This week on The CultCast: Get out your pitchforks — we’ll tell you why a lot of folks are very unhappy with the new MacBook Pros. Plus, we compare the MacBook Pro’s performance to older models and similarly priced machines; Apple calls it quits on external displays; and the end of an era — one of Mac’s most iconic features gets retired.
Our thanks to Casper for supporting this episode. Casper’s American-made mattresses have just the right amount of memory foam and latex, and people everywhere love them. Learn why and save $50 off your order at casper.com/cultcast.
Episode info
CultCast #256 – Why we’re canceling our MacBook Pro order Subscribe on iTunes
Our Twitters, if you please
@bst3r / @erfon / @lkahney
What do you think of Apple’s new MacBook Pro? Let us know at TheCultCast.reddit.com.
Show notes
About those new MacBook Pros …
[contextly_auto_sidebar]
- Hiked prices really make you think about what you’re getting, especially compared to how much better it is than what you already have (or what’s available on the market).
- Raw power differences/speed increases in new MacBook Pro (compared to 2012 model).
- Specs aren’t everything as Appleoptimizes everything.
- Felix Schwarz on Twitter
- CPU
-
- Only about 30 percent increase in Geekbench Single and MultiCore if buying the same speed processor you have now.
- Skylake processors are already a year old, but Kaby Lake processors weren’t ready (they’re due out in January). Cannonlake processors are due in 2017 as well.
- GPU
-
- You get 100 percent to 180 percent increase in GPU performance over 2012 dedicated GPUs.
- AMD Pro 400 series is used for low power consumption. It’s a 4-year-old architecture.
-
- It’s a mobile version of a budget graphics card.
- AMD claims”the thinnest graphics processor possible.”
- It’s ideal for artists, designers, photographers, filmmakers, visualizers.
- Not on par with Nvidia GPUs
-
- Nvidia’s budget card, GTX 1060, performs at 4.2 teraflops a second versus AMD Pro 460’s 1.8 teraflops. AMD Pro 455’s 1.2 teraflops and AMD Pro 450’s 1 teraflop.
- Nickel and dimed
-
- You’ll need new cables or dongles for all your USB devices, your iPhone, your peripherals and Thunderbolt 2 devices, maybe your existing monitor.
- No power brick extension cable.
- Funny enough, Phil Schiller noted the new MacBook Pro still has a 3.5mm headphone jack because it is a “pro machine,” but lacks an SD card reader because it’s a “cumbersome” slot best left to adapters or wireless transfers.
- Taking into account the $400 to $500 price increases, it’s hard to get on board.
- Next year’s upgrade will address a number of our concerns
-
- Much newer Intel CPUs.
- More availability of USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 tech.
- Lower prices.
- Touch Bar bugs worked out (if any).
- Cheaper SSD upgrades.
- Again, specs aren’t everything. Apple says the new MacBook Pro has:
-
- 130 percent better 3-D graphics performance.
- 60 percent better gaming performance.
- 57 percent better video editing performance.
Links
Performance comparison of the 2012 and 2016 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro
MacBook Pro’s two biggest problems may get fixed in 2017
- KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo told investors in a recent note that he expects Apple will bring big price cuts to the MacBook Pro along with some internal upgrades. Kuo also claims the 2017 update will finally give the MacBook Pro up to 32GB of RAM.
- Kaby Lake CPUs will be used if Intel’s Cannonlake chips aren’t ready. That will keep max RAM support at 16GB for another year.
- Price cuts on the next MacBook Pro won’t arrive until the second half of 2017 though.
Apple is officially done making displays
- The days of Apple making its own stand-alone displays for the Mac mini and Mac Pro are past.
- Apple revealed a new 5K 27-inch Thunderbolt 3 display during its “Hello Again” last week, only instead of being made by Apple, the company partnered with LG to create the monitor.
- The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel tweeted that, after asking about it at the Hello Again event, he was informed by Apple that “it’s out of the stand-alone display biz.”
- Apple did add some tech to LG’s display so that it integrates better with Macs. You can adjust the brightness settings on theLG 5K UltraFine display from your Mac, rather than pushing buttons on the display itself.
- It costs $1,300, or $700 for a 4K model.
2016 MacBook Pro loses the iconic startup chime
- The new MacBook Pro jettisons the iconic F-sharp sound Apple uses to show a Mac is booting up.
- The use of an arpeggiated chord when you started your Mac dates back to the Macintosh II, when software engineer Mark Lentczner incorporated it into the system.
- The sound was later revised by Jim Reekes, Apple’s senior software engineer in charge of the audio and system sounds, during the 1990s. Over the years, its tone has changed further and the instrumentation has also varied,
- The reason for getting rid of the sound has to do with the fact that the new laptops now turn on from a fully switched-off mode if they’re opened – meaning you can save all that energy you would otherwise have expended pressing the power button.
- There’s hope! You can reactivate the sound via a terminal command: How to restore Mac startup chimes on 2016 MacBook Pro
Nvidia GTX 1060 laptop versus desktop benchmarks — Is Pascal really a game changer?
Apple has received more online orders for new MacBook Pro than any previous generation
