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Mac Hardware and Software |OT| - All things Macintosh
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The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
Dem pixels, mayne.
Seriously. Once you look at a high resolution screen, you start to become really sensitive to seeing the thin black lines between each individual pixel on lower resolution displays.
Autumn Wind
Member
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016...core-mini-pc-with-iris-pro-and-thunderbolt-3/ <--- Ugh this makes me so conflicted...
I want a new Mac mini (Haswell) to replace my current Sandy Bridge Mac mini, but I also want a NUC. Decisions... Decisions...
I want a new Mac mini (Haswell) to replace my current Sandy Bridge Mac mini, but I also want a NUC. Decisions... Decisions...
Well presumably Apple has a strong incentive to brush the entire Mac lineup with TB3, so I'd say there's a solid chance the mini gets updated in 2016, sometime after the 13" MBP (whenever that happens.)
Latest BTT update says it will switch to a pay want you want model in January of February.
http://www.boastr.net/bettertouchto...to-a-pay-what-you-want-model-early-next-year/
http://www.boastr.net/bettertouchto...to-a-pay-what-you-want-model-early-next-year/
Did anyone else find the latest BTT update suddenly turning it into a PowerPC app? Lucky I had a backup to revert back to.
Of course those moments without it just emphasised how much I use it just for the smallest of things to I see no problem in him now charging for it.
Of course those moments without it just emphasised how much I use it just for the smallest of things to I see no problem in him now charging for it.
I never used BTT.
They said that wasn't supposed to happen with the new batteries they're using, or at least not until much later in the computers lifecycle.
They said that wasn't supposed to happen with the new batteries they're using, or at least not until much later in the computers lifecycle.
Yeah that CPU in a Mac mini is pretty much my hope...and something that's essentially all heat sink/cooling like the Mac Pro so it isn't loud as shit under load. Mac mug! (And more wishful thinking on top of that, bring back standard RAM slots and use standard form factor PCIe SSD blades)
The newer batteries are supposed to last more charge cycles, but losing capacity over time doesn't mean blowing up. Swelling is never supposed to happen, even when old and worn out.
Older batteries say the ones they used when you could still replace the battery in your laptop yourself swelled up all the time at the end of their lifecycle.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
With how useful BTT is, I'll gladly throw $5 at least at them if not more. I'd rather the app stick around than just disappear.Latest BTT update says it will switch to a pay want you want model in January of February.
http://www.boastr.net/bettertouchto...to-a-pay-what-you-want-model-early-next-year/
Also, "in January of February"???
Edit: Wait, I own BTT Remote. I guess that means I'll get a free license.
I don't see any chance the mini got back standard RAM slots unless they refreshed the design, and if they were refreshing the design I dunno why they wouldn't make it smaller and thinner and thus keep everything soldered, because that's what they're fixated on. I imagine something closer to an Intel NUC would be the more likely future of the mini.
Those anti-tamper screws underneath the previous easy-open bottom was such a F you to the people who cared about it, though. If I had the face time with Cook I would ask why they are so nakedly against letting people repair their own stuff and how come their perfect customer sat never covers those people.
CrudeDiatribe
Member
Oof. What were the symptoms that lead to pulling the bottom off?
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
I just noticed that I have both WiFi turned on and an Ethernet cable connected to my iMac. The Ethernet is higher on the list of connections so it's being used by default. But the WiFi seems to send and receive less than a KB every few seconds. I assume it's just pinging something. There's no reason to turn it off, right? Should I even keep it on? It's not like it's using it to help boost my speeds or anything, right?
Since boot its sent 360MB and received 1GB. But I don't know what from.
Since boot its sent 360MB and received 1GB. But I don't know what from.
I turn the wifi off if I'm connected via Ethernet.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
I didn't even realize it was on. I don't even keep the icon in the menubar because I thought it was disabled. I'd have thought it would automatically not use it when Ethernet has priority. I'm just wondering what it's doing. Sending and receiving tiny amounts of data which I assume is pings to the router or something? An update must have enabled it for some reason.
