Apple's New MacBook

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in apple on (#4KWB)
story imageToday, as reported by many outlets, Apple announced a new 12" MacBook. The main takeaways are:I am definitely a fan (pun intended) of quiet laptops with no moving parts that can still handle a full desktop OS. This is also one of the first retail devices with the new reversible USB connector that really can't get here fast enough.
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Ok... (Score: 2, Funny)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2015-03-10 03:20 (#4M0G)

So that giant hinge connecting the top display with the bottom base is a technically a "moving part" as is the limited travel of the individual keyboard keys, but at least there is no tiny spinning fan that sounds like a hairdryer under load and gets clogged with pet hair the moment you place it on your carpet floor.

Legacy (Score: 2, Interesting)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-03-10 07:09 (#4M8C)

Anybody remember computers in the late 90's?

2 9-pin RS-232 serial ports (older mice, modems, etc)
2 PS/2 ports (keyboard/mouse)
1 25-pin IEEE 1284 Parallel port (printers, storage devices, even ethernet adapters)
Often a SCSI-1 port (scanners, external drives)
Game ports (controllers)
Sometimes even MIDI ports
Often firewire ports.
etc.

And then a couple USB (v1.1) ports, which was the most useless of all... Nothing made for it, except maybe your new mouse using an adapter. Slower than parallel ports, lots of CPU-saping overhead. Couldn't boot off of it (for many years). etc.

Re: Legacy (Score: 2, Informative)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2015-03-10 07:29 (#4M8Z)

Better yet, anyone remember early notebook docking ports? Nearly always expensive and vendor-specific. Many required you to turn off the computer before connecting or disconnecting the dock. Current notebooks, instead of a dock, you just plug in the power cord + a monitor cord + a USB keyboard/mouse cord + maybe a network cord. I can see the allure of using just one cable to do it all.

What is more worrying is that USB is so powerful, that it can do potentially damaging things to you unknowingly. Is that free thumb drive really just a thumb drive? Or does it have some nefarious keyboard controller on it as well, ready to spawn an xterm and wget a binary from the net as soon as you plug it in.

Re: Legacy (Score: 2, Interesting)

by rocks@pipedot.org on 2015-03-10 15:38 (#4NBB)

I mostly use an older laptop with two docking stations, one at home and one at work. It is awesome, dual monitor setups in both places, wired ethernet, headphones, etc. All I have to do is clip in and out when I sit down in either place.

I suppose the theory here is that one USB-C will function like the docking interface, so what I will need is a usb-C to multi-port interface. It's an intriguing possibility, especially if it means third-party docks can work across multiple laptops/computers. That would actually improve my life quite a lot as I currently work with multiple laptops and operating systems, especially if other family members are included in the use case. It would be very cool to be able to sit down at a single desktop workstation setup with an arbitrary laptop and operating system and have a single plug to hook in to the whole setup of monitors, network, headphones, cameras, MIDI keyboards, etc.... quite interesting really...

Re: Legacy (Score: 2, Interesting)

by billshooterofbul@pipedot.org on 2015-03-11 13:41 (#4QBP)

Yes, the best part of USB was getting away from PS/2 ports. Those stupid pins kept breaking off. I lost many a good mouse to broken pins. USB is much sturdier of a connection,

Re: Legacy (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-03-12 21:21 (#4TSH)

the best part of USB was getting away from PS/2 ports. Those stupid pins kept breaking off.
I've never broken a PS2 pin, though I've seen it happen a couple times over a decade. PS2 supplied more power than USB, and even now, you can hit a key on a PS2 keyboard to wake-up a computer, while I've still never seen that working with USB keyboards.

USB offers more flexibility than PS2 did (monitors and keyboards with built-in USB hubs are convenient), but some good features were lost in the process, too.

Re: Legacy (Score: 1)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2015-03-13 07:43 (#4VJ2)

For me, it wasn't the electrical pins that broke, but the small rectangular "key" pin (the thing in the middle made of plastic) that would shear off and stay stuck in the motherboard's connector. This had the unfortunate effect of screwing up the motherboard port (expensive) instead of the mouse or keyboard port (cheap).

Afterwards, the "hack" to use the screwy motherboard with a different mouse was to break off the perfectly good plastic pin of the new mouse so that you could insert the connector all the way.

Party! (Score: 2, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-03-10 19:06 (#4NQG)

4 GB of RAM? 128 GB of storage? Party like it's 2005!

I bet you could almost run Mail.app and Safari with 2 whole tabs before it starts swapping!

Re: Party! (Score: 1, Informative)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-03-10 19:26 (#4NRA)

OP links tell about at least 8 GB of LPDDR3 and 256/512 GB of SSD storage.

Re: Party! (Score: 1, Interesting)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-03-10 19:44 (#4NS7)

The new MacBook Air has the (lousy) RAM and storage the OP was talking about. You're talking about the new MacBook Pro.

OP is right, MacBook Air RAM and storage specs are a joke.

Re: Party! (Score: 2, Informative)

by kwerle@pipedot.org on 2015-03-10 22:38 (#4P37)

Yeah, 4G is hardly enough to boot.

If you want to do video editing, game playing, or heavy development, you may also want a computer that weighs more than 2lbs.

If all you want to do is email, surf, edit documents, etc, then this might kick all kinds of ass.

Wonderful (Score: 1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-03-10 19:58 (#4NSS)

A toy laptop that costs 10x the Acer C720.

Does it also come in patent Apple bling like the $17,000 iWatch?