Touch Bar keyboards, 'modest' Mac upgrades on Apple's slate for 2017

Apple's Mac plans for next year reportedly include mostly "modest" upgrades, though the company is considering building standalone keyboards with Touch Bars and Touch ID.

The keyboards will only debut if the Touch Bar and Touch ID prove successful on the MacBook Pro, Bloomberg claimed on Tuesday as part of a broader expose on problems in Apple's Mac division. The site didn't say how Apple would address the security issues involving Touch ID, which would presumably require an onboard Secure Enclave to store fingerprints.

The iMac, which hasn't seen a 2016 refresh, is expected to adopt USB-C ports like its MacBook counterparts, and upgrade to new AMD graphics cards. That aligns with code discovered in macOS 10.12.2, pointing to support for the AMD technology.

On Monday, Apple CEO Tim Cook told the company that there are "great desktops" in its roadmap, without offering much extra detail except to say that desktops allow "a greater variety of I/O" than laptops.

The MacBook Pro and 12-inch MacBook are only expected to get speed boosts, Bloomberg's sources said. 2016 models of both were originally intended to be more impressive however, which could mean those lost features might make their debut. The Pro was supposed to have a more powerful, contoured battery, while the 12-inch MacBook might've gained Touch ID and a second USB-C port.

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59 Comments

robin huber

said about 7 years ago

Here we go again with the tepid improvements. Apple got its cred by under promising and over delivering; by dropping unbelievably cool products on us. Now all we get in the Mac line are excuses and justifications. I'm not buying the "mature" product argument anymore. The automobile was about as mature as you could get, and then came Tesla. Come on, Apple, Tesla us. Be Apple again. Hoist up the pirate flags and deliver an insanely great, totally unexpected paradigm shifting Mac again.

jkichline

said about 7 years ago

robin huber said:

Here we go again with the tepid improvements. Apple got its cred by under promising and over delivering; by dropping unbelievably cool products on us. Now all we get in the Mac line are excuses and justifications. I'm not buying the "mature" product argument anymore. The automobile was about as mature as you could get, and then came Tesla. Come on, Apple, Tesla us. Be Apple again. Hoist up the pirate flags and deliver an insanely great, totally unexpected paradigm shifting Mac again.

Maybe they're under promising again?

In all honesty I think they are being hamstrung by Intel at least on the mobile side of things. They want to move forward with USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 which is only available on a small subsets of processors. For instance, there is only one Xeon processor that could go in the MacPro lineup right now and the rest of the roadmap from Intel has been delayed by up to two years. Unfortunately Apple has pinned it's success on a company that is also focusing on mobile now, so they are unlikely to see massive improvements.

The one way Apple can get out of this of course is to design its own processors and chipsets for the laptop segment. They may have already seen the writing on the wall and started down that design path (which takes years). But in the meantime, what else do you expect the company to do when the company that makes the core components is happy with the status quo? You get exactly what Apple is doing... better screens, better keyboard, thinner design and a Touch Bar. Things that Apple can control directly and that is not tied to Intel.

goldenclaw

said about 7 years ago

I posted this in another thread but since that one was late and will get buried...

I hate that type of rubbish that Cook is spouting.

How difficult is it to simply come out with a model update regularly that has a faster processor, new graphics card, and maybe new ports (Thunderbolt 3, USB-C, etc).? Apple itself is probably making it harder to do this by inherently making designs non-upgradable.

The main problem is Apple thinks they need to reinvent the wheel every time they come out with a desktop. The cylinder Mac Pro is a perfect example...it's more about visual aesthetic then anything else. They probably spent years refining the cylinder. The Mac mini is the Cube concept refined to it's maximum (minus any thought for upgradability or expandability).

Then to see their laptop line adopt a gimmick like the Touch Bar...and remove all ports except USB-C...it really makes me wonder what they are thinking. I like Apple products, and they will sell millions of units regardless of what I think, but it's still frustrating.

blastdoor

said about 7 years ago

So very sad if true... and so plausibly true.

perhaps it will be a Zen-based Linux box for me in 2017

jbishop1039

said about 7 years ago

While I understand that the desktop computer isn't as profitable as it once was and that iOS is the way of the future, the fact remains that those great iOS apps need to be developed somewhere. And what better place than on a Mac with Xcode. They'll always be required, until there's a better way to do it I guess.