CoachKevin
Member
I am in the camp of waiting for the 2016 15" rMBP revisions. A March release with serious GPU and some reasonable 1TB models would be great.
I do this but get annoyed when I can't get my location using maps because it needs wifi positioning.
completely dead battery. as in, it won't hold any charge
also a tumor with the shell; keyboard bent out, trackpad unclickable, won't close flush.
took the battery out and everything else seems fine as usual
CoachKevin
Member
The more I read about the possible revisions for the 15" Macbook Pro the more I am thinking of going with a 2014 refurb model with the 750m. I do most of my heavy lifting in Adobe Premiere and After Effects. Adobe doesn't seem to love supporting AMD GPUs for graphics acceleration.
Seems to be a definite that they will go with a AMD GPU for the next revision?
Seems to be a definite that they will go with a AMD GPU for the next revision?
Autumn Wind
Member
Mac OS X El Capitan vs. Windows 10 Pro - How do they compare? Pros and cons? This will decide whether I get a Mac mini or a NUC.
CoachKevin
Member
I run both and both are really solid. I haven't had an issue with Windows 10. Really comes down to the software you need/want to run.
Autumn Wind
Member
I bought a Mac mini in 2011. It was the base model $599 Sandy Bridge dual core with Intel HD 3000. I upgraded it from 2 GB of RAM to 8 GB of RAM and swapped out the 500 GB HDD in the process in favor of a 128 GB Samsung 470 SSD.
When Apple upgraded the Mac mini in 2012, I felt I obviously didn't need a new one even though the quad core model was $200 cheaper. In 2011, it was available for $999 and in 2012 it was $799.
2013 passed with no upgrade and October 2014 came with no quad core model. 2015 came with no upgrade not even to dual core Broadwell. I don't want to wait until the end of the year in case Apple decides they may or may not upgrade the mini in 2016.
Meanwhile Intel is upgrading the NUC and they are giving it a quad core option but with no ETA yet.
IIRC the 2014 upgrade probably didn't have the option to use the quad core chip because Intel gave it a different socket from the dual core chip and Apple would have had to design a different board which they would be unlikely to do. Still sucks. IMO Apple is likely to upgrade the Mini in late 2016. Seems to be on a two year cycle now. No guarantee it will be quad core though. The iMac is where it's at now if you want the better processors and specs in your desktop.
I stick with Mac because I'm used to it and it works well with all my stuff. Love OSX and the way it works so well with iOS. Never been a fan of Windows.
I definitely share some of the annoyance and anger at Apple locking down their computers, but ultimately aside from loving OS X it's tempered by the fact that I have had no hardware issues aside from some faulty third party RAM in 26 years of owning eight desktop Macs (the 2008 MBP had some issues, but all got covered under AppleCare.) Yeah, upgrades are nice, but with Macs having better longevity than most PC manufacturers I can't complain too much; better to just spec is out as you need and use the computer for longer. The Mac Pro is on six years of life, my Mac mini on five, and I don't actually see a pressing reason to upgrade at this point.
Yeah I've owned a lot of Macs over the years. And kept many of them for long periods of time, and tried to take good care of them. The only hardware problems that I have experienced with any of these computers are HDDs failing. Apple has top notch build quality.
Although HDDs failing is a much bigger pain with a computer that is harder to repair by yourself and requires special equipment.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
I've had mixed usage outcomes with the many Macs I've owned in the past 16 years.
My first iMac (2000) had its HDD die within one year, then again after less than another year after being replaced under warranty. (It was that second HDD death that taught me the valuable lesson to keep backups. By this point, USB and FireWire HDDs were cheap and plentiful.) I sold it on eBay (2002) for $600 to get my next machine.
My iMac G4 (2002) still runs today. Though I disassembled it a while ago to clean it out and broke a single blade on the fan and am afraid to turn it on now. It was super dirty though because my brother, who was a pothead at the time, owned it for a while and there was sooooo much black dust inside it. So fucking much. But it does run. But it's a super slow G4 so I don't bother using it. It sits on my shelf as a display piece.
