as•pi•ra•tion /ˌaspəˈrāSH(ə)n/ noun an inspired hope or ambition of achieving something.
It was a pretty cool week. We saw product introductions from Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft went first, their big product unveil was Surface Studio, a desktop version of the Surface line, that's nothing like any PC I have seen.
It has an amazingly thin, 28" LCD screen, and a "zero-gravity hinge" that goes from a desktop mode to to a drawing mode at the push of a single finger. Surface Studio, of course works with Microsoft's Surface Pen. There's also something new called Surface Dial. It's a small puck that rotates to do all sorts of fun things such as zoom in or rotate.
That would be interesting but that's not all. You can put a Dial directly on the screen. Doing so reveals different contextual menus depending on the app. You might not need this, but I think many will want it. (Microsoft also announced that Surface Dial will also work onscreen with existing Surface Pro devices, turning them into mini Surface Studios.)
In short. This is a PC you might want to get your hands on. Literally.
Apple followed up with new MacBooks Pro in both 13" and 15". They look pretty awesome in terms of specs, beautiful screens, and some improved aesthetics. Apple said farewell to a number of familiar ports opting for multiple Thunderbolt 3 ports — that are also compatible with USB-C.
Gone are SD readers, HDMI ports, and standard USB connections. And yes, that means it's going to be dongle city for awhile. Gone also is the escape key, at least in the two higher-end models. In it's place, Apple has introduced the Touch Bar.
Rather than put multitouch in the main Mac display, Apple is putting a secondary multitouch display just above the keyboard. It replaces function keys with items that are contextual to apps that support it. For example, scrolling through pictures in a Photos app. (Not sure why you'd want to look at little thumbnails rather than use that big screen, but perhaps I'm missing something).
I'm not sure how useful that Touch Bar is, especially for $300 more than the non-Touch Bar version at 13-inches. Will it make me more productive, or will it simply split my attention? I'll reserve judgement until I have a chance to try it.
The biggest difference between the two presentations is how I felt afterwards. I came away from Microsoft's event wanting a Surface Studio and Surface Dial. I'm not the target demographic. I don't do the creative work Surface Studio is optimized for. I do want to do those things. I want to create cool stuff, directly manipulate a screen that folds down or interact with it when it stands up.
I love that my Surface Pro can do a lot of those cool things and at a much lower price point. What I loved more is that when I watched Microsoft's display, I was inspired. There was something aspirational about their message. It seemed the only thing between me and a creative professional was a Surface, pen, and dial. It made me smile.
Apple's event was great. A Tim Cook update, a Jonathan Ive product "birth" video. Lots of specs, and some interesting demos from Apple execs and product leads. While the new MacBooks Pro are no doubt among the best, if not the best notebooks on the planet, I still find myself wanting more.
Touch ID is a welcome addition but I don't look at it and feel inspired. I don't feel like I can take the Touch Bar and aspire to something new. That's a major contrast to how I felt after seeing GarageBand and iMove for the first time. Those made me feel like I could be the next Legend or Spielberg if only I had those apps.
Overall, it's a dramatic shift from where Apple and Microsoft used to be. Microsoft is now appealing directly to creative professionals with hardware, and software innovations. Apple is introducing solid, workhorse devices that lack the magic of previous updates. Even the "birth" videos reflected a difference in how these machines are going to be sold. Microsoft's felt more Apple-y than Apple's this time around.
It wasn't long ago I'd watch an Apple keynote and dream of all the new things I'd be able to do. This week, though, I'm dreaming about the Surface Studio. How about you?
Reader comments
A tale of two keynotes
It's sad when they spend 1 1/2 hrs just talking about an app just to reveal the biggest update is a touch bar. Apple has lost its innovation forever. Nothing innovative just like the iPhone 7.
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Not innovative anymore? There are some good innovations in both the iphone and macbooks. And Microsoft is also innovative and this new era is doing them a lot of good!
Though i never understood this thing of being inspired by machines, from Apple or any other company. I am not a creative person, i do think this new surface studio is great for them and innovative but that doesn't make me want one as i know i won't use it for its first purpose!
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I was like that once when I spend more money on the equipment I think I can come up with great stuffs.
After spending all that cash I find my stuffs are still so so.
Yes, sad to say it's the man and not machines that can produce great stuffs.
