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Apple Announces New MacBook Air With Retina Display, Touch ID and Sketchy Keyboard (cnet.com)
At an event on Tuesday, Apple announced an update to one of its most popular laptops, the MacBook Air. The 13.3-inch laptop now has a 13.3-inch Retina display with four times the resolution with thin bezels, but moves to two USB-C ports only. Other features of it include: T2 chip for TouchID, three-mic array for better voice recognition, new butterfly keyboard (the same module the company used in this year's MacBook Pro lineup -- which as you might remember are not reliable), eGPU and 5K display support, 8th-gen Intel Core i5, up to 16GB 2333MHz memory, up to 1.5TB SSD, 2.75 pounds. It is made of 100 percent recycled aluminum. It starts at $1,199 and ships starting November 7.
I will get one, along with whatever new iPad they announce, for my wife for Christmas. She will get to keep the one she wants and return the other one.
... who are you, IBM? :p
Why do companies even manufacturer such a panel these days (also said in the late early 00's)?
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
seriously. they haven't had a new idea in 10 years.
Why are they still pushing that POS keyboard? Is it not bad enough that they can't make a mouse to save their lives, but now they have to ruin keyboards too?
That thing is an ergonomic nightmare.
they had to do something with the warehouse full of defective keyboards.
I would have thought the inept hater that wrote the summary would have been stoked it still had a real Esc key. But I guess Haters gotta Hate.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Sadly there isn't one. Literally all the tech journalists we follow have mentioned their displeasure over the keyboard.
Look on the bright side: It is made of 100 percent recycled aluminum now!
No sig today...
I use my MBP for work and I find no reason to use a dongle to the point where it would become something I would endlessly complain about.
What are you guys doing that requires regular use of dongles to get your jobs done?
I frequently need Ethernet for the infrastructure part of my work. Fortunately, I have a real laptop (Thinkpad X-series), not a Crapple (cripple?) toy.
New mac mini let's see TB3 to 10-gig-e $199
/editmodeoff
What? Used aluminium? Do I get the refurbished price??
HDMI or VGA to show things on TVs and projectors. Not to mention USB connections to test equipment (all of which seems to come with type A connectors). My current laptop (a Lenovo P71) has 4 type A USB ports on it, and I frequently have 3 of them occupied. The HDMI port on the back usually drives a secondary monitor as well.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
I have two monitors connected to my macbook.
I have an ethernet jack because I need to work from multiple VLANs.
I have a USB3 hub with an ergonomic keyboard, trackball and external drives.
I literally have every every port full on my 2015 MBP.
At least with the 2015 I still have *some* normal ports so I can plug in USB devices and my HDMI monitor.
If I used one of the newer MBPs, I would need multiple port replicators to cover all the stuff I plug in. And I would have to buy spares in case one failed or got forgotten somewhere.
How do you use your machine? I am guessing you are either in an Apple-centric shop where everything has been setup for you (AppleTVs on every TV/Projector, etc), or you don't do anything that requires connectivity to other devices.
Usually the new product announcements are at 10am. And apple.com isn't updated to reflect any new kit. Was there a leak of the slide deck or something?
Imagine all the people...
Indeed, i sometimes use ethernet or hdmi and require dongles but not often... I actually prefer having more ports (4x usb-c) than one each of several types of port as i would often find myself running out of one type of port while having others empty.
In the vast majority of cases i don't actually have anything connected at all.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
Need more processing power, not less, rather 1 mm or 2 more for that, also working keyboard, more ports, and, oh, no pseudo security chip that may only limit my ability to instal future OS or swap parts or something, ..!
Ethernet.
USB hub. 2 ports isn't enough, you need one to charge and the other for Thunderbolt stuff like an external monitor (because there is no separate HDMI/DP port).
Wouldn't it be great if we could use wireless mice/keyboards without taking up a USB port too? Bluetooth is crap for those and every manufacturer has proprietary dongle.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Because a lot of the "real" work gets done at a desk, either at the office or at home, where people who care have external keyboards and monitors. The built-in keyboard is optimized for size, for people on-the-go, for short duration work. There is an inherent tradeoff that results from this. That said, a flakey built-in keyboard is something quite separate from a size optimized keyboard. Apple deserves criticism for a flakey built-in keyboard but not for optimizing for size rather than creating a typist's dream.