My iBook G3 (2004) runs fine, but its Airport card died a long time ago when my sister owned it for a short while. (If you can't tell, I handmedown all my old machines to my siblings) Other than that it runs fine. But like the iMac above, it's super slow so it is just a display piece. I had bought this as a secondary machine to introduce me to the world of portable Macs.
My first generation Mac mini (2005) also runs fine, but its FireWire port died a long time ago. Because for a long time I booted off my FireWire HDD because it was literally faster to run from FireWire (Like so much faster) than the internal HDD. When I discovered that I was shocked and happy. Funny thing is these days, USB 3 is too slow to boot off of compared to the internal HDD. I keep that machine also as a display piece since it's a slow useless thing. This was my last PPC Mac.
My first Intel MacBook (2007) developed the top case crack problem (Crackbook) before the first year ended and I got it fixed on the last day of its warranty. Within another year it started dying piece by piece. The logic board would overheat, the fans wouldn't turn on to cool it off, and when they did, they couldn't spin fast enough so the machine would turn off and would make a horrible grinding noise while spinning. I was able to hold onto it for dear life for another year until I replaced it with my next machine, but I used it as a sort of media PC for a short while. I opened it up and kept the top case off so it could have air and disabled the fan so it couldn't make the horrible noise anymore. When I replaced that with a new media machine I disassembled it completely and threw all its parts in a box. Which I still have. That was my first "lemon" I guess you could say. But I got like 3 years out of it.
My MacBook Pro (2010) is still running great now. I replaced its HDD with a SSD that December and made it a new machine. I have since sold it to my dad who still uses it today. That's my longest usage machine so far. I replaced it a year later with an Air.
My second Mac mini (2011) was bought as a media PC for connecting to my TV. It still runs fine last I checked, but its HDD is super slow. And it's only USB 2. I replaced it in 2014 with my new iMac. But it still works fine. I took its RAM out though so it sits on a shelf with the rest.
My first MacBook Air (2011) I used for a year before I replaced it with a second. I gave it to my brother since all he had was a shitty Dell. He didn't care as long as it ran WoW.
My second MacBook Air (2012) I also used for a year before replacing it with my Pro below. Right after the warranty ended, the battery developed a problem. It no longer holds charge. I gave this one to my brother too. He gave his other one to his girlfriend at the time since this one ran WoW much better. We did comparison tests. He was really happy. Though he still hasn't gotten the battery replaced. He just runs it connected to the wall at all times.
My MacBook Pro Retina (2013) is what I am using right now and, knock on wood, is going strong 2+ years on. I bought it only a year after my last Air because I was tired of getting the cheap low-end Mac and replacing them every year so I bought this to use for a long time, and I plan on using this one for as long as I can. No big tech advancements have happened since it came out so I haven't felt compelled to replace it, which is good because I spent the most on it I've ever spent. I went all out and got the top of the line model with the dGPU. At the time I still only had my Mac mini as a second machine. I will use this for 5 years if I can. If not 3-4 at least. Until something super awesome comes along I will use every bit of this machine until it falls apart. Probably when the next redesign comes along.
My latest machine is my 27" iMac (2014) that I bought on Refurb. It is a wonderful machine, but the HDD is a real bottleneck. I want to replace its HDD with a SSD eventually. I plan on keeping it as long as it lasts as well. I don't want to do the replacement myself though because I don't trust myself to do it right. So I'll probably see if I can find a place to do it when the time comes. I suspect simply upgrading its disk will do wonders for it because stuff loads soooooo slowly on it. Like my 2010 Mac mini. Apps bounce seemingly forever. But it's usable. So I put up with it. It performs its server duties well. I took the 8GB RAM out of my mini and put it in with the 8GB RAM that was already inside the iMac and made it 16GB. (Although they were different speeds but GAF assured me that it didn't matter) Don't know if it actually did much but it helps. When I replace the HDD I might go all out and also replace the RAM with 32GB. When the time does come to replace it, it will be Retina. And hopefully it'll support the same RAM and SSD will be standard. Either way, it will have a SSD even if I have to pay for it. This machine reminded me why HDD sucks for booting.
And that is my Mac history. A few problems, one real lemon. Some dying parts but overall perfectly working machines.
