I'm hoping we can move on from this MacBook Pro
Mac Address
·Mac Address
·2022-05-05
·
1,348 words · ~6 min read
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(rock music)
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(rock music)
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- In their October 18th event, Apple will likely announce a brand new
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full-size, full-power, big Macbook Pro.
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It's been a long time coming mainly because of this thing,
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this MacBook Pro from 2016. It was poised to take us to the next generation of computing
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and we're still waiting. So, in this video,
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I'm going to look back at this generation of Macbook Pro to demonstrate everything Apple needs to get right
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for the new one to live up to the hype. And to fix the reputational damage
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inflicted on the MacBook Pro brand over the past five years.
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Let me explain where this is all coming from.
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- There's a certain kind of person. - A couple of years ago,
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Apple launched a new campaign to promote the Mac line
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titled "Behind The Mac". The ads featured photos and vignettes
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of some of the most famous and well-regarded creators in their fields
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using their Macs to make the amazing things they make. It brought us into many of these artists setups.
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And the one standout thing was that almost all of them were sitting behind a glowing Apple logo.
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This is significant because there was no glowing Apple logo on MacBook Pros they were selling at the time.
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The ads were airing in 2018. See, no glowing logo.
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Clearly, many famous Apple users hadn't upgraded.
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They knew what they were going to be losing. And so, they held on to their older Macs
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for longer or bought the older generation while they still could.
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And I don't blame them. I realize this is a MacBook Air, but
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God! this was more convenient. And this keyboard was way better.
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And how can you not like the glowing logo? Look at this. Look at this charger.
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A little flip-up flaps to hold the cable.
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MagSafe easily plugs in, has an indicator light on it.
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This is way better. And watch this.
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Should I try that with the MacBook Pro?
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It's a loose port, okay? This 2016 MacBook Pro was a major departure
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from what professionals were familiar with on their MacBooks.
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It replaced the IO that they were comfortable with. And instead, highlighted a bunch of new features
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and technologies that were promising at the time, but became issues later.
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Like, the butterfly keyboard, the touch bar and the thinness.
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The biggest harm to the reputation of the MacBook Pro
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was the butterfly keyboard. It was first introduced on the single port MacBook,
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a laptop that flew too close to the sun.
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The butterfly mechanism was supposed to bring comfortable stable keys.
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It was supposed to feel clicky and satisfying despite the short stroke.
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It was supposed to usher in thinner designs from the Mac laptop line.
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It was not supposed to miss or duplicate letters because of a speck of dust.
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In 2017, Casey Johnson wrote in the outline how the keyboard was ruining her life.
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And a year and a half later, Joanna Stern cleverly demonstrated
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the unrepairable plate of a broken butterfly keyboard
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in her mistake late in column. There's even still a class action lawsuit.
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Many pundits accurately stated that the butterfly keyboard had a lasting impact
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on the reputation of the MacBook. It took over four years and a repair service program
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for Apple to change course and fix the keyboard two years ago,
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which is much better. So, I expect the next MacBook to remain on course.
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Though, could you imagine if they actually introduced and improved butterfly keyboard?
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- [Man] No. - That'd be crazy.
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Please don't. The attitude that bore the keyboard
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caused another problem, which I'll explain after introducing this video sponsor, Pulseway.
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or through the link below. The thinness afforded by the keyboard
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pushed Apple to Intel's thermal limits as well.
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In their reviews of the bigger, more powerful MacBook Pros,
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my colleagues at LTT found that these MacBooks can still get hot.
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And there were a couple of versions that had issues with thermal throttling.
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- We're at 100 degrees. To their credit, Apple did improve in these respects,
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but there is only so far they could go. But the new MacBook Pro could be just as thin or thinner.
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But it's not a problem because with last year's launch of the M1,
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Apple has demonstrated they can get some great performance out of a small package.
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And I think that's why we're really excited about the next MacBook Pro. Because, it's poised to have an even faster M1X chip
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with 10 or more cores that will run much more efficiently.
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But then, there's still the issue of ports. On recent MacBooks, there's less and they're less usable.
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The Retina MacBook Pro was convenient with two classic USB-A ports,
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two Thunderbolts, MagSafe HDMI and SD card slot on top of the headphone Jack.
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Seven ports that are really convenient for professionals. Need to get a photo off your camera?
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Slot the card in. Need to hook up a projector? Plug it in.
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Easy. But Apple wanted to push the world to USB-C and Thunderbolt.
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So, all we got are these four ports.
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They're capable of doing everything and plugging into nothing.
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They can help put display, charge the laptop and do USB and Thunderbolt things.
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But this was 2016 and nobody had a USB-C flash drive.
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So, everyone who bought this, ended up having to live the dongle life
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which is a constant nightmare of making sure you have the right dongles in the right bags
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for the time that you need them and hoping they work. Even today, five whole years later,
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the transition to USB-C has been extremely slow and increasingly confusing,
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which is why rumors have me excited about the possibility that HDMI MagSafe and an SD card reader
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might be making a return. Lastly, there is this touch bar.
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Seemingly a gimmick, this narrow OLED touchscreen
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replaced the function row above Apple's new butterfly keyboard
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to provide application-based options to users, most of whom were largely uninterested.
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Likewise, Apple removed the hardware escape key
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much to the chagrin of app developers. Though, that one did come back.
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Now, after having used this MacBook Pro with the touch bar,
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I should note that I don't mind it. The fact that it's capacitive
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does increase the cognitive load a bit. I'm touch typist, so I never look down
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at the keyboard. But there are times when it's nice to have the function button close at hand
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as opposed to hunting around and interface with a mouse.
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Whatever the case, rumors are that it's getting axed.
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And I might be a little sad about that. Also, no rumors that a touchscreen will replace it.
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Sorry, not sorry. I remember when this MacBook was announced
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and how unappealing I found it. But my feelings for the next one are much more optimistic.
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There's a lot that has been fixed already and the rumors are promising.
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So, tune into our coverage on the 18th to see if I get wowed this time around.
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I'm hoping I will. Thanks for waiting to update to this Mac Address.
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If you're one of the many who skipped over this Mac, give us a like.
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And if you're someone who upgraded, why not subscribe?
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In the comments, I'm curious of any of those who have one of these MacBooks regretted
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or if everything has been just fine and it's just been me this whole time.