Maybe a significant moment in Apple's history, if they are finally switching to USB-C instead of their proprietary Lightning bullshit.
I wouldn't celebrate just yet though. You can bet that they will do something to make it crappy and expensive and only work properly with Apple certified stuff.
Hey Moron/Hater:
Apple developed and introduced Lightning BEFORE there WAS a USB-C. They produced it as an IMPROVEMENT over the horrible mini/micro-USB epic Failures-as-connector-designs.
Having said all that, I am very hopeful they are moving to USB-C on their mobile devices. There are a zillion good reasons for that. We'll know next Tuesday...
do you REALLY want to be treated to a nice, fat KERNEL PANIC screen because your RAM or SSD socket glitched when someone bumped the table your laptop was sitting on?
No, that's why RAM and SSD sockets have retention features. You would have to subject the laptop to enough G-forces to smash it in order to actually cause that to happen. You know what else I don't want? FUD like yours on Slashdot. That ship sailed even longer ago than Apple not treating users like idiots, though.
Not FUD. A statistical possibility that is higher than if the parts are soldered, even if not a likely failure.
Connector retention-tabs can also fail, or the parts can not be fully-inserted by the factory, or even more likely, the UNTRAINED (or even trained) USER when they UPGRADE their RAM or SSD. I recently did it myself with my (Samsung) work laptop, and I KNOW how to replace RAM, have built several computers, worked at various times both as an embedded developer and an electronic tech, etc. I THOUGHT the RAM DIMM was fully-inserted; looked fully-inserted, fleet full-inserted; but it apparently WASN'T.
Apple design is getting worse overtime with stupid design choices.
you mentioned socketed ic's many computers have socketed processors but they have heat sinks that hold those processors in place. The socketed IC's you talked about relied on the electrical connection to hold them in place. No mechanical support, maybe it was the thermal cycling which was walking those ic's out of their sockets. Hard to imagine you could shake the board and have them dropping out their sockets.
The problem with soldering an SSD or HDD into a machine is that if the machine fails for some reason your data is left stranded on a broken machine. In any other system the ssd is connected electrically with screws holding the drive in place. Pop the case remove the screws transfer the drive to another machine, no problem. Rams another easy fix if a module goes bad replace it or upgrade it.
Glueing in the battery , it's going to wear out! At least it isn't soldered to the main board maybe you would prefer that it was.
Apple pretty much has 2 types of users , consumers and professionals.
The consumer devices are nice for consuming but when you want to produce, create edit you need a better than consumer level device.
Apple used to differentiate between its pro devices and consumer devices but they are not doing so currently and thats a mistake and its not just with hardware that they are doing this, Apples dumbing down its software too.
I won't even dignify your stupid "explanation" regarding the socketed parts.
If you have a laptop without a backup, you deserve what you get, period. Backblaze is $5 a month UNLIMITED storage, and encrypted, and since it is "cloud based", will back-up your machine whether you are at home to plug it into your Time Machine drive or not. I don't like "the cloud", either; but this appears to be a REALLY good application for it. And as far as a Restore, if you can't wait to Restore over the 'net, they will Overnight (FedEx) you a hard drive with your stuff on it.
Haven't seen a battery that isn't replaceable, "Glued" or not. And no, those shouldn't be soldered. For one thing, their connectors have far less, and far more robust, pins than RAM or SSD connectors.
You must've missed FULL-BLOWN PHOTOSHOP running on a damned IPAD Pro.
So you agree you can't live without dongles because USB-C isn't universal. Thanks for making my point for me. Honestly I don't know why I expected a clever response from you, but you manage to dig yourself in a hole every single time.
NOTHING is "Universal". I don't even know what that term means when it comes to interfaces.
We are in a transition period between an outgoing standard (USB-A,B,mini,micro) and a MORE "universal" standard (one that has a connector-body small enough to replace the mini and micro USBs, and much more capable than any of the USB-A/B-connected versions.
And it isn't "Digging out of a hole" to propose how an "insurmountable problem" is actually quite simple to "surmount". It's called "Inteelligence". Too bad yours is insufficient; or you wouldn't repeatedly embarrass yourself, or would at least try to find a solution yourself before embarrassing yourself with a ridiculous, hand-wringing (or overly-dramatic) post.
