take the thing in for repair,

      Who has time for that? Seriously, if a machine goes down then you have a brand new one delivered the very next morning or it costs you money.

      Where Apple now lose out is that you can buy a workable machine that'll handle audio for one tenth the price of a Mac. They're basically disposable - 10 budget machines a year for the cost of a single mac.

      Even in more demanding roles (video coloring, compositing, vfx) Apple no longer have viable hardware. They simply do not understand the value proposition of working professionals.

    40. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is one workaround. Presuming you can still boot from external storage, ensure you have a mirrored copy of your OS drive with all your stuff activated. If the drive dies boot another machine from the external storage and deactivate everything.

      I agree this is stupid beyond words though.

    41. Re:Next step... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      It's not just upgrades. What happens when some other part of the computer dies and you need to get your data off? Unless you have a suitable spare machine to plug the logic board into, you are screwed.

      I suppose the official solution is to buy an external HDD for backup or rely on iCloud, but that doesn't really work for a lot of people, e.g. those who travel a lot or have a slow internet connection.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    42. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      we did tell you that you don't own apple gear, apple own you...

      you didn't listen, congrats you got what you deserve...

    43. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now that's true. And for backup you just need a SATA winchester (which are very cheap) plus an USB docker. Also recently I have only seen iphone devs using apples. And only programmers at that. TBH I can't come up with any reason to use macs otherwise. A powerful, for example asus gamer notebook and you can do anything, install any OS too.

    44. Re:Next step... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Kevin Warwick, is that you?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    45. Re:Next step... by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1
      One of the problems with some older Macs was that it was so easy to get @ the memory & HD to upgrade them that people were shoplifting the memory & HD's out of display models.

      Apparently Apple have now fixed this

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    46. Re:Next step... by jeremyp · · Score: 1

      How is it Apple's fault that Google Drive on the iPad (written by Google not Apple) won't let you upload a document?

      --
      All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
    47. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Before Failure:
      dd if=/dev/disk1 of=/mnt/remote_backup_images/image01.img

      After Failure:
      dd if=/mnt/remote_backup_images/image01.img of=/dev/disk1

      Problem solved.

    48. Re:Next step... by Holi · · Score: 2

      I do data recovery, I guess I can take the Apple logo off my window.

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
    49. Re:Next step... by StormReaver · · Score: 1

      I get insult after insult from Apple when I want to do things my way.

      You're just now noticing? This has been Apple's M.O. forever, and is one of the many reasons I will never buy an Apple product.

    50. Re:Next step... by Holi · · Score: 1

      But they kept the headphone jack for the audio pros.

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
    51. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cause Apple probably blocked the app from the App Store if it didn't comply with their restrictions... like block uploads to other cloud storages...

    52. Re:Next step... by Holi · · Score: 1

      More reliable? Like when the GPU's would break their solder joints requiring a replacement logic board (that will eventually suffer from the same failure).

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
    53. Re:Next step... by bad-badtz-maru · · Score: 1

      You have to understand the concept of prima donnas then the rest will make sense relative to "audio pros".

      -E

    54. Re:Next step... by nine-times · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think the bigger problem isn't the loss of Steve Jobs's ideas, but the loss of his ability to look at something and say, "Nope. Not good enough." I worry about Apple becoming gimmicky. Jobs seemed to be careful not to release things or make changes until they fit cohesively into the whole user interaction, providing an overall good user experience. I don't think he would have let Apple remove the headphone jack, for example, until there were a satisfying alternative method for connecting headphones.

      Just a guess, obviously.

    55. Re:Next step... by Vroem · · Score: 1

      So I end up running my battery down to 1% far too many times

      You shouldn't keep it at 1% for a month or so. But a week at 1% will do no harm at all because the battery has plenty of "hidden" capacity left in it. That is why your MacBook may be in a low-battery state after a month. It may then require 20 minutes of charging before you can use it.

    56. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dumbass.

    57. Re: Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2mm thinner, sexy innoviate...

    58. Re:Next step... by jittles · · Score: 1

      You can do that. You can't download a document from Drive, open Safari, and then upload the document onto a website using a form. You have to use a purpose built app.

    59. Re:Next step... by tepples · · Score: 1

      Apple's New 15-Inch MacBook Pros Have Storage Soldered To the Logic Board

      if Apple keeps going on like this my next computer will be a self-built running Linux again.

      Do you know anyone with a self-built laptop?

    60. Re:Next step... by tsa · · Score: 1

      Just wait until the new iMac arrive and you'll agree with me.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    61. Re:Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Buy or don't buy. There is no upgrade.

      When I bought my last laptop a few years ago, I made sure to get one with plenty of upgrade potential -- extra drive bay, memory slot, etc. Since then, I've upgraded it exactly zero times, and still see no need to upgrade it.

      I used to feel the same about buying a phone without a replaceable battery or SD card slot.... then I bought my first Nexus with neither.... I've been very happy with my choice and haven't missed the upgradability.

      I'd imagine that a lot of people are like me -- they like the idea of having the option to upgrade, but don't actually *need* to upgrade so a non-upgradable laptop isn't all that unattractive.

      This, This, a thousand times, THIS!!!

    62. Re:Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      I've never bought a computer that I didn't upgrade. I've maxed Ram and HD on countless ones. I had an iBook G4 that I opened 3 times to upgrade stuff and it was torture to open that case. The HD though is a serious matter. I've had one computer logic board die on me with a hard drive full of stuff. A lot of it not backed up so I just pulled the HD and installed it in an external case. No problem. If you buy one of these new models you'd better be religious about backing up the system.

      And how is one to do that, when, ever since OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Apple makes it so hard to do backups? [/sarcasm]

    63. Re:Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      So in that case where the logic board died and the drive was full, what would have happened if the drive had died instead? Hard drives fail far more frequently than logic boards... There really is no excuse for not keeping backups, on any system.

      ESPECIALLY on macOS!

    64. Re:Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      I do data recovery, I guess I can take the Apple logo off my window.

      Why? Do file and directory structures not get scrogged on SSDs? And, since you can boot a Mac with a failed boot drive from an external drive, is it any easier to rebuild/recover files/directories with the SSD OUTSIDE of the (still working) Mac than with the SSD located INSIDE the (still working) Mac?

      The answer is "No."

      And if the SSD was removable, but the SSD was actually failed, would it be any easier to recover the data from the (failed) SSD while INSIDE of the (still-working) machine than it would be by placing the (failed) SSD into another machine?

      And the answer is still "No."

      So, other than acting like a petulant child, is there any reason for you to "Take the Apple logo off your window"?

      Guess what? STILL "No."

    65. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think the bigger problem isn't the loss of Steve Jobs's ideas, but the loss of his ability to look at something and say, "Nope. Not good enough." I worry about Apple becoming gimmicky. Jobs seemed to be careful not to release things or make changes until they fit cohesively into the whole user interaction, providing an overall good user experience. I don't think he would have let Apple remove the headphone jack, for example, until there were a satisfying alternative method for connecting headphones.

      Just a guess, obviously.

      Exactly. The key point to this is that Steve was about aesthetics as well as user experience. Nothing about a dongle fits that philosophy unless, as you say, there is a cohesive alternative. Soldering storage on to save a few dollars (or for whatever reason) and made the user experience suffer would not have passed his QC.

    66. Re:Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Don't buy. "Pro", my ass.

      To audio pros, the single most important feature in a pro laptop is knowing that when the logic board s**ts itself, you can take the thing in for repair, and you'll get back a machine that still has all your software on it. Without that, you get to experience the joy of spending several weeks on the phone with a hundred different software vendors trying to convince them to give you another device activation because your old machine no longer exists and you can't deactivate the existing installation.

      The other design screw-ups in the new "Pro" were obnoxious, but survivable. This one, however, represents a level of epic fail that is simply beyond acceptable. When you've had a long string of GPU-related logic board failures like Apple has experienced lately, soldering the non-volatile storage to the main logic board is just too incompetent for words.

      This is a show-stopper. This is not a pro machine. It is a disposable toy.

      + 5 Informative??? Are you KIDDING me?!?

      If you are TRULY an "Audio Pro" (or ANY kind of person who DEPENDS on their computer and its Applications and Data) and you DON'T have a Time Machine/Other BACKUP, then you absolutely DESERVE what you get! And ALL the "Removable" Storage in the WORLD isn't going to help "fix Stupid"!

      Have you ever restored a drive from a TM Backup? It's a thing of beauty. Every single thing comes back. It. Just. Works. PERFECT Fidelity!

      And since you can actually Restore a TM backup on an External Drive to ANOTHER External Drive, all you have to do is (ideally) carry a Spare Drive, pre-loaded with a recent TM backup of your System and Applications (because you ARE already keeping your "work files" on an External Drive, right?), so you can simply Plug-in that (Emergency) Drive, Reboot, and Go! Or, if you don't have a pre-loaded spare drive, then go to your nearest Walmart, purchase an External Drive, and Restore your TM Backup to it. Again, Reboot, and you're Good To Go!

      So, next FAKE Objection?

      And with the massive amount of I/O bandwidth on the new MBPs (80 Gbps!), booting/running Applications from an External (especially a TB 3 one!) should be pretty-much indistiguishable from an internal drive.

    67. Re:Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Swapping the drive is the first option and gets you immediately back up and running, restoring a backup is the second choice option and takes longer.

      Excuse me. Opening the back and swapping a bad SSD for a good one STILL doesn't get you "immediately back up and running", unless you have been vigilant enough to actually have the good SSD PRELOADED WITH EVERYTHING. And if you are THAT vigilant, chances are you are OCD enough (or wise enough!) to have a good Backup strategy anyway.

      Sorry. The FASTEST ways to get back up and running are as follows:

      1. A completely redundant system. Always the best, like when studios ran a "Safety Master" recording in PARALLEL. This is what Nine-Inch-Nails does live with their Mac-Based "Mainstage" system. They report never having to use it; but it's there to take over at the proverbial flip of a switch.

      2. Have an EXTERNAL Drive pre-loaded and hooked-up, loaded with all your System Software and Applications from a Time Machine backup. That way, all you have to do is Reboot from External, and Voila! Back up in under a minute (faster (like 10 seconds or less) if it's an external SSD).

      And if you've been following along, you may have noticed that NEITHER of those methods have ANYTHING to do with whether the internal storage is REMOVABLE.

    68. Re: Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      You really need to read that comment again. The bit about "deactivate".

      WHAT "Deactivate"???

      When you Restore from a TM Backup, for all intents and purposes, IT IS THE SAME INSTALLATION.

    69. Re:Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      So have a backup, holy shit. What would an audio pro do if their SSD failed? Restore from the backup you have, right?

      When the failed hard drive is soldered to the fucking logic board, please elaborate as to how you're expected to use your magical Time Machine image without spending thousands on replacing the whole fucking system.

      Needless to say your "sweet" solution isn't so fucking simple anymore.

      Easy. Just boot from an External Drive, and either Restore the TM Backup to another External Drive, or, if you're as prepared as an Audio PROFESSIONAL should be, you simply Reboot to the PRE-LOADED External "Emergency" Drive, and there is no "Restoring" necessary.

    70. Re:Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Some software needs to 'report in', and if anything changes it will stop working.

      So, what is the definition of "anything"? It would be running on the same machine.

    71. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not just upgrades. What happens when some other part of the computer dies and you need to get your data off?

      Good question. We have enough headaches with people losing data or needing it backed up. The answers aren't pretty even before the device has died and it's a software problem as much as a hardware one:

      I have been holding a friend's Nokia dumbphone because of a broken screen and precious photos. We started with well-preserved manuals and trinkets, *BUT* no cable or the "Windows driver" CD. Reminds me of spywared PCs that needed proprietary Mobo CDs back in the 90's when the owners had no access to them and no internet / CDRs quite existed. So, local smartphone stores and even MS (Nokia!) gave the runaround for support and accessories and we've been stuck improvising. Difficult research, then receiving a standard USB cable when I thought I was getting their proprietary flavor, then finding that all the forum links to Nokia's legacy support sites and download links for dumbphones are *dead* links. The official MS mobile handler software is not "detecting" the phone that Windows is aware is plugged in. The whole thing feels something like Winmodems / Winprinters felt on Linux.

      I have a feeling the problem is that we're on Windows XP from this ~2005 phone release and emulation may need to be tested if worst comes to worst. And/or we might need $60 for a shady Ebay or 2nd-hand Amazon kit to venture the chance that the now-redundant cable comes with the correct OEM driver CD.

      In a decade or so when tablets and today's generation of giant smartphones is ready to croak people will too be wondering where their mobile photos are (those they didn't dump on Facebook). The answer is "(Google|Apple)'s cloud. The *real* answer in practice, is "/dev/null" because 4/5 users I deal with couldn't care less to ask their PC-literate progeny or techs or friendly smartphone store guy to record the account login and password that was rushed used years when they bought the new device or moved the old data out. And those people either close shop, lose their memories or deflect blame anyway. Not. Pretty.

    72. Re:Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Apple has zero penetration in biz/corporate for Macs. Apple direct and the channel literally do not care, unless you're a school (in which case, you get a ~15% discount and the same service levels from Apple).

      The entire Mac market is sales to individuals and some professional services types. The SME market's attitude around IT is largely "make it cheaper", not worth Apple's time or effort. Bigger businesses want proper management tools, which Apple have discontinued or neglected.

      You need to update your meme generator.

    73. Re:Next step... by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      Of course, those two approaches are only practical for mission-critical systems, because the first involves spending twice as much money on hardware and the second involves being permanently tethered to an external RAID array. And realistically, getting your software up and running without data isn't of much value, so in effect, both approaches mean being permanently tethered to an external RAID array.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    74. Re: Next step... by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      No, it isn't. It isn't even close. You have new copies of the license files with different inode numbers. And yes, copy protection schemes do break when that happens. Nothing short of a dd-style backup will restore some software to operation.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    75. Re:Next step... by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      Different motherboard with different hardware IDs, different disk drive with different hardware IDs... actually, it would be running on an entirely different machine, with no physical parts retained from the original machine other than the display.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    76. Re:Next step... by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      How the fuck is this desire unique to an "audio pro"? Do "audio pros" not understand the concept of backups?

      It isn't. They're just more likely than average to have software with heinously abusive copy protection that makes restoring software problematic. Restoring from backups is a pain in the backside for everyone. It is just worse for some folks.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    77. Re:Next step... by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      It does get you back up and running immediately if some other part of the system failed and not the drive, simply swap the good drive out of the failed system into a new system and boot.
      I have done exactly this myself on a laptop (smashed screen), and we've done it at work several times due to faulty keyboards, bad batteries, broken screens, faulty motherboards etc. Only if the drive itself failed have we had to restore a backup onto a fresh drive.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    78. Re:Next step... by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      On the other hand, having fewer components by soldering their contents onto the same board makes the machine more reliable.

      Moving from hard disks to SSDs reduced the in-service failure rate by probably one failure per five or ten machines (by removing head crashes from the picture). I doubt moving to soldered SSDs reduces the in-service failure rate by even one failure per hundred thousand machines. The impact is many, many, many orders of magnitude smaller when you're talking about a connector that is internal to a device, is properly designed, and doesn't have to support much weight.

      By contrast, putting mass storage on the same board as a GPU that has historically had significant reliability problems likely increases the risk of data loss by several orders of magnitude, completely obliterating all the reliability wins Apple has achieved over the past ten years.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    79. Re:Next step... by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      Who has time for that? Seriously, if a machine goes down then you have a brand new one delivered the very next morning or it costs you money.

      Who the f**k has time to burn a whole day waiting for a brand new machine and then an entire second day restoring your backups to that brand new machine? If you're in the category of user for whom losing a couple of days for repair will cost you significant money, you also likely have on-site IT people who can pop the bottom cover off, swap the flash stick with one in a spare machine, hand it back to you five minutes later, and send the defective machine off for repairs with the spare flash stick. And if you don't, then the Genius Bar can probably do it while you wait. That's the advantage of the storage being separable from and functional without the logic board.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    80. Re:Next step... by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      Every single thing comes back.

      Spoken like someone who hasn't been burned by Time Machine. When it works, it is great. When it doesn't, you're screwed. Mind you, this is true for a drive failure anyway, but realistically SSDs rarely fail, whereas other components on the logic board frequently do (GPUs), so this significantly increases the number of people who will lose data.

      BTW, I ca think of several audio apps that don't work at all if you restore them from a Time Machine backup. The software sees it as a new installation and makes you buy a new license. There's only one reliable way to back up those apps, and that's with a block-by-block copy to an identical drive. It also requires you to stop using your machine for several hours, so it isn't worth doing unless you have no other choice.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    81. Re:Next step... by Trogre · · Score: 1

      Upgrades are for customers, Apple doesn't want any.

      FTFY

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    82. Re:Next step... by hawguy · · Score: 1

      I've never bought a computer that I didn't upgrade.

      I don't doubt that there are lots of people like you that really do want to upgrade their laptop. Unfortunately for people like you, there aren't a lot of you out there, and the market is probably going to shift toward non-upgradable laptops. Already the new macbook has outsold all competitors

      And if providing upgradable laptops provides no real competitive advantage while also being a disadvantage - people like you can buy a small laptop now and upgrade it later when components are cheaper... so the manufacturer makes less money from the sale - upgradable laptops will become less and less common.

    83. Re:Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Of course, those two approaches are only practical for mission-critical systems, because the first involves spending twice as much money on hardware and the second involves being permanently tethered to an external RAID array. And realistically, getting your software up and running without data isn't of much value, so in effect, both approaches mean being permanently tethered to an external RAID array.

      Well, if you are a Pro Audio guy, doing multitrack recording "on location", which is really the only time you would need to be THAT "fail safe", either you are well-heeled enough to have a redundant system, or are probably already using an external drive for your "tracking". And in either case, (and even if you are storing your recording files on the internal drive), you are set up on a table or stand somewhere, tethered to an audio interface or mixing console, which is in turn "tethered" to all the audio sources, so an additional external drive hooked up with a tiny USB or TB cable is NOTHING in the scheme of things. And if you are in a studio, you have the luxury of being able to call a temporary halt to the festivities; so the "down time" isn't as critical.

    84. Re: Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      No, it isn't. It isn't even close. You have new copies of the license files with different inode numbers. And yes, copy protection schemes do break when that happens. Nothing short of a dd-style backup will restore some software to operation.

      1. Have you ever tried it? Because I have never heard of a TM restore doing that.

      2. Then DO a dd clone! Afterall, dd exists in macOS.

    85. Re:Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Different motherboard with different hardware IDs, different disk drive with different hardware IDs... actually, it would be running on an entirely different machine, with no physical parts retained from the original machine other than the display.

      Same machine, Just sourced from a different drive. If the cooy protection scheme is that paranoid, you don't need that software anyway; because it is likely to just up and get a hair up its ass and stop working at a critical moment, anyway.

    86. Re:Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      It does get you back up and running immediately if some other part of the system failed and not the drive, simply swap the good drive out of the failed system into a new system and boot. I have done exactly this myself on a laptop (smashed screen), and we've done it at work several times due to faulty keyboards, bad batteries, broken screens, faulty motherboards etc. Only if the drive itself failed have we had to restore a backup onto a fresh drive.

      Yeah, but you didn't do it in the middle of a live multitrack recording gig, did you? THAT was the scenario alluded to by the OP. And you can get stuff off of a Mac using Target Disk Mode, even if nothing will run but EFI.

    87. Re:Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Every single thing comes back.

      Spoken like someone who hasn't been burned by Time Machine. When it works, it is great. When it doesn't, you're screwed. Mind you, this is true for a drive failure anyway, but realistically SSDs rarely fail, whereas other components on the logic board frequently do (GPUs), so this significantly increases the number of people who will lose data.

