Only just realised from this that MacBook Pro's no longer have an Ethernet port! When did that happen?
You need to buy an expensive thunderbolt adapter. I can understand removing it from the ultra portable super-thin models but not from the top end professional model.
If you stay within the Apple ecosystem like they really want you to, then you don't need that because your thunderbolt display has an ethernet adapter as well as some extra usb ports. The Apple monitor is their replacement for the docking station. Power and connectivity, as well as a place to put the laptop for reasonable space efficiency.
You don't need the thunderbolt adapter, but if you want gigabit Ethernet it's either thunderbolt or USB3 (as you mentioned). One of the perks of the thunderbolt adapter is that it doesn't require any third party drivers, which tend to be hit or miss with the USB3 adapters.
Well the MacBook Pro's are ultra portable and super thin now. The laptop would probably have to be at least 20% thicker to make for enough room for an ethernet port. And since 90% of MBP Retina owners probably rarely if ever use ethernet, it's a good tradeoff to make. The Retina model is much lighter and easier to carry (especially with one hand) than it's predecessor.
I think Apple could have come up with a solution without compromising on this. What about a neat folding Ethernet port that flips out and is flush when not in use? I remember some old ThinkPads had something like that but it might have been a modem port (RJ11/RJ14 not RJ45).
The rare use is what makes it a problem. It's not worth the investment to buy and always carry an adaptor for that one time you really need it.
I wish I knew why Apple's top quality engineers didn't embed or bundled a USB-C to 60GHz WiGIG Dockinstation. Having only a single USB-C port is absolutely cool, if you have a wireless 7GBps dockingstation.
Is there some reason why Apple doesn't promote WiGIG?
Personally I wish they used Ultrabroadband-Radio (>500MHz Bandwith). There are numerous reasons fellow RF enthusiasts will recognize in UWB radio. But I am happy with whatever technology allows me to have a cable-free desktop 😌 This is the reason I loved the original Ubuntu Phone (with it's powerful specs).
Yeah, I was disappointed by that, too. It's not about the cost, I don't care about the extra $40 or so, but now there is one more "dongle/cable" I need to worry about.
You're right that it's more about not having it with you when you need it. However it does add up.
£25 for Ethernet and then another £25 if you want FireWire too. And £25 for VGA and £25 for DVI (though to be fair you can get this from the HDMI port). But you can only have 2 of these plugged in at a time. Other laptops of this price come with all the adaptors in the box if the ports aren't integrated.
I like having the option of Ethernet available easily. For example, BT have been having big internet issues for the last few days and it's handy to rule out the WiFi. Also with a previous ISP (sadly not with BT) the WiFi was the limiting factor and I had to plug in to get full speed. Then the HDD was the limiting factor!
A $30 adapter for a $2000+ machine isn't what I would call expensive. It does make the machines a lot thinner though and normally, you don't need wired Ethernet any more.
I easily reach 60+ MB/s now over WiFi, so for the times where I really need the additional power I don't care about having the additional dongle with me.
It's not expensive, it's inconvenient. Being able to quickly jack in to a gigabit network and not have to worry about fiddling about with wifi keys and unreliable speeds is something you should get with a high end laptop like an MBP.
There have been about 10 times in the last few years when I have walked into a meeting someplace where there wasn't any guest wifi, or we needed the internal network for other reasons.
The MacBook Pro I bought last year was the first that didn't have one. I seldom used Ethernet but I still miss it. Apple probably wouldn't use it but can't they develop a small connector for the next generation thin laptops? Microsoft Surface form factor is going to become prevalent in the PC world.
I'm more miffed about Apples' USB Type-C strategy.. but on the other hand, Docking stations have their value .. I was disappointed in this as well, but nevertheless am an rMBP user .. so until Henge upgrade this to include Ethernet:
I'm sure there are other options; it is a hassle that Apple removed it, but on the road I rarely need Ethernet, and at the desktop, its kind of easy to just plug-in.
Another problem, very slow to actually connect to the wired network. I'm using it almost every day for different networks, I just can't get used to the wait.
For the ethernet port, it is very much Apple's style... but either way, using consumer Apple devices for servers only make sense if you get them for free (civil forfeiture for example)...