Notice how your solution to all and any shortcomings on Apple is spending more money on "solutions" instead of having a platform that has a sensible set of "solutions" built in?
How many laptops have built-in 4T drives?
Have you ever edited video? Do you realize how quickly you can fill up nearly ANY drive with its files?
In 2006, my laptop got dropped down a flight of steps by a fumble-fingered customs agent in Malaysia. One of those horrible moments when you see everything in slow-motion... BOUNCE... spinspinspin... BOUNCE... spinspinspin... BOUNCE... *WHUMPPPP* To give the poor fellow credit, he turned almost as white as I am and dived the stairs to retrieve it. There was a crack in the top, so I was not hopeful, but I powered it up... and it ran.
That laptop still sits in my office. It still runs great. I still use it for audio/video/reading.
What kind is it? It's an off-the-fucking-shelf Acer, that's what it is.
Moral: LEARN TO BUY HARDWARE THAT DOES NOT FUCKING SUCK.
You must've missed the part when I said I had never ACTUALLY had (or heard-of) such a problem.
But, you cannot deny that it is statistically more likely WITH connectors, than without.
And if that had been a unibody MacBook Pro, you wouldn't have had an ugly crack in the top.
So, it is YOU that needs to LEARN TO BUY HARDWARE THAT DOESN'T SUCK.
do you REALLY want to be treated to a nice, fat KERNEL PANIC screen because your RAM or SSD socket glitched when someone bumped the table your laptop was sitting on
Does that happen for well-made laptops with un-soldered RAM or SSD ? Prove it.
Can't prove it.
But all things being equal, it is OBVIOUSLY more likely to have connector-related failures when there are, um CONNECTORS.
Trolling? I currently have an X and a 7. Have had a 6, 5, 4s, and 3GS. Not a single one has taken more than 30m to charge from empty to full with any of the chargers they came with. Either youâ(TM)re charging off a computer USB port or you are using a 3rd party transformer with lower power.
If you are achieving those charge-times from DEAD-FLAT (0% charge), I think you have plugged the 120V charging nugget into a 240V outlet.
Yes, I know that's not how it works; but it seemed the only possible explanation.
But no, not lying nor would I use a 3rd party charging nugget.
... do you REALLY want to be treated to a nice, fat KERNEL PANIC screen because your RAM or SSD socket glitched when someone bumped the table your laptop was sitting on?
I've never, ever had that happen. I guess I'll have to try buying shittier hardware next time.
I've never had that happen, either; but it certainly COULD.
A long time ago, when I was a sound man for a band that toured mostly the southeastern U.S., our keyboardist had an early polyphonic synthesizer, a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5. VERY popular machine. However, they made the fatal mistake of having the ICs SOCKETED in the PC board. This was exacerbated by having them hanging upside-down when the keyboard was in the normal "playing position" (bottom of the device toward the bottom).
It became a set-up ritual to, flip the keyboard over, take off the bottom panel, and RE-SEAT all of the ICs. Many of them would typically be hanging half-out of their sockets, and not rarely, some of the heavier chips actually fell OUT of the sockets, let to rattle-around in the case until you tracked them down and reseted them, too.
By the way, we tried "roading" the case in every possible orientation, and even placed it near the front of the truck to try and minimize bouncing' but to no real effect.
Yes, this is a somewhat extreme example; but it IS a "real world" one, and a story I could not relate if those chips had just been SOLDERED IN, rather than SOCKETED.
Surely you are in more danger of it being pulled off the table because what they actually bumped into was the power cord. So why are not other laptops suffering these RAM or SSD glitches where on the vast majority of laptops these are socketed.
How do you know they aren't?
If I wanted a fashion statement I would buy an air not a macbook pro. and since when was a hard drive or ssd or ram left to float around in any laptop?
You're pretty stupid, aren't you?
although there was a particular ic which gave problems due to poor soldering which on refurbs apple glued some rubber on to sandwich it against the case and hold it down in case the solder joints failed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
That was the fault of the chip itself not being sufficiently "flat"; although I agree, that's not a wonderful permanent repair, IMHO.
need for purchase of extra hardware if one needs fast charging for instance.
