ATP

00:00:00 ◼   ► What is that background? Right? It's from Last Exile, which is an anime series that neither one of you has heard of, let alone seen.

00:00:06 ◼   ► I've seen it. It's really good. You have not. Yeah, what makes you think I haven't seen it?

00:00:11 ◼   ► Tell me about it without googling. I know nothing about it. I've never seen it. All the great shows.

00:00:16 ◼   ► Exactly.

00:00:19 ◼   ► So, Jon, why don't you tell us about how Crossy Road is doing financially?

00:00:22 ◼   ► Why would I do that when it says in the notes that we already talked about this?

00:00:26 ◼   ► Alright, let's not talk about this because everyone has keep sending us the same everyone keeps sending us the same link

00:00:30 ◼   ► And I'm tired of getting it. Well. Here's here's what happens everybody has a bad memory

00:00:33 ◼   ► What we talked about cross your was finances on at least two episodes

00:00:38 ◼   ► Maybe three in the first one it was before they did one

00:00:41 ◼   ► They did a major update and in the first one I was looking at the top grossing charts

00:00:46 ◼   ► And I was saying given their position on the top downloading chart because they were like you know one of the top handful of apps

00:00:52 ◼   ► On the top free chart, but they weren't very high on the top grossing chart

00:00:55 ◼   ► So what I said was at that position on top three they should be making more money and so maybe they can monetize better

00:01:02 ◼   ► because you know there's not really much reason to ever pay them when you play the game and then they they did an update a

00:01:08 ◼   ► Few days after the episode came out and then they they very quickly jumped up the top grossing chart and the following week

00:01:15 ◼   ► We talked about that where we said hey

00:01:17 ◼   ► Looks like they fixed it. They're making a good money now great good for them and

00:01:22 ◼   ► so tons of people now have only heard that first part and

00:01:27 ◼   ► Or only remember the first part and are telling us look you are so wrong because look they made all this money

00:01:33 ◼   ► When in fact we did already talk about this the following week when we said now they are making tons of money

00:01:39 ◼   ► I think we read an interview with them where they said they were there were now didn't have to work again

00:01:43 ◼   ► And it made enough money to be set for life and so on and so forth

00:01:47 ◼   ► That's why I felt like we covered already, but this is actually a new story right with updated updated financials

00:01:52 ◼   ► But the story the week after we first discussed this basically the developer said we never have to work again, so

00:01:57 ◼   ► Reiterating that they still don't have to work again even less or more. I don't know whatever they really don't have to work again

00:02:05 ◼   ► Anyway, we'll put the link in the show notes for people who want to read the numbers, but it's like

00:02:09 ◼   ► I'm just reading what's in the show notes here ten million dollars on 50 million downloads cross your road is a good game

00:02:14 ◼   ► They deserve to make a lot of money because they made a really good game

00:02:17 ◼   ► Exactly. Yep. Now I the main reason I wanted to bring this up again is because the of that new interview or piece on it

00:02:24 ◼   ► That was on polygon. Is that right? Yes polygon and we've gotten that link a thousand times, which I appreciate

00:02:30 ◼   ► Everyone is trying to keep us informed which is very nice of them

00:02:32 ◼   ► But we have seen it and it's pretty much the same thing. We already knew so thank you

00:02:36 ◼   ► In other news we should talk about our anonymous tipster

00:02:41 ◼   ► Who sort of came through and yet sort of didn't on?

00:02:46 ◼   ► the Apple event and obviously we'll talk about Monday's event a little bit later, but

00:02:50 ◼   ► There were there was a win and there were some not so win. We have not not so good results for this tipster

00:02:56 ◼   ► Do do you want to take us through that John and where he where he or she did well and where they did poorly?

00:03:02 ◼   ► Yeah, we kind of fell down on the previous show because at one point in the previous show

00:03:06 ◼   ► I was trying to nail down how we will know whether

00:03:11 ◼   ► this whether these tips panned out because it was kind of vague and there was some bit like what are the criteria for success and

00:03:18 ◼   ► then we kind of wandered off onto some other topic and we didn't really

00:03:20 ◼   ► pin it down if we had it would have helped because as

00:03:23 ◼   ► The keynote was going on and I'm reading people's tweets and stuff

00:03:26 ◼   ► About 50/50 people were saying oh my god that tipster was a hundred percent white right or

00:03:33 ◼   ► Haha that tipster didn't know anything nothing. He said was in here like

00:03:38 ◼   ► Obviously different people saying that one set of people like the same

00:03:41 ◼   ► we're all watching the same presentation and some people are getting the impression and tweeting to the

00:03:45 ◼   ► The to that effect that they think this tipster was either right or wrong

00:03:50 ◼   ► and

00:03:52 ◼   ► That's because we didn't really nail down success criteria if we had like a bingo card or a checkbox

00:03:56 ◼   ► Like I think Casey you tweeted a little checkmark of like things that we would check off as the tipster was right or wrong

00:04:01 ◼   ► Yeah

00:04:03 ◼   ► But as it turns out the tipster himself or herself

00:04:07 ◼   ► yourself gave some--

00:04:09 ◼   ► their own analysis of the success of their things.

00:04:16 ◼   ► Now, when we were talking about the hub,

00:04:19 ◼   ► and people pointed me to the link for that AV adapter thing--

00:04:23 ◼   ► what is it, HDMI video output using USB-C, DVI, digital AV,

00:04:28 ◼   ► multi-port adapter, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:04:30 ◼   ► Right.

00:04:30 ◼   ► There's two of them, actually.

00:04:31 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:04:32 ◼   ► That is not what the Tipster was talking about.

00:04:34 ◼   ► The Tipster explicitly said, that's

00:04:36 ◼   ► not what I was talking about.

00:04:37 ◼   ► So if you think the Tipster was right

00:04:38 ◼   ► because you saw that adapter,

00:04:40 ◼   ► the Tipster him or herself says,

00:04:42 ◼   ► nope, that's not it, right?

00:04:44 ◼   ► The Force Touch thing was in the keynote

00:04:48 ◼   ► with those exact words,

00:04:49 ◼   ► the trackpad, the Force Touch trackpad.

00:04:51 ◼   ► So you gotta give that one, right?

00:04:53 ◼   ► So it's like at least, there was only two predictions,

00:04:55 ◼   ► one Force Touch, two this hub thing.

00:04:58 ◼   ► - Right, and the Force Touch thing,

00:05:00 ◼   ► I don't wanna minimize that.

00:05:01 ◼   ► That was pretty significant.

00:05:03 ◼   ► That, from what everybody's saying,

00:05:05 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean, like, nobody guessed the new key switches.

00:05:08 ◼   ► Like nobody, Mark Erman didn't say anything

00:05:10 ◼   ► about new key switches.

00:05:11 ◼   ► He did mention a newer layout,

00:05:12 ◼   ► but he also said the whole thing would be narrower,

00:05:14 ◼   ► and I think it's not.

00:05:15 ◼   ► We have to double check on that,

00:05:16 ◼   ► but I think it's actually,

00:05:17 ◼   ► I think it's the same width total,

00:05:19 ◼   ► or at least it's very close.

00:05:20 ◼   ► Just the keys themselves have like less padding

00:05:23 ◼   ► between them, so the keys themselves have gotten larger,

00:05:26 ◼   ► but I think the overall width of the keyboard

00:05:27 ◼   ► is about the same.

00:05:28 ◼   ► But nobody said anything about the new key switch type,

00:05:31 ◼   ► the very low travel of the keys,

00:05:33 ◼   ► which will be controversial,

00:05:35 ◼   ► and but the Force Touch trackpad,

00:05:38 ◼   ► I think that's significant.

00:05:40 ◼   ► I think this tipster has proven himself

00:05:42 ◼   ► to be somebody in the know.

00:05:44 ◼   ► Even if the second hub never comes out,

00:05:47 ◼   ► I think he or she has proven themselves

00:05:50 ◼   ► to be well informed.

00:05:53 ◼   ► - I don't know about that,

00:05:54 ◼   ► because the Force Touch was super guessable.

00:05:56 ◼   ► I would be impressed by Force Touch

00:05:59 ◼   ► if the phrase Force Touch had never appeared

00:06:01 ◼   ► in a previous Apple keynote, you know what I mean?

00:06:03 ◼   ► But because they use "For Such" to describe the thing on the watch,

00:06:06 ◼   ► and because the Germin rumor said that the trackpad wasn't going to move but would be pressure sensitive,

00:06:11 ◼   ► you can put that together without any actual knowledge. You know what I'm saying?

00:06:14 ◼   ► Yeah, that's a fair point.

00:06:16 ◼   ► Like, I mean, you still have to be lucky. You still have to, you know...

00:06:19 ◼   ► That's still... That was correct. Like, those things matched up, I'm not saying...

00:06:23 ◼   ► But it's the type of thing that was guessable with not too much, you know...

00:06:28 ◼   ► If you had to come up with a rumor that was plausible, you could have staked your reputation on that

00:06:32 ◼   ► and say, "Well, I feel pretty good about it.

00:06:35 ◼   ► They'll probably use the same term if they don't. Oh, well."

00:06:38 ◼   ► And the second thing about the hub that wasn't announced,

00:06:42 ◼   ► the idea that there's going to --

00:06:44 ◼   ► if the Germin removers were right, which they were,

00:06:47 ◼   ► and this thing's just going to have one port on it,

00:06:48 ◼   ► the idea that there will be a whole bunch

00:06:50 ◼   ► of different adapters that you can plug into that,

00:06:52 ◼   ► some of which will have multiple USB ports,

00:06:54 ◼   ► kind of like hub, is also kind of a gimme,

00:06:56 ◼   ► but Apple didn't announce that.

00:06:58 ◼   ► And as we discussed, it's very rare

00:07:00 ◼   ► that anyone who's going to leak knows when products are going to be announced.

00:07:08 ◼   ► So it doesn't mean this product doesn't exist, but it does mean that this product was not

00:07:12 ◼   ► announced at that keynote, and that was specifically this tipster's prediction.

00:07:18 ◼   ► So I guess I'm gonna give like a...

00:07:21 ◼   ► I'm gonna give a less than 50% grade, because it's like two predictions, one came true,

00:07:25 ◼   ► but the one that came true was guessable, and the one that didn't was the quote-unquote

00:07:29 ◼   ► most interesting one.

00:07:30 ◼   ► We'll just put this in the back burner for now

00:07:33 ◼   ► and see if that however comes out,

00:07:34 ◼   ► but it just goes to show, even when you get boring rumors,

00:07:37 ◼   ► you can't count on them being right.

00:07:39 ◼   ► - Yeah, I would give a little bit better grade.

00:07:41 ◼   ► I would say more like, you know, 67%.

00:07:44 ◼   ► 'Cause I don't wanna deal with competing numbers.

00:07:46 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:07:47 ◼   ► - You know, what was interesting to me

00:07:49 ◼   ► about the follow-up email we got from this tipster

00:07:52 ◼   ► was that this individual seemed utterly convinced

00:07:55 ◼   ► that it was a thing because it was something

00:07:57 ◼   ► that they claim to have seen at work. And I'm, maybe they've worked on it, maybe they haven't.

00:08:04 ◼   ► But you know, it's something that they're so confident in existing that they said,

00:08:08 ◼   ► it's going to happen. It's just a matter of when and those are my words, but that was kind of the

00:08:12 ◼   ► message we got. And so I thought that was interesting. And it's kind of, granted, if,

00:08:18 ◼   ► if you were fabricating all this and wanted to string us along, that's exactly what you would

00:08:22 ◼   ► say. However, I thought it was interesting. And the way they talked about things, I'm not going

00:08:27 ◼   ► I'm not gonna read this verbatim,

00:08:28 ◼   ► but the way they talked about things,

00:08:30 ◼   ► it certainly sounded like,

00:08:31 ◼   ► it sounded to me like it was genuine,

00:08:34 ◼   ► but how can you really tell?

00:08:35 ◼   ► It's an email.

00:08:36 ◼   ► So I'm curious to see what happens

00:08:38 ◼   ► over the next six months or so

00:08:40 ◼   ► to see if maybe this hub thing is the real deal or not.

00:08:43 ◼   ► - I think even if this tipster is 100% authentic,

00:08:46 ◼   ► I think they don't understand how products get released.

00:08:50 ◼   ► Like say we 100% believe them,

00:08:52 ◼   ► and they've seen this,

00:08:54 ◼   ► tons of people inside Apple have it,

00:08:56 ◼   ► it's all over the place.

00:08:56 ◼   ► until the day they ship it, at any point,

00:08:58 ◼   ► Apple could say, you know what, now,

00:09:00 ◼   ► we're not gonna do this one, right?

00:09:01 ◼   ► And so how can you say, you know,

00:09:04 ◼   ► this definitely will be shipping.

00:09:05 ◼   ► You don't know it will be shipping

00:09:06 ◼   ► unless you're the one who makes the decision

00:09:08 ◼   ► for it to ship, right?

00:09:10 ◼   ► Like, even if everyone inside Apple has this hub

00:09:12 ◼   ► and has been testing it for months and months,

00:09:14 ◼   ► does not mean it's ever going to ship, right?

00:09:16 ◼   ► So that, I feel like, you know,

00:09:19 ◼   ► if you have this information, you shouldn't,

00:09:22 ◼   ► like, how can you so confidently assert,

00:09:24 ◼   ► unless you're trying to snow somebody,

00:09:25 ◼   ► that it's definitely gonna ship, it's gonna be a thing.

00:09:28 ◼   ► Until something ships, it's not gonna ship.

00:09:30 ◼   ► I mean, Apple can put it up on their website

00:09:33 ◼   ► and tell us that Snow Leopard's gonna have ZFS support,

00:09:35 ◼   ► but until it ships, it hasn't shipped, right?

00:09:38 ◼   ► - That's true, I don't know.

00:09:39 ◼   ► - How funny is the adapter that did ship?

00:09:43 ◼   ► - Oh, I mean, $80 makes me stop laughing real fast.

00:09:47 ◼   ► - That makes me laugh more, 'cause it's so audacious.

00:09:50 ◼   ► I mean, this is amazing.

00:09:53 ◼   ► - Yeah, so I think this is, I mean,

00:09:55 ◼   ► we don't wanna spend too much time on tips and tipsters,

00:09:57 ◼   ► but this was our experiment with tips.

00:09:59 ◼   ► I would call it a bust.

00:10:00 ◼   ► It was a boring tip that didn't come 100% true.

00:10:03 ◼   ► We left in a situation where we're like,

00:10:04 ◼   ► well, they might know something, they might not.

00:10:07 ◼   ► Tips are boring.

00:10:08 ◼   ► We probably won't do this again, oh well.

00:10:11 ◼   ► - Oh, I like this so much more than you do.

00:10:13 ◼   ► So here's what I would love.

00:10:15 ◼   ► - All right, so please email Marco your tips.

00:10:17 ◼   ► - Maybe, okay, so I think there's some kind of law

00:10:20 ◼   ► in California against soliciting people to break NDA, so I don't want to do that.

00:10:26 ◼   ► However, I think it would be really funny if we got if it just became a thing that

00:10:31 ◼   ► we got fairly accurate tips about the most boring Apple stuff possible about

00:10:36 ◼   ► the packaging yeah like material with the packaging be how many USB ports the

00:10:42 ◼   ► next Mac Mini will have like just like the most boring like I and I'm sure

00:10:47 ◼   ► there's far more boring stuff than that. Like, you know, what if the airport express gets

00:10:51 ◼   ► gigabit? Like, there's like all sorts of like stupid little things. I would love it if we

00:10:56 ◼   ► became like the place where people sent those tips to our show. You know, you can send Mark

00:11:02 ◼   ► Germin all like the actual stuff anybody cares about. And you can send us the stuff that

00:11:06 ◼   ► is so boring that you might not even get fired for sending it to us because it's that boring.

00:11:11 ◼   ► Well, to be fair, if anyone is going to really get off on some sort of boring, god-awful,

00:11:16 ◼   ► ridiculous tip, it's probably the three of us.

00:11:18 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's a fair point.

00:11:20 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:11:21 ◼   ► - So play to your audience, Tipsters.

00:11:23 ◼   ► - Our first sponsor this week is Casper.

00:11:26 ◼   ► Casper is an online retailer of premium mattresses

00:11:29 ◼   ► for a fraction of the price.

