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Microsoft has no plans for Retina display Office apps (updated)
There's someone who's kicking sand out of the Retina display sandbox, and that company appears to be Microsoft. Even though Microsoft boasted that Office for Mac is ready for OS X Mountain Lion, Macworld is reporting that users with Retina display MacBook Pros are describing a less-than-stellar experience when using Office for Mac on one of these machine. This isn't a surprise, as about the only current OS X Mountain Lion feature that Office for Mac supports is Gatekeeper, which I think is largely a move to keep the average user from thinking that Office isn't working with Gatekeeper turned on. Other yet-to-be-delivered features include iCloud support (no surprise), auto-saving, versions (though there is a workaround) -- the last two being Lion features that the Office for Mac team was supposedly working on. In the blog, an Office for Mac team member claimed that Outlook does support Retina display. "Outlook for Mac 2011 already supports Retina Display and the remaining apps will have the same viewing quality as on any non-Retina device. Unfortunately at this time, we cannot comment on any future updates regarding supporting Retina on Word, Excel or PowerPoint," the person said. The same isn't holding true for other software. Adobe's Creative Suite also lacks Retina display support, but told Macworld in an email that it would be coming later this year, and the same goes for AutoCAD. But the support is coming, as Photoshop and AutoCAD were demoed during the MacBook Pro with Retina Display announcement. The installed base of Office for Mac users that own Retina display MacBook Pros might not be big enough to justify adding the support right now. As more Retina display machines are adopted in the business industry, Microsoft might eventually come back to the Retina display issue and other Lion and Mountain Lion features that it's neglected. But, I suspect that given Microsoft's laissez-faire attitude toward the Office for Mac suite, those features might come some time in 2016 ... maybe. Update: As one of our commenters pointed out, Office for Mac is written in Carbon while Retina display supports requires Cocoa API. The current Outlook was written in Cocoa.
OWC offers 480GB SSD upgrade for Retina MacBook Pro, requires screwdriver and careful math
Order up a Retina MacBook Pro and you'll likely be confronted with a gravelly message about how the SSD is "built into the computer" and not user-upgradeable. As it turns out, that's not quite true -- so long as you're prepared to ignore a whole bunch of other warnings written inside the chassis itself, iFixit has shown how to remove the factory drive and now OWC has a new SSD to replace it with. The only downside is the cost: at $580, OWC's 480GB Mercury Aura Pro is actually more expensive than Apple's official 512GB upgrade. In an effort to sweeten the deal, OWC is offering those who buy before September 30th a compact USB 3.0 enclosure to make use of the freed-up drive. Alternatively, you may want to wait for prices to drop or for OWC to offer an even bigger capacity with better cost / benefits.
BBC iPlayer for iOS gets Retina display support for iPad
The BBC has just finished what was probably the best coverage of the Olympic games in the world, but the corporation is not slowing down. Today the BBC released an update to its wildly popular BBC iPlayer app for iOS. The major feature improvement in this update is support for the new iPad's Retina display. Other changes include improved video performance for better playback, bug fixes and "general tidying, so you'll notice even smoother performance," and more Voice Over controls for better accessibility. BBC iPlayer version 1.3.2 is a free download from the UK App Store. Now let's just hope BBC and Apple can agree to get iPlayer on the Apple TV.
How well can the MacBook Pro with Retina display handle Windows games?
After jumping the hurdles of our review gauntlet, the MacBook Pro with Retina display proved itself as a top-notch machine for the creative professionals it's geared towards, and anyone willing to pay a premium. Save for a brief bout with Diablo III, our time spent gaming on the hardware was limited. Ever since, we've wondered how the Kepler-toting, Ivy Bridge-packing laptop would handle one of our favorite graphics-intensive pastimes. Sure, Apple machines aren't exactly en vogue when it comes to playing video games, but Cupertino's ultra-high-resolution Mac simply begs to be put to the test. We loaded up Windows 7 on a MacBook Pro carrying an NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1 GB of VRAM, the stock 2.3GHz processor and 16GB of RAM (upgraded from the vanilla 8GB configuration) and put it through its paces to see how it performs.