Depends where you are. In my house in Chicago next to some high rises I could see 200-300 access points. My own fully powered 802.11ac access point had a range of about 12 feet. Worked for some rooms, but not for others. And the signal was jumpy. Was super nice to have a hardwire at my desk so I could go full speed.
> what are the most common reasons to still prefer Ethernet port?
Attempting to provide wireless coverage for a densely populated open office gets pretty expensive pretty quickly. It also can cause degraded signals for everyone in the office. The ethernet port just becomes more feasable way to get stable internet at your desk.
"We require Mac OS X because the products we make run on OS X and we believe in testing on the same hardware our customers use, this helps produce a better product".
If the software they're testing is used mainly on Macbook Pro's, then they're wanting to test on Macbook Pro's. Things like GPU and CPU differences may make a difference to how their software performs.
"We have data centers with thousands of machines configured with all 3 OS’s running constant build and test operations 24 hours a day 365 days a year. This is just a small look at the Mac side of things."
Any Mac hardware will do like Mini's, xServes, and Mac Pros. Mac Pro's work really well and if you just rent them from a data center, the capital expenditure isn't there so you don't get hit with the $3k price tag.
Potential reason is that they need see how their tests affect screen burn. They mention they specifically need Mac hardware so this could be why they specifically need retina screens.
It might have more to do with running GPU-assisted tasks through remote sessions. You need to either leave a screen attached and on or trick the device into thinking one is attached and on to take full advantage of the GPU on Mac hardware. You can actually do it with any mac hardware (even headless devices like Mac Mini's and Mac Pro's) but it's not advertised well enough.
For example, with mac Mini's in a server environment, you need to plug in a hdmi enabler to get full GPU performance front the system while using it over remote access.
"They are actually being held open 7mm by a custom 3D printed wedge. This opening allows for the screen to be used for testing as well as ample air circulation. You can’t see the temperature sensors tucked into each notebook’s keyboard area."
Air circulation makes sense. There is a vent in between the screen pivot and the base, and also the gaps in the keys allow for some heat to escape.
Agreed that the screens should be turned off, though. Could just turn the brightness down to 0.
I wonder why all of the display backlights are on? I understand having the laptops open to stop them going to sleep without an external display, but I'd've thought you could turn the backlight all the way to "off".
>I understand having the laptops open to stop them going to sleep without an external display, but I'd've thought you could turn the backlight all the way to "off".
You can even disable sleep with closed lid[1], but addmiteddly that might intefere with ventilation, since there are vents in front of the hinge.
Yeah perhaps, but I'd've thought some software mechanism (regular pings etc) would be easy enough to offset the power / heat of having the backlight on. Although I guess backlights are just a few LEDs these days, so probably actually not too bad to keep on.
This is pretty neat, but I wonder how much more dense this configuration could be made if one took away the display, keyboard, battery, and chassis of the laptops and just had the motherboard, which (presumably) is fully integrated with a DIMM connector.
If you switch to Mac Mini's and assemble mutiple mini's in a private cloud running VMware, you can have a much more efficient setup. You can do it with xServe's and the latest Mac Pro's as well.
Is it really simpler and more efficient to have 96 individual power bricks with custom mounting hardware rather than one (or a few) larger, high-efficiency AC to DC converters and just distributing DC within the rack?
You would have to terminate in magsafe connectors. You'd either have to butcher the wiring on all the power bricks or come up with some frankenstein thing with airline adapters, which I believe are now discontinued for some reason.
I'm guessing it's because airlines are moving toward just having standard power jacks. In fact, I can't remember the last plane I flew on that actually had the power jack the airline adapter needed.
That's an expense rack. If the average MBP cost $1500, that's a total of $144,000 in the one rack. They must have some serious reasons to create something like this.
The refurbished machines are a decent deal and I haven't had any problems buying them for personal or business use in the past, but the big limitation is on supply at any given time and the configs offered. Refurbs are largely stock configs and you can usually only buy 5-10 at a time. There are big benefits to config uniformity and bulk purchases, so refurbs can be tough in that respect.
Also, no one buying in this quantity should be paying list price to Apple, which cuts into the refurb discount considerably (if not outright eliminating it).