00:11:31 ◼   ► When I've gone to buy a mattress,

00:11:32 ◼   ► and I've done that a few times now,

00:11:33 ◼   ► 'cause we have a house, so we had to furnish a guest room

00:11:36 ◼   ► and all sorts of stuff, so I buy mattresses

00:11:38 ◼   ► maybe every 10 years for some reason or five years,

00:11:41 ◼   ► and every time, it's like a high-pressure salesman,

00:11:45 ◼   ► just like a car dealership. It's hilarious like how high pressure they are and kind of

00:11:50 ◼   ► you know wheeling and dealing and you know you always feel like you're overpaying because

00:11:53 ◼   ► the prices are like extremely flexible and oh well we can't discount this but we can

00:11:58 ◼   ► throw in a free pillow or something like there's all this like wheeling and dealing you have

00:12:01 ◼   ► to do to negotiate the various things and it's just a it's a crappy experience from

00:12:06 ◼   ► everybody's point of view and that's not even to mention the actual trying of the mattresses

00:12:09 ◼   ► which is you lie on this plastic covered mattress in a store for a few seconds and like okay

00:12:14 ◼   ► It's soft I guess.

00:12:16 ◼   ► You go along the next one, this is soft too I guess.

00:12:20 ◼   ► Do I want pillow topping?

00:12:22 ◼   ► Do I want it to be tall pillow topping?

00:12:25 ◼   ► It's so hard to know and to choose.

00:12:28 ◼   ► Casper you order it online.

00:12:30 ◼   ► And this sounds at first kind of crazy.

00:12:33 ◼   ► You can't try it.

00:12:34 ◼   ► They have a risk free trial policy.

00:12:36 ◼   ► You can try it in your home for up to 100 days.

00:12:40 ◼   ► And if you don't like it after that, that's more than 3 months.

00:12:41 ◼   ► If you don't like it after more than three months, you can call them and they will arrange

00:12:45 ◼   ► to have it picked up and give you a refund.

00:12:47 ◼   ► It's that easy.

00:12:48 ◼   ► Now, Casper mattresses, they're pretty sure you're going to like them because they provide

00:12:52 ◼   ► resilience, long-lasting support of comfort.

00:12:54 ◼   ► It's one of a kind because what they did was, you know, memory foam by itself, pure memory

00:12:59 ◼   ► foam is polarizing.

00:13:00 ◼   ► A lot of people think it's like too hot or not bouncy enough or whatever.

00:13:04 ◼   ► And you know, pure other foams and pure springs can also be, you know, there's like pluses

00:13:09 ◼   ► and minuses.

00:13:10 ◼   ► done. They have a hybrid approach that combines the best.

00:13:13 ◼   ► It combines premium latex foam with memory foam to really

00:13:17 ◼   ► give you the best of both worlds. So they call it just

00:13:20 ◼   ► the right sink, just the right bounce. So you have a lot of

00:13:23 ◼   ► the same benefits of pure memory foam, but without like

00:13:26 ◼   ► that hotness that you get from it sometimes, you know, and all

00:13:29 ◼   ► this stuff, this is all made in America. So I've heard from a

00:13:34 ◼   ► rumor mill that John Siracusa has a Casper. Is that true,

00:13:37 ◼   ► Yeah, I didn't get one when we had our code, so I had to wait around until we had another

00:13:41 ◼   ► code to buy it with, and I did.

00:13:44 ◼   ► And I just have one tidbit to add.

00:13:46 ◼   ► We all talked about the little box that it comes in and how it expands and all that cool

00:13:49 ◼   ► stuff.

00:13:50 ◼   ► The box they send it in has a label on top of it that says different sizes, like twin,

00:13:55 ◼   ► queen, king, whatever it is, right?

00:13:58 ◼   ► And like with checkboxes, and you know, we got a small one, so whatever it was, it was

00:14:02 ◼   ► twin, twin was checked off, right?

00:14:04 ◼   ► My question is, if you get a king size one, does it come in that same box and they just

00:14:09 ◼   ► check off king?

00:14:11 ◼   ► Because that would be even cooler.

00:14:12 ◼   ► Because mine, it's a twin size bed, and it's a small box, you think, wow, I can't imagine

00:14:15 ◼   ► twin size bed in there.

00:14:16 ◼   ► And you open it up, you follow the instructions, they give you like a little letter opener

00:14:19 ◼   ► tool to open the thing, and it expands and it's really cool.

00:14:22 ◼   ► But all I can think about is how much cooler it would be is if in that same box they sent

00:14:25 ◼   ► you a king size one, and how much that would expand, and how much that would be compressed.

00:14:30 ◼   ► Anyway, it's exciting, unfortunately.

00:14:32 ◼   ► You only get to do it once, and then it's inflated.

00:14:34 ◼   ► And then it just becomes a really nice bed. And I was impressed. It's really nice. I don't like,

00:14:37 ◼   ► I don't typically like memory foam mattresses because I feel like they, they like grip me too

00:14:42 ◼   ► much. This one does not do that. So if you've tried pure memory foam mattresses and don't like them,

00:14:46 ◼   ► this mattress is not like that. It's a nice kind of like hybrid between.

00:14:49 ◼   ► Yep, I agree. So all this is available at shockingly reasonable prices. So normally,

00:14:55 ◼   ► you know, a good mattress, usually if you want something high quality, it's going to last like

00:14:59 ◼   ► a decade or more and be good the whole time. You're usually paying like 1500, 2000 bucks for

00:15:04 ◼   ► something like that Casper mattresses cost between five

00:15:07 ◼   ► hundred dollars for a twin all the way up to nine fifty for a

00:15:11 ◼   ► king now come on I mean that's ridiculously cheap nine fifty

00:15:14 ◼   ► for a premium quality king size mattress and that it's delivered

00:15:18 ◼   ► to your house I mean that's crazy talk they also if you go

00:15:21 ◼   ► to casper dot com slash ATP and use code ATP at checkout you

00:15:26 ◼   ► also get fifty bucks off so that way you can have a king for

00:15:28 ◼   ► nine hundred you can have a queen for eight hundred full

00:15:32 ◼   ► size for $700. I mean, these are incredibly good prices for high quality mattresses. So

00:15:37 ◼   ► check it out. Casper.com/ATP. Thanks a lot once again to Casper. You really should check

00:15:43 ◼   ► these out. It's an incredible deal. Free trial for 100 days, made in America. Just the right

00:15:47 ◼   ► sync, just the right bounce. Thanks a lot to Casper.

00:15:50 ◼   ► So we should talk about the Apple event for Monday. And I don't know how you guys want

00:15:55 ◼   ► to go through this. I don't know if you want to do it in chronological order, which would

00:15:59 ◼   ► require one of us remembering what the order of the events were.

00:16:02 ◼   ► Who cares? New MacBook.

00:16:04 ◼   ► Alright, new MacBook. So, what do we think?

00:16:07 ◼   ► John, you're the least likely one of us to buy one.

00:16:09 ◼   ► [laughter]

00:16:11 ◼   ► I don't know if I'm the least likely. Casey's probably the least likely.

00:16:14 ◼   ► Why do you say that?

00:16:15 ◼   ► You've got the oldest Mac, and the one most in need of replacement, right?

00:16:19 ◼   ► I love that we're arguing about this.

00:16:21 ◼   ► Well, I probably do need to replace my personal Mac,

00:16:25 ◼   ► and I know that I'm getting a new work Mac because it's been three years now,

00:16:28 ◼   ► and that's apparently the cycle we're on.

00:16:31 ◼   ► But no, I don't suspect that I'm going to be buying a new MacBook.

00:16:37 ◼   ► Sitting here now today, I use USB often enough that I would want to have at least one if

00:16:46 ◼   ► not a couple of ports.

00:16:48 ◼   ► That being said, I only ever really use one USB port at a time.

00:16:53 ◼   ► So there's really no reason why I couldn't get one of these absurd $80 adapters or the

00:16:57 ◼   ► phantom hub that doesn't exist that will exist that may not exist that our tipster talked

00:17:01 ◼   ► about which would provide you with two USB right exactly in theory that would be enough

00:17:07 ◼   ► but I don't know I just I think if nothing else I'd want something with a little more

00:17:14 ◼   ► horsepower I know a lot of people have been lamenting that apparently the the performance

00:17:19 ◼   ► characteristics are roughly on par with a 2012 MacBook Air which what with it being

00:17:24 ◼   ► 2015, that's a little bit on the old side. And as I'm one to buy computers every three to four years,

00:17:32 ◼   ► usually, I would want a computer that's basically more than I would ever need today,

00:17:38 ◼   ► so that in three or four years, it's exactly what I need.

00:17:43 ◼   ► **Matt Stauffer** Yeah, that's what I was saying, that I'm not the least likely to get one. You

00:17:46 ◼   ► probably are. Whereas I have an old MacBook Air and I can replace it with this new one. And if it

00:17:51 ◼   ► If it only just eliminated the scream of the fan as my kids play Minecraft incessantly

00:17:55 ◼   ► on it, it would be an upgrade.

00:17:57 ◼   ► It does.

00:17:58 ◼   ► It has no fan.

00:17:59 ◼   ► Exactly.

00:18:00 ◼   ► But anyway, the thing about this laptop, first of all, the Germin rumor was 100% right.

00:18:05 ◼   ► This is what they mocked up.

00:18:06 ◼   ► I don't think they got anything wrong.

00:18:08 ◼   ► Trackpad doesn't move.

00:18:09 ◼   ► It's got one port on the other side of his headphones.

00:18:11 ◼   ► The keyboard was laid out just like they said it was.

00:18:13 ◼   ► It's retina, like 100% on the nose.

00:18:15 ◼   ► And I have to think that it would have been a cooler keynote if we didn't know all that.

00:18:20 ◼   ► Don't you think it would have been more exciting?

00:18:22 ◼   ► It's the same thing.

00:18:23 ◼   ► Like, you know, we got spoiled.

00:18:24 ◼   ► And it's not like Star Wars where

00:18:25 ◼   ► you have a fighting chance.

00:18:26 ◼   ► I've been trying to avoid Star Wars Episode VII spoilers.

00:18:29 ◼   ► And just by not going to movie sites,

00:18:30 ◼   ► and like, you can pretty much do that.

00:18:32 ◼   ► But--

00:18:32 ◼   ► I was going to say, I've had zero spoilers from Star Wars

00:18:35 ◼   ► because I don't care.

00:18:36 ◼   ► Right, but I mean, I get--

00:18:37 ◼   ► if I had--

00:18:38 ◼   ► I don't think it would have been possible for me to avoid this.

00:18:41 ◼   ► You know?

00:18:42 ◼   ► It's just tweeted at me too much.

00:18:44 ◼   ► Like, you know, I don't mind.

00:18:46 ◼   ► I wasn't trying to avoid it.

00:18:46 ◼   ► I went to it.

00:18:47 ◼   ► But it does take away from the event

00:18:49 ◼   ► and the glamour of the event.

00:18:51 ◼   ► But this is exactly what they said it was going to be.

00:18:53 ◼   ► We talked about this at length, about if it

00:18:55 ◼   ► does come with one port, why would it only have one port?

00:18:59 ◼   ► What do I get with one port that I don't get with two ports?

00:19:02 ◼   ► And we speculated a lot about it.

00:19:04 ◼   ► As it turns out, Apple felt no reason

00:19:07 ◼   ► to try to justify the decision to have one port.

00:19:10 ◼   ► They barely even emphasized the fact that it has one port.

00:19:13 ◼   ► They talked all about the attributes of the port,

00:19:15 ◼   ► which we talked about as well.

00:19:16 ◼   ► you know, the USB 3 and with the Type-C connector that can be reversible, which we all like,

00:19:21 ◼   ► and you can put display over it. You know, we talked about all this stuff before, that was all there,

00:19:25 ◼   ► but they did not even... they didn't even... they weren't defensive at all about the fact that there was one of them.

00:19:30 ◼   ► They didn't even emphasize it that there was one of them. Like, if you weren't paying attention,

00:19:34 ◼   ► you would just assume... might assume there was one on the other side.

00:19:36 ◼   ► They didn't emphasize the fact that they took away MagSafe. They didn't say anything about,

00:19:42 ◼   ► you know magsafe was great but it's just too big to fit on the like they didn't

00:19:45 ◼   ► they didn't give a reason or an explanation or talk about magsafe at all

00:19:49 ◼   ► like it was just this is the thing they didn't even say how the thing would be

00:19:54 ◼   ► charged obviously through the one port but they didn't they didn't emphasize

00:19:57 ◼   ► that they didn't they didn't show it being plugged in they didn't show the

00:20:01 ◼   ► power adapter as far as i can recall they certainly didn't they didn't show

00:20:05 ◼   ► you plugging that adapter into it like as far as apple's presentation and

00:20:09 ◼   ► marketing materials are concerned, this is a disembodied notebook that never needs to

00:20:13 ◼   ► be connected to anything.

00:20:14 ◼   ► We all know it plugs into charge, but all the things that we talked about, if this product

00:20:19 ◼   ► had not leaked and we hadn't talked about it amongst ourselves for a long time, I think

00:20:25 ◼   ► we would have watched an introvert video and said, "Wait a second, how do you power it?"

00:20:30 ◼   ► Because they did not emphasize the things that are different about this notebook in

00:20:35 ◼   ► terms of how it's powered, how many ports it has or anything like that.

00:20:38 ◼   ► All they did was talk about the benefits of USB Type-C with no discussion of the drawbacks,

00:20:43 ◼   ► which I thought was interesting because in the jobs era, very frequently they felt the

00:20:47 ◼   ► need to be preemptively defensive about large changes.

00:20:53 ◼   ► Even when they took away the floppy drive or anything, there'd be some kind of statement

00:20:56 ◼   ► about you think you need it but you don't, trust us, none of that here.

00:20:59 ◼   ► It was just like, this is what it is.

00:21:02 ◼   ► It's the new MacBook.

00:21:03 ◼   ► Yeah, I have a couple more thoughts when you guys asked you know what I buy one of these the chat room got particularly

00:21:10 ◼   ► Grumbly because they said oh this isn't the computer for me. Well. Yes, I know that but

00:21:15 ◼   ► The whole point of this little thought exercise was would I buy one or would it serve my needs just yes or no

00:21:22 ◼   ► And I don't think the answer. I think the answer is no additionally

00:21:25 ◼   ► You know people in the chat are saying well CPU performance isn't the issue I wouldn't be so sure

00:21:31 ◼   ► Obviously if you were if you were compiling large projects, then that could be CPU bound

00:21:36 ◼   ► Although not necessarily but either way especially for work specifically less so for home, but for work

00:21:41 ◼   ► when you're living in a VM all day any

00:21:45 ◼   ► extra bit of CPU power certainly helpful and

00:21:48 ◼   ► Furthermore probably the biggest issue I have with this machine is that 8 gigs of RAM?

00:21:53 ◼   ► I don't think is sufficient for the sorts of things that I do on a regular basis, especially at work

00:21:59 ◼   ► especially running a Windows VM all the time.

00:22:01 ◼   ► And there's no way to get more

00:22:03 ◼   ► because there's no build to order option.

00:22:05 ◼   ► So no matter how you slice it,

00:22:06 ◼   ► I don't really think this is for me.

00:22:07 ◼   ► Additionally, if you've ever transcoded in Handbrake,

00:22:11 ◼   ► you're obviously going to want something

00:22:13 ◼   ► that has a little bit more CPU performance

00:22:14 ◼   ► than a 2012 MacBook Air.

00:22:16 ◼   ► Not that I do that every day,

00:22:17 ◼   ► but I do it often enough that I'm going to want

00:22:20 ◼   ► to have more CPU performance.

00:22:21 ◼   ► Do I need it?

00:22:22 ◼   ► Maybe not, but I want to.

00:22:24 ◼   ► - Right, I mean, I think you can look at this machine

00:22:26 ◼   ► And very obviously, you can know,

00:22:30 ◼   ► if you're listening to this show,

00:22:32 ◼   ► the chances are this is not gonna be your main machine.

00:22:35 ◼   ► Like anyone listening to this show,

00:22:36 ◼   ► if you're enough into computers,

00:22:38 ◼   ► if there's a good chance a lot of our listeners

00:22:41 ◼   ► are developers, anyone listening to this show,

00:22:44 ◼   ► this is probably not your main machine, period.

00:22:46 ◼   ► Like that's it.

00:22:47 ◼   ► This machine is for a lot of the same reasons

00:22:51 ◼   ► people bought 11 inch MacBook Air so far.

00:22:53 ◼   ► And the 11 inch MacBook Air was actually,

00:22:55 ◼   ► in some ways more capable because it had like, you know,

00:22:58 ◼   ► full thunderbolt expansion and everything and more,

00:23:00 ◼   ► you know, more ports.

00:23:01 ◼   ► But for the most part, it had similar issues

00:23:03 ◼   ► and similar limitations.