      BTW, I ca think of several audio apps that don't work at all if you restore them from a Time Machine backup. The software sees it as a new installation and makes you buy a new license. There's only one reliable way to back up those apps, and that's with a block-by-block copy to an identical drive. It also requires you to stop using your machine for several hours, so it isn't worth doing unless you have no other choice.

      You are exhibiting some kind of failure. You seem to be caught in some kind of feedback loop in your Positronic Matrix, resulting in a "Circular Logic"-like phenomenon.

      And if a piece of software is truly that worried about piracy, then they can use a hardware key, or GTFO. Those sorts of DRM that depend on hardware enumeration are the true sign of lazy programming, and in the end, cause more "false positives" (usually at the most inopportune moments) on suspected piracy than they actually protect against true piracy. I simply wouldn't have a mission-critical piece of software that depended on such kludgy DRM. No way, no how. Because one fine day, it is just going to "decide" to de authorize itself, and the integrity of your hardware won't mean SQUAT at that moment; because you'll STILL be on the phone begging for a reauthorization...

    88. Re:Next step... by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      I mostly use Macs for video and photo programs. Linux works pretty good for everything else. My wife used windows at work for years from 3.1 to windows XP. She started using one of my Macs and after she retired she hasn't touched windows and doesn't want to learn linux and I like for her to be happy. :)

    89. Re:Next step... by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      You know most people don't hook up an external drive. Yes it's dead easy but even I don't do it for all my systems. I have my main Macbook Pro I use for video and photo work that is hooked to a backup drive most of the time but everything else is hit or miss.

    90. Re:Next step... by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      I see that laptops are becoming throwaway devices like tablets and phones. I can't pay that much for a throwaway item. If they can't profit off a 1500 dollar computer they sell for 2500 then I have to wonder what's going on. The dollar they save is that critical? They just don't want you using the thing for more than 5 years. They see too many people still using 10 year or older Macs and want to make sure that stops.

    91. Re:Next step... by tsa · · Score: 1

      If that were true we would have had micro-SD slots in iPhones since the beginning.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    92. Re: Next step... by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      2. Then DO a dd clone! Afterall, dd exists in macOS [ss64.com].

      You can certainly do that, but you aren't going to do it very often, because it means not touching your machine for eight or ten hours every time you do....

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    93. Re:Next step... by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      The copy protection is, indeed, often that paranoid, though most software I've seen will work as long as you cloned the entire disk (not just the filesystem with dd so that the volume UUIDs match, the folder IDs containing various files match, etc.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    94. Re:Next step... by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      No disagreement. That sort of software sucks horribly. The point was that it is out there, and it unfortunately isn't rare.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    95. Re:Next step... by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      If EFI can run then chances are the motherboard is in a fairly good state...
      I've had one just recently where the motherboard was toast (due to a can of coke) but the SSD was fine.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    96. Re:Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      You know most people don't hook up an external drive. Yes it's dead easy but even I don't do it for all my systems. I have my main Macbook Pro I use for video and photo work that is hooked to a backup drive most of the time but everything else is hit or miss.

      I never have, either.

      But, if I was using the system to record can't-be-repeated live performances, you can bet that I would have THAT system backed-up...

    97. Re: Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      2. Then DO a dd clone! Afterall, dd exists in macOS [ss64.com].

      You can certainly do that, but you aren't going to do it very often, because it means not touching your machine for eight or ten hours every time you do....

      But if you're just using it for an emergency "on-location" "Hail Mary" backup, having a reasonably up-to-date (monthly?) backup like that might be well worth it, especially as cheap as spinning-rust drives are.

    98. Re:Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      The copy protection is, indeed, often that paranoid, though most software I've seen will work as long as you cloned the entire disk (not just the filesystem with dd so that the volume UUIDs match, the folder IDs containing various files match, etc.

      I repeat: If the publisher is that paranoid, make it use a hardware key. In the end, it's much more reliable and easier for the user AND the publisher.

    99. Re:Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      No disagreement. That sort of software sucks horribly. The point was that it is out there, and it unfortunately isn't rare.

      Well, if we are talking Multitrack Audio Recording, Logic Pro doesn't pull any of that shit, and ProTools can just STUFF IT if they do (which I don't think they do, either). If Ableton does that crap, they can just have it.

      Anything else is probably not being used in a "Live" situation; so having the ability to "instantly recover" from a suddenly bad SSD is pretty much a non-issue if you aren't in a "real-time" recording situation.

    100. Re:Next step... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      If EFI can run then chances are the motherboard is in a fairly good state... I've had one just recently where the motherboard was toast (due to a can of coke) but the SSD was fine.

      I agree; which is why you could likely boot with an external if the mobo is ok except for the SSD.

      In the (quite rare) second scenario, then it sucks to be you. Find someone with an SMT rework station and some good soldering/desoldering skills... ...or Restore from that Backup...

      But in the second scenario (bad mobo, good SSD), you aren't going to get back up and running in any reasonable amount of time (e.g. 30 mins), even if the SSD was socketed; so it really doesn't matter. Plus, there's a VERY good chance that the file you had open and being written-to when the mobo drank the soda is going to be trashed anyway, so....?

    101. Re:Next step... by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      On the contrary we were back up and running very quickly, took no more than a few mins to unscrew the case, remove the ssd and put it into another compatible chassis. On some devices the drives are even easier to remove, and simply slides out the side held in by a single screw or similar.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
  2. Hot Take by nsuccorso · · Score: 1

    "This is bullshit!", said an enthusiastic Larry Gilbert!!

  3. Not very secure by TheNarrator · · Score: 1

    How are you supposed to wipe the SSD before you sell it?

    1. Re:Not very secure by Black.Shuck · · Score: 5, Informative

      How are you supposed to wipe the SSD before you sell it?

      Clear the FileVault encryption key.

    2. Re:Not very secure by barc0001 · · Score: 2

      Sell it?! I thought the Mac upgrade path was pick up old laptop, deposit in trash, open box, set new laptop on desk.

    3. Re:Not very secure by JoeyRox · · Score: 1
    4. Re:Not very secure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Most Mac users hang onto their computers for years, and now you can use FileVault anyway so wiping an SSD is a moot point.

      Also who really needs to update the SSD, you can offload larger multimedia files to NAS.

    5. Re:Not very secure by Trogre · · Score: 3, Informative

      Live USB distro + 'dd' as always

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    6. Re:Not very secure by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 1

      Like Elliott does.

    7. Re:Not very secure by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      With a sledgehammer.

    8. Re:Not very secure by JoeMerchant · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Or, you know, don't use FileVault on your home folder because that's the quickest way to nearly brick your MacBook Pro and have to reinstall everything from scratch. Been there, done that - decades of practice and they still get it wrong.

    9. Re:Not very secure by JoeMerchant · · Score: 2

      That's not green, you should send it to a recycling center in China where they specialize in extracting your personal credit information to maximize value from the waste stream.

    10. Re:Not very secure by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      Apple plays big into this paranoia - write it with ones, write it with zeroes, write it with random data 9 times (or 27 if you prefer...) F-all, write it with whatever one time and you have put the probability of data recovery into the same range as winning the lotto, twice in two weeks with only two tickets purchased.

    11. Re:Not very secure by JoeMerchant · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, you can't use File Vault safely - if your computer hangs during power down and doesn't power down "gracefully," File Vault can lock your home folder up tight and throw away the key. (Been there, talked with Carlos in advanced tech support, it's toast man, reinstall from original image.)

    12. Re:Not very secure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gaming on a PC vs. a Mac - Just throw it away.

    13. Re:Not very secure by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      Clinton style, get a hammer.

    14. Re:Not very secure by ahabswhale · · Score: 1

      I have three Macs and I have no issues with FileVault. Earlier versions did suck though.

      --
      Are agnostics skeptical of unicorns too?
    15. Re:Not very secure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FileVault has been whole disk since Lion. There is no reason to reinstall if you archive. If you are not using Time Machine and disk cloning, you are an idiot.

    16. Re:Not very secure by lgw · · Score: 1

      Why would you write more than once with an SSD? Heck, it's been pointless with spinning rust for more than a decade now.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    17. Re:Not very secure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yes you can, but you need to be using Lion or later. FileVault encrypts the entire system volume. The master key is kept on the recovery partition. If this partition isn't available or you forget the user password, you can use still use the recovery key.

    18. Re: Not very secure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With a cloth.

    19. Re:Not very secure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are thinking of how FileVault used to work - it is now full disk encryption. If you can't get to your home folder, it is because the whole filesystem is encrypted and thus unreadable, and the OS isn't booting.

    20. Re:Not very secure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You seem to be talking about the first version of FileVault. You know that FileVault 2 works completly different, right?

    21. Re:Not very secure by janoc · · Score: 1

      The bigger problem is what happens when the SSD fails.

      SSDs are components with limited life (flash has limited amount of write cycles), so that is a planned obsolescence built-in right there.

      Replacing the SSD will mean either a very expensive Apple service intervention, or, more likely, a new notebook. Which was likely the idea from the start ...

    22. Re:Not very secure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How are you supposed to wipe the SSD before you sell it?

      Clear the FileVault encryption key.

      LOL. *IF* you can still somehow boot the machine.

    23. Re:Not very secure by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      Basically what you're saying is the mac can't work on its own? In order to be effective enough you need to connect it to a bunch of other shit services?

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    24. Re:Not very secure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How would not having used FileVault help protect your data when selling the computer?

      Are you aware that the current FileVault is full disk encryption rather than the ancient sparse image home folder encryption? Not quite sure how you could possibly "nearly brick your MacBook Pro" using that. From your post, my money is on pebkac.

    25. Re:Not very secure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We're talking about full-disk filevault, which is unrelated to the old home-dir filevault. The full disk one is safe.

    26. Re:Not very secure by jeremyp · · Score: 1

      Your knowledge is out of date. FileVault is now whole disk encryption or not at all.

      --
      All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
    27. Re:Not very secure by JoeMerchant · · Score: 2

      To be fair, I was last burned by it in 2006 - that was enough for me to stay away, branding hasn't changed - hard to trust the new versions.

    28. Re:Not very secure by JoeMerchant · · Score: 2

      That's a good thing, I suppose - the home folder only method was inherently dangerous the way they implemented it.

    29. Re:Not very secure by nine-times · · Score: 1

      I support a lot of Macs, and haven't had those kinds of problems with Filevault. I've had some other kinds of problems (e.g. figuring out the best way to manage passwords and keys for thousands of computers), but not having Filevault screw up and lose data.

      At least, not for several years.

    30. Re:Not very secure by the_B0fh · · Score: 1

      We've been using FileVault 2, the full disk encryption version, since the day it came out. No problems. In fact, it's mandated at my company, across the hundreds of Macs.

      The first version had problems. But like when they implemented full device encryption on iPhone 3GS - first version had problems. From iPhone 4 onwards, full device encryption is built in, and works just fine.

    31. Re:Not very secure by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      My last burn was in 2006 - I've got a low tolerance for repeat nuclear meltdowns.

    32. Re:Not very secure by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      I used, and walked away from, my first home folder encryption tools in the mid 1990s... by 2006 I figured the tech should have matured to some kind of plateau, but FileVault's issues in 2006 were very reminiscent of the Windows' encryption tool issues from 1995. I guess they finally got it right with FileVault2 - good to know, but mostly academic for me today... I'm running 40% Linux desktops, 45% Windows desktops, and 15% legacy OS-X stuff for very niche applications, FileVault isn't much of a potential player for me anymore - after decades without it, I've learned to accept that people with physical access to my hardware can see my open files.

    33. Re:Not very secure by cyn1c77 · · Score: 2

      How are you supposed to wipe the SSD before you sell it?

      Clear the FileVault encryption key.

      No, you do it the same way that you should wipe any other hard drive: Hit it with a hammer until it is in small pieces, then put those pieces in a fire.

    34. Re:Not very secure by nine-times · · Score: 1

      Ok, but just to point it out: That was 10 years ago. If you had the latest version at the time, that was still 10.4, and we're now at 10.12. At the time, Windows XP was still the latest version of Windows. Some things have changed since then.

    35. Re:Not very secure by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      To be fair, I was last burned by it in 2006 - that was enough for me to stay away, branding hasn't changed - hard to trust the new versions.

      they completely rewrote it. See FileVault2. I think it appeared first in Yosemite, but it might have been earlier.

    36. Re:Not very secure by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      I'm aware of the time-scale, though less impressed by the passage of this decade than the previous. File-Vault like things were obviously too hot to handle in 1995, then fooled me into burning myself in 2006 based on the logic: "it's been 10 years, they're promoting it as part of their 'it just works' OS, surely they've got it sorted by now."

      If ever the need for an encrypted storage scheme comes along again, I'll look at the modern whole disk systems - in my product design work we handle the problem by simply not storing anything that might need encrypting on the drive.

    37. Re:Not very secure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what? like with a cloth?

    38. Re:Not very secure by Eric+Green · · Score: 3, Informative

      Once upon a time, like ten years ago, File Vault encrypted home folders as a dmg file on a partition. That is no longer the case and has not been the case for years. File Vault doesn't work like that anymore, and it hasn't worked like that for years. Now it's whole disk encryption like Microsoft's Bitlocker, and utterly bulletproof. The only way to lose your disk is to overwrite the key blocks at the start of the disk.

      Technology moves on, man.

      --
      Send mail here if you want to reach me.
    39. Re:Not very secure by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      FileVault2 came out with OSX Lion, which was previewed in October of 2010... so, like 5 years, man.

    40. Re:Not very secure by Eric+Green · · Score: 1

      Exactly. So why do you recite a valid criticism of FileVault1, which had exactly the problems you mentioned due to it being layered as a DMG on an unencrypted filesystem, as if it applied to FileVault2, which is an *entirely different technology*?

      --
      Send mail here if you want to reach me.
    41. Re:Not very secure by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      Until 3 days ago, I had never heard of "FileVault2" - everybody I interact with just calls it FileVault.

  4. blacklisted from secure environments by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    blacklisted from secure environments now

    1. Re:blacklisted from secure environments by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 3, Funny

      Why; doesn't that improve security? Just take a hammer to it when the program is over. It has budget...

  5. Apple has lost its Mojo by Calibax · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Steve Jobs always wanted Macs to be appliances that the user could not tinker with or modify. Now they have made it for him.

    Unfortunately, systems designed that way don't reflect my needs at all.

    1. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Black.Shuck · · Score: 1

      Steve Jobs always wanted Macs to be appliances that the user could not tinker with or modify. Now they have made it for him.

      How does this reflect on their mojo? Surely by meeting Jobs' ambitions they've attained maximum mojo-level?

    2. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Steve Jobs always wanted Macs to be appliances that the user could not tinker with or modify.

      That's how my wife treats her MBP. Every few years she starts complaining about it running too slow or the disk is full. So I buy her a new one, which is okay with me because it is still cheaper than jewelry or a vacation in Paris.

      She just got a new 15", and she loves it, especially the new task bar (which has color!). Hopefully, Apple won't upgrade it again for a while.

    3. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by 110010001000 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Isn't a MacBook pro $2400-$2800???? You can do a Paris vacation on that. That is insane to spend that much money on a laptop in 2017.

    4. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Isn't a MacBook pro $2400-$2800???? You can do a Paris vacation on that. That is insane to spend that much money on a laptop in 2017.

      As a microcosm of the world, Slashdot is peopled by two kinds of people; those who are poor and/or getting poorer, and those who are rich and getting richer. If you haven't noticed that there's a fair few people on Slashdot with quite a bit of disposable income, you must be new here. Not coincidentally, there's quite a few Trump supporters. (Trump supporters' median income is more than $10k higher than Sanders or Clinton supporters'... Not just the average mind you, the median)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      these are married people stupid. they aren't staying in a hostel or some hole in the wall and eating ramen. they want a nice hotel with private rooms where they can get naked and do out of mommy's basement things with each other

    6. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by swb · · Score: 0

      A week in a decent Paris hotel would cost something north of $2000 by itself. Airfare for two people is $1400. Meals and incidentals probably another $1000 or more.

      Paris done in a civilized manner is $4500, probably $5000 if you were honest. If you're 23 and willing to live like a nomad, I'm sure it's much cheaper, but I'm not willing to stay in hostels or flea-bag hotels in shitty areas and I'm not willing to eat crap street food or canned crap from a hotpot, either.

       

    7. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 0

      Depends on location; median /. member from California more likely to be Clinton/Bernie supporter than Trump supporter, and also likely to be in the higher income percentiles.

    8. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by JoeMerchant · · Score: 0

      You're not wrong, and the fact that Trump's supporters' median income is higher also does not make them right, or superior, it does possibly mean they are selfish.

      The saddest group are the poor Republican voters, like the electrical power lineman I met - hardworking, but afraid to vote Democrat because his boss will punish him (economically) if Democrats win... that's the least American reasoning I've heard in forever.

    9. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by geekmux · · Score: 1

      Isn't a MacBook pro $2400-$2800???? You can do a Paris vacation on that. That is insane to spend that much money on a laptop in 2017.

      Demand sets the price.

      The insanity is represented in the hordes of diehard iFans lining up to pay that damn much for a laptop in 2017.

      If you want to rant at someone, try any Apple store on release day.

    10. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      If you need hints how to make inexpensive vacation in Paris ... just ask :D
      I guess your wife would deserve it :D

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    11. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      A week in a decent Paris hotel would cost something north of $2000 by itself.
      That is complete BOLLOCKS.

      Like the rest of your post. To spent $1000 for one single week on meals you need to spent obviously $1000/7 or $1000/6 divide again by 2 for two meals per day and then by 2 for 2 persons: that would be around $45 per person and meal. If you really want to spent that much you are already dining like a God in France. If you really want to spent absurd mounts on meals, you still would likely only spent â12 per person for lunch and then you are free to spent â65 per person for dinner. For that price you have minimum 3 bottles of wine, entree, main course, dessert, apéritif and digestive. I'm not really sure you want to drink 3 bottles of wine with your wife during a dinner though.

      Ofc: you can always go into an absurd expensive restaurant to make your argument right.

      Also the airfair from a decent american destination can hardly be over $500 per person.

      If you spent more than $2000 for a week for 2 persons, for flight, hotel and meals: you seriously are doing something wrong. If you want to spent more you are free to do that in Museums, Opera, Theatre, Disney World, but a reasonable tourist couple hardly, very hardly can get above $3000.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    12. Re: Apple has lost its Mojo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's the same reasoning the coal mine companies used on their workers for decade/. They would threaten the workers to vote GOP against their own interests. That fear worked every time, still does in coal country. This is nothing new in the Rust Belt. You can be fired for sporting the wrong bumper sticker.

    13. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Potor · · Score: 1

      Um, no. Spoken as someone who has done Paris more than a few times. With a wife and sometimes even kids.

    14. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The saddest group are the poor Republican voters, like the electrical power lineman I met - hardworking, but afraid to vote Democrat because his boss will punish him (economically) if Democrats win... that's the least American reasoning I've heard in forever.

      Cry me a fucking river. Dude needs to man-up and vote for whoever the fuck he works for.

      I don't feel sorry at all for dudes like that, or the food-stamp shit kickers who vote Republican or Libertarian as well. In fact they're a much bigger influence for me to vote Republican than any stupid shit the Democrats make; because they're going to get fucked the hardest and I've seen their shit for so many years, I really don't give a fuck about them anymore.

      If they want to have their food stamp allowance cut--fine with me.

      Medicaid cuts? They're the ones asking for them; why shouldn't they be cut.

      Crap getting dumped in the water where they do their fishing? like I'm going to be eating their fish.

      Wells poisoned due to fracking? oopsie

      Fat motherfucker can't get up stairs because of no ramps; whatever they want what's good for the business owners.

      Whatever, they have their guns, bibles, pregnant teenagers, white sheets and confederate flags. But that's still not going to stop the straight, scoutmaster who's also a church deacon from molesting jr @ camp.

