Good luck streaming 4K UHD in Australia on our string and tin can “internet.”
Seems new threads appears a topic of contention…
Did Apple massively mis-calculate the introduction of the Touch Bar?
Yes, I can see how it could add features as a new input method for your laptop… But when the opposition is continually hammering home a) detachable screens, and b) touch screens, should Apple’s response have been something other than - here’s a finger-width tall touch strip above the keyboard…
Is Apple afraid to replicate the opposition? Only want to be a leader? Sheer arrogance?
I don’t know, because I’ve never touched a Surface anything, but I have felt that a touch screen Macbook is long overdue - touch Mac OS in general… I mean - Apple took touch screen tech from the dark ages and thrust it into millions of people’s hands with the iPhone and iPad - surely the have the track record to do this right? But - no…
It’s an interesting question. I felt that the touch bar was a bit of a copout. Maybe Apple is tied to the idea of keeping tablets and laptops separate for more sales, but either way, sometimes you have to follow what other companies are doing and do it better if that’s what the market demands.
We have seen arrogance destroy companies before and Apple needs to realise they are not immune. Kodak, Nokia, Blackberry, all sizeable companies destroyed by their own arrogance. The longer they wait, the harder it becomes to change things. Microsoft has already died in the mobile market as an example, and I think they will battle to come back. Apple fortunately has more die hard supporters so I don’t think they are close to dying in that space, but I do think that when the day arrives that microsoft is more innovative than you, you have to start rethinking your strategy.
I’ve always wanted to be a fan of Apple when they were the underdogs. Now maybe I’ll get that chance.
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It’s a rough ride…
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Maybe the next version of the MacBook will have:
- a better keyboard
- more ports
- a reduced price
those would solve its biggest problems. I have yet to see one outside an Apple Store.
And if they wanted to get real flash, do a version on on an A11 multicore chip running ioS11 with a touch screen.
[quote=“cosmichobo, post:84, topic:2876”]
Is Apple afraid to replicate the opposition? Only want to be a leader? Sheer arrogance?
[/quote]There are a number of interviews with various C-level Apple people, such as Schiller and Ive, where they talk about why they’re not doing touch on Macs. Summary? They don’t think it works very well. Hearing them talk about it I’m inclined to agree, not that I have a lot of experience with such things.
They may well arrive at the wrong conclusions sometimes, but I would never assume they don’t think these things through.
[quote=“MissionMan, post:85, topic:2876”]
I do think that when the day arrives that microsoft is more innovative than you, you have to start rethinking your strategy.[/quote]I don’t see a whole lot of evidence of Microsoft out-innovating Apple, though their ad agency should get a pat on the back for creating that perception. Change for the sake of it isn’t innovation and MS are doing things much like they always have - put out something that is potentially good but actually kind of shonky and iterate the shit out of it in the hope that it will one day get there. The Surface Studio looks completely awesome in the ads but seems like it’s not a highly useful product according to ArsTechnica’s review. Maybe version 5 or 6 of this thing will be great, but it seems like it’s a long way from being any kind of solution to anyone’s problem.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the current Mac range sucks terribly and I am especially glad I don’t need a new computer now because there would be nothing in the current line I would think worth my $$. I do think Apple is at least somewhat constrained by externalities though. It would, for example, really help if Intel could produce chips that were actually an improvement over what they were doing 3 years ago.
It would be great if they’d update the Mac Pro though. What the actual fuck are they thinking with that? To go to all that trouble to design a new machine just to let it become obsolete seems nuts. Would love to know what’s going on there. I’ll bet it’s an interesting story. And I hope we don’t have to wait too much longer for another quad core Mac Mini, because that’s probably what I’ll be buying next.
I can understand not having touch (screen) on a desktop… But a laptop, by definition the screen is in arms’ length.
I could imagine it being a case of waiting until the interface has been perfected (ie touch input integration into Mac OS), but as noted - iOS is all about touch - surely whilst this may be a huge undertaking, it’s something that should have been on the cards for a while now.
My kids all try to touch our Macbook Pro’s screen from time to time, expecting it to do something… There’s intuition for you.
My son has an HP Spectre Pro X360 which has a touch screen, and I have a HP 820 with touch screen. The touch screen is hardly used, scrolling if at all and even then probably because the HP touchpad is crap compared with a Mac.
The touch on the Spectre probably gets used a bit more as you can fold it over like a tablet. Maybe another good example is the Lenovo yoga.
But yeah, I sometimes try the screen as input on the girls’ MBAs, however, that is probably after heavy iPad use then anything to do with the HPs.
The Apple execs will deny they have a touch MacBook right up until they release one. And it will probably run iOS on a souped up ARM chip capable of holding its own with Intel
Yep totally - that’s the Apple way!
One reason why I’m holding out hope for a new Mac Pro - silence is Apple’s standard modus operandi. Also, I really believe Intel are significantly also to blame for the current situation with the Pro. Of course it should have had a GPU refresh, but Mac Pros have never had fast refreshes, and there were. I new Xeons shipped on time. I think Apple just got let down by Intel missing a generation/ship date so the 1.5 yr refresh never happened, and after that (any time after MacBook 12 shipped) they needed the new Pro to have Thunderbolt 3 as it was announced then by Intel st that point.
So I say “Keep the faith!” There will be another Mac mini and it’ll have Thunderbolt 3. They couldn’t launch the new connections on a mini so it had to wait. 
Likewise a new Mac Pro. Which will have TB3 and support 4x5K displays from its 6 Thunderbolt 3 ports. Hopefully still in the trash can design with dual gigabit Ethernet and HDMI.