I agree, the MS event was much more about the future than apple's. I am in the market for a new lap top to replace my aging and slowing imac. I don't want another desk top. After looking at both events I WANT a surface studio, but I will be buying a 2015 Surface Pro 4. I love the form factor and after using a ipad for a while I've become accustom to a touch screen. The new macbooks are nice, but for what I need the surface pro is the ideal product.
I've got a 2012 MacBook Pro, a 2015 12" MacBook, a 2015 Dell XPS 15, and a Surface Pro 3. I'm very hardware and OS agnostic, equally comfortable running OS X, Linux and Windows 10 (and I do some cross-platform development and gaming, hence the machine menagerie).
I originally bought the XPS 15 as a replacement for my 2012 MacBook, thinking that Apple had given up on the Pro line and it was time to switch to something newer and better. On paper, the XPS 15 looked great: Skylake CPUs, expandable to 32 gigs of RAM, 4K display, 17 hours of battery life (13-14 for the touchscreen model that I got), etc.
Turns out that while the hardware is nice, the experience of using it isn't - Windows 10 might have a lot of fancy features now but it's still missing the basics, like decent HiDPI screen support. Remember when Apple started selling Retina displays? All your old apps looked blurry / fuzzy? Yup, that's Windows 10 today on a high-res display. Apps that do support HiDPI are fine, except of course when you plug in an external monitor. Then you have to logout/log back in for everything to scale correctly. Or, not. (this also affects my Surface Pro 3, and the SP4 that you're considering).
Speaking of the SP3, one of it's best features is how it usually wakes up from sleep. Not always, of course... but most of the time. Then there are those times when it doesn't and you have to power it off hard to get it to recover.
Battery life! Did I mention that my XPS 15 supposedly has 14 hours of battery life? Brand new it gets 5-6 out of the box with very little running on it (Microsoft Signature edition of Windows, so not much in the way of crapware running). The SP3 supposedly gets 8-9 hours, but I've never been able to get much more than 4 hours of practical work out of it - much less if I start up a VM.
So after messing with these other machines I went back to my 2012 MacBook Pro.... it's not the most glamorous machine anymore, and you can argue that Apple isn't "innovative" (a horrible term overused by tech bloggers, VC angels and pet-food-over-the-internet-entrepreneurs) - but their stuff just *works*.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not a diehard Apple fan - I definitely liked a lot of what I saw at the Microsoft event... but I think that the media is overhyping what Microsoft presented. And Microsoft had some serious spin going too (that Surface Book spec about 2x the graphics of the MacBook? They were comparing a machine with dedicated GPU to a 13" MacBook w/integrated graphics).
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go back to working on my XPS 15. During an automatic graphics driver update yesterday, Windows uninstalled the GPU drivers without installing the new ones. Must go sort that out...
+1
Couldn't agree more. Every time I go to Best Buy I stop by and look at some of the Windows 2 in 1's and enjoy messing around with them. And just when I start falling in love something screws up. The Surface Pro was the device I was initially interested in, that is until I tried using its trackpad. Compared to the trackpad on Mac devices it is horrible. The Surface Book's trackpad is a lot better, but the fact still remains that it runs Windows which has many, many more issues that macOS. You are right, Macs just work. I've been using Mac's since I bought my Mac Pro G5 back in 2004 and aside from a processor issue on that 1st one (which Apple acknowledged was a bug and replaced immediately) I have had ZERO issues with every other Mac I've owned. Even some of the widely know bugs affecting Mac's (which Apple typically addresses in short order) haven't impacted me. The Surface Studio keynote did increase my desire for a 2 in 1 device though. I will listen to my head and not my heart and resist getting a Windows 2 in 1, but really do wish Apple would put their egos aside and make a 2 in 1 macOS/iOS device. Heck even adding trackpad support to the iPad Pro would help. On a recent interview Jony Ive said that multitouch on a laptop wasn't an optimal or intended use of the technology as it would be a pain to remove hands from the keyboard to touch the screen. Seems a little hypocritical when Apple is trying to sell the iPad Pro, a device that uses multitouch exclusively, as a laptop replacement. There are many parts of macOS that are not touch friendly, however, what is the issue with adding touch support to certain parts of the OS and certain apps where it makes sense. Heck if they don't want to use multitouch just make Mac's Apple Pencil capable. This would allow users to easily mark up documents, websites, pictures, etc. and allow designers to draw directly on the Mac.
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I came away pleasantly surprised by this article. Wholeheartedly agree. Author made some great points.