    15. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Also the airfair from a decent american destination can hardly be over $500 per person.

      I didn't bother pricing the other parts of your list, but just FYI, round trip tickets from Atlanta GA to Paris, the cheapest price there is almost 2k and (for a 14 hour flight with two layovers, almost 3k for non-stop), and it's only free for the return trip if you want to take Turkish Airlines (not saying whether you would, just noting if you have an airline preference, you can add another 1k plus to the cost).

      Now assuming that the major delta hub for the south east isn't a "decent american destination", I priced out flying out of NYC (any airport). The cheapest flight was 1200, but most of those had a 10+ hour layover. But assuming you were ok with that, you could indeed fly out of NYC for hardly over $500 per person.

    16. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by amiga3D · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I can understand why someone would detest Trump. Hating on people for voting for him is another matter. When you're faced with the choices in the 2016 election there were no good choices. People ended up voting on what they hoped would work best for them. I knew when the election cycle started that I wasn't voting for Hilliary so when it began looking like Trump was going to blow away the Republican field I started praying for Bernie to win the Democratic side. That didn't happen so all I had was Trump. I don't give a shit how butthurt all the liberals are over it. They nominated a person who had all the negatives of a Liberal with absolutely none of the positives. Hopefully they'll evaluate how they got where they are and think about changing.

    17. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by drinkypoo · · Score: 0

      Hating on people for voting for him is another matter. When you're faced with the choices in the 2016 election there were no good choices. People ended up voting on what they hoped would work best for them.

      Hating on them is a waste of time. Pity them instead for their stupidity.

      all I had was Trump

      Unless you are both wealthy and conservative, you didn't have Trump. Trump had you.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    18. Re: Apple has lost its Mojo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't figure out how they didn't see that nobody likes her. What the hell were those idiots thinking.

    19. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by dwywit · · Score: 1

      It's not complete bollocks. Example - family of 4 (3 adults, 1 child), 4 weeks in Italy + UK. Return flights Australia -Singapore - London in premium economy on tier 1 airlines. I'm not sitting in coach for 8+13 hours, and I'm not flying in jets with dubious maintenance records. Return flights London - Florence, 3 bedroom self-catering house for a couple of days, hotels + dining out in Florence, museums, galleries, etc. 1 week in UK Holiday park, 1 week in rented canal boat, partly self-catered, partly eating at pubs, 2 weeks' car rental + fuel, B&B accomodation. AUD$44K. Yes forty-four thousand, of which the airfares were AUD$13K. Welcome to Australia.

      That works out to AUD$2750 per head, per week. None of the accomodation was above a 3-star level, and none of the food came from "fancy" restaurants.

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    20. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by starless · · Score: 1

      Also the airfair from a decent american destination can hardly be over $500 per person.

      More like generally around (or over) $1000 with major airlines.
      I've been going twice a year - in summer and over the winter holiday season - for the last several years as my French girlfriend spends those times of the year back
      over in France.
      The cheapest ticket I've managed to get in the summer was ~$800 with Wow airlines, after including extra baggage charges and seat reservation fees etc.

      How often do you fly to France?

    21. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Unless you are both wealthy and conservative, you didn't have Trump. Trump had you.

      I don't think so. Trump's signature issues are that he is anti-immigrant and anti-trade. The wealthy benefit disproportionately from globalization and cheap immigrant labor. Not many billionaires were pro-Trump. The only one I can think of is Peter Thiel.

    22. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I don't think so. Trump's signature issues are that he is anti-immigrant and anti-trade.

      If you believe that, he's got a casino to sell you. His wife is an immigrant, for fuck's sake. He owns a visa mill! He uses overseas sweatshop labor! How can anyone be dumb enough to believe the words coming out of his mouth?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    23. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by lgw · · Score: 1

      If you're poor and competing with fresh immigrants for a job, Trump was your man. Immigration was the only issue for which he hasn't done a random-walk with his position.

      Also, if you're tired of being talked down to by fuckwits who think they know better then you do what's best for you, Trump's your man for being an asshole to those guys. Your condescension is why Trump won, you know.

      So it's win-win, really.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    24. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Your condescension is why Trump won, you know.

      So you're saying that Trump won because of the votes of a bunch of petulant crybabies who felt insulted? I'm surprised you're so forthcoming about your immaturity.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    25. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by dbIII · · Score: 0

      Hating on people for voting for him is another matter.

      Should we pity them instead? They voted for one of the worst of the elites to "send a message" to the elites. Very strange. Sure, Trump could pretend to be "one of the boys" but he goes back home to sleep in his gold tower build on the backs of the bankrupt contractors that he didn't pay.
      As for "shaking things up" - why do they hate America enough to want to destroy the dream of Washington, Jefferson and the rest? Was it some sort of "cry for help" like a failed suicide?
      Who cares about Hillary - there a dozen or so other choices just on the R side until the end of the primaries. Yet idiots picked Trump. Enjoy your new King "winners".

    26. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Paris vacation for $2,800? You're obviously not married.

    27. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Dude, when I can fly from GERMANY to any destination in the USA back and forth for $350, then it is hard to believe that you pay $1000 from US to Paris.

      I go to Paris about twice a month per train for $90 back and forth (but it is only 550km ... exactly 3h with a TGV)

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    28. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by tsa · · Score: 1

      You don't have to buy a new laptop every year you know.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    29. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      His wife is an immigrant, for fuck's sake. He owns a visa mill! He uses overseas sweatshop labor!

      So your point is that although his is a blatant liar, he would never stoop to hypocrisy?

    30. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      So your point is that although his is a blatant liar, he would never stoop to hypocrisy?

      My point is that you cannot trust anything he says, and that his actual history suggests that he will expand and not contract the use of immigrant labor and foreign sweatshop labor. Forget what comes out of his mouth and look at his actions. That's how you treated Hillary, as well you should. Now, apply the same principles to Trump! Anything else is not just hypocritical, it's idiotic. As in, an Useful idiot.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    31. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Phil Schiller has already said they don't design for price, rather its for the experience. Since Apple enjoys the largest margins for their products compared to other electronics companies, they price accordingly knowing people will buy if they want that experience since it isn't available anywhere else. My guess the price increases on the Macs are there to offset the decline in the mobile space.

    32. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Informative

      Dude, when I can fly from GERMANY to any destination in the USA back and forth for $350, then it is hard to believe that you pay $1000 from US to Paris.

      Actually, we in the USA are getting violated in pretty much every way it is possible to be violated when we fly. We go to the airport and get reamed on parking (if I'm not going to be gone long I'll just go ahead and use it) and then we get reamed for (and by) a cinnabon and then we get groped by the TSA and then we get bent over with our heads between our knees and get our asses pounded by some awful seats, and then if we're "lucky" we get our digestive tract boned by some lukewarm scientifically inoffensive and uninteresting airplane food and then we get fucked by their booze prices (since we can't carry booze onto the plane conveniently any more) and all the while we're getting fucked over ticket prices. And then I've heard but have not yet experienced because I have not been to Europe and doubly not been there recently that we then get our ears raped about what scum we are for even having Trump in the race, let alone electing him, even if we'd rather have cut off our testicles and mailed them in to the RNC than have had that come to pass.

      The only way we don't get absolutely pinned down and taken when traveling is when we do it by automobile, and that only if we're clever and/or lucky enough to avoid intense traffic times and areas. Fuel is usually very cheap here (it's reasonably inexpensive right now) and if you drive a very boring but respectable looking car then odds are sharply against you having any problems... hmm, unless you are brown. Forgot about that part.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    33. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Phil Schiller has already said they don't design for price, rather its for the experience. Since Apple enjoys the largest margins for their products compared to other electronics companies, they price accordingly knowing people will buy if they want that experience since it isn't available anywhere else.

      Which raises the question, why doesn't Lenovo or Dell or maybe Asus take a stab at making the same kind of hardware? Asus seems closest so far, and they have a respectable slice of the market. Lenovo has the biggest piece of the market, so they arguably have the best chance to actually make a difference, but the #1 guy seldom wants to change up much. HP is #2 but, well... HP really is #2. They couldn't Apple no matter how hard they tried. Dell is #3 and Apple themselves are #5 (in volume) and anyone below that can basically just go piss up a rope in this game because it will cost substantial money to learn to do what Apple does.

      One way for them (whichever "them") to ensure that people would buy the hardware would be to make it run both Windows and Linux correctly. To my mind, the only vendor likely to go down this route is Lenovo. Since it would only be for a very small number (1 or 2?) of models (especially initially) this would not be especially arduous. Part of the virtue of the Apple landscape is that they do not overburden the consumer with choice. That in turn however is the reason why they need a user-configurable and -serviceable pro model to round out their model line. Not only will the [admittedly relatively small] number of users pay a substantial premium for the privilege*, but these users are influential in others' purchasing decisions. Apple fandom has often been compared to a cult, and part of its success has always been due to the positive reinforcement users receive from other community members.

      * My mom got a deal on her first computer because she knew someone who worked for Apple, and that's the only way she could afford to go digital as a graphic artist. Her Macintosh IIci system (25 MHz 68030, 4MB RAM, 80MB 5400 RPM SCSI disk, no cache card, Apple 8*24 (not GC) display card and Macintosh Two-Page Mono Display, and Pro Keyboard) carried a retail price over eight thousand dollars. The equivalent PC was literally half the money, or even less built as a clone but... Windows NT 3.51 vs System 6 for an artist type? snicker snort

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    34. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Gussington · · Score: 1

      I don't give a shit how butthurt all the liberals are over it. They nominated a person who had all the negatives of a Liberal with absolutely none of the positives. Hopefully they'll evaluate how they got where they are and think about changing.

      This is the silver lining from this. The Dems should be so shocked by this loss that wholesale changes are made to clean house.
      I found it hard to get an intelligent opinion from a Trump supporter, but I heard one the other day that made me think. She said Trump is a representation of true democracy. The Republicans hated his guts, yet still let him run because their process is democratic. The media hated him, but people still voted for him, This is the power of a real democracy right there. Even when everyone hates you, you still win. The Dems Superdelegate concept is utterly undemocratic and it cost them the election, so a Trump win is a win for democracy.

    35. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's an irrelevant amount of money to spend on a laptop that easily lasts 5-6 years. My 15" 2012 MBPr has started to politely gripe about the battery needing replacement soon, it only lasts 4-5 hours now instead of the 8 it did when new. The 2014 Air I use for work manages a solid 10 hours.

      Compare this to name-brand stuff from around the same time in 2012, they've already been replaced or give their users no end of frustration. Let's not mention the low-end, sub-$1000 annual bin liners that Acer or random whitebox rebranders pinch out.

    36. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Gussington · · Score: 1

      A week in a decent Paris hotel would cost something north of $2000 by itself. Airfare for two people is $1400. Meals and incidentals probably another $1000 or more.

      Paris done in a civilized manner is $4500, probably $5000 if you were honest.

      Hotels are the big ticket item which is why AirBNB is so popular.
      I stayed here which is nicer than most hotels I've stayed in. Cost was $160USD/night

    37. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      And then I've heard but have not yet experienced because I have not been to Europe and doubly not been there recently that we then get our ears raped about what scum we are for even having Trump in the race, let alone electing him, even if we'd rather have cut off our testicles and mailed them in to the RNC than have had that come to pass.

      Yeah, sorry about that... It's just that after Brexit, we have to make ourselves feel better by pretending that Americans are even stupider and more bigoted than we are. In practice we are probably about equal these days, but maybe we should get more of the blame for showing Trump how to win a post-truth election. Sorry about that.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    38. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by geekmux · · Score: 1

      Phil Schiller has already said they don't design for price, rather its for the experience...

      Ah, so I'm supposed to enjoy the "experience" of buying a couple hundred dollars worth of adapters to carry around in my pocket, in order for my shiny new iDevice to be able to actually interface with the rest of the fucking planet.

      Apple absolutely designs based on creating additional revenue streams, as well as the goal of locking you in to their proprietary iWorld. Their latest devices being rather devoid of anything but proprietary connections says a lot here.

    39. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2k on plane tickets means you've got 4-8 hundred for hotels and entertainment + bus/cab/train fare. Hope you aren't hungry.

    40. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      Because Apple provide a complete package including the hardware and software...
      The other vendors are seen as just assembling a bunch of third party components, so it's a race to the bottom competing on price. And while some of the components are competitive, they are still forced to buy the software from a single supplier.

      MS are already trying to copy Apple, introducing their own hardware...

      In a few years time i think all these vendors will drop out of the market, IBM already got out, HP look to be going the same way... You'd be left with MS, Apple and maybe Google selling chromebooks.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    41. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think so. Trump's signature issues are that he is anti-immigrant and anti-trade.

      If you believe that, he's got a casino to sell you. His wife is an immigrant, for fuck's sake. He owns a visa mill! He uses overseas sweatshop labor! How can anyone be dumb enough to believe the words coming out of his mouth?

      Most of his spiel has been against illegal (mostly Latin American) immigrants and vetting Muslim refugees before letting them in. As ISIS has claimed that they would infiltrate the refugees, I have absolutely no problem with checking peoples' background and history before letting them in. I also don't mind better border controls; even Obama deported around 2.5 million illegals during his presidency.

    42. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Geesh, now everyone who owns a MBP is a Trump supporter.... How does baseless crap like this get modded up?

    43. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 1

      OK, just ran it through expedia. Somewhere between $1,000 and $2,200 for airfare and hotel in Paris for a week. I don't have a good way to price meals in Paris, but it looks like you could do a decent trip for under $3,000. I would want a $5,000 budget if I was going to take my wife to Paris.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    44. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Holi · · Score: 1

      I don't mind dealing with illegal immigration, as long as you do it intelligently. But this is a administration that wants to register every member of a specific religion in some national database, a slap in the face to one of our most basic freedoms.

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
    45. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by nine-times · · Score: 1

      When you can't have a discussion about Apple's new laptop designs without making it about Trump, you should take a long hard look at yourself.

    46. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      When you can't have a discussion about Apple's new laptop designs without making it about Trump, you should take a long hard look at yourself.

      Okay... (looks down) (some time later) I'm fat and I care about my fellow humans.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    47. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's what you get for being a heretic and not trusting in God Emperor Trump's glorious plan. Filthy heathen. Just stay in Yurop.

    48. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not just the average mind you, the median

      I'm assuming you chose the median because when you tried to write out your argument with averages, it looked retarded.

    49. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      I guess under your new ruler that can only worsen.
      On the other hand, you might prefer to swim to Tokyo e.g.
      You could even make a stop over in Hawaii on your way, what do you think?

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    50. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, make up your mind. Are Trump supporters dirt poor illiterate morons that the media loves to bleet about, or are they wealthier than the democratic voters (which also means often a higher education level)?

    51. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by lgw · · Score: 1

      I see you value your smugness more than a Trump defeat. Fair enough. You do you.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    52. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by NG+Resonance · · Score: 1

      Believe it. For a while now I've been flying every year from the West Coast to Western Europe and the prices for major airlines (a.k.a. those with the ability to connect to my destination) are almost all fixed at just under $1000 each way. It doesn't matter which carrier you choose - Air France, KLM, British Airways, Lufthansa... It's a racket, especially for those originating from the United States. The first three airlines above have already been fined for operating a cargo cartel, and it seems to me that the major players are colluding in the passenger market as well.

    53. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by h4ck7h3p14n37 · · Score: 1

      Which raises the question, why doesn't Lenovo or Dell or maybe Asus take a stab at making the same kind of hardware?

      As a Unix and Linux user, I'd argue that Dell's and Lenovo's offerings already are superior to Apple's. You have many more options which means there's a better chance you can get something that closely matches your needs.

      The Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition is nice, but I could do without the touchscreen. If you care about GPU performance you can get something from the Alienware line. You can get a Lenovo with a Xeon processor and ECC RAM so you can safely run ZFS and the chipsets are well supported on BSD and Linux distributions. Most of these laptops can be ordered with UHD IPS displays.

    54. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Perhaps you are trying the wrong booking service?

      I just googled and used http://flug.idealo.de/ to find a flight from Paris to New York City (I believe one way) for 186 EURO, which is aprox. $220

      Ofc. that is just the cheapest flight and not tomorrow but in January. And it is not one of the premium air lines, it is "Norwegian Air Shuttle"

      Well, with some luck you should always be able to at least get a flight from a major US site to a major European destination.

      Berlin <-> New York City with Air Berlin for various dates: 420,- to 465,- Euro. (That is two way!)

      Sometimes it makes sense to buy a two way flight, where you only use one of the flights, and have a different flight for the missing leg.

      Example: you want to be in Berlin, but your two way flight would cost you $1000 in each direction. Buy a flight + return flight in the opposite direction, from Berlin to JFK/NYC. Obviously you can not fly from Berlin as you are in the USA, so you only use the return flight.

      If you really pay 2x$1000 to fly back and forth between NYC and Berlin, it would be nearly cheaper to buy two flights back and forth :D unfortunately it is difficult to "resell" flight legs.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    55. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Which raises the question, why doesn't Lenovo or Dell or maybe Asus take a stab at making the same kind of hardware?

      As a Unix and Linux user, I'd argue that Dell's and Lenovo's offerings already are superior to Apple's. You have many more options which means there's a better chance you can get something that closely matches your needs.

      The Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition is nice, but I could do without the touchscreen. If you care about GPU performance you can get something from the Alienware line. You can get a Lenovo with a Xeon processor and ECC RAM so you can safely run ZFS and the chipsets are well supported on BSD and Linux distributions. Most of these laptops can be ordered with UHD IPS displays.

      And when you do that, are they really significantly less expensive than MacBook Pros?

    56. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Phil Schiller has already said they don't design for price, rather its for the experience...

      Ah, so I'm supposed to enjoy the "experience" of buying a couple hundred dollars worth of adapters to carry around in my pocket, in order for my shiny new iDevice to be able to actually interface with the rest of the fucking planet.

      Apple absolutely designs based on creating additional revenue streams, as well as the goal of locking you in to their proprietary iWorld. Their latest devices being rather devoid of anything but proprietary connections says a lot here.

      Bullshit.

    57. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Isn't a MacBook pro $2400-$2800???? You can do a Paris vacation on that.

      Sure. He can do a Paris vacation on that. However I think you missed the point of the post. He'd have to take is wife . In which case $2800 is cheap.

    58. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I visited the US last year for the first time, and I tried a Cinnabon because I'd heard of them and they don't exist in Australia. My god it was terrible. Expensive, and dripping in so much oil I couldn't even finish it.

    59. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      Hey, at least it'll be entertaining. You know these guys don't operate in a vacuum. Trump can't do all that much. If he goes too off the rails there are all kinds of ways to haul him back down to earth. He's supposedly going to take a pen to Obama's executive order laundry list and wipe it out. That's a good thing there if he does it. Then what? Go to congress with some ideas they'll either reject or let languish in committee? He'll either work with congress or he'll spend 4 years spinning his wheels in frustration. Then there's the supreme court. They've ruined more that one president's day a time or two.

    60. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      That made my head hurt.

    61. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by dbIII · · Score: 1

      4 years spinning his wheels in frustration

      Meanwhile China, Russia and all the rest are not sitting still so sitting back and watching with popcorn doesn't sound so pleasant. Just take a look at what they've already done while Baby Bush was on perpetual vacation and Obama was focused on health care.

      Then there's the supreme court.

      Just about the only words we can trust from Trump are that he's going to stack the court with a few extra people so that it will do as he's told. He wants "constitutional scholars" who will take orders instead of working judges used to dealing with cases so knowing practical implications of their decisions. He doesn't really get this democracy thing, or even the idea of a republic instead of a business run like a petty kingdom.

    62. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nothing fails like prayer. Maybe try activism next time?

