Apple's October 2016 Event Wrap Up, Emoji Bar Edition

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Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/10/apples-october-2016-event-wrap-up-emoji-bar-edition/
Provided you didn’t have unrealistic expectations of Apple’s October 2016 event, you weren’t left disappointed. Apple announced a Touch Bar and Touch ID integration on the redesigned 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pros, both thinner, lighter, and more space-efficient than their predecessors. Minor adjustments to the rest of the portable Mac lineup and a new Apple TV simply called “TV” rounded out the rest of the announcements. The rest of the news, and our full summary of the event, follows below.

Apple CEO Tim Cook started proceedings with an announcement of a new accessibility page. The new Accessibility mini-site shows off Apple’s accessibility features we’re all familiar with, across all of their platforms. There’s the workout app on the Apple Watch, Switch Control on the Mac, Live Listen on the iPhone, Voice Over on the iPhone, Speak Screen on the iPad, and more. It’s a nice testament to the focus Apple puts on making technology accessible for everyone.

After telling us about a few great photos from the iPhone 7 and the new Portrait mode in iOS 10.1 for the iPhone 7 Plus, Cook pointed out how the Apple Watch Nike+ edition was out today, along with Apple Pay availability in Japan.

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With over 8000 apps on the Apple TV, Apple says Minecraft is coming to the Apple TV by the end of the year. There’s also 1,600 apps from video providers, and Apple is adding one more by the end of the year. Simply called “TV”, it consolidates content from all of your Apple TV content apps into one place, making it easy to find something to watch. The TV app shows you what you’ve been watching on other devices, letting you pick up right where you left off, and lets you find something else to watch based on recommendations and hand-curated lists. It’ll be out in December for US customers, with other countries to follow.

Gruber was right when he said there might be a passing reference to an anniversary on stage, only instead of the iPhone’s 10th anniversary, Apple chose to talk about the 25th anniversary of Mac laptops. The first PowerBook was released in the last week of October, 1991, and Apple says they’ve been defining and re-defining what notebooks can do ever since.

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For that we needed Apple’s Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing on stage, and it was Phil Schiller’s job to introduce the new MacBook Pro. The 13-inch MacBook Pro is 17% thinner than its predecessor at 14.9mm, weighs just 1.37 KG, and is 23% smaller in volume, making it a more compact machine. The 15-inch machine, on the other hand, comes in at 14% thinner than its predecessor at 15.5mm, weighs 1.83 KG, and is 20% smaller in volume.

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But the real news is that both laptops now come with the Touch Bar and Touch ID. The Touch Bar is just like the leaks said it would be; it’s a multi-touch Retina display that occupies the space where the Function keys used to sit. What it displays is contextual based on what you’re currently doing, so it can put up parts of the UI on the Touch Bar, let you scroll through your photos to find the shot you’re looking for, or even have browse for the perfect emoji to add to the conversation.

Demos of the Touch Bar showed some pretty impressive integrations, which the rumours had no idea about. Being able to quickly scrub through your edit timeline in Final Cut Pro X or have quick access to tools in Photoshop all looked great. You’ll be able to customise the Touch Bar to your own liking, and when you’re not doing all of that you can also access the usual function keys for adjusting screen or backlight brightness. There’s a volume slider for adjusting that when you need it, and yeah, the escape key is there as well.

touchbar_touchid_large_2xTouch ID, is, well, Touch ID, only on the Mac. You’ll be able to use it to unlock your Mac just like you can on your iPhone and iPad, or pay for things with Apple Pay on the web. There’s also a cool user profile integration, where you can switch user profiles on the Mac using Touch ID.

In terms of hardware specs, both the 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pros come with Intel’s sixth-generation Skylake series of mobile processors, paired with faster memory. The 13-inch comes with Intel’s Iris Graphics 550, while the 15-inch models get the Radeon Pro 450 or 455. Apple quotes the same up-to-10 hour battery life on both models, although you can kiss your MagSafe goodbye. Both models have four USB-C ports, all of which can be used for charging the machine or for connecting peripherals (although you may need an adapter or two), and both come in silver or space grey options.

