2013, a good MacBook Pro year?

▼ I bought Apple laptops in 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008 and 2011. So that's one every two years on average. In 2008, I learned the hard way that I really need to have a decent backup computer in case my primary one fails. So a while back I decided that I should probably buy a new computer every two years, and keep the previous one as a backup for another two years. So I'm due for a new laptop this year.

Which brings up the question: is 2013 a good year for buying a new Mac laptop?

One important consideration is CPU speed. The good people over at Primate Labs have compiled a long list of results for different Macs running their Geekbench benchmark. What's interesting here is that single threaded performance for the highest end MacBook Pro increased by 70% between mid-2009 and late 2012. In addition to that, in 2011 the 15" MacBook Pros went from dual core to quad core, which obviously improves multithreaded performance quite a lot. But since then, the speed improvements have been rather modest.

But there's more to life than just a fast CPU. Such as fast I/O. So I went to support.apple.com and looked up the tech specs for the MacBook Pros released since 2006. By 2007, the MBPs were fully 64-bit capable, supported 4 GB RAM, had Firewire 800 and 300 Mbps Wi-Fi. In 2009, the Expresscard/34 slot was replaced with an SD card slot, and the RAM ceiling went to 8 GB. In 2011, the Wi-Fi speed reached 450 Mbps and Thunderbolt was added. Last year Apple added USB 3, and we saw the new high resolution, slimmed down MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

Once we got to see the new MBPwRD (or rMBP or high resolution MBP) last year, it was obvious that this was the future of laptop computing. Or all computing, really: it won't be all that long until all computer screens reach "retina" resolutions. However, the MBPwRD has a few important weaknesses. One is networking. The 300 Mbps limit on my mid-2011 MacBook Air is a frequent source of frustration: transferring files over my home network at 22 MB/sec (on a good day!) is no fun. The MBPwRD should be about 50% faster, and you can plug in the Thunderbolt-to-GE adapter without losing your external screen. But 1.3 Gbps 802.11ac would be really, really sweet.

Speaking of external displays: apparently the MBPwRD can handle two (three?) of those... but only at a resolution of 2560x1600. So either you get to use the built-in high resolution screen, or you can use a nice, big external low resolution screen. Thunderbolt 2 should allow for 4k resolutions on external screens.

In addition to faster Wi-Fi and Thunderbolt 2, based on this year's MacBook Airs and iMacs, we can expect updated MacBook Pros to have better battery life and very fast PCIe-based SSDs.

So for those of us who are still on 300 or 450 Mbps Wi-Fi, USB 2, and low-to-average resolution screens, the new high resolution MacBook Pros that we all think are coming soon will be a very solid upgrade. Apart from the high resolution display and faster Wi-Fi, I'm also looking forward to much better external HDD performance over USB 3. Sure, a Thunderbolt-connected SSD array is going to blow a 2.5" USB 3 drive out of the water, but then again, that USB 3 drive only costs 60 euros and it should still be a good deal faster than its USB 2 predecessor.

On the other hand, Intel's broadwell architecture is coming (although likely not until 2015) and maybe next year will be the year of the MacBook Air with Retina Display...

Permalink - posted 2013-10-09

Apple's iPhone 5s dock

▼ When the iPhone 5 was released last year, Apple didn't bother with any cases or docks. Third parties certainly addressed the lack of cases, but as far as I can tell, there were never any good docks. But now there's the iPhone 5s dock, which is also compatible with the iPhone 5. So I got on my bicycle and went to the nearest Apple Store to get one. Read on to see if it was worth € 29 and cycling 63 km.

The dock comes in a very small box:

Unlike the iPhone 3G dock I had years ago, there are no holes in the bottom to guide audio in and out. But with the iPhone 5 in place, there's a little bit of room left in front of the iPhone, which is enough to get audio out without issues, and the microphone still picks up enough of my voice for Siri to work.

The dock is fairly small, and not particularly heavy, but sturdy enough to make sure the iPhone stands up relatively securely. The rubbery underside provides a good amount of grip on most surfaces. The lightning connector is looser than the one on the cable that comes with the iPhone 5, so it's easy enough to insert the phone, and not too hard to get it out with one hand.

Speaking of audio, there's a line out port in the back:

What's really nice is that the iPhone detects whether there's a cable inserted in the 3.5 mm jack. If so, it sends most audio (not phone calls, though) out through that port, but if there's nothing connected, it uses the built-in speaker.

There's a lightning receptacle on the back of the dock, which you can use to connect the docked iPhone to a computer for charging and syncing, or to a charger for charging. A charger or cable are not included.

The main reason I got the dock is because I don't want my iPhone to slide around on and fall off of tables and break or even just get scratched for that matter. The dock also allows you to read notifications as they come in, and use a nice clock app, such as Analog Digital Clock or LlamaClock (displayed).

(With power connected, the screen will stay on if an app is running in the foreground.)

The only downside of the dock is that getting at the home button is a bit harder. Or maybe I just have fat fingers. It would be great to have a dock that also works in landscape, though, for things like watching video.

Note that in addition to the iPhone 5s dock, which is compatible with the iPhone 5, there's also an iPhone 5c dock.

Permalink - posted 2013-09-22

Some of my favorite podcasts

▼ Anyone who's been reading my stuff on Ars Technica will know that I love podcasts. I'm always adding new ones to my rotation and retiring ones that have run their course for one reason or another. So I thought I'd share some of my current favorites with you.

Two fairly new podcasts that I like a lot are Just The Tip and Clockwise. Just The Tip (RSS, iTunes): "Internet rapscallions Amy Jane Gruber and Paul Kafasis try to make you laugh, in thirty minutes or less." It defies description, but somehow it works. Bonus: unlike most other weekly podcasts, it usually drops early in the week.

Clockwise (RSS, iTunes) comes from TechHive, the home of Macworld and PCWorld. Don't let the gimmicky format used in the first episode deter you, it quickly fades into the background, but it does allow them to get through a whole bunch of topics with a relatively large group of participants in about thirty minutes. A breath of fresh air compared to uninspired episodes of the Accidental Tech Podcast (RSS, iTunes) or The Talk Show (RSS, iTunes)—although I keep listening to those just in case there's an inspired episode, in which case their excessive length is a boon.

The Nature Podcast (RSS, iTunes) and Freakonomics Radio (RSS, iTunes) are a bit overproduced (I really hate that "coming up..." stuff! Come on people, I'm already listening), but not to be missed.

Philosophy Bites is not for everyone, but if you're interested in philosophy, there's a lot of good (bite-sized) stuff there. Be sure to check out the website, because the RSS feed doesn't have the back episodes.

For some strange reason I don't listen to any Dutch language podcasts except public radio programs. If anyone has any tips for Dutch (or English!) podcasts, send me an email or Twitter me.

Permalink - posted 2013-09-13