MacBook Pro: The biggest and baddest Mac laptops

The new MacBook Pros have certainly caused an uprising of controversy, with perhaps the lack of any traditional USB ports causing the most public outcry. Following in the footsteps of the one-port Retina MacBook, the new 2016 MacBook Pro lacks traditional USB-A ports, instead featuring up to four USB-C ports. Although the ports are highly more capable, offering Thunderbolt 3 speeds on a reversible small connector, it effectively means that all current Mac accessories and peripherals are incompatible without some kind of adaptor.

In preparation for my new MacBook Pro arriving, I’ve ordered what I think I will need in terms of dongles for my uses. After seeing it all laid out on the table, I generally feel like the negative criticism is overblown …

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Some have been pretty skeptical concerning the new MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar, worried that it will complicate things for users who are accustomed to the physical function row of keys. If you’re in the camp of wondering exactly how the new Touch Bar will work, a new tool brings the capability to all Macs…

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In this week’s top stories: Apple answers your MacBook Pro questions, cuts USB-C adapter prices, iOS 10.2 arrives for testers, and we break down the best wireless cord-free earbuds available ahead of Apple’s AirPods.

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The Apple community has had a hard time being content with the Mac lately. First it was the feeling that the Mac line including MacBook Pros weren’t being updated as often as, say, iPhones. A redesigned MacBook Pro helps resolve that with at least one member of the Mac family.

But the new MacBook Pro goes all in on USB-C and drops legacy ports like standard USB-A, and many Mac users believe this move is too aggressive considering the cost attached to this transition. The good news is that Apple is listening and lowering the price of its USB-C adapters in an effort to ease the USB-A to USB-C transition, but you have to act fast…

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The Touch Bar in the new MacBook Pro replaces the physical function keys on the keyboard with a touchscreen panel, allowing apps to display custom, unique and contextual interfaces like buttons, sliders, tabs and other controls. We’ve already covered some general details about how the Touch Bar works and what developers can do with the API, but it will take some time for third-party developers to add integration.

Apple is leading the charge, however, adding extensive Touch Bar support to many macOS apps with 10.12.1. Using the Xcode developer tools, we’ve gathered screenshots from all of Apple’s apps that already include Touch Bar features. See our roundup of the 23 compatible apps after the jump …

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With much heated debate on Apple’s decision to go all-out on USB-C ports on the new MacBook Pro, removing everything else bar the headphone socket, we thought it was time to get some hard data on whether there was a consensus view on the issue.

Our poll, attracting more than 25,000 votes, showed that there isn’t. There was close to an even split, though those who consider it a positive development did narrowly outweigh those who think it a bad move …

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It’s no secret that I’ve been a huge fan of Apple’s 12-inch MacBook. Last year, I wrote that it was the product that excited me the most about Apple’s future, noting of its design, new trackpad and keyboard technology, and overall daily impact on my workflow. A year and a half after the device was announced, we’re now seeing Apple take much of what made the 12-inch MacBook so great and apply it to the MacBook Pro lineup.

While there has been some skepticism surrounding the new MacBook Pros, I am incredibly excited for mine to arrive. And that’s partly because of my love for the 12-inch model.

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In the wake of the new Thunderbolt 3 USB-C only MacBook Pro, OWC has announced its first Thunderbolt 3 Dock. The dock features a total of 13 additional ports, including 5 USB-A ports, two additional Thunderbolt 3 ports (which could drive a pair of 4K displays), Ethernet and an SD card reader.

Thanks to the high bandwidth of Thunderbolt 3, all of this expandability can be enabled by connecting a single Thunderbolt 3 USB-C cable to your new MacBook Pro (or any other computer with a Thunderbolt 3 USB-C port). In comparison, the Thunderbolt 2 version of this dock can only drive 5 concurrent accessories, so it’s easy to see the benefits of the additional throughput.

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We’ve run three opinion pieces recently addressing Apple’s decision to remove all but USB-C ports from the new MacBook Pro – and each has attracted literally hundreds of comments.

I started the ball rolling by arguing that while I do fully appreciate the pain involved in the transition, it’s a trade-off. Buying a few new cables or adapters today versus ending up with too few USB-C ports when the new standard has taken over a year or so down the line. That one generated more than 700 comments, many of them arguing that I was wrong and that Apple should have offered a mix of USB-A and -C ports, as well as retaining the SD slot …

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A lot of noise has been made about Apple’s move away from MagSafe with the all-new MacBook Pros. Instead of MagSafe, the new machines feature four USB-C ports, all of which are capable of charging the machine. As Zac noted this afternoon, the ability to charge from either side of the machine with USB-C has its perks, but some users are still rightfully missing the safety and security of the MagSafe adapter.

