Surviving the New MacBook Pro(bradfrost.com)
bradfrost.com
Surviving the New MacBook Pro
http://bradfrost.com/blog/post/surviving-the-new-macbook-pro/
120 comments
Same here. MBP 13" with 16GB of RAM. Fast enough to develop web apps with Rails and JS. It's light and the battery life allows me to go to any meeting without having to bring the charger.
USB-C doesn't bother me, and I guess that in the near future it will be the standard. I just had to buy a new Ethernet adaptor.
I agree that the touchbar is annoying. I summon Siri way too often, but it's not the end of the world. The keyboard is good.
I just think that it is a bit too expensive for what it is, but I didn't pay for it.
USB-C doesn't bother me, and I guess that in the near future it will be the standard. I just had to buy a new Ethernet adaptor.
I agree that the touchbar is annoying. I summon Siri way too often, but it's not the end of the world. The keyboard is good.
I just think that it is a bit too expensive for what it is, but I didn't pay for it.
I see graphical artifacts when I wake my computer up as well, though I have a 2013 MacBook Pro. I'm thinking it's a software issue, it never used to happen before macOS 10.12.
Same here a while ago on my 2015, though somebody said a recent update should have fixed it and sure enough I don't see it happening anymore.
I'm curious to see how the keyboards hold up. I have a 2016 12" rMB. I believe that's the same keyboard as the new MBP. It's less than a year old and some of the keys are starting to become unresponsive. Admittedly I'm a very "hard" typist, but still.
I actually quite like typing on this keyboard, although it was weird at first, but I wonder how these things are going to hold up.
I actually quite like typing on this keyboard, although it was weird at first, but I wonder how these things are going to hold up.
I was actually warned by the Apple Store when I got it how fragile the keyboard is and that if even small amounts of stuff got on the keyboard it would interfere with the keys due to the lack of any space below the key cap.
It's not quite the same keyboard, though it is similar. Time will tell how it holds up in comparison, though.
It's not the same, rMB is slightly flatter. I prefer the new pro.
I feel the same about my 15 inch 2016 MBP. I also had the same issue with the Touch bar. I've since removed it, and changed it to the mute button, and haven't had any issue.
When I first purchased it, (when it was released in store), I had problems with graphical artifacts, but than a new update was released for MacOSX and it's been fine since.
When I first purchased it, (when it was released in store), I had problems with graphical artifacts, but than a new update was released for MacOSX and it's been fine since.
You listed several things you don't like about it, and then said all in all you like it. To me, that seems a tad incongruent. I'm not sure if you actually enjoy it or if you're conditioning yourself to justify its presence because you have one. Sounds like the moaning is justified.
How condescending. OP mentioned one thing that was an annoyance, and it sounds like it doesn't come close to overwhelming the things OP likes about it.
The totally irrational hate this MBP has received is really funny to me. It turns out nerds are super conservative. Change anything and they act like it's the end of the world.
And God forbid you should say you actually like the change and then you get people popping up telling you that you're wrong, you can't trust your own preferences, and you actually don't like it.
It's a slightly modified laptop with a few changes that most people don't care about or prefer. Get over it.
The totally irrational hate this MBP has received is really funny to me. It turns out nerds are super conservative. Change anything and they act like it's the end of the world.
And God forbid you should say you actually like the change and then you get people popping up telling you that you're wrong, you can't trust your own preferences, and you actually don't like it.
It's a slightly modified laptop with a few changes that most people don't care about or prefer. Get over it.
Indeed. Come to think of it, Apple could have perceived the whole thing as a change management scenario.
People are showing all the traits related to resistance to change. Seeing this whole thing through the ADKAR model, Apple misses the Awareness and Desire part by "surprising" current customers on the release happenings.
There seems to be an inherent problem with this way of rolling out changes that conflicts with taking care of existing customers. Perhaps treating current and potential customers differently would be an idea.
People are showing all the traits related to resistance to change. Seeing this whole thing through the ADKAR model, Apple misses the Awareness and Desire part by "surprising" current customers on the release happenings.
There seems to be an inherent problem with this way of rolling out changes that conflicts with taking care of existing customers. Perhaps treating current and potential customers differently would be an idea.
It's not perfect, but no MBP has ever been perfect. One thing about the Touch Bar annoys me from time to time. Otherwise, I love the computer and I'm both happy and feel thankful for having one.
It is clear that other people don't like it. I hope they are able to find machines that works better for them. I posted my original comment just to give a counterpoint from the perspective of somebody thrilled with the purchase.
It is clear that other people don't like it. I hope they are able to find machines that works better for them. I posted my original comment just to give a counterpoint from the perspective of somebody thrilled with the purchase.