Temple Run breaks 100 million downloads
There's big news from Imangi Software, the husband-and-wife team behind the breakout iOS hit Temple Run. The game has picked up 100 million downloads in within a year on the App Store. The team has a lot to show for it, like a long time on the Top Free apps chart, plenty of microtransactions (surely), and even that Disney-branded spinoff for Brave. It's well deserved, as Temple Run is a great, fun game. And it's getting better still. The latest update brings high-res Retina Display graphics to the iPad. There's also a new powerup that will revive you at the end of a run, and the ability to turn off powerups whenever you want. All that comes with a few more bugfixes, so the game is running smoother than ever. Temple Run is a phenomenal success, and it's east to see why. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Added configuration options for MacBook Pro with Retina display let you max out the base model
$2,199 for the basic MacBook Pro with Retina display is certainly a lot to pay for any laptop, but those looking to add a few more features without going all the way up to the next model so far haven't had a lot of options. That now looks like it's changing, though, with configuration choices for processor and storage now showing up on Apple's online store in addition to the existing one to double the memory -- letting you, for instance, bump up the processor without also jumping to a larger SSD (or vice versa, although adding the larger SSD puts things just $100 shy of the higher end model that also comes with a faster processor). Those options aren't quite a sure thing just yet, though, as they've appeared and disappeared from the site a few times this morning. We'll keep you posted if they stick. Update: It appears things have finally settled down, and the added options have stuck for good.
Google Chrome 21 stable release adds Retina MacBook Pro support, webcam use without plugins
Some Retina MacBook Pro owners have been waiting for this day for six weeks: that promised Retina support in Google Chrome is now part of a finished, stable release. Chrome 21 is now crisp and clear for those who took the plunge on Apple's new laptop but would rather not cling to Safari for the web. No matter what hardware you're using, Google has rolled in its promised WebRTC support to let webcams and microphones have their way without Flash or other plugins. Other notable tweaks like wider support for Cloud Print and gamepads tag along in the update as well. If you're at all intrigued by the expanded hardware support in Chrome, Google has an abundance of details (and downloads) at the links below.
Samsung Retina-like 11.8-inch tablet in the works according to court docs
If you've been following the Apple vs. Samsung case even casually, you're probably aware that today marked the start of the patent trial in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, with Judge Lucy Koh presiding. And while the proceedings themselves won't necessarily justify an Olympics-level play-by-play, several interesting bits are sure to come to light. Today's nugget relates to Samsung's tablet roadmap, revealing that a Retina-like tablet may be in the works. The P10, as it's been labeled internally, packs a 2,560 x 1,600-pixel, 11.8-inch display, along with WiFi and LTE connectivity. Details are thin beyond that, and it's still possible that Samsung may not have a high-res tablet for us this year -- though with the company's mysterious New York City event coming up in two weeks, followed by IFA later in the month, there are plenty of opportunities in August alone for such an official reveal. Philip Palermo contributed to this report.
Apple updates iWork suite with support for Mountain Lion, Retina MacBook Pro
Looking for something else to download once you're finished with all 4.34GB of Mountain Lion? Then you'll be glad to know that Apple has now also updated its full iWork suite of applications for the occasion. That includes Pages, Keynote and Numbers, all of which have not only be updated with support for new Mountain Lion features like dictation and iCloud syncing, but support for the new Retina display-equipped MacBook Pro as well. No major changes beyond that, from the looks of things, and all three are of course free updates in the Mac App Store for those that have already purchased them (they run $20 apiece for everyone else).
Acorn 3.3 adds Retina Canvas, Smart Export, more
Version 3.3 of the popular Mac image editor Acorn is out, and developer Gus Mueller writes up the biggest changes on his blog. The Retina Canvas is likely the coolest update: If you're using Acorn, you can now see any art you create at a 1:1 ratio on a Retina Display. So if you have a MacBook Pro with Retina Display and Acorn, you can now see your own work perfectly clearly. All of the other elements have been updated for the new display as well. The update also includes the option to trim a certain selection out of a picture, redo a selection if you lose it for any reason, and the Smart Export feature as well (which will automatically save layers in a piece separately for later use in code). Acorn 3.3 is a sandboxed, App Store-only version (which makes sense, given that Apple is cracking the whip on that lately). But Mueller also says that if you'd rather run the version downloadable straight from the website, it'll know whether you've run the App Store version before, so you still have your choice. Sounds like a nice solid update to a great app.