My first iMac (2000) had its HDD die within one year, then again after less than another year after being replaced under warranty. (It was that second HDD death that taught me the valuable lesson to keep backups. By this point, USB and FireWire HDDs were cheap and plentiful.) I sold it on eBay (2002) for $600 to get my next machine.
My iMac G4 (2002) still runs today. Though I disassembled it a while ago to clean it out and broke a single blade on the fan and am afraid to turn it on now. It was super dirty though because my brother, who was a pothead at the time, owned it for a while and there was sooooo much black dust inside it. So fucking much. But it does run. But it's a super slow G4 so I don't bother using it. It sits on my shelf as a display piece.
My iBook G3 (2004) runs fine, but its Airport card died a long time ago when my sister owned it for a short while. (If you can't tell, I handmedown all my old machines to my siblings) Other than that it runs fine. But like the iMac above, it's super slow so it is just a display piece. I had bought this as a secondary machine to introduce me to the world of portable Macs.
My first generation Mac mini (2005) also runs fine, but its FireWire port died a long time ago. Because for a long time I booted off my FireWire HDD because it was literally faster to run from FireWire (Like so much faster) than the internal HDD. When I discovered that I was shocked and happy. Funny thing is these days, USB 3 is too slow to boot off of compared to the internal HDD. I keep that machine also as a display piece since it's a slow useless thing. This was my last PPC Mac.
My first Intel MacBook (2007) developed the top case crack problem (Crackbook) before the first year ended and I got it fixed on the last day of its warranty. Within another year it started dying piece by piece. The logic board would overheat, the fans wouldn't turn on to cool it off, and when they did, they couldn't spin fast enough so the machine would turn off and would make a horrible grinding noise while spinning. I was able to hold onto it for dear life for another year until I replaced it with my next machine, but I used it as a sort of media PC for a short while. I opened it up and kept the top case off so it could have air and disabled the fan so it couldn't make the horrible noise anymore. When I replaced that with a new media machine I disassembled it completely and threw all its parts in a box. Which I still have. That was my first "lemon" I guess you could say. But I got like 3 years out of it.
My MacBook Pro (2010) is still running great now. I replaced its HDD with a SSD that December and made it a new machine. I have since sold it to my dad who still uses it today. That's my longest usage machine so far. I replaced it a year later with an Air.
My second Mac mini (2011) was bought as a media PC for connecting to my TV. It still runs fine last I checked, but its HDD is super slow. And it's only USB 2. I replaced it in 2014 with my new iMac. But it still works fine. I took its RAM out though so it sits on a shelf with the rest.
My first MacBook Air (2011) I used for a year before I replaced it with a second. I gave it to my brother since all he had was a shitty Dell. He didn't care as long as it ran WoW.
My second MacBook Air (2012) I also used for a year before replacing it with my Pro below. Right after the warranty ended, the battery developed a problem. It no longer holds charge. I gave this one to my brother too. He gave his other one to his girlfriend at the time since this one ran WoW much better. We did comparison tests. He was really happy. Though he still hasn't gotten the battery replaced. He just runs it connected to the wall at all times.
My MacBook Pro Retina (2013) is what I am using right now and, knock on wood, is going strong 2+ years on. I bought it only a year after my last Air because I was tired of getting the cheap low-end Mac and replacing them every year so I bought this to use for a long time, and I plan on using this one for as long as I can. No big tech advancements have happened since it came out so I haven't felt compelled to replace it, which is good because I spent the most on it I've ever spent. I went all out and got the top of the line model with the dGPU. At the time I still only had my Mac mini as a second machine. I will use this for 5 years if I can. If not 3-4 at least. Until something super awesome comes along I will use every bit of this machine until it falls apart. Probably when the next redesign comes along.