[deleted]
I've bought a new MacBook pro. It works reasonably well, but :
it is seriously bug-ridden. For instance, at times the Finder won't allow any drag and drop operation (you need to kill it). Access to network shares is hit and miss. Globally the OS X Finder has been a pretty poor piece of essential software since... Developer Preview? :/
The absence of at least one standard USB port is really annoying, you need an adapter to plug in just about anything, a thumb drive, a phone, a mouse... any of the bazillions of USB gizmos and cables everyone has lying around in his house or at work. Wherever you are, you need to have this stupid adapter at hand. It's incredibly annoying; in practice you have to carry your nice, sleek laptop with a constantly dangling white protrusion on a side.
it is seriously bug-ridden. For instance, at times the Finder won't allow any drag and drop operation (you need to kill it). Access to network shares is hit and miss. Globally the OS X Finder has been a pretty poor piece of essential software since... Developer Preview? :/
The absence of at least one standard USB port is really annoying, you need an adapter to plug in just about anything, a thumb drive, a phone, a mouse... any of the bazillions of USB gizmos and cables everyone has lying around in his house or at work. Wherever you are, you need to have this stupid adapter at hand. It's incredibly annoying; in practice you have to carry your nice, sleek laptop with a constantly dangling white protrusion on a side.
"The absence of at least one standard USB port is really annoying, you need an adapter to plug in just about anything, a thumb drive, a phone, a mouse."
Agreed. I am not the owner of any new mac laptop for this specific reason.
My current 11" MBA is has a lot of utility with a standard USB port on each side and it's not that uncommon that I need both of them simultaneously. For instance, I get a very large file on a USB attached device and need to move it up to the network and my ethernet dongle would be 10x faster than wifi ...
Agreed. I am not the owner of any new mac laptop for this specific reason.
My current 11" MBA is has a lot of utility with a standard USB port on each side and it's not that uncommon that I need both of them simultaneously. For instance, I get a very large file on a USB attached device and need to move it up to the network and my ethernet dongle would be 10x faster than wifi ...
For the phone you can get usb-c to lightning cable.
Finder really needs some attention beyond adding features like tagging that add complexity without, as far as I can tell, bringing any real benefit.
I want a Finder that's keyboard-accessible, that lets me easily restart it when it crashes, that doesn't frustrate my efforts to view certain hidden files. I'd still take it over windows explorer, on balance, but only barely, and that's pretty damning.
I've recently started using fman [0] which seems a promising alternative.
[0] https://fman.io
I want a Finder that's keyboard-accessible, that lets me easily restart it when it crashes, that doesn't frustrate my efforts to view certain hidden files. I'd still take it over windows explorer, on balance, but only barely, and that's pretty damning.
I've recently started using fman [0] which seems a promising alternative.
[0] https://fman.io
I want a Finder that's keyboard-accessible, that lets me easily restart it when it crashes, that doesn't frustrate my efforts to view certain hidden files.
Forklift 3 would also meet those criteria.
http://binarynights.com/forklift/
Forklift 3 would also meet those criteria.
http://binarynights.com/forklift/
fman looks awesome...Norton Commander for mac.
Regarding finder, one of the best things I ever did was enable "Quit" for it. Now I can easily handle when it bugs out like every other program... "Turn it off and back on again"
defaults write com.apple.Finder QuitMenuItem -bool trueI just want a computer that boots up reliably, plays audio and video, allows me to work for more than a couple hours before dying, and has a keyboard that doesn’t freak out on me.
You had one. You gave it to your brother.
You had one. You gave it to your brother.
So he should use that computer for the rest of his life? He had to upgrade sometime.
"So he should use that computer for the rest of his life? He had to upgrade sometime."
My desktop system is the early-2009 mac pro.
It still only has the original 6 GB of ram.
20+ chrome tabs at all times and at least two vmware fusion guests running ... and I have never once though the machine was lagging or was slow.
My laptop is a 11" macbook air and I fully expect to run it as my daily driver for 6-7 years when all is said and done.
My desktop system is the early-2009 mac pro.
It still only has the original 6 GB of ram.
20+ chrome tabs at all times and at least two vmware fusion guests running ... and I have never once though the machine was lagging or was slow.
My laptop is a 11" macbook air and I fully expect to run it as my daily driver for 6-7 years when all is said and done.
You don't have to upgrade. Lots of still functional pre-courage Macs you can buy.
"pre-courage", I must admit, while accurate, I had a chuckle.
2008 Mac Pro tower, still going. Probably won't ever upgrade until it dies. Then who knows what that will be, potentially PC, as Apple hates power users now.
Running xubuntu on my 2007 now. Will do the same on less expensive pc hardware when it dies. Apple wants to only sell iphones, so they're weaning users off their computers in the same order they weaned them on: starting with power users and long-time users.
I believe the conventional wisdom says to wait for the at least the second generation of a new product to buy it. While the MacBook Pro is not a new product, if you crave stability then skip any redesign year.
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In 1-2 years, the lack of USB-A ports should be less of an issue, Apple will have spent some time fixing TouchBar bugs, and we might see the next-gen battery tech that allegedly should have gone into the 2016 model[1]. His old machine wasn't broken, so he absolutely had the option to skip this generation.
[1] http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/24/14074654/apple-consumer-r...
[1] http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/24/14074654/apple-consumer-r...
This is definitely a stumble for Apple, that much is beyond debate.
But as someone who uses both 2012 MBP and new HP Win10 laptops every day for work and play, let me say this: the Windows world might seem suddenly enticing, but you will NOT find greener pastures there, on average. That ecosystem is still a mess.
