The last thing I want is a burn mark on my laptop screen because of static parts of my IDEs and such.
What? In what universe is this true? They spent generations of macbooks on flashy keyboards that didn't work, etc.
Trying to pain Apple's inability to keep up in certain area as them trying to care about longevity is hilarious. In the end - it's not about longevity at all, it's almost certainly about whether they can get it at the price point they want, in the volume they want.
That's it.
Considering I buy a new MacBook every decade and they just endure the torture I put them through (I don’t abuse them though), I can say that they are pretty well built machines.
Same is true for my 7 year iPhone cycle.
I pay similar price to top tier laptops of other big brands, and get what I pay for. Use it for a decade, move the machine to spare and get a new one. When one does this with a thinkpad, we applaud them. When someone does it with a MacBook, we don’t believe them. Funny.
So they do sacrifice for flashiness?
> "I buy a new MacBook every decade and they just endure the torture"
I don't equate "torture" with good design
I’m currently using a 2014 MacBook Pro and a 2020 M1 MacBook Air. I have also seen and supported a lot of intermediate machines at work. We don’t service them unless somebody spills something liquid on their keyboards.
So, while I owned a few of these things, I have seen and supported way more machines, and my judgement stands based on this experience.
Longevity is a mistake? New things aren't flashy technologies?
> "we forgive them for trying if they are not Apple"
Actually every so often Google get criticized! Weird right? Remember "Motion Sense"? Neither do I.
No. Let's not move the goalposts. Those are two different things. One is not incorporating not mature technologies into the product, the other is trying to push a known technology further. They tried and failed for 4 years, and gave up.
If OLED was already a mature technology for large HiDPI panels and TVs, people wouldn't have been doing panel endurance tests, and TV manufacturers wouldn't hide panel-life sucking balance and recalibration features into their products.
I have used a couple of Macs with butterfly switch keyboards. The problem was not the switch idea itself, but how the key depth has been reduced to make it thinner. They have gone beyond the comfortable depth for speed typing and made a mistake. Also, the minuscule tolerances made it susceptible to jamming due to dirt I didn't like the keyboards with butterfly switches, to be honest. The depth and weight in 2020 MacBook Air (M1) is much, much better.
Yes. We criticize every company, but I think everything should be balanced. I'm not a fanboy of any company. There are ones which I enjoy using, and ones I don't prefer to use. The gist is, I try to objectively reflect my opinion on my comments, and I get replies in the tone of "my experience does not match to yours, so you're most probably lying", I'm genuinely disappointed. Because I never think the other party is not telling the truth. I'm just pointing out and saying "I'm in that state, so it's possible". But I never discount others' state and/or experience.
> "We criticize every company"
Oh, we walked that one back too
The first we and second we is different. You are pulling these sentences out of context, again.
First we is a group which criticizes nothing but Apple. Second we is another group which try to be objective.
> The first we and second we is different [sic]
Nope, objective critics criticize Apple and other companies when they make terrible decisions. Apple's vendor lock-in means that people that use a lot of Apple products are typically defensive and will make excuses for them. Google fans do the same. I'm typing this on an Apple product...
Butterfly keyboards and MotionSense both worked poorly.
As far as I remember, I also criticized butterfly keyboard switches up there. I'm also not afraid to criticize the tools I like a lot, too. I have also praised and criticized IBM, Lenovo, HP, Apple and numerous devices at other places.
I have never experienced MotionSense, so I can't talk about that.
Sent from my MacBook Air.
So I consider it flashy for TVs and monitors.
Hah! That gave me a good chuckle.
There's nothing that screams "longevity" as going out of your way to make all devices utterly irreparable.
Let's see, it's 2023, hmmmm, seems the machine is coming up on 11 years. IDK about you but I think 11 years is incredible longevity for a laptop. You know, it just might be that making the machine "irreparable" has been key to its longevity.
It’s dirty, but not frayed and working as well as the first day.
I guess if u keep a laptop stationary at your desk and plugged in at all times, then it could last 11 years. Although the very expensive 8gb of ram from back then is basically useless today.