My iPhone charges from dead-flat to 100% in about 2 hours with the standard charging-nugget. It doesn't charge significantly faster using my higher-power iPad charger.
That's not fast, my Moto G6 fast-charges from empty in less than an hour with the stock charger. OP has a point.
No, in fact that sounds a little TOO fast.
Let's see who's battery lasts longer. My 4 year old iPhone 6 Plus with original battery and a few hundred charge cycles still shows 95% battery life.
I've been forced to use a macbook pro, and gladly went back to my Asus Zenbook running buntu as soon as I could. I do have family members that belong to the the church though, and trying to convince them to look at anything without an Apple logo on it is like talking to a rock.
I sent one family member a link to a file. His internet was out, so all he needed to do was download that link with his iphone, plug it into his macbook and transfer it over. After DAYS of trying he gave up on this simple task.
Another family member was given a video on a flash drive to watch on his Macbook. It was made with the H265 codec, so of course it would not play. I told him to download and install VLC media player and he'd be good. He has never been able to figure out how to do this.
Still another family member was given a portable hard drive to backup her documents from her Macbook Air. This went about the same way as the others - she has no clue how to copy a file on her Mac.
These are people who often tout how Apple is superior to everything else, while at the same time cannot figure out how to do very basic things with their Apple products. At what point will the almost total lack of easy functionality convince them to look to another platform? Do Apple products make people stupid? I just don't understand.
You've got some DUMB relatives there, sorry!
Every one of those tasks are EASILY accomplished on a Mac. Same with your Iphone/Mac file-handoff.
Too bad you can't be arced to help your OBVIOUSLY technically inept family members accomplish what is, for them, an unfamiliar task.
Remember, YOU weren't BORN with the knowledge of how to do that stuff, either.
My Minis have FW800. My MBP has FW800. I have a bunch of FW400 and FW800 hard drives. With no FW on new Macs I'm going to end up with a pile of no-longer-usable external storage.
Time marches on.
You can either take the drive mechs out of those FW enclosures and put them into some USB-C ones. That would be your cheapest route.
Or, you can go the Apple-Approved route:
Apple TB3 TB2 Adapter, + Apple TB2 FW 800 Adapter. Yes, it is a daisy-chain. Yes, Apple approves the configuration. $60 for both Adapters together. Then you should be able to use your existing drives. Most FW drives can be daisy-chained with some inexpensive (around $12) cables; so that should work.
I think it's hilarious that somebody can accuse Apple of being stagnant (5 year old design on the MP) and being too progressive (only USB C) in one sentence.
You forgot the requirement to use iCloud, which absolutely is a requirement when the base MBPs ship with 128gb hard drives in them
Considering that "Pro" applications NEVER store DATA on the Boot Drive, you'd likely be better served to get something like this Ruggedized 4TB USB-C external for $107 from Amazon. And it looks like it supports USB-A, too, in case you need to transfer to an older Mac. Depending on how much on-the-road stuff you do, pick up a couple and you're all set:
Cool story. Hey can you copy this off my memory stick? Oh what? Everyone needs to embrace your thing now? What about my perfectly functioning hardware? Yeah just bin it like a good consumer.
I have embraced USB-C in the only sane way. My laptop has USB-C and USB-A. My desktop has USB-C and USB-A. Defending the removal of the most widely used accessory port in the world is frankly indefensible and you should feel bad for defending the action.
I am typing this on a MacBook Pro, and I use and iPhone 8. What experience is sub par?
The stack of dongles to plug everything in, the insanely high price, the keyboard's lack of movement, the lack of function keys, the lack of a decent GPU, the less-than-cutting-edge CPU, the lack of a pro desktop whose design is less than 5 years old, the inability for the power cord to magnetically disconnect...and that's just off the top of my head. I used to use Apple and dropped them when they dropped the ball on their macs. The mac mini now only has two cores - that's less than their laptops! - and until the new update comes out they are still trying to peddle a 5 year old Mac Pro at full price!
Their iOS devices have faired better but they have not only dropped the ball with their Mac line they no longer even remember where the ball is or what it looks like.