That’s where Griffin’s BreakSafe comes in. It brings MagSafe-like tech to USB-C connections, but there are a few things you should note before running out and purchasing one…

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I am really excited about the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. I placed my order for a 15-inch model with storage upgraded to 1TB SSD on day one which puts me in the initial 2-3 week shipping range between November 17 and November 25. I seriously cannot wait to unbox this Mac.

The time between the unveiling and deliveries, however, has been filled with mass criticism targeted at nearly every change Apple has made between the last MacBook Pro design and the new one. This is a change MacBook Pro and we’ve been through these before. We’ll be fine. But in the meantime, I believe people are complaining about the wrong things.

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Apple impressed me with the apps it had ready for the new MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar at launch. It’s not just limited to button replacements or system functions, which you can customize, but will also support Final Cut Pro, Terminal, GarageBand, Maps, iTunes, Calendar, Djay Pro, Photoshop, and lot of other Apple and third-party apps when customers start receiving the first orders in the weeks to come.

But as a daily Logic Pro X user, I noted the lack of mention for Apple’s pro audio suite at the unveiling of its new Pro notebook. The good news: we’ve learned from a source familiar with the company’s plans that the Logic Pro team is currently targeting early next year for Touch Bar support.

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When I first learned that the new MacBook Pro had no SD Card slot, like many creators, I was a little perturbed. The reason is that SD Cards have long been the fastest way to transfer media from cameras to our computers.

But now that the new MacBook Pros have no built-in SD Card reader, it means that creators will have to rely on an external USB-C to SD Card dongle, like this one. These dongles are cheap, small, and easy to carry around, so at the end of the day it’s not an outright dealbreaker, but the fact that I have to remember to always carry one with me presents somewhat of an inconvenience.

That said, we shouldn’t be mad at Apple for this. Camera companies have had years to innovate in this area, and have simply failed to do so. It’s the camera companies that we should be upset with, not Apple.
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Apple’s new MacBook Pro is totally ready for a USB-C future, but some of your current accessories like printers and mics might not be so prepared. Printers, mics, audio equipment, and a lot of other common accessories use a boxy connector and standard USB to interface with your Mac.

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In an interview with The Independent, Apple marketing exec Phil Schiller discusses the development and public response to the new MacBook Pros. He says that “many things” have impressed people and “some” have caused some controversy, referring to the ongoing debates about Apple’s design goals versus the needs of pro users. Rebutting critics, Schiller announces that orders for the new MacBook Pro have set a new online sales record, beating previous sales for ‘pro Apple notebooks’.

The interview also focuses in on a few specific complaints, such as the decision to remove the SD card slot but keep the 3.5mm headphone jack which it classed obsolete for the iPhone 7. Schiller has interesting answers for these questions …

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I’m still putting the (new) Late 2016 MacBook Pro (without the Touch Bar) through a variety of tests, but I just had to point out this SSD benchmark test that I ran using my favorite disk benchmarking utility, QuickBench. The results show, as Apple has claimed, that the SSD inside this machine is crazy fast.
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iFixit uncovers the SSD in the 13-inch non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro as we await the Touch Bar models

ComputerWorld notes that if the latest 15-inch MacBook Pro benchmarks anywhere close to its claimed SSD performance, it will offer the fastest drive read and write speeds of any stock computer available – and that Apple is around two years ahead of most of its competition.

Computerworld‘s own benchmark tests with Blackmagic software on a 2015 13-in. MacBook Pro with Retina display revealed it could pin the needle at more than 1.4Gbps for writes and more than 1.3Gbps for reads. The new MacBook Pro’s specs smoke its predecessor.

The 2016 13-in. MacBook Pro‘s specs claim it has sequential read/write speeds of 3.1Gbps and 2.1Gbps per second, respectively. The new 15-in MacBook Pro ups the write speeds to 2.2Gbps, while the reads remain the same as the 13-in [which would make it] the highest performing stock system on the market …

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A report from Korea’s ETNews says that the OLED Touch Bar panel in the new MacBook Pro was made by Samsung, and that Apple is currently testing OLED panels suitable for use in MacBooks.

According to an industry [source], Apple installed Samsung Display’s OLED panel for touch screen bar for its new MacBook Pro. This panel is rigid-type OLED that is produced from Samsung Display’s A2 Line […]

“Apple is currently looking into ways of using OLED panels for MacBooks and testing their performance.” said a different representative.

It’s of course a no-brainer that Apple would be looking at a switch to OLED for future MacBook displays given the benefits these offer …

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