00:23:05 ◼   ► People buy 11 inch air mostly because either they're

00:23:09 ◼   ► carrying it a lot every day, like on their shoulder

00:23:11 ◼   ► or on their back and they really need like the smallest

00:23:13 ◼   ► weight possible and/or they fly a lot,

00:23:16 ◼   ► especially if they're flying coach,

00:23:18 ◼   ► where the tray tables are so small

00:23:19 ◼   ► and if the person ahead of you like leans back an inch,

00:23:23 ◼   ► which everybody sitting in front of me always does the

00:23:26 ◼   ► second the plane is like the second the wheels are off the

00:23:28 ◼   ► ground boom the seats in your face and if that's the case and

00:23:32 ◼   ► if you want to work on a plane pretty much the only laptop you

00:23:35 ◼   ► can really get is the elevenings like the thirteens

00:23:37 ◼   ► even have trouble the fifteens. I know because I

00:23:40 ◼   ► usually have a fifteen. There's pretty much no hope of using a

00:23:43 ◼   ► fifteen on a on a coach tray table. So if you are if you're

00:23:49 ◼   ► flying a lot or if if the weight if the carry weight is

00:23:52 ◼   ► extremely important to you, then this is a really good machine as a travel machine or

00:23:58 ◼   ► as a portable machine. If you're going to be doing coding work on it though, then it's

00:24:04 ◼   ► really probably not for you because coding, you have a number of issues. For me the biggest

00:24:11 ◼   ► issue is actually not the CPU speed, it's the screen space. It has a scaling mode that

00:24:17 ◼   ► to go up to 1440 wide simulated, which is the native res of the 15, but all the 15 goes

00:24:25 ◼   ► higher and I use it higher. But it has a scale that goes up to that. I don't know how useful

00:24:30 ◼   ► that'll be. I mean, the 15 can scale up to 1920 wide, but it's too tiny for me to use

00:24:35 ◼   ► comfortably. And I have 20/20 vision so far. I mean, not for long probably, but right now

00:24:40 ◼   ► I still have good vision and I can't use it at that size.

00:24:43 ◼   ► People asked about that in Twitter. Someone asked, "Do you think you could do development

00:24:47 ◼   ► And what I said is, yeah, probably.

00:24:51 ◼   ► The answer to the question wasn't whether Marco

00:24:53 ◼   ► could do development on it.

00:24:54 ◼   ► Like, can one do development on this?

00:24:56 ◼   ► And I think that the CPU, the RAM, the screen space,

00:25:00 ◼   ► everything about it is sufficient to develop

00:25:04 ◼   ► an iOS or a Mac app.

00:25:06 ◼   ► If you don't know any better, and if you don't know

00:25:08 ◼   ► how much faster it is on a faster Mac, it's fine.

00:25:11 ◼   ► Like, it will get the job done.

00:25:12 ◼   ► You'll wait longer for compiles.

00:25:14 ◼   ► Your Windows will be more compressed.

00:25:16 ◼   ► You won't be able to have the kind of layouts

00:25:18 ◼   ► that you may be accustomed to, but you will be able to do it.

00:25:21 ◼   ► This is as opposed to like, is this a good machine

00:25:24 ◼   ► for doing web development where you

00:25:26 ◼   ► have to have five Windows VMs running all the time?

00:25:28 ◼   ► No, it is not.

00:25:30 ◼   ► Because that is like-- that's a capability thing.

00:25:33 ◼   ► It's just a no-go.

00:25:34 ◼   ► And by the way, someone--

00:25:35 ◼   ► JohnL2112-- Rushfan, I guess-- in the chat

00:25:40 ◼   ► says, "SSD swap makes RAM limits less important."

00:25:43 ◼   ► I'm sure that there are people at Apple that think that,

00:25:45 ◼   ► but they are not thinking clearly or are not engineers.

00:25:48 ◼   ► Because yes, technically it makes it less important

00:25:53 ◼   ► than it was, but it is still super duper important.

00:25:56 ◼   ► The difference in speed between disk and SSD is huge.

00:26:00 ◼   ► The difference in speed between RAM and SSD

00:26:03 ◼   ► also still remains huge.

00:26:06 ◼   ► So having only 8 gigs of RAM, don't assume,

00:26:09 ◼   ► well, it's 8 gigs of RAM, but it's all SSD,

00:26:12 ◼   ► and the SSDs are really fast, so it's not so bad.

00:26:16 ◼   ► You cannot run five Windows 7 VMs for different versions

00:26:21 ◼   ► of IE all at the same time in this and not suffer.

00:26:24 ◼   ► - Yeah. - Right?

00:26:24 ◼   ► It's just not going to happen for you, right?

00:26:27 ◼   ► So I think you can do iOS development.

00:26:29 ◼   ► You can't do anything that really, really, really needs

00:26:32 ◼   ► more than eight gigs.

00:26:33 ◼   ► I just picked VMs 'cause that's something

00:26:34 ◼   ► from my work life where I'm constantly running

00:26:36 ◼   ► tons of VMs and no matter how small you make 'em,

00:26:39 ◼   ► they can tend to be very big.

00:26:42 ◼   ► and disk space similar.

00:26:43 ◼   ► Like, you try to keep the VM small,

00:26:45 ◼   ► but as they proliferate, they start to fill up your disk

00:26:48 ◼   ► and you realize you're spending half your disk

00:26:49 ◼   ► on stupid Windows VMs.

00:26:51 ◼   ► And if you put them on external disks,

00:26:52 ◼   ► where are you gonna plug the external disk in?

00:26:53 ◼   ► Now you gotta dongle, blah, blah, blah.

00:26:55 ◼   ► So it's not a great machine for development,

00:26:58 ◼   ► but you can get it done.

00:26:59 ◼   ► And I really think that there are a lot of people who,

00:27:02 ◼   ► like I bet a lot of the most amazing apps

00:27:05 ◼   ► that we all use were developed,

00:27:07 ◼   ► especially if it's like a developer's first app,

00:27:08 ◼   ► were developed on Macs that we would all consider

00:27:10 ◼   ► like insufficient to do development.

00:27:12 ◼   ► Oh, I need a really fancy fast computer.

00:27:14 ◼   ► It's like, yeah, you really want

00:27:16 ◼   ► a really fancy fast computer,

00:27:17 ◼   ► but sometimes you just gotta make do with what you have

00:27:20 ◼   ► and you can actually get it done.

00:27:21 ◼   ► You will just wait longer for compiles

00:27:23 ◼   ► and go make yourself coffee, you know?

00:27:24 ◼   ► - Right, and also, I mean, you know,

00:27:26 ◼   ► keep in mind that things do move forward.

00:27:28 ◼   ► Like Xcode now running on hardware from seven years ago

00:27:33 ◼   ► is not gonna be as good as Xcode seven years ago

00:27:35 ◼   ► was running on that hardware.

00:27:36 ◼   ► You know, like Xcode has gotten bigger

00:27:38 ◼   ► and the compiler has gotten bigger if you use any Swift.

00:27:42 ◼   ► Swift is much slower to compile than Objective-C so far.

00:27:45 ◼   ► And I don't know if they fixed that entirely

00:27:47 ◼   ► with the incremental compilation.

00:27:48 ◼   ► Anyway, it at least was.

00:27:50 ◼   ► The simulators are larger.

00:27:52 ◼   ► Like they need more screen space

00:27:54 ◼   ► to show an accurate simulator

00:27:56 ◼   ► because the iOS devices have gotten larger.

00:27:58 ◼   ► And now you have possibly the watch simulator

00:28:02 ◼   ► next to the iOS simulator.

00:28:04 ◼   ► And so you have all these windows that have to be open.

00:28:07 ◼   ► God help you if you want a documentation window also.

00:28:09 ◼   ► I mean, you have the organizer,

00:28:11 ◼   ► and you're submitting things to iTunes Connect.

00:28:13 ◼   ► I mean, there's a lot of screen space needs

00:28:17 ◼   ► when you're doing modern iOS development,

00:28:19 ◼   ► and they keep increasing as the hardware gets bigger,

00:28:22 ◼   ► and the simulators get bigger,

00:28:23 ◼   ► and you have more things you need to do.

00:28:25 ◼   ► So, again, you're right, Jon.

00:28:27 ◼   ► If you want to do development,

00:28:28 ◼   ► whenever you say, oh, well, this kind of computer

00:28:32 ◼   ► is not suitable for development,

00:28:33 ◼   ► you'll instantly get tons of replies from people saying,

00:28:35 ◼   ► I have one of those and I develop on it just fine.

00:28:38 ◼   ► Yes, you can do it, but it's all,

00:28:42 ◼   ► you can do it, but it's a lot nicer

00:28:44 ◼   ► if you have more screen space, more RAM, and a faster CPU.

00:28:48 ◼   ► - And it's best not to know how much faster things are

00:28:50 ◼   ► on a faster computer, because once you know,

00:28:53 ◼   ► and then you go back to the other one,

00:28:54 ◼   ► you're like, oh, I can't do this.

00:28:56 ◼   ► Whereas if you just don't know,

00:28:57 ◼   ► I know a lot of people back in the day,

00:28:59 ◼   ► they got their very first Mac,

00:29:00 ◼   ► and whatever they were doing was it,

00:29:02 ◼   ► they were just super happy, 'cause it's like,

00:29:03 ◼   ► wow, I really like it, it's shiny,

00:29:05 ◼   ► It's neat, it can do something,

00:29:06 ◼   ► I can do something with it I couldn't do before.

00:29:09 ◼   ► And they have no other Mac to compare it to speed wise.

00:29:12 ◼   ► Like they're doing an all new thing.

00:29:13 ◼   ► Like how do they compare how long it takes

00:29:15 ◼   ► to make a DVD and iDVD if they've never made a DVD before.

00:29:18 ◼   ► And little do they know that that same task

00:29:21 ◼   ► of like making the DVD at the end

00:29:23 ◼   ► could be like five X faster on a big fancy Mac.

00:29:26 ◼   ► It's like, oh, you can't use that to make DVDs.

00:29:27 ◼   ► They don't know, they can't let,

00:29:29 ◼   ► as far as they're concerned,

00:29:30 ◼   ► this is just how long it takes.

00:29:31 ◼   ► So if you've never built an iOS app

00:29:33 ◼   ► and you click build and run

00:29:35 ◼   ► and it takes a certain amount of time,

00:29:36 ◼   ► you're just like, I guess that's the amount of time it takes

00:29:38 ◼   ► and honestly, it probably takes way longer

00:29:40 ◼   ► than you would think it would ever take on any computer.

00:29:41 ◼   ► 'Cause if you've never compiled anything before,

00:29:44 ◼   ► like wow, I guess compiling takes a long time.

00:29:46 ◼   ► But whatever time your first Mac takes,

00:29:48 ◼   ► you're like, all right.

00:29:49 ◼   ► And this is like a 2012 MacBook Air,

00:29:53 ◼   ► which is not particularly fast to begin with,

00:29:55 ◼   ► but just people just deal with it.

00:29:57 ◼   ► - Right, I mean, like I've mentioned before,

00:30:00 ◼   ► I had one of the very first generation

00:30:02 ◼   ► base model MacBook Airs in 2008.

00:30:04 ◼   ► and that was the 1.6 gigahertz really, really slow processor

00:30:08 ◼   ► that would overheat for a lot of people.

00:30:10 ◼   ► I had that.

00:30:11 ◼   ► I developed Instapaper partly on that.

00:30:13 ◼   ► When I was on the train going to and from Tumblr,

00:30:15 ◼   ► I would be working on Instapaper in Xcode

00:30:17 ◼   ► on that MacBook Air, the first gen that everybody hated.

00:30:20 ◼   ► I did it.

00:30:21 ◼   ► It sucked, but I did it, and I knew it sucked

00:30:24 ◼   ► 'cause I was going home to the computer

00:30:26 ◼   ► that Jon is still using today.

00:30:28 ◼   ► I was going home to that awesome Mac Pro, so I knew.

00:30:31 ◼   ► But mainly the issue that I've always had

00:30:34 ◼   ► with doing development work on laptops,

00:30:35 ◼   ► it's always screen space first.

00:30:37 ◼   ► Performance is inconvenient when it's really bad,

00:30:40 ◼   ► like the MacBook Air, but for the most part,

00:30:43 ◼   ► screen space is always my limiting factor.

00:30:45 ◼   ► And so from that point of view, look, this machine,

00:30:48 ◼   ► if you're worried about screen space,

00:30:52 ◼   ► if you're worried about performance,

00:30:53 ◼   ► and if you're worried about the number of ports,

00:30:55 ◼   ► this is not the machine for you, period.

00:30:57 ◼   ► That's it.

00:30:58 ◼   ► You can get it if you really want it,

00:31:00 ◼   ► 'cause it's really sexy and light, you can get it,

00:31:02 ◼   ► but it's not the best choice for you. I would say, you know,

00:31:05 ◼   ► a lot of people have not really given this a lot of a lot of

00:31:09 ◼   ► credit, but the the update to the thirteen inch retina MacBook

00:31:13 ◼   ► Pro at the same time, which is already available. People

00:31:16 ◼   ► already disassembled it. The update to that, I think, is is

00:31:20 ◼   ► really interesting as well because, you know, it is not

00:31:23 ◼   ► like a noteworthy computer. It is not like they don't they

00:31:26 ◼   ► don't replace that and everyone goes who it's so it's so great.

00:31:29 ◼   ► I want I want to buy one of those immediately like no one

00:31:31 ◼   ► on CNN is talking about the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro.

00:31:34 ◼   ► - I was excited about it.

00:31:35 ◼   ► I've always thought that it's been a great machine.

00:31:36 ◼   ► Like, just a great compromise between, you know,

00:31:39 ◼   ► it's gotten so thin over the years.

00:31:41 ◼   ► Once the 13 started to get as thin as,

00:31:43 ◼   ► almost as thin as an Air, and then the fact

00:31:45 ◼   ► that they gave it the new track pad

00:31:46 ◼   ► and the screen has always been good.

00:31:47 ◼   ► I've always said that that's a great machine,

00:31:49 ◼   ► but you're right, it's not, it doesn't make headlines.

00:31:51 ◼   ► - Right, but it is like the middle of the line.

00:31:54 ◼   ► Like, to me, there's three MacBooks worth getting, really.

00:31:56 ◼   ► Like, these days.

00:31:57 ◼   ► I used to say the 13-inch Retina,

00:31:59 ◼   ► I mean the 13 inch Air was like the default one to get.

00:32:02 ◼   ► These days I'm not so sure.

00:32:04 ◼   ► I think I would say 13 inch Retina.

00:32:06 ◼   ► It would be like the default one,

00:32:08 ◼   ► like if you don't have any specific needs,

00:32:09 ◼   ► you just kind of general purpose all things,

00:32:12 ◼   ► okay, get 13 inch Retina.

00:32:13 ◼   ► - I would say the 13 inch Retina or this one,

00:32:16 ◼   ► depending on who's buying it.

00:32:18 ◼   ► - Well, maybe, okay.

00:32:19 ◼   ► But so this one, like, this one I think,

00:32:22 ◼   ► as I said, I think this one directly replaces

00:32:24 ◼   ► the 11 inch MacBook Air, and I think the 13 inch Retina

00:32:28 ◼   ► Kind of already replaced the 13 inch MacBook Air and then the 15 inch retina

00:32:32 ◼   ► You know, that's I think those are the three laptops that are worth getting this new one for those super portable

00:32:37 ◼   ► 13 inch retina for normal 15 inch retina for Pro

00:32:40 ◼   ► That's like if you have if you need the the pro things which is the more screen space the more horsepower then

00:32:46 ◼   ► You know the some different ports, but for the most part you're talking about screen space and horsepower

00:32:49 ◼   ► I did say last time I was thinking about buying one of these things now. I'm not so what changed you I started thinking about

00:32:57 ◼   ► when I actually use my laptop. And what I had said last time was I find that I'm not frequently

00:33:05 ◼   ► getting coding work done every year or whenever I go on trips. I'm not getting coding work done

00:33:11 ◼   ► as much as I want to and therefore I can go with a smaller screen space. I started thinking,

00:33:16 ◼   ► you know, the times I do go on trips where I do need to get significant work done,

00:33:21 ◼   ► like one of the biggest ones is WWDC every year, where I often need to do coding work

00:33:27 ◼   ► for labs and stuff, or installing new betas and testing stuff. And in the last few years,

00:33:33 ◼   ► I've edited this show. And so I have like podcast editing, which I love having tons

00:33:38 ◼   ► of screen space for, because Logic is a massive screen space hog. So I have podcast editing,

00:33:42 ◼   ► and I have Xcode on this one trip I take every year. And I don't take that many trips. And

00:33:48 ◼   ► This is one where if I had the small screen,

00:33:51 ◼   ► I could do those things on it,

00:33:53 ◼   ► but I would really regret not having the 15

00:33:56 ◼   ► during those times.

