What do you miss in the new macs?

[LizKat]

User-replaceable batteries. I really miss them! I realize that not having to engineer and build a user-friendly batt compartment saves me money when I buy a laptop or iOS device. At point of purchase that may feel great, but not so much when I have to make an extra backup, wipe and ship the whole machine in when the battery hits that steep decline. At least Apple's newer turnaround box, packing material and tape do make the actual pack-up process painless, and kudos to them for that. And thank god for Time Machine, since the restore is simple. Still, I did like just signing for FedEx at the back door for a new battery. Sigh.

But "evolve or die" is how it really is. I no longer fret over lack of floppy drives, so I presume there will come a time when I don't miss replaceable batts, optical drives and firewire connections. Just not quite there yet in my head...

I am another one of those who liked the little external lights that said how much charge was on the batt of a laptop.

I don't miss the sleep light much and always disliked that it was so noticeable in a dark room. I still cover up the one on my mpb13.

MOOF. Loved the dogcow.

 

[808?]

10.6 - or at least the choice to run 10.6 on new hardware if I wish to.

 

[kingtj]

re: Mac cases

Honestly, I've ALWAYS thought Apple tended to view their products as "non user serviceable". As a rule of thumb, their attitude is, "If we want you to mess with it yourself, we leave some kind of access door or slot available for that specific item." Otherwise, anything goes with how easy or tough it might be to open up.

The original Macintosh was a pain to open up. Didn't need a putty knife, but you DID need a special, hard-to-obtain, super-long hex tool to reach the deeply recessed bolts holding it together.

How about cases that you didn't need auto body shop tools like putty knives and suction cups to open.

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No, just ..... well, NO!

The iMac G3 did help save Apple from completely dying, but that design didn't age any better than Swatch watches. As other people said, it looks cheap and toy-like by today's expectations for a computer. Besides, I *never* liked that "flower power" design a bit. It looks like someone attacked the case with spray paint or tried to cover it in wallpaper or something. At least with the solid / translucent colored iMacs, they gave people the option to color co-ordinate one with a particular room. (Interestingly, that turned out to be a big reason for the popularity of the snow white iMacs they made just before the transition to aluminum. I knew a number of dental offices and hair salons that selected them ONLY because they gave off the clean, sterile look they were going for in the rest of their facility. Dell and HP, by contrast, only offered gray or black tower cases.)

I do. I believe the iMac G3 helped to save apple. I think they are great looking computers and I would take that design ANY DAY over anything in their current line up. If they could offer that case with specs of todays machines (even if it had a CRT) I would gladly take it over any other machine. Same with a Clamshell iBook.

 

[bastifantasti]

I miss...

I miss having a PowerPC based computer. The reason I used to use macs was solely this purpose. Then when Steve Jobs came back, not only did we have the PowerPC processor but we got incredibly sexy computer designs which were superior to everything else. Then as time went on, the looks got slicker/more boring - today mac products look nice...but I don't have the same excitement.

The biggest upset for me is the fact my mac is now essentially a PC - knowing that I have an intel chip inside my mac just greatly displeases me...

I know the reason for moving to Intel was valid...but comonnnnnn the heart of the mac is gone, and steve jobs is gone. Weep.

 

[mrsir2009]

I miss the days when the command key used to be the Apple key

 

[LorenK]

I have a 6115 sittlng in a closet gathering dust. I don't miss it. I have an iMac gathering dust. I don't miss it. I have a Mac Pro 3,1 that is like a draft horse, pulling whatever load I give it. I've loaded it with three TBs of hard drives, added external eSata drives, loaded up on ram and considering an internal SSD in the extra drive slot. I also have a 2011 Mac Mini, but waiting for a Thunderbolt adapter for eSata to load that up with external memory as well.

To me. it's a damn good tool and while there may be conveniences that go away, there are others that serve a different function and make it work better in other ways. Missing something suggests regret, and I have no cause for regret, particularly when I have to use crappy Wintel laptop everyday at work.

 

[interrobang]

I miss the days when the command key used to be the Apple key

You mean, the Apple II days? I miss those, too.

