Mistake One

Yesterday, Marco Arment bought one of the new ultra-thin MacBooks. He wrote about his experiences in using it the first day, and why he's now going to return it. You should read his post to get all of the details of his critique.

In a post entitled "Mistake One", Marco Arment writes:

Instead, we have major compromises on previous invariants. Until now, since I started buying Macs 11 years ago, Apple had never shipped a laptop with a keyboard or trackpad that was less than great. They recognized that a laptop without a good keyboard wasn’t a good laptop, even if a lot of people would be OK with it and buy it anyway.

Now, Apple’s priorities have changed. Rather than make really great products that are mostly thin, they now make really thin products that are mostly great.

This concerns me more than you probably think it should. Not only does it represent compromised standards in areas I believe are important, but it suggests that they don’t have many better ideas to advance the products beyond making them thinner, and they’re willing to sacrifice anything to keep that going.

I'm not a laptop guy. I detest notebook computers because unlike most people (and I recognize I'm in an extreme minority here), I do not commute, I rarely travel, and I otherwise just use my computers in my office in a single room of my house and never have the need to move them.

For this reason, a notebook computer is nothing but a bucket full of compromises that I do not need or want. And that's fine. I recognize that most people need mobility, and desire ultra-portability while wanting fast computers. My beef with Apple is not this, but with their desires for thinness and lightness creeping into product lines that do not need these features.

In 2009, Apple rolled out the 27" iMac with an IPS display for the first time. The machine had a beefy, fast 7200 RPM hard drive in it. In 2012, the new iMacs released had a notebook-thin edge to them, from where the computer tapered down from the middle, in the back. Why? Because it made it look thin from the side. The drawbacks though? It went from having a 3.5" 7200 RPM hard drive inside with plenty of room to cool it, to having a slower, 2.5" 5400 RPM hard drive in it. These machines were also noticably hotter, due to their confined space.

Another example of this thiness-creep: The late 2013 Mac Pro. Now, don't get me wrong...I own one. And I love it. Its the best Mac I've ever owned....but this is also my first Mac Pro I've ever owned. The machine looks fantastic. But the rest of my desk? Awful. Why? Because in order to use the Mac Pro like I want to use it, like I would have used the previous cheese grater Mac Pro, is to have lots of external thunderbolt drives, connected to it. The previous Mac Pro could hold 4 drives internally, and have expansion slots & bays for things like additional SSDs or upgradeable video cards. This new Mac Pro has six thunderbolt slots. Apple basically told its pro users, "Hey folks! Jony wanted to make something small and pretty, but we recognize you actually need to use this machine for practical reasons, so, here are a lot of ports! Have fun!".

I don't know if we can lay the blame for these decisions on Jony Ive, but I'm going to do it because he's the person ultimately responsible for design, right? Whether he is directly responsibile or not, he is the person that has the power to change this. I think its clear from interviews we've seen him do, and videos we've seem him do, Jony doesn't like clutter. So Jony eliminates clutter. The problem is - he really isn't eliminating clutter at all. His customers still NEED that clutter - whether it be more storage space on Mac Pros or more ports on the MacBook. He's just ducking the responsibility of the clutter off to third parties. He's putting his fingers in his ears and going "LA-LA-LA-LA-LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU" while shutting his eyes and thinking of Kansas. The result? More and more of Apple's products (like this new MacBook, like the Mac Pro) are pushing the burden and responsibility off on the customer or third party accessory maker so that Jony can pretend it isn't necessary. The result? My desk is cluttered with half a dozen external thunderbolt and USB 3 drives. MacBook users are going to have to buy Apple's ridiculous $80 dongle or thirdparty versions of it, in order to actually use the product as they need to use it. Sure, this makes their products look pretty in Apple stores and on their website in order to sell more of them. But I think its the cheap, easy, and lazy way out. The problem that needs solving includes these needs of their customers. By pretending like the needs doesn't exist, or refusing to bear the responsibility of solving them, Apple is making worse products. On the outside, these machines look beautiful but in practical, day-to-day use, are worse than the products they used to make. This makes me sad and disappointed.

Enclosing Our Deck With Lattice

Monday is my birthday. My parents came to visit this weekend and as a gift to me, my father helped me install a lattice enclosure underneath our deck to prevent the dogs from going under it (and covering their paws with clumpy awful clay mud which they subsequently track into the house).

It took us all day yesterday to install it, but once done, I'm quite happy with how it turned out. Thank's Dad.

Speed & Reliability vs Portability & Convenience

Since Apple's "Spring Forward" event announcement on March 9th, there has been much hemming and hawing about the design of the new MacBook. I won't be the first to say this new machine is not target at the geek audience, but I wanted to express my own thoughts about it nonetheless. This afternoon I started Tweeting an incomplete thought on this subject but after several Tweets stopped myself, and decided it better expressed via this blog post.

First, let me say that I detest wireless-anything because of its current inferiority to wired-anything in terms of speed and reliability. Of course there are instances where this doesn't apply: AirPlay, Sonos, my iPhone are three products I use daily that come to mind. When mobility is not a requirement, however, I prefer speed and reliability. Maybe someday wireless will be able to stand as being technologically superior to wired in terms of these properties in all instances, but that day is not today. It maybe be in two years, but I highly doubt it. It may be in five years, but again I doubt it. It may be in ten years....probably.

But that day is not today.

This is why I have no desire to own the new MacBook. This is also why the new MacBook was not designed for people like me. The people who it was designed for do not prioritize speed and reliability over all else. The people it was designed for prioritize portability and convenience over my values. If I were someone who traveled more, or left my house more than once or twice per week (I work from home), then I might value this machine more. That Apple made this machine is okay with me, however, because the Mac Pro and Retina 5K iMac both exist. And this will continue to be okay with me, as long as Apple still makes these desktop machines.

I think that most of the controversy around this machine comes from people like me who fear the new direction of the MacBook is an early indicator that Apple plans to eventually do away with the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, Mac Pro, etc etc, in favor of more machines like the new MacBook. They are upset about the new design because Apple came out with a revolutionary and groundbreaking new product that was not designed for them! Their beloved Apple is forsaking them!

Calm down.

Eventually when wireless technology catches up to all of our existing ports and is able to transfer as fast as gigabit Ethernet, Thunderbolt, USB 3, and Displayport 1.3, then Apple might just come out with MacBook-like products across their entire product line. Apple is not stupid, though. They realize what and how people use their current products. They know that people still need MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs -- why else would they have released spec refreshes to those machines last week as well, if they did not?

In the meantime, that day is not today. But that day is coming within the next 5-20 years. In the meantime, rest easy, sit back, and lets enjoy witnessing progress happen during our lifetimes.