{"id":11956,"date":"2015-08-15T20:43:43","date_gmt":"2015-08-16T00:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=11956"},"modified":"2015-08-19T11:43:54","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T15:43:54","slug":"the-developers-macbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/15\/the-developers-macbook\/","title":{"rendered":"The Developer’s MacBook"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rob Rhyne<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

The keyboard is terrible. The keyboard on the MacBook is probably the most divisive hardware decision Apple has made this year. Some love it, others hate<\/em> it. To be honest, I’m ambivalent after using it for a few months. I recommend you try it in a store before buying it. It’s a subjective decision, but here are a few facts regarding the keyboard:<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

As I mentioned earlier, it’s the MacBook’s lack of screen real estate that poses the greatest challenge for development and design work. […] You want to consider a few basic principles when trying to reclaim screen real estate.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

In general the MacBook’s single port is a non-issue. Battery life is so consistently long, it feels foreign when you have<\/em> to plug it in<\/a>. However, the new USB-C does pose a dilemma for mobile developers: you need an adaptor to connect your iOS devices. That’s a bummer, having yet another<\/em> adaptor to carry in your bag. I decided to combine a smaller Lightning cable<\/a> with the single USB-C to USB adapter<\/a> for smaller option.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I recently tried the new MacBook at an Apple Store<\/a>. The Retina display is great, as expected. The keyboard was as bad as I feared. I might be able to get used to it, but I doubt I would ever like it. The trackpad was fine. The computer is thin, but it did not feel like a significant improvement over my 11-inch MacBook Air<\/a>. So the keyboard seems like a poor tradeoff.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Tj Luoma<\/a>:<\/p>\n

After three weeks with the new MacBook, I can easily declare it as my favorite Mac, and none of the details that left some of the tech press wailing and gnashing their teeth have actually been a problem.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He links to the Anker USB-C to 3-Port USB 3.0 Hub with Ethernet Adapter for USB Type-C Devices<\/a>, which looks promising, although there’s no way to charge the Mac when it’s in use, and I wonder how many bus-powered devices it could handle. An alternative to get power and Ethernet at the same time would be Apple’s USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter<\/a> combined with its (non-gigabit) USB Ethernet Adapter<\/a>. But then you would no longer have a USB port to connect an iOS device or camera.<\/p>\n

It seems like what’s needed, short of a second USB-C port, is a USB-C hub that can plug in to both charge the MacBook and power the USB 3 ports. I have seen powered hubs, but none that can charge, too.<\/p>\n

Update (2015-08-19): Paul Haddad<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Still no good 3rd party USB-C hubs + charging. Found this<\/a>, but seems like it pass-through charges at 5V\/2.4A, yuck.<\/p><\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rob Rhyne: The keyboard is terrible. The keyboard on the MacBook is probably the most divisive hardware decision Apple has made this year. Some love it, others hate it. To be honest, I’m ambivalent after using it for a few months. I recommend you try it in a store before buying it. It’s a subjective […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[762,133,423,30,1199,1155,83,1150,175,1154,226],"class_list":["post-11956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-ethernet","tag-font","tag-keyboard","tag-mac","tag-mac-os-x-10-11","tag-macbook","tag-retina","tag-trackpad","tag-usb","tag-usb-c","tag-xcode"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11956"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12033,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11956\/revisions\/12033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}