MPU 347 – The New MacBooks

Katie and I recorded one of our rare news-related shows today with MPU 347 concerning the Apple “Hello Again” event and our thoughts about the new MacBooks. Katie ordered one and I’m sitting this one out while I bask in my iPad Pro bliss. There’s a lot of good discussion in this show including an extended debate over which MacBook you should buy given the existing lines. We went ahead and released this one early so there won’t be a show on Sunday night.

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The Touch Bar and the MIcrosoft Surface Studio

It is interesting to compare and contrast Microsoft and Apple with their announcements this week. Specifically, I’d argue that the Apple Touch Bar and the Microsoft Surface Studio are both appropriate manifestations of the companies’ differing touch computing philosophies.

When Apple started with the iPhone, the idea from the beginning was that there would be a seperate operating system for touch computing. Earlier attempts at touch computing (like Microsoft’s earlier tablet attempts) relied upon a stylus and small touch targets. Instead of building the computer operating system for touch, they just replaced the mouse with a pencil. This approach didn’t recognize that users were in a new paradigm and was tedious and slow. Not surprisingly, it fizzled. Part of the reason for the iPhone revolution was the simple idea that a touch operating system should be touch friendly. As Apple grew the line to the iPad, they followed the same philosophy. The iPad and iPhone still remain very finger-friendly. The Mac however, has always been very finger-unfriendly.

A few years ago when Microsoft decided to get serious about touch computing, they didn’t take the separate operating systems approach Apple did but instead tried to incorporate both touch and traditional mouse-and-keyboard computing all into Windows. With Windows 8, it was a mess. With Windows 10, it got better. This week with Microsoft announcing the Surface Studio computer, which is essentially an iMac that tilts to a 20 degree drafting table touch computer, it seems their aim is getting even more accurate.

Now Apple is also talking about bringing elements of touch computing to their macOS operating system. True to form, however, they aren’t looking to push fingers onto screens but instead adding a second screen to your keyboard. It’s the way they make macOS more touch friendly without actually adding any of the touchy parts to macOS. It makes perfect sense for Apple’s approach.

It is fascinating to me that these hardware announcements are both a natural extension of the underlying touch-computing vision. Only Microsoft would make a tilting desktop computer that you write on. Only Apple would put a touch bar on a keyboard. I don’t think anyone is sure where this is all going but these differing approaches and evolutions are changing the ways we all use computers.

Update:

After finishing and posting this article I laid down in bed to catch up with a busy day of Apple news. Of course one of the first articles I read was this one by my friend, and podcasting partner, Jason Snell, where he makes nearly identical points, just more articulately. 

Random Thoughts on Apple’s “Hello Again” Event

In the coming days there’s going to be a lot of talk about Apple’s “Hello Again” event today and the new MacBook Pros. Here’s a few random thoughts and observations I had watching the event:

