Apple shows off Watch and 12" Retina laptop

I agree. I’ve managed to get some work done with Android tablets, but I always come crawling back to my MBP laptop for its chicklet keyboard, higher res screen and to be free from app and OS ecosystem limitations. I’d like to get a Surface, but I’d rather that be running OS X. I’d like to get a MacBook Air and use that as a sort of more portable “tablet”, but they’re really expensive “tablets”. In the meantime, I’ll keep eyeballing craigslist for a used MBA, heh…

I tend to think the gold Apple watch is for people that can brag they lost their expensive watch and don’t care, because…

I’m using a 2007-ish MacBook Pro which seems increasingly slower, so anything might be an improvement, but I wouldn’t mind having a tablet that ran MacOS. I assume this has been (relatively) long ago discussed, rejected and ridiculed.

I think there is a different market for gold Apple devices other than the super rich.

1 Like

The keyboard and its new “butterfly” switches don’t feel as good as Apple’s regular keyboard. Key size and spacing are fine, but the key travel and the way the keys feel are both quite different.
(…)
That said, every new keyboard needs some getting used to, and as writers by trade we’re particularly persnickety about the keyboards we like. We had just a few minutes with the Retina MacBook keyboard, and while we don’t think it’s as good as Apple’s regular MacBook Air and Pro keyboard, it’s possible that it will leave a better impression after several days of use.

The Air’s springy, well-spaced keyboard is one of the reasons many people prefer it over rival machines. Indeed, I actually cringed a bit when I first saw the new MacBook’s button layout: The keys here really don’t have much travel.

That’s what I read.

1 Like

I was excited when the iPod was released. At the time, I was sitting there with a relatively expensive, crappy mp3 player and saw right away the advantages of the iPod.

This watch? Just doesn’t seem as revolutionary in its approach to me because it’s tethered to an iPhone. If Apple had figured out some revolutionary way to power a tiny watch that was self-sufficient and didn’t require an iPhone in my pocket, I’d be much more enthused about it.

Overall, I’m much more excited about the direction Apple is going with their new, even larger trackpads with Force Touch, pressure sensitive writing, (pressure sensitive photo editing?), etc.

I already use a MacBook Pro’s trackpad to do a lot of stuff in Photoshop (this mockup below, for example, I used my trackpad for all the editing with my fingers) and would love to be able to also use it more like a Wacom tablet on my laptop.

Of course, if Apple did THIS below with the MacBook’s trackpad, I’d shit bricks. See my mockup below:

Hi-res LCD under the trackpad’s glass. Allows one to pinch and zoom either in unison or even the option to do it independently of the Photoshop image you’re editing on your main screen. Utilizes pressure sensitive capabilities with optional stylus or just use your finger. It’s basically a built-in Wacom tablet and trackpad simultaneously.

A photographer’s portable dream studio and great for other things as well including zooming in on spreadsheets, etc. and could even also serve as a little, secondary display for notes, email alerts, notification center, etc., etc. – The options would be endless, really. See another idea below:

Instead of this, we get a watch that’s tethered to an iPhone. I expect bold stuff like I’m showing in my mockups above from a company like Apple. Not this tepid, limited watch.

In other words, what I’m saying is I should replace Tim Cook. Hire me now, Apple. I’ll work for peanuts.

5 Likes

Could be. But what I keep thinking is that in five years, the solid gold iWatch will be every bit as obsolete as the cheapest plastic model.

Whereas a five year old Rolex or a Breitling will be the full functional equivalent of a new-in-2020 model, and will retain a huge fraction of its original price (sometimes over 100%)

2 Likes

My Xybernauts are nearly 20 years old, and they laugh at contemporary iDevices, as well as Roleces.

So the new Macbook keyboard isn’t as good as the old Macbook keyboard, which isn’t as good as the old Lenovo Thinkpad NMB keyboard, which isn’t as good as the IBM Thinkpad NMB keyboard. It seems like we’re marching backwards into the future.

That new keyboard looks like it would be horrible to use for more than a few minutes, but I have known that I am not in Apple’s target market for quite a few years now.

That would be sweet.

I’m use a Mac mostly, due to work, but my wife has a Windows 7 laptop for her work. We finally decided, after years of owning only work computers, that it was time to get a “house computer” again.

Even though I had been a Mac guy for years now, I really liked the idea of Metro. I didn’t get all the hate for it. So, after researching for a while, I got a Yoga 2. (A – in retrospect, perhaps unfortunate – compromise between the Surface and something with a proper keyboard.)

Terrible decision. 8.1 really is a pain, and the Yoga 2 itself adds on a whole slew of its own bugs. And had I forgotten all about terrible bloatware since owning a PC? Yes I had. What a pain in the ass. (At least I checked the PC recently and I guess I bought it before the evil Lenovo spyware/security-wrecker was installed on all their machines.)

I’ll hang on to it, and hope that Windows 10 is magically better, but I’m annoyed. I guess really I should install Mint or something instead, but I’ve finally found a professional photo organizer I like, and obviously it doesn’t exist on Unix.

1 Like

Thinkpads used to be able to survive this, as the keyboard area had drains built in.