1. Stack of Dongles: Boy, does THAT meme deserve to DIE! Get a simple multiport USB-C Dock for $30-99 on Amazon and STILL have 3/4 of your I/O FREE! And they're cheap enough to have TWO, one for home, one for office. So, changing locations consists of swapping like ONE cable... And remember, you can expand a 4- Port MacBook Pro up to FIFTY-TWO Legacy Ports (in a MYRIAD of Configurations). Yeah, that really sucks...
2. Insanely high price: In case you haven't looked, ALL PC prices are up. Memory prices are up, and Intel never seems to have enough money... Then we have the Aluminum tariffs. Take a look at a MBP. What do your see? A big ol' substantial block of milled aluminum. Thank Trump.
3. Some people like the keyboard; some don't. Same with every keyboard design. I hate Model Ms. Some people won't type on anything else. Keyboards are like speakers. Plus, unless you are talking about being at a meeting or on a plane/train, just plug the keyboard and/or pointing device of your choice in, and have at it! Life's too short to pet the sweaty things. No, wait...
4. Lack of function keys. Meh. Again, don't like it, plug in the keyboard of your choice at home/office.
5. Lack of a "Decent" GPU. That again has been beaten to death. Nvidia didn't have a GPU that could drive as much screen real-estate as the AMDs; which has been pointed out again and again. eGPUs should also help that somewhat.
6. Lack of a cutting-edge CPU. Well, considering that the CPUs in the 2018 MBPs were hot-off-the-presses when those were introduced a few months ago, and the up to 18-core Xeon CPU in the iMac Pro was barely out of testing at Intel when Apple snatched it up, I'm not exactly sure what you are talking about.
7. Lack of a "Pro" Desktop (whatever THAT means!) who's design is less than 5 years old. Hello? iMac Pro??? 18-core Xeon. Vega 64 GPU, 10 gigE, USB-C/TB3 PLUS USB-A, built-in 5k display, FFS, the CPU and GPU in the iMac Pro were like LESS THAN A MONTH OLD when the iMac Pro was announced! WTF are you BLATHERING about?!?
8. Mag Safe. I'm with you on that one; but fortunately, the aftermarket world has responded with DOZENS of USB-C-compatible alternatives, some as cheap as $10. Check Amazon. Seriously, As "solved problems" go, that's about on-par with needing to buy a gender-changer to plug in your modem.
9. As far as the Mac mini and maybe the Mac Pro, too, all will (hopefully!) be revealed next Tuesday:
Honestly, I don't care that it's soldered on. I want a lighter thinner laptop, I don't work on them and I'm never going to upgrade them. I buy my computer sized for the life I expect to use it. I have never, ever, ever, upgraded a computer.
Even the computers I built myself never got upgrades, I built a new one and sold the old one. Just like I do on everything else. No one complains you can't replace the cpu or ram on a phone right?
Or a microwave, disc player, dvd, etc. etc.
In fact, it has only ever been a RARE sighting to see a laptop with a replaceable CPU or GPU. Yes, there have been a few expensive "luggables"; but that is all.
Yet no one (well maybe SOMEone) seems to complain about THAT non-expandability. Why?
Gee, soldering the RAM and SSD to the MBP mobo ISN'T a dick move???
Dick move or not, it does seem to be on par with other vendors. I mean, if I go back some years, I can find replaceable ram/drives on other laptops. Now?
Right.
And as I pointed out above, it is actually more RELIABLE to have a Laptop with SOLDERED components, rather than SOCKETED ones...
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, I expect USB host mode won't be supported. At least not to any useful degree.
That is actually rumored to be one of the things that is coming along with USB-C.
Maybe a significant moment in Apple's history, if they are finally switching to USB-C instead of their proprietary Lightning bullshit.
I wouldn't celebrate just yet though. You can bet that they will do something to make it crappy and expensive and only work properly with Apple certified stuff.
Hey Moron/Hater:
Apple developed and introduced Lightning BEFORE there WAS a USB-C. They produced it as an IMPROVEMENT over the horrible mini/micro-USB epic Failures-as-connector-designs.
Having said all that, I am very hopeful they are moving to USB-C on their mobile devices. There are a zillion good reasons for that. We'll know next Tuesday...