00:33:58 ◼   ► I'm going to wait until Broadwell come to the 15 inch

00:34:01 ◼   ► and probably just buy one of those

00:34:02 ◼   ► because it would kill me if I spent those trips

00:34:07 ◼   ► in the next few years using this tiny little screen

00:34:09 ◼   ► and just kicking myself saying,

00:34:10 ◼   ► "Man, I wish I would've just gotten the 15

00:34:12 ◼   ► "because when I'm doing these few important things,

00:34:15 ◼   ► "I really, really need it."

00:34:17 ◼   ► What I would like to know is who is this computer for?

00:34:20 ◼   ► What is the target audience for this computer and I'm thinking about it, and I'm thinking well, why would I buy?

00:34:27 ◼   ► This who would I buy it for and why would I buy it?

00:34:31 ◼   ► the first person that comes to mind of course is Erin and I

00:34:35 ◼   ► Got her a MacBook Air or for her birthday last year, so

00:34:43 ◼   ► Then I thought to myself, okay. Well, what would stop her from using this would the CPU performance?

00:34:48 ◼   ► Absolutely not would the disk space absolutely not she stores nothing on her computer

00:34:52 ◼   ► but what she does have

00:34:55 ◼   ► Hanging off of her MacBook Air is a couple of Fitbit adapters one to charge with and one that is like the general communication

00:35:03 ◼   ► little

00:35:05 ◼   ► Nubbin thing that's a technical term

00:35:07 ◼   ► and obviously

00:35:10 ◼   ► She could charge the Fitbit by way of say an iPhone charger or something like that

00:35:15 ◼   ► But if she wanted the Fitbit to communicate with her computer or not with her phone, which I believe is an option as well

00:35:22 ◼   ► I don't have a Fitbit. So I'm talking a little bit out of my comfort zone

00:35:25 ◼   ► She would still need at least one

00:35:28 ◼   ► traditional

00:35:30 ◼   ► USB port and

00:35:32 ◼   ► That would require one of these ridiculous $80

00:35:35 ◼   ► $80 dongles and

00:35:39 ◼   ► That's kind of unfortunate, but if it wasn't for her Fitbit say hypothetically if she had an Apple watch

00:35:45 ◼   ► She would pretty much never plug in any

00:35:48 ◼   ► USB device for any reason whatsoever

00:35:52 ◼   ► Now the other obvious thought I had was well, what about students and people in the chat are saying that as well

00:35:57 ◼   ► well, that makes sense too and granted I haven't been student in over a decade but

00:36:04 ◼   ► Last time I was anywhere near students USB drives

00:36:08 ◼   ► You know thumb drives whatever you would like to call them. We're a big thing and people were using them a lot now

00:36:14 ◼   ► That doesn't mean that'll continue tomorrow. It doesn't mean that it'll be that way forever, but today

00:36:20 ◼   ► Not being able to use a thumb drive without a freaking $80 adapter. That's

00:36:25 ◼   ► kind of crummy, so

00:36:28 ◼   ► You know who is this for is it for these quote-unquote business people at my job?

00:36:33 ◼   ► You know the project managers and and the other business consultants, maybe

00:36:37 ◼   ► but again, I mean thumb drives are a thing and

00:36:40 ◼   ► I'm I don't see that going away soon. So who is this machine really for? Well again, I think it's

00:36:49 ◼   ► People who fly a lot in coach, you know or or who fly a lot anywhere

00:36:53 ◼   ► But it's it's it's mostly valuable compared to the other laptops in coach

00:36:56 ◼   ► So people who fly a lot in coach and also if you're carrying it around so like if you're the kind of person who?

00:37:02 ◼   ► Walks around your office all day going in and out of meetings in and out of conference rooms

00:37:07 ◼   ► And you're constantly carrying a laptop with you during that time to take notes on or check email or whatever people do in meetings

00:37:12 ◼   ► I really have no idea

00:37:14 ◼   ► It's like that is what this is for. This is not for

00:37:18 ◼   ► Sitting on a desk being plugged in all day

00:37:21 ◼   ► I mean you can even tell like I think one of the one of the reasons why the lack of

00:37:25 ◼   ► Magsafe is less of a problem or that Apple maybe thought it was worth or it was okay to get rid of it

00:37:31 ◼   ► is because this really obviously isn't made to be used at a desk all day.

00:37:36 ◼   ► It doesn't have the connectivity or the horsepower or the screen space really to do that very well.

00:37:40 ◼   ► I think this is really, this is made to be used out and about while traveling, walking around, whatever the case may be.

00:37:47 ◼   ► And so this to me, it's like,

00:37:50 ◼   ► the reason why it charges through a USB port and not something that can be torn off is because iPads and iPhones charge that way

00:37:58 ◼   ► and this is meant to be used the same way. This is meant to be like you charge it up

00:38:03 ◼   ► at night, you plug it in when you're done at the end of the day, and when you're using

00:38:09 ◼   ► it, you're moving around somewhere. You're picking it up off a table, you're in an airplane,

00:38:13 ◼   ► whatever. It's not plugged in, just like an iPad. Whether that's going to pan out to be

00:38:18 ◼   ► useful that way, whether the battery life is going to be that good, like when a CPU

00:38:23 ◼   ► is very underpowered for the task you're asking it to do, it's going to be hitting 100% a

00:38:28 ◼   ► and it's gonna stay at 100% for longer

00:38:30 ◼   ► as it's going through those tasks.

00:38:31 ◼   ► And so the battery life might end up being really bad

00:38:34 ◼   ► if you're hitting it very hard at all.

00:38:36 ◼   ► We'll see if that's the case with this.

00:38:38 ◼   ► Modern chips are pretty good about that kind of stuff,

00:38:40 ◼   ► so it might be less of an issue.

00:38:42 ◼   ► But for the most part, I think that's probably

00:38:44 ◼   ► what Apple was at least thinking,

00:38:45 ◼   ► and it's probably what most usage will bear out.

00:38:47 ◼   ► If you're using this just like for notes

00:38:48 ◼   ► and web and email and stuff,

00:38:50 ◼   ► you're not gonna really be hitting anything that hard,

00:38:52 ◼   ► especially if you don't install Flash.

00:38:54 ◼   ► I think it's meant to be used like an iPad,

00:38:57 ◼   ► which is away from its cable all day, plugged in at night.

00:39:01 ◼   ► And time will tell whether that ends up being realistic.

00:39:04 ◼   ► - Yeah, you know, I think you're probably right.

00:39:05 ◼   ► And more real-time follow-up,

00:39:07 ◼   ► I'm getting from Robert Thomas on Twitter.

00:39:10 ◼   ► I've been a university student for six years.

00:39:12 ◼   ► I think the last time he used a thumb drive

00:39:13 ◼   ► was four years ago, so guess what, I'm old.

00:39:16 ◼   ► And who was it in the chat?

00:39:18 ◼   ► Somebody in the chat, I've lost your name, I apologize.

00:39:20 ◼   ► Dave Wood pointed out that there is a straight USB,

00:39:23 ◼   ► traditional USB adapter for only $20.

00:39:26 ◼   ► - Yeah, but then you can't power it though.

00:39:28 ◼   ► - That's true, but as you just said,

00:39:30 ◼   ► it does theoretically have all day power.

00:39:32 ◼   ► So maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree here

00:39:36 ◼   ► and it's certainly possible, but I don't know, it's just--

00:39:39 ◼   ► - Well, thumb drives are gonna come

00:39:41 ◼   ► with Type-C connectors soon enough

00:39:44 ◼   ► 'cause Type-C will rapidly replace the old USB,

00:39:46 ◼   ► I think, on basically everything.

00:39:48 ◼   ► - Yeah, in the same way HDMI is replacing VGA.

00:39:50 ◼   ► - I would say mini display board,

00:39:53 ◼   ► I mean, like on all the Macs, you know what I mean?

00:39:54 ◼   ► And anyway.

00:39:55 ◼   ► you can't have on this.

00:39:57 ◼   ► - So I wanna talk about the limitations of this device

00:39:59 ◼   ► and by talking about the limitations,

00:40:01 ◼   ► I think we'll get to the heart of who this machine is for.

00:40:06 ◼   ► And I'm gonna try to talk about the limitations

00:40:10 ◼   ► and it's usually, you shouldn't speak in a defensive way

00:40:14 ◼   ► about things I'm going to try to preempt the tweets

00:40:16 ◼   ► that I know are already being typed about this thing

00:40:20 ◼   ► based on past comments, because I keep getting people

00:40:22 ◼   ► trying to explain to me why this thing has one port

00:40:24 ◼   ► I already said that in the keynote, Apple did not feel the need to talk about why this

00:40:28 ◼   ► thing only has one port at all.

00:40:30 ◼   ► No justification for it.

00:40:34 ◼   ► The key sort of preemptive defensive point I want to get to is that I'm okay with this

00:40:41 ◼   ► thing only having USB type C. I expect the things to only have USB type C, certainly

00:40:46 ◼   ► like the errors or anything error-sized, right?

00:40:49 ◼   ► I'm okay with everything about the machine getting rid of MagSafe, getting rid of all

00:40:54 ◼   ► the other ports, not having dedicated video out, like, because this is the super thin

00:40:58 ◼   ► skinny machine.

00:40:59 ◼   ► The promise of USB-C is you don't have to have 50 different ports.

00:41:02 ◼   ► Like, it is better to just have one type of port than to have a million different ports.

00:41:07 ◼   ► I'm okay with everything about this, except I want—the only point was I wanted an explanation

00:41:13 ◼   ► of what do I get with one that I don't get with two.

00:41:15 ◼   ► A lot of people are saying there's not room for two in here.

00:41:18 ◼   ► Well, it's not as if the case is imposed on them by another manufacturer.

00:41:21 ◼   ► They choose the size of the case.

00:41:23 ◼   ► They can make any dimension of this one or two or three millimeters wider to make room

00:41:27 ◼   ► for another one.

00:41:28 ◼   ► Even within the existing case, it's possible that they could have wedged another one in

00:41:32 ◼   ► the other side and moved the headphone port or whatever, but even if they couldn't, they

00:41:35 ◼   ► make the case.

00:41:36 ◼   ► They can decide whether there should be two.

00:41:39 ◼   ► Also doesn't mean that there isn't a reason.

00:41:41 ◼   ► There isn't some advantage you get with one.

00:41:43 ◼   ► People have still suggested power things, that maybe powering two ports would cause

00:41:49 ◼   ► a problem.

00:41:50 ◼   ► Maybe the circuitry to handle two ports, like you'd want to be able to charge from both

00:41:53 ◼   ► ports, right? Maybe the circuit should be able to handle that, it makes things too big.

00:41:56 ◼   ► If you look at the inside, you look at how much they shrunk down the motherboard, there's

00:41:59 ◼   ► not a lot of room in there, right? Again, Apple chooses the size of these things, so

00:42:03 ◼   ► it's not, you know, if Apple decided they wanted to have two USB Type-C ports, they

00:42:06 ◼   ► could have. The fact that this serves as power as well, which means that you can't use this

00:42:11 ◼   ► thing to sort of charge your devices, which many people who have laptops do, like they

00:42:15 ◼   ► sit down at their desk, they plug the thing in, they charge the devices, now you need

00:42:17 ◼   ► to have a dongle for it or whatever. So, my only issue with the ports on this is that

00:42:22 ◼   ► that no one has, Apple has not given an official explanation

00:42:26 ◼   ► for why there is only one and not two, right?

00:42:28 ◼   ► And I don't see any advantage

00:42:29 ◼   ► to having only one port and not two.

00:42:31 ◼   ► I see tons of advantages for not having any other ports.

00:42:35 ◼   ► Like I understand that direction.

00:42:36 ◼   ► I understand that eventually this thing

00:42:38 ◼   ► will probably have no ports,

00:42:39 ◼   ► except for some kind of magnetic snap

00:42:41 ◼   ► on inductive charging thing when we get to that point, right?

00:42:43 ◼   ► I understand this is forward-looking.

00:42:44 ◼   ► I understand all this stuff about it.

00:42:46 ◼   ► The people are gonna tell me, you don't understand.

00:42:47 ◼   ► It's just like the original MacBook Air.

00:42:48 ◼   ► Yes, yes, totally agree 100%.

00:42:50 ◼   ► The question is, why couldn't they fit another one of these?

00:42:53 ◼   ► 'Cause they're so small, they're so tiny.

00:42:56 ◼   ► You could surely find someplace for another one

00:42:58 ◼   ► unless there's some reason that you not have one.

00:43:00 ◼   ► So right now I'm going with

00:43:02 ◼   ► that it's a philosophical statement

00:43:04 ◼   ► and that merely having one port

00:43:05 ◼   ► will look like a backwards thing in the future

00:43:08 ◼   ► if we just think of it as like a power type thing.

00:43:10 ◼   ► In fact, the thing that's gonna look the oldest in this

00:43:12 ◼   ► is a stupid headphone port,

00:43:13 ◼   ► which we don't seem to be able to get rid of

00:43:14 ◼   ► because that is the most like old school archaic,

00:43:17 ◼   ► you know, round, like soon it will be the biggest port.

00:43:20 ◼   ► It's already the widest port, I think.

00:43:22 ◼   ► I mean, like, the highest port, you know what I mean?

00:43:25 ◼   ► I think it's higher than USB Type-C, but it's not as wide or whatever.

00:43:29 ◼   ► Anyway, my complaint about it having one of these still stands, mostly because I don't

00:43:34 ◼   ► see what you would have lost by putting another single USB Type-C port somewhere else on the

00:43:40 ◼   ► machine on the other side or something.

00:43:41 ◼   ► So that's one limitation, we can put that one aside.

00:43:44 ◼   ► Second limitation, key travel.

00:43:45 ◼   ► Marco already talked about it, they showed it in the video, they tried to spin it as

00:43:48 ◼   ► a positive.

00:43:50 ◼   ► at this cool switch mechanism, the keys don't bounce, I like that video, I thought that

00:43:53 ◼   ► was good marketing, like the slow-mo with the fingers and the wobbling and everything,

00:43:57 ◼   ► like even if it doesn't matter, like it's just the old one looks old and busted and

00:44:00 ◼   ► this one looks new and shiny. But that's not a lot of travel. Apple did not feel the

00:44:05 ◼   ► need to emphasize the fact that there's less travel here and it might take getting some

00:44:09 ◼   ► use and I also feel like that's something that in the past, the past Apple might have

00:44:12 ◼   ► felt some need to say, there's less travel and it might feel weird at first but you get

00:44:16 ◼   ► used to it and actually you'll type faster on this.

00:44:19 ◼   ► And I've heard people say, who have typed on this at the event, that it does feel weird,

00:44:25 ◼   ► but they're surprised at how fast they go.

00:44:26 ◼   ► I think Jason Sneller, maybe it was Jason or someone else said that it was kind of like

00:44:29 ◼   ► a hybrid between a physical keyboard and typing on the iPad keyboard where nothing actually

00:44:33 ◼   ► moves.

00:44:35 ◼   ► I don't know if this is a good limitation or like, is it actually a positive or a negative?

00:44:42 ◼   ► But at the very least it's something where people are probably going to want to go to

00:44:45 ◼   ► to an Apple store and type on one

00:44:46 ◼   ► and see how you feel about it.

00:44:48 ◼   ► - Oh, definitely.

00:44:49 ◼   ► I would not pre-order one of these things

00:44:51 ◼   ► without typing on it.

00:44:52 ◼   ► - Yeah, I agree.

00:44:53 ◼   ► - The spacing looks okay.

00:44:54 ◼   ► Like Marco said, the rumor that the spacing is tighter,

00:44:57 ◼   ► I can't tell, but I bet if you're a super good touch typist,

00:45:01 ◼   ► you'll go into the Apple store and you'll be able

00:45:02 ◼   ► to kind of feel if like the keys feel a little bit off

00:45:04 ◼   ► for you or whatever.

00:45:05 ◼   ► But I have some confidence that this will be okay,

00:45:09 ◼   ► but I'm, I don't know, I'm definitely gonna go

00:45:11 ◼   ► into the Apple store and try it.

00:45:13 ◼   ► We talked about the arrow keys in the past,

00:45:16 ◼   ► based on the rumors, the mock-up rumors,

00:45:18 ◼   ► which are exactly right.

00:45:19 ◼   ► The left and the right arrow keys are full-size keys

00:45:21 ◼   ► and only the up and down are half-sized.

00:45:23 ◼   ► And I once again complained about

00:45:24 ◼   ► why can't I get full-size up, down,

00:45:26 ◼   ► and left and right arrow keys?

00:45:28 ◼   ► The answer is kind of battery-related,

00:45:31 ◼   ► which is another limitation I'll get to in a second.

