Rubenerd

Apple announced their new line of MacBook Pros in the 13 and 15-inch sizes. No word of the mythical 16-inch the rumour mills were obsessed with a few short months ago.

Let’s address the concerns first. Their press release made no mention of the keyboard; an odd and elephant-in-room sized omission given the press coverage has even spilled over to mainstream publications now. The imitable Jim Dalrymple got a comment from Apple, emphasis added:

To address the problem, Apple said they changed the material in the keyboard’s butterfly mechanism that should substantially reduce issues that some users have seen.

This isn’t the redesign people with keyboard issues were asking for. The user-hostile bufferfly mechanism has fundamental durability and ergonomic issues inherient in its design. Warranty programmes address the symptoms but not the cause; they just need to be replaced. And nobody has delivered a compelling use for the touchbar, not even Apple.

I’m also unsure how useful a new 8-core CPU will be to a computer with a chassis that can’t thermally handle its current ones. I used my first-generation MacBook Pro on a cooling pad when docked at my desk; perhaps that will ultimately be the solution here as well.

On the plus side, is an overused phrase. At least Apple are hitting a cadence with Mac updates for the first time in a while; it was getting difficult as a long-term Mac fan to see a future for the ecosystem when even the main manufacturer seemingly didn’t care.

Here’s hoping the MacBook Pro was rushed out now so they can spend time at WWDC announcing the new Mac Pro. I’ve half-stepped out of the Mac ecosystem at this stage, but I still love macOS and want to see it continue to be a viable workstation.