I thought the MB pro came wit 2 USB ports?
Both the 13 and 15 inch MacBook Pros have FOUR USB-C/TB3 Ports. Those can be expanded to up to FIFTY-TWO "Legacy" Ports.
Do that with ANY other laptop.
do you REALLY want to be treated to a nice, fat KERNEL PANIC screen because your RAM or SSD socket glitched when someone bumped the table your laptop was sitting on?
No, that's why RAM and SSD sockets have retention features. You would have to subject the laptop to enough G-forces to smash it in order to actually cause that to happen. You know what else I don't want? FUD like yours on Slashdot. That ship sailed even longer ago than Apple not treating users like idiots, though.
Not FUD. A statistical possibility that is higher than if the parts are soldered, even if not a likely failure.
Connector retention-tabs can also fail, or the parts can not be fully-inserted by the factory, or even more likely, the UNTRAINED (or even trained) USER when they UPGRADE their RAM or SSD. I recently did it myself with my (Samsung) work laptop, and I KNOW how to replace RAM, have built several computers, worked at various times both as an embedded developer and an electronic tech, etc. I THOUGHT the RAM DIMM was fully-inserted; looked fully-inserted, fleet full-inserted; but it apparently WASN'T.
So, retention tabs != solder. Period.
Nice try, though.
Apple design is getting worse overtime with stupid design choices.
you mentioned socketed ic's many computers have socketed processors but they have heat sinks that hold those processors in place. The socketed IC's you talked about relied on the electrical connection to hold them in place. No mechanical support, maybe it was the thermal cycling which was walking those ic's out of their sockets. Hard to imagine you could shake the board and have them dropping out their sockets.
The problem with soldering an SSD or HDD into a machine is that if the machine fails for some reason your data is left stranded on a broken machine. In any other system the ssd is connected electrically with screws holding the drive in place. Pop the case remove the screws transfer the drive to another machine, no problem. Rams another easy fix if a module goes bad replace it or upgrade it.
Glueing in the battery , it's going to wear out! At least it isn't soldered to the main board maybe you would prefer that it was.
Apple pretty much has 2 types of users , consumers and professionals.
The consumer devices are nice for consuming but when you want to produce, create edit you need a better than consumer level device.
Apple used to differentiate between its pro devices and consumer devices but they are not doing so currently and thats a mistake and its not just with hardware that they are doing this, Apples dumbing down its software too.
I won't even dignify your stupid "explanation" regarding the socketed parts.
If you have a laptop without a backup, you deserve what you get, period. Backblaze is $5 a month UNLIMITED storage, and encrypted, and since it is "cloud based", will back-up your machine whether you are at home to plug it into your Time Machine drive or not. I don't like "the cloud", either; but this appears to be a REALLY good application for it. And as far as a Restore, if you can't wait to Restore over the 'net, they will Overnight (FedEx) you a hard drive with your stuff on it.
Haven't seen a battery that isn't replaceable, "Glued" or not. And no, those shouldn't be soldered. For one thing, their connectors have far less, and far more robust, pins than RAM or SSD connectors.
You must've missed FULL-BLOWN PHOTOSHOP running on a damned IPAD Pro.
You'll see just how wrong you are next Tuesday.
Yes exactly my point. They've gone from innovative to meh.
Seriously what's wrong with you today? You and I never agree on anything but right now we're like synchronised on a higher level.
I have not "made your point". I made (highly deserved) FUN of it, instead.
Perhaps it is YOUR mentation that is "off" today.
And we'll see next Tuesday just how WRONG you are.
So you agree you can't live without dongles because USB-C isn't universal. Thanks for making my point for me. Honestly I don't know why I expected a clever response from you, but you manage to dig yourself in a hole every single time.
NOTHING is "Universal". I don't even know what that term means when it comes to interfaces.
We are in a transition period between an outgoing standard (USB-A,B,mini,micro) and a MORE "universal" standard (one that has a connector-body small enough to replace the mini and micro USBs, and much more capable than any of the USB-A/B-connected versions.