00:45:33 ◼   ► But also, as I said, it's Johnny Ive,

00:45:35 ◼   ► does not want an asymmetrical cutout for the keyboard.

00:45:37 ◼   ► Like, he's big on symmetry.

00:45:39 ◼   ► I like the full-size left and right arrow keys.

00:45:42 ◼   ► That's better than nothing.

00:45:43 ◼   ► but I was excited by the fact,

00:45:45 ◼   ► if you look at this keyboard,

00:45:46 ◼   ► do either one of you have like a screenshot

00:45:47 ◼   ► of this keyboard up right now?

00:45:48 ◼   ► Go to Apple site and take a look at it.

00:45:50 ◼   ► I was excited by the fact,

00:45:53 ◼   ► maybe excited in an evil way,

00:45:55 ◼   ► that somehow somebody forced Johnny Ive

00:45:58 ◼   ► to put something asymmetrical on this keyboard.

00:46:01 ◼   ► Do you see what it is?

00:46:03 ◼   ► - Oh, I see what you mean.

00:46:04 ◼   ► The space bar is not centered.

00:46:05 ◼   ► - Yes, the space bar is not centered on the track pad.

00:46:07 ◼   ► Now, of course, keyboards have tons of things

00:46:09 ◼   ► that are asymmetrical for historical reasons

00:46:10 ◼   ► and you know, like the tab key is not the same

00:46:12 ◼   ► with is the slot, like the keyboards are not entirely symmetrical, but putting the space,

00:46:17 ◼   ► the off-center space bar right next to the exactly centered trackpad really emphasizes

00:46:22 ◼   ► the fact that one of these things is asymmetrical.

00:46:24 ◼   ► Now the outline is still a perfect rectangle, and again for battery reasons more than anything

00:46:28 ◼   ► else on this particular machine you can't do that, but I still long for on the 15 inch

00:46:32 ◼   ► full size arrow keys that are bumped, I know it would be uglier, I understand that it would

00:46:37 ◼   ► break up the symmetry of the design, but like the fact that like, you know, form over function,

00:46:42 ◼   ► it's more important for it to be aesthetically pleasing

00:46:44 ◼   ► than it is for me to have full-size up and down arrow keys

00:46:46 ◼   ► means that I will never wanna do programming

00:46:48 ◼   ► on a laptop keyboard.

00:46:50 ◼   ► Not that I really want to anyway, but no.

00:46:53 ◼   ► The half-size arrow keys drive me nuts.

00:46:54 ◼   ► I mean, maybe people don't use the arrow keys

00:46:56 ◼   ► as much as programmers do.

00:46:57 ◼   ► - I've never, I mean, you know I will nitpick anything.

00:47:00 ◼   ► I've never had a problem with that.

00:47:01 ◼   ► - I can't stand it.

00:47:02 ◼   ► I miss hit them, I hit them, it's just,

00:47:06 ◼   ► I don't like it at all.

00:47:07 ◼   ► And you know, if you use VI keys,

00:47:09 ◼   ► who needs the arrow keys?

00:47:10 ◼   ► If you use Emacs key bindings, who use the arrow keys?

00:47:11 ◼   ► but I use the arrows in combination with modifiers

00:47:16 ◼   ► to move around documents.

00:47:17 ◼   ► And so I don't like the half-size hour.

00:47:19 ◼   ► It's not a deal breaker.

00:47:20 ◼   ► It's not anything new with this thing.

00:47:22 ◼   ► And in fact, this machine has more excuse

00:47:23 ◼   ► than any other machine to not move those things down

00:47:25 ◼   ► because of the incredible shallowness of the enclosure.

00:47:30 ◼   ► If you move them down, you would be cutting into batteries,

00:47:33 ◼   ► precious battery space.

00:47:34 ◼   ► And that brings me to the final, well, not the final,

00:47:37 ◼   ► we'll talk about the track bed, I guess, too,

00:47:38 ◼   ► but the final limitation I really want to emphasize here,

00:47:41 ◼   ► Battery where they Phil shows up there telling us about the scallop to the terraced battery thing

00:47:46 ◼   ► We're like look if we tried to fit a regular battery would stop here

00:47:49 ◼   ► But we made it layered batteries and we can fill up more of the space and as I tweeted at the time

00:47:54 ◼   ► I saw that you know, what else would give you more room for battery fill?

00:47:57 ◼   ► Stop

00:48:00 ◼   ► Tapering the damn thing if you just make it perfectly it's barely tapered as it is

00:48:05 ◼   ► You're just torturing yourself the original one the wedge shape the wedge shape was part of the aesthetic, right?

00:48:10 ◼   ► The original one is like it's you know, oh, it's a wedge or whatever. It is barely a wedge

00:48:15 ◼   ► All you're doing is making your own life worse if you made this thing the same thickness from front to back

00:48:20 ◼   ► Think of how much more battery it's not like an insignificant amount of battery

00:48:23 ◼   ► The batteries in this are so slim and so skinny and so tiny

00:48:27 ◼   ► like that not tapering it could give you like 30 40 percent more battery and

00:48:33 ◼   ► Here's the thing about this chipset, which everybody's using there was like, you know, this PC laptops out with this

00:48:38 ◼   ► what is it, the Core M, whatever it is?

00:48:41 ◼   ► - You see that Dell, the 13 inch borderless Dell?

00:48:44 ◼   ► That one actually looks really nice.

00:48:45 ◼   ► I wish they would have done that here.

00:48:47 ◼   ► - And some of them have 18 hours of battery life.

00:48:50 ◼   ► And again, Apple taking credit.

00:48:52 ◼   ► We've done this without a fan.

00:48:53 ◼   ► I'm like, well, Intel kind of did that for you.

00:48:55 ◼   ► You cannot, if you did not have this chip,

00:48:57 ◼   ► you cannot make it fanless.

00:48:58 ◼   ► Yes, it is a feat to make it fanless,

00:48:59 ◼   ► but there are lots of PC makers using the same chipset,

00:49:02 ◼   ► getting insane battery lives,

00:49:03 ◼   ► literally 18 hour battery lives.

00:49:06 ◼   ► People were hoping let's see what Apple can get out of this Apple instead went for thinness

00:49:10 ◼   ► They're like the the MacBook Air's like they get like, you know

00:49:15 ◼   ► 13 to 15 hours of battery life out of them easy

00:49:17 ◼   ► This one gets less it gets nine hours about your life with the super low-powered chipset

00:49:21 ◼   ► Why because it's so damn thin they don't have enough room to put any battery in they they're going backwards

00:49:27 ◼   ► They're going to the sort of the the iPad philosophy of like what is an acceptable level of battery?

00:49:31 ◼   ► We think nine hours is acceptable, right?

00:49:34 ◼   ► Therefore, make it as thin as you can

00:49:36 ◼   ► and keep nine hours, right?

00:49:37 ◼   ► And they did, which is fine, it's a particular trade-off,

00:49:39 ◼   ► but the taper, that's what kills me.

00:49:43 ◼   ► The taper is no longer, I think,

00:49:44 ◼   ► a strong aesthetic for this.

00:49:46 ◼   ► I don't see what advantage the taper gives for carrying it,

00:49:48 ◼   ► 'cause I find it less comfortable to hold

00:49:51 ◼   ► by that skinny edge.

00:49:52 ◼   ► You always have to turn it with the fat edge down.

00:49:54 ◼   ► - It also, by the way, it makes it harder to open the lid.

00:49:57 ◼   ► Like, you need two hands.

00:49:58 ◼   ► I mean, I haven't tried one of these yet,

00:49:59 ◼   ► but usually with the skinny little ears,

00:50:01 ◼   ► you need two hands to open the lid

00:50:03 ◼   ► because it's so fiddly and thin on the end

00:50:05 ◼   ► and so light it pulls both sides up.

00:50:08 ◼   ► - I mean, that may be true,

00:50:09 ◼   ► even if you made it the same thickness all the way through.

00:50:13 ◼   ► In the first computer, to use this super duper

00:50:18 ◼   ► low power five watt chipset,

00:50:20 ◼   ► to have it not be at least comparable

00:50:22 ◼   ► to the old ears is disappointing.

00:50:24 ◼   ► It is a reasonable trade off

00:50:26 ◼   ► and I agree with making things thinner,

00:50:28 ◼   ► I agree with everything they're doing,

00:50:29 ◼   ► just that once it gets down to this thickness, I feel like the wedge shape is no longer giving

00:50:34 ◼   ► you the aesthetic boost needed to justify the battery that it is shaving away from you.

00:50:39 ◼   ► Yeah, and the chat room is pointing out that, you know, obviously batteries add weight.

00:50:44 ◼   ► And so if they didn't tape rate and fill the extra space with batteries, it would make

00:50:48 ◼   ► a heavier laptop. But I'm thinking at this size, two point one pounds, two point two.

00:50:52 ◼   ► Yeah. I mean, most of the way you're talking about like the enclosure and stuff at the

00:50:56 ◼   ► screen. I don't think the difference in battery there would be a significant weight increase.

00:51:01 ◼   ► - It could be less, not less weight, but it could be comparable weight because if you look at this

00:51:05 ◼   ► machine, I kept seeing this all on a story, it's like, "Wow, look how much battery is," because

00:51:09 ◼   ► they made the motherboard super small, so it's like all trackpad and battery, right?

00:51:13 ◼   ► This machine, I'm going to guess, this machine volume-wise has more aluminum than battery.

00:51:20 ◼   ► You know what I mean? Because they can't make the aluminum too thin, or you're going to have

00:51:25 ◼   ► of Ben Gate with the new MacBook, right?

00:51:29 ◼   ► Especially as it tapers, if you look at the cross section,

00:51:31 ◼   ► they showed that is in any way accurate.

00:51:34 ◼   ► There, I think there is more volume of aluminum

00:51:36 ◼   ► in this device, even just in the bottom part,

00:51:37 ◼   ► more volume of aluminum than volume of battery, maybe.

00:51:40 ◼   ► I don't know, that may be pushing it,

00:51:41 ◼   ► but the sidewalls can't be that thin.

00:51:44 ◼   ► They have to be certain thickness for structural integrity.

00:51:46 ◼   ► There is very little room left in these things for battery.

00:51:50 ◼   ► And that taper could be cutting your battery room in half

00:51:54 ◼   ► by the time you get to that tapered edge of the thing.

00:51:57 ◼   ► So I think it's okay for there to be a machine

00:52:00 ◼   ► with these compromises.

00:52:01 ◼   ► I would just also like to see a,

00:52:04 ◼   ► I mean that's why I talk about the 13 inch.

00:52:06 ◼   ► The 13 inch is basically the non-tapered air,

00:52:08 ◼   ► but like twice or three times as thick.

00:52:11 ◼   ► - And that's why I think it's important

00:52:12 ◼   ► because what we're saying basically,

00:52:15 ◼   ► like Apple already makes a computer that's not tapered,

00:52:18 ◼   ► but still really small

00:52:19 ◼   ► and has a full travel depth keyboard.

00:52:21 ◼   ► It's a 13 inch Retina MacBook Pro.

00:52:23 ◼   ► - Right, but it's not like, I feel like,

00:52:26 ◼   ► if you made a non-tapered version of the new MacBook,

00:52:29 ◼   ► it would still feel like a different class of machine

00:52:31 ◼   ► from the 13, because it would have the weak CPU.

00:52:33 ◼   ► It would have like, that's more limitations, right?

00:52:35 ◼   ► So what is the name of that chipset?

00:52:37 ◼   ► I keep getting it wrong.

00:52:38 ◼   ► Is it the Core M?

00:52:40 ◼   ► - I believe so.

00:52:41 ◼   ► - Whatever it is, the five watt integrated,

00:52:43 ◼   ► really small low power chipset

00:52:44 ◼   ► that turbos up to 2.9 gigahertz, but starts out at 1.1.

00:52:47 ◼   ► Like it's five watts, that's what you're getting.

00:52:50 ◼   ► That's how you can have a fanless thing, right?

00:52:51 ◼   ► That is a limitation of this machine.

00:52:55 ◼   ► And you get dividends for that limitation.

00:52:56 ◼   ► Fanlessness, I am all aboard for that.

00:52:58 ◼   ► Like, I love it.

00:52:59 ◼   ► I love the fact that, I even love the fact

00:53:01 ◼   ► that they tried to hide the antenna internally.

00:53:02 ◼   ► If the performance of that antenna is great,

00:53:03 ◼   ► no big black, you know, plastic thing.

00:53:05 ◼   ► The fact that it's all metal,

00:53:07 ◼   ► the fact that it's all sealed up,

00:53:08 ◼   ► I almost wish they could make it waterproof

00:53:09 ◼   ► at this point, right?

00:53:10 ◼   ► I love all that about this machine.

00:53:12 ◼   ► And I feel like if you made this exact machine,

00:53:14 ◼   ► but with no taper,

00:53:15 ◼   ► it would still feel like an entirely different class

00:53:17 ◼   ► of machine than the 13 inch.

00:53:19 ◼   ► Even though the 13 inch is only like, you know,

00:53:21 ◼   ► six millimeter sticker or something like that.

00:53:23 ◼   ► But the 13 inch, like you said, full key travel,

00:53:25 ◼   ► real chip set, you know what I mean?

00:53:27 ◼   ► Fans, right?

00:53:28 ◼   ► - Ports.

00:53:29 ◼   ► - Right, ports, like, it would still feel

00:53:31 ◼   ► like a different class of machine.

00:53:33 ◼   ► And so, you know, so let's get to who this machine is for.

00:53:37 ◼   ► I'm, you know, I'm always trying to get my parents

00:53:41 ◼   ► to buy better computers 'cause I hate supporting them

00:53:43 ◼   ► on their ancient, like, white iBooks

00:53:45 ◼   ► or whatever the hell they're using.

00:53:46 ◼   ► I don't human.

00:53:47 ◼   ► Anyway, I get tired thinking about it.

00:53:49 ◼   ► I think this would be a great machine for my parents

00:53:52 ◼   ► because they don't do anything that's so demanding

00:53:56 ◼   ► that this machine couldn't do well for them.

00:53:58 ◼   ► And they don't need like 18 hour battery life,

00:54:01 ◼   ► nine hours is plenty for them.

00:54:03 ◼   ► It has fewer things that can go wrong.

00:54:05 ◼   ► It has fewer moving parts.

00:54:06 ◼   ► It has no fans, so I don't have to worry about them

00:54:08 ◼   ► suffocating it with like puffy pillows

00:54:10 ◼   ► when they have it on their lap on the couch or something.

00:54:12 ◼   ► And it's so small that they could move around

00:54:14 ◼   ► like it's a manila envelope.

00:54:16 ◼   ► I think this would be a good machine for them.

00:54:18 ◼   ► if they can tolerate the keyboard

00:54:19 ◼   ► and if they're not freaked out

00:54:20 ◼   ► by the haptic force touch tap thing.

00:54:22 ◼   ► - And by the way, all the people who were at the event

00:54:26 ◼   ► who tried the keyboard and force touch,

00:54:28 ◼   ► the keyboard everybody was a little polarized on,

00:54:30 ◼   ► but the trackpad, everyone seemed to love.

00:54:33 ◼   ► I mean, I didn't hear a single bad thing

00:54:35 ◼   ► about the trackpad.

00:54:37 ◼   ► - I'm fully willing to believe that it's awesome.

00:54:38 ◼   ► In fact, I'm hoping that, again,

00:54:40 ◼   ► this is another reason I'm gonna recommend this

00:54:41 ◼   ► to my parents, my mom likes tap to click.

00:54:43 ◼   ► I can't stand tap to click to do that,

00:54:45 ◼   ► but she uses tap to click, right?

00:54:46 ◼   ► And so this is gonna be awesome

00:54:47 ◼   ► because it's basically like adjustable tap to click, right?

00:54:50 ◼   ► Where it's, she's not going to accidentally hit it

00:54:53 ◼   ► and you can adjust how much force I think it requires

00:54:55 ◼   ► to like to do the thing.

00:54:57 ◼   ► I think this trackpad is gonna be great.

00:54:58 ◼   ► And you know, that's why I'm excited

00:55:00 ◼   ► to see it on the 13 inch.

00:55:01 ◼   ► I think the non moving trackpad could be a real win.

00:55:04 ◼   ► 'Cause honestly, I don't, I've never liked,

00:55:06 ◼   ► I don't like trackpads period.

00:55:07 ◼   ► I didn't like the ones with the button on it

00:55:09 ◼   ► when they got rid of the button.

00:55:10 ◼   ► I didn't really like the whole idea

00:55:11 ◼   ► that the whole thing slanted,

00:55:12 ◼   ► including the part that I was tracing my finger over.