  6. The next move by H3lldr0p · · Score: 1

    is to introduce an "enthusiast" version that lets you update and swap out parts.

    At a premium, of course. An even higher premium than is already being charged.

    In short, you are nothing but a walking wallet to Apple.

    1. Re:The next move by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

      Buy your own mac building kit! Only $10K! Some assembly required.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    2. Re:The next move by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      At a premium, of course. An even higher premium than is already being charged.

      Once upon a time, that was the pro line. Now, the pro line is soldered. Are they gonna have a "pro pro" line or what? I'm not against hardware like this existing, but it's kind of inexplicable not to offer a real machine.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:The next move by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      It's the pro desktop - which doubles as a vacuum cleaner.

    4. Re:The next move by mspohr · · Score: 1

      Then it must really suck.

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    5. Re:The next move by tsa · · Score: 1

      You're a walking wallet to every company.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    6. Re:The next move by 3247 · · Score: 1

      It's the pro desktop - which doubles as a vacuum cleaner.

      To be used as a vaccum cleaner, it would need to waste more power to generate noise and heat. Yes, this seems the most important feature of vacuum cleansers if you listen to consumers. All they care about is power consumption; it does not matter how well it actually cleans.

      --
      Claus
    7. Re:The next move by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      It's the pro desktop - which doubles as a vacuum cleaner.

      To be used as a vaccum cleaner, it would need to waste more power to generate noise and heat. Yes, this seems the most important feature of vacuum cleansers if you listen to consumers. All they care about is power consumption; it does not matter how well it actually cleans.

      Fire up any serious number crunching task and the MacPro will make heat you can feel, and fan noise you can hear from three rooms away.

  7. oh goody! by fyngyrz · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...the storage is set for the lifetime of the notebook... and the lifetime of the notebook is set by the longevity of the storage.

    Way to go, Apple.

    Buy now, while still DRUNK!

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re: oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Target mode makes it easy to back/restore/image one system to another.

      If the storage fails send it to apple for fixing.

      In the 3 years I have been supporting macs in a 300 user environment, ive seen a number of logic board fails, but only ever one ssd fail. Exactly one.

      Chances of the ssd failing before something else does is minimal.

    2. Re: oh goody! by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 3, Informative

      So the MTBF of both components is the same now, whichever is lower.

      Motherboard fails? Which apparently in your experience happens more often... you can't pull the SSD, stick it in another machine and get the data out.

      Yes, you should backup. Yes, you should probably use some kind of cloud sync. It's no substitute for being able to yank the drive, shove it in another box, and keep on truckin'. I can do this on my Linux boxes with no problems. (Windows, of course, will throw a blue fit if you try this).

    3. Re:oh goody! by Black+Parrot · · Score: 4, Funny

      No problem... you can read their new $300 book while you wait for your programs to load.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    4. Re: oh goody! by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Windows, of course, will throw a blue fit if you try this

      Not always true. Though Linux is much better at it. With windows I just had to wait for it to install its drivers, and the ones it didn't have came from the motherboard CD(!), but sometimes I had to copy that to a USB stick.

      The Mac? (wanna make backups? Be sure to get the right dongle) Well, now it's a sealed unit. It was only a matter of time for that to happen. Doesn't seem to hurt sales too much. Same thing is happening with new cars also. How many people are installing Holleys and Hookers anymore? Open the hood. Can you even see the engine?

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    5. Re:oh goody! by JoeMerchant · · Score: 2

      I'd like to see what the actual intended lifetime is of Apple products, by design. By observation, they seem to expect most of them to be replaced within 24 months or less, and the designs seem to intentionally self-destruct shortly thereafter.

    6. Re: oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Oh wow a whole THREE YEARS! You must be a master at all things tech!

      SSDs have finite write cycles. Unless Apple has included high-end, expensive SLC type SSDs, then you can expect them to wear out within a few years, especially if they are of the crap TLC variety. You're also neglecting the fact that they can have manufacturing defects or if another component fails, you can't access the hardwired SSD any more.

      It's a really fucking stupid design, full stop.

    7. Re: oh goody! by scdeimos · · Score: 4, Informative

      Windows, of course, will throw a blue fit if you try this

      What makes you say that, exactly? I just used gparted Live last week to migrate my Windows 10 installation from an old Intel 180GB SSD to a new Kingston 480G SSD and had no problems whatsoever. I wouldn't expect moving drives between identical hardware to be any different, but systems with different motherboards, NICs, GPUs, can all be booted in Safe Mode to install the required drivers.

    8. Re:oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No problem... you can read their new $300 book while you wait for your programs to load.

      holy crap i thought you were being funny when you said that, but holy shit they really did release a $300 book. bet a lot of people will buy it just because it's made by apple.

      captcha: vomited.
      as in I vomited when i saw the pricetag of "The new apple (insert product name here)".

    9. Re: oh goody! by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      Lot's of people are modding cars. It's more high tech but you can still hot rod modern cars. The thing is though you'd better know how to hack the computer. Some companies make controllers that modify the computers and they're not all that expensive.

    10. Re:oh goody! by ChrisC1234 · · Score: 1

      24 months? I'm currently writing this on a mid-2009 13" Macbook Pro. Upgraded the RAM to 8 gigs 4 years ago. New battery and SSD 2 years ago. Performance is still great. Currently looking for a replacement though because hardware is starting to die. Odd video glitches and wireless hardware will randomly disappear (sometimes causing a full system freeze if in use when the hardware randomly vanishes). I want another machine that can last like this one has. These new ones don't sound like they will fit the bill though.

    11. Re:oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm drunk. On my 2012 MacBook with REPLACEABLE storage and RAM.
      The bits just keep on biting, baby.

      Seems counter green somehow to not be able to replace the part that is most likely to fail.

    12. Re:oh goody! by amiga3D · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They generally last a long time with some exceptions. They've made the occasional model that had something or other that died unexpectedly and often. Given the silly prices they charge I highly recommend an applecare purchase. The oldest mac I have in use at the moment is my wife's late 2008 macbook. I upgraded the hard drive to an SSD and the memory to 8GB. I just bought a perfect condition 2012 15" Macbook Pro to replace my 2011 13" Macbook Pro. I got a good deal on the 2012 as the 2011 works fine. Nice upgrade to i7 and Nvidia graphics it's really a great computer. Too bad they decided to quit making nice stuff. I'm not buying a computer I can't change the HD and Ram on. The funny thing is the computer I use for almost all online stuff is an old Dell E6500 with a core2duo 2.8ghz and 4GB of ram and Nvidia graphics that runs Peppermint Linux 7. I picked it up after a guy tried to install windows 8 on it and gave up and sold it to me for 50 bucks. It's got the best keyboard of any laptop I've ever owned.

    13. Re: oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Regular spinning rust HDD's can have a circuit board blowout too. The only chance of recovery is an identical circuitboard unless the vendor has used some king of keyed internal encryption.

      Having non-removable internal storage is just the most insane invention. If your device gets bricked that's all the data lost.

      Even the option of direct data transfer by cable is being taken away. Leaving just wireless or the cloud. Comvine this with always-on internet with configuration files controlled by the network operator, it's obvious why.

    14. Re: oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      But a new Mac book pro! You won't have to go through the trouble of upgrading your ssd and ram.

    15. Re: oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not made by apple....

      It's Designed by Apple, in California.

    16. Re:oh goody! by tsa · · Score: 1

      I frequent pro-Apple sites like MacRumours and Ars Technica and most Apple owners there seem to think that you can't live with hardware that is more than two years old.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    17. Re:oh goody! by tsa · · Score: 1

      I have an early 2011 13" MBP that I'd like to keep for four years more. The thing looks like new and the battery is now at 83% of its original capacity. You can say from Apple what you want but their hardware is the best on the market by far.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    18. Re: oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      On my previous job, there were about a dozen iphone developers and other hipsters who had macbooks as their workstation. Every single one of them had their SSDs replaced due to breakage at latest on the second year of usage. I bet they either had some really crap SSDs installed on factory or the devices were not ventilated well enough for full day usage and the drivers were literally toasted. I wonder if the apple's SSD lifetime is still the same?

    19. Re: oh goody! by topologicalanomaly47 · · Score: 3, Informative

      False. I moved my boot disks (raid 0, intel rst) from an i7 2600k to a dual xeon build without issues.

    20. Re: oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The thing about Apple product is this; They have superior longevity, they last compared to the myriad of windows variants that breaks down after half a year.

      And thus a comment about the longevity of a mac product, from a PC user is a bit funny in it self. As they assume that Mac products have the same shortcomings as their systems have.

    21. Re:oh goody! by Bongo · · Score: 1

      I've seen an office full of 8 year old Macs. Mainly because the Intel CPUs are not a bottleneck for the so-called productivity apps.
      I've also seen my iPad 1 go obsolete within a year and a half. But then the ARM CPUs got so much faster in the early years.
      I've seen a lot of Mac minis just keep working. No issues. Not one, except for the 30% of their laptop-class HDs failing within 5 years.
      So my impression is, Apple thinks market and design first, and what's desirable and possible with the tech, and then the thing becomes obsolete just as a side-effect.
      They aren't trying to obsolete stuff on purpose. Build quality is usually very good (with exceptions, like the bendy iPhones).
      Today, if you want to stick with El Capitain, you can run that on a 9 year old Mac. Chuck in some RAM and an SSD and you're fine.
      So I don't know what you mean by intentionally self-destruct. But would like to know what you mean?

    22. Re: oh goody! by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      It's not made by apple....

      It's Designed by Apple, in California.

      And probably printed in China where all the rest of their stuff actually gets made.

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    23. Re: oh goody! by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      But a new Mac book pro! You can't go through the trouble of upgrading your ssd and ram.

      FTFY

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    24. Re: oh goody! by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      The thing about Apple product is this; They have superior longevity, they last compared to the myriad of windows variants that breaks down after half a year.

      And thus a comment about the longevity of a mac product, from a PC user is a bit funny in it self. As they assume that Mac products have the same shortcomings as their systems have.

      The irony is brilliant. Saying windows machines break down after 6 months (they don't, especially when spending mac money). A comment about the longevity of a PC product form a mac user is a bit funny in itself as they assume they all have the same made up shortcomings they want the systems to have.

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    25. Re:oh goody! by Bert64 · · Score: 2

      Will be interesting to see how consumer law treats this...
      In the UK, the law says anything you buy must last a reasonable length of time up to 6 years under normal use of such a product.

      I have many laptops which are more than 6 years old and still working, so it's perfectly reasonable to expect a laptop to last that long.
      On some of these laptops the hard drives and/or batteries have been replaced.

      If Apple are selling one with a non replaceable component which is prone to wearing out in less than 6 years then it's a defective product...

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    26. Re:oh goody! by Ed+Avis · · Score: 1

      Today, if you want to stick with El Capitain, you can run that on a 9 year old Mac.

      How can you install it? It's no longer visible on the App Store. Is there a way to order a physical disc?

      --
      -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
    27. Re: oh goody! by Bert64 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      SSDs/HDDs and batteries are the most frequent parts to fail on laptops, and in most laptops are also the easiest to replace.

      Being able to upgrade the ram and drive is also very useful, and a quick/cheap way to increase the longevity of a device as the price of memory and storage is constantly dropping.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    28. Re:oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's most likely set by the longevity of the battery (3 years), also fixed to the device. High-end SSDs can last for a long time (mine has a warranty of 10 years), though I doubt Apple's would last as long either.

    29. Re:oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The SSD in my late-2013 macbook failed 1 month past its warranty. Replaced in the Apple Store, they advised me I should get Apple Care in future (it would have been cheaper than the new drive). Now I'm curious how they plan to do those replacements. Presumably they'll now swap out the entire motherboard, which out of warranty probably triples the price of that repair.

    30. Re:oh goody! by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Sounds a bit unlikely. We buy them through the HE store in the UK, which comes with around a 10% discount and a three-year warranty. They'll replace any parts without quibble during that period. They'll also replace anything under the Sale of Goods Act / Consumer Rights Act if they'd claimed a longer life (for example, they'll replace batteries out of warranty if they haven't reached the advertised number of cycles).

      If they were expected to fail after 24 months, then they'd be making a massive loss on these. They'll also sell a 3-year extended warranty to anyone, the cost of which just about covers one repair, so they'd be making a loss on those too if most people weren't needing any in-warranty repairs.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    31. Re:oh goody! by Bender+Unit+22 · · Score: 3, Informative

      I have the same issue. Even though I have been very happy with the Apple enviroment of OS X and their hardware. They are moving further and further away from something I want to spend my money on. Their recent MacBook Pro "upgrade" have made them useless for me and all too expensive.

      My late 2013 iMac still packs a punch with the Intel I7. I can have FCPX pro rendering in the background while websurfing and other stuff still runs smooth. It feels like a workstation, it has a cmd line I can use. it used to have a proper disk utility program etc etc.

      Of course that is because I am running external RAIDs on the USB3 ports for the rendering, etc.
      I need to accessorize a MacBook Pro with numerous dongles, and after a while, external storage because I cannot upgrade it. So it is becoming useless too fast and too expensive for my wallet.
      Like I switched from Windows in 2007 to OS X, I might need to do the reverse when the next upgrade comes around and see if I work with Windows again.

      It is really sad how they have dumbed every thing down.

    32. Re:oh goody! by Bongo · · Score: 2

      Maybe, find someone who has already downloaded it before in their Mac App store account. It'll still be in their Purchased list.
      Then they can download the installer app.
      Then use the command line utility hidden inside the app, to create a bootable installer on a USB stick.

    33. Re:oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Based on the duration that devices are supported by OS updates, rather than anecdotes, probably around 5-6 years. Only the most hardened fanboys actually buy every updated model: that's not Apple's core user base, even if they are over-represented in tech blogs.

    34. Re: oh goody! by infolation · · Score: 1

      And probably printed in China

      ... by underpaid children.

    35. Re:oh goody! by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 1

      Given the silly prices they charge I highly recommend an applecare purchase.

      So, basically what you are saying is that you think Apple makes a good product, but recommend that people who buy one bet that you are wrong, Buying an extended warranty, such as applecare, is betting that the product you just bought is a bad choice. Personally, if I think it is worth my money to buy something like applecare, I buy something else instead.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    36. Re: oh goody! by sabbede · · Score: 1

      If Chinese parents didn't want their children working at Foxconn, they shouldn't have killed themselves before their employment contracts were up.

    37. Re:oh goody! by JoeMerchant · · Score: 2

      I have an original iPad one, the hardware was indestructible, but they managed to kill it with OS upgrades by 2014.

    38. Re: oh goody! by jeremyp · · Score: 2

      Here's the problem: if your Mac with 2Tb is out of warranty and the logic board fails, you'll need a replacement logic board/SSD combo and that is going to be very expensive.

      --
      All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
    39. Re: oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I also have the mid 2009 MacBook Pro. But I will not be buying any of these new devices. I had a drive starting to fail, replaced it and kept going. Can't do that anymore.

    40. Re:oh goody! by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      I had a 2006 MBP, the mag-lock charging cables (mine and my colleagues) lasted about 6 months - bad strain relief design, something Apple continued for over a decade into the early iPads.

      Just a small accessory, sure... now let's talk about the exploding batteries (replaced under warranty, if you knew to ask). Growing pains, yeah.

      Now, let's talk about the lack of proper heat-sink compound on the GPU... 18 months into life we started having heat-death of the GPUs on those models - no warranty repairs offered here, would you like to purchase a main board replacement for 80% of the cost of a new laptop?

      O.K. - that MacBook Pro model was just a lemon, they had been in the PC manufacturing business for 25 years, but this laptop thing is still sorta new, cut them some slack?

      How about their "education model" iMacs that they have the Universities on contract to replace every 2 years - you can get those cheap (like $50) if you know when the dumping sales come around. Thing is, the "education models" are nerfed with max RAM capacities and other things to make them obsolete _even faster_ than the consumer grade stuff. Don't mind working with a 2GB RAM limit in 2014, then $50 is a steal for an iMac - really nice looking machine, just stare at it while you wait for everything to load.

    41. Re:oh goody! by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      Sorry to say, Windows 10 is truly a return to the dark side...

      Things are getting a steadily brighter in Ubuntu land, probably not good enough to replace your OS-X based tools for daily professional work (colleagues still send me stuff that just doesn't open correctly in LibreOffice), but worth a look.

    42. Re:oh goody! by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      I highly recommend purchasing AppleCare with the company's money - if it's my own, I'd rather stick with basic hardware and a Linux OS - Ubuntu is growing up, slowly but surely.

    43. Re:oh goody! by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      I think that Apple's engineering staff is not sufficiently resourced to "value stream" their designs to fail just after warranty - some stuff (like the iPad 1 physical case and screen) is bulletproof, but later iPads have gotten more and more fragile, even as they advertise using stronger materials. But, they did manage to kill the iPad 1 with OS upgrades.

      I also have a pre-Intel (was that G5?) MacMini that "works as well as it ever did", but again the software has left it in the dust, kids run TuxPaint on it just fine, but it can't browse the modern internet.

      So, summing up my experience of the last decade or so: 3 computers have lasted forever, but become useless due to inadequate processor/RAM/etc., a notebook, and several iPad minis have died due to weak hardware design, and a couple of intel generation mac minis are still spinning strong - but they're roughly equivalent to double-priced intel NUCs...

    44. Re: oh goody! by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      In my experience, there are hardware changes that will preclude booting windows entirely, some can be overcome with drivers, some will just result in a blue screen. Mostly, I think this has to do with the CPU, so you can shove it in a "similar" pc, but Linux is much more resilient to being moved around.

    45. Re:oh goody! by nine-times · · Score: 1

      They've made the occasional model that had something or other that died unexpectedly and often.

      In fairness, in most of those cases, they admitted that there was some kind of manufacturing/design flaw and fixed/replaced it for free, sometimes even if the device was out of warranty.

    46. Re: oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not sure why he said that either. I've copied data from Windows hard drives 100's of times. The last time I upgraded the MB, CPU, RAM and GPU in my computer I plugged the hard drive in, booted into the old Windows install, installed drivers then used the computer for months until Win 10 was released then I did a clean install.

    47. Re:oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      but only after a class action lawsuit usually

    48. Re: oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One correction: the MTBF is not merely the minimum of all components in the system. The effective combined MTBF of the system is reduced with each extra component integrated. Apple's choice has effectively lowered the reliability of their storage, and ensures that you will lose recent work since your last backup if anything fails. Possibly everything if the backup disk itself fails.

    49. Re:oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try not holding it that way.

    50. Re:oh goody! by leptons · · Score: 1

      Apple hardware is not the best, especially the MBP 2011 variety - Apple was sued in a class action for the 10s of thousands of 2011 Macbook Pros that died suddenly due to overheating. The replacement logic boards from Apple also die after just a couple of months of use, and nothing can fix that - the 2011 MBP is doomed to failure, and it's just a matter of time before yours dies too. Just google "2011 mbp class action" if you don't believe me.

    51. Re: oh goody! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      On my previous job, there were about a dozen iphone developers and other hipsters who had macbooks as their workstation. Every single one of them had their SSDs replaced due to breakage at latest on the second year of usage. I bet they either had some really crap SSDs installed on factory or the devices were not ventilated well enough for full day usage and the drivers were literally toasted. I wonder if the apple's SSD lifetime is still the same?

      SSD tech has come a LONG way in a very short time. The SSDs that Apple is installing in the new MBPs is incredibly reliable.

      Having said that, I'm not so sure I'm "on board" with having the mass-storage permanently "on board".

    52. Re: oh goody! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Here's the problem: if your Mac with 2Tb is out of warranty and the logic board fails, you'll need a replacement logic board/SSD combo and that is going to be very expensive.

      Looks like a nice cottage business for someone with a decent SMT rework station and an eBay account... Add a data transfer/recovery service, and go straight to the "Profit!" step!