Mac App Store now requires a 1024x1024 app icon
Developer Daniel Jalkut notes that the latest requirements for the Mac App Store include an app icon that's at least 1024x1024 pixels, which is extraordinarily huge. To put that in perspective, each and every submission to the Mac App Store going forward needs to include an icon that's bigger than my MacBook's display (1280x800), and bigger even than a standard resolution iPhone or iPad screen. That's a big icon for sure. The main reason for an icon this big is the Retina display, currently implemented on the MacBook Pro with Retina display, but presumably coming to even more Mac screens in the future. Icons like this are also used in the Mac App Store in various places, and because Apple's screens are including more and more pixels all the time, bigger icons are required. The drawback, however, is that a huge icon like this uses up more and more disk space in the app's bundle, not only taking room on the user's hard drive, but also taking up space in the computer's memory when rendered. On cutting edge computers, that's not an issue, but when you're showing dozens or hundreds of icons like this at a time, that memory can add up. Apparently that's a trade-off Apple's happy to make. [via Shawn Blanc]
Parallels Desktop 7 gets the Retina Display treatment
Parallels has announced that its popular virtualization software is ready for the Retina Display MacBook Pro. Parallels Mobile was updated for iOS device Retina Displays earlier this year. The desktop software has now followed suit and is ready to let you see OSes such as Windows 8 and Windows 7 running on your brand new MacBook Pro. And, if you need a copy of Parallels, you can grab it in this excellent bundle of software, featuring over $900 worth of apps for just $50. Someone asked me the other day how to find some excellent Mac apps, and I recommended they grab a bundle and start installing. Even if not all the apps are great, chances are there'll be something good in there well worth the purchase price. [via 9to5Mac]
Apple launches new iPad in China on July 20th (update: here's why)
Apple is about to complete an important part of the puzzle for the new iPad's world rollout: it just confirmed that its Retina display-packing tablet will reach mainland China on July 20th. The company isn't specific about local pricing, but it's promising both WiFi and cellular versions at its own stores and through resellers. The company is keen to avoid some of the mobs and scalping it's seen in the past and will open reservations for pickup starting on July 19th -- although the company is unusually limiting the reservation window to just three hours each day, between 9AM and noon. No matter how it shakes out, the official Chinese expansion is likely to keep the number of slingshot-delivered imports to a minimum. Update: As some commenters have noted, the Chinese launch is helped mostly by the truce with Proview. The current iPad design has been certified since March; Apple isn't about to mention Proview by name in the release, but it likely wasn't keen on risking another store ban when it could just avoid the battle altogether.
VLC 2.02 adds Retina display support, ditches font cache interruptions
The latest version of everyone's favorite file-type-friendly media player has been updated on both Windows and OS X, although the Apple iteration gets the most major addition -- playback support on the new MacBook Pro's Retina display. Alongside sharper menus, VLC's latest update extends functionality to the video itself, maintaining crispness on smaller viewing windows and even fully-blow 4K video. Good news on all platforms though, as the developers have now nixed that grating "building font cache" pop-up window. Smaller changes include support for Growl and the return of the "keep aspect ratio" option. Hit up the changelog for a full run-down of the other changes.
Splashtop for iPad gets major update: Retina support, easier remote desktopping (update: but at a price)
If you wake up to find the Splashtop Streamer widget on your PC or Mac begging to be updated, then it's probably worth it -- especially if you have a new iPad lying around. Splashtop 2 has been optimized to work with the Retina display, which makes it a cinch to squeeze your entire Windows or OS X desktop onto the 10-inch screen without it looking terrible. The system has also been redesigned to avoid the need to enter IP addresses, passwords, port numbers or Google account details. Instead, you'll create a new Splashtop 2 login that should work once across all your devices. The UI seems a lot friendlier, there's a new in-app purchase to "supercharge" network performance (edit: also required for connections outside of the same WiFi network if you're a new customer, see below), plus there's improved support for fluid video streaming at up to 30fps. (Alas, there's still no fullscreen support for Windows Media Center users though.) The new streamer and iPad app are available now, while the Android update should arrive soon. Want to see it in action? Head past the break for the promo video. Update: We didn't fully appreciate this at first, but cross-network remote desktopping is no longer free to new customers. If you're coming to Splashtop for the first time, you have to make the in-app purchase ($1 per month or $10 per year) to enable "Anywhere Access." That said, the Splashtop 2 app for iPad is currently selling for $2 -- an 80 percent discount which largely compensates for the first year of charges.
BlueStacks brings Android apps to OS X, wolves planning a rest with some lambs
BlueStacks is releasing the first public alpha of its Android App Player capable of running on OS X. The virtualization company's software is powered by its Layercake technology and includes a bundle of apps from its various partners. CEO Rosen Sharma hopes the move will encourage developers to build "retina-friendly" apps for Google's mobile OS that can then be sold to those on the other side of the technology divide. There's a sign-up sheet for developers itchy to get their hands on the goods on the company's website, but don't expect a response right away -- there's still a few more days of Google I/O to go first.