My latest machine is my 27" iMac (2014) that I bought on Refurb. It is a wonderful machine, but the HDD is a real bottleneck. I want to replace its HDD with a SSD eventually. I plan on keeping it as long as it lasts as well. I don't want to do the replacement myself though because I don't trust myself to do it right. So I'll probably see if I can find a place to do it when the time comes. I suspect simply upgrading its disk will do wonders for it because stuff loads soooooo slowly on it. Like my 2010 Mac mini. Apps bounce seemingly forever. But it's usable. So I put up with it. It performs its server duties well. I took the 8GB RAM out of my mini and put it in with the 8GB RAM that was already inside the iMac and made it 16GB. (Although they were different speeds but GAF assured me that it didn't matter) Don't know if it actually did much but it helps. When I replace the HDD I might go all out and also replace the RAM with 32GB. When the time does come to replace it, it will be Retina. And hopefully it'll support the same RAM and SSD will be standard. Either way, it will have a SSD even if I have to pay for it. This machine reminded me why HDD sucks for booting.
And that is my Mac history. A few problems, one real lemon. Some dying parts but overall perfectly working machines.
Ugh. Ive seen the acrylic and plastic parts of Macs go brown thanks to being in an environment with heavy smokers. Its pretty nasty.
My Mac history:
Mac Iicithe computer my parents got when they started their graphic design business. Cost $10K at the time they bought it, and my brother and I got the hand-me-downs after they were replaced.
PowerMac 7100/66 MHzthis guy didnt have a built-in CD-ROM on our model, so my parents got some hilariously massive drive I have never seen a peer of. You didnt put the CD directly in a slot or tray, you put the CD into this sort of diskette cartridge and then loaded *that* into the CD-ROM bay. Thing was IIRC 2x only so you couldnt even play back the cinematics for StarCraft from it.
PowerMac G3 (266MHz Beige Minitower)The loudest modem I think Ive ever heard. Still remember downloading the Age of Empires demo over a 28.8 dial-up connection over the course of a few days.
PowerMac G4 (466MHz Digital Audio)I still love the look of the G4 line the most of Apples pro Macs, even if this one was all pinstripes. This thing was what I played Age of Empires II and WarCraft III on constantly.
PowerMac G5 (DP 1.8GHz)Game of choice: RollerCoaster Tycoon 3. Put so many hours into that. This is the model with the bad third-party RAM (I think we got it at MacMall) but we did manage to force a complete wipe and restore of the system, first through some really nasty Microsoft Office font corruptions that ended up preventing you from even starting up without freezing, the second time because there was a power surge that forced an unexpected shutdown while Norton was defragging the disk.
Macbook Pro (Early 2008 pre-unibody)My college machine. So happy I sprung for the upgraded GPU, was the only way I could play StarCraft II on it well. The thing got hammered and I ended up replacing the battery twice, and getting the logic board swapped under AppleCare. The optical drive crapped out on me towards the end. Sold it off upgraded with 6GB of RAM in 2013 for a think almost a fourth of what I paid for it, which was insane.
Mac Pro (Early 2008)Got this because I wanted a dedicated machine after college. Ended up selling it after about two years for this guy:
Mac Pro (2010)which Ive upgraded the GPU, processor and RAM on, and am still rocking. Because I got a capture card I needed Thunderbolt, so I got a:
Mac mini (2011)which is currently my main machine at work, where with an SSD and 16GB it performs admirably well (cant do any GPU acceleration, so scaling and Photoshop can get wonky, but otherwise its remarkably speedy. For big renders I switch to the workstation Ive got attached via KVM to the same monitor and keyboard.)
Macbook Pro (2014 13)Grabbed this as a refurb because I still found myself wanting a portable machine. Comparing it to the 13 one-off unibody 2008 Macbook my wife is still using, its amazing how much nicer and lighter it is.
I recently also picked up an iMac G4 1st gen (700MHz) and a 1st-rev PowerMac G4 MDD (DP 867MHz) so that I have machines that can natively boot into OS 9 and I can play my legacy games on. Got an SSD I will split into 10.4 and OS 9 partitions, and an old Geforce 4Ti for maxing its graphics capabilities. Still have to do the upgrades at some point.
My wifes Macbook is doing badly (its had a cracked screen courtesy of some rough baggage handlers for years now, the battery is very low-capacity, the screen hinge is incredibly loose and appears to be causing an intermittent cable issue where artifacts appear on screen, the hard drive is constantly full to the brim despite my best efforts, and the thing is scratched, dented, and covered in modge lodge and crafting detritrus.) When the Skylake models come out well probably spring and get her a new comp.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
Yeah, it did yellow the pristine white case quite a bit. Shame because it's such a wonderful looking machine.