    53. Re:oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I feel the same about computers that are non-upgradable. I won't buy them. And my favorite laptop is still a Dell Precision Core 2 Duo/4GB with Linux Mint 17.2 on it. I got it for free! :)

    54. Re:oh goody! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      I'd like to see what the actual intended lifetime is of Apple products, by design. By observation, they seem to expect most of them to be replaced within 24 months or less, and the designs seem to intentionally self-destruct shortly thereafter.

      That certainly isn't my experience, nor the experience of 99% of the people I know with Apple gear.

      For example, my "daily drivers" are a mid 2012 non-retina 15" MacBook Pro, an iPad 2, and an iPhone 6 Plus (my iPhone 4s still works, but I don't use it anymore), and a 5th Gen Airport Extreme Base Station. All of them work identically to the day I got them.

      The most extreme example is that one of my friends has a G4 Aluminum PowerBook he bought used about 4 years ago, a second-gen iPod, plus a first or second-gen Airport Base Station and an iPhone 4. His wife has a first-gen Intel Mac mini. All are their "Daily Drivers".

      Yeah, built for a 24-YEAR replacement cycle is more like it...

    55. Re: oh goody! by the_B0fh · · Score: 1

      You have twelve MacBooks, all of them had their Apple factory installed SSD die within less than two years?

      I call bullshit.

    56. Re: oh goody! by tsa · · Score: 1

      Indeed you're right. But that concerned the 15 and 17" models. I have the indestructable 13" inch one.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    57. Re: oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The thing with the CPU is a different brand. I dont remember what it is but if you go in one direction you have no issues when you go in the other you have to remove a config file or something before it will boot and recognize the different CPU.

      I want to say going AMD to Intel is not an issue its going the other way.

    58. Re:oh goody! by the_B0fh · · Score: 1

      And you don't insurance either, because you live a good life, and so you don't want to bet that your life is a bad choice?

    59. Re:oh goody! by the_B0fh · · Score: 2, Informative

      I just had a motherboard replaced in year four (2012 retina 15"), free, outside of AppleCare extended warranty period.

      But, don't worry, we've gotta let the haters claim that Apple products suck, and Apple's treatment of customers suck, even though they don't own or use Apple products.

    60. Re:oh goody! by the_B0fh · · Score: 1

      Have you tried asking Google?

    61. Re:oh goody! by the_B0fh · · Score: 1

      Which part do you think will wear out in 6 years? With normal use? You realize with wear leveling, standard SSDs can last for 10+ years nowadays right?

    62. Re:oh goody! by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 1

      I buy insurance against things outside of my control. The things covered by applecare (and other similar extended warranties) that are not covered by one or another of those insurance policies are either exceedingly rare, or, are the result of poor quality on the part of the manufacturer.

      BTW, I used to work in retail at several levels. We were encouraged to sell extended warranties because the company considered extended warranties to be almost 100% profit.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    63. Re:oh goody! by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      There's a reason you're the fake Tim Cook...

      My experience has been 50/50 - 50% of our Apple products crap out due to build defects (or, in the case of iPad minis, weak materials) well before expected, the other 50% have severely underpowered computer capability rendering them mostly useless- for example, the previous generation to the 1st intel mac mini - yeah, it still works, just not with anything you'd consider modern software.

    64. Re: oh goody! by TWX · · Score: 1

      Same thing is happening with new cars also. How many people are installing Holleys and Hookers anymore? Open the hood. Can you even see the engine?

      The engine is usually covered up by thin plastic panels that either press-on or have a couple of mounting screws. Take that cover off and you still have an air filter, an intake plenum, a throttle plate, an intake manifold, a cylinder head with valves, a block with pistons, an exhaust manifold, headpipe, cat, exhaust and muffler.

      Fuel is delivered via fuel injection. Could be multiport fuel injection into the intake runners for each cylinder, or could be direct injection right into the cylinder similarly to how most diesels work. The sensors on the intake plenum, intake manifold, exhust headpipe, and exhaust post-catalytic converter provide feedback to the computer so that it may deliver fuel and spark to most efficiently and powerfully operate the engine. Some engines use variable valve timing to further refine the airflow through the engine.

      There is no need to bolt a Holley on. There might be some advantage in a better designed exhaust manifold or header, and that is still possible, but modern design and manufacturing techniques are producing exhaust manifolds and intake components that are pretty damn good, it would cost quite a bit to actually produce ones that are better. Even most aftermarket exhausts these days, headpipe-down or cat-back, are for sound, not for performance.

      The 2.4L "Tigershark" inline four cylinder in my wife's Renegade has more horsepower than the 360 cubic inch (5.9L) 2bbl 360 that was in my '78 Chrysler when it was built. It has almost as much torque. Granted, these do not come at the same low RPM as the Chrysler, but it can accelerate quicker and gets more than double the fuel economy with a more comfortable interior. The Chrysler 3.6L V6 puts out around 300 horsepower, around 40 more than the 5.7L LT1 engine in my '95 Impala. The Chrysler V8s are well over 400 horsepower.

      Back in the day, relatively inexpensive bolt-ons like carburetors, intake manifolds, headers, even cams would make a difference. Today automakers have a lot more compliance to meet, so they've had to take the tricks that were used back in the day and apply them with both fuel economy and emissions in-mind to squeeze as much as they can for the money out of reciprocating piston engines. One can still mod engines for more power, but it's neither cheap nor easy to do so now.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    65. Re: oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except you'll need to activate your software because what you are suggesting is piracy

    66. Re:oh goody! by BronsCon · · Score: 1

      They still make great Linux machines if you don't install the graphics driver and don't mind the garbled pre-GRUB boot screen.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    67. Re:oh goody! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      I had a 2006 MBP, the mag-lock charging cables (mine and my colleagues) lasted about 6 months - bad strain relief design, something Apple continued for over a decade into the early iPads.

      Just a small accessory, sure... now let's talk about the exploding batteries (replaced under warranty, if you knew to ask). Growing pains, yeah.

      Now, let's talk about the lack of proper heat-sink compound on the GPU... 18 months into life we started having heat-death of the GPUs on those models - no warranty repairs offered here, would you like to purchase a main board replacement for 80% of the cost of a new laptop?

      O.K. - that MacBook Pro model was just a lemon, they had been in the PC manufacturing business for 25 years, but this laptop thing is still sorta new, cut them some slack?

      How about their "education model" iMacs that they have the Universities on contract to replace every 2 years - you can get those cheap (like $50) if you know when the dumping sales come around. Thing is, the "education models" are nerfed with max RAM capacities and other things to make them obsolete _even faster_ than the consumer grade stuff. Don't mind working with a 2GB RAM limit in 2014, then $50 is a steal for an iMac - really nice looking machine, just stare at it while you wait for everything to load.

      Anybody can abuse a cable, or not. I have NEVER had an Apple charging cable failure; but then, as a former sound-engineer, I know how to treat cables...

      Bulging batteries are a problem with every laptop manufacturer. If you leave your MacBook on "charge" 24/7/365, figure on replacing batteries every few years. Newer models got better at that.

      Heat-sink compound misapplied: Contract Manufacturer's fault (although Apple maybe dropped the QC-ball on that one). Check Google. It has happened to EVERY laptop manufacturer at one time or another. Again, not a "design" problem, but a Contract Manufacturing problem. But I agree, Apple bears the ultimate responsibility. But as for "no replacement", for every story of "Apple wouldn't replace my motherboard", there is at least one "Apple replaced my motherboard even though it was way out of warranty/recall limits."

      Intentionally-crippled iMacs? First: Citation, please? Second: One word: Firmware Upgrade. Apple CERTAINLY wouldn't bother to generate, qualify, and pay for standards-testing on TWO motherboard designs, so the difference MUST be Firmware, which is easily re-flashed by the iMac itself. Oh, and Everymac.com says that although certain Education-Only iMacs from 2011 only OFFICIALLY supported 8 GB of RAM, they actually DO support 16 GB. And although they seem to have temporarily limited RAM to 4 GB on the 2009 Educational iMacs through an EFI Firmware mod., they eventually removed that restriction, too. So, unless you have another, more reliable citation...

    68. Re:oh goody! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      I have the same issue. Even though I have been very happy with the Apple enviroment of OS X and their hardware. They are moving further and further away from something I want to spend my money on. Their recent MacBook Pro "upgrade" have made them useless for me and all too expensive.

      My late 2013 iMac still packs a punch with the Intel I7. I can have FCPX pro rendering in the background while websurfing and other stuff still runs smooth. It feels like a workstation, it has a cmd line I can use. it used to have a proper disk utility program etc etc.

      Of course that is because I am running external RAIDs on the USB3 ports for the rendering, etc. I need to accessorize a MacBook Pro with numerous dongles, and after a while, external storage because I cannot upgrade it. So it is becoming useless too fast and too expensive for my wallet. Like I switched from Windows in 2007 to OS X, I might need to do the reverse when the next upgrade comes around and see if I work with Windows again.

      It is really sad how they have dumbed every thing down.

      Here's how to have the functionality of the old Disk Utility back.

      I think you will find that the CPU in the new MacBook Pro will be significantly faster than the one in your 2013 model.

      And if you are a MacBook Pro user, you already use a "Dongle" (Adapter!) to drive an external display (you don't seriously edit video in FCP on the built-in display); so what's your problem?

      And you already use an external RAID to do your FCP Rendering; so what's your objection there? Either get a $2 USB-C to USB-A adapter on Amazon for your external RAID, or get a USB-C RAID and enjoy at least twice the b/w of USB 3.0, or get a TB 3 RAID and have it be almost as fast at transferring data as Internal Storage!

    69. Re:oh goody! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Today, if you want to stick with El Capitain, you can run that on a 9 year old Mac.

      How can you install it? It's no longer visible on the App Store. Is there a way to order a physical disc?

      Try the suggestion mentioned here: http://apple.stackexchange.com...

    70. Re:oh goody! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Maybe, find someone who has already downloaded it before in their Mac App store account. It'll still be in their Purchased list. Then they can download the installer app. Then use the command line utility hidden inside the app, to create a bootable installer on a USB stick.

      Much easier for El Cap. It's still available! https://support.apple.com/en-u...

    71. Re:oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've had great longevity with my PowerBooks / MacBookPros. My current workhorse is 5+ years old (15" with quad i7) and I have no reason to replace it. Disappointed with this discovery since the one thing I've done to nearly every notebook is upgrade storage. However, lifetime is certainly more than 2 years.

    72. Re:oh goody! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      I think that Apple's engineering staff is not sufficiently resourced to "value stream" their designs to fail just after warranty - some stuff (like the iPad 1 physical case and screen) is bulletproof, but later iPads have gotten more and more fragile, even as they advertise using stronger materials. But, they did manage to kill the iPad 1 with OS upgrades.

      I also have a pre-Intel (was that G5?) MacMini that "works as well as it ever did", but again the software has left it in the dust, kids run TuxPaint on it just fine, but it can't browse the modern internet.

      So, summing up my experience of the last decade or so: 3 computers have lasted forever, but become useless due to inadequate processor/RAM/etc., a notebook, and several iPad minis have died due to weak hardware design, and a couple of intel generation mac minis are still spinning strong - but they're roughly equivalent to double-priced intel NUCs...

      The PowerPC minis were G4, not G5.

      Try TenFourFox for a more modern Browser. It works a treat, and even has Altivec acceleration! About the only thing that it doesn't support is Flash past the last PPC version Adobe released (10.1, IIRC) (unless they've added that, too).

      Oh, but wait! Someone updated Flash Player for PPC to version 16.1!!!

    73. Re:oh goody! by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      You know, I thought that... my colleague was a boorish slob and when he was on his 4th replacement cable I thought "man, what a careless jerk." But, I had the same model (15" MacBook Pro, 2006) and after less than 1 year of very careful use - with his cautionary example that care was required, mine fell apart too.

      But, it's all good, I never needed a 2nd replacement because my graphics chip overheated itself into uselessness within less than 2 years.

      They did, however, replace the inflating batteries under warranty.

    74. Re:oh goody! by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      Cool, and thanks - might just try that. That little box is a tank.

    75. Re: oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The SSDs that Apple is installing in the new MBPs is incredibly reliable.

      Since you know that they are "incredibly reliable" then you should be able to tell us exactly what type of cells they are using in them. If they aren't SLC or eMLC then they are crap. MLC would normally be OK for most users but only if the media were replaceable like a standard drive. TLC is pure garbage.

      Most Mac owners I have heard from like to talk about the high resale value of their computers. This new line of Macbooks looks to kill off that market since nobody is going to want to buy a used system with a nearly dead (or unknown status) SSD.

    76. Re:oh goody! by SimonTheSoundMan · · Score: 1

      It is there, but wont show up in your current machine. I had a few old Macs the other day, did an Internet recovery and they downloaded Lion.

    77. Re:oh goody! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      There's a reason you're the fake Tim Cook...

      My experience has been 50/50 - 50% of our Apple products crap out due to build defects (or, in the case of iPad minis, weak materials) well before expected, the other 50% have severely underpowered computer capability rendering them mostly useless- for example, the previous generation to the 1st intel mac mini - yeah, it still works, just not with anything you'd consider modern software.

      Bullshit.

    78. Re:oh goody! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      You know, I thought that... my colleague was a boorish slob and when he was on his 4th replacement cable I thought "man, what a careless jerk." But, I had the same model (15" MacBook Pro, 2006) and after less than 1 year of very careful use - with his cautionary example that care was required, mine fell apart too.

      But, it's all good, I never needed a 2nd replacement because my graphics chip overheated itself into uselessness within less than 2 years.

      They did, however, replace the inflating batteries under warranty.

      I don't know how people are doing this with MagSafe cables other than twisty, turny, yanky. I have Apple charging cables for iOS devices going back to about 2011, and iPod charging cables going back to about 2005, as well as a 2013 MagSafe (first gen) cable, and not one of them is even having a hint of failure.

    79. Re:oh goody! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Cool, and thanks - might just try that. That little box is a tank.

      No problem! Yes they are.

      I have a friend that swore by TenForFour on his G5 Tower. Absolutely loved it....

    80. Re:oh goody! by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      Applecare isn't all that expensive and it basically covers everything in a no questions asked kind of manner. If I have a 500 dollar computer I'll roll the dice. 2500 dollar computer? Time to pay for applecare.

    81. Re: oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What you described:
      Same computer, replace hard drive, clone data to it, boot.

      What he described:
      Pull hard drive out, insert it in a different computer, boot.

      Yes, Windows doesn't mind hard drive cloning one bit, and everyone's been doing it for ages. Changes in hardware, however, aren't that fun. Lniux handles it well because the kernel has all the drivers and makes automatic use of them, Windows seems to want a 'device installation' for every hardware change.

      (Disclaimer: I haven't tried with a Windows from this decade.)

    82. Re:oh goody! by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 1

      If I am buying a $2500 computer, I should not need applecare. If I do, I bought the wrong $2500 computer.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    83. Re:oh goody! by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      There were mag-safe cables on the 2006 MacBook Pros - like I said, pulled out by the connector, not the cable, carefully folded into the notebook bag... Now, I did carry the notebook in and out of the office daily, so it's not like it just sat on a desk and never got inserted/extracted. I think it was just the flexing of being put in the notebook bag that eventually frayed it - the strain relief was kind of a joke back then.

      First gen iPads had a similar looking design, much more sturdy, but it eventually died too (shortly before OS upgrades essentially bricked the iPad) - by the time we replaced it they had a new looking design - Genius at the Genius bar tried to tell me that I was using an aftermarket cable because of the difference in design.... no, Genius, this is the cable that came in the original box from Apple... plus, if it were an aftermarket cable, that probably would mean that the OEM cable had died even faster....

    84. Re:oh goody! by Ed+Avis · · Score: 1

      Sadly, that page links to a page that no longer exists (it just redirects to a generic Apple welcome page). I have not been able to find OS X El Capitan on the App Store.

      --
      -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
    85. Re:oh goody! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Sadly, that page links to a page that no longer exists (it just redirects to a generic Apple welcome page). I have not been able to find OS X El Capitan on the App Store.

      Have you tried those links FROM a "Mac that doesn't support Sierra"? If not, you may not be able to d/l El Cap.

      Here's an article that has some additional suggestions.

      Ask around. You may find someone that has an installer for El Cap. laying around. Then, you can use the Freeware DiskMaker X to create an Installer USB Stick.

      One thing I discovered: If you go the DiskMaker route, before you do the Install, make sure you set your System Time & Date to the CREATION Date of the Installer "App" that you are Installing!!! Just look at the Creation Date of the Installer in the Finder, and set your Mac's clock accordingly.

    86. Re:oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree with a lot of what you're saying. I bought the late 2011... after about a year I upgraded the memory to 16G and it was cheap by then - it would have been really expensive when I bought the machine. Later, I added a 1TB SSD which took the machine from really doggy (it had a 7200 rpm drive) to very quick again. It's finally starting to be too slow (for XCode 8) and I probably need to replace it, but...

      I'm going to wait as long as I can to see if Apple releases a laptop that can accommodate 32 or 64 G of RAM.

      I really hate that they've made it impossible to update the disk... If I have to get the current MBP I'll probably order the 2TB SSD which will bring the price in over $4,000. That's really crazy for a laptop!

      I would really like to see Apple go back to allowing us to upgrade memory and disk on the MBP... Please give me a slightly thicker laptop that lets me upgrade the internals!

    87. Re: oh goody! by brantondaveperson · · Score: 1

      When you actually can remove the drive and place it in another machine, there is no OS that supports it better than OSX. I've done it many times, and you never have to do anything, all the drivers are there, and it always works perfectly.

      Of course, you can't do that with the new macbooks, and it feels kinda like we had something taken away from us. But consider, the only reason that hard-disks were separate components was that they were large physical objects with moving parts, inside sealed containers. Flash storage isn't like that at all, and so it doesn't make any kind of engineering sense to continue to use a removable container for your storage. You can more closely match the performance of the flash storage, with the expectations of the rest of the hardware - and of course the whole thing gets cheaper. Not that you'd notice with the price of the new macbooks, but they really are in a class of their own when it comes to their actual physical quality.

      Laptops haven't had replaceable graphics cards for a long time - and yes I'm sure you can get some giant Dell Alienware thing that's only barely portable that contradicts me - and maybe this is the future for all portable devices? No-one gets all irritated about their phones not having upgradable RAM.... Ok, ok, people do, but you know what I mean.

    88. Re: oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I once pulled a Windows 95 laptop drive and popped it into a laptop that was originally designed for XP.

      It worked fine. Not sure why you'd get a blue screen...

    89. Re: oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Incorrect, people will still buy it because they won't know any better.

      I've always found it stupid to pay close to 80 % retail for used. Might as well pony up the extra 50 bucks for peace of mind and a warranty. You have no idea what quirks you're buying that a quick test won't pick up.

    90. Re: oh goody! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you on drugs? No laptop manufacturer had their batteries buldge like they did in 2008.

    91. Re:oh goody! by Ed+Avis · · Score: 1

      Good suggestions, thanks.

      --
      -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
  8. Re: Why would anyone buy Apple devices? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Lol! Linus, I thought we told you not to play on the Slashdots today!

  9. Too many PCBs by dohzer · · Score: 1

    Personally I'd recommend having one PCB for everything instead of dividing the PCBs into separate logic (FPGA) and CPU circuit boards.
    But Apple can do what they want.

  10. Never mind storage upgrades by jenningsthecat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What about when the SSD craps out? Then it's back to Apple, (or at least to a third-party shop), for an undoubtedly expensive repair job. Great! More stuff that the user has no hope of repairing on his or her own, and more non-renewable materials prematurely tossed into landfill. Tell me again - why in hell would I want a new Apple laptop?

