- 12 Inch Macbook For Programming Manual
- 12 Inch Macbook For Programming Software
- Apple 12 Inch Macbook
- Macbook 12 Inch Review
When looking for a new portable MacBook, you've got two great choices: The 2018 13' MacBook Air and the 2017 12' MacBook. Both have their strengths and weakn. Apple Macbook Retina Display Laptop (12 Inch Full-HD LED Backlit IPS Display, Intel Core M-5Y31 1.1GHz up to 2.4GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0). When the MacBook 12 was updated in 2016 I dismissed it for a while until I started finding out about some of the internal changes such as the faster ram, disk and moderate CPU increases. When I realized that the M7 model pretty much always ran in Turbo Boost mode I started searching for other peoples experiences with the m7 model specifically.
Yes any mac will be good for programming but I suggest you should not invest your money in macbook (12 inch) instead go for the new macbook air (13.3 inch). The new macbook has only one USB C-port through which you need to connect an external USB. The MacBook (marketed as the New MacBook, known colloquially as the Retina MacBook or 12-inch MacBook) is a discontinued Macintosh portable computer developed and sold by Apple Inc. In Apple's product line it was considered a more premium device compared to the second-generation MacBook Air (at the time consisting of 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch models that were larger and heavier, while lacking.
The latest MacBook Pro and 12-inch MacBook have a keyboard problem, and Apple is finally ready to do something about it. While the so-called 'butterfly' mechanism debuted to great fanfare back in 2015 on the original 12-inch MacBook with Retina display, the reality has left some notebook owners more frustrated and wowed. Here's what you need to know.
The Butterfly keyboard was meant to improve typing
Apple's promise with its new keyboard mechanism wasn't a small one: an altogether more comfortable typing experience. Traditional scissor-switches, the Cupertino firm argued, weren't balanced. They wobble as you press them, and they demand too much thickness from your keyboard overall. That means a thicker notebook as a result.
In contrast, Apple's butterfly design was meant to make for more balanced keys: less wobble under the fingertips, and a more crisp action. Usefully they also could be made thinner – with, Apple insisted, no change in how the key travel actually felt to typists – allowing MacBooks to be slimmer overall.
It's fair to say that the reality proved a little more divisive. The first 12-inch MacBook with Retina display was either loved or loathed: some hated the ultra-low-profile keys, while others found the larger keycaps and stroke-feel to be a joy. Apple tweaked things but still stuck with the butterfly mechanism for the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, adding travel though still not pleasing everybody.
Different strokes for different folks
Were it just a matter of personal taste, the butterfly keyboard probably wouldn't have so many detractors. Unfortunately, along with that frustration came some reliability concerns. Reports of sticky keys, keys that wouldn't respond to presses, or keys that produced multiple letters even though only tapped once began to circulate.
The nature of the new mechanism, though, meant that fixing those issues was tougher than with most notebook keyboards. Unlike the old scissor keys, the butterfly mechanism couldn't be easily pried up so that dust, trumps, and other detritus could be cleaned out. Trying to do so, indeed, could leave you with a completely broken key.
Apple's advice was the judicious application of some compressed air, but even that wasn't enough in many cases. Worse still, the company refused to acknowledge any part its design might have played in its temperamental ‘boards. Repairs could escalate to the hundreds of dollars, because the whole keyboard assembly needed to be replaced.
Along came the lawyers
If there's one thing that gets lawyers excited, it's the idea of a wealthy company with a potential problem. As Apple refused to countenance any possibility of its MacBook Pro and MacBook keyboards being finicky, so the class action suits started. Several have sprung up over the past months, typically alleging that there's an inherent design flaw to the butterfly mechanism keyboards.
What's requested in return ranges from refunds to cover the cost of individually-implemented repairs, through to a complete recall of all the notebooks with these particular keys. That mea maxima culpa should, the lawyers argue, probably come with financial compensation for missed work because of waiting around for notebooks to be shipped off and repaired.