6 Likes

I’m not a fan of trackpads full stop*. But that mock-up does look incredibly useful, it’s the kind of thing that’s surprising it isn’t in use on most laptops.
The only one i’m aware that does have that is this one: http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade-pro

*to the point i’ve actually disabled the trackpad on my thinkpad laptop, i find the little joystick thing in the keyboard far superior plus i use a wireless mouse most of the time.

1 Like

[quote=“failquail, post:84, topic:53305”]
The only one i’m aware that does have that is this one: Gaming Laptops - Laptop Computers for PC Gaming - Razer Blade💻 | Razer United States
[/quote]That’s really close to it! That’s what I love about PC systems, you can find just about anything out there. Want a giant 20" laptop? You got it!

Unfortunately, that trackpad is very low resolution (800 x 480) and it’s located in a terrible spot to the right of the keyboard. That’s exactly where one’s right hand and wrist will often be blocking the view of it (one won’t be able to see notifications easily) and it forces the usage of the right hand instead of being able to use either hand. No cigar.

The marketing materials don’t show how the two modes work in detail. They really need someone to show how it works in a video and/or offer better, clearer presentation material on their website. The changeable buttons above it are neat, but I’d rather see that real estate used for a larger LCD trackpad. But, then again, for the most part this is obviously geared towards gamers and not also the general public, unfortunately.

They’re off on the right foot, but the execution is terrible, in my opinion.

Edit: I found a good video showing it in action here:

After watching the video, I see that they do have it work with video editing, photoshop, etc. – I’d love to get my hands (or, er right hand only) on it and test it out in person. But, again, I don’t like its position on the right. I think it should be in the middle below the keyboard.

But, ugh… again… their marketing is crappy. I want to see a video of someone actually using the LCD trackpad in Photoshop, video editing, etc. – I shouldn’t have to dig all over the place looking for it and only finding crappy demos like this or longwinded, amateurish stuff on YouTube.

But, I did also find this:

The video does a good job of pointing out its flaws. The texture of the glass is all wrong. The implementation is buggy, etc.

I’d love to see Apple do this right… along with putting it in the middle below the keyboard, etc.

i’ve actually disabled the trackpad on my thinkpad laptop

I don’t blame you. PC trackpads tend to suck. However, Mac laptop trackpads are vastly better overall. It also depends upon your workflow. For some projects I don’t touch the trackpad or mouse for hours. For other projects, it’s integral.

That said, I know people that can’t stand even basic staples of gesturing, such as 2-finger scrolling. They use the arrow keys instead and I notice that tends to slow down their workflow, but they wouldn’t have it any other way.

I enjoy 2-finger scrolling, it’s always felt very natural to do and it increases the speed of my workflow for the most part. I’ve mastered using Inertia settings and nudging to stop, etc. and I’ve also got Hover Scroll wired (via Smart Scroll I’ve been using for about a decade). Using the arrow keys to scroll seems stunted and medieval to me in comparison for a lot of workflows.

But, for some it comes down to personal preference even if it does slow them down.

2 Likes

The Razer’s trackpad is positioned to the right of the keyboard for a reason. It’s because it’s on a gaming laptop, and it’s more ergonomic when using the WADS keys for movement to have the mouse/track pad spaced as close to shoulder width apart as possible. They’re trying to emulate the setup of a PC gamer’s keyboard and mouse. Albeit, there are limitations in how ergonomic you can make a laptop’s keyboard and trackpad locations thanks to the small space allocations.

I have had this idea, too, so assumed that Apple was on it and just waiting for the touch screen price to drop low enough to make it feasible. Your mock-ups are beautiful, though.

Heh, they said “taptic feedback.” (an unrelated aside.)

I once tried the Wacom Cinque, or what ever they called it, and found that I felt my hand was in the way of seeing what was going on, which I had never felt with actual drawing on paper. Having another screen echoing the display might make it workable.

1 Like

Doesn’t work for my setup. I use the cursor and number pad keys with my right hand, and move my mouse to my left. I use my mouse right-handed for everything else!

I have a Razer Hydra setup as well, but haven’t become skilled with it.

It’s almost like you insist on being an odd duck :smile_cat:

2 Likes

Bwuh? That’s a lot. It might not seem like a lot if you’re using the Watch as your primary device–or, rather, pretending to use the Watch as your primary device, as it needs to be tethered to an iPhone. Thing is, though, if you’re using one of those functions more frequently or for a longer period of time, at some point you might want to switch over to the phone. (I’m assuming that there will be some function to stop receiving notifications if, say, you’re having an IM conversation, or stop streaming music through the Watch if you’re listening to a longer jam.)

This is, in fact, how I used my current smartwatch, a Pebble (original Kickstarter edition), which is much less capable than the AW will be but does allow me to get notifications, control music on the phone, have a watchface that’s readable without reading glasses, etc. In effect, what it does is function as a filter, letting me check out phone calls and messages and notifications without necessarily having to pull out the phone and bring up whatever app.

1 Like

I use my good hand for everything, but then again, I can’t play fpses, anything with painful graphics, anything with reflex demands, etc.

I keep forgetting that a Apple Watch is useless without a iPhone. Silly me.