But as someone who uses both 2012 MBP and new HP Win10 laptops every day for work and play, let me say this: the Windows world might seem suddenly enticing, but you will NOT find greener pastures there, on average. That ecosystem is still a mess.
I think it's very personal which platform you prefer. I also spend equal time on windows and mac and lately find myself preferring windows more.
One thing that's definitely terrible on windows 10 are the updates. Stuff breaking after forced updates is normal now. This week a whole bunch of colleagues got a forced update at 10 am which broke their laptop keyboard. Apparently our IT dept is to blame for the unlucky timing, but microsoft are the ones that broke the keyboard. Every win10 device I have has had something break after a forced update. I can always fix it, but I don't know how non-technical people deal with this.
One thing that's definitely terrible on windows 10 are the updates. Stuff breaking after forced updates is normal now. This week a whole bunch of colleagues got a forced update at 10 am which broke their laptop keyboard. Apparently our IT dept is to blame for the unlucky timing, but microsoft are the ones that broke the keyboard. Every win10 device I have has had something break after a forced update. I can always fix it, but I don't know how non-technical people deal with this.
I've heard MS is shoving ads into various parts of the OS. Is that something you notice?
I've been reasonably happy with a laptop I've had running Windows 7. Then it stealth-updated itself to Windows 10. I turned off most of the ads, but the lock screen still had ads. I had to turn of some service with an incongruous name to kill those but Cortana still shows up on the lock screen telling me to talk to it. Like I'm going to do that?
Also, the start menu is all fubared. I end up using search from the start menu, which works but is really slow. I'll get the search box and type something into it and it's 30 seconds to a minute before my text shows up there, usually missing the first 2-3 characters I typed... but not always.
Microsoft needs to have a good hard look at why they had so much trouble moving people off of XP. It's like they hit an inflection point there with the least amount of suckage.
Also, the start menu is all fubared. I end up using search from the start menu, which works but is really slow. I'll get the search box and type something into it and it's 30 seconds to a minute before my text shows up there, usually missing the first 2-3 characters I typed... but not always.
Microsoft needs to have a good hard look at why they had so much trouble moving people off of XP. It's like they hit an inflection point there with the least amount of suckage.
You notice it on the lock screen, but it's mostly just partial factoids about a particular picture that takes you to bing if you click on it (after the lock screen.) I turned off the ad for their cloud service before I saw it, but Apple's pretty insistent on that themselves. I've also turned off Cortana's voice and other things I've found, and I'm considering moving back to Linux, but it's just not intrusive enough. I'm being tracked by everyone else - what's one more? :/
To be honest, I haven't noticed this. I think they're mostly onedrive ads anyway, and I have onedrive activated on most of my devices, so that could be the cause.
> that much is beyond debate
I think you'd find plenty willing to debate you on that one!
I think you'd find plenty willing to debate you on that one!
Willing to debate and actually being able to are completely different.
No, pretty sure any reasonable person would call this a fumble. Even if it's unwarranted, it's still a fumble. The roll out has been plagued with bad press and very real technical problems.
Even I was considering a new one since my 2013's batteries are starting to give out, and was immediately told by people who own them "Are you sure? There are a lot of problems with the new MacBooks. You might get lucky and get a good one."
This from non-tech people.
Does this mean they lost the game? No. But Apple fumbled here. Clear and simple.
No, pretty sure any reasonable person would call this a fumble. Even if it's unwarranted, it's still a fumble. The roll out has been plagued with bad press and very real technical problems.
Even I was considering a new one since my 2013's batteries are starting to give out, and was immediately told by people who own them "Are you sure? There are a lot of problems with the new MacBooks. You might get lucky and get a good one."
This from non-tech people.
Does this mean they lost the game? No. But Apple fumbled here. Clear and simple.
[deleted]
Microsoft and various Linux distributions do at least offer a stable version for enterprise customers and others that don't want the bleeding edge.
There's no power button. Lip flip is your new button except when your computer is stuck in some kind of sleep mode and won't wake up. Flipping g the lid doesn't wake it up. Tried multiple times. Tried force quit keys.. nope. Tried attaching power... Nope. About 20 minutes later it decides to come back to life.
Luckily this only happens to me in the morning while working from home. But it could happen before a big presentation, meeting, etc. It's terrible.
Luckily this only happens to me in the morning while working from home. But it could happen before a big presentation, meeting, etc. It's terrible.
the touch ID button is the power button
In fairness this is almost impossible to guess: the is no label and no indication you can press the thing. It was only muscle memory and the fact that my mac now goes into flicker-mode weekly that lead me to discover this.
Its 2017 and we developers still don't have an OS/Laptop combo that delights us. Its a series of compromises, particularly with linux.
I'm wondering why there isn't a linux on laptop combo thats just great. Lack of resources? Demand? Is linux so fragmented that it can't martial the dev effort on laptops?
I'm wondering why there isn't a linux on laptop combo thats just great. Lack of resources? Demand? Is linux so fragmented that it can't martial the dev effort on laptops?
Driver support. App support. Which form a vicious cycle together with demand.
EDIT That's not to say that there aren't options that aren't great for given use-cases. E.g. as a developer I'm very happy with my linux-on-laptop. But if someone sends me an Office doc I am in a position to tell them to send me plain text or pdf or I won't be reading it. Not everyone is.