Apple relents… sort of
On Friday, having spent months insisting that there was no inherent flaw to the butterfly keyboard mechanism, Apple had a change of heart. It quietly announced the Keyboard Service Program for MacBook and MacBook Pro, having conceded that 'a small percentage of the keyboards in certain MacBook and MacBook Pro models' could show letters or characters that repeat unexpectedly, letters or characters that don't appear, or keys that feel 'sticky' or that don't respond consistently.
It was the acknowledgment that many owners were desperate for. Only nine different models, spanning early 2015 through to the latest 2017 refresh, are covered by the new Keyboard Service Program, mind. They're as follows:
MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015)
MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2016)
MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, 2017)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017)
You'll probably need to send your Mac off
Official recognition, unfortunately, doesn't make the fix any easier. 'The type of service will be determined after the keyboard is examined and may involve the replacement of one or more keys or the whole keyboard,' Apple warns. 'The service turn-around time may vary depending upon the type of service and availability of replacement parts.'
In short, this may not be the sort of thing you can walk into an Apple Store with a Genius appointment for, hand over your notebook, and then walk out a short time later with your repaired Mac. Apple isn't giving an estimate on how long repairs will actually take but, as we've seen from the iPhone battery replacement program, it's likely to be very dependent on demand. If there are more broken Macs than Apple has replacement keyboards for each system, there could be quite the delay in waiting to get yours fixed.
If you paid for a repair, you may get a refund
'If you believe your MacBook or MacBook Pro was affected by this issue,' Apple says, 'and you paid to have your keyboard repaired, you can contact Apple about a refund.' That means if you coughed up to pay for the keyboard replacement, you may very well get your money back. Apple won't be processing those refunds automatically, however: you'll need to contact the company and make your case.
On the flip side to that, though, is Apple's small print to the program. Should your MacBook or MacBook Pro have other damage, and if that damage impairs Apple's ability to replace or repair the keyboard, it'll need to be fixed first. If it's not a warranty issue, that means you'll have to pay for it. We've seen a similar requirement for iPhone battery replacements, and it could end up dropping a significant bill on your desk as a result.
Nobody is saying what 'a small percentage' is
Official numbers for just how many people are actually affected by this butterfly mechanism issue are in short supply. Listen to the keyboard naysayers and you'd end up thinking the MacBook and MacBook Pro were ticking time-bombs. Apple's attitude, meanwhile, is that a 'small' – but unspecified – number of owners are affected.
It's unlikely we'll hear anything more specific from Apple. It's also unlikely that this new Keyboard Service Program is going to be the end of the class-action suits. Indeed, Apple's recognition of the problem will probably only encourage the lawyers involved.
The other contentious aspect is how long you've got to apply for a repair or replacement to the keyboard. Apple has set a four year limit, after the first retail sale of the unit. That means the very earliest 12-inch MacBook with Retina display models are approaching the end of that deadline.
Meanwhile, there's no change to the overall warranty coverage of the MacBook or MacBook Pro. That's been enough to give some owners pause, too.
12 Inch Macbook For Programming Manual
There's no word of a redesign
The big question many would-be MacBook or MacBook Pro buyers are asking is straightforward: what comes next? Apple may have accepted that some portion of its notebooks are exhibiting problems, but while it's agreeing to a free fix for them, it isn't saying anything about redesigning the keyboard itself. That's left some potential owners wary.
Apple hasn't retired the scissor mechanism completely. The standalone Mac keyboard, for instance – included with the iMac – still uses a tweaked version of that key type, rather than the butterfly keys. Feedback on that has been much more consistently positive, though a standalone keyboard doesn't have the same space constraints as a notebook ‘board. Can you get excel on macbook air.