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
    1. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Everyone who depends on making iOS apps has to hold their nose and dive in.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    2. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by mlyle · · Score: 1, Interesting

      A high quality integrated SSD probably has a MTBF approaching that of the connectors to a separate SSD over the useful life of a laptop.

    3. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by darthsilun · · Score: 1

      What about when the SSD craps out? Then it's back to Apple, (or at least to a third-party shop), for an undoubtedly expensive repair job.

      Dunno, what about it? Maybe like the time the hinge on my 1stGen MBA broke – out of warrantee – and Apple's charge to fix it was... wait for it... nothing. Or the time my son's 2008 MBPro graphics card died – also out of warrantee – and Apple's charge to repair that... wait for it... also nothing.
      But you know, you've already made up your mind, so hate on.

    4. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Because 95% of end users will never upgrade the RAM or Storage
      Because 100% of IOS users have never been able to upgrade the hardware
      Because external storage is cheap
      Because networked storage is cheap (I have a 9TB RAID array at home available via wireless)
      Because hardware is still becoming more reliable
      Because sockets are less reliable than solder joints (god I remember the days of cleaning edge connectors...shudder)
      Because wave soldering everything in one hit is cheaper and more reliable and needs less manpower
      Because you can recycle the laptop, putting it into a landfill is your choice, not Apples.
      Because in real terms each year they become cheaper
      Because Apple is working with real statistics from millions of users/machines and actually KNOWS what fails and what doesn't and what gets upgraded.
      Because no matter what Apple does there will still be people bitching about something Apple did or didn't do, and they are ultimately irrelevant.
      Because for commodity items, no one cares about a sample of one.
      Because if you are never going to buy one again, no one cares.
      Because tomorrow no one will care (or even remember) what you wrote, it will have changed no ones opinions nor made a difference to the world

      Because the only option you actually have is to shut up and buy something different if that meets your need better, your issues are not mine, and just like the colour of your underwear, your choices do not impact me in any way what so ever, stop pretending that they do. Grow up, stop thinking that everything revolves around you and get out and see the world and enjoy life, you will be much happier for it.

    5. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Feral+Nerd · · Score: 2

      What about when the SSD craps out? Then it's back to Apple, (or at least to a third-party shop), for an undoubtedly expensive repair job. Great! More stuff that the user has no hope of repairing on his or her own, and more non-renewable materials prematurely tossed into landfill. Tell me again - why in hell would I want a new Apple laptop?

      I'll claim the repair on my home insurance policy which covers my laptop among other things. Having said that I have yet to have an Apple SSD crap out on me or for that matter the SSD chips on any mobile device I own. What's normally crapped out on my mobile devices every single time so far was the charging circuit when I was dumb enough to plug the device into a USB socket or cigarette lighter socket on a motorcar and on the Laptops it was usually the battery when it neared the end of its lifespan. As to why I'd buy an ultra compact laptop (either Apple or some other brand) ?? ... because it is ultra compact, I like ultra compact and I accept that that comes with a price and soldered components are part of that price. If you don't mind carrying a concrete pavement slab of a laptop around with you because you can swap out every single individual component then go right ahead and do that. I won't crap all over you for buying one or using one and I hope it brings you much joy. Just for god sake try to scrounge together the good manners to stop crapping all over those of us who like ultra compact portables Apple or some other brand. There are good reasons to buy an ultra compact laptop even if you can't understand them.

    6. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      What about when the SSD craps out?

      How often does that happen?

      Then it's back to Apple, (or at least to a third-party shop), for an undoubtedly expensive repair job.

      Or you could, you know, learn to use a soldering iron.

      Tell me again - why in hell would I want a new Apple laptop?

      Somehow, I doubt if you were going to buy one anyway.

    7. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Trogre · · Score: 1

      What's the excess on your home insurance claims? Is it really less than the cost of a new SSD+installation?

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    8. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Lehk228 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      by the time the drive dies, it won't be worth repairing anyways. I'm on year 6 booting from an SSD with no signs of impending failure.

      --
      Snowden and Manning are heroes.
    9. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by jettoblack · · Score: 1

      Unless you happen to use Spotify... http://arstechnica.com/informa...

    10. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      TL;DR: Because courage?

      Obligatory Onion article.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    11. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      thinking that one can solder BGAs with a soldering iron is just silly. Attempting to reflow fine-pitch BGAs in your toaster without damaging the other components is only slightly less silly.

    12. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      There is no guarantee of the drive lasting 6 years. Drives can fail inexplicably in 6 months if you're unlucky. It makes no sense to permanently tie the storage to the machine, other than to rake in more cash. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve

    13. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      How often does that happen?
      My 96GB Wintec FileMate (PCMCIA and USB card) just died a few days ago. With less than 100h of operations. $400 down the trash. (bought it like 5 years ago)

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    14. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh there will probably be some ifixit.com hack where you solder a cable into the mobo thunderbolt header (or is it a USB thingie now?) and replace the fan with a fan + micro-PCIe connector contraption that gives you an additional 1 TB of storage on a chip. Wouldn't be necessary though, if the internet service providers would commit to Gbps+ connectivity everywhere at a price the teeming millions can afford.

                  Oh wait, we're in a business-friendly phase now. >

      On further reflection, I'm filing my patent application now.

    15. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A lot of people don't want to upgrade their computers. They want to do a job with them - and if their machines aren't performing up to par for that job - they get new ones. They don't care how the computers work. They don't care whether parts are replaceable. What they care about is how it helps them do what they want to do.

      Only the enthusiasts care about upgrading anymore. That was always the end game and the handwriting has been on the wall for a long time. I say this as a tech with 20 years of experience. I have watched the desktop PC go from a geek toy to an every-man tool with all the perks and drawbacks that brings with it. I even watched Slashdot go from the big geek hangout to what it is now - whatever that is.

      I know my future will involve doing warranty returns on tiny, irreparable devices and imaging leased tablets with greasy screens. I may find a new field with fresh challenges and more growth.

    16. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Plus1Entropy · · Score: 1

      Or you could, you know, learn to use a soldering iron.

      No one can solder a ball-grid array package by hand.

      Maybe you could buy your own pick-and-place machine and reflow oven and learn how to use those instead?

      --
      Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
    17. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by ogdenk · · Score: 1

      Ya know..... that's actually a cool idea.

    18. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Never mind if the SSD craps out, what happens if the computer craps out taking valuable data with it? In the past, if the computer was dead, you could still take the storage out and put it into another machine or get a USB adapter to transfer the data off the drive. That's not an option anymore.

      Yes I know ideally everyone should have a backup, but I've noticed that many people often don't.

    19. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BS

      My 2011 late model MBP is humming great! I bought it new with a shitty 500gb mechanically spun to 5400rpm and 4GB ram.
      I personally installed 2x8GB sticks and a 1TB 840evo ssd 3 years ago. That was Samsungs entry level ssd.
      Needless to say, the next drive soon will be 2TB when I can muster the asking price. Which, mind you, is SIGNIFICANTLY less than buying from Apple.

      The i7 clocks at 2.4GHz and smashes tasks left and right for a laptop. Which STILL is significantly AS fast as the new lines. It's just not good at gaming anymore with the latest stuff. But, I could use an external gfx enclosure for that. But why bother? I have a win10 gaming machine for that. /smirk

    20. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2008 MBPro graphics? Probably a GF 8600M GT, so it should have been free. There was a class action suit about that line of broken gpus.

    21. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by FrankSchwab · · Score: 1

      I bought my reflow oven from the Goodwill store for $10. Can even match the standard heating profiles with reasonable attention.
      May not be big enough for a motherboard however. Toaster ovens are marvelous things.

      --
      And the worms ate into his brain.
    22. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure they can.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSG5hluS128

    23. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      > Because 95% of end users will never upgrade the RAM or Storage

      The issue is less about upgrades than it is about drive failure. Apple is artificially limiting the user's options to replacing the entire notebook instead of just the storage device. Or as someone pointed out, if the laptop itself dies, you can't even recover your storage.

      > Because 100% of IOS users have never been able to upgrade the hardware

      This affects the MBP how?

      > Because external storage is cheap

      For a desktop, sure, but who wants to drag around an external storage device with their laptop?

      > Because networked storage is cheap (I have a 9TB RAID array at home available via wireless)

      Which is a) great for you, but not applicable to most users, and b) only good when you're at home.

      > Because hardware is still becoming more reliable

      Is that what you'll tell someone when their drive dies?

      > Because sockets are less reliable than solder joints (god I remember the days of cleaning edge connectors...shudder)

      Whoa, wait.. are you really comparing today's sockets with the old Nintendo 8-bit cartridge days? I've never, ever had a SATA connection fail.
      And solder joints can fail, too, as many iPhone users know.

      > Because wave soldering everything in one hit is cheaper and more reliable and needs less manpower

      Maybe, but I doubt it. It's all automated either way.

      > Because you can recycle the laptop, putting it into a landfill is your choice, not Apples.

      But how soon it becomes a paperweight is strongly influenced by Apple's choice to solder the storage on board.

      > Because in real terms each year they become cheaper

      $2500 is cheaper than what? That's not even close to "throw-away" cheap.

      > Because Apple is working with real statistics from millions of users/machines and actually KNOWS what fails and what doesn't and what gets upgraded.

      So presumably they know that hard drives/SSD drives do fail, but not enough for them to care. It's not their problem.

      > Because no matter what Apple does there will still be people bitching about something Apple did or didn't do, and they are ultimately irrelevant.

      When you call your bitching customer irrelevant, that is truly hubris.

      > Because for commodity items, no one cares about a sample of one.

      If you think it's just a sample of one, you are deluded.

      > Because if you are never going to buy one again, no one cares.

      Parent poster makes a valid argument. Dismissing it because "no one cares" is pretty lazy.

      > Because tomorrow no one will care (or even remember) what you wrote, it will have changed no ones opinions nor made a difference to the world

      Same could be said for your fanboi shitpost, too.

    24. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, this is not the case.

      And we know it is not the case because we have all used countless removeable SSD dives in countless systems. Over my entire experience I've had one SSD fail, and a dozen HDDs fail. I have only ever had one SATA cable fail to work, and have certainly never lost a port on a system board. Sure, just my experience, but to compare reliability of traces on the PCB, the SATA connectors, and cable, against that of the SSD itself, is just crazy man.

    25. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fine, I'll agree with you that the end game certainly does not include upgrade-able systems for most users.

      However, maintainability and serviceability will always be important. A modular design allows parts to be replaced. The poster further up said it best: you can't even recover the storage on this thing when the motherboard dies. So no, this "pro" laptop is basically throw-a-way junk that cannot be serviced.

    26. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by DavidRawling · · Score: 2

      Look. To Apple (and it seems most of the ICT industry, yay Cloud etc etc) everyone has dual-path failure-resilient 1Gbps wireless Internet with unlimited quotas. They literally fail to comprehend that there could be people who only have 1.2Mbps/200Kbps DSL, only have 10GB of quota a month, or who work disconnected (e.g. away from 3G and 4G networks too). "Ubiquitous wireless" means no RJ45 (without dongles). "Ubiquitous high speed uploads/downloads" means the cloud performs OK (ignore the arguments about ownership, my files on someone else's computer and how much they do or don't care), so everyone backs up to the cloud always. There are no software bugs ("You're doing it wrong") and even if there are, meh, "not my problem, tough luck, your 5TB of backup is gone but our liability is 1 month's service at $5, you won't be billed next month if you argue enough".

      Yeah yeah the future is coming and we'll all have 20Gbps mobile broadband. It'll cover every inch of the earth with no need to make allowances for remote areas, and we will achieve near zero latency everywhere (ask a SF or Redmond developer about latency to their clouds from the other side of the planet on a satellite connection and see how many guess less than 200ms (Hah! Closer to the 800+ms mark)). Maybe in this Utopian future it will make sense to assume what Apple and others assume today.

      It's my GOMS* talking I am certain, but the current generation of go-getter developers hasn't lived through enough history to understand the times when they push the envelope too far. Just like my generation didn't 20 years ago, and the previous one 20 years before that. We're going to have to deal with this crap for another ten years or so till it levels off; then we should hopefully have ten years of sanity. Don't hold your breath.

      *: Grumpy Old Man Syndrome, I'm over 40 now

    27. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Gussington · · Score: 1

      What about when the SSD craps out? Then it's back to Apple, (or at least to a third-party shop), for an undoubtedly expensive repair job.

      What happens if your SSD craps out now? How is this different?
      I'm no Apple fan, I don't own any of their toys, but my daughter has an iPhone, and when it broke I found Apple support to be the best I've come across (they replaced it on the spot.)

    28. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by BlackPignouf · · Score: 1

      My grandmother relied exclusively on anecdotal evidence, and she lived to be 103!

    29. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      SSDs fail, I've had two die, it happens. Apple SSDs aren't magic or better than other SSDs, same chips and controller in there. You have been lucky, but one day your luck will run out.

      Interesting you would cite wanting an ultra-compact laptop as the reason for getting a Macbook, when due to the number of dongles required these days they are not really ultra-compact any more. The 0.2mm they shaved off by removing some random port or feature is more than lost due to dongles, and the latest keyboards are crap too.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    30. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Insightful? It's a sample of 1.

      I've owned two SSDs that died. One was an Intel, ran out of spare blocks. The other was an Adata which just stopped reading one day. Anecdotally, SSDs have a 67% failure rate.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    31. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      You know... we'd added my wife's DSLR to our schedule on the homeowner's policy, but for some reason it hadn't really occurred to me that it could potentially used as a extended warranty for pretty much anything... hmm...

    32. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Kielistic · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure how you could come to that conclusion. Maybe if you changed drives 3 times a day you might run into connector failure. An SSD absolutely, no question about it, has a higher chance of failing than the connector it is stuck into.

    33. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Kielistic · · Score: 1

      I've got a 10 year old Acer laptop that still boots from its original spin drive. Clearly Acer is better quality than Apple.

    34. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

      What are you talking about? This is an Apple, there is nothing ever wrong with an Apple computer. They put in all the storage you'll ever need, how thoughtful of them, eh? Just like that old PC with 640K of memory, you'd never need any more than that.

      Sometimes I wonder if legalized wacky weed has something to do with them lately. Hey man, let's solder this in.. heh heh yea... heh heh

    35. Re:Never mind storage upgrades by Lehk228 · · Score: 1

      if it goes tits up in the first year apple will replace it under warranty, or 3 years if you got apple care.

      --
      Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  11. Not really by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    I desoldered mine and replaced it with a larger SSD. So far so goo

    1. Re: Not really by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try goo gone?

    2. Re:Not really by unixisc · · Score: 2

      The soldering job these days is usually surface mount soldering, so how exactly did you manually pull it off? Especially given that the packages are probably BGAs, so you'd have to get solders underneath the package, not at the sides, where it is easier. Not to mention 0.5mm pitches or below.

      As a former flash memory guy, I just wish they had come out w/ soldered storage last decade, when I still worked in the industry. But aside from that, if they solder PCIe storage modules to the board, why don't they go a step further, remove the PCIe slots plus modules, and just solder the flash devices and controller logic on the motherboard itself? Saves space not just in thickness, but also, on a laptop motherboard, why would they need any PCIx slots? Those slots are meant for add-on cards, which makes sense on a desktop, but never in a laptop. So just optimize everything like you did in the Mac Pro, and put everything - CPU, North Bridge, South Bridge, SSD storage, RAM, all on the motherboard.

      And in keeping w/ the Apple tradition of add-on enhancements, maybe introduce USB3 dongles w/ the same SSD in similar levels of density, like 1TB or more.

    3. Re:Not really by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      if they solder PCIe storage modules to the board, why don't they go a step further, remove the PCIe slots plus modules

      Because fuck you, customer. The modules are there so that Apple can second source SSDs and keep costs down, the solder is there so that you can't get a cheap upgrade or repair.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:Not really by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's why I have a reflow station

  12. Re: Why would anyone buy Apple devices? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are funny. If you want to get a similarly designed and speced notebook from dell, it cost as much. On top of that, Apple built is usually better. Lastly, why would i want to get a Dell paying Microsoft for windows when i can get a UNIX like system out of the box?

  13. Re: Why would anyone buy Apple devices? by See+Attached · · Score: 2

    Just another reason to stick to commodity hardware and run Linux on it. Once upon a time, it took a lot of work to get it to cover all the bases, but, its all working now. Main obstacles to broader Linux adoption are unfamilarity, and many that have vested interest in keeping it that way. The reality is that the good stuff is not in your laptop, but everywhere else, so local hardware/software doesn't really matter - it should be transparent. Its no real differentiator. Some companies want to decommoditize standard devices and then make you pay more for it. Pfft. (See also MP3) I will take connectors, and flexibility, over spiffy clean and neutered. Yeah. I like bluetooth, but also like tethered things (USB headset, 1/8 pin jack earphones, USB, MMC, Firewire is ok too!). Had enough of DB9/Serial and RJ11/Phone, but RJ45 can be handy, and display port and HDMI are nifty. Not sure about fingerprint scanners, but the seem like a great idea.

    --
    Time for a new Political party in the US (or two!) One is off the rails Other cant pony up a leader.
  14. An Apple representative explains it by steveha · · Score: 1

    This is a clip of an Apple representative explaining the changes to the MacBook Pro value proposition.

    https://youtu.be/jsW9MlYu31g

    Hmm... persuasive, but I'm still not planning to buy the new MacBook Pro.

    --
    lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
  15. Re:Yawn! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is this all Slashdork is anymore? Bitch about Apple, bitch about Trump, bitch about climate change. Booooring. No wonder this turd is dying.

    No, not all. There is also a good number of people who come here to bitch about /.

  16. SSD wear by manu0601 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    SSD wear may be a problem. Once it dies, you now change the laptop.

    1. Re:SSD wear by h4ck7h3p14n37 · · Score: 1

      The problem here is that some organizations have a security policy where hard drives are not allowed to leave the property. That means they can't purchase these laptops since the SSD is soldered to the board.

    2. Re:SSD wear by m0hawk · · Score: 2

      Assuming that Apple has installed a moderately well produced SSD, shouldn't it outlast the rest of the laptop?

      Not saying that soldering it in was a good idea, but it is hardly the component to die first. If it were a spinning metal drive, then yes, that would be stupid as it would probably fail first.

      Just another way for third party repairs and self upgrades can be limited. I used to think the Apple "throw it away and get a new model next year" jokes were just jokes.

    3. Re:SSD wear by Fwipp · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Somehow, I doubt that they were disassembling all their old MacBooks to remove the SSD before going home every night.

    4. Re:SSD wear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I've replaced at least three hundred SSDs so far this year due to wear problems. My personal laptop has a Samsung 850 that is down to 14%. SSDs are a wear item and have to be often replaced.

    5. Re:SSD wear by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Soon laptop shredders will be as common as the paper shredder.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    6. Re: SSD wear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My nine week old Samsung is down to 60% according to SMART. SSDs are disposable so it's sad to see them turn an entire laptop into something disposable.

    7. Re:SSD wear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What the heck do you do to have an 850 down to 14% (whatever that figure means). I've got a samsung 840 pro that I got at its launch and its running absolutely perfectly in a workstation that is on 24/7. Magician says its had approx 74tb of data written in total and the drive health is good. The SSD Endurance Experiment has shown that even this 840 can write nearly a petabyte before dying. I'm hardly the worst person on my drives but i've never had to replace an SSD so far in all the years I've been buying them with several of those ssd's being used as cache drives in servers (so lots of reads/writes).

    8. Re:SSD wear by mark-t · · Score: 1

      This. What happens is a company like this decides that they don't need the computer anymore because they have upgraded to something newer, and they would have donated their old one to a school.... except they can't now, because the ssd is fucking soldered to the motherboard.

