In the interim, I don't see the big deal with throwing an HDMI adapter in your bag unless you carry your laptop around in your hand.

These are laptops with built-in keyboards and trackpads. People who opt for external input devices do so via Bluetooth. I've never seen a USB keyboard plugged into a MacBook; and even if you have a fancy gaming keyboard, USB-C replacements will be out in a matter of months. Or again, the dongle.

This series of laptops is a perfect progression. It needed to have 4 USB-C ports, and it does. No complaints.

Well, other than the lack of a hard escape key. Turning shift+F6 into shift+fn+F6 is annoying, but I'll get over it. The only applications that I use fn keys with have key remapping, so if I really can't stand it I'll change my shortcuts. The escape key though... not looking forward to the day I upgrade my hardware and find myself having to enable the "caps-lock is now the escape key" preference.

If you own a projector, you're used to keeping adapters around for different computers. If you give presentations frequently, you're used to keeping adapters in your travel bag for different projectors.

So in that sense, Apple's positioning of the new MacBook Pro is spot-on and probably has been this way for years. Most of us just thought that a good notebook with a "pro" label is meant for IT professionals. It probably never has been, it's just this year that the distinction is this striking.

I'm a developer, and the only key I routinely use from the top row is escape, for vim. (And Ctrl-Alt-F1 to drop out of X11 on a Unix system... but that's not applicable here.)

Anyway, it looks like you can still put a virtual escape key on the touchpad when Terminal is active. Or if you want a physical key, you can also remap one of the other modifier keys to act as escape.

In IntelliJ, Visual Studio (through Parallels) and Chrome, the Function keys allow me to step through the debugger. It's pretty standard in my day to day workflow, and they all pretty much use the same keys.

Esc is pretty useful in vim and it's used frequently in Windows. I could remap a key, I just don't like being dependent on custom layouts since I sometimes have to switch between machines and I'd rather it be as consistent as possible.

* F5 - Refresh(Works in many applications.)

* F6 - Cycle through input box focus in Firefox.

* F9 - Expose, All Windows

* F10 - Expose, Current Application

* F11 - Expose, Desktop

* F12 - Dashboard

Plus many other function keys that are application dependent. I started with function keys in MS-DOS and Word Perfect since it came with a keyboard overlay.

I think the touch bar design is fine, but I doubt I would get enough value out it to make it useful enough to me while not making me regret losing physical function keys. They kept a 13" model with function keys, which is the size I prefer, so it will be fine into the future for me.

F5 - CMD+R is standard in MAC. I haven't used F5 in years, and I just tried it (didn't work).

F6 - Like TAB?

F9 - Well there is something like this on F3 but I never used it. I can do this with hot corners in mac, way easier.

F10 - Same like above

F11 - Same like above

F12 - Not sure, never used dashboard in osx.

This being said, I am sad for the removal because I use the top row a lot for volume/playback/brightness/esc.

F5 does not work in Chrome or Safari, but works in nearly everything else I use.

F6 - It is a tabbing functionality for application input boxes, but related Firefox and other applications with similar design.

I actually have the top left corner set to do Expose all windows as well.

   1. Stop making new power connector standards.
   2. Stop making power adapters that fray after a year.
   3. Increase battery life.
   4. *Add* at least one standard USB port.
   5. Decrease display bezel.
   6. Increase RAM and HDD to 32G and 10TB.

2. They have, new Apple laptops now use a USB-C charger that has a separate cable, rather than a fixed attachment point.

3. The 15" has increased by an hour.

4. USB-C is a standard, and is backwards compatible via cheap adapters/cables. USB-A ports are not forwards compatible, and cannot be used for charging, thunderbolt, display port, etc.

5. They have. Both 13" and 15" are smaller externally with the same screen size.

6. RAM, I agree with. My 2011 17" MBP has 16GB RAM so I don't know why they aren't up to 32GB yet, at least in the 15". I doubt 10TB is feasible as SSD in a portable device this size.

I don't think you understood the question.

But what is the alternative you'd prefer? They still ship with that massive DVI connector?

Frankly, one they stopped using an apple-proprietary connector (ADC, which was basically DVI + USB + Power in a single cable, 14 years before USB-C) in 2004, there's not much to complain about.

Since they dropped ADC, they've used combinations of DVI, Mini DisplayPort, HDMI, Thunderbolt1 & 2, USB-C, and now Thunderbolt 3.

Those are all industry standard ports. Some are influenced by Apple, but none are limited to Apple.

Are you high? Samsung just announced the 2TB 960 Pro for >$1200, their 4TB SSD the year before was like $4000. 10TB is enterprise-class 2.5" $10000 a pop land (or cheaper in bulk, Seagate announced a 60TB SSD for $40000 in 3.5" format)

I very much hope that you meant "1TB."

At the office - this now means that the conference room adapters, power cords, etc will have to be swapped out as soon as a new employee starts.

I'm not sure that this time it will work out for them, that's not what I'm saying at all. Personally, I think HDMI is useful still. And I'm hugely sad to see the MagSafe go. I guess all I'm saying is it's not totally uncharted territory, or even that uncharacteristic of Apple.

There's no real advantage right now in using TB3/USB-C, because pretty much nothing else uses it. And I'd bet that, in 2020, USB-A, HDMI, DP, and even VGA will still be in common use, so I'll probably be using dongles forever.

I can't believe they are trying to sell this toy bar, ehm excuse me, touch bar, in a device that's supposed to be "professional". It's unreal. It reminds me of one of those "IoT hotels" that are replacing every light switch and toilet flush with a touch screen. Same kind of useful.

I suspect folks are still going to buy it because Apple. But I sincerely hope that the competition use this opportunity to execute on some real work machines.

Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C are not the same, right?

Thunderbolt 3 is basically an extension which builds on top of USB-C. As such it's fully backwards compatible.

Similar to the dual-mode mini-DP/Thunderbolt ports of the past.

The ports introduced today absolutely are USB-C.

* TB3 is an alternate mode of USB, if you have TB3 you have USB[0]

* The reverse is not true, you can have non-TB3 USB-only ports

[0] well technically not necessarily, the USB-C and USB-3.1 standards are completely separated but that'd be really stupid