Personally I'm still using G4 PowerMac era external keyboards. Apple's current external keyboards are little different from laptop keyboards, however the design compromises that they embed are not justified as they are not mobile. On these externals Apple deserves criticism for being cheap and overvaluing visual fashion.
And for those who might comment that they use the built-in keyboard and monitor at work at their desk / work station, well then your employer sucks. The built-in's are great when visiting a colleague's office or for a meeting in the conference room, but your desk / workstation should come with a good chair, a good monitor and a good keyboard.
We are not an Apple-centric shop. Out of 130+ employees, we have less than 10 on MacOS.
We use ClickShare for screen sharing in meeting rooms which support AirPlay.
I work in analytics (Data Engineering/ETL) and am just fine with the Retina display. I don't have a keyboard, mouse or monitor at my desk--since I largely am not at my desk during the day anyway.
Bought a (second) refurbished 2015 MacBook Pro from Apple several months ago. Every product announcement reinforces my conviction that I made the right decision.
#DeleteChrome
Great! Now try to present somewhere like a university or hotel that has VGA or HDMI (if you're lucky!) ports on the podium and no other way of linking to the projector.
Dual monitors, and apples dongles are flaky to begin with. So my usual work setup is 2 usbC->DP adapters, one for each monitor, and then power in to a third usb port. At home I have a usb hub/switch, so I can switch my kb/m between my desktop and work laptop when Im working at home. I plug the switch in to one apple dongle that also does HDMI output to one monitor, then a second apple hdmi dongle for a second monitor. Then I still need to supply power because for some reason supply power through the dongles can be hit or miss.
So i basically always need 3 usbc ports whenever Im using my laptop
I didn't say that I didn't EVER need to use a dongle; I just don't find it to be as much of an annoyance as those on the Internet seem to, knowing I only use it every so often.
In the case you present--which is a handful of times a year--is way less than my annoyance threshold for these sorts of things.
You could almost believe msmash might have an agenda.
So they use old beer bottles to make it? Can I trade bottlecaps to get a discount??
How about the more common instance of needing to use a USB-A stick?
At most of my client's offices (these are big Fortune 500 companies) most of the conference rooms are HDMI or VGA. All the test gear is pretty much Ethernet or USB. And I often plug my headphones into my laptop. Only a few have wireless interfaces (usually for the Apple folks), and we sit through 3-4 resets of video syncing every meeting as the wireless display just drops out.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
13 inch macbook air weighs 2.74 pounds. I much prefer my old 11 inch macbook air at 2.4 pounds and smaller size for travel.
What we really need is an update of the 2 pound macbook of 2015.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
The Pro is only $100 more, Apple needs a lower price laptop. There's a few things they should have done:
Drop the Retina display. You don't need to cram a crapton of pixels into a 13" display.
Keep the old Air keyboard. It's perfectly cromulent, and doesn't come with Butterfly's crappy reputation.
Stop reaming your customers over storage. I can't find the base specs for the Air, but it's a pretty good bet the base SSD is 128 GB, same as the Pro. Upgrading to 256 costs $200. That's criminal. Just make 256 GB the base.
I've had 2 Airs and they're fine machines, and I'm happy to see Apple has finally shrunk the ridiculously huge bezel around the display. But they could have done better here.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
That's great for you, but I've got a second monitor connected via HDMI (an absolute must), a wired ethernet cable (even the best wireless connection is still slower), and various legacy junk like a DVD reader/writer (STILL useful in certain situations).
In a somewhat related rant, the lack of a physical ESC button is an annoyance when using vi, my legacy console editor of choice. Does ANYONE like this stupid touch bar??
IMO you did.
I'm going to continue using my 2015 at work until it either dies, or until software no longer supports whatever maximum version of MacOS I can get on it.
And if by then Apple hasn't pulled their head out of their ass, I may well end up switching to a Linux laptop.