EDIT That's not to say that there aren't options that aren't great for given use-cases. E.g. as a developer I'm very happy with my linux-on-laptop. But if someone sends me an Office doc I am in a position to tell them to send me plain text or pdf or I won't be reading it. Not everyone is.
Libre office generally just works. I have real Word in Wine that works fine too.
But yeah apps can be tricky. I am happy with my laptop as well (Linux).
But yeah apps can be tricky. I am happy with my laptop as well (Linux).
if Libreoffice works fine, why have "real" Word at all?
For viewing. For most things. Once in a while libre will mangle a file or subtly change formatting. For viewing 100%. For editing 90%. For the other rare times Real Word.
The biggest issue is drivers. Specifically video. Sure the landscape is improving, but if you have a cheap integrated nvidia or amd card, you get awful driver support; especially in linux.
That being said, anyone running intel graphics for the last ~5-10 years has enjoyed much better driver support.
That being said, anyone running intel graphics for the last ~5-10 years has enjoyed much better driver support.
I use Arch Linux / i3 on an early 2013 retina Macbook Pro, and it's just perfect. Took a little bit of time to set up, but everything works (including things like suspend, function keys, kb backlight etc) and with really good battery life. The resolution is just nice to use without having to worry too much about scaling issues.
I had a 32GB Dell i7 XPS15 with 4K display previously and this slightly old MBP runs Linux much better. As a bonus I can dual boot into MacOS too when I want to use Photoshop or whatever, but I very rarely do.
I had a 32GB Dell i7 XPS15 with 4K display previously and this slightly old MBP runs Linux much better. As a bonus I can dual boot into MacOS too when I want to use Photoshop or whatever, but I very rarely do.
Sierra was the end of the line for me. Dell XPS 13 DE. i3 for WM. It has taken a few weeks of tweaking but it is a one time investment in many areas (backups, configs, wrangling iptables, etc.). If you stick with Unity it is nearly flawless. Build isn't like a Macs but it is good. I am... Ok. Some apps leave something to be desired but my core work is fine.
What would you say is missing or handled worse than in comparable scenarios on mobile hardware in Mac/Win? Not everything-- just something that stood out to you or that you felt that you should have been able to do but couldn't easily.
I stand with OP on the bugs. I own top of the line 15in, and can confirm audio freezes, glitches and ffs sometime also random reboots.
maybe it's broken? mine works fine. Might be worth a call to the genii.
Edit: Why the downvote?
Edit: Why the downvote?
Why the downvote?
Because Apple-bashing is all the rage right now on HN. Even if Apple were to achieve "five nines" glitch-free manufacturing, which is very hard to do, there'd still be problems with 1 in 10,000 units sold. And that's considered excellent quality. I used to work in the hardware space. Software people don't often appreciate you can't simply crank out perfect replicas of a design.
Because Apple-bashing is all the rage right now on HN. Even if Apple were to achieve "five nines" glitch-free manufacturing, which is very hard to do, there'd still be problems with 1 in 10,000 units sold. And that's considered excellent quality. I used to work in the hardware space. Software people don't often appreciate you can't simply crank out perfect replicas of a design.
Apple-bashing is all the rage right now on HN
More like <insert anything here>-bashing has been and always will be all the rage on any internet forum? At least to me HN looks quite diverse and I don't have the impression there is a big undeniable bias towards a single platform/tool/... and all seems fair. Which of course might mean in some cases where some product is actually not top notch the 'average' of the comments will be towards the negative side but that is exactly what should happen and the opposite should be true as well.
More like <insert anything here>-bashing has been and always will be all the rage on any internet forum? At least to me HN looks quite diverse and I don't have the impression there is a big undeniable bias towards a single platform/tool/... and all seems fair. Which of course might mean in some cases where some product is actually not top notch the 'average' of the comments will be towards the negative side but that is exactly what should happen and the opposite should be true as well.
Analytical people tend to be critical. For example, don't get me started on Android.
"So you must like your iPhone then?"
Yes, but let me tell you about the things I don't like about it...
"So you must like your iPhone then?"
Yes, but let me tell you about the things I don't like about it...
I don't think I was apple bashing - just the contrary. I have one and think it's great - I develop for Apple products, I said maybe his was broken. A bit confused...
I also suspect faulty hardware in these scenarios. I see far fewer bugs with my fully loaded 2016 MBP 15 than I did on my 3yo MBA.
I'd also be interested to know whether the folks experiencing these bugs imported the apps and settings from their old system. In my experience, it's fairly common to see glitches resulting from corrupt drivers or configuration after setting up a new machine by transferring from an old.
I'd also be interested to know whether the folks experiencing these bugs imported the apps and settings from their old system. In my experience, it's fairly common to see glitches resulting from corrupt drivers or configuration after setting up a new machine by transferring from an old.
Windows laptops are hit and miss as well, nothing new, move along. Maybe when windows becomes Linux fully, I'll switch.
These described MBP glitches sound bad but don't sound like a trip to the neighborhood Apple Store couldn't fix.