I agree that the SURFACE STUDIO initially elicited in me the same enthusiasm as Michael's, but I've learned to tempered my 'wows'. Remember the G4 Cube roll out by Steve Jobs? It had all the 'ooohs' and 'aaahhs' but it fllopped. Microsoft had a big thing with X-Box kinect and it didn't pan out either despite the possibilies the intial excitement.
The keynote by Tim Cook was so-so. The touchbar is nice, but I agree with Michael: am I going to be distracted with that? I have my eyes on the SCREEN when I design, and now I have to glance down to the touchbar also? I'm not sure how that works until I try it out.
However, once again Apple is killing ports: Mag Safe, SD card reader, HDMI port, and the pattern started with 'no headphone port on the iPhone 7. The products looks great on commercials, but on the desk is it practical?
All this commitment to mimalism in their products lines is going to force a new urban term, "Creative Donglers'. I am carrying more adapters than ever and my desk look like a web of cords spun by a spider with LSD.
Is it practical? I think it totally depends what comes next. I think the four Thunderbolt 3 ports means there's a possibility for not only third party port replicators, but third party port replicators that provide power.
So in a few months, new MacBook Pro users might be plugging in a single cable to connect everything they have: power, display, SD carder, any USB devices they need and even ethernet (which will automatically be switched to from WiFi).
The thing I fault Apple for is not being able to show some of these off on the spot. There's some huge potential here.
I assume the Touch Bar won't be that distracting when you get used to it. When you get used to what buttons are available for each application, I think you'll only be very quickly flicking your eyes down and changing something quickly through muscle memory. It'll be distracting at first when you're figuring it out and getting used to it, but I'm sure it'll be great for productivity when it becomes second nature
I agree with Michael. Though I'm not in the position to purchase either, I find myself wanting the Studio more than a new MBP. I feel Apple and Jonny Ive's have a major design challenge in front of them. They need to understand how they will further merge the iOS technology with the macOS desktop and laptop hardware. The macOS X edition is getting really long in the tooth, so are they going to reveal a new product line next year that will turn the iOS into a desktop solution? Right now, the Apple two device solution makes it a more expensive solution than Microsoft's all-in-one Surface devices, and I don't think Apple can rest on this too much longer.
2017 will be a big year for Apple as if they don't come out with new innovations, I think we'll see Apple sales decline further.
It might be more expensive to have two separate devices but a lot of people just have one of the two. I have a MacBook because I need to do development work, but obviously I can use it fine for casual stuff like web browsing so I don't need an iPad. Then there's your average joe who just uses their computer for web browsing, sending emails and playing games, they get an iPad and that's all they need as it does what they need it to do
If I knew there was a chance that Apple would build on the new MBP with other significant changes next year I would be excited. Sadly, it will probably be another 5-6 years until that happens. I really hope Tim Cook backs off his declaration that Apple won't make a 2 in 1 like the Surface Pro/Book. I don't want a touch version of macOS but I do want a touch screen on my Mac. Whether that comes from a modified version of iOS or a dual booting machine that runs iOS and macOS. I also want to be able to use a trackpad. When the Surface Pro 4 was announced I immediately wanted one. Then I played with one at Best Buy and realized it was a great concept with failed execution (the trackpad is terrible). Then I looked at the Surface Book. It gets right everything the Pro gets wrong (except for that ugly hinge). IMO the Surface Book is a great laptop but a terrible tablet. I wouldn't be able to use it to replace my iPad Pro workflow with the only exception being the Surface Pen functionality. Heck if Apple would have just added Apple Pencil capabilities to the MBP it would have been enough to beat the Surface Book. When I saw the Surface Studio I have to admit I drooled just a tad. I would love to be a designer and use one but the fact is I suck at design so I would mainly use it as a desktop computer that would serve as a reminder that I suck at design. My late 2013 MBP currently works good as a laptop and desktop for me and I don't really need another desktop at this time. If it becomes apparent by this time next year that Apple won't add a touch interface or Apple Pencil support to the Mac line I may have to start considering a Surface Book. While I may suck at design I do love using the Apple Pencil to take handwritten notes (helps me recall info better than typing). My iPad Pro is currently filling that need, but carrying my iPad Pro and MBP together is getting old.
