back to article Did Apple leak a photo of its new Macbook Pro in an OS update? Our survey says: Yes

Apple has stashed what looks like a photo of its new MacBook Pro – due to be announced this week – in the very latest macOS Sierra update. Reg reader Richard Tobin tipped us off to the image's location; the file shows a person scanning their fingerprint for a Touch ID check with Apple Pay open, suggesting the print is used to …

  1. djstardust

    Meh

    Whatever they release it will be mid specification and terribly expensive.

    But I do agree the MacBook Pro is long long overdue complete refresh.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The travelling circus of Driver implementation.

      The UK is in for a shock, once they start having to pay the 1:1 UK:US Dollar pricing, with VAT@20%,the UK Prices for the new macbook might end up been slightly higher than the US.

      I'm guessing 5-10% above US Prices, A $1500 new mabook will be £1650 in the UK

      (In fairness, the Apple upfront cost is always high, but the cost of ownership, especially if you implement a 'limited damage plan, keep the box' policy, is minimum {over a three year life} for macbooks. Don't take my word for it, listen to IBM)

      The problem (more so) with this macbook will be the lack of drivers for anything other than macOS for the specialist devices - the Oled touchpad and the fingerprint touchID, Windows 10 AU 1607 Bootcamp drivers maybe, but you won't see Windows 8.1/7SP1 drivers.

      I call this the 'travelling circus of Driver implementation'. A new laptop gets released, comes into town. The drivers appear just before the circus arrives and leave not long after the circus leaves, leaving you with laptops where they can only run certain OS's, which acts a window of opportunity. This works with Printers too.

      It's even harder where those drivers only run on a very small subset of machines (like specialist fingerprint readers/oled touchpanels). Has the effect to make these, very restrictive proprietary drivers, making the laptop obsolete quicker, as regards to new OSs.

      Regarding the 1cm bezel which Apple are bound to salvate over, we had this in 2005 on a Toshiba Portege M100, then we seemed to lose narrow bezels for 10 years.

  2. Frank N. Stein

    MEH x 10

    under specked, unimpressive, uninspiring. Does it seem like Apple's designs have become more "MEH", lately?

    1. MD Rackham

      Re: MEH x 10

      Those other laptops that attract more flies are undoubtedly more "specked".

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: MEH x 10

      You deduced that from the image?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: MEH x 10

        Apparently Frank is blessed with some sort of special X ray vision that lets him see inside the case of a laptop even in a photo, able to see what CPU it has, how much RAM, the display resolution and battery life.

        If he can see the price too he can save us from having to read about it after Apple's announcement!

        1. redcrab

          Re: MEH x 10

          You must be new here or an iFanboy maybe.

  3. JustNiz

    Like they actually didn't mean to leak this.

    "Leaking" is just the new way that marketing departments generate buzz, especially around nerdbait products.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Yes, because embedding a photo in an OS update and assuming someone will find it is great marketing.

  4. redpawn

    It's Revolutionary!

    That means proprietary. Good luck fixing it if it goes wrong.

  5. Lennart Sorensen

    I thought users already hated touch panel buttons instead of function keys when Lenovo tried it. I guess Apple thinks they can just do what they want and their users will thank them for it. No thanks. Keyboard keys need to be real keys, not stupid touch panels.

    1. Sandtitz Silver badge

      @Lennart

      Damn, you beat me by just few minutes!

      1. Frank N. Stein

        Re: @Lennart

        You beat me to it, as well.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      It's 'courageous' to stop people touch typing.

    3. Mark 65

      At least you should be able to get good pricing on the current range (hopefully) as they try to shift stock before this tosh comes in

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You hardly ever use function keys, so who cares? If they tried to do that with the parts of the keyboard you interact with all the time, then I agree it would suck.

      Not sure there's much value, but I suppose I could see applications like Photoshop relabel all the function keys to serve purposes within the program, and power users might like that.

      1. Steve Button Silver badge

        "You hardly ever use function keys"

        Except the escape key is up there too. I use vim so reach for that ALL THE TIME. And probably for other things too. The rest of them... not so much.

        Damned apple keyboards are not great for a developer already.