These described MBP glitches sound bad but don't sound like a trip to the neighborhood Apple Store couldn't fix.
I survived my rMBP by trading up to a Lenovo X1 Carbon (with XUbuntu). The hardware is great and it's close to indestructible. Curiously, my biggest beef with the rMBP was Mac OSX and some of the custom hardware wouldn't support Linux.
The worst part of the new laptop is the damn keyboard. Keys keep getting stuck, which severely slows down my typing. And it's intermittent. At any given time I have about 1-2 keys stuck, but it always changes.
I would definitely take it in if this is the case. I have had no problems with the new keyboard and have come to vastly prefer it to the old MacBook Air keyboard I had been using. I feel like I type faster on it and with greater certainty.
I really dislike the new keyboard and it might be the reason I end up returning my new MBP. The key presses feel inconsistent (escape/arrow keys need a harder press for no clear reason), the tactile feedback isn't great... I wish I waited until the next MBP generation while they fix it.
Having an x86 laptop that Just Worked between 2006 and 2016 was the anomaly, not the experience of a laptop owner described in this story.
I'll happily wait out this first generation while they iron out the problems until the next iteration of it. Seems like my maxed out 2015 was a great buy after all.
I'll happily wait out this first generation while they iron out the problems until the next iteration of it. Seems like my maxed out 2015 was a great buy after all.
It blows my mind that it is not even an option to buy a computer built by another vendor.
I'm noticing this also, there is somewhat of an accepted "uniform" and "toolset" for the SV life.
MacOS is great for development, and has tons better app support than Linux. Some people consider that worth the extra $X over a Windows laptop.
No, hackintoshes require a lot of effort.
No, hackintoshes require a lot of effort.
I have had the same experience; the Bluetooth stack is awful, the touch bar locks up constantly (or displays nothing at all), glitches often, crashes far more than my previous model and... is just awful in general. The switch to USB-C is actually a non-issue for me, and I find it quite convenient now that I have all the right cables, but the machine itself, while the hardware is well refined, is just awful
"Surviving"? Really? It's a notebook. It's better than last year's. It's better than 95% of all currently used notebooks.
You will not die. You will live to gripe about another non-issue next year.
You will not die. You will live to gripe about another non-issue next year.
Wait, there's no charging light anymore? That's actually pretty sad. I like that on mine.
It is definitely something that I miss. I would actually be pretty happy to pay a $15 premium for a USB-C cable that integrated MagSafe style charging LEDs into its circuitry.
There's no need for a charging light because it's USB-C, so you know whether it's plugged in or not. Whereas with the MagSafe it could be only partially connected, and the only way to know that was the light. You still need to know whether the plug is actually plugged into the wall, but you can just look at the menu bar for that.
The charging light also tells me whether or not my laptop is done charging by means of an orange or green light.
There's no charging light on the iPad or iPhone either
Yeah, the difference there is that you have to crack open your laptop or power it on to know if it's charging if there's no light. iPad? Press a button. Now you know if you're good or not.
Audio feedback isn't too useful either
Audio feedback isn't too useful either
Which sucks. I can't count the amount of times I've plugged in my iPad to charge and forgotten to check if the wall socket is switched on. On my android phone on the other hand I've never had this problem because there is an led which tells me if it's charging or not
The charging light was a good innovation back when Apple introduced it. The rationale for having it there hasn't changed. Removing it was a clear regression.
> There's no need for a charging light because it's USB-C, so you know whether it's plugged in or not
I can't count the number of times my Mac wasn't charging because the USB-C cable was detached only half a millimeter.
I can also confirm the super buggy touch bar (missing buttons, non-responsive buttons) and many graphic glitches (esp. in combination with Flux). Still hoping an OS X update will fix this.
I can't count the number of times my Mac wasn't charging because the USB-C cable was detached only half a millimeter.
I can also confirm the super buggy touch bar (missing buttons, non-responsive buttons) and many graphic glitches (esp. in combination with Flux). Still hoping an OS X update will fix this.
Just read your comment again. The charging light was useful, and you suggest looking at the menu bar?
> but you can just look at the menu bar for that.
Not if the lid is closed.
Not if the lid is closed.
I have the previous generation 15 inch MB Pro and it is an amazing machine. But despite its maximum (for air travel) sized 100 Wh battery, it can have run times below 2 hours - that is, if a process loads the machine. So, if you are getting really bad run times with your laptops, check the system load. Even rather inconspicuous processes can drag your battery down. Be it a web page or something else. Safari should throttle webpages shown in hidden tabs, but check it. For Chrome, there are tools like the "big suspender" which can save memory and cpu resources.
I would love a utility that watched for fast battery drops and then alerted me or automatically killed a process based on rules. The few times I've had battery issues with the new MBP I've checked Activity Monitor to find that something like iTunes has become unresponsive and is pinning a core at 100%, but often not before losing 30% of a charge.
I keep the cpu monitor part of the activity monitor running in the dock icon and keep an eye on it. It should be completely zero when I am not interacting with the machine. Maybe I am too old, but watching the cpu monitor on any machine I am working on is as natural to me, as watching the rev counter of my car when I am driving :).
Ovetime the activity monitor also consumes significant battery...