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So, I'm not sure I want a touch screen laptop convertible tablet thing, nor a massive touch tablet display thing, but maybe? Here is food for thought. The touch bar is a huge applewatch interacting with the macOS in realtime. So maybe the future will see Apple replace the trackpad with an iOS device and even allow the display to be an iPad pro instead of just a display? Would that be the killer combination? I'm not sure. Apple is trying to push iOS as the next great development platform, so in the future the legacy Mac/Windows Apps may go away and iOS will rule. I'm not sure, but one concern is that Apple doesn't appear to have a person who can tell me what I need next the way Steve Jobs did.
I think an article like this and similar complaints in the comments are for the few who switch between platforms and not most of us committed to one or the other. Before the iPhone, it was common to switch between various mobile phones but not between Mac or PC computers.. I used a PC and didn't think anything about it (except for all the frustration!) and tried a variety of mobile phones. But once Apple killed it with the iPhone and then the iPad and refined the whole ecosystem, I went all in and couldn't be happier. These recent frustrations by tech-geeks about various keynotes and their disappointments about features are minor when it comes to the overall evolution of Apple products.
Let's face it: Microsoft and other competitors are never going to match the Apple experience. Will the Touch Bar live up to expectations? Don't know, but it's not that big of a deal--it's on a MacBook Pro and, like the writer said, it's the best laptop in the world.
I agree Michael. The new Macbook Pro looks great but the differences aren't enough to make me upgrade from a 2013 Macbook Air. There are some small advances but also some pain points and certainly not enough to pay the huge upgrade cost. They need a more radical change to drive upgrades. I would love a single device that combined the benefits of MacOS and a proper keyboard with a touch screen - something like the Surface Book comes closest and like other comments have said could be a MacOS / iOS Hybrid.
My biggest pain points computer wise are
i) trying to keep 4 devices in sync - would love something that let me replace iPad, MacBook and iMAc with a single device.
ii) inability of iOS to automatically download files onto the device (ie Dropbox accesses files on demand if I have internet connection rather than downloading the folders I have specified so that I can access when off-line)
I am surprised this article left out mentioning the surface book with the boosted performance base which was launched in the same event.!! You literally get 50% more power and productivity from the new surface book than the highest mac book for almost the same price.!! not to mention the convenience of using it as a full fledged tab when you want (movies, presentations etc.) and it transforming into a decent gaming or performance laptop when docked and a 100 other different possibilities. All that too, in a beautifully designed chassis. Lets not forget that the pen and dial can be used with the surface book too.
That surface book is innovation. Guess the surface book would've overshadowed the mac book completely in this article if mentioned and hence the reason why it was left out (this being a apple site, i mean) .. but still..............
First impression for the Surface Studio was, first Microsoft Products I've wanted since Windows 95. Until I saw the price and thought about having to move to Windows 10. No sale.
First impression of the MacBook Pro was, I want one, but I'll wait until it has 32 gigs of RAM next year when they get the Kelby Lake processors that can handle DDR4 Low Power RAM.
Non touchscreen overpriced, same old Mac, no thanks. Apple has lost their edge.
If you need a touchscreen everything not touchscreen would be overpriced.
Though i agree they made the price too high on that generation
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The Mac isn't a touchscreen product, you want the iPad for that
Surface Studio is to Microsoft, as Glass was to Google.
Both are/were "futuristic" looking at first glance, and both are/were generally unaffordable for most consumers, and in the end both are/were not very practical to use.
The basic idea of a Windows all-in-one PC with a cantilevered large touch screen, that becomes angled to use as a huge tablet, and has the electronics in the base, is NOT something "new" that Microsoft "innovated".
Other PC companies like HP and Dell have tried out these types of computers over the past few years!... NONE of them have ever sold very well.
The one unique add-on is the hockey puck controller that Microsoft made. It is intrusive, disrupting the flow of work as you reach for it and stick it onto your display, and it has very limited actual usefulness.
Like Google Glass, Microsoft's Surface Studio is a "flash in the pan". Just like Microsoft's Surface Table, it may sell a few units, but it is not going to be much of a sales success.
With a price range of $3,000 to $4,200 the Surface Studio is obviously being marketed to professional artists. It is too expensive for most consumers.
However, most professional artists are not planning to buy the Surface Studio. Engadget interviewed a range of professional artists, and here are some pertinent quotes from their article:
“The majority of creatives we spoke to weren’t planning on moving over to the Studio.”
“Anyone coming across from Wacom’s Cintiq or Intuos — and Apple’s iPad Pro — will understand that tilt and rotate is kind of important to the feel of drawing,” said Coello. The Surface Pen just doesn’t work well at sharp angles.”