00:55:15 ◼   ► So like you said, all the reviews of this have been great.

00:55:17 ◼   ► and I'm totally willing to believe that they've nailed it

00:55:19 ◼   ► on this trackpad and that, you know,

00:55:22 ◼   ► in the same way that like trackpads replace trackballs

00:55:25 ◼   ► and they were kind of weird in the beginning

00:55:26 ◼   ► and they settled down, like once Apple goes

00:55:28 ◼   ► to this kind of trackpad everywhere,

00:55:29 ◼   ► once they inevitably add force touch to all the iOS devices,

00:55:33 ◼   ► it'll be like, how did we ever live without this?

00:55:35 ◼   ► - Ben Thompson's in the chat saying

00:55:37 ◼   ► that he has tried the keyboard

00:55:40 ◼   ► and it does take some getting used to,

00:55:42 ◼   ► but you absolutely will.

00:55:43 ◼   ► And he also said that the trackpad is,

00:55:47 ◼   ► and now I'm quoting, "mind blowing."

00:55:49 ◼   ► So just like you said, Jon, everyone seems to love it.

00:55:52 ◼   ► The other question I had, which I only want a very quick,

00:55:56 ◼   ► to put in a very quick thought about,

00:55:57 ◼   ► is if the headphone jack is really that big

00:56:00 ◼   ► and really causing that much extra thickness,

00:56:04 ◼   ► I mean, we have Bluetooth headphones, that's a thing,

00:56:07 ◼   ► but yet we don't seem to have embraced it yet.

00:56:10 ◼   ► Do you guys see a future when A,

00:56:13 ◼   ► they take away the headphone jack and say,

00:56:15 ◼   ► if you really wanna listen to your computer,

00:56:17 ◼   ► get Bluetooth headphones, and B,

00:56:19 ◼   ► that Marco is finally thus compelled

00:56:21 ◼   ► to embrace Bluetooth headphones?

00:56:23 ◼   ► - Well, this is a big topic, hold on.

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00:59:34 ◼   ► - Okay, so I'd asked you right before the sponsor break

00:59:38 ◼   ► whether or not you think that the headphone port

00:59:41 ◼   ► will eventually go away on these MacBooks,

00:59:43 ◼   ► or perhaps even iOS devices, and if they do,

00:59:47 ◼   ► does that mean you'll finally be compelled

00:59:49 ◼   ► to embrace Bluetooth headphones?

00:59:51 ◼   ► - So I should start this by saying

00:59:53 ◼   ► I have embraced Bluetooth headphones.

00:59:55 ◼   ► - For travel/mobile purposes, but not for your desk.

01:00:00 ◼   ► - Correct, and I think many people would find

01:00:03 ◼   ► similar trade-off because they have batteries and they need to be charged.

01:00:07 ◼   ► And so if you're sitting at a desk all day long and you're not moving around,

01:00:09 ◼   ► you're plugging into a computer on the desk, you know, just go wired. It's

01:00:13 ◼   ► easier and they're lighter, they're more comfortable because they are

01:00:17 ◼   ► lighter, you know, there's no big batteries or anything. So then you don't

01:00:20 ◼   ► have to charge them because, you know, Bluetooth headphones, battery lives and

01:00:23 ◼   ► use range from a few hours to a lot of hours but you're not talking months, you

01:00:28 ◼   ► know, you're talking... If you actually use Bluetooth headphones full-time

01:00:31 ◼   ► listening to music most of the day every day.

01:00:34 ◼   ► - As I do.

01:00:35 ◼   ► - How often do you need to recharge them?

01:00:36 ◼   ► - Every other day, two days maybe.

01:00:38 ◼   ► - Yeah, exactly.

01:00:39 ◼   ► So you're talking a substantial annoyance

01:00:42 ◼   ► that if you can get similar benefits from wired,

01:00:44 ◼   ► might as well, right?

01:00:45 ◼   ► So Bluetooth headphones though,

01:00:48 ◼   ► where I love them is like when I'm walking.

01:00:50 ◼   ► So if I'm commuting or if I'm walking the dog,

01:00:52 ◼   ► well commuting like on a train, which I hardly ever do,

01:00:54 ◼   ► but if I'm doing that, I'll bring them.

01:00:55 ◼   ► If I'm walking the dog, I bring them on dog walks,

01:00:57 ◼   ► they're great.

01:00:58 ◼   ► We are moving in a direction

01:00:59 ◼   ► where they're gonna become more common.

01:01:03 ◼   ► Most of that's because of the Apple Watch, in my opinion.

01:01:06 ◼   ► MacBooks possibly losing headphone ports in the future,

01:01:09 ◼   ► that's a distant secondary concern, I think.

01:01:12 ◼   ► I think the issue that we have,

01:01:14 ◼   ► and what will hold Apple back here,

01:01:17 ◼   ► is that Bluetooth headphones by nature

01:01:19 ◼   ► are complicated devices.

01:01:21 ◼   ► They have some kind of pairing interface, they have RF.

01:01:25 ◼   ► - They have batteries.

01:01:26 ◼   ► - Exactly, and they have batteries.

01:01:28 ◼   ► And so if you look at the kind of headphones Apple makes,

01:01:31 ◼   ► and the kind of headphones most people use

01:01:33 ◼   ► with their Apple devices,

01:01:35 ◼   ► they're those little tiny white earbuds.

01:01:37 ◼   ► And you can't make Bluetooth headphones that small.

01:01:39 ◼   ► They do have Bluetooth earbuds, they do exist,

01:01:41 ◼   ► but none of them are as small and sleek

01:01:44 ◼   ► as the Apple earbuds because they can't be,

01:01:46 ◼   ► because they need somewhere to put a battery.

01:01:48 ◼   ► And if the battery is that incredibly tiny,

01:01:51 ◼   ► it will last like an hour.

01:01:53 ◼   ► And I don't think Apple would deal with that very well.

01:01:56 ◼   ► You also need to have some kind of port on them to charge them.

01:02:00 ◼   ► I mean, maybe inductive blah blah blah someday, maybe, probably not.

01:02:04 ◼   ► Here's how they'll do it when they actually do it, because I think it will come eventually.

01:02:07 ◼   ► There'll be tiny little earbuds, they'll have tiny little batteries in them, there'll be

01:02:10 ◼   ► no ports on them at all, they'll last about an hour or something close to that, and you'll

01:02:16 ◼   ► stick them magnetically to some little recesses inside your tiny little MacBook when you're

01:02:19 ◼   ► not using them.

01:02:23 ◼   ► Even if that was possible, I would question all that.

01:02:25 ◼   ► I would say they would not do that because that sounds really clunky.

01:02:28 ◼   ► Remember when they stuck the remote to the side of the iMac with magnets?

01:02:31 ◼   ► Do you remember that?

01:02:32 ◼   ► Oh yeah, that's true.

01:02:33 ◼   ► That was a long time ago.

01:02:34 ◼   ► I'm saying that would be the Apple way to do it.

01:02:37 ◼   ► You don't plug these little turdy things in.

01:02:39 ◼   ► You don't lose them because they're always stuck to your laptop.

01:02:44 ◼   ► Because there is something very inelegant about even just the white earbuds and the

01:02:47 ◼   ► short cord and plugging it in, it sticks out the side of your thing and you accidentally

01:02:51 ◼   ► bend it.

01:02:53 ◼   ► Bluetooth earbuds are more elegant, but like Marco said, the battery problem, batteries

01:02:57 ◼   ► don't get better that fast, and so you can't fit a big battery in there, you can only fit

01:03:02 ◼   ► a small one, and then you're stuck with the recharging problem, and you don't want to

01:03:05 ◼   ► plug anything into recharging because that's clunky, so you could do inductive charge,

01:03:08 ◼   ► those tiny batteries would inductively charge really fast off of your MacBook, you just

01:03:12 ◼   ► gotta find some place to stick them on or in there, right?

01:03:15 ◼   ► But that's not in the near future, I'm just thinking like future world stuff.

01:03:17 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean this this is the problem like I think if I think Apple has run through the same calculus if they could

01:03:24 ◼   ► Reasonably get rid of the headphone port they would have already and maybe in the distant future they will but I think I don't think

01:03:31 ◼   ► That's that time is like imminent everyone thought every single iPhone release that comes out everyone predicts

01:03:36 ◼   ► This is the one we're gonna get rid of the headphone port and they haven't yet and you have to ask yourself

01:03:40 ◼   ► Why yeah, these are like the lightning port headphones

01:03:43 ◼   ► I mean they could be the use the USB port for headphones like that's how they'll get that

01:03:47 ◼   ► before they go wireless, they'll probably end up

01:03:49 ◼   ► whatever single port is left on the thing

01:03:51 ◼   ► that will do everything, including headphones,

01:03:53 ◼   ► and hopefully their earbuds will have those little

01:03:55 ◼   ► connectors or whatever, I don't know.

01:03:57 ◼   ► - Right, and so you have, there are so many issues

01:04:01 ◼   ► with trying to get this now, like trying to get Apple to,

01:04:05 ◼   ► 'cause that's what they would have to do.

01:04:07 ◼   ► If they get rid of headphone ports,

01:04:08 ◼   ► they would have to basically replace their earbuds

01:04:11 ◼   ► with something else, and whether you have to,

01:04:13 ◼   ► you know, if they have to buy it separately, that sucks,

01:04:15 ◼   ► then all of a sudden, you gotta spend like, you know,

01:04:17 ◼   ► forty more dollars or fifty more whatever they would charge for it probably more than forty but

01:04:21 ◼   ► you know have to spend eighty more dollars on bluetooth headphones that uh you know just to

01:04:25 ◼   ► use your iphone with a headset you know it it's not it's it's not great so this is the problem is

01:04:32 ◼   ► the the bluetooth headphone situation just by nature of needing batteries and and you know

01:04:38 ◼   ► bluetooth headphones they are they have like a certain minimum size and a certain minimum level

01:04:42 ◼   ► level of clunkiness with and you know they need like a

01:04:45 ◼   ► button and a switch somewhere to turn them on and pair them

01:04:48 ◼   ► and everything like it's there's there's a minimum

01:04:50 ◼   ► level of clunkiness up to them that I don't see Apple

01:04:55 ◼   ► wanting to address so badly to get rid of the headphone port

01:05:01 ◼   ► and that's not to say they won't eventually try this. I

01:05:04 ◼   ► just I don't see this in the near future and if they do

01:05:08 ◼   ► release bluetooth headphones, I think that would come before

01:05:12 ◼   ► are a headphone port is removed from a prominent device,

01:05:16 ◼   ► like to have them like first have the hardware tested out a

01:05:19 ◼   ► little bit, see if anybody buys them, see if anybody likes

01:05:22 ◼   ► them, because if they release an iphone that can't plug into

01:05:25 ◼   ► any existing headsets, people are going to freak out and and

01:05:29 ◼   ► much more so than having to buy new lightning cables like

01:05:32 ◼   ► people are going to freak out and not to say that it doesn't

01:05:35 ◼   ► you know that doesn't keep apple from doing things

01:05:37 ◼   ► sometimes, but there's different degrees and different

01:05:41 ◼   ► products and getting rid of a headphone jack on on on their

01:05:45 ◼   ► most important product that that would not be taken lightly.

01:05:50 ◼   ► So again, not saying this will never happen, but I don't see

01:05:54 ◼   ► it happening soon now going back to the Mac book. I don't

01:05:58 ◼   ► know. I'm sure Apple has done some kind of research to know

01:06:01 ◼   ► like how important this is. I mean, they there's nothing

01:06:04 ◼   ► stopping them from putting a USB type C port on the other

01:06:07 ◼   ► side and just selling, you know, just like they have a

01:06:08 ◼   ► $20 adapter to plug in USB devices, sell a $20 adapter that is a USB sound interface.

01:06:14 ◼   ► I think that's more of a "I would not recommend that."

01:06:17 ◼   ► Why not?

01:06:18 ◼   ► Because I think the use case for this, everyone has the little earbuds from their iPhone or

01:06:23 ◼   ► their iPod, and a lot of times you're working on a laptop in an environment where you want

01:06:27 ◼   ► to watch some silly YouTube video that someone sent you but you don't want the sound coming

01:06:30 ◼   ► out of the speakers.

01:06:31 ◼   ► So you're plugging your little white earbuds, or even if you're just listening to music

01:06:35 ◼   ► while you're, you know, typing away or doing your homework or whatever, like,

01:06:38 ◼   ► you gotta be able to just quickly plug in earbuds with no adapter.

01:06:42 ◼   ► Or have a wireless solution of those magical things that just, you know,

01:06:46 ◼   ► click onto the side of your thing or something. I feel like that use case is

01:06:49 ◼   ► more important than

01:06:51 ◼   ► a second port. I would never give up the headphone port for a second USB

01:06:55 ◼   ► C on this thing. That would be a bad trade. Because I see people do it all the time.

01:06:58 ◼   ► All the time I see people with any kind of laptop, not just skinny little light

01:07:01 ◼   ► ones, but any kind of laptop sitting in front of it,

01:07:04 ◼   ► plugging in their headphones.

01:07:05 ◼   ► - Right, I mean, it's common,

01:07:07 ◼   ► but you also see people plugging in a lot of USB things.

01:07:08 ◼   ► So it's common enough, I agree,

01:07:10 ◼   ► but I think one of two things is the case here.

01:07:14 ◼   ► Either they did enough research

01:07:17 ◼   ► and they know that way too many people

01:07:19 ◼   ► plug in their headsets and make Skype calls,

01:07:22 ◼   ► listen to music, 'cause it's a microphone too

01:07:24 ◼   ► if you use the headset.

01:07:24 ◼   ► - But there's no replacement.

01:07:25 ◼   ► Like with the whole USB thing,

01:07:27 ◼   ► with people plugging in USB stuff,

01:07:28 ◼   ► there's always a replacement, but there's no replacement.

01:07:30 ◼   ► You have to have some way to make your computer

01:07:32 ◼   ► stop making noise, but let you hear the noises

01:07:35 ◼   ► your computer makes.

01:07:36 ◼   ► - Oh, I see what you mean.

01:07:36 ◼   ► - Whereas everything else, everything else,

01:07:38 ◼   ► it's like, well, I don't have a thumb drive,

01:07:40 ◼   ► but I can use Dropbox.

01:07:41 ◼   ► Well, I can't plug it in and power something,

01:07:43 ◼   ► but I can buy this dongle adapter.

01:07:44 ◼   ► You need something.

01:07:45 ◼   ► - Right, you want automatic disconnection

01:07:46 ◼   ► of the built-in speakers.

01:07:47 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:07:48 ◼   ► - But if Apple made their own official USB Type-C

01:07:51 ◼   ► sound thing for 25, 30 bucks or whatever,

01:07:53 ◼   ► well, knowing that I'm 40 bucks,

01:07:55 ◼   ► if they made that, they're stopping them

01:07:57 ◼   ► from coding that into the OS where it automates,

01:07:59 ◼   ► 'cause right now, it's two different sound devices

01:08:01 ◼   ► and it auto switches logically in software.

01:08:04 ◼   ► You know, it already does that.

01:08:06 ◼   ► So they could do that if they wanted to.

01:08:07 ◼   ► I think the more likely explanation

01:08:09 ◼   ► for the headphone jack being there

01:08:11 ◼   ► is that for other reasons,

01:08:14 ◼   ► they only wanted to have one USB-C port

01:08:16 ◼   ► and they figure, well, symmetry,

01:08:18 ◼   ► we have the space over here for a port.

01:08:20 ◼   ► What single port in this size restriction can we put here

01:08:24 ◼   ► that would make some kind of logical sense

01:08:26 ◼   ► that would benefit some people?

01:08:28 ◼   ► And they added that one.

01:08:29 ◼   ► I would think the iOS devices would ditch the head of them for before the Mac books too and whatever the iOS devices do to

01:08:34 ◼   ► Deal with that. That's just what the max would do eventually anyway. Yeah

01:08:38 ◼   ► Apparently I did not do enough

01:08:41 ◼   ► Pre-explaining and preempting of stuff because Ben Thompson in the chat room is getting all feisty

01:08:46 ◼   ► He's tweeting while he's listening to the show. Well an earlier tweet geeks are just unqualified to explain the new MacBook

01:08:51 ◼   ► They are anti qualified. They're saying that Syracuse is way off base

01:08:55 ◼   ► So I will try one more time to explain what I feel about this particular computer.

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01:11:49 ◼   ► So John, why is Ben Thompson wrong?

01:11:52 ◼   ► - He's not wrong in sentiment,

01:11:53 ◼   ► he's wrong about what he thinks my position is.