The activity monitor when run as an icon should consume no noticeable energy, it is <1% power usage - a single "nasty" tab can load the cpu 10-30% or more. I think this is a good trade off, especially when the run time does not match the expectations.
I had a 2012 MBP that was dying and I replaced it with a Windows10 laptop (Spectre from HP). After setting up bash on here, I'm pretty happy and in some respects happier. There's some weird things still (pasting into a terminal is one), but I can no longer justify the 2x cost for a Mac that is buggy, limited, and has crap I don't want forced on me.
Truly this is a terrible laptop. I use a USB dock so the awful keyboard, oversized mousepad (with attendant accidental bumps) and pointless touch bar (oh, hey, I accidentally bumped mute again) don't matter that much.
However, at least once a week, when switching between the dock and home, my mac goes into flicker mode, requiring a hard reboot. Insanity.
To make matters worse, the power key (the Touch ID key) is unlabeled and doesn't look like a pressable key. And now that apple has removed its boot up sound, for no good reason, I don't know if I've successfully rebooted until seconds after I press the power button.
The audio occasionally craps out and randomly decides not to select the right output when I plug in to my dock.
I've been a mac guy since college in 1994. This may be my last mac.
However, at least once a week, when switching between the dock and home, my mac goes into flicker mode, requiring a hard reboot. Insanity.
To make matters worse, the power key (the Touch ID key) is unlabeled and doesn't look like a pressable key. And now that apple has removed its boot up sound, for no good reason, I don't know if I've successfully rebooted until seconds after I press the power button.
The audio occasionally craps out and randomly decides not to select the right output when I plug in to my dock.
I've been a mac guy since college in 1994. This may be my last mac.
> However, at least once a week, when switching between the dock and home, my mac goes into flicker mode, requiring a hard reboot. Insanity.
Discrete graphics, or Intel?
Discrete graphics, or Intel?
Intel Iris Graphics 550 1536MB
I have the new 15" (after using the 2013 version almost since release) and I haven't noticed a disparity in bugs - both have been extremely reliable machines.
That touch bar thing has never happened to me. Still hate it, though. :)
This sounds like you should just take it in for a replacement to me.
That touch bar thing has never happened to me. Still hate it, though. :)
This sounds like you should just take it in for a replacement to me.
I also have audio/mic glitches. More often when I airplay to my av receiver or after I plug/unplug headphones.
But whatever, every mac had some problems. Previously I had wifi problems, now I do not have those.
But whatever, every mac had some problems. Previously I had wifi problems, now I do not have those.
I hate it for all the reasons you describe. The power connector and excellent battery life were some of the best things about the old MBP, and I can't stand the new keyboard.
In my experience, the double login issue seems to happen when restoring after having run out of battery. It happens on my ~2013 macbook as well.
A completely unscientific assessment is that the first login is to authorise restoration of the session. Unfortunately it seems like that authorisation can't be passed onto the session itself, so that also needs unlocking.
A completely unscientific assessment is that the first login is to authorise restoration of the session. Unfortunately it seems like that authorisation can't be passed onto the session itself, so that also needs unlocking.
This happens if you have full disk encryption enabled. If the laptop goes into hibernation, the disk is no longer mounted. So you need to enter your password to mount the drive which then drops you into the lock screen to enter your password again.
Ideally, the computer should be able to know you just woke the computer from hibernation and skip the second lock screen but I don't think the systems are integrated enough to do that right now. :)
Ideally, the computer should be able to know you just woke the computer from hibernation and skip the second lock screen but I don't think the systems are integrated enough to do that right now. :)
The most annoying thing with the new power connector is the lack of a light indicator showing that your laptop is charging.
One of the biggest announces is lack of operability w. the previous Apple LED display. I've had to cycle through a few cable dongles at this point to then find out none connect to the LED display.
Instead, I ordered the Dell P2715Q 27" monitor and then purchased a DisplayPort to USC-C cable. It works perfectly and decently priced at $530.
Instead, I ordered the Dell P2715Q 27" monitor and then purchased a DisplayPort to USC-C cable. It works perfectly and decently priced at $530.
Whats been frustrating lately is that Apple has by far* the most profitable PC Hardware business on the planet, yet they seem to put less and less effort into it.
The battery life on the new MBP is apparently limited because the fitted sealed battery didn't pass testing, so they had to revert to a more standard (smaller) battery. Supposedly they also kept a 16 gig ram limit because they can't get the newest Intel CPUs needed for a better memory controller in enough volume.
Thats been a constant refrain the last 4 years, their volumes are now big enough that they are highly dependent on Intel release cycles and volume ramp, and Intel is always late. So they are always delaying new hardware, and in this case, releasing them in sub-par form because they decided they couldn't wait any longer.
But if you are the worlds most successful maker of laptops, it seems like you can have multiple development teams for your key products. Essentially why wasn't the old MBP being revved every year with faster CPUs so they could wait until everything came together for the new design? Instead they let the lineup get stale and forced out the new one prematurely.
Why can't they rev the Mac Pro with updated GPUS and CPUs at least every 15 months or so? Why can't they rev every product from Mini to iMac like that? What's the point of having the highest margins if you can't keep your offerings up to date? It just doesn't seem that expensive to keep an extra design team working on each multibillion dollar product so you can have more iterations.