And it isn't "Digging out of a hole" to propose how an "insurmountable problem" is actually quite simple to "surmount". It's called "Inteelligence". Too bad yours is insufficient; or you wouldn't repeatedly embarrass yourself, or would at least try to find a solution yourself before embarrassing yourself with a ridiculous, hand-wringing (or overly-dramatic) post.
Notice how your solution to all and any shortcomings on Apple is spending more money on "solutions" instead of having a platform that has a sensible set of "solutions" built in?
How many laptops have built-in 4T drives?
Have you ever edited video? Do you realize how quickly you can fill up nearly ANY drive with its files?
Obviously not.
In 2006, my laptop got dropped down a flight of steps by a fumble-fingered customs agent in Malaysia. One of those horrible moments when you see everything in slow-motion... BOUNCE... spinspinspin... BOUNCE... spinspinspin... BOUNCE... *WHUMPPPP* To give the poor fellow credit, he turned almost as white as I am and dived the stairs to retrieve it. There was a crack in the top, so I was not hopeful, but I powered it up... and it ran.
That laptop still sits in my office. It still runs great. I still use it for audio/video/reading.
What kind is it? It's an off-the-fucking-shelf Acer, that's what it is.
Moral: LEARN TO BUY HARDWARE THAT DOES NOT FUCKING SUCK.
You must've missed the part when I said I had never ACTUALLY had (or heard-of) such a problem.
But, you cannot deny that it is statistically more likely WITH connectors, than without.
And if that had been a unibody MacBook Pro, you wouldn't have had an ugly crack in the top.
So, it is YOU that needs to LEARN TO BUY HARDWARE THAT DOESN'T SUCK.
No, it has around 3000 : https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=n...
That's dozens. 250 Dozen, to be exact.
Idiot.
do you REALLY want to be treated to a nice, fat KERNEL PANIC screen because your RAM or SSD socket glitched when someone bumped the table your laptop was sitting on
Does that happen for well-made laptops with un-soldered RAM or SSD ?
Prove it.
Can't prove it.
But all things being equal, it is OBVIOUSLY more likely to have connector-related failures when there are, um CONNECTORS.
Trolling? I currently have an X and a 7. Have had a 6, 5, 4s, and 3GS. Not a single one has taken more than 30m to charge from empty to full with any of the chargers they came with. Either youâ(TM)re charging off a computer USB port or you are using a 3rd party transformer with lower power.
If you are achieving those charge-times from DEAD-FLAT (0% charge), I think you have plugged the 120V charging nugget into a 240V outlet.
Yes, I know that's not how it works; but it seemed the only possible explanation.
But no, not lying nor would I use a 3rd party charging nugget.
... do you REALLY want to be treated to a nice, fat KERNEL PANIC screen because your RAM or SSD socket glitched when someone bumped the table your laptop was sitting on?
I've never, ever had that happen. I guess I'll have to try buying shittier hardware next time.
I've never had that happen, either; but it certainly COULD.
A long time ago, when I was a sound man for a band that toured mostly the southeastern U.S., our keyboardist had an early polyphonic synthesizer, a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5. VERY popular machine. However, they made the fatal mistake of having the ICs SOCKETED in the PC board. This was exacerbated by having them hanging upside-down when the keyboard was in the normal "playing position" (bottom of the device toward the bottom).
It became a set-up ritual to, flip the keyboard over, take off the bottom panel, and RE-SEAT all of the ICs. Many of them would typically be hanging half-out of their sockets, and not rarely, some of the heavier chips actually fell OUT of the sockets, let to rattle-around in the case until you tracked them down and reseted them, too.
By the way, we tried "roading" the case in every possible orientation, and even placed it near the front of the truck to try and minimize bouncing' but to no real effect.
Yes, this is a somewhat extreme example; but it IS a "real world" one, and a story I could not relate if those chips had just been SOLDERED IN, rather than SOCKETED.
Other laptops dont suffer from this because they are made to a better level of quality than apple products.
Prove it.
Surely you are in more danger of it being pulled off the table because what they actually bumped into was the power cord. So why are not other laptops suffering these RAM or SSD glitches where on the vast majority of laptops these are socketed.
How do you know they aren't?
If I wanted a fashion statement I would buy an air not a macbook pro.
and since when was a hard drive or ssd or ram left to float around in any laptop?