Google+ on Android, iPad goes tablet-sized
Google+ just got a makeover very recently, but it was still very much oriented towards phones -- that's been solved as of today. The social networking app is now optimized for Android tablets and the iPad, with a whole new navigation system and Hangout video chats suited to bigger screens. The layout is landscape-friendly and, if you have a new iPad, will take advantage of every pixel on that Retina display. Android users can get the update today; iPad owners will have to wait for a release coming "soon." Android phone owners are getting some of the benefits of the supersized interface in their own, more modest screen sizes as well. Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012's opening keynote at our event hub!
gdgt runs the numbers on Retina display sizes
Apple fans have been oohing and ahhing since the MacBook Pro with Retina display was announced a few weeks ago. Let's face it, the display looks incredible! With Retina displays starting to make inroads into the world of Mac, gdgt's Ryan Block decided to take a look at what screen resolutions would be required on the rest of the Mac line to achieve a pixel density similar to that on the new MacBook Pro. What Block did was to figure out the current pixel density and size of Mac displays, then figure out what it would take to approach the 220 pixel per inch (PPI) display on the Retina display MacBook Pro. It's not just a doubling of pixel density; Block noted that the 11" MacBook Air already has a 135 PPI display that wouldn't need to be doubled to achieve Retina quality. Block's results are fascinating: 13" MacBook Air Current Resolution: 1440 x 900, Estimated Retina Resolution: 2560 x 1600 13" MacBook Pro Current Resolution: 1280 x 600, Estimated Retina Resolution: 2560 x 1600 11" MacBook Air Current Resolution: 1366 x 768, Estimated Retina Resolution: 2200-2300 x 1200-1300 27" iMac and Thunderbolt Display Current Resolution: 2560 x 1440, Estimated Retina Resolution: 5120 x 2880 21.5" iMac Current Resolution: 1920 x 1080, Estimated Retina Resolution: 3840 x 2160 (Block thinks the 21.5" Retina iMac would get a bump above that resolution) Of course, this is all pure conjecture. What do you think? Will Apple introduce Retina displays across the Mac product line in the foreseeable future? Let us know in the comments.
More MacBook Maintenance Malarky: examining the arguments that none of it matters
Last week I wrote a rather, shall we say, "robustly worded" post discussing the lack of upgradability in the new MacBook Pro with Retina display (MBPwRD). This contentious post turned into one of my highest-traffic articles for TUAW ever, and certainly my highest-commented one (possibly helped a bit by Livefyre being the best comment system we've ever had). I am grateful to everyone who took the time to write one of the 192 (and counting) comments on my original post, even the ones who voted for "Gaywood is an idiot!" in my tongue-in-cheek poll. Many of you disagreed with me, and in so doing, raised a number of counter-arguments again and again; I want to dig a little deeper into those counter-arguments in this post and explore some of the issues I hadn't fully thought through when I wrote my first one. Since my post there has been a wave of great articles around the web exploring the same topic: some decrying the MBPwRD, others asking what the fuss is about. Kyle Wiens (co-founder of iFixit), writing for Wired, boldly dismissed the MBPwRD as "Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable" and OWC asked "was the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display originally a MacBook Air?" Many people, like John Gruber, dismissed these posts because both iFixit and OWC have a financial stake in repairable Macs, leading to an undeniable conflict of interest. Personally, I felt both posts were written from the heart, rather than the wallet, but I urge you to read them and judge for yourself. Felix Salmon for Reuters picked up on my post and responded, calling the MBPwRD "Apple's strategy of built-in obsolescence." He said: [This] means that the Apple ecosystem has just closed in much further - while on every previous Pro machine consumers could fiddle around quite a lot, this one is a completely inaccessible box. It's about as far as you can get from the Apple 1, which came as a kit. The control-freakery which started in the operating system and then moved into software is now very much built into the hardware as well. Matthew Yglesias for Slate dismissed Salmon's argument, however, and defended Apple's alleged price protectionism as part of its "relentless war against commoditization and the total collapse of profits." Meanwhile, Christina Warren, formerly of this parish, kept it really simple: "Screw Upgrades: The New MacBook Pro IS the Future." Garrett Murray shrugged and said "It's just progress, folks," and Andre Torrez waxed philosophical: "I give up... Being cynical about any new bit of technology that doesn't fit into my view of how stuff should work has been a dragging anchor in my life." Counterbalance Before we dive into the detailed arguments, I'd like to say some conciliatory things that should probably have been in my original post. Yes, the MacBook