Other hardware changes include second-generation Butterfly keyboard switches, a Force Touch trackpad that’s now twice as big as previous models, and speakers optimised for air displacement, in the immortal words of Jony Ive. I’m not sure if it was mentioned on stage, but the Retina displays are brighter and also support wide colour in the P3 standard.

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You can pre-order the new 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and Touch ID right now, with machines shipping in 2-3 weeks. In Australia, pricing starts at $2,699 for the 13-inch model with Touch Bar and Touch ID in the dual-core 2.9GHz, 8GB RAM and 25GB SSD version. The 15-inch model with Touch Bar and Touch ID starts at $3,599 in the quad-core 2.6GHz, 16GB RAM and 256 GB SSD configuration, although on the 15-inch you can also step up to a 2TB SSD for an extra $2,240 if you’re stepping up from the 256GB SSD, or for $1,920 if you’re coming from the 512GB. Either way, that makes the total price an eye-watering minimum of $5,839. If you’re pre-ordering, make sure to use the AppleTalk Apple Online Store affiliate link.

Other minor adjustments to Apple’s portable Mac lineup include the addition of a Touch Bar and Touch ID-less version of the 13 MacBook Pro. This touchless-version, as I’m calling it now, comes with the same massive trackpad and the same redesign as the one with the Touch Bar, only with two USB-C ports and a slightly smaller price tag at $2,199.

Both the 13 and 15-inch models also have their former editions available as entry level machines, priced at $1,999 and $2,999, respectively. The 11-inch MacBook Air is gone, along with the venerable non-Retina MacBook Pro that came with an optical drive, with the latter just 133 days off from becoming Apple’s longest-selling Mac ever.

While there were no new desktop Macs this time around, and still no word about what on earth Apple are doing with the now 1043-day old Mac Pro, those looking for a total revamp of the Mac lineup were left disappointed. But bear in mind that the entire Mac business only accounts for 12% of Apple’s total revenue - today’s shorter event showed that it was an important 12%, nonetheless.

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#2

Have to expect new keyboard with Touch Bar will be introduced with 2017 iMac.

#3

Yeah cause wanting a MacBook that was actually better than the last one is very unrealistic. Or wanting apple to update the air, clean up its product line, not hike prices or sacrifice everything for thinness was also unrealistic.

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#4

Apple’s new MacBook Pro is an improvement in every possible way over the previous model, but the only way that you wanted it improved makes it worse.

I, personally, would have been flabbergasted if Apple did not release what they did.

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#8

How was the hands-on area? Because you’ve obviously had hands-on time with the new keyboard… or basing your opinion on the old Butterfly switches.

Also “looks ridiculous” and “massively over priced” as reasons why the new model isn’t an improvement - see previous reply.

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#9

I think we are all in furious agreement in a way. If you’re talking about just the MBP - it’s definitely an improvement albeit quite overdue and arguably overpriced. The disappointment is the lack of movement in the other Macs. I like most was expecting a whole range update, not just the mbp.

#10

The new MacBooks look great! I really like the idea of the contextually changing touch-bar. And the larger trackpad is a welcome addition. You can never have a trackpad big enough!

I’m holding out for updates to the desktop line though. I recently changed from a MacBook Pro to a top-of-the-line iMac and I’m loving it.

There’s no pleasing some people here though - the only way they would have been happy is if they’d gone back to beige plastic with a thousand slots for things that people don’t use anymore, and a reversion back to Mac OS 7.

#11

15" for me, just working out specs.

#12

What in the same way that some people here will justify every single thing Apple ever does?

I’m fairly easily pleased. All Apple had to do was make the new Pro better than the old one. Removing Magsafe, HDMI and the SD card slot, making it more expensive, and sacrificing peformnace in the 13 inch model for thiness does not make it better.

#13

I’m deeply concerned that you expected something different today. I’ve said this before, Apple have made their direction clear. It’s not like today should have been a massive shock so using it as an opportunity for another rant shows after 6 or more years of Apple moving this direction, you clearly missed the memo about Apple moving this direction.

You can rant all you want. It’s not going to change things. Apple has and is catering for 90% of the market. They’ve decided to ignore 10%. End of story. Do not pass begin. Do not collect $200.