I had an external one of these I bought on eBay when I was collecting old Macs in the early turn of the century.
CrudeDiatribe
Member
CD cartridge machines were extremely common in the broadcast industry. If you swap disks a lot and have carts for each one it is very easy. If you only have one cart, though, it is a huge pain in the ass.
I don't remember exactly the specs and model numbers of all my old computers. I could tell you the recent once since 2008 or so though. I do remember my first Mac. It wasn't a Mac actually. It was an
Apple IIgs
that had been signed by Woz. My dad got it for me when I was really young. My dad also got it a really expensive 1 or 2mb HDD that was almost as big as the computer itself.
I used to play Ultima IV on it, and I had to swap floppy disks to load into towns and villages and that took forever. One day we took it into a store and they did a firmware update on it that we didn't ask for that made Ultima IV stop working. That was a bad day. I don't remember that computer ever breaking though.
Apple IIgs
that had been signed by Woz. My dad got it for me when I was really young. My dad also got it a really expensive 1 or 2mb HDD that was almost as big as the computer itself.
I used to play Ultima IV on it, and I had to swap floppy disks to load into towns and villages and that took forever. One day we took it into a store and they did a firmware update on it that we didn't ask for that made Ultima IV stop working. That was a bad day. I don't remember that computer ever breaking though.
mmazurkiewicz
Member
I want to buy a new USB flash drive or Thunderbolt SSD drive but don't know whats best to get at this point. I want something fast and at around 250GB to 500GB.
So far Ive found the Corsair Voyager GTX 256 USB 3.0 drive and the Lacie Rugged Thunderbolt SSD mobile drive.
The Corsair is cheaper and faster than the Thunderbolt drive, however, and I'm failing to understand the advantage Thunderbolt is supposed to provide over USB. They're both SSD based drives FYI.
Now Lacie(Seagate) has released a flagship USB 3.1(USB C) SSD drive at CES and I'm left wondering if Thunderbolt has been altogether abandoned.
So far Ive found the Corsair Voyager GTX 256 USB 3.0 drive and the Lacie Rugged Thunderbolt SSD mobile drive.
The Corsair is cheaper and faster than the Thunderbolt drive, however, and I'm failing to understand the advantage Thunderbolt is supposed to provide over USB. They're both SSD based drives FYI.
Now Lacie(Seagate) has released a flagship USB 3.1(USB C) SSD drive at CES and I'm left wondering if Thunderbolt has been altogether abandoned.
Thunderbolt is far faster than USB 3 and its 10GBps updated spec (which no Macs yet support); in terms of flash drives, it's only a big difference if you have a drive fast enough that USB3 can't keep up. According to some quick Google searches, it looks like the Corsair drive is faster than the Lacie, which is probably due to the type of SSD within it. In practice, though, unless you need the absolute fastest drive possible or can saturate a Thunderbolt connection (something like a RAID array or fibre channel) you're better off saving your storage money by going USB.
As for abandoning Thunderbolt, already Thunderbolt 3 has more Windows adoption than TB1 and TB2 ever had. Given the boost to USB 3.1 up to TB1 speeds and the fact that TB3 uses a USB Type-C connector, it'll probably be both more widespread and also less needed for a consumer use case.
mmazurkiewicz
Member
yeh thanks. i ordered the corsair.
just annoyed cause i feel pretty soon all MacBooks will be either USB C or Thunderbolt with no USB support, so this drive may end up being useless.
just annoyed cause i feel pretty soon all MacBooks will be either USB C or Thunderbolt with no USB support, so this drive may end up being useless.
This won't happen. TB3 has USB in its spec. They could transition to TB3 ports as the "one port to rule them all" but that won't come at the expense of USB3.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
Yeah, they're basically trying to merge all ports into one mega port, which is good as long as its used correctly. All the MacBook needs is a single second port.