Unfortunately Occams Razor is telling me that Apple's Mac margins aren't so good anymore, and that the finance department is tightening the screws in a misguided strategy to try to maintain them at historic levels. Their mac revenues actually declined over 2014-2016 ($24B -> $25B -> $23B) so maybe that's evidence of margin compression as well as the stale products.
It's obviously hell to be a PC maker if you aren't Apple. Margins are almost zero and now your OS maker is competing directly with you. But the downward trend continues there doesn't seem to be any hope of bottoming at any stable reasonable profits/margins, it's worse than the Airline business at this point. Maybe Apple's Mac business just gets dragged farther and farther down as well.
* The math is that Apple has a 6-7% world wide share of PC sales by units, but it's average sales price is around $1200 vs. the rest of the market's $500, so Apple gets around 15% of world PC revenues, making it one of the largest PC vendors by revenues ($23B in 2016). But Apple makes around 15-20% margins while the other PC venders are stuck at 2-3%, so Apple makes as much in profits as the rest of the market combined.
This obviously ignores MSFT's Windows revenues, and whether it includes the Surface business doesn't matter because it's not profitable yet.
The battery life on the new MBP is apparently limited because the fitted sealed battery didn't pass testing, so they had to revert to a more standard (smaller) battery. Supposedly they also kept a 16 gig ram limit because they can't get the newest Intel CPUs needed for a better memory controller in enough volume.
Thats been a constant refrain the last 4 years, their volumes are now big enough that they are highly dependent on Intel release cycles and volume ramp, and Intel is always late. So they are always delaying new hardware, and in this case, releasing them in sub-par form because they decided they couldn't wait any longer.
But if you are the worlds most successful maker of laptops, it seems like you can have multiple development teams for your key products. Essentially why wasn't the old MBP being revved every year with faster CPUs so they could wait until everything came together for the new design? Instead they let the lineup get stale and forced out the new one prematurely.
Why can't they rev the Mac Pro with updated GPUS and CPUs at least every 15 months or so? Why can't they rev every product from Mini to iMac like that? What's the point of having the highest margins if you can't keep your offerings up to date? It just doesn't seem that expensive to keep an extra design team working on each multibillion dollar product so you can have more iterations.
Unfortunately Occams Razor is telling me that Apple's Mac margins aren't so good anymore, and that the finance department is tightening the screws in a misguided strategy to try to maintain them at historic levels. Their mac revenues actually declined over 2014-2016 ($24B -> $25B -> $23B) so maybe that's evidence of margin compression as well as the stale products.
It's obviously hell to be a PC maker if you aren't Apple. Margins are almost zero and now your OS maker is competing directly with you. But the downward trend continues there doesn't seem to be any hope of bottoming at any stable reasonable profits/margins, it's worse than the Airline business at this point. Maybe Apple's Mac business just gets dragged farther and farther down as well.
* The math is that Apple has a 6-7% world wide share of PC sales by units, but it's average sales price is around $1200 vs. the rest of the market's $500, so Apple gets around 15% of world PC revenues, making it one of the largest PC vendors by revenues ($23B in 2016). But Apple makes around 15-20% margins while the other PC venders are stuck at 2-3%, so Apple makes as much in profits as the rest of the market combined.
This obviously ignores MSFT's Windows revenues, and whether it includes the Surface business doesn't matter because it's not profitable yet.
Battery life is nowhere near 10 hours, sometimes I can barely get even 4-5
I have a 2016 pro and only annoyance is touch bar glitch and accidental touches sometimes. The issue with ports isn't an issue if you just think about it. Is like having 4 USB 3.0 ports and complaining about it
Apple audio especially with Airpods is full of glitches..
Why deal with these issues when there are great Windows 10 options from many vendors?
The real stopper is the unix-like environment. With MacOS you have (or used to have) a very good UI environment, but could just open a terminal and have all the unix goodness.
I know windows have a terminal too, but apart from being black, they are completely different. PowerShell was promising but cannot (IMHO) replace the old fashioned Bourne Again Shell.
All this makes sad, because my MBP is quite old and the prospect of having to deal with windows again just makes me cry.
I know windows have a terminal too, but apart from being black, they are completely different. PowerShell was promising but cannot (IMHO) replace the old fashioned Bourne Again Shell.
All this makes sad, because my MBP is quite old and the prospect of having to deal with windows again just makes me cry.
Windows 10 has a bash shell now via WSL (Windows subsystem for Linux): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Subsystem_for_Linux
I rather move to linux than to Windows, I'd say I am definitely not the only developer to say so.
> I rather move to linux than to Windows
I use Linux daily on my desktop. Never really liked Windows because cmd was always a terrible cripple compared to *NIX.
But recently I've heard very good things from people about the new Linux subsystem in Windows 10.
There's still a lot of software that doesn't run on Linux (e.g. management utilities for enterprise systems, old/obscure utilities) even in WINE.
Can anyone who regularly uses Linux comment on how it is to us the Linux subsystem on Windows? It is good enough or still rough on the edges?