    9. Re:SSD wear by manu0601 · · Score: 1

      The SSD Endurance Experiment has shown that even this 840 can write nearly a petabyte before dying

      I have not looked into this SSD Endurence Experiment, but I am certain there is a difference between minimum, average, median, and maximum lifespan. Even if 95% of the SSD can do a petabyte before dying, you will always find a few weaker drives in the remaining 5%.

    10. Re:SSD wear by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      I think you've discovered their evil plot.

    11. Re:SSD wear by burningcpu · · Score: 1

      *feature

    12. Re:SSD wear by geekmux · · Score: 1

      This. What happens is a company like this decides that they don't need the computer anymore because they have upgraded to something newer, and they would have donated their old one to a school.... except they can't now, because the ssd is fucking soldered to the motherboard.

      Then change your security policy to adopt one of the many tools available that effectively wipes the hard drive with multiple passes.

      If forensic wiping tools are good enough for Hillary's classified email, they should be good enough for a fucking school donation.

    13. Re:SSD wear by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Oh, they'll just move everything to the cloud, and then not worry about anything!!!

    14. Re:SSD wear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This. What happens is a company like this decides that they don't need the computer anymore because they have upgraded to something newer, and they would have donated their old one to a school.... except they can't now, because the ssd is fucking soldered to the motherboard.

      Haha, look at the moron that's never heard of target disk mode!

    15. Re:SSD wear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      I imagine they aren't disassembling their old MacBooks; at least not on a nightly basis.

      When it comes time to donate the hardware is where this is going to hit home. Often there are controlled rooms of hard drives awaiting professional destruction. The rest of the hardware is often donated to a charity. A move like this means that charities will no longer get nearly functional computers minus a hard drive, and the closets might need to be bigger.

    16. Re:SSD wear by mark-t · · Score: 1

      For all practical purposes, that is undoubtedly true, but when the policy is to *remove* the hard drives before donating them, if they can't do that, then they can't donate them without going and changing a policy that may be very firmly entrenched. There was a company that I used to work for that would donate their old computers to local schools as newer ones were purchased pretty much every single year, but the hard drives were *always* removed, and were explicitly never donated. I don't work for them anymore, and haven't for over a decade, so I don't know if they ever updated their policy to account for something like this, but I wouldn't be surprised if they haven't.

    17. Re:SSD wear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Depends on the data usage patterns. SSDs can only write so much data before they die. If the user browses the web, uses office etc then it'll last for years. However if that user processes large files repeatedly, then it could die potentially within a year.

    18. Re:SSD wear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      These organisations purchase do purchase notebooks, though? Seems unlikely given that taking out the hard drive whenever they are taken from the property defeats the whole purpose of a mobile computer.

    19. Re:SSD wear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If forensic wiping tools are good enough for Hillary's classified email,

      A home server hidden in a bath room was good enough. Hopefully that's not how anyone who cares about security operates.

    20. Re: SSD wear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Computers ARE disposable items and have been since some time. Get over it.

    21. Re:SSD wear by geekmux · · Score: 1

      If forensic wiping tools are good enough for Hillary's classified email,

      A home server hidden in a bath room was good enough. Hopefully that's not how anyone who cares about security operates.

      One would think the FBI cares about security. They thought roller skates to wear with those cool new Immunity-Deal leather jackets was a much better idea for an early Christmas gift.

    22. Re:SSD wear by h4ck7h3p14n37 · · Score: 1

      Somehow, I doubt that they were disassembling all their old MacBooks to remove the SSD before going home every night.

      Who said the laptops leave the building?

    23. Re:SSD wear by Fwipp · · Score: 1

      The problem here is that some organizations have a security policy where hard drives are not allowed to leave the property. That means they can't purchase these laptops since the SSD is soldered to the board.

    24. Re:SSD wear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most of those tools are only approved for HDDs and not SSDs yet. Additionally, some policies state that once wiped it still cannot be truly unclassified.

  17. perfect for Windows CE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cripplepad looks good, like a fancy vacuum cleaner sold to old people that payed for tge edutation of average Apple employees.

  18. Re: Why would anyone buy Apple devices? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I love Linux, but it is in no way superior to OSX for the desktop, or even Windows. It's great for programming and running servers, maybe a little Gimp here and there but it really makes no sense as a desktop for 99.9% of regular computer users. Linux's problem is that it doesn't have any centralized design team. It's just a big mashup of stuff written by random people with no obligation to maintain consistent style or usability. If Linux ever does come to the mass desktop it will be in the form of ChromeOS or some other thing designed, written and maintained centrally by some company who is willing to address those shortcomings and own it.

  19. Planned obsolescence - better alternatives by Harry8 · · Score: 1

    This is to kill the secondary market now that a 5 year old laptop has a cpu that is just fine. If it wasn't to kill the secondary market and the flash was really amazing and isn't going to fail ever they'd show a 5 year warranty.

    We all know they won't do that, they'll actually charge you extra to get any useful warranty. But yeah, I dislike apple and won't buy their crap after paying thousands for a macbook pro that they shipped with faulty nvidia hardware and didn't recall. Apple are just a horrible company, the existence of other horrible companies does not excuse them for being awful. They're worse than microsoft, their reputation was only ever better than microsofts due to their failure to get market power. As soon as they got any they went nuts with it. Think different to apple.

    Asus zenbook with any linux distro on it is just a plain better laptop.

    Please add your successful linux laptops to this thread.

    1. Re:Planned obsolescence - better alternatives by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      This is 100% correct. Apple knows Moore's Law is ending and the upgrade train is over. There will be no reason in 5 years to update the laptop you are using today....because there won't be any appreciable differences in speed.

    2. Re:Planned obsolescence - better alternatives by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      My MacBook Pro came with the AMD GPU with improperly applied heatsink paste... lasted for about 25 months before degenerating into a machine that would have no graphics display after coming up to temperature.

    3. Re:Planned obsolescence - better alternatives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please add your successful linux laptops to this thread.

      Good one! ( ^ ~ ^ *)

    4. Re:Planned obsolescence - better alternatives by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Please add your successful linux laptops to this thread.

      I have a few lenovo thinkpads of various ages running linux well at this site, but that's old news since they have supported linux well for years.

    5. Re:Planned obsolescence - better alternatives by Mal-2 · · Score: 1

      I'm dual-booting Windows 10 and Linux Mint Cinnamon 18 on an Acer C720 Chromebook. The i3 version (which I did not spring for) will also Hackintosh quite acceptably.

      --
      How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
  20. enough by supernova87a · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This change is more inexcusable than other modifications / removals of user-serviceability that they did in the name of thinness or performance. This mod signals to me their trying to fully capture / enforce price segmentation and making sure that products will expire and be retired more predictably.

    (and even if maybe not their outright explicit thinking, surely a benefit that they welcomed tacitly. And trading off user-friendliness and serviceability for profit. )

    I was already unhappy with the newer Macbooks having non-swappable RAM. I stuck with the old 2010-style Macbook Pros that you could remove everything pretty much and keep it up to date with larger, faster SSDs, etc.

    This on top of USB-C and the all-at-once crappifying of this model means I'm out.

    1. Re:enough by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      No, removal of the headphone jack is still more in-your-face than this, but they are all signs of a trend...

    2. Re:enough by Chaset · · Score: 1

      I think fondly of my 'Pismo'.
        -RAM - upgradable, two slots, up to 1GB (!!!)
        -Hard drive - upgradable, no silly 8GB/32GB BIOS barriers like the competition
        -CPU - upgradable (for a while, some vendors would take your CPU card and replace the G3 with a G4)
        -optical bay - upgradable/swappable, supports two battery mode
        -wireless card - replaceable (Built-in wireless was rare back then)
        -2xUSB & 2xFirewire & VGA out & audio in/out & Ethernet
        -Cardbus with Zoomed Video
        -One of the first laptops to feature Rage128 AGP, usable for gaming
        -Modem and IR ports

      It really was a beautiful machine. Expensive, but had the features to show for it.
      Apple have jumped the shark. Won't buy another until they bring back replaceable RAM/storage and ethernet port (or ethernet itself becomes obsolete).

      --
      -- "This world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel."
    3. Re:enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey, I still boot my Pismo occasionally. Slow, but rock solid. And yes, it has an SSD purchased when you could find 2.5" PATA SSD. The SSD is smaller than the (upgraded) HDD it replaced, but I removed MacOS and only installed Linux.

    4. Re:enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was under the impression it had been soldered on since the release of the Air/MBPr. I'd completely forgotten there was another model in the line (also turns out the PCIe SSD in MBPr's were actually on little daughterboards - nice).

      Either way, absolutely could not care less about the SSD.

      Don't really like the touch strip or the removal of MagSafe though.

  21. 'Green' credentials? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This sort of thing really puzzles me, coming from a company like Apple that I thought were big on being environmentally friendly and 'green'.

    Making something harder / more expensive to repair means that once in breaks, the most likely scenario is that it will be thrown in the trash. (I'm aware that there is e-waste recycling that can reclaim some of the raw materials, but from what I've read about how these operations are normally carried out- in third world countries with little to no safety standards- the recycling process itself can be fairly toxic, literally).

    If a tech company was serious about being green, wouldn't it be better to make devices that were more modular / repairable? But of course that would stop many people from buying the new shiny! Can't have that.

    To be fair, it isn't just Apple that do things this way- most tech companies aren't any better.

    1. Re:'Green' credentials? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >I thought they were big on being environmentally friendly and 'green'.
      They achieved their eco-goals.

      They were the first two words after that close-bracket. Mission accomplished.

      To be fair, that's hardly a jab unique to Apple.

  22. Re: Why would anyone buy Apple devices? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Android is on more computers than OSX, and if portable=waterproof then that means better than Apple and Samsung combined. I dont see an Apple operating system on non-Apple brands, do you? Microsoft can do that as well, but not Apple.

  23. A consumer device by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    Much like a toaster. It's a pity, I used to really admire Apple hardware, even if the UI experience wasn't my preference.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  24. Re: Fire Tim Cook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guess that's why Apple's stock price has almost tripled since Cook took over.

  25. Fairly common business practice. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lenovo's X and Microsoft's SP are also guilty of this practice. In the case of Microsoft, you cant even hope to update the RAM. Why should Apple be expected to differ? If you are looking for an upgradable system, the only one I know with this kind of aethstetics (impossible thin chasis) is Dell's XPS series.

    1. Re:Fairly common business practice. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's incorrect. With the X series (and I believe the surface) the RAM is soldered down but the SSD isn't. This is another step worse.

      Also this thread seems obsessed with the fact that the storage dying is the end of the machine - I'd be as worried if not more that something else (RAM, GPU etc.) dying means my storage is inaccessible. We've had machines die that have been recoverable because the disk can be pulled out while the mainboard is replaced etc.

  26. In other words, don't run Spotify on it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    nt

  27. Re: Why would anyone buy Apple devices? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you want to get a similarly designed and speced notebook from dell, it cost as much.

    No, no it doesn't. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

  28. Environmental cost of this? by grumpy-cowboy · · Score: 3, Informative

    So when your SSD (or any other soldered parts) broke off, you have to throw the laptop in the garbage?? (e-waste recycling is just an illusion... everything is sent to Hong-Kong and sent to the trash). And what about extending the life of your laptop by upgrading some parts of it? Apple is the biggest e-waste producer on the planet. It's a shame! And all those Hipster defending the planet with their iPhone in their pockets!

    --
    Will $CURRENT_YEAR be the year of the Linux Desktop?
    1. Re:Environmental cost of this? by Mal-2 · · Score: 1

      Hipsters don't keep iPhones in their pockets. Their skinny jeans are too tight, and they'd rather everyone see their shiny.

      --
      How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
    2. Re:Environmental cost of this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From where I sit, HP has produced an infinite amount more waste than Apple has under my roof. Two "premium" HP laptops that cost 90% of what a MBP did (each) lasted a total of 27 months combined. My MBP has been chugging along for 52 month and works as well as it did on the day I first got it.

      as far as what to do if a component fails? Replace the system board. That's what HP offered to do for me on a 13 month old laptop that's video card went out due to a "thermal incident." And they were gracious enough to want to do it at 40% of the original cost of the system.

      It's a shame, all of those Apple bashers hating on a product with a proven track record of outlasting their competition.

  29. Why would Apple do this? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    Because fuck you, that's why.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  30. Latest news: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Luckily I'm available to explain Apple's new abuse. Satan, the CEO of Hell, has been going to Apple managers and telling them that Microsoft is more evil (Windows 10 is spyware) and Apple needs to increase its abusiveness to compete.

    1. Re:Latest news: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I though jobs took over that position when he got there.

  31. Everyone is focusing on the SSD dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    We've just had the motherboard in a Mac at work die - it went back to the shop with a different disk in it so that the data could be preserved.

    Now if the board dies, your data goes with it.

  32. Just upgraded a 2010 macbook to SSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And man does it fly, usability-wise it's the same as the 2016 macbook pro I had next to it. Running sierra on both. And I thought, gee what a shame it would've been to chuck it in the bin (hdd was dead and even before that it was unbearably slow, boot took minutes).

    Then I thought gee if Apple knew they'd lost a sale, they'd be pissed.

    Then I read this. Hah.

  33. Look before you leap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    These days I always check the repairability score on iFixIt before I buy any gadget costing over $300. Extended warranties are nice but no substitute for being able to crack the case and get after it when something goes wrong.

  34. Re: Why would anyone buy Apple devices? by ogdenk · · Score: 1

    I wasn't aware they released InDesign, Logic Pro, ProTools or MS Office for Linux. With a Mac, I can run these.... and most of my favorite X11 based FOSS software natively.

    USB-C is perfectly usable for all those tethered things you described. You just need an adapter. Soon there will be USB-C versions of all those devices as well. People bitched about USB for years too. Now everyone uses FTDI USB->RS232 adapters.... I have an industrialized 4-port FTDI USB->serial box on my desk right now.... plugged into my Hackintosh. USB-C is certainly fast enough to handle gigabit ethernet adapters, etc.

    Just like USB, thanks to Apple, USB-C will be standard on your cheap Wintel hardware in a couple years too.

  35. Spending nothing, value even less. by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    If you go to Paris and don't spend quite a lot on food, aren't you rather a moron? After all that is a huge reason to go to Paris to begin with.

    I've been and while many aspects are nice I didn't think they were much better than other major European cities, but the food was amazing and if you aren't spending a lot on that do not even bother going.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Spending nothing, value even less. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      If you go to Paris and don't spend quite a lot on food, aren't you rather a moron? After all that is a huge reason to go to Paris to begin with.

      Food in Paris is cheap. Probably cheaper than in the rest of Europe if you compare the quality.
      I'm in Paris about 2x per month for 3 or 4 days. Eating excellent there is much cheaper than in my German "home town" which is Karlsruhe.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    2. Re: Spending nothing, value even less. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Great. Nazis are back in France. Just what we needed to hear.

    3. Re:Spending nothing, value even less. by jeremyp · · Score: 1

      You don't have to eat expensively in Paris to get good French food.

      --
      All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
  36. And the backup was where again? by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    Who has any computer of with anything of value that has no backup?

    I have Time Machine on all the time, but in addition to that I use a backup program to fully backup my system to an external drive every month or so...

    So I have two ways I can fully restore my system in well under a day, even if the whole machine is replaced.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:And the backup was where again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most people likely have one Time Machine backup on rotating rust, and there is always a chance of that failing during restore. It may not happen often, but as a percentage, a large number of people will lose data which should have been recoverable, but isn't thanks only to Apple's greed.

      It is utterly stupid to multiply the failure rate of your main storage device by all of the other system components. Moreover, the system storage is usually the only up to date copy of your data, which generally isn't the one you want to throw away needlessly.

      Apple has demonstrated time and again, that they just don't care about anything but their bottom line. Soldering a (tiny) SSD into the machine is done to cut costs and force an upgrade sooner, or better yet, drive you into the iCloud.

    2. Re:And the backup was where again? by tepples · · Score: 1

      Do you carry your external backup drive with you when you travel with your MacBook?

    3. Re:And the backup was where again? by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      Most people likely have one Time Machine backup on rotating rust, and there is always a chance of that failing during restore.

      Which is still infinitely higher than having NO backup and hoping your laptop hard drive will never fail.

      But that is why I have the second backup...

      It is utterly stupid to multiply the failure rate of your main storage device

      Not if you have a backup, then there's very little cost to it and the gain is substantial. So I guess only people without backups are stupid; but then that was always obvious,

      Apple has demonstrated time and again, that they just don't care about anything but their bottom line.

      Time and time again, Apple device sales say otherwise.

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  37. OP is an idiot by ahabswhale · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ALL 15" MBPs come with 16 GB of RAM. The device can only take LPDDR3, and Skylake only allows a max of 16 GB for LPDDR3, so you couldn't upgrade it even if Apple gave you a fucking button you could push to eject/insert the RAM out of the side of the machine.

    --
    Are agnostics skeptical of unicorns too?
    1. Re:OP is an idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The only reason they are using low power memory is because of the size of the battery. Laptops from other companies are pushing 32GB in thin cases and 64GB in workstation class machines. This was completely a design choice because of Apple's obsession with thinness. Form over function.

    2. Re:OP is an idiot by Parker+Lewis · · Score: 1

      This news is about the non upgradable SSDs. Additionally to RAM (which is 16GB only in 15" MBP, not the entire family of Apple notebooks). Additionally to the battery. Additionally, now, to the storage.

    3. Re:OP is an idiot by tepples · · Score: 1

      Is there a reason that a Skylake system cannot include a second memory controller used to turn the other stick into a 16 GB swap partition?

    4. Re:OP is an idiot by vux984 · · Score: 1

      ALL 15" MBPs come with 16 GB of RAM.

      That's really off topic, but since you bring it up...

      ALL 15" MBPs come with 16 GB of RAM. and Skylake only allows a max of 16 GB for LPDDR3,

      is a circular argument.

      To make a car analogy, your argument is equivalent to saying the new Ford truck can only carry 1/8th ton cargo because they made the engine really small, and underspec'd the suspension to get the fuel economy up. And that's great if fuel economy is your top priority... but most people's first priority with a truck is that it be able to carry things, and if they need to compromise a bit on fuel... so be it. If their top priority was fuel economy and they didn't need cargo carrying ... they wouldn't be buying a truck.

      IOW maybe the MBP shouldn't (only) come with skylake then. Maybe it should come with a different chipset, a bigger battery, and more ram. The people looking for pro laptops are willing to compromise a bit on size and weight to get the extra power and capabilities. Apple meanwhile is obsessed with how thin they can make it.

    5. Re:OP is an idiot by ahabswhale · · Score: 1

      You need to look up what a circular argument is. I'm stating the fact that you couldn't upgrade the RAM regardless of how easy Apple made it for you. Arguing they should have designed the entire computer differently is utterly ridiculous since that's not what the OP was suggesting.

      --
      Are agnostics skeptical of unicorns too?
    6. Re:OP is an idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wrong. It's 32GB.
      http://ark.intel.com/products/91157/Intel-Core-i3-6006U-Processor-3M-Cache-2_00-GHz

    7. Re:OP is an idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, RAM != Flash Storage.

      You are an idiot.

    8. Re:OP is an idiot by vux984 · · Score: 1

      Your argument amounts to: the reason it can't accept more ram is because apple designed it with components that can't accept more ram.

      That's circular.

  38. Way to become a Chromebook. by Mal-2 · · Score: 2

    This is behavior I expect of rock-bottom-price Chromebook vendors, not a MacBook Pro. This is also why never Chromebooks are unappealing to me -- soldered RAM is one thing (SODIMMs are big), but they can't even make room for a NGFF 2242 SSD? Not interested. I'd rather Hackintosh an i3 Acer C720, at least I can put any drive I want in there.