For now, we'll just have to wait and see what Apple does with its keys when it next updates its laptop line-up. If there's good news there, it's that all signs point to that happening sooner rather than later. A new 13-inch MacBook with Retina display has been widely rumored to finally put the aging MacBook Air out to pasture; Apple is believed to be waiting for Intel to finalize its next-gen mobile processors before it revamps the MacBook Pro range.
Will it also introduce a third-generation butterfly keyboard at the same time? That seems a pretty safe guess; even if it doesn't draw attention to the changes, it's hard to imagine Apple doesn't have engineers hard at work trying to make sure its next laptops don't meet the same negative reception. We'll know more in the next few months.
After travelling quite a lot during 2016, I decided to pick up a 12-inch MacBook so that I could travel light and run Xcode/Jekyll on the go. I didn't expect much from a 1.2Ghz m5 processor but, in preparation for a recent trip, I downloaded some games to try out regardless. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised, even if I won't be playing my favourite AAA games away from home.
Device Specs: These games were tested on an Early 2016 12' MacBook with a 1.2 Ghz Intel Core m5 processor. The MacBook has 8 GB of 1867 MHz memory, an Intel HD 515 GPU and a 512 GB SSD.
Testing Notes
Will it also introduce a third-generation butterfly keyboard at the same time? That seems a pretty safe guess; even if it doesn't draw attention to the changes, it's hard to imagine Apple doesn't have engineers hard at work trying to make sure its next laptops don't meet the same negative reception. We'll know more in the next few months.
After travelling quite a lot during 2016, I decided to pick up a 12-inch MacBook so that I could travel light and run Xcode/Jekyll on the go. I didn't expect much from a 1.2Ghz m5 processor but, in preparation for a recent trip, I downloaded some games to try out regardless. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised, even if I won't be playing my favourite AAA games away from home.
Device Specs: These games were tested on an Early 2016 12' MacBook with a 1.2 Ghz Intel Core m5 processor. The MacBook has 8 GB of 1867 MHz memory, an Intel HD 515 GPU and a 512 GB SSD.
Testing Notes
I did most of my gaming on the titles below with the charger attached, just incase that made a difference to performance. I also closed down all background apps (Safari, Mail, etc) as I knew that CPU cycles would be precious. I played each game for at least 20 minutes to allow the device to heat up in case of throttling and I tried to find busy areas / load late game saves to test realistic situations. However, some games I didn't have late game saves for and they could potentially perform worse during a busy end game. All games were played at 1280x800 and on macOS 10.12.2 unless otherwise stated.
One thing I noticed was that Unity titles overall struggled, even for simpler games. I guess that Unity adds some overhead in general and smaller game teams probably don't get as much time to optimise their code. Some Unity games also had issues starting up - crashing a number of times before finally working. A final comment before digging into the games, was that one or two games (Shank) also had issues creating a full-screen OpenGL context - they would sometimes end up slightly off the screen. Playing windowed or sometimes just tweaking the GFX settings fixed this though.
Suggested Games
Portal: Ahh, some good old fashioned puzzle FPS action. Here you get the choice between a pretty solid 60fps with fairly low settings or you can have the higher settings but the framerate will sometimes dip. It's an old game, but a classic - and it's nice to be able to play it through again when on the go.
Portal 2: It made me happy to see that the sequel to Portal was equally as playable. You don't always get a smooth 60fps like the original Portal, but for the upgraded visuals you can get a decent 30+. If you enable laptop mode, it limits you to 30fps to save some battery life, which is pretty cool.
Sky Force Anniversary: A fun and not too crazy vertical scrolling shooter with a cool visual style. This is baesd on an iOS game, so you would expect good performance and I'm happy to say that it delivers. I experienced satisfyingly smooth gameplay while playing Sky Force Anniversary and it looked pretty crisp on the nice, small screen.
Shank: Shank is a side-scrolling arcade beat-em-up which I actually played with a PS4 controller connected over Bluetooth. The controller worked great in this game (even though some other games had some issues) and while the FPS flip-flops a bit between 30, 45 and 60 I felt that the game was perfectly playable.