You're pretty stupid, aren't you?
although there was a particular ic which gave problems due to poor soldering which on refurbs apple glued some rubber on to sandwich it against the case and hold it down in case the solder joints failed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
That was the fault of the chip itself not being sufficiently "flat"; although I agree, that's not a wonderful permanent repair, IMHO.
need for purchase of extra hardware if one needs fast charging for instance.
My iPhone charges from dead-flat to 100% in about 2 hours with the standard charging-nugget. It doesn't charge significantly faster using my higher-power iPad charger.
That's not fast, my Moto G6 fast-charges from empty in less than an hour with the stock charger. OP has a point.
No, in fact that sounds a little TOO fast.
Let's see who's battery lasts longer. My 4 year old iPhone 6 Plus with original battery and a few hundred charge cycles still shows 95% battery life.
With battery charging, speed isn't everything.
I've been forced to use a macbook pro, and gladly went back to my Asus Zenbook running buntu as soon as I could. I do have family members that belong to the the church though, and trying to convince them to look at anything without an Apple logo on it is like talking to a rock.
I sent one family member a link to a file. His internet was out, so all he needed to do was download that link with his iphone, plug it into his macbook and transfer it over. After DAYS of trying he gave up on this simple task.
Another family member was given a video on a flash drive to watch on his Macbook. It was made with the H265 codec, so of course it would not play. I told him to download and install VLC media player and he'd be good. He has never been able to figure out how to do this.
Still another family member was given a portable hard drive to backup her documents from her Macbook Air. This went about the same way as the others - she has no clue how to copy a file on her Mac.
These are people who often tout how Apple is superior to everything else, while at the same time cannot figure out how to do very basic things with their Apple products. At what point will the almost total lack of easy functionality convince them to look to another platform? Do Apple products make people stupid? I just don't understand.
You've got some DUMB relatives there, sorry!
Every one of those tasks are EASILY accomplished on a Mac. Same with your Iphone/Mac file-handoff.
Too bad you can't be arced to help your OBVIOUSLY technically inept family members accomplish what is, for them, an unfamiliar task.
Remember, YOU weren't BORN with the knowledge of how to do that stuff, either.
My Minis have FW800. My MBP has FW800. I have a bunch of FW400 and FW800 hard drives. With no FW on new Macs I'm going to end up with a pile of no-longer-usable external storage.
Time marches on.
You can either take the drive mechs out of those FW enclosures and put them into some USB-C ones. That would be your cheapest route.
Or, you can go the Apple-Approved route:
Apple TB3 TB2 Adapter, + Apple TB2 FW 800 Adapter. Yes, it is a daisy-chain. Yes, Apple approves the configuration. $60 for both Adapters together. Then you should be able to use your existing drives. Most FW drives can be daisy-chained with some inexpensive (around $12) cables; so that should work.
https://www.apple.com/shop/pro...
https://www.apple.com/shop/pro...
I think it's hilarious that somebody can accuse Apple of being stagnant (5 year old design on the MP) and being too progressive (only USB C) in one sentence.
Well said, sir!
You forgot the requirement to use iCloud, which absolutely is a requirement when the base MBPs ship with 128gb hard drives in them
Considering that "Pro" applications NEVER store DATA on the Boot Drive, you'd likely be better served to get something like this Ruggedized 4TB USB-C external for $107 from Amazon. And it looks like it supports USB-A, too, in case you need to transfer to an older Mac. Depending on how much on-the-road stuff you do, pick up a couple and you're all set:
https://www.amazon.com/Silicon...
BTW, I have NEVER used iCloud. Period.
USB-C is really nice if you embrace it.
Cool story. Hey can you copy this off my memory stick? Oh what? Everyone needs to embrace your thing now? What about my perfectly functioning hardware? Yeah just bin it like a good consumer.
I have embraced USB-C in the only sane way. My laptop has USB-C and USB-A. My desktop has USB-C and USB-A. Defending the removal of the most widely used accessory port in the world is frankly indefensible and you should feel bad for defending the action.
Here. Hand me that USB stick...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J...
Now, what were you saying?
For people who miss Magsafe there is a solution.
Amazon also has literally dozens of solutions:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=usb...