On my MacBook Pro I have two USB3 ports, 2 TB2 ports, an HDMI port, headphone/mic port, SD card slot and power. And aside from the headphone and SD card, all of that can be replaced by a single USB-C port now. Though I'd much rather have at least 2 ports on my next machine. I don't care if my next MacBook is low on portage, as long as there's at least 2 of them so I can charge and connect one drive at the same time. I don't even use the SD card slot I have. Rarely do I use the HDMI or even the ThunderBolt ports. (Which I only use for displays anyway) But I do use my USB ports. So I'm sure whatever machine I get when the time comes will probably have lost a few ports for USB-C/TB3, but as long as there's at least 2, I'll be happy. I'll get myself a nice compact "dock" for it too and probably buy a second AC adapter to keep at my desk. Though if my options are to have only one port at that point, I won't complain as long as a dock exists. I'd say put one on each side though and let us charge from either one. As well as the mic.
I'm picturing the next MacBook Pro redesign to have only 2 USB-C, a mic and possibly an SD slot (on the high end larger machines). Hopefully one on each side. Left side one USB-C and headphone, right side one USB-C and the SD card. If Apple keeps going the way they are. Just speculation of course, and not wishful thinking as I wouldn't want a Pro machine to lose so much, but we'll see. Maybe the above specs will at least show up in the next MacBook/Air redesign instead and the Pro will keep the ports it has now. Though you know they'll reevaluate the extra ports and shed some. TB will definitely be removed and replaced with the USB-C which will probably also replace the USB3. So I picture the 2 USB3 and 2 TB ports they have now being replaced with 3 USB-C ports at most. Possibly also HDMI.
On my MacBook Pro I have two USB3 ports, 2 TB2 ports, an HDMI port, headphone/mic port, SD card slot and power. And aside from the headphone and SD card, all of that can be replaced by a single USB-C port now. Though I'd much rather have at least 2 ports on my next machine. I don't care if my next MacBook is low on portage, as long as there's at least 2 of them so I can charge and connect one drive at the same time. I don't even use the SD card slot I have. Rarely do I use the HDMI or even the ThunderBolt ports. (Which I only use for displays anyway) But I do use my USB ports. So I'm sure whatever machine I get when the time comes will probably have lost a few ports for USB-C/TB3, but as long as there's at least 2, I'll be happy. I'll get myself a nice compact "dock" for it too and probably buy a second AC adapter to keep at my desk. Though if my options are to have only one port at that point, I won't complain as long as a dock exists. I'd say put one on each side though and let us charge from either one. As well as the mic.
I'm picturing the next MacBook Pro redesign to have only 2 USB-C, a mic and possibly an SD slot (on the high end larger machines). Hopefully one on each side. Left side one USB-C and headphone, right side one USB-C and the SD card. If Apple keeps going the way they are. Just speculation of course, and not wishful thinking as I wouldn't want a Pro machine to lose so much, but we'll see. Maybe the above specs will at least show up in the next MacBook/Air redesign instead and the Pro will keep the ports it has now. Though you know they'll reevaluate the extra ports and shed some. TB will definitely be removed and replaced with the USB-C which will probably also replace the USB3. So I picture the 2 USB3 and 2 TB ports they have now being replaced with 3 USB-C ports at most. Possibly also HDMI.
Apple never got rid of the USB3 port even though they desperately wanted to... Most people didn't even use their TB ports. If USBC takes off and you can buy a lot of cheap fast External storage drives then OK fine. Otherwise Apple would be idiotic to dump USB3 so fast on their Pro line. It's ubiquitous now.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
But USB-C will be completely compatible with it. And you said no one uses TB. But now more PCs are coming with TB compatibility. They will dump USB 3 and replace them all with USB-C because it will give them the best of both worlds with less space used inside. They don't care if people need to use an adapter for it if it lets them make their machines thinner and companies are more than happy to provide numerous hub designs to add the proper ports back.
I'm sure if they thought they wouldn't get lynched for it, (Right now) they'd replace the 6 TB, 4 USB ports and HDMI on the back of the Mac Pro with all USB-C ports. (They probably won't. Also they rarely update that machine anyway. But it'll happen in time.)