        1. Dave 126 Silver badge

          OSX lets you toggle between Function Keys and controls for volume and Wi-Fi etc on their existing keyboards.. By default, it's set to the latter.

          For controlling volume (or Photoshop brush size, for example) a well implemented touch-strip may be a better than traditional keys.

          1. Sandtitz Silver badge

            "For controlling volume (or Photoshop brush size, for example) a well implemented touch-strip may be a better than traditional keys."

            Yes, it may be better if it is implemented well. The Carbon X1 problem was poor visibility of the touch strip icons (to me at least and this could be remedied) and you need to look down at the touch strip to find the correct key instead of letting your fingertips find the proper function key.

            An extremely well implemented Mac Wheel could in theory work better than your regular keyboard. It's just very unlikely.

            If the touch strip proves to be a genuine improvement then Apple be praised.

        2. whatevs...

          " I use vim ..." And therefore represent a vanishingly small demographic for Apple to worry about. There are a metric tonne of decent text editors, some of them free (both meanings), on the platform. Time to learn a new one? Or you could learn a decent CLI based text editor, like emacs...

          1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
            Coffee/keyboard

            "Or you could learn a decent CLI based text editor, like emacs..."

            You forgot the troll icon. I'd have added it for you here but the icon there ---->

            is most appropriate for this comment.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Ctrl - ]

          ...doubles as an ESC key. The mini Logitech keyboard I use sometimes doesn't have an ESC key ;)

          Aside: they're already working on a 'vim' mode. Courtesy Reddit: https://i.imgur.com/JXa7yTt.jpg

      2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        "You hardly ever use function keys, so who cares? "

        Only if you are a pointy clicky user. People who learn to use their computers properly really don't want to be reaching for a mouse or even a track-pad while using the keyboard, so have learned many KB short cuts, many of which use the F-keys. At the very least, F1 - help, F11 - browser full screen, F3 - find command in many apps, etc.

    5. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      "Keyboard keys need to be real keys, not stupid touch panels."

      I wonder how it fits in to the various disability access laws? I know a few blind users who prefer Apple, but if they can't find the function keys, or keys change function/shape/size in different apps, it's going to be impossible to use.

    6. whatevs...

      Or they think they can do a better job, than Lenovo. We'll See.

  6. Sandtitz Silver badge

    "the panel would be used as a secondary display to replace the function keys."

    Lenovo tried these "dynamic funtion keys" with their top tier X1 Carbon laptops couple years ago and it was horrible to use. Fine for the IT declined execs - who rarely bother with function keys anyway.

    It was a novelty that didn't work and fortunately Lenovo came to their senses and the later X1 Carbons are using physical function keys again.

  7. DrBobK

    Carbon - not so good copy

    I'm typing this on a Lenovo X1 Carbon with a dynamic touch panel above the keyboard. Everything for me about the X1 Carbon is a fantastic apart from the deeply irritating dynamic touch panel thing. I understand why people like Macs (I used them until MacOS 7.5.4 drove me insane, as did programming the things down to the VBL interrupt) - but why ruin them with this thing? It is, of course, possible that Apple will get the dynamic touch panel thing right. If they do that would be great - maybe Lenovo will fix their too!

    1. abu

      Re: Carbon - not so good copy

      Exactly...

      I never like the idea of a touch row replacing the fn keys (if anything, I'd like *two* rows of real keys for functions keys and special controls without needing fn combos...)

      The implementations then have always been the typical half-assed, low quality and badly supported OEM crap...

      Apple has really to nail it to get it right and not feel like a gimmick....

    2. Lennart Sorensen

      Re: Carbon - not so good copy

      If they wanted to try a new dynamic strip for extra keys, then sure fine. But don't remove the existing function keys to do it. Add a new row above the function keys and see if people start using them. A lot of people do know and use shortcut keys and taking them away is NOT going to be popular. But yes they are probably a minority and Apple clearly doesn't care about any minority user bases.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh yes

    This will look very good next to my flat white latte.

    1. Steve Button Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: Oh yes

      A "Flat white latte" is not a thing.

      To be a proper hipster you need a Flat White. A Latte is so 2012.