I am typing this on a MacBook Pro, and I use and iPhone 8. What experience is sub par?
The stack of dongles to plug everything in, the insanely high price, the keyboard's lack of movement, the lack of function keys, the lack of a decent GPU, the less-than-cutting-edge CPU, the lack of a pro desktop whose design is less than 5 years old, the inability for the power cord to magnetically disconnect...and that's just off the top of my head. I used to use Apple and dropped them when they dropped the ball on their macs. The mac mini now only has two cores - that's less than their laptops! - and until the new update comes out they are still trying to peddle a 5 year old Mac Pro at full price!
Their iOS devices have faired better but they have not only dropped the ball with their Mac line they no longer even remember where the ball is or what it looks like.
1. Stack of Dongles: Boy, does THAT meme deserve to DIE! Get a simple multiport USB-C Dock for $30-99 on Amazon and STILL have 3/4 of your I/O FREE! And they're cheap enough to have TWO, one for home, one for office. So, changing locations consists of swapping like ONE cable... And remember, you can expand a 4- Port MacBook Pro up to FIFTY-TWO Legacy Ports (in a MYRIAD of Configurations). Yeah, that really sucks...
2. Insanely high price: In case you haven't looked, ALL PC prices are up. Memory prices are up, and Intel never seems to have enough money... Then we have the Aluminum tariffs. Take a look at a MBP. What do your see? A big ol' substantial block of milled aluminum. Thank Trump.
3. Some people like the keyboard; some don't. Same with every keyboard design. I hate Model Ms. Some people won't type on anything else. Keyboards are like speakers. Plus, unless you are talking about being at a meeting or on a plane/train, just plug the keyboard and/or pointing device of your choice in, and have at it! Life's too short to pet the sweaty things. No, wait...
4. Lack of function keys. Meh. Again, don't like it, plug in the keyboard of your choice at home/office.
5. Lack of a "Decent" GPU. That again has been beaten to death. Nvidia didn't have a GPU that could drive as much screen real-estate as the AMDs; which has been pointed out again and again. eGPUs should also help that somewhat.
6. Lack of a cutting-edge CPU. Well, considering that the CPUs in the 2018 MBPs were hot-off-the-presses when those were introduced a few months ago, and the up to 18-core Xeon CPU in the iMac Pro was barely out of testing at Intel when Apple snatched it up, I'm not exactly sure what you are talking about.
7. Lack of a "Pro" Desktop (whatever THAT means!) who's design is less than 5 years old. Hello? iMac Pro??? 18-core Xeon. Vega 64 GPU, 10 gigE, USB-C/TB3 PLUS USB-A, built-in 5k display, FFS, the CPU and GPU in the iMac Pro were like LESS THAN A MONTH OLD when the iMac Pro was announced! WTF are you BLATHERING about?!?
8. Mag Safe. I'm with you on that one; but fortunately, the aftermarket world has responded with DOZENS of USB-C-compatible alternatives, some as cheap as $10. Check Amazon. Seriously, As "solved problems" go, that's about on-par with needing to buy a gender-changer to plug in your modem.
9. As far as the Mac mini and maybe the Mac Pro, too, all will (hopefully!) be revealed next Tuesday:
https://www.apple.com/apple-ev...
Any questions?
Honestly, I don't care that it's soldered on. I want a lighter thinner laptop, I don't work on them and I'm never going to upgrade them. I buy my computer sized for the life I expect to use it. I have never, ever, ever, upgraded a computer.
Even the computers I built myself never got upgrades, I built a new one and sold the old one. Just like I do on everything else. No one complains you can't replace the cpu or ram on a phone right?
Or a microwave, disc player, dvd, etc. etc.
In fact, it has only ever been a RARE sighting to see a laptop with a replaceable CPU or GPU. Yes, there have been a few expensive "luggables"; but that is all.
Yet no one (well maybe SOMEone) seems to complain about THAT non-expandability. Why?
Dick move or not, it does seem to be on par with other vendors. I mean, if I go back some years, I can find replaceable ram/drives on other laptops. Now?
Right.
And as I pointed out above, it is actually more RELIABLE to have a Laptop with SOLDERED components, rather than SOCKETED ones...