  • Who is it sending their vacation photos to Tim Cook for inclusion in presentations? I think she is a much more talented photographer than me (and has much prettier friends).
  • The TV app feels to me like the leftovers from the hypothetical subscription TV project that never shipped. The trouble is that if they don’t have participation from everyone on the platform (Netflix and YouTube are not playing along), it’s much less useful.
  • The day you catch me watching tweets from random people about something I’m watching on TV is the day you’ll know my body has been taken over by aliens.
  • I like that Apple is embracing its past a little bit. I remember when I would’ve given my left one for a Power Book.
  • The “thinner and lighter” thing plays a big role going forward. It’s clear the MacBook air is getting squeezed out. The only thing keeping it alive now is that it’s the only Mac you can buy for under $1000. In a year or two, prices will come down enough to solve that problem and that will be the end of the MacBook Air.
  • They didn’t spend much time on the bigger trackpad but I suspect MacBook Pro users are going to really like it. I’ve already become accustomed to a larger trackpad with my Magic Trackpad on my iMac. It makes using gestures much easier and after using it a little, you won’t want to go back.
  • They didn’t spend much time talking about the new keyboard either. I know a lot of people that won’t buy the MacBook because of the keyboard. Apple is saying this is a second generation but if they don’t deliver the goods with the keyboard, I think it will hurt sales and the product overall. The surprise news item in the next few days may be that the keyboard is a dud. That would be bad.
  • 2 TB of SSD storage in a laptop is impressive. However, it will end up costing you an additional $1,200. Ouch.
  • Farewell MagSafe. We loved you.
  • I don’t think the USB-C transition is going to prove that difficult. Thanks to the existing MacBook that already has the USB-C port, along with other computers from other manufacturers, a healthy USB-C peripheral market already exists. If you’re making the switch you’ll need to buy a few cables and a dongle or two but you’ll be fine.
  • The idea that you can charge your MacBook from either side is kind of nice. How many times have you been in some weird spot where getting the charger cable to the correct side to charge your MacBook was harder than it should be?
  • They kept the headphone jack. Hooray.
  • How weird is it that Apple is selling an LG display during its keynote? Katie Floyd makes the argument in this week’s Mac Power Users episode that this is evidence Apple is getting out of the display business. She may be right. Either way, it is really strange seeing Apple sell somebody else’s hardware in this way.
  • At this point, the MacBook line has three alternatives: low cost, pro user, and ultralight. I’ve written about this before. Ideally, we will get to a point where the low cost and ultralight Macs merge into one computer. That was the case for a little while with the MacBook Air and explains why so many people love that computer so much. If they can get the existing MacBook’s price down to $999, we’ll get back to two lines again but that’s not going to happen this year.
  • Apple did a good job of getting more women presenters than usual. I thought everybody did a pretty good job on stage.

I’ve got more thoughts on what the touch bar really means but I have more to say there than a bulleted list. More on that to come.

MacBooks and Headphone Jacks

I’ve been wondering the past several days about whether or not we’ll see a headphone jack in tomorrow’s new MacBook Pros. There’s been lots of talk about the leaked Magic Toolbar and folks are assuming that it will have a bundle of USB-C ports but I haven’t heard anything about headphone jacks.

Apple must feel pretty good about removing the headphone jack from the iPhone 7. For months, when it was just a rumor, many people on the Internet lost their minds. Now the phone has shipped the expected outrage has largely fizzled. (I think the inclusion of an adapter in the box did a lot pull this off.) So now that they have the headphone jack out of the iPhone, what about the Macs to be announced tomorrow?

My expectation is that of course the new MacBooks (and future iPads for that matter) will have headphone jacks. The biggest reason that Apple explained removing the headphone jack from the iPhone was space. The air inside your iPhone is so precious that the headphone jack needed to go. I don’t see how you could make that case for a MacBook. There is a lot more space in both of those platforms for a tiny headphone jack. Moreover, a lot of people use Macs and IPads for music production and other sound-related tasks and they want a good set of wired cans connected to their Macs.

So maybe Apple will remove the headphone jacks tomorrow but I’d argue such a move is a mistake. As I post this, we’re just 14 hours away from finding out. 

AirPod Delay


Today an Apple representative told Tech Crunch that the AirPods aren’t done cooking.

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“The early response to AirPods has been incredible. We don’t believe in shipping a product before it’s ready, and we need a little more time before AirPods are ready for our customers.”
— Apple spokesperson to Tech Crunch

Goofy as it sounds, AirPods are one of the things I was looking forward to most about tomorrow’s Apple event. I can’t help but feel that when they launch, the AirPods are going to be a rare commodity, like Apple Pencil was for the first several months after it launched. I hope I’m wrong.

​Google Gets Creepier

ProPublica published an article (that I found via Daring Fireball) about recent changes in Google’s terms of service. Traditionally, Google has kept web-browsing information segregated from your personally identifiable information. Not anymore. As ProPublica explains, “… Google could now, if it wished to, build a complete portrait of a user by name, based on everything they write in email, every website they visit and the searches they conduct.”

Scary.

As I continue to tilt at the privacy windmill, I’ll continue to get the critical emails and tweets telling me to just get over it. I’m not trying to sound like the tin-foil-hat brigade here but what happens if Google gets new management next year that decides to use that data for evil or some foreign (or our own government) hacks that data to use for some nefarious purpose? It seems to me that is conversation we should be having right now.

Sponsor: SaneBox

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