    --
    How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
    1. Re:Way to become a Chromebook. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      There are $200 Windows laptops with upgradeable RAM and storage. They also have more ports than this Macbook Pro (usually 2-3 USB, HDMI, SD card reader).

      It's just a way to upsell their computers. Going to 256 GB is +$200. 1 TB is +$600. It's like iPhone storage pricing. (There's something to be said that these are PCIe SSD and not SATA, but couldn't Apple support both? SATA SSDs seem cheaper.)

    2. Re:Way to become a Chromebook. by Mal-2 · · Score: 1

      SATA SSDs are cheaper. They're also quite a bit slower (except for random 4k reads and writes) because they are bandwidth-constrained by the SATA III bus to somewhat less than 600MB/s (typically around 520-550MB/s). Even the $80 SSD I bought for my C720 saturates this on both reads AND writes. You'll pay 50-100% more for NVMe, but if you have the interface, it's quite worthwhile to take advantage of it as the saturated bandwidth is in excess of five times that of SATA III.

      --
      How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
  39. Re: Why would anyone buy Apple devices? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh please. USB was available on Wintel machines before Apple put it on their computers. All Apple did was replace its proprietary ADB with it. USB-C has been on non-Apple machines since early 2015, several months before the MacMook was released.

  40. Get a frigging case by iamacat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Something that snaps to the bottom of the laptops and adds extra battery, storage and a boatload of ports. Then when you need ultimate portability take the laptop out and live without movies or whatever you were storing on the extra hard drive for a little while. People are overthinking such things, solutions have been there forever for smartphones.

    1. Re:Get a frigging case by Vroem · · Score: 1

      This. I'm sure you could cram more stuff than ever in some kind of 2016 MBP addon without making it bigger than a 2011 one: http://imgur.com/a/M5tjb And with USB-C, suddenly a week-long surfing, or a day long of Final Cut editing on battery becomes a possibility.

    2. Re:Get a frigging case by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not a very elegant apple type solution. This doesn't "just work."

    3. Re:Get a frigging case by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      Or - and I know this is crazy - actually use that cloud thing the kids are talking about.

      It doesn't have to be someone else's. I have a home NAS (which is solidly in the category of "things people who would need a MacBook Pro would likely benefit from having anyway"). It stores all our ripped CDs and DVDs, and when I'm at home I can play all of those directly off the network share. If I'm traveling, I can download the stuff I want to take with me. If I forget something, I can download it from my NAS while I'm on the road.

      So basically my laptop has the properties you're describing: I can be home plugged in to power and with several TB of fast local network storage, or I can be traveling with a lightweight laptop without all the things I don't need when I'm not in my living room.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  41. how do you think they interface to the chipset? by gl4ss · · Score: 1

    what do you mean with why don't they just solder them on the motherboard when they are in fact just soldering them on the motherboard? the said components need to stay somewhere and this is cheapest at the moment and doing it otherwise would be both a) more expensive to source components b) not provide any cost benefits.

    and as for pcix.. well, uh. you mean they should invent their own pcix and have intel make them chipsets compatible with said new bus? it's a standard and it's there on the chipset anyways and other components use it to talk with the cpu/chipset anyways.

    and.. but laptops did come with soldered memory last decade too.

    just that nobody was buying them because they were limited in space(or expensive and still limited in space). they even came with arm cpu's. 13 years ago. nobody bought them except wince developers.

    and well.. doing resolders like that is in the realm of possibility but very tricky. I think he was joking. it's not cost beneficial in the west to perform any kind of repairs like that due to high cost of labor involved.

    --
    world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    1. Re:how do you think they interface to the chipset? by unixisc · · Score: 1

      I used 'x' as a wildcard - meaning any PCI standard as defined by their SIG. What I meant here was that instead of having the footprint of a PCI slot and have it w/ the DIMMS, they should simply use the flash and PCIe chipset directly on the motherboard, if they don't already

  42. So it's a tablet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    without touch screen but a keyboard and touchpad....

  43. Always use encryption, do regular backup and pray by Cronq · · Score: 1

    Motherboard fails -> buy new laptop or repair on warranty.

    You want upgrade disk to bigger one -> buy new laptop.

    You don't use encryption and something (ssd, motherboard) fails -> you cannot unplug ssd drive, you cannot delete data, you will share all your private data with apple repair centre. Ups!

    Your laptop gets into apple repair centre -> say "bye bye" to all your data because apple doesn't do any data recovery or data copying when replacing hardware.

    So:
    - buy biggest storage variant you will need in next 5 years
    - always use encryption
    - always do regular backup (hey backblaze.com, your new advertising opportunity is there)
    - pray

  44. adobe could crush apple now. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If adobe ever releases their suite of tools for LINUX (even if the just support one specific distro) apple is toast.

    1. Re:adobe could crush apple now. by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      Why wouldn't someone use Windows if they hate Apple so much? Switching from Mac to Linux seems like a stretch to me.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  45. The real question is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do we need an upgrade like HDD to SSD in the life time of this notebook? Probably not. I'm still using my 1st gen i3 Acer (about 5 years old) only because I could add a 2.5 inch SSD, making it look as fast as any recent notebook on the market.

  46. Battery by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

    You're less likely to need to replace solid state storage than the battery, and people have tolerated non-serviceable battery packs in these devices for many years.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    1. Re:Battery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      While I agree about durability, the one important difference is that replacable storage allows to eventually upgrade capacity, not just replace a worn-out part as with a battery. When you can never upgrade your ram and storage, that allows Apple to charge you crazy amounts to bump you up to 32gb of ram or 1TB of storage. And you'll pay it up front, long before you need it, because you picture your helpless self four years in the future.

    2. Re:Battery by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      Obviously you're supposed to buy iCloud storage. Isn't that how the Chromebooks work as well?

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  47. Samsung "We did it first!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Okay "burning" is bit different, but it's just temperature.

  48. Re: Why would anyone buy Apple devices? by Bert64 · · Score: 1

    USB was available on wintel machines, but hardly anyone used it...
    I had a pentium pro and a socket 7 motherboard both with onboard USB, where the ports were exposed as a header on the motherboard and the manufacturers of the machines never even bothered connecting them to actual sockets on the outside of the case. Serial, Parallel, PS/2 and AT keyboards were still common and thats what people used.

    Linux support for USB was poor, Windows support for USB was poor, very few peripherals used it and those that did were generally niche as most people bought non-usb versions instead.

    It's not until Apple came out with machines that *only* had usb, that people started using it and third parties really started producing USB peripherals. If you leave the legacy ports in place, people will continue to use them because its easier and cheaper to do so. Only by removing the legacy ports do you force people to use their modern replacements.

    --
    http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
  49. Apple is for faggots (JK) by aliquis · · Score: 1

    It make complete sense now.

    You must really like to be butt-fucked if you get an Apple .. any hardware really but lets say Macbook Pro ... and still they buy one.

  50. Not surprised by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 1

    SSDs are now cheap and easy to install....means Apple would be losing money because customers buy the already ridiculously overpriced model with the smallest SSD and then spend a few bucks extra to upgrade with a 3rd party module. That's a no go for Apple. They rather charge 200-400 Dollars more for an upgrade that cost 100 Dollars or less. The only option here is to stop buying the excessively overpriced Apple stuff. Almost 3k$ for a 15" and you do not even get a lousy USB port. The real kicker is 4-5 weeks shipping time. You'd think with the piles of cash that Apple has they could finally fix their massive production bottleneck. A Windows laptop for 1000 bucks is surely a nice device with all the bells and whistles....and you get three of them for the price of a 15" MacBook.

  51. Given up on Mac laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apple does this so it can:

    1. Ship a base model with too little RAM and storage.

    2. Charge four times the market price for decent RAM and storage.

    3. Privately snicker at how stupid their customers are.

    But markets adapt to corporate misbehavior. I've been a Mac desktop and laptop user since 1990, regularly upgrading. No more. I've eliminated laptops from my workflow, moving projects to either an iPad with a keyboard or to my Mac mini. And since Apple no longer makes a decently powerful component desktop—the most popular computer type in the world—I've maxed out my 2012 Mac mini. Adding a large SSD a few weeks ago, has made it so powerful, I don't need to upgrade to the pretty toys which are now all Apple makes. I use Adobe's Creative Cloud for my work. If Apple continues down its current path, I can transfer all my work to Windows in a single morning without spending a penny.

    Greeks called Apple's attitude hubris, an overpowering arrogance that leads inevitably to disaster. Listen to Apple executives lecturing those unhappy with these new laptops and you're hearing hubris. No well-managed company attempts to tell its customers what they're allowed to want and have.

    I don't own Apple stock but, if I did, I'd be selling it off. The only portion of its product line that's healthy are iPhones, and we've almost reached the limits of what can be added to keep users in a constant upgrade cycle.

  52. Ah, yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apple: We take away options for our customers every time we come out with something new!

    What a joke.

  53. That is a dick move.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...Apple is becoming more and more dickish.

  54. I love my MacBook Pro by um...+Lucas · · Score: 1

    It's a late 2013 model, Retina display, upgraded SSD.

    As has been discussed to death already, Apples refresh gave me zero reason to want to upgrade. No performance benefits anywhere to be found.

    And now, with this revelation, should my computer shit the bed, I'd probably go looking for a similar model on the used market than go with a new one.

    Hopefully Apples next update in 2018 (given its current product life cycle) remedies that - give us a upgrade path to greater performance, the ability to upgrade and service some of the components ourselves. Oh, and bring back the Magsafe power adapter. I know my computer survived two near death incidents at coffee shops thanks to Magsafe, I can't image why in the world they'ed take that away. Oh, so we can have 4 matching ports, rather the 3 USB-C's and one power connector.

    I'm getting to the point where I think 80% of what I do could be done with Linux with the same exact programs, 90-95% if i wanted to learn new things like GIMP, but I just prefer Mac OS X's look and feel. But the trajectory at Apple since Steve's death has me starting to think that I'm not a wanted customer anymore. I'd say that maybe mac's are just becoming expensive accessories to iPhones and iPods, but that can't be - you can't even plug the latest iPhone into the latest MacBook, after all!.

  55. I just don't understand why now? by DarkOx · · Score: 1

    Laptops were never really terribly upgradable but you could also add some RAM and storage. Sometimes this was worth while but unless you cheaped out on those things at the start to get a more powerful chassis/cpu/motherboard to defer some initial cost it was often not worth while to do so. CPU's were doubling in performance, things like PCMCIA were being phased out for cardbus/minpci/usb1/firewire/usb2/thunderbolt/etc. The basic platform technology was evolving so rapidly it made more sense to forklift the system.

    Now we have really hit the wall on CPU and for some users GPU. You can have a perfectly comfortable computing experience with a 4 years CPU and motherboard (provided things were the top shelf variety that go into MacBooks anyway) if you have enough RAM and fast storage attached to it. With the exception of USB3C business the expansion interfaces have stabilized quite a bit. Most of us don't really need a whole lot more single core performance. It probably makes more sense than ever to be looking at laptops as things you might add memory or storage to in the future, yet manufacturers seem to be in a rush to make this impossible.

    --
    Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
  56. Paris vacation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is clear that there are different expectations for "vacation in paris" ranging from "buy a cheap ticket months in advance, sleep in 1 star hotels, buy food and eat in the park" to "buy a ticket for 2 weeks from now, stay at the Georges V, eat well"

    As one data point, use the US Government allowances for travel:
    Paris is $337/day for lodging + $143/day meals and incidental expenses.

    one night at the 4 seasons Georges V is $1023 according to Google. But looking at a random selection, it appears that for middle of the road places, you're looking at $100-300/night (e.g. Hotel Mercure near Tour Eiffel or L'hotel, etc. ) (Yeah, if you want to stay at the train station, you can get it down to the $100/night).
    So, say, 5 days (or was this going to be a mad weekend dash to the city of lights?) - $1000-1500 in hotel.

    Likewise, google is telling me that the cheapest LA-Paris round trip in December is $457, but that's obviously a loss leader from Norwegian, since everyone else is in the $1200-1500 range. I don't know that I would *count* on a $500 fare, $700-800 is probably reliably possible if you shop around and don't go at peak times.

    Just airfare alone for two people is the same as that MacBook Pro.

    Now we come to food. $50/person/day can probably do well, you'll eat moderately well, but not necessarily at the top - a lot has to do with time and expertise in tracking down where to eat.

  57. Anecdotal... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...I've never had a problem with FileVault over the years on many systems.

  58. Worth it if you have more than one Apple device by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I found that Apple Care is definitely worth it if you own more than one Apple device. Their policy is to support everything you have as long as you have Apple Care. Have a iPhone (2015), MacBook Pro (2009), Mac Mini (2008), Apple Airport Wireless Basestation(year?). As long as you have Apple Care for one of the devices (say the iPhone), you can get the other ones taken care of too. Posting Anon to keep mods.

    1. Re:Worth it if you have more than one Apple device by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Posting anon still blanks your mods goober.

  59. Useless by Khyber · · Score: 2

    So when your mobo goes out, you have essentially zero chance of recovering your data without risking de-soldering your shit from the board and damaging it in the process.

    This is why removable storage is important.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  60. Back to the 8 bit era ? by Thanatiel · · Score: 1

    Do you remember the time when we had these machines ? ZX-81, Alice32, Commodore 64, Schneider CPC 464 (as well as 664 and 6128), ...
    For the less young among us, they were monolithic, kind of cheap computer toys. I say toy as it was the general view around here since kids were better at them than adults. (The image of programming = playing remained strong in my family from my 6th birthday until my first paycheck).

    I can't help but feel that Apple went back to that time, when you could get these imitations of the real deal. They just innovated by replacing "cheaper" by "more expensive".

    --
    Irrelevant news and morons using moderation to mod down what they disagree on. 2018 resolution: so long.
  61. Junk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The new Macbooks are rebadged commodity junk. Apple is the "Harley-Davidson" of the computer world; meant for posing only.

  62. You don't? by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Do you carry your external backup drive with you when you travel with your MacBook?

    Absolutely I carry my backup drive when traveling, you can use any external laptop drive... I have been doing this as long as I've had laptops.

    I can see where you might not if you never did any work or carry anything important, but if you have anything of value you have a backup drive with you, period.

    If I'm speaking I ALSO copy speaking materials onto a USB drive before traveling...

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  63. Won't matter to Apple users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The low end / non-technical users who are willing to tolerate macos only care about the way the case looks, how old it is, and the current list of boast points fed to them by Apple, and how much it costs (as a status symbol). For everyone else, there are cheaper, faster, thinner, lighter, and more upgradable machines available elsewhere, and with less buggy firmware/hardware, and that can run Linux. Who cares about Apple? I was kind of interested initially, since I'm laptop hunting, but these are not technically attractive machines right now. The base 16Gb RAM limit is a total killer. For a work (C++ development) machine, it makes a massive diference to have at least twice that.

  64. This is pretty much a deal-breaker for me too. by King_TJ · · Score: 1

    I gotta be honest here. I defended Apple when they soldered RAM onto the logic boards of the laptops. I mean, they retained the ability to upgrade it in any of the higher-spec iMac configurations (the systems with a 27" screen), as well as in the Mac Pro workstations. So it appeared it was a decision where Apple drew a line in the sand and said, "For a portable machine, you should really just buy it with a suitable amount of RAM for your projected needs through its usable lifetime. RAM has gotten reliable enough so you don't have memory modules failing that often and needing a swap-out. And by soldering it on, we get rid of the need of the DIMM sockets and issues it can cause when RAM isn't seated in one properly."

    I could live with that.... Biggest problem it caused us was in my workplace, where they bought quite a few Macbook Air 13" notebooks back in the 2011-2012 time-frame with the standard 4GB RAM configuration, only to find they were good enough computers to keep on using in the last quarter of 2016 *except* for the limited RAM becoming a performance barrier. After 4-5 years of regular use, it's really NOT a big deal to argue it's time to get those users new computers anyway. But just saying -- we could squeeze another 1-2 years of life out of these if they were possible to upgrade to 8GB RAM.

    But soldered in SSD? That's a whole different ballgame. As someone else pointed out, it now eliminates your ability to just pull a drive out of a failing machine and install it in another one to immediately get a user back up and running. Big downside for us in the office setting. Additionally though? It means Apple is trying to lock people in to paying their hugely inflated prices for larger capacity storage. I really liked the alternatives provided by companies like Transcend for older Retina 15" Macbook Pros. You could buy a much cheaper machine with a 256GB SSD and double the storage down the road, cost-effectively (leaving the original drive you took out to install in an external USB 3 enclosure, making a slick little external drive out of it).

    I know if I was going to buy a new Macbook Pro myself, I'd want one with between 1TB and 2TB of storage capacity in it. I just think anything less feels like buying "last year's" specs or standard-issue consumer grade vs. anything worthy of the "Pro" label on it. Apple wants to push this as a good video editing system for Final Cut Pro X too ... another situation where you can't really have too much drive space. But that price for one with that SSD capacity? It's just unacceptable.

  65. Why arent they cheaper? by spire3661 · · Score: 1

    Doing this saves them a pretty large sum of cash. Now all repairs are full mainboard or nothing. Diagnostics is a simple pass/fail. So the question is why isnt all this integration saving the consumer any money? I could understand these moves if it made their computers much cheaper due to the much lower repair and warranty tail this brings.

    --
    Good-bye
  66. Re:Why would anyone buy Apple devices? by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

    Apple makes inferior hardware and software. You'd be better off buying a Dell and installing Linux. There's no need to ever run any OS except Linux. The only reason Linux doesn't rule the desktop is because people aren't smart enough to be able to use it.

    I assume you forgot the [/sarcasm] tag.

  67. Re: Why would anyone buy Apple devices? by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

    Oh please. USB was available on Wintel machines before Apple put it on their computers. All Apple did was replace its proprietary ADB with it. USB-C has been on non-Apple machines since early 2015, several months before the MacMook was released.

    The CONNECTOR was there on Wintel mobos, thanks to Intel's Salesforce; but, until the iMac came along, there was virtually NOTHING to connect to it, nor was there decent OS Support outside of MacOS (Classic) (The original iMac released with MacOS 8.1, and it had support for USB, FFS!).

    Heck, Linux didn't even support USB in a non-experimental fashion until something like the 2.4.0 Kernel, in 2001 !!!

    And Apple did more than replace ADB with it. They also replaced their RS-422/232 and SCSI ports with it as well. IOW, they went "USB or Bust!", and the rest is history...

    And I know you don't like Apple; but there's no call for the racial slur! ( ;-) )

  68. The turning point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    for all consumer companies seems to be when they forget about customer centrism.

    They become successful by listening to customers and building what they ask for. Or, if creating their own product vision, do so with the intent of wowing and delighting their customers.

    Once they’ve been successful for a while, they get arrogant. They begin to see their customers as stupid, unsophisticated sheep that need to be told what they want/need and exist only to be exploited.

    Microsoft passed this point back in the 90s (could probably say it started with “Bob” and has been going strong ever since, with Windows 8 & 10 being the most recent confirmation). The only reason they still have a consumer business is the WinTel monopoly they built throughout the 90s.

    Google passed this point in the mid 00s but they, like MS, have a monopoly in their core businesses and, so, didn't feel any impact

    Apple began to flip about fiver years ago, with its most egregious examples of arrogance having come in the last year, or so (You’re “courageous” for removing the headphone jack from the iPhone? Really? How about a battery that will take you through an entire day's use?). They will likely take it pretty hard once people realize that their products are just commodity goods being marketed to command luxury prices. I don’t think ecosystem lock-in will save them as much as they might have hoped.

    Amazon is just beginning to enter its age of arrogance and it should be interesting to see what happens to them. Most of their business operates on a razor thin margin (or even in the red). Once their csat rankings start to tumble, will they have enough of a monopoly position to ride it out like MS and Google? Or, will they be forced to spin off AWS and let the rest of the company go the way of pets.com?