I want the new Mac Book

I just saw the new Mac Book Air introduced by Apple yesterday :
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/mac/retina-macbook-air-12in-2015-release-date-launch-rumours-today-watch-event-3420655/

I was procrastinating to change my antiquated white Mac Book. Now I know why :wink:

Yesterday evening I saw pictures from the new Macbook and thought I had something going wrong with the eyes because of the gold color: yuck. The machine itself looks very nice. Except for the new single USB connector.

Not even one, if you are charging it. I bet Apple would have liked to have got rid of that last port too.

I love it but itā€™s not for everyone so guess what, Apple make other laptops for you to choose from. Apple never look back, only forward, and itā€™s clear that Apple are now on a mission to get rid of wires altogether.

As a second (and real nomade) machine, I can buy it (if needed !).

In that case, a single USB port is not a handicap (for me).

I think thereā€™s a clue in the model name :slight_smile:

?? Itā€™s called ā€œMacBookā€.

For me, a Mac Book is not the main machine. It is what I use on the go. I can live with a hub.

Thereā€™s a bunch of adapters for that single USB-C port already.
I bet there will come some kind of ā€œhubā€ thats small and easy to use if youā€™ll need multiple ports :slight_smile:

Macbook Air ?

No, confusingly, this is just the ā€œMacBookā€ again. http://www.apple.com/macbook/

I suspect this is the start of a realignment of Appleā€™s notebook lineup.

they have 3 lines nowā€¦

Macbook
Macbook Air
Macbook Pro

go figureā€¦

Back to what it was years ago !

Indeed, except this time the ā€œMacBookā€ is the mid-range priced product and the Air is on the low-end. As I said, itā€™s obviously just the start of a realignment of their notebook lineup. Perhaps theyā€™ll eventually drop the ā€œAirā€ line and just have a MacBook and a MacBook Pro lineup whenever they can get the price of the retina MacBook down far enough.

My only concern with the new MacBook might be the keyboard. Although itā€™s full-sized, the keys depress very little. According to the Verge, ā€œItā€™s as close to typing on a glass tablet screen as youā€™ll get with physical keys, and you have to rely on autocorrect just as much when youā€™re going really fast. I imagine I could get used to it with just a little bit of time, though.ā€

Seeing as one of the main reasons youā€™d get a notebook over a tablet is the typing experience, this is a little worrying but I will reserve judgement until I try it myself. Iā€™m a fast typist so it would irritate the hell out of me if it slows me down.

But still, Iā€™m in love.

[quote=173422:@Gavin Smith]Indeed, except this time the ā€œMacBookā€ is the mid-range priced product and the Air is on the low-end. As I said, itā€™s obviously just the start of a realignment of their notebook lineup. Perhaps theyā€™ll eventually drop the ā€œAirā€ line and just have a MacBook and a MacBook Pro lineup whenever they can get the price of the retina MacBook down far enough.

My only concern with the new MacBook might be the keyboard. Although itā€™s full-sized, the keys depress very little. According to the Verge, ā€œItā€™s as close to typing on a glass tablet screen as youā€™ll get with physical keys, and you have to rely on autocorrect just as much when youā€™re going really fast. I imagine I could get used to it with just a little bit of time, though.ā€

Seeing as one of the main reasons youā€™d get a notebook over a tablet is the typing experience, this is a little worrying but I will reserve judgement until I try it myself. Iā€™m a fast typist so it would irritate the hell out of me if it slows me down.

But still, Iā€™m in love.[/quote]

The article I link to describes thekeys butterfly mechanism as being able to accomodate very small space. Whatever that means, I have the same issue. I need a real keyboard. Not something that reminds me of the ZX-81.

Another intriguing point is the pressure sensitive trackpad. That promises interesting times to implement under Xojo.

Not for me. The Space Grey color is very nice looking, but the specs canā€™t back it up. The screen is too small and the processor too weak. It canā€™t even run virtual machines, it lacks the VT-* instructions. The single USB is a joke, considering nothing fits in it currently, so the $80 adapter is pretty much a requirement. It also has no way to work with my Thunderbolt Display.

Iā€™m hopeful the Pro models donā€™t go this extreme. This appears to be part of a bigger reorganization of the product line, as this machine makes more sense as an Air model, at least in specs.

Oh, and I knew I forgot something. The loss of MagSafe. Thatā€™s a big deal for me, my daughter kicks out my cable practically hourly.

I should clarify that all of the Core-M chips Apple is using have VT-* instructions- theyā€™re really just shrunk/rebranded Y series. But the point still standsā€¦if your workflow involves VMs, thatā€™s probably enough of a key signal that those CPUs arenā€™t right for you.

Iā€™m still interested to see how Apple handled heat dissipation in the design- down at 3W the performance is awful but up at 6W itā€™s pretty reasonable. I think the fanless stuff might start becoming more practical as of Skylake with its new architecture.

Right! The machine is what it is. Itā€™s not meant to be the professionalā€™s large screen everyday work horse, with terabytes of storage hanging off it. Apple make other machines for that. Apple donā€™t intend you to take this to Starbucks with a plethora of things to plug into it. This is an awesome tiny little machine for working on the move, which inevitably wonā€™t suit everyone.

Iā€™m on the fence myself as to whether to use it as a portable- traveling with it would be pretty nice since itā€™d fit almost anywhere. Once theyā€™re available Iā€™ll probably go to an Apple store and measure baseline performance and how long itā€™s able to run at its higher frequencies before throttlingā€¦

Right, it isnā€™t for everybody. Thatā€™s why we have different models. Iā€™m just worried that these trends will carry into the Pro line. Some obviously will, like the USB-C charger, force trackpad, and thin keyboard. But I hope the lack of thunderbolt and other expansions does not.

I gave up on multiple computers years ago. I prefer one good laptop that can be both over a weak laptop and good desktop.