01:11:55 ◼   ► So I will try to emphasize again

01:11:57 ◼   ► that the thing that is messed up about this machine

01:12:02 ◼   ► with one port, like the reason it's gonna look weird

01:12:05 ◼   ► and look back on as like an oddity and like a mistake

01:12:09 ◼   ► is not because it has one port instead of two,

01:12:12 ◼   ► it's gonna be looked back on as an oddity

01:12:14 ◼   ► and sort of a mistake because it has one port instead of zero.

01:12:18 ◼   ► I totally agree that basically the main thing that's wrong with this is like, iPads don't

01:12:24 ◼   ► have ports in them.

01:12:25 ◼   ► They never had ports in them.

01:12:26 ◼   ► People complained in the beginning, but by the lack of, you know what I mean, the 30

01:12:29 ◼   ► pin connector, it doesn't count.

01:12:31 ◼   ► Well they do have one port that can charge it and you can plug in devices.

01:12:36 ◼   ► I know, but you know, like no USB port for like an SD card slot or expansion, all the

01:12:40 ◼   ► things that people would want.

01:12:41 ◼   ► That's not true.

01:12:42 ◼   ► The camera connection kit.

01:12:43 ◼   ► I know, but they don't have a port.

01:12:45 ◼   ► They just have one plug that you plug the thing into.

01:12:47 ◼   ► Like there's no, there's no plugging in a USB keyboard.

01:12:50 ◼   ► There's no plugging in it.

01:12:51 ◼   ► There's no SD card slot.

01:12:52 ◼   ► - There is actually.

01:12:53 ◼   ► - Actually, yeah, you can.

01:12:54 ◼   ► - With the camera connection kit,

01:12:55 ◼   ► you can plug in lots of things.

01:12:56 ◼   ► - I know, but that's an extra thing.

01:12:58 ◼   ► You know what I'm saying?

01:12:59 ◼   ► - So, so is the hub for this?

01:13:01 ◼   ► - No, it's a proprietary port.

01:13:03 ◼   ► It is not something that is a standard type of port.

01:13:05 ◼   ► You know what I mean?

01:13:06 ◼   ► What is gonna look weird about this in the future

01:13:09 ◼   ► is that it has one.

01:13:09 ◼   ► - I still don't follow this argument.

01:13:11 ◼   ► - It's that it has one USB port and not two.

01:13:13 ◼   ► What I'm trying to say is I'm entirely on board

01:13:15 ◼   ► with the idea that the ports go away on this thing,

01:13:17 ◼   ► that we go down to one kind of port

01:13:18 ◼   ► and then eventually there's no kinds of port

01:13:20 ◼   ► except for some proprietary thing

01:13:21 ◼   ► that Apple makes up for charging or whatever.

01:13:23 ◼   ► Like, that plugging things into your laptop

01:13:26 ◼   ► would not be a thing in the same way

01:13:28 ◼   ► that plugging things into your iPad isn't a thing.

01:13:29 ◼   ► You say, "Oh, well what about the camera thing

01:13:31 ◼   ► "and what about all the stuff you can plug in?"

01:13:34 ◼   ► When you see people using an iPad,

01:13:36 ◼   ► how many of them do you see

01:13:37 ◼   ► that have anything plugged into that port?

01:13:40 ◼   ► Almost 0% of them, right?

01:13:42 ◼   ► I've never seen anyone with a camera connection kit

01:13:44 ◼   ► in the wild.

01:13:45 ◼   ► I've never seen anyone with anything plugged into that

01:13:47 ◼   ► as a peripheral or whatever.

01:13:48 ◼   ► Even when I see people using keyboards in keyboard cases,

01:13:50 ◼   ► they're Bluetooth.

01:13:51 ◼   ► 30 inches from my head is a picture of the three of us

01:13:55 ◼   ► at a table, on the table is an iPad

01:13:58 ◼   ► with a camera connection kit plugged into it.

01:14:00 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:14:00 ◼   ► - Yeah, well you're using it to stream a podcast.

01:14:02 ◼   ► This is not a common use case.

01:14:04 ◼   ► - The point is you saw it.

01:14:06 ◼   ► Take iPhones as another example.

01:14:07 ◼   ► Other than Mophie, you know, things plugged in battery cases,

01:14:10 ◼   ► Do you ever see anyone with something plugged into their iPhone that's reading an SD card

01:14:14 ◼   ► from it, that's using a USB thumb drive on it, that's doing anything like that with it?

01:14:18 ◼   ► You just don't see it.

01:14:19 ◼   ► The devices are telling you, "I am not expandable.

01:14:23 ◼   ► There is one proprietary port used for charging and all data transfer, but most of the time

01:14:27 ◼   ► you're going to be using me without something plugged into it."

01:14:29 ◼   ► You see what I'm getting at?

01:14:30 ◼   ► Well, but I think this laptop is exactly the same way.

01:14:33 ◼   ► That's what you're going to see.

01:14:34 ◼   ► Most people who buy this laptop, I bet, are not going to buy that stupid little adapter.

01:14:38 ◼   ► But it has a USB port and it does not have a lightning connector on it.

01:14:41 ◼   ► It does not have magsafe on it.

01:14:43 ◼   ► It does not have a proprietary Apple thing that is not a generic port.

01:14:46 ◼   ► But it's a USB port that nobody has any devices for yet.

01:14:49 ◼   ► Anyway, ignoring this analogy, which is trying to show that you're trying to pick up this

01:14:53 ◼   ► analogy was not the main point.

01:14:55 ◼   ► My point is that I don't like I understand that ports are going away.

01:14:58 ◼   ► I am all for that.

01:14:59 ◼   ► I'm not saying let's hold back the tide, bring back the floppy drive.

01:15:02 ◼   ► Like I don't know how much I can emphasize this.

01:15:04 ◼   ► "Yes, get rid of all the freaking parts eventually!"

01:15:08 ◼   ► Right?

01:15:09 ◼   ► - On an infinite time scale, they're all good.

01:15:10 ◼   ► - All I wanted to know was,

01:15:12 ◼   ► what am I getting for having one USB Type-C instead of two?

01:15:16 ◼   ► And nobody's been able to tell me anything

01:15:18 ◼   ► other than saying that one is less than two

01:15:20 ◼   ► and eventually we're gonna get a zero.

01:15:21 ◼   ► And I feel like zero is better than one.

01:15:23 ◼   ► You know what I mean?

01:15:24 ◼   ► Like, not practically speaking for this particular machine,

01:15:27 ◼   ► but that is a statement.

01:15:29 ◼   ► That is where we're going.

01:15:30 ◼   ► There is a, it's a step change of like,

01:15:32 ◼   ► well you have zero or you have one.

01:15:34 ◼   ► If you have one, everybody's gonna try to cram everything

01:15:36 ◼   ► through the one with a series of crazy adapters, right?

01:15:39 ◼   ► Because you're like, well, you've got the one

01:15:40 ◼   ► and it can do video out and it can do all these things.

01:15:43 ◼   ► Like it is a stand-in for all the other ports.

01:15:45 ◼   ► Because you have one,

01:15:47 ◼   ► everything is gonna funnel into that one spot.

01:15:48 ◼   ► Whereas if you had zero or you had lightning connector

01:15:51 ◼   ► or something like that, it would be like,

01:15:52 ◼   ► well, this is obviously not a machine

01:15:54 ◼   ► that I plug things into.

01:15:55 ◼   ► Like, yeah, you can plug your iPad into your Mac

01:15:58 ◼   ► and use it as a separate monitor

01:15:59 ◼   ► and you can do all these sorts of things with it,

01:16:01 ◼   ► but no one is taking an iPad and like,

01:16:02 ◼   ► Well, I'm gonna get that and I'm gonna plug something in,

01:16:04 ◼   ► it's gonna charge it and it's gonna give my iPad

01:16:06 ◼   ► a second display and it's gonna give me SD card storage

01:16:09 ◼   ► for my iPad, nobody does that.

01:16:11 ◼   ► But they will do that with this because it has the one port.

01:16:14 ◼   ► So what I'm saying is like, if you're gonna do one port,

01:16:17 ◼   ► if you put on two, then what happens?

01:16:19 ◼   ► Well, it's a trade off, well, you have this,

01:16:20 ◼   ► well, you have that.

01:16:21 ◼   ► I'm perfectly willing to believe it's a trade off,

01:16:23 ◼   ► all I'm saying is that no one has told me what I'm trading.

01:16:25 ◼   ► And if you just tell me that I'm trading space on the case,

01:16:27 ◼   ► that one I don't buy because I feel like you can make

01:16:29 ◼   ► the case big enough to fit the second port on there.

01:16:31 ◼   ► All right, now putting aside the second port thing,

01:16:34 ◼   ► I am also totally on board with the idea

01:16:36 ◼   ► that no one cares about the second port

01:16:38 ◼   ► except for nerdy people.

01:16:39 ◼   ► Totally, and thinking about use cases,

01:16:40 ◼   ► but as I mentioned to my mom,

01:16:41 ◼   ► just like as a actual example,

01:16:43 ◼   ► but I think for basically everybody

01:16:46 ◼   ► who isn't into computers,

01:16:48 ◼   ► who wants to have a laptop computer in their house,

01:16:50 ◼   ► this is the one to get because it's so small,

01:16:52 ◼   ► you'll just put it with like the stack of magazines

01:16:54 ◼   ► next to your couch.

01:16:56 ◼   ► Like everyone should have, like I said, with the iPads,

01:16:58 ◼   ► I feel like this is the type of thing

01:16:59 ◼   ► that should just be laying around your house

01:17:00 ◼   ► if you are a rich person in every room at your house, right?

01:17:03 ◼   ► It's like picking up a magazine.

01:17:05 ◼   ► Oh, I'll just pick up this iPad, like the iPad Air 2.

01:17:07 ◼   ► Like you just wanna have a device

01:17:09 ◼   ► that you can do web browsing on.

01:17:10 ◼   ► You can look stuff up while you're watching TV.

01:17:12 ◼   ► You can read your email or whatever.

01:17:15 ◼   ► That's what these things are perfect for.

01:17:17 ◼   ► These are computers for the masses.

01:17:19 ◼   ► I totally agree with that.

01:17:20 ◼   ► Like this is more for the masses than the 13-inch Pro is.

01:17:24 ◼   ► This is more for the masses than any of the Airs are, right?

01:17:27 ◼   ► This is the laptop for the masses.

01:17:28 ◼   ► Getting rid of everything, getting rid of the fan,

01:17:30 ◼   ► getting rid of ports they don't understand,

01:17:32 ◼   ► making it super small and light.

01:17:33 ◼   ► Nine hours is fine for the masses.

01:17:35 ◼   ► The reason this is called the MacBook

01:17:37 ◼   ► and not the MacBook Air 2, the MacBook Vapor,

01:17:39 ◼   ► the MacBook Prelude, any of these other things,

01:17:41 ◼   ► is because this is the Mac for the masses.

01:17:45 ◼   ► People don't need all that other stuff

01:17:48 ◼   ► that we're talking about.

01:17:49 ◼   ► This is the one that they should sell the most of.

01:17:51 ◼   ► It's priced fairly low, like 12, 1300 bucks.

01:17:53 ◼   ► It's not like a $2,000 type of thing.

01:17:56 ◼   ► I totally agree with that.

01:17:57 ◼   ► I can agree with all of that

01:17:59 ◼   ► and also complain about if they had made it not tapered,

01:18:03 ◼   ► would it stop being the MacBook for the masses?

01:18:04 ◼   ► No, it would not.

01:18:05 ◼   ► If they had put two USB Type-C things,

01:18:07 ◼   ► would it stop being the MacBook for the masses?

01:18:09 ◼   ► No, I feel like the masses would also not notice

01:18:11 ◼   ► that those two things were there

01:18:13 ◼   ► and it would make it more capable with a trade-off

01:18:17 ◼   ► that I think the masses wouldn't care about,

01:18:19 ◼   ► but the nerdy people like us would really appreciate

01:18:22 ◼   ► because we're not at the point of going to zero things

01:18:24 ◼   ► and we are, you know, and I think that the taper

01:18:28 ◼   ► is something that actually people would appreciate

01:18:29 ◼   ► because I think it would make it easier to hold

01:18:31 ◼   ► by that sharp edge because the sharp edge

01:18:32 ◼   ► would be less sharp.

01:18:34 ◼   ► So I don't know, like if I continue to get tweets

01:18:37 ◼   ► from people telling me you don't get it

01:18:38 ◼   ► 'cause you're a geek, this is gonna be rather good

01:18:39 ◼   ► for other people, I don't know how many other ways

01:18:41 ◼   ► I can express it.

01:18:42 ◼   ► I totally agree with you.

01:18:44 ◼   ► I'm just saying that they could change these few things

01:18:48 ◼   ► and unless someone explains to me the trade-off,

01:18:49 ◼   ► I'm totally willing to believe that it's like,

01:18:50 ◼   ► oh, you couldn't do this

01:18:51 ◼   ► because the chipset doesn't support it

01:18:53 ◼   ► because there's no way to do the circuitry,

01:18:55 ◼   ► you know, the circuitry for controlling

01:18:56 ◼   ► different power ports, would have made the motherboard too big, so on and so forth, but

01:19:00 ◼   ► I haven't gotten any explanation.

01:19:02 ◼   ► As far as I'm concerned, you can make the same machine, a few millimeters different

01:19:05 ◼   ► in a few dimensions, get rid of the taper, put two USB type C ports on it, keep the price

01:19:10 ◼   ► pretty much the same, have better battery life, and the masses would still love it,

01:19:15 ◼   ► and we would love it even more.

01:19:16 ◼   ► And as things stand, I still think it's kind of a great machine, and I would be perfectly

01:19:19 ◼   ► willing to replace the 13 inch air I have with this one, because the screens on the

01:19:22 ◼   ► error terrible and this one's just as fast and it has no fan. You see I I can't

01:19:28 ◼   ► agree with you there because if the if the priority is to make as freaking tiny

01:19:37 ◼   ► laptop as you can and I understand that you don't like that priority but the

01:19:41 ◼   ► fact of the matter is I do like it I wrote a whole article about how I like

01:19:44 ◼   ► it remember that article that was me. Well you're saying well why don't they

01:19:48 ◼   ► why don't they add a couple millimeters here there blah blah blah I don't but

01:19:51 ◼   ► they don't want to. So not thickness, length and width to make room for the port. You know what I mean?

01:19:56 ◼   ► Okay, so they want this case. This case is what they wanted.

01:20:01 ◼   ► That's not good design though, don't you agree? You don't design a car by designing the body first

01:20:05 ◼   ► and figure out how you can fit the insides in there. I think that's a really shaky analogy.

01:20:10 ◼   ► But I think the thing is they wanted a case to look like this because that makes a lot more sense

01:20:17 ◼   ► in computers than it does in a car. I think they said, well, we want this case to look like this.

01:20:21 ◼   ► And then I think they said, well, we only have room for one thing on the left hand side. We don't

01:20:27 ◼   ► have any room on the right hand side, because we want to do a headphone jack for all the reasons we

01:20:31 ◼   ► just discussed. We only have one thing on the left hand side, we could either make that a traditional

01:20:37 ◼   ► MagSafe, a MagSafe 2, or we can embrace this new USB Type-C. Is that right? I already forgot what

01:20:44 ◼   ► what it's called the USB-C and we could make it dual power and peripherals. And because

01:20:52 ◼   ► people are slow and dimwitted myself included, because I just earlier in the show talked

01:20:57 ◼   ► about how I have to have my USB ports and then couldn't figure out exactly which ones

01:21:00 ◼   ► I needed or what I needed them for because people are slow and dimwitted. They need to

01:21:05 ◼   ► know that they have some sort of parachute and they have some sort of escape hatch that

01:21:10 ◼   ► allows them to plug something in. It may not be something that is worthwhile to you or

01:21:18 ◼   ► to Ben Thompson or to whoever, but at least people know that they have, even if it's by

01:21:24 ◼   ► way of a $20 adapter, they have a means of plugging in a USB device if the need arises.