My home machine is a Macbook Pro 2010 for the same reasons.
Apple is preparing us for a virtual keyboard future. With sufficiently refined haptics, it could actually be pretty cool.
Processor
1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz, with 4MB L3 cache
Intel ARK doesn't list such a beast. This is either something like an i5 9200Y or, if the ship date is anytime soon, a custom bitch based off of the i5-8200Y. https://ark.intel.com/products...
Either way, it'll be suuuuuuuuuuuuuuper slow. At least the 4MB cache implies that it has HyperThreading. Intel tends to give you 2 MB of L3 cache per core when HT is enabled, and 1.5 MB of L3 otherwise.
I remap keys to make them more reachable when using vim; have you tried that route to make it better for you?
Keyboard keyboard keyboard keyboard keyboard keyboard!
Anybody listening?
I currently have 4 things plugged into my rMBP+TB:
Yeah, yeah, of course I could do all that with one connector to a dock, but outside of spending over 3k of my employer's money on the computer itself I'm a little cheap when I work from home. I could also do away with many of these various bits if I, oh I don't know, didn't care about productivity. The new rMBP keyboard SUCKS to type on. For those hunt-and-peck or 4-keys-per-day people who "love" it, more power to you. For you weird types that actually like it, you might want to be screened for brain damage lol.
Virtual +5 Funny.
#DeleteFacebook
What are you guys doing that requires regular use of dongles to get your jobs done?
Complaining about Apple, while never actually have used a Mac.
Wow, that was easy :D
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
An USB -> ethernet adaptor costs $10.
If you want the thunderbolt one, it costs about $30.
You could buy a used mac with build in ethernet.
But you can also simply stop complaining about a product you don't want to use.
Complaining about a mac while you are actually not using one makes you look rather idiotic.
It is like me complaining why all the gays have so sexy female friends.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
I never "needed" that.
Why would I?
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
I have two monitors connected to my macbook.
I have an ethernet jack because I need to work from multiple VLANs.
I have a USB3 hub with an ergonomic keyboard, trackball and external drives.
I literally have every every port full on my 2015 MBP.
I have a desktop machine for all of that stuff. My laptop is a laptop, which means that it usually isn't plugged into anything -- not even power -- when i'm using it. I do keep a single adapter in my laptop bag, which gives me Ethernet, HDMI, SD and four USB-A ports, and I have a couple tiny USB-C to USB-A adapters as well. But I rarely have to use any of them.
So I don't mind the port situation on my new MBP at all... and I quite like the fact that I can plug power in from either side. I'm torn on the touch strip; it does make some stuff nicer. If it were more configurable, I'd actually like it.
The keyboard, however, seriously sucks. I haven't gotten around to turning in my old MBP yet, and so I occasionally pick it up to type something. Sooo much better to type on, though I prefer the new one for travel, just because it's thinner and lighter. The keyboard is so bad that if Apple doesn't fix it in the next iteration, I'm going switch when it's time to replace this one. I prefer Linux to OS X anyway.
I am guessing you are either in an Apple-centric shop where everything has been setup for you (AppleTVs on every TV/Projector, etc)
I don't know about the other guy, but I work for Google. VC and presentations are done with Hangouts, which makes it very easy to present wirelessly, and in fact doesn't really support a wired video input well.
you don't do anything that requires connectivity to other devices.
Not so much on my laptop. My desktop, however... I just counted and I have a total of 37 USB ports (10 on the machine, four on each of my three monitors, a 13-port hub on my desk and two on my keyboard). 22 of those 37 ports are in use. Oh, and both Ethernet ports are in use, as are three of the four DisplayPort sockets on my video card. No laptop in existence comes remotely close to having enough ports for me.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Literally any situation where you need to share data from one device to another and a network is unavailable?
Must be nice living in a perfect environment where nothing ever fails and you are never under time pressure to get something done no matter what.
The point is *need*.
So, no I never *need* that.
And all devices that have a USB port also have a WLAN card, so: I open my own network and transfer anything I need via ftp etc.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.