While USB has resettable fuses and whatnot to protect itself, every protection circuit has its limits. There are even tools which can nuke the whole mainboards by charging capacitors and dumping all that energy to data lines.
> I guess if u keep a laptop stationary at your desk and plugged in at all times, then it could last 11 years.
Yes. Mine has seen quite a few countries and spent considerable amount of time trying to cool itself off while I'm developing my Ph.D. and try to get every bit of performance from its processor, all while using my first Mac's power adapter.
While I take care of my computer the best I can, it's not a "house PC" in any sense.
I've taken my MBP everywhere, criss-crossing the United States. I've connected it to many different presentation devices where I've been a speaker at conferences. I've connected to many different networks - including hard-wired ethernet. Not exactly stationary and kept on a desk. I can't even remember how many times it's been dropped while in my backpack - from table top heights. I think it has taken quite a bit of abuse.
> Although the very expensive 8gb of ram from back then is basically useless today.
Yes it is - and it has nothing to do with being soldered into the motherboard. It's too slow for today. I'm not going to take that RAM and install it on an M2 machine, for example - too slow. Honestly, on this point you're just whining.
Obviously we're swapping anecdotes, but you'll see there's a lot of people still running the 2012 MBP Retina machines. Those things were tanks! The other machine that also appears to be a tank is the 2015 MBP. Lots of people are still running those machines too. Maybe Apple has "on" years and "off" years? Wouldn't surprise me as many other manufacturers do.
30-pin connector is in fact a compact ribbon cable with plethora of interfaces and signals (analog audio i/o, FireWire, USB, Video, etc.) [0]. Lightning replaces this with a single digital bus which can be configured for plethora of things [1]. And the connector is both much smaller in both host and cable side, too.
For example, Lightning to video out adapters download a firmware from the host and boot first, then they negotiate the protocol and they start talking. Similarly, Lightning to 30-pin converter is a high-quality A/V station inside a small shell. It contains all the hardware required to expand lightning port to a full-capability 30 pin connector [2].
This is why also Apple is hesitant to convert Lightning devices to USB-C. Because it's not a simple USB port disguised in a reversible 8 pin connector. It's a whole software/hardware stack which allows port and connection to morph and adapt.
The port's introduction was indeed flashy, but I guess it was iterated for a couple of years inside Apple before introduction, I guess. So, the technology was already mature and boring before it's rolled out.
Another similar technology is "quick burst charging" (Charge 5 mins for 2 hours of use kind of thing). Pioneered by Sony almost a decade ago, now offered by everybody else (Apple, JBL, Philips, etc. on their rechargeable devices). The feature is flashy, but it's matured for over a decade by Sony before everybody jumped the bandwagon.
[0]: https://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/30-pin_Connector [1]: https://nyansatan.github.io/lightning/ [2]: https://www.techinsights.com/blog/apple-lightning-30-pin-ada...
What new Apple products can you buy today without a USB-C port, besides their phone? iPencils maybe?
It's not what expected, it’s disappointing, and I’ll switch to a new type of display as soon as possible.
OLEDs have problems with burn-in and lower maximum brightness.
Eventually, Apple is planning to get to microLED which can combine the best characteristic of OLED and Mini-LED without the downsides.
The Galaxy Book has a Samsung OLED (I also had a Galaxy Chromebook 4K OLED), it is a beautiful display with up to 400 nits brightness....
The 14 inch macbook pro lays a massive beatdown on it in an extremely hardcore way: Up to 1000 nits full display brightness with HDR capabilities up to 1,600 nits.
OLED displays are limited on peak brightness and it is brutal when you see it, the Macbook Pro 14 actually reduces peak brightness to 100 more than a standard OLED display to save battery. but grab a tweak like this: https://www.getvivid.app/ and you can crank it all the way up to 1000.
The rumors say that Apple plans to use a two layer OLED with essentially two OLED arrays one of top of the other. The reason for this is to stabilize the display as medium sized OLED are made with flexible substrate and can warp under some conditions. The dual layer is also suppose to allow greater brightness and to help prevent burn-in (perhaps by running each layer with less brightness).