“The lack of customization makes me worry that the Surface Pro will never allow such tweaks, unlike Wacom’s offerings, which are very flexible.”
“[It’s] large and goofy and seems like it needs more controls on there. Anything that could be done with the Dial could probably be done with a UI window instead, especially if I can use multitouch while using the pen.”
“Our left hands are hovering over our keyboards constantly, and we’ve rigged up our primary art programs with a lot of custom commands. Having to take our hand off the board to use this little Dial thing — for the few things it would actually be useful for — would actually take longer than just tapping the keys that do more or less the same thing.”
“A lack of power and upgrade paths (the Studio’s internals aren’t upgradable like on a tower PC) were deciding factors.”
“more concerned about Windows 10’s stability with demanding software”
“At $3,000? That’s a hard pass. It doesn’t offer nearly enough improvements over the machines we have, and even if it did, indie comic creators like us just don’t have that kind of disposable income to throw around.”
“it’s just not something that is going to be replacing the complex chain of tools that make up my very specific workflow.”
On the other hand, Apple did something truly innovative (a word that is often misused in describing many other new products) and it adds significantly to a user's productivity.
The Touch Bar provides all of the most important controls needed automatically, in a multitouch display strip at the user's finger tips. And those controls change contextually, and can be customized by the user any way they want.
Users understand this clear distinction between the two products. In just the first few days of pre-orders, many (perhaps millions) of the new MacBook Pro models have already been ordered. Backorders for the product are now more than a month in advance.
There are some very pragmatic reasons why the Touch Bar is a much more productive option for users than having a touch display:
- Specific controls on the multi-touch Touch Bar (for example, scrub bars) are more compact and take less effort than swiping across a wide screen to do the same thing.
- Using the controls on the Touch Bar, your hands are not blocking your view of the display and the thing that you are working on.
- Using the Touch Bar saves you from messing up your display with dirty, greasy finger smudges (which also affects the view of what you are working on).
- Using the controls on the Touch Bar keeps your finger tips within easy reach of the keyboard and the multi-touch trackpad, without having to raise your "gorilla arms" and outstretch your hands to touch the display in front of you.
- Using the Touch Bar for all of your important controls, and have them change contextually automatically, means that you don't need to fill your display with pallets of controls, but instead use your entire display for the video or graphic or other file that you are working on.
Once the Surface Studio hype machine loses steam, and the reality of meagre sales of that product sets in, we will probably hear and see much less about that Microsoft product. But we can be quite certain that once Apple starts delivering those new MacBook Pro models with Touch Bar to customers who have been eagerly waiting for these new notebooks, I think that we will start seeing them everywhere, with the same ubiquity that we have seen with the MacBook Air in past years.
The Touch Bar to me seems a little redundant.
I get that 1.0 Apple is typically just the starting point of technology and that they likely will take this idea and expand upon it greatly as they move forward.
But it seems like one of the main uses for it is... scrolling. Which is something I can do with my two fingers on the touch pad. And if I do it on the touch pad, my fingers are already in place for zooming in and out or clicking etc. Maybe this is a better way of doing it but it seems like one hand would stay on the pad and the other to the Touch Bar.
Also, if the criticism of touch screen monitors is blocking your view with your whole arm, how much view do you have of this little Touch Bar as you use it? Yes, you are looking at the screen as you use it as a scroll device, but that functionality is redundant. If you're using it to press hot keys like copy or paste, etc, I think the E-INK keyboard idea would be much better suited for that. Users could hopefully customize what options would be there since most people who use a computer daily probably have adapted to keyboard shortcut keys like Copy and Paste.
This is where the argument about Apple drifting from power users makes some sense to me. Most people who use a particular program on a daily basis as part of their work or art or whatever have probably adapted to the keyboard shortcuts they need regularly. Adding a Touch Bar to the top of the keyboard that highlights certain commands that I already know the keyboard shortcut to already doesn't really add any functionality for me. If anything, reaching to the top of the keyboard to press it is slower than keeping my hand parked on the keys.
That's why I am a bit hesitant to praise the Touch Bar as some kind of laptop leap forward. I will reserve judgement until I can actually use the thing but conceptually, I am not convinced yet.
The beginning of an end? Is Apple cooked under Tim? One thing for sure, if Jobs still alive, we would be seeing much better innovations. Jobs worries on Apple lack of innovation is starting to show its ugly heads, probably?
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