      A flat white is the only way to drink milky coffee if you must. I have one next to my crappy apply magic jeyboard right now.

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: Oh yes

        Flat Whites are so 2015… what you want is cold brew coffee.

        /me strokes beard and looks incredibly cook. We really need a hipster icon!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          ..strokes beard and looks incredibly cook

          Tim? Peter? Captain?

          1. Charlie Clark Silver badge
            Coffee/keyboard

            Re: ..strokes beard and looks incredibly cook

            Tim? Peter? Captain?

            Peter, of course, as Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling. Fancy some peche à la frog.

  9. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    Oh look!! It has a display. And a keyboard.

    What you can't see is that it has not a single connector.

    No headphone socket, no USB sockets, no charging socket. It comes with a sealed 'Lifetime' non-rechargeable battery good for 12 months (actual life may vary, based on 32 seconds use per day).

    You might think that omitting the charging socket is a dumb idea, but they're just leading the way into your future boys and girls.

    1. paulf
      Flame

      Re: Oh look!! It has a display. And a keyboard.

      I remain completely staggered that they've systematically dropped the Magsafe connector from their portable computers. This, at least for me, was one of the more compelling aspects for the MacBook [Pro] machines as it offered a genuine benefit - trip over the mains cable and it safely detaches without wiping out the machine in the process.

      As for connectors - completely agree. The chase is on for removing as much functionality as possible in the name of "courageous" decisions making it 0.1mm thinner. This seems to be a disease pervading Apple under Cook. If you want it super thin get a MB Air. If you buy a MacBook Pro you are probably planning to do some serious work with it so it should be connectors galore.

    2. JeffyPoooh
      Pint

      Re: Oh look!! It has a display. And a keyboard.

      2 days ago I was just joking...

      "Oh look!! It has a display. And a keyboard. What you can't see is that it has not a single connector. No headphone socket, no USB sockets..."

      No USB sockets. Was a joke. Now a fact.

  10. DM2012

    Great for debugging *sigh*

    There goes "Step Over" / "Step Into" / "Step Out" Fn key touch-typing while trying to stumble through vendor code

  11. Tistel

    What about VI users!

    Someone from the design department should have talked to a dev. This is going to add a real negative for developers who use VI. I have the good sense to use emacs, but, this is going hurt them with programmers. What's left? Lenovo? Dell? This seems like pointless change for changes sake. Also, when you have to drag around a few dongles to make it useful, I don't see that as elegance.

    1. Archivist

      Re: What about VI users!

      You and me might use VI but 99.9% of users won't and don't care. Most other industries don't use "home/consumer tools" to do the job - your garage doesn't use the supplied wrench from the boot of your car to change wheels.

      What I'm saying is there's noting compelling manufacturers to make products nice for devs. They are only interested in the bottom line, and that comes from "normal" sales.

      1. ChrisC Silver badge

        Re: What about VI users!

        "there's noting compelling manufacturers to make products nice for devs."

        In general, perhaps. When your products are also being used by the devs to create the software you need in order to be able to flog your products to the masses, however...

        1. whatevs...

          Re: What about VI users!

          You don't need and Esc key to use Xcode.

      2. Swarthy

        Re: What about VI users!

        "Normal" sales would be of the MacBook Air and the like - this is the Pro version, which should bear in mind computing professionals.

        This is not a home/consumer tool.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What about VI users!

      https://i.imgur.com/JXa7yTt.jpg

  12. Tistel
    Thumb Down

    What about VI users

    This will be a big negative for programmers.

    1. Steve Button Silver badge

      Re: What about VI users

      Amen to that. [ESC]:wq

    2. asphytxtc
      Thumb Down

      Re: What about VI users

      Have they added an insert key yet? Yes, this bodes terribly for us vimmers :-/

  13. DaveH77

    Is it the whole keyboard?

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/26/apple-leaks-images-new-macbook-pro-27-october-touch-bar-function-escape-keys-power-button#img-2

    Looking at a close up of the keyboard - the actual keys look pixelated to me...

    1. teapot9999

      Re: Is it the whole keyboard?

      Look close up at any picture and it is pixelated - that is how they work !

  14. Stevie

    Bah!

    Who the fuck gives a toss?

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