Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Apple MacBook Semi-Pro

Greetings:

Apple has done us in - again!  The "new and improved" MacBookPro now has the remarkable Retina display - but at what cost?

  • You can't upgrade the standard 8GB RAM once purchased.  Meaning that you have to decide UP FRONT to purchase the maximum 16GB RAM available for your Mac since you won't be able to upgrade later.  Fortunately, that's only a $200 upgrade.
  • You won't be able to upgrade the Flash Drive (hard drive to you old troops) later either.  And the low end MacBook Pro has only one available, the 256 GB drive.  The BigBoy MacBook Pro has either a 512GB or a 786GB.  Unfortunately, that's a $500 upgrade for a small upgrade on the HD front.
  • There is NO Firewire 800 on the blooming thing!  OK, there is a pair of Thunderbolt ports and Apple does sell (if you can find one) a Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 Adaptor.  But it does not come with it as a necessary accessory.  
  • There no Kensington lock slot so you will have to find another way to lock your laptop to the desk when visiting a client or when at the office.
  • THERE IS NO SUPER DRIVE !!!  Now how inconvenient is that??  You will have to carry around a separate USB drive.  That's anoter $79 plus tax, title and license.
  • Finally, just to cap everything off, THERE'S NO ETHERNET PORT!!  Now, is that really stupid or what??  Apple seems to think that everyone has access, all the time, to wireless ports, everywhere!  At the office.  At the hotels around the world.  Everywhere!  Well, surprise, Apple Executives Everywhere Around The World!  It doesn't work that way.  I've been around the world and you do NOT get wireless everywhere - not even in the USA.  Not even in NYC!!
  • Penultimately, just to make things even better, the battery doesn't last as long because that beautiful Retina screen draws more power.  Yep - the battery that was supposed to be better?  It isn't.  The screen takes up all the juice plus more.
  • Finally, Apple dropped that wonderful 17" MacBook Pro.  Yep.  No Retina screen for my Big Mac.  I have to go back to a 15" screen on the airplane with all of the CxO guys and the Executive Assistants who are not "real" developers but just need a word processor or a spreadsheet display on a plane.  I NEED THE REAL ESTATE !!!  Damn it, I'm a a developer and I need my big screen when I'm off-site!  Now I'm going to have to go to Toshiba or HP or some other Windoze environment, aka Linux, to get it.  
Apple, you've done me in.  I've been with you since you went to Unix and now you're driving me away.  I'll stay for a while to see if you will mend your ways.  But I won't buy that 15" Baby Mac that you're trying to foist on me and the rest of the real Developer World.  Not for travel, anyway.  Maybe for working at home when I can hook it up to my 30" Mac Full-Color Display and work like real developers are supposed to work.

SDG
jco

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