 

[sigamy]

Firewire ports.

 

[sigamy]

I miss the color and dimensionality of Aqua. Everything now is flat and steely gray.

+1. I don't understand why color has been removed from Mail, iTunes and Finder sidebars and toolbars. I now have to look more closely at buttons and items to find the one I need.

We now have 21"+ monitors with millions of colors and HD resolution and we are back to gray scale UIs...

 

[steve2112]

Firewire ports.

That's why I got a MBP instead of a MBA. I like Firewire ports.

 

[jaynone]

I miss the chooser.

I also miss that system plugin that you could get that would show network activity in the top left corner in the menubar!

 

[0dev]

I also miss that system plugin that you could get that would show network activity in the top left corner in the menubar!

iStat Menus will still do that today.

 

[ixodes]

I feel the overall build quality of Macs has decreased somewhat over the past few years.

I do too.

While it's not horrible, there has been a general decline in quality control, consistency and choice of component quality.

I miss the once, nearly perfect consistency. For years I never had to return a single new Apple PowerBook or other model, that's no longer the case.

Oh well, just goes to show you that the buyers of iOS gadgets are not very discerning. Yes they love to complain.

But that's about it

 

[mrsir2009]

You mean, the Apple II days? I miss those, too.

No haha, I haven't been around that long I meant having the Apple logo on the command key, like this:

 

[jaynone]

No haha, I haven't been around that long I meant having the Apple logo on the command key, like this:

Holy ****! I hadnt noticed that change until now!

 

[mrsir2009]

Holy ****! I hadnt noticed that change until now!

I suspect its got something to do with bootcamp compatibility and ease of use for those that have come from Windows

 

[GermanyChris]

My laptop still has a battery indicator and sleep light..when did they go missing?

 

[mrsir2009]

My laptop still has a battery indicator and sleep light..when did they go missing?

So does mine... Do they not have them anymore?!

 

[righteye]

Matt Screens.
My father has a white iMac with a matt screen, personally i do not get the gloss screen thing especially for a desk bound computer where finger marks should be much less of a problem.
Express card slot on 15" MBP, ( gave so many options for extra connections card readers etc) i know there is a sonnet gizmo that can be attached to a TB port but thats not so handy.

 

[r6girl]

Like a few others, I miss the sleep indicator light (neither of my current Macs have one), the Apple logo on the command key, and silver keys on the portable Macs.

 

[GermanyChris]

Like a few others, I miss the sleep indicator light (neither of my current Macs have one), the Apple logo on the command key, and silver keys on the portable Macs.

Thats what I was getting at my 2011 and my wifes 2010 have sleep indictor lights

 

[r6girl]

Thats what I was getting at my 2011 and my wifes 2010 have sleep indictor lights

My 2011 iMac and 11-inch MacBook Air do not have sleep indicator lights.

 

[Rampant.A.I.]

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Another thing I miss: themes. For a while there with the OSX beta, it looked like Apple was going to support themes, and then... Nothing.

 

[Rampant.A.I.]

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Thats what I was getting at my 2011 and my wifes 2010 have sleep indictor lights

My 2011 iMac and 11-inch MacBook Air do not have sleep indicator lights.

No idea why Apple is afraid of indicator lights. Next they'll remove the charge indicator light...

Back when I had a Pismo PB, I planned to swap the clear rootbeer colored keyboard out for a clear blue one, but never got around to it. How cool would translucent keys be on the new MBP?

 

[Rampant.A.I.]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4s: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

I feel the overall build quality of Macs has decreased somewhat over the past few years.

I do too.

While it's not horrible, there has been a general decline in quality control, consistency and choice of component quality.

* hate to be the triple post guy, but this thread is relevant to mah interests.

I miss the once, nearly perfect consistency. For years I never had to return a single new Apple PowerBook or other model, that's no longer the case.

Oh well, just goes to show you that the buyers of iOS gadgets are not very discerning. Yes they love to complain.

But that's about it

If the apple spinoff hardware company that ran Mac OS hadn't failed horribly, we would have had a lot more options, and Apple would've had some competition for features!