Pro with Retina display has some rather unusual choices: soldered RAM integrated onto the logic board, a proprietary SSD, extensive use of near-permanent glue in the battery assembly and the screen housing. All of these impair repairs and prohibit upgrades, it's true. But each one of these is also totally defendable from an engineering standpoint, if we imagine that Apple's brief to its engineers as "make the thinnest, lightest desktop replacement laptop you can without compromising battery life" -- which is a noble goal, for sure. The oddball, tiny, bare-board SSD saves considerable space over a standard 2.5" unit. Leaving the optical drive out entirely saves even more space. Even the soldered RAM and the glued battery saves space, because there's no need for housing and slots and reinforcing struts and other gubbins. It might not save that much -- but look at the iFixit teardown again; there's barely a cubic millimetre to spare in there. Apple made every scrap count. I'm not sure the space saving alone is that significant a step forward. Sure, the MBPwRD looks great because it's a quarter-inch thinner than the standard one, but if we're all honest with ourselves isn't that more about aesthetics than practicalities? It's not like the standard-issue MBP, at less than an inch, was exactly unwieldy to start with. It's not like the Air, which is thin enough to put itself in an entire different product category. Put it this way: when have you ever said to yourself "if only this laptop was a quarter of an inch thinner, then I could fit everything I wanted into this bag"? But the weight... Ah! Having now played with a MBPwRD, and felt the heft of it (under the watchful eye of the Apple Store staff), I must concede that the loss of a half-kilogram (one pound) of mass is a really useful upgrade. I imagine it'd be more comfortable used in your lap (although maybe the heat it can put out might be off-putting). I'm certain your shoulder would thank you for choosing an MBPwRD after a particularly fraught cross-terminal dash to make a connecting flight. I undersold this point in my first post. Mea culpa. Plus the screen absolutely rocks my world. I'm not remotely tempted to buy one -- like Marco Arment, I'm going through a period in my computing life where I am uninterested in desktop replacement laptops. I have a 27" iMac, an iPad 3, and a very-much-secondary-computer 2009-era MacBook Pro and I'm perfectly happy with that combination for the time being. However, a brief spell in the Apple Store gawping at a Retina display did make me really, really want a HiDPI iMac. Oh, finally, one last thing: the MBPwRD has a standard HDMI port right there on the side of it, no awkward dongle needed or anything. Can we all take a moment to say a silent prayer of thanks for this sudden outbreak of common sense? OK, let's move on. The Tinkerer's Curse There is a school of thought that says you don't truly own a thing if you can't take it apart, change some of the bits, then put it back together again. This is particularly prevalent amongst computer nerds, because not so very long ago, these abilities were absolute prerequisites to owning any sort of computer at all. I am exactly such a person, and this is how I feel about computers, as well as lots of other stuff. It makes me uneasy about the sealed-up buttoned-down MBPwRD, and somewhat less uneasy about the MacBook Air and the iPad -- the latter devices being considerably cheaper, I'm more accepting that they might have a shorter lifespan because I can't retrofit some upgrade that I didn't know I'd need. This mentality has driven me to try custom firmwares on ADSL routers and televisions; to experiment with jailbreaking my iOS devices; to do my own car maintenance; to cure my own corned beef; to shun jarred marinara sauce in favor of making my own. Sometimes, this sort of thing saves me time or money. More often it doesn't, and that's fine because deep down I'm doing it for fun, not profit. I wrote my earlier post from the gut and off the cuff, and it was largely driven by this sentiment. Many of you don't share these concerns. Nor should you! I accept that I'm unusual in this regard. I cannot reasonably expect my feelings on this matter to sway many folk. My imp of the perverse wants to ask one question though: if you guys are all so dead set against tinkering, why do our jailbreaking posts get so much traffic? So, now that I've come clean about my biases, I'd like to address the specific counter-arguments that were repeatedly levelled at my last post. "This is just progress." Possibly the most common response. "It's newer and better, this is what the world looks like, get used to it. Apple made it this way because this was the best way to make it. Go away and stop bothering me with your conspiracy theories, you nutcase." On the one hand, I can see this. As I noted above, this is absolutely an extraordinarily powerful laptop for its size and weight, and Apple couldn't have managed that without making it this way. On the other hand... As Macworld senior contributor Glenn Fleishman put it, 'Glue and pentalobe screws and unnecessary solder are not "tradeoffs that go into product development".' Put it this way. Let's give Apple the benefit of the doubt