Short answer, stop talking about buying something else and do it. At best, Apple may notice the decline in sales from the 10% and change their direction. At worst, Apple won’t do anything and we wouldn’t be subject to the 758th post from you whining about Apples direction.

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#14

Oh so Apple made it clear that they’d move away from useful things life Magsafe? The memo about them making the MacBook range overly conceited and more expensive?

You keep talking about this 90 percent of the market, yet plenty of the market do not want machines like this. Apple only has a tiny market share, so they’re catering for a very small group.

Go find me a computer that runs OSX and is a suitable replacement for an older MacBook Pro. (EG still has some useful ports, magsafe etc etc). This isn’t even about Apple catering to some segment of the market, its about them pulling stupid moves like getting rid of magsafe. Some people are also sick of ardent fan boisim and how all opposing viewpoints are apparently all classed as whining.

#15

Sure, MagSafe is useful. But at the end of the day, it’s a single-purpose port, obsoleted by one that can provide power and connect to every possible peripheral you’d ever want to connect (albeit with an adapter, at least until people start making native USB-C accessories). That multi-purpose ability is too good for Apple to pass up.

Weren’t you all in favour of Apple adopting USB-C on the iPhone? Why not on the Mac?

What I don’t understand is how Apple making changes to its own product lineup any different to what it has done before.

In the entire history of OS X, you have had no other choice than to run Apple’s hardware if you want proper support. If you don’t, well, I guess you can always build a hackintosh, which comes of problems of its own. In a perfect world you’ll be able to have to your cake and eat it too, but unfortunately, this isn’t that.

There’s a suitable replacement for an older MacBook Pro, and it’s called the MacBook Pro.

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#16

The benefits of saving your laptop when the cable yanks out outweigh having a 4th usb c port, and even then they could have just had 4 USB c ports and a MagSafe port.

#17

It’s classed as whining when you continue to reiterate the same points, which in Apple’s case simply are not going to change. Apple are not going to create user upgradable devices. You can do what you want, but unless you have Tim Cooks mobile number and a convincing argument, you’re wasting energy along with filling posts with the same arguments you have used for the last year.

Now as for the 90% vs 10%, I can guarantee you that 10% of people actually upgrade their machines these days, if at all that. People may consider it, but the actual numbers of people having upgrades done would be less than 10%. You’re looking from a tech perspective, but the average user isn’t like that.

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#18

No its not, it’s nowhere near.

I am in favour of USB C on the mac, but being in favour of does not mean being in favour of MagSafe going.

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#19

  1. You have no idea what percentage of people upgrade their machines.

  2. None of my complaints today have even mentioned upgradablity.

#20

You mean like this post where you talk about sacrificing everything for thinness? I.e. upgradeability for thinness, which while you didn’t specify specifically is what you have been complaining about in previous posts

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#21

Most of us don’t have the cash to flash for a new MBP every couple of years, so being able to do updates to RAM and SSD etc is important to us. I nearly fainted when I saw Erwin’s post in the new “who’s getting what” thread which showed he’s happily spending almost $6k on his new MBP. Thats great that he can do that, and likely replace it when the next gen comes out, but most of us simply can’t do that. We have to account for every cent, and save up for the things we want. I dont much care about the ports and lack of CD player, I’d adapt to that by other means, but theres no way of avoiding a new machine if you want to keep upgrading software, or perhaps staying abreast of OSX developments. As of this year, I’m out. Not because I want to be, but because I cannot keep up.

@MissionMan: I think you’re wrong about the market segment that Apple is aiming at. Its not looking at the average consumer, its looking to make its products even more exclusive. I consider myself to be an average consumer, but I sure don’t feel like I am of the 90% group. Nor are my friends who are on average to decent wages. I’d say its 90% who are not being marketed to, and 10% who are. But then, its all just opinion. I’m glad that some are happy with the new MBPs. I’d probably like to have one, but its not going to happen.

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#22

I was referring to loss of MagSafe, HDMI and the SD card reader in addition to the 13 inch still being a dual core with integrated graphics and the new keyboard Perhaps if they didn’t have to slim it down, they could make a properly powerful 13 inch machine.