Ranting About The 2016 Macbook Pro

Twenty years ago Steve Jobs revolutionized the home computer market with the original Apple iMac and the original iBook. Jobs original desktop and laptop were easy to use computers with a distinct look all their own. Unfortunately after Steve Jobs’ passing a few years ago Apple has become a company without a direction.

Shawn's 2011 Macbook Pro

The 2016 MacBook Pro is so far away from Steve Jobs original vision it’s not funny. The Macbook Pro line was supposed to be a line of laptops for professionals like filmmakers, musicians, video editors, and writers. But the 2016 Macbook Pros don’t even look like Apple computers. Heck, they don’t even look like computers. The new Macbook Pros don’t have SD Ports, USB ports, or things distinct to Macbook Pros like Mag Safe adaptors and light up keyboards. And Instead of industry standard things like function keys ports we get a light up Touch bar and a bunch of Thunderbolt 3 ports you have to buy $79 adaptors just to hook up a digital camera or a USB Printer or Scanner.

I’m sorry that’s just too complicated. Even for an A+ Certified IT Technician like me who knows PCs and Macs like the back of his hand.

Apple computers used to be EASY to use with all the things you need to start working with them right out of the box. The Macbook Pro I’ve been working with since 2011 had SD card slots so I could take my SD Card right out of my digital camera and upload pictures. USB ports so I could use my PC’s printer and scanner. And a Superdrive so I could watch my DVD movies right on my laptop.

Compared to their predecessors, this new series of Macbook Pro Laptops are almost impossible to understand on the website. Apple talks about connecting laptops to 5K TVs and pushes their new bar, but that’s all jargon to the average customer. If seasoned Mac users like myself are frustrated by all these new features, then a new user would just be overwhelmed by them.

I just find it crazy that I get a headphone jack on a MacBook Pro, but no USB ports to sync an iPhone to or charge it up. Tim Cook is so busy focusing on upselling adapters and secondary market products at Apple stores that he’s killing the market for the actual 2016 Macbook Pro. If a product is TOO HARD TO USE, people simply stop using it. And right now Apple Macbook Pro laptops they look like they’re the biggest pain in the ass to use since Windows ME sixteen years ago.  

When I look at the new 2016 Macbooks and MacBook Pros, they’re trying too hard to be hip and cool. Overthinking form, they’ve sacrificed all the functions most PC and Mac users like myself need in a working laptop. A working writer like myself doesn’t want a laptop with a bunch of fancy gimmicks, I want a computer that’s easy to use right out of the box. Steve Jobs gave us that computer 20 years ago with the iMac and the iBook and it revolutionized the PC marketplace. Tim Cook took that product off the marketplace with the 20l6 Macbook and Macbook Pro and has likely started the decline of Apple as a company.

I don’t know about other Apple users, but I need my function keys. I regularly use my escape key to close out of bros

wer pop ups and I need my function keys to deal with programs and websites stuck in a spinning pinwheel of death.

As a writer I need a laptop that I can use for WORK. And Apple’s new Macbooks are designed for PLAY. Looking like children’s toys these glorified iPads just can’t get the job done for me. As a publisher I need full USB ports, SD card slots and an optical drive to do my work.  

Moreover, as an A+ Certified IT Technichian, I need full USB ports and an optical drive if I need to repair the computer. If If the software crashes on a new 2016 MacBook Pro, there’s no way for me to reinstall it because there’s no optical drive or a USB port to plug one in without that pricey adapter. And with all the parts soldered onto the motherboard there’s no way to replace a part that’s not functioning like bad memory or even replace a bad hard drive. Plain and simple if you don’t have AppleCare, you’re looking at a bill that could cost as much as a new computer.

If Apple made a Macbook Pro with a series of full USB ports, a MagSafe adaptor port an SD Card Slot, and a Blu-Ray drive, so I can watch movies between chapters I’d actually consider picking up another Macbook Pro in the future. I'd defintiely consider one if it had an HDMI Port so I can hook my laptop up to my TV to watch DVDs and Blu-Rays on the big screen. But looking at the 2016 Macbook and Macbook Pro laptops I’m going to have to stop buying Apple products here on in. After Steve Jobs passed away Apple doesn’t make real computers anymore. They make children’s toys posing as computers.