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+Document: WM-004                                                 P. Webb
+Category: Review                                              2017.01.07
+
+                     MacBook Pro (Late 2016) review
+
+Abstract
+
+   The Touch Bar is actually useful and I can't believe how thin/light
+   this laptop is. If you aren't already a Mac user in the market for a
+   new laptop, then this isn't for you. If you *are* in the market *or*
+   would like to see how I view my new computer, read on!
+
+Body
+
+   1. The adapter "problem"
+
+      I can understand why a lot of people are complaining about the
+      dongles, plugadoos[1], throughports, &c, but I don't understand
+      why I'm seeing these complaints from people who would *never* buy
+      a computer from Apple. Quite frankly, it reads as bullshit and an
+      excuse to complain on the Internet.
+
+      I have two plugadoos and I backed another one on Kickstarter[2]. I
+      haven't decided which one will stay at home and which one will
+      stay in my bag yet (the Kickstarter one has more ports than the
+      Satechi multi-port adapter[3] I'm currently using). The transition
+      period is *always* annoying but once *everyone* is in this USB-C
+      future, no one will be complaining. To borrow Edison Wrzosek's
+      response to a 9to5Mac article[4]:
+
+      > Ah, people have such short term memory… I still remember when
+      > Apple transitioned people, almost overnight, to USB-only iMac's,
+      > at a time when USB was nicknamed the "U-Son-of-a-Bitch" port in
+      > the PC world due to compatibility, reliability issues, and lack
+      > of supported peripherals. Now look at USB, it's supplanted
+      > almost EVERY other standard.
+      >
+      > People just LOVE to whine and complain, and it's Human nature to
+      > abhor change, and be fearful of it. TB3/USB3.1 is the future,
+      > and it's here and now. Time to embrace it.
+      >
+      > I'm still gonna rock my 2011 MBP for a while longer, but I'm
+      > really looking forward to a ubiquitous standard cable for ALL
+      > connectivity.
+
+      I *really* wish "U-Son-of-a-Bitch" port stuck, unofficially. That
+      sounds hilarious.
+
+   2. Battery life
+
+      Trash.
+
+      Charging? Hella quick. It's a great compromise IMO. That and I'm
+      not sure if I'm using my computer like a normal person. It's not
+      uncommon for me to be running several browser windows with tabs
+      that are almost too small, while compressing a 1 GB folder of
+      images, in addition to running local servers (not sure if this
+      last part is applicable to power consumption).
+
+      Basically, it's *meh*. Could be better. I should've tested this to
+      be certain, but I think my average is ~3 hours at max brightness.
+
+   3. MagSafe
+
+      *Sigh*
+
+      I *loved* MagSafe because life is unpredictable. I've walked into
+      my charge cable too many times to count and I never had to worry
+      about my laptop flying to the floor. Because I shouldn't have nice
+      things, I've done the same thing with my new MacBook Pro and it
+      stayed on the table! The charge puck fell out of the wall instead,
+      thankfully.
+
+      Speaking of the charge puck, another complaint I've heard is in
+      regard to the retractable arms on the old charge puck. In
+      practice, the absence of them is *not* a big deal. To store my
+      charge cable and puck in my bag, I just fold and tie the cable
+      while it's still plugged into the puck. I'm not focused on making
+      my cable storage pretty while I'm in transit.
+
+      📸[Not sure what the big deal is…][IMG1]
+
+   4. The screen
+
+      Good grief this thing is bright, *and I like it*.
+
+      I'm the kind of person who keeps the brightness on his phone to
+      maximum so when I heard that this computer's brightness and color
+      gamut was increased/enhanced, I was excited. Colour is such a huge
+      part of my life, I get inspired[5] by it. In certain lighting
+      conditions, I *do* turn the brightness down though. I'm not
+      an animal!
+
+   5. The ESC key, or lack thereof
+
+      Two weeks in and I'm still confused when I need to use it. Albeit
+      only for a split second but it's enough to give me pause and
+      think, "That's weird", before continuing with whatever I was
+      doing. Currently, the only time I use it is when cancelling a
+      screenshot in progress, dismissing autocomplete keywords in Atom,
+      or exiting an iTunes visualization or whatever else is in
+      fullscreen mode.
+
+      Before I've experienced this for myself, I heard developers (who
+      also didn't have the computer to even try it) say they wouldn't be
+      able to do programming on it. Maybe I'm just a simple man because
+      all I do is code in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but if you *need*
+      to use a physical ESC key to get things done you might have other
+      issues or a hella interesting programming environment (if I'm
+      wrong, let me know[6]).
+
+   6. The Touch Bar and Function keys
+
+      This thing is neat. My most-used "keys" are volume up/down.
+      Sliding the volume level is much more satisfying than repeatedly
+      tapping a button. I know, that sounds weird to say but it's true!
+      There's more granularity too. I've slid the volume down to where
+      the on-screen display says the volume is effectively off but I can
+      still hear audio. With the old function keys, volume was
+      changeable in steps.
+
+      Something to get used to is doing hard refreshes in my browser. I
+      have Vivaldi setup to do a hard refresh to clear the cache
+      sometimes and that keyboard shortcut is `Shift + F5`. Well, I
+      don't have my Touch Bar setup to show me the function row by
+      default so my shortcut (when not using an external keyboard) is
+      `Fn + Shift + F5`.
+
+      The Touch Bar changes based on whatever app you're using, which is
+      great. However, I don't think I've ever used it for an app besides
+      iTunes. When editing the photo of how I tie my charge cable, I saw
+      this in the Touch Bar (using Affinity Photo[7]):
+
+      📸[Neat-o][IMG2]
+
+   7. Touch ID
+
+      Like with the iPhone, you have to input your password when cold
+      booting (01.png "UGH") but in-between cold boots, it's wonderful
+      to use a single finger press to unlock my computer.