and suppose the managers simply told the engineers: "go make the best damn laptop you can." The engineers came back and said "we did that, but there's one thing -- the users can't change the RAM or the drives any more. They'll have to pay us for our premium-rate BTO models instead." I think you'd be very naive indeed to imagine the managers did anything other than give a wide grin and say "that's quite alright, boys. Win/win!" "I don't care about fiddling with upgrades." "Pro doesn't mean upgradeable," many people said, "it means powerful. I'm a pro, and I don't want to think about upgrading my computer; I just want to get things done with it." This is a perfectly valid line of reasoning, to my mind. I'm a software engineer by day, with 20 years experience of bending computer software to my will; when I think "pro" I think of my profession, and the demands we place on hardware -- that we can adapt it to new software, for example. But of course there's legions of professionals -- photographers, video editors, designers, artists, musicians, writers, and on and on -- for whom a Mac is merely a tool. A vital one, but still just a tool, to be used until it wears out and then discarded. Still, though. My 2009 MacBook Pro has had two drive replacements (from the stock 320 GB to 500 GB when my Aperture library grew too large, and then to a 64 GB SSD), a RAM upgrade (to compensate for Lion's memory hunger), and a replacement battery (the old one simply wore out). Without those changes, I'd probably have given up on it; as it is, it's still rocking along. None of this was in any way difficult to fit. It's a bit of a dirty secret in the PC industry that anyone with the ability to manage IKEA flatpack furniture or a middling compexity LEGO model can manage most computer modification. Plus, the upgrades bought several years into the computer's life were significantly cheaper years later than if I'd bought them up front, which is an important point that's been overlooked in much of this debate. Like most people, I'm always happy to not spend any more money than I have to. There's also the cost of some of Apple's BTO upgrade options. When I bought my iMac in January 2012, it came with 4 GB of RAM. Upgrading to 8 GB cost £160 ($251) and to 16 GB cost £480 ($754). Instead, I kept the 4 GB it came with, and bought an additional 8 GB from Crucial for £35 ($55). In the last round of product launches, Apple halved those prices... so it's now charging a mere $250 premium to do a laughably easy task for you. If that doesn't strike you as egregious, you must earn a lot more money than I do. "I don't know how to repair my laptop, so I don't care about repairability." The main problem I see with this line of reasoning is that the MacBook Pro with Retina display isn't just harder for you to fix; it's harder for anyone to fix, including independent specialists you may be used to using. Sure, you can always pop into an Apple Store... unless you can't. Some people live hours and hours away from their nearest store; some people live in countries where there are no official stores at all, just a handful of authorized service centers. With the older Unibody MacBooks (which offer above-average repairability), you could go to Apple, or you could save a good chunk of change going to an independent shop, or you could save even more buying the parts yourself and asking any expert you know to do the work for a case of beer. There was a big market, and markets create competition and keep everyone honest. The smaller that market shrinks, the more Apple can charge what it wants for aftermarket work. That's not in anyone's interests, except Apple's. Think I'm being alarmist? My MacBook is powered by an aftermarket battery, purchased for less than a third of Apple's price. How many of you would snicker at someone who paid $19 for an official Apple cable, when far cheaper alternatives exist and work just as well? It's the same principle, just for parts on the inside of your computer. Or how about this: this week, Macworld's Lex Friedman suffered a MacBook/glass of water intersection incident that destroyed the hard drive. Apple quoted him $180 to replace the 500 GB hard disk, generously saying there would be "no labor fee." That's a $100 premium over a $70-80 off-the-shelf part that can be safely fitted in minutes by a total amateur armed with nothing more exotic than a screwdriver. In the end, Lex spent slightly more than Apple wanted and bought an OEM SSD instead, which he successfully fitted himself. In the process, he's significantly upgraded his system. If Apple can charge that sort of fee today, what would it charge if no-one had the choice to go elsewhere? However, I must concede an important point: it seems likely the MBPwRD won't break very often. It's true that RAM and SSD can fail, yes; but neither thing happens particularly often, and certainly a well-designed SSD should be far more reliable than the spinning mechanics of a HDD. About half the RAM problems I've seen have been due to thermal creep loosening the memory in its slot, requiring it to be removed and replaced ("re-seated", in tech jargon); clearly Apple's soldered-on RAM is immune to this. The new MacBook also represents Apple's final solution to