The Apple Discussion Thread

[Jr Mouse]

They are positioning the iPad as a more fictional device. Laptop replacement. USB-C makes sense.

They don’t have the same pressure for the iPhone.

We will eventually see an iPhone with no port. I don’t like it, but I am positive they will go there at some point. We are talking YEARS down the road here. Not anytime soon. The biggest hold up for them is charging speeds and that will eventually become a lot less of an issue.

 

[Loathing]

I don’t see what you gain from dropping the port, which takes up maybe 5mm^2.

 

[Loathing]

Apple is moving away from unique standards and “Apple only” products in general so USB-C seems likely to me. I don’t think unique standards were ever part of Apple’s success story anyway; they were a misguided, gimmicky attempt at creating competitive moats. But in reality, Apple’s breakthrough products have always been the ones that were most compatible with mass market hardware/software. Almost everyone uses a mixture of OS and hardware these days so their current strategy makes little sense.

 

[dieworkwear]

working off the new mba butterfly keyboard now and it sucks. maybe i'll get used to it, but man ... i hate how the keys have almost no travel.

 

[Gus]

working off the new mba butterfly keyboard now and it sucks. maybe i'll get used to it, but man ... i hate how the keys have almost no travel.

So, all Apple laptops have the butterfly keyboard?

 

[dieworkwear]

So, all Apple laptops have the butterfly keyboard?

Yea, it's on everything now -- Macbook, Macbook Pro, and Macbook Air.

This guy speculates that Apple may be getting rid of its keyboard entirely. I don't keep up with computer industry news as much as some people, but at least going back to the early 90s, I remember people constantly speculating on Apple's new releases. 90% of them were wrong and many of the filed patents seemed to be more designs in concept than in works.

https://mashable.com/2018/06/02/apple-should-kill-macbook-pro-keyboard/#9rbpGXEUHPqu

A friend told me that someone in his office recently bought this. It looks interesting, but this also seems to defeat the point of having an easy-to-use mobile device.

https://ergodox-ez.com/

The tactile feedback is so minimal. Bleh.

 

[Gus]

Interesting. I'm going to need a laptop or an iPad with a keyboard in the next week or so. I look forward to trying them both out. I believe there are a variety of non-Apple keyboards (sold by Apple) that sync with the iPad, that hopefully have better key travel. As a hunt and peck typist I need a good amount of travel to know I'm on track.

 

[dieworkwear]

Interesting. I'm going to need a laptop or an iPad with a keyboard in the next week or so. I look forward to trying them both out. I believe there are a variety of non-Apple keyboards (sold by Apple) that sync with the iPad, that hopefully have better key travel. As a hunt and peck typist I need a good amount of travel to know I'm on track.

Some people report that they've gotten used to it. Some even say they've come to prefer it. I guess I'll see how I adapt.

I just don't understand why they switched. We're talking about millimeters of difference in terms of space saving, and the old keyboard was just so great.

 

[MGoCrimson]

*clicks away on his mechanical keyboard*

 

[the shah]

the problem isn't just the travel distance, it's that a small but noticeable percentage have had issues ranging from letter repeating all the way to suddenly just not functioning at all. also the lack of a physical esc key is for developers/vi/vim...people who use mechanical keyboards should be defenestrated.

 

[dieworkwear]

Apple should have put all that development money into a feature that allows you to choose something longer than one day when clicking "remind me later" on software updates

 

[MGoCrimson]

...people who use mechanical keyboards should be defenestrated.

Haha only at home and with the quietest keys available. The tactile feedback is worth it.

 

[dieworkwear]

I know I'm beating a dead horse and this is old news, but man, I still can't believe this keyboard issue is showing up on new MBAs

 

[Gus]

I know I'm beating a dead horse and this is old news, but man, I still can't believe this keyboard issue is showing up on new MBAs

Wow. This it's crazy that such a formerly wonderful product has such a significant operational flaw. Especially something so mechanical that previously worked well. Someone forgot to tell them, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"

 

[dieworkwear]

Does anyone here use an iPad, by chance? I'm curious to know what are its capabilities.

As I understand it, you can do anything you need to do except for heavy video and photo editing. And so long as there's an app for what you need to do. So web stuff should be fairly standard (answering email). Is it possible to do word processing on a program like MS Word?

And if I have a bunch of files on a NAS server, can I access those as well, and use them on something like a desktop?