Either way, the USB-C connector is Apple's interface future. It's the final merging of the two interface specs they had to support and probably their greatest dream. No longer do they have to keep USB and FireWire 400 or USB2 and FireWire 800 or USB3 and ThunderBolt only to have more people only using USB. Plus it gives them the added benefit of replacing literally everything else they have now, and every single interface that might have been invented in the near future had USB-C not come along.
I thought for sure that was the case as it makes sense but the new keyboard and mouse using lightning connectors has me hopelessly confused. I have no idea what they were thinking there.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
They should have designed the Lightning B end to match USB-C so it could just be backwards compatible. It looks too confusing having both looking similar. Surely USB-C does everything Lightning would need to do by this point, maybe they could eventually transition to it? Then we'd finally have a single connector future. Maybe USB-C chips are currently too big for the inside of an iPhone. (Since they need to do everything. Though the MacBook is really thin too. And the logic board is ridiculously tiny. Though I don't think the MacBook version of USB-C has Thunderbolt compatibility, at least as far as I can tell. (Just DisplayPort)
victreeb3l
Member
My latest Mac and iPhone 6S have given me a lot of problems. I'm going to get my entire machine exchanged. Display issues, port issues, fan issues.
USB-C is just the port, technically it can be anything from purely for power (like chargers) or USB 2.0, 3.0, 3.1 gen 1 (...which is basically 3.0), 3.1 gen 2 (10Gbps), and alternate modes, which can basically switch the functionality to carry other protocols over the USB-C port/cabling. The alt mode functionality is how DisplayPort and Thunderbolt 3 work, and theoretically whatever else people can think of.
Er anyway there's no specific chip needed for USB-C ports. There's TB3 and USB 3.1 gen 2 controllers (TB3's handles both), but they could do theoretically do USB-C ports with the existing USB 2.0 (or 3.0 in the iPad Pro?) functionality.
One neat thing about Lightning was that it's supposed to be protocol agnostic, but USB alt modes accomplish that too...so yeah hopefully they'll switch over one day. Course they could just seal the damn things (waterproof/resistant!) and use inductive or wireless charging some day. For wired stuff (...if that's still a thing) they could do some surface contact pin data connector or something like that new iPad Pro keyboard one.
Once all Macs ship with USB-C ports I'm sure the other end of the Lightning cables in the boxes will be USB-C. As for using Lightning rather than USB for the actual peripherals... *shrug*. Not a big deal one way or another (their kind of lazy solution to swapping the battery in the mouse and requiring its upturned turtle charging is far more of an issue for a 3-5-year product lifecycle.)
Crazymoogle
Member
I'm confused why you think Lightning would have come out after USB-C? Lightning is well understood right now and has a non-legacy pinout array, whereas USB-C has dedicated pins for USB2 mode. Both plugs are small, but they are definitely not the same pincount, size or shape. Simply put Apple went to market because they could not wait on the USB forum to figure their shit out (the spec was not ratified until August 2014!) and shipping a reversible cable design first arguably put pressure on the forum to get their design to market.
Apple is a member of the USB forum but given they have a healthy Lightning marketplace and no particular pressure to switch ports, I don't think we'll see them try USB-C for some time on iOS devices.
Very unlikely. According to everymac.com 2009s had DDR3 1066 while the new ones are 1867 MHz.
They might work, as they're both physically compatible 204-pin PC3 modules. 204-pin PC3L-14900 (1867 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM for the 2015 model, PC3-8500 (1066 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMMs for the 2009. But if they work at all, it'd probably be at the expense of all your RAM running at the lower speed. Crucial shows upping to 32GB of compatible RAM would cost you $90, so you're better off just going with that.
You can also apparently pack 64GB into the Skylake models, if you really wanted to (or 48GB if you don't swap out the existing modules.) Don't want to think about how expensive that would be though given the price of 16GB DIMMs...
You can also apparently pack 64GB into the Skylake models, if you really wanted to (or 48GB if you don't swap out the existing modules.) Don't want to think about how expensive that would be though given the price of 16GB DIMMs...