the lousy reliability track record of the SuperDrive. There's that glued-in battery, of course. It's one of Apple's fancy new ones, but it's still not going to last forever. "1000 full charge and discharge cycles before it reaches 80 percent of its original capacity" and "a lifespan of up to 5 years" (emphasis mine) is what Apple promises you. This battery tech is too new to know if Apple's marketing claims are accurate or not, so it must remain something of an unknown quantity for now. "I only keep my computers for two years, so it doesn't matter to me." A valid answer, but perhaps a little short-sighted I think, unless you literally throw the machine away when you're done with it. In my experience, Macs have always enjoyed a rather longer lifespan than PCs; whether through reselling or hand-me-downs or simply clinging to life, I think you'll find far, far more five year old Macs in use today than you would PCs of a similar vintage. Indeed, I know more than one person who has rationalized the higher purchase price of a Mac by saying "it's OK, it'll still fetch a good price on eBay in three years." I think compromised repairability risks eroding this part of the Mac value proposition, by making it more likely that a middle-aged Mac would suffer a failure that rendered it beyond economic repair. "Apple has always been this way." I don't agree with this one at all. Apple shipped the first tool-less tower chassis I'd ever seen, in the form of the PowerMac G3 Blue & White; to this day, the Mac Pro has an elegant, flexible design that invites modifications and add-ons. The latest Mac mini design is the most internally-friendly Apple has ever shipped, with simple user access to the hard drives and RAM. All the Unibody MacBooks have been easy to work on too, supporting users who wanted to change drives and memory. The more consumer-ish Macs -- the iMac, the MBA -- have tended to be rather more sealed-up, but the "Pro" models have definitely not. "I have AppleCare, so repairability doesn't matter to me." It's certainly true that if you don't mind the expense ($349 for a MBPwRD, as much as 16% of the purchase price) AppleCare provides a fantastic service. I've always been very, very well taken care of when I've had to avail myself of the facility. Still, I (predictably) have two objections to this argument. Firstly, AppleCare doesn't last forever. It's two years on a Mac, on top of the year you get for free. As I mentioned earlier, my 2009 MacBook Pro is still marching along. Had I bought AppleCare for it, it would have expired by now, but I'll get a year or so more use out of it as a secondary machine before recycling it as a test box for beta OS X versions, or a OS X Server box, or something of that ilk. If I'm spending $3,000+ on a top-of-the-line MacBook Pro today, I'd like to hope it'll still be of some use in three or four years, even if it's no longer my main computer. Secondly, did I miss a memo somewhere that we all decided that extended warranties were a good deal now? We all scoff when Best Buy tries to sell us warranties on TVs, right? Why is AppleCare any different? Whenever I bring this up, I am rebuffed by dozens of anecdotes of great experiences with AppleCare -- and in the spirit of full disclosure, I have to admit that I have some myself. AppleCare has replaced my iPad once, my iPhone twice, and paid for two repairs on my wife's MacBook. But ponder for a moment what AppleCare covers. It's not accidental damage (except for the newfangled AppleCare+, which isn't available in the UK anyway). It only pays for instances where a device stops working in the second or third year of ownership. Shouldn't we be taking it for granted that Apple devices that haven't been accidentally damaged be capable of lasting three years without suffering random failures? Should we really be boasting that Apple sells us insurance for this? If Apple Care is such a great deal, doesn't that mean Apple products break too often? Oh, and finally, AppleCare doesn't cover accidental damage, and accidents happen. "It doesn't matter because it's going to sell in huge numbers." Cannot argue with this one. If I was an Apple shareholder (I'm not), I'd be extremely pleased with the MBPwRD, which appears certain to be a runaway success and pile even more money onto the mountain of bills Apple has tucked away in Cupertino. People vote with their wallets; they voted for the MacBook Air and they're voting for the MBPwRD. But don't forget -- McDonalds, Justin Bieber, and Windows all sell in huge numbers too. It doesn't make them laudable, tasteful, or, fundamentally, any sort of good idea. Popularity suggests the retina MacBook Pro is good, for sure -- but it doesn't mean it's flawless. People don't buy the perfect thing, because the perfect thing doesn't exist; they buy the best thing they can, but there's always room for improvement. It doesn't mean we shouldn't stop to examine the pros and cons of the new MacBook from all angles. "It's just like with cars." "Cars changed just like this. They stopped being user serviceable and everyone got used to it. Get with the program, Grandpa." This was an extremely common reply. I also feel it was one of the weaker responses, on numerous levels. One: practically everyone