I use Linux daily on my desktop. Never really liked Windows because cmd was always a terrible cripple compared to *NIX.
But recently I've heard very good things from people about the new Linux subsystem in Windows 10.
There's still a lot of software that doesn't run on Linux (e.g. management utilities for enterprise systems, old/obscure utilities) even in WINE.
Can anyone who regularly uses Linux comment on how it is to us the Linux subsystem on Windows? It is good enough or still rough on the edges?
It is far better than it has any right to be, considering the work they have to do in the background to get it to live happily in NTFS. It still has a way to go, but you can get real work done.
My Linux-of-choice remains Ubuntu on a VM on my Surface, but having the subsystem installed as well is nice. If they keep at it, I can see ditching the VM in a few more revs. X doesn't officially work yet, although you can hack around and get it kinda-sorta going.
My Linux-of-choice remains Ubuntu on a VM on my Surface, but having the subsystem installed as well is nice. If they keep at it, I can see ditching the VM in a few more revs. X doesn't officially work yet, although you can hack around and get it kinda-sorta going.
Vmware workstation... :)
"Why deal with these issues when there are great Windows 10 options from many vendors?"
Because the Win10 environment is pretty shoddy, in general. And it's not a secret, so your question is surprising.
The OP talks about random bits and pieces of non-functional software and hardware, and all I could think of was Win10 on a "nice" laptop. It's pretty regularly an awful, hair-pulling experience, on any average day.
Because the Win10 environment is pretty shoddy, in general. And it's not a secret, so your question is surprising.
The OP talks about random bits and pieces of non-functional software and hardware, and all I could think of was Win10 on a "nice" laptop. It's pretty regularly an awful, hair-pulling experience, on any average day.
Not an option for anyone developing MacOS, iOS, or WatchOS apps.
I have Windows 10 and Unix and MacOSX on my MBP. My least favorite choice is Windows.
Because unix
Disagree almost completely. Just came back from a trip and charging was much better than before. Between us we had:
We could charge either of the laptops, any of the devices directly or any of the devices via the charging MBP (or from the battery of either non-connected laptop).
On all our previous/recent trips, keeping devices charged was always a problem, this time it was completely effortless.
While I don't have the problems with the TouchBar the author describes, so far it has been largely uneventful for me (and yes, TouchID is great!). However, I think the potential is fantastic for integrating textual input with controls in ways that just hasn't been possible before.
I implemented a very preliminary version of scrubbing inline numbers in my CodeDraw live coding/graphics environment and it makes a huge difference. Before, you had to select the number, then either (a) fiddle with some gestures combining modifier keys and the mouse or (b) move the mouse to a separate on-screen widget. With the TouchBar, just select and scrub. Yes, it seems like a subtle difference when described in text, but the difference in actual interaction is YUGE :-)
1 new MBP, 1 MB 12"
2 iPhones
1 iPad
1 Micro-USB device (Neo Smartpen)
We could charge either of the laptops, any of the devices directly or any of the devices via the charging MBP (or from the battery of either non-connected laptop).
On all our previous/recent trips, keeping devices charged was always a problem, this time it was completely effortless.
While I don't have the problems with the TouchBar the author describes, so far it has been largely uneventful for me (and yes, TouchID is great!). However, I think the potential is fantastic for integrating textual input with controls in ways that just hasn't been possible before.
I implemented a very preliminary version of scrubbing inline numbers in my CodeDraw live coding/graphics environment and it makes a huge difference. Before, you had to select the number, then either (a) fiddle with some gestures combining modifier keys and the mouse or (b) move the mouse to a separate on-screen widget. With the TouchBar, just select and scrub. Yes, it seems like a subtle difference when described in text, but the difference in actual interaction is YUGE :-)
I am not familiar with your software, but would a standard keyboard shortcut work for your common case of adjusting a number? j/k or some such mnemonic for up down?
Not when you're inside a text editor, just hitting j or k would replace the selected number with j or k.
Of course you can use command/option or some such, maybe with arrows, but still the problem is that it's incredibly cumbersome compared to scrubbing using a slider. Much greater range and finer control when you have visual feedback.
I do think that the common use of the TouchBar as a set of function keys is not particularly useful.
Of course you can use command/option or some such, maybe with arrows, but still the problem is that it's incredibly cumbersome compared to scrubbing using a slider. Much greater range and finer control when you have visual feedback.
I do think that the common use of the TouchBar as a set of function keys is not particularly useful.
Got it. That makes sense. That is a pretty neat use case if it is sensitive enough.
The biggest annoyance, to me, is the placement of a touch bar hotspot above the delete key. I hit it all the time. At first, by default, Siri was there. I switched it to be the "show desktop" button, but what I really want to do is to shift everything to the left so that nothing is above the delete key.
Even with that, however, I've adjusted my typing so that I rarely hit the touch bar above the delete key.
I've never had battery problems, the USB-C ports don't bother me because I rarely have anything plugged into the laptop other than the power cable, and in my work environments, we use Apple TVs for conference room televisions, so I can just connect wirelessly to show presentations.
I was skeptical when I bought it, due to all of the moaning that shows up here on HN, but all in all, I'm really enjoying this computer and I'm glad that I replaced my old MBP with it.