+
+      📸[Mmm, dat sweet Touch ID][IMG3]
+
+      How much time do we spend typing passwords? Who knows, but *my*
+      time doing so has decreased dramatically in part to Touch ID. The
+      other reason for my (almost) no password typing life? 1Password.
+
+      📸[1Password is life][IMG4]
+
+      You'd need to type in your Master Password to unlock it but now
+      you don't! It's *even less* of a hassle to use an already
+      hassle-free product for personal security. I don't know 90% of
+      my passwords.
+
+   8. The keyboard
+
+      I thought I would *hate* the keyboard due to the short travel.
+      This was based upon my previous experience of typing on the
+      MacBook One[8] (that's not the real name, but it's the MacBook
+      with only one port) in an Apple Store once. Might as well be
+      typing on a screen! I believe I was listening to ATP when I heard
+      Marco Arment talk about the keyboard travel on the MacBook Pro I
+      typed this post on, and he spoke highly of it. That made me feel
+      better about purchasing this and in everyday use, I enjoy it.
+      Typing doesn't sound particularly loud to me (this is another
+      complaint I've heard). Maybe this is because I own a Das
+      Keyboard? 🤔
+
+      The *only* gripe I have is with the new arrow keys. WTF[9].
+      Someone coming to MacBooks without prior usage would acclimate
+      faster, I think.
+
+   9. The trackpad
+
+      Dayum.
+
+      📸[Shot of the massive trackpad][IMG5]
+      📸[*DJ Khaled voice* Another one][IMG6]
+
+      The trackpad is nearly as big as my Magic Trackpad. As a former
+      external mouse[10]-only guy, I can say that 1) having a big
+      surface for multi-gesture controls is awesome and 2) it's even
+      better when it's on a laptop. Even with the dbrand skin[11] I have
+      on it, the trackpad is super responsive. My palms aren't typically
+      on the trackpad when I'm typing but when they are, the palm
+      rejection is great.
+
+  10. USB-C
+
+      I saved the best for last.
+
+      Let me tell you about the *glory* that is USB-C.
+
+      You know when you're outside on a *sweltering* hot day, and your
+      sweat betrays you and only makes you warmer? Okay, picture that.
+      Now, picture that you've just been given one of those red, white,
+      and blue popsicle rockets. You bite off a bit and your body thanks
+      you by cooling you down and you feel that elation of peace and
+      tranquility and your mood improves by 10 notches.
+
+      That's how I felt when I needed to charge my computer and I
+      realized that I could do so FROM ANY PORT FROM EITHER SIDE OF THE
+      COMPUTER. *MAN*. I'm mobile with my laptop of course, and I like
+      taking it to the living room while the family is watching TV or
+      hanging out, &c. Typically, I was forced to sit in certain spots
+      if my computer needed charging. Now, the *world* is my oyster. It
+      doesn't seem like a big deal but trust me, it *is*.
+
+   FIN
+
+   📸[Shot of the outside of my MacBook Pro][IMG7]
+
+   In conclusion, I will say that this computer was a fantastic upgrade
+   for me. It even survives water getting splashed on it! Not saying
+   I've ever done that recently, it's just something I've heard about…
+   👀 Of course, I'm going to feel some type of way i̶f̶ when Apple
+   refreshes this laptop later this year but it's okay. I like getting
+   glimpses of the future when I can. This computer is 0.5 pounds
+   lighter than the previous generation and I can definitely tell. I'm a
+   happy customer.
+
+   All that's left for Apple to do now is make everything super energy
+   efficient, crazily so. Oh, and fix software bugs. 🕸
+
+References
+
+   [1]    <https://theoutline.com/post/682/in-which-we-try-to-rebrand-the-dongle>
+   [2]    <https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hypershop/hyperdrivetm-compact-thunderbolt-3-usb-c-hub-for-m>
+   [3]    <https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J4BO0X8>
+   [4]    <https://disqus.com/home/discussion/9to5maccom/majority_of_readers_say_no_big_deal_adapting_to_usb_c_world_of_new_macbook_pro/#comment-3066707705>
+   [5]    <https://www.brisseaux.com/retro-series>
+   [6]    <https://twitter.com/@NetOpWibby>
+   [7]    <https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo>
+   [8]    <https://www.apple.com/macbook>
+   [9]    <https://www.instagram.com/p/BOV3YBjBJdV>
+   [10]   <https://www.microsoft.com/accessories/en-us/products/mice/arc-touch-mouse/rvf-00052>
+   [11]   <https://dbrand.com/shop/apple-macbook-pro-15-skins-2016-touch-bar>
+   [IMG1] <https://🔥.pixels.wtf/blog/image/2017/macbook-pro-review-a.jpg>
+   [IMG2] <https://🔥.pixels.wtf/blog/image/2017/macbook-pro-review-b.png>
+   [IMG3] <https://🔥.pixels.wtf/blog/image/2017/macbook-pro-review-c.png>
+   [IMG4] <https://🔥.pixels.wtf/blog/image/2017/macbook-pro-review-d.png>
+   [IMG5] <https://🔥.pixels.wtf/blog/image/2017/macbook-pro-review-e.jpg>
+   [IMG6] <https://🔥.pixels.wtf/blog/image/2017/macbook-pro-review-f.jpg>
+   [IMG7] <https://🔥.pixels.wtf/blog/image/2017/macbook-pro-review-g.jpg>