I know has a story about a dealer franchise ripping someone off in some dubious manner, having used the trust people have in the brand to convince people they need to pay over the odds for basic maintenance or repairs. I don't see anything to celebrate about Apple moving closer to this model. Two: actually, what happened to cars was that most of the oily bits stopped requiring user maintenance. That's not the same thing. I've set points gaps (rotor gap, to you Americans) and greased nipples and tuned carburetors, and that stuff went away because it stopped being necessary, not because the car manufacturers hid it away behind proprietary screws and glued-on panels. The process for maintaining stuff that still has to be changed regularly -- tyres, brakes, oil, filters, batteries -- hasn't changed much in decades. In contrast, there's nothing about the MBPwRD's innards that makes it any less likely to break or be accidentally damaged than other laptops. It's not magically proof against spilled liquids or electromigration. Three: the government doesn't keep releasing new roads that make different demands of your car, but that's exactly what happens with computers. As I've already mentioned, I found after upgrading to Lion that my MacBook was struggling with 4 GB of RAM. Unless you think the MBPwRD is literally the fastest computer that will ever exist, the metaphor is fatally flawed. "I can't upgrade my 50" TV to an 80" model either." This one is just silly. No-one's complaining about being unable to upgrade their television's size because that's not physically possible. Making computers with upgradable RAM or replaceable drives is physically possible. Citation: almost every computer ever made. "Apple does say the RAM isn't replaceable!" In my original post I whined that Apple doesn't tell people that the RAM is soldered. Several commenters pointed out I was wrong, but it took me a while to work out why. It doesn't say it on the landing page or the tech specs page or the store page. Where it does say it is on the BTO specification page, but only if you click the "Learn more" link next to the Memory section. That's... not exactly obvious, in my opinion. Similarly, when I was in the Apple Store looking at the MBPwRDs, I overheard two customers ask two different sales representatives about the soldered RAM issue -- "so, I can't upgrade the memory later, right?" Neither rep understood the question, and neither of them could answer it. I'm still not convinced Apple is doing enough to come clean with people here, or to train its frontline staff. I can forgive this on the Air, but this is a "MacBook Pro", and every MacBook Pro since the line launched in 2006 has had replaceable RAM. It would be perfectly understandable for users to simply assume this one is the same, and feel let down when they discover their mistake too late. The twist is that being more upfront with shoppers could only encourage upsell to the 16 GB option, making more money for Apple in the process. So I'm sure this is an oversight, rather than due to any sinister motives. TL;DR On the Internet, it often seems that everything must be compressed to a one-bit image: black or white, triumph or catastrophe, the very best or the absolute worst. It is my position that the MacBook Pro with Retina Display, like almost everything once you think about it hard enough, is neither. It's an extremely nice laptop with a first-of-its-kind screen and a reparability downside that ranks somewhere between "utterly irrelevant" and "a bit worrying", depending on your prejudices and desires. Almost 4,200 words later, do I expect any of you to have changed your mind about this? Well, probably not. Confirmation bias is a funny old thing. But if I have made you think twice about the complexities here -- even if I've just convinced you there are complexities where before you saw none -- then please let me know in the comments. If I'm really lucky, someone buying a MBPwRD will be able to make a more informed decision after reading this -- about the laptop itself, or about the BTO options they should be selecting. That's really all I want to happen.
iFixit tears down the new MacBook Pro's Retina display, finds a minor marvel of engineering
We've already seen them go to town on the body of the MacBook Pro with Retina display, but the staffers at iFixit have seen fit to disassemble the 2880 x 1800 panel at the heart of the new beast. As they've since found out, it takes no less than a rethink of LCD construction to make that kind of resolution work in a laptop screen that's thinner than its ancestor. The unibody aluminum casing acts as the frame for the display, and the LCD becomes its own front glass; even the wireless antennas are threaded through the hinges to eke out that last drop of space. Combined, Apple's part layouts do make repair near-impossible -- the teardown gurus at iFixit ended up cracking the glass despite their knowledge. The team is nonetheless a little more forgiving on the lack of repairability here than with the computer underneath, noting that something had to give for Apple to have its high-resolution cake and eat it too. That just won't be much of a consolation if your MacBook Pro faceplants and requires a whole LCD swap.