FTL: Faster than Light: A technically simple game with 2D graphics and not too much going on at once. FTL is a wonderful time-sink to travel with and it runs very smoothly on the 12-inch MacBook. Another game you can get on iOS, but I prefer to play it with a mouse and keyboard and with the addition of mod support, you'll get even more hours out of it.
Civilization IV: While Civilization VI was recently released, Civilization IV is still a strong strategy game worthy of taking with you on vacation. I only played through the first couple of hours, but consistently got 30+ fps. As it's turn based, I imagine it should be playable down to ~20fps too - so there is some headroom for additional late game complexity.
Invisible Inc.: A great little turn-based tactical stealth game with a lot of charm. With all of the settings off, performance was pretty good. It sometimes fluttered down to 45fps from 60, but this was clearly enough to play a turn based game. I only played a few of the early levels, but the performance leaves lots of headroom for what might be a more hectic end game.
StarCraft II (Single Player): Classic RTS fun. When you enable the experimental Metal driver support, you seem to lose v-sync but the FPS is seriously impressive (if correct). Even during the end of a pretty hectic mission I saw 50+fps. I wouldn't want to play this online competetively, but if you enjoy the campaign - just plugging in a mouse and playing through again would provide hours of fun.
Hearthstone: This free-to-play collectible card game has got most of my friends hooked and I enjoy it on and off. Hearthstone runs on iOS and Android, so you would expect it to run on the 12-inch MacBook, but I figured someone would appreciate confirmation that it runs fine on my machine at medium settings and 1280x800.
Acceptable Games
Chaos Reborn: Chaos Reborn is a remake of a classic strategy game from the original maker of XCOM. I played the first few battles and they ran adequately at 20-25fps. It was definitely playable, especially as it's turned based, but it wasn't overly smooth.
Torchlight II: Click, Click, Loot, Click, Click, ARPG fun. Mostly 25-35 fps with all of the setting down. This was a bit troublesome during some of the big fights, but playable. I loaded up an end game save and did a bonus dungeon and it played okay, but you might find yourself dying to a boss if the FPS takes a sudden dip.
Darkest Dungeon: This side-scrolling dungeon crawler makes for an interesting challenge with some novel rules. Disappointingly, Darkest Dungeon only really ran at around 15-25fps, but for a turn based game that wasn't too bad.
12 Inch Macbook For Programming Software
Games to Avoid
Apple 12 Inch Macbook
Rocket League: Okay, I wasn't really expecting this game to be playable - but as it's my current addiction, I was kinda hoping it had some friendly low graphics settings. Unfortunately, at the lowest setting, this game looks like ass and kicking the settings up high enough to get rid of the awful scaling meant that the FPS was jumping around like crazy.
MASSIVE CHALICE: A turn-based strategy game that's a little bit like XCOM that would be perfect to play on the go. Unfortunately, MASSIVE CHALICE consistently ran at 10-15fps, even at the lowest settings (which looked quite poor and pixelated), so I don't think I would find myself playing this again on this device.
Offworld Trading Company: Offworld Trading Company is an RTS with a focus on economy instead of war (it's a lot more fun that it sounds!). Unfortunately, the game crashed a bunch of times for me before it would even work, and then the FPS wasn't great. As OTC is a pretty hectic game, I wouldn't fancy playing it with the low framerate.
Macbook 12 Inch Review
Binding of Isaac: You might think this game should run on anything, but I think it's written in Actionscript/Flash and so the performance is pretty choppy. Unfortunately, this makes it tough to play, as twitch reflexes are key in this game. I suspect that Binding of Isaac Rebirth will perform better though, as it was built from the ground up in a more performant language.
War for the Overworld: I would have loved to have played this to get my modern day Dungeon Keeper clone fix, but unfortunately - I couldn't even get the game to start. The once or twice it didn't crash, I was hit with a black screen for an awful long time.