$1500 is the entry price for 4-way xeons, and that's before you factor in the chassis, motherboard, RAM and PSUs. You can easily find 4U servers more expensive than that, the rack seems to have a 32U capacity and could fit 8 such servers.
A standard server rack (fully populated, just regular app or web servers) can easily be 400k+. Everything built to run in a datacenter is pretty expensive, even if you've done your negotiating work and aren't foolishly paying list.
With such a large capital expense, it makes a lot more sense to rent dedicated mac hardware from a data center. You get simple monthly bills, guaranteed uptime, and the infrastructure is looked after for you.
Readit News
You need to buy an expensive thunderbolt adapter. I can understand removing it from the ultra portable super-thin models but not from the top end professional model.
http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Ethernet-Chromebook-Specific-...
The rare use is what makes it a problem. It's not worth the investment to buy and always carry an adaptor for that one time you really need it.
I guess USB-C is supposed to help with this?
Who do we need to talk to for that to be the official collective noun?
Is there some reason why Apple doesn't promote WiGIG?
Here's an overview over the technology:
http://ultrabooknews.com/tag/wigig/
http://www.slashgear.com/intel-wigig-docking-station-in-2015...
http://www.cnet.com/news/60ghz-tech-promises-wireless-dockin...
Personally I wish they used Ultrabroadband-Radio (>500MHz Bandwith). There are numerous reasons fellow RF enthusiasts will recognize in UWB radio. But I am happy with whatever technology allows me to have a cable-free desktop 😌 This is the reason I loved the original Ubuntu Phone (with it's powerful specs).
But at least you'll be able to hide all the dongles behind some wall and just have a single USB-C cable running from your laptop to a powered hub.
£25 for Ethernet and then another £25 if you want FireWire too. And £25 for VGA and £25 for DVI (though to be fair you can get this from the HDMI port). But you can only have 2 of these plugged in at a time. Other laptops of this price come with all the adaptors in the box if the ports aren't integrated.
I like having the option of Ethernet available easily. For example, BT have been having big internet issues for the last few days and it's handy to rule out the WiFi. Also with a previous ISP (sadly not with BT) the WiFi was the limiting factor and I had to plug in to get full speed. Then the HDD was the limiting factor!
I easily reach 60+ MB/s now over WiFi, so for the times where I really need the additional power I don't care about having the additional dongle with me.
Also, the profit margin on those adapters is pretty astounding.
http://hengedocks.com/pages/vertical-macbook-pro-retina
I've been doing quite fine with the DOCK as my 'need ethernet at my desktop' solution:
http://www.landingzone.net/products/for-the-macbook-pro/
I'm sure there are other options; it is a hassle that Apple removed it, but on the road I rarely need Ethernet, and at the desktop, its kind of easy to just plug-in.
Deleted Comment
Is it mostly about spectrum getting full or security concerns?
I just noticed that I haven't used Ethernet cable for the last few years.
Attempting to provide wireless coverage for a densely populated open office gets pretty expensive pretty quickly. It also can cause degraded signals for everyone in the office. The ethernet port just becomes more feasable way to get stable internet at your desk.
If the software they're testing is used mainly on Macbook Pro's, then they're wanting to test on Macbook Pro's. Things like GPU and CPU differences may make a difference to how their software performs.
Seems safe to say this is not a small company
- Can you say who you work for?
- Sorry, unfortunately no.
For example, with mac Mini's in a server environment, you need to plug in a hdmi enabler to get full GPU performance front the system while using it over remote access.
Here's more information: http://www.macstadium.com/blog/osx-10-8-10-9-headless-gpu-en...
[1] - http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/22211/insomniax
Air circulation makes sense. There is a vent in between the screen pivot and the base, and also the gaps in the keys allow for some heat to escape.
Agreed that the screens should be turned off, though. Could just turn the brightness down to 0.
You can even disable sleep with closed lid[1], but addmiteddly that might intefere with ventilation, since there are vents in front of the hinge.
[1]: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin...
http://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/macbo...
Also, no one buying in this quantity should be paying list price to Apple, which cuts into the refurb discount considerably (if not outright eliminating it).