01:21:31 ◼   ► And so that to me is a much better choice than straight up MagSafe 2 because at least

01:21:36 ◼   ► it gives options. Now granted, Apple doesn't always like to give options. But as they're

01:21:42 ◼   ► dragging people into the future, and they refuse to stop thinking about tomorrow, john,

01:21:48 ◼   ► they're trying to give some people the option of plugging in these legacy devices for the

01:21:52 ◼   ► little bit of time they have to in order to move the world forward in the same way that

01:21:57 ◼   ► they use that they did, and I think still do support using another computer's optical

01:22:01 ◼   ► drive. If for some crazy reason, you're on a MacBook Air and must use an optical drive,

01:22:06 ◼   ► arguing against zero ports and not for one port like you're saying you're saying is if well they

01:22:10 ◼   ► need to have a port so people feel this safe yeah i agree i'm not saying now is the time to go with

01:22:14 ◼   ► zero but you're not arguing against two like what is the argument like everything you said applies

01:22:18 ◼   ► to two parts just as well as one you know what i mean yes i do and and i think the only answer i

01:22:23 ◼   ► have is the answer that you're not going to allow which is this is the size case they wanted this is

01:22:28 ◼   ► what they wanted to do if that was their philosophy if they actually did uh design the case first and

01:22:33 ◼   ► figure out how to fit the insides in it, which seems like a not a great philosophy for it,

01:22:38 ◼   ► because I mean you get the realities are like they didn't know how small they can make the

01:22:41 ◼   ► motherboard. They didn't like they just I don't maybe they do design it from the outside and if

01:22:45 ◼   ► that's the way they do it I don't know that's fine. I just think that's a bad way to design

01:22:48 ◼   ► things because the insides have such an effect on the outside that if you are dead set on some

01:22:54 ◼   ► particular dimensions like how would you even come up with those dimensions? Why not make it half

01:22:57 ◼   ► this thickness? Well you know the reality of you know what the realities of the insides there has

01:23:02 ◼   ► to be some key travel you have to find battery you have to put batteries somewhere like if

01:23:06 ◼   ► you at a certain point you can't have moving keys with batteries underneath them because

01:23:11 ◼   ► it's not thick enough so I feel like the insides do have some effect on the outside but regardless

01:23:16 ◼   ► even if Apple totally designs the case first and figure out how they can fit everything

01:23:19 ◼   ► in it I think that's a bad philosophy and they should design them together as one working

01:23:26 ◼   ► in a single unit and that there should be some form of decision of what kind of product

01:23:33 ◼   ► you're going to make.

01:23:34 ◼   ► Is this going to be the one that has no ports?

01:23:35 ◼   ► No, it's going to be the one that has some ports.

01:23:36 ◼   ► How many ports is it going to have?

01:23:37 ◼   ► Where are they going to go?

01:23:40 ◼   ► Design that into it.

01:23:42 ◼   ► Someone in the chat room says that, again, missing the idea that I think it's perfectly

01:23:46 ◼   ► fine for this to have one and nobody will care about geeks, which I will keep repeating

01:23:49 ◼   ► but people will keep telling me that I don't understand that because I totally do.

01:23:53 ◼   ► This is like when they on their head, no floppy drive.

01:23:55 ◼   ► And I would say it's more like the iMac,

01:23:57 ◼   ► if the iMac only had one floppy drive

01:23:58 ◼   ► instead of two floppy drives like the Mac SE had,

01:24:01 ◼   ► that's what it's like.

01:24:02 ◼   ► It's like, we're getting rid of floppy drives.

01:24:03 ◼   ► They didn't get rid of the ports.

01:24:04 ◼   ► They're still ports.

01:24:05 ◼   ► They just have one of them instead of two, right?

01:24:08 ◼   ► And can you get away with one of the ports instead of two?

01:24:10 ◼   ► Yeah, you can, but what am I getting?

01:24:12 ◼   ► Floppy drives are much larger

01:24:13 ◼   ► than these tiny USB ports.

01:24:14 ◼   ► What am I getting with one port

01:24:15 ◼   ► that I'm not getting with two?

01:24:16 ◼   ► And other than making some kind of philosophical statement

01:24:19 ◼   ► and maybe saving a few millimeters here and there

01:24:22 ◼   ► not on thickness, but on width and height, maybe somewhere,

01:24:25 ◼   ► I just don't see what it is that I'm getting

01:24:28 ◼   ► with one USB port instead of two.

01:24:30 ◼   ► Even if you just pick it,

01:24:32 ◼   ► it wouldn't be great to be able to put the power

01:24:33 ◼   ► in both sides, depending on how you arrange your stuff

01:24:35 ◼   ► on your desk.

01:24:36 ◼   ► That's another thing you'd be getting

01:24:37 ◼   ► with two ports instead of one.

01:24:39 ◼   ► - Sure, but you would have a thicker computer,

01:24:41 ◼   ► which is not what Apple wants.

01:24:42 ◼   ► - Would it be thicker?

01:24:42 ◼   ► I don't think it would be thicker.

01:24:43 ◼   ► It would be like length and width.

01:24:45 ◼   ► If you just shift the keyboard down two millimeters,

01:24:48 ◼   ► make the case longer two millimeters there,

01:24:50 ◼   ► Maybe we'll fit in the existing case for all we know I'm still not entirely convinced that that wouldn't fit there some people said because

01:24:55 ◼   ► It fits on one side and you have the headphone port on the other

01:24:58 ◼   ► I'm not quite sure if you if you couldn't get it to fit like that

01:25:01 ◼   ► I just you know they designed the case they can make it would not be appreciably bigger of an add two of them

01:25:05 ◼   ► I feel like

01:25:06 ◼   ► But it would be bigger

01:25:07 ◼   ► It would be bigger than it absolutely has to be it would get slightly longer battery life too because the bigger case would be

01:25:12 ◼   ► You know what? I mean? Like it's just but then it'll be heavier and and the weight like that

01:25:17 ◼   ► It would be the 13 inch retina

01:25:19 ◼   ► But it wouldn't be like it again. Do you think this machine with no taper would still be extremely distinct from the 13-inch?

01:25:26 ◼   ► Extremely it would be it would be way lighter way thinner right and and again all these things are saying

01:25:31 ◼   ► I'm not saying this is a reason this machine is no good or whatever

01:25:34 ◼   ► It's perfectly fine for everybody all I'm arguing about is for my specific needs or the needs of the geek people

01:25:39 ◼   ► Where this computer could be a changed in a way to broaden its appeal?

01:25:44 ◼   ► broaden it without narrowing the appeal without making it worse for those people because they are not going to notice the

01:25:49 ◼   ► You know even just lessen the taper like they're not going to notice that they don't they're not going to that such connoisseurs

01:25:54 ◼   ► They can say oh this one is tapered slightly less than the other one or wasn't the other one tapered a lot

01:25:57 ◼   ► This one's only tapered a little or not at all like they don't care. It would be 2.1 pounds instead of 2 pounds

01:26:02 ◼   ► They don't care. They don't notice those things next year's one would be 2 pounds

01:26:06 ◼   ► Like they'll they'll eventually get there when the CPU takes 2 watts instead of 5, you know what I mean? Like

01:26:10 ◼   ► There are very few drawbacks for the additions that I'm suggesting

01:26:13 ◼   ► But there are a few drawbacks to you or you don't think the drawbacks are big.

01:26:19 ◼   ► So who would notice these drawbacks? Who?

01:26:21 ◼   ► See, I don't know that a regular person or even I would notice them, but the thing is,

01:26:27 ◼   ► I'm not the one designing this computer and regular people aren't the ones designing this

01:26:31 ◼   ► computer. This is all about what Apple wants and Apple wants the thinnest freaking computer

01:26:36 ◼   ► they can get and the small…

01:26:37 ◼   ► Yeah, Apple wanted a round mouse too and they were wrong on that one too and they still say

01:26:40 ◼   ► they were right on that, so…

01:26:41 ◼   ► But that's the thing is that they still think they were right the Apple does what Apple wants to do and that's the end of

01:26:46 ◼   ► The frickin meeting and yes, I understand what you're saying that for an almost imperceptibly small addition in volume and in surface area

01:26:54 ◼   ► We could have another port and that unequivocally I am not arguing would be hugely useful

01:27:01 ◼   ► But in the end of the day the design goal from this machine seems very clearly to be make it as frickin tiny as you can

01:27:08 ◼   ► And that's what they've done. Oh, that was true. You get rid of the USB port

01:27:11 ◼   ► and make it a tiny inductive charging thing that slaps onto it like a little lamp ray and then we make it even thinner.

01:27:16 ◼   ► It's not as thin as possible. You could make this thing thinner. You could reduce the key travel further.

01:27:21 ◼   ► You could make the trackpad shallower. You could make this thing smaller and lighter. At some point

01:27:25 ◼   ► they, everything is a, you know, like this particular compromise is, there's nothing dictating this particular size.

01:27:30 ◼   ► You could make it even smaller and even thinner,

01:27:33 ◼   ► shaving even more of these things off, millimeter here, millimeter there. They decided to shop shaving at this point and

01:27:40 ◼   ► and they decided it wasn't important enough

01:27:42 ◼   ► to find room for the second port.

01:27:44 ◼   ► And it isn't important enough.

01:27:46 ◼   ► Like this machine is great, it's great for almost everybody.

01:27:49 ◼   ► I'm just nippling at this little tiny edge.

01:27:51 ◼   ► This is the problem that, you know,

01:27:52 ◼   ► it sounds like, oh, you're complaining about this

01:27:53 ◼   ► and you're being defensive about this one thing.

01:27:55 ◼   ► Machine is great, it's great for almost everybody.

01:27:57 ◼   ► I would recommend this machine more,

01:28:00 ◼   ► this, Mark was saying, you know,

01:28:01 ◼   ► who this replaces like the 13 inch Air is the one,

01:28:04 ◼   ► yes, totally, if someone says, I want a computer,

01:28:06 ◼   ► plus or minus the keyboard travel,

01:28:07 ◼   ► which I have to try myself

01:28:08 ◼   ► before I completely unequivocally recommend it

01:28:10 ◼   ► for everybody, this is the one to get.

01:28:12 ◼   ► Apple correctly named this MacBook and not MacBook Air

01:28:16 ◼   ► or any other variant.

01:28:17 ◼   ► This is the MacBook, this is the future of laptops.

01:28:21 ◼   ► Love everything about it.

01:28:22 ◼   ► Just have these few quibbles,

01:28:24 ◼   ► and then we keep arguing about it

01:28:25 ◼   ► because people think these quibbles

01:28:27 ◼   ► are not valid complaints in any way,

01:28:29 ◼   ► and I think they're totally valid complaints

01:28:31 ◼   ► about this machine that is the best laptop

01:28:33 ◼   ► Apple has ever made, that's probably the best laptop

01:28:35 ◼   ► for everybody except for people listening

01:28:37 ◼   ► to the show maybe.

01:28:38 ◼   ► - So John, when are you gonna buy one?

01:28:40 ◼   ► - I might get one to replace my wife's

01:28:42 ◼   ► 'cause like I said, the 13 inch,

01:28:44 ◼   ► she's got a 13 inch air

01:28:45 ◼   ► and I hear those stupid fans running all the time

01:28:47 ◼   ► and the screen is terrible and you can't look at it.

01:28:50 ◼   ► And this one would probably be faster.

01:28:51 ◼   ► Like even though the CPU is probably slower,

01:28:53 ◼   ► the SSD in it is probably faster.

01:28:56 ◼   ► It really depends on, actually,

01:28:58 ◼   ► I can't really use it to replace that

01:28:59 ◼   ► until I see if they have a,

01:29:01 ◼   ► something to connect it to a monitor,

01:29:03 ◼   ► the equivalent of the Thunderbolt display

01:29:05 ◼   ► where you'll have some kind of adapter or power thing

01:29:07 ◼   ► 'cause it sits in the desk, right?

01:29:08 ◼   ► - Yeah, well they do only for HDMI and VGA.

01:29:12 ◼   ► Notably, it can't connect to an Apple Thunderbolt display.

01:29:16 ◼   ► - Well I know, but like I'm assuming

01:29:17 ◼   ► they'll come out with a new display,

01:29:19 ◼   ► and it can't power the big Retina one,

01:29:20 ◼   ► so you can't power the 5K iMac sized display from this.

01:29:24 ◼   ► - And that's actually a good point.

01:29:25 ◼   ► I think if they're going to come out with a new display,

01:29:28 ◼   ► it's gonna be a 5K 27 inch.

01:29:30 ◼   ► But if they do that, this laptop can't drive that.

01:29:34 ◼   ► - Yeah, don't you think there's room in their lineup

01:29:35 ◼   ► for like a 24 inch retina type thing?

01:29:38 ◼   ► - No, no I don't.

01:29:41 ◼   ► I mean they haven't had one for years.

01:29:42 ◼   ► - Well I mean considering they don't seem

01:29:44 ◼   ► to want to make monitors at all anymore.

01:29:46 ◼   ► - That's, yeah, I think that's the big thing.

01:29:47 ◼   ► I think they're gonna, at some point they're going

01:29:50 ◼   ► to make a 5K Thunderbolt external display

01:29:53 ◼   ► for whatever version of Thunderbolt can support that.

01:29:57 ◼   ► Or maybe a future version of USB-C.

01:29:59 ◼   ► Maybe the current USB-C can support it

01:30:00 ◼   ► and we just don't know it.

01:30:01 ◼   ► But I think people ran the numbers on the actual,

01:30:04 ◼   ► like the GPU in this particular MacBook

01:30:07 ◼   ► and I think it can't do output at more than 4K.

01:30:10 ◼   ► But, you know, it wouldn't surprise me

01:30:14 ◼   ► if Apple's just gonna wait until whatever bus

01:30:16 ◼   ► can support it and whatever economics can support it

01:30:19 ◼   ► and just do it in like two years

01:30:21 ◼   ► and only the MacBook Pros from the previous year

01:30:24 ◼   ► can plug into it.

01:30:25 ◼   ► - I would like to have one of these, like I said,

01:30:26 ◼   ► sitting on a little, you know, the table next to my couch

01:30:29 ◼   ► or on like my bedside table, you know what I mean?

01:30:31 ◼   ► Like I don't, I tend not to like laptops,

01:30:33 ◼   ► but if I was gonna get one, it would be this type of thing.

01:30:35 ◼   ► Like super thin, super light,

01:30:37 ◼   ► all I'm doing it is web browsing and typing

01:30:38 ◼   ► because as much as I love my iPads,

01:30:41 ◼   ► if it comes time to bang out an email,

01:30:42 ◼   ► I don't wanna do it on my iPad.

01:30:43 ◼   ► I would much rather have this thing.

01:30:44 ◼   ► So yeah, I would totally buy this for myself

01:30:46 ◼   ► if I had money hanging around for a laptop, which I don't.

01:30:50 ◼   ► - Well, I think the unit though,

01:30:51 ◼   ► like this does have lots of great uses.

01:30:55 ◼   ► I mean, that's one of the things I've considered for years,

01:30:58 ◼   ► picking up like an old or refurb

01:31:01 ◼   ► for a very, very baseline 11-inch Air

01:31:04 ◼   ► to basically be my bedside laptop,

01:31:06 ◼   ► 'cause I will so often want,

01:31:08 ◼   ► like we'll go up to bed and I'll be like,

01:31:10 ◼   ► "Oh, you know, I had an idea.

01:31:13 ◼   ► "Before we go to bed, I wanna type up an idea,"

01:31:15 ◼   ► or for a blog post, or type up an email or something,

01:31:19 ◼   ► or respond to some emails or something.

01:31:20 ◼   ► I wanna do things that involve typing,

01:31:23 ◼   ► and normally I just have an iPad up there,

01:31:24 ◼   ► and I don't like doing those things like you on an iPad.

01:31:28 ◼   ► I'd rather have a keyboard.

01:31:29 ◼   ► - Do you use dictation?

01:31:30 ◼   ► I've been doing that lately,

01:31:31 ◼   ► 'cause dictation is actually pretty good in iOS,

01:31:33 ◼   ► and I don't wanna type,

01:31:34 ◼   ► so I will just use the dictation thing

01:31:36 ◼   ► on the keyboard in iOS to do longer things.

01:31:38 ◼   ► - I would very quickly be kicked out of bed

01:31:40 ◼   ► if I tried that.

01:31:42 ◼   ► - I mean, mostly, yeah.

01:31:44 ◼   ► You don't do it when someone is sleeping next to you,

01:31:46 ◼   ► obviously, but I find it more efficient than trying to type,

01:31:50 ◼   ► but I still would want a keyboard

01:31:51 ◼   ► for something longer, obviously.

01:31:52 ◼   ► - Yeah, and so if I use laptops a lot,

01:31:57 ◼   ► I would totally get one of these things

01:32:00 ◼   ► for my bedside laptop, but because I tend to only have one laptop and I don't use it

01:32:08 ◼   ► so often that I would be able to justify having a second one, I probably, you know, I'm probably

01:32:14 ◼   ► not going to do it. But I totally see that. I think you're going to sell a lot of these

01:32:18 ◼   ► things for a whole bunch of uses where people aren't really plugging anything into it except

01:32:22 ◼   ► power sometimes.

01:32:23 ◼   ► So I'm sorry, you're saying this would be your night laptop?

01:32:26 ◼   ► Yeah. My upstairs laptop and my downstairs laptop.