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From the looks of the photo, he appears to have his iPhone and one other USB device plugged in. If you need multiple USB-A ports, then buy a USB-C hub with A ports and avoid the C to A adapter int he pic.
 


Lol. That or an adaptor should have been in the box. How does a company sell 2 flagship items that can't connect to each other??


Btw- I got a generic adaptor off amazon for a couple bucks
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Why would I plug in my phone to my macbook? I would plug it into the wall, or my desktop, or macbook pro. I have no intention to ever plug a usb stick, or phone into my macbook. That isn't what I wanted out of this. I've got a million other things I could plug it into.
Erm. So you can make a secure backup of your iPhone to iTunes ....???
 
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For the love of Lopan, why do people get so defensive? I'm just posting my point of view about my decision of not buying the MacBook. I love my MBA but I think Apple made a huge mistake in only making available the USB-C ports. There's a lot of potential buyers coming to this forum trying to make their minds. This is something to think about, an important one.

People get defensive because your post is pointless, and it offers exactly zero amount of insightful information. You came to this forum to start a thread posting some ludicrous picture of some Verge staffer doing silly things with cables and adapters. Great - thanks for sharing.

It would be like me gong to Mac Pro forum, and posting a photo of trying to use a Mac Pro with 27" Thunderbolt display in an airplane seat.. And saying "after seeing this photo I decided to not buy a Mac Pro". Except the photo you posted is even more ridiculous, because there are plenty of elegant ways to use a couple of USB peripherals with a MacBook while on the go (I know because I do it all the time).

Hope now you understand.
 
People get defensive because your post is pointless, and it offers exactly zero amount of insightful information. You came to this forum to start a thread posting some ludicrous picture of some Verge staffer doing silly things with cables and adapters. Great - thanks for sharing.

It would be like me gong to Mac Pro forum, and posting a photo of trying to use a Mac Pro with 27" Thunderbolt display in an airplane seat.. And saying "after seeing this photo I decided to not buy a Mac Pro". Except the photo you posted is even more ridiculous, because there are plenty of elegant ways to use a couple of USB peripherals with a MacBook while on the go (I know because I do it all the time).

Hope now you understand.

Well it's like posting in the MBA section and posting:
"Macbook Air, the worst Macbook ever, don't buy it"
 
You could take an equally unappealing photo of any computer, really. All computers look messy when you plug a whole bunch of stuff into them, whether it be a hub connected to a single port or individual cables using up every available port.

In some ways, you could argue that the single port + hub option actually lets you have a cleaner set up.. You can always configure your workspace so that the hub is out of sight and one neat cable is the only clutter you see. My older MBP certainly looked like a weird electronic octopus with unsightly cable tentacles hanging off it in every direction when I used it full-tilt for work. It was pretty ghastly, and I was always worried about it moving around too much on the desk while working, lest a hard drive cable came just loose enough to unmount a critical external drive while it was running.

Yes, the other argument is of course, you _need_ to have a hub (if you indeed do need ports at all), so you are screwed if you forget to bring it with you. But it's bad just because of unsightly clutter? I don't think this is any truer than any laptop with a gazillion ports on every side.
 
For the love of Lopan, why do people get so defensive? I'm just posting my point of view about my decision of not buying the MacBook. I love my MBA but I think Apple made a huge mistake in only making available the USB-C ports. There's a lot of potential buyers coming to this forum trying to make their minds. This is something to think about, an important one.

It's sort of like challenging religion, Apple's brand loyalty is so mainstream that questioning their doctrine (or in this case products) is blasphemous to their cult following.

The Macbook is overpriced relative to its value and that offends people's consumer freedom.
 
It's sort of like challenging religion, Apple's brand loyalty is so mainstream that questioning their doctrine (or in this case products) is blasphemous to their cult following.

The Macbook is overpriced relative to its value and that offends people's consumer freedom.
Another case of "I don't like it, so it must be overpriced." The HP Spectre and the ASUS Zenbook 3 are comparably priced. Actually, the latter is more expensive, though they do cram in a Core i7, which may be of marginal benefit to most people in the target audience.
 
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Oh for the love of Jehova, can we get some sort of filter for asinine threads like these?
They were fun when this whole "one port" malarkey was all new and exciting but now they shouldn't even be here.
This is like saying you were going to get a bike, but then I realized it only has two wheels, so you don't want one.e
Your post adds nothing, asks nothing, contributes nothing and only serves as flame bait (wether it's intentional or not), you can't act surprised when people take the bait.


It has one port.

If you need more, move along.




Stop reading here.



But since we're all here, I'm going to contribute with more than just my usual grump.
Some people need a lot of ports, they do and they know it.
But some people don't know how few ports they actually need.

Ask yourself, how many ports do you use daily?
The Macbook is for people who say "what? Daily? Errrr...I printed a photo last month, does that count?".
-and for people who don't mind getting an adapter in the drawer for the occasional wired shenanigan.

I don't get this paranoia surrounding the port.
A friend of mine who peddles computers and stuff for a living said to me, with a straight face, that it scared him.
The lack of connectivity scared him.
Didn't elaborate further.
I would've understood if if he was worried that all other manufacturers wanted to get on the one-port-train, but they don't.
There are and will be computers for those who need ports, but this is not one of those, and that's fine.

I am off course completely biased in this matter since I own one of these one-port-travesties.
And here is my personal take on the first world problem du jour:
Five years ago I would have lamented the lack of an HDMI port, these days I use Airplay.
Three years ago I would have hated needing an adapter to connect my external hard drive. Today? Dropbox.
If I need to connect a mouse, Bluetooth.
And whenever I want to play a game like Skyrim or Dishonored? I connect my Playstation 4 controller with an adapter.
The six times a year I feel like importing images from my DSLR camera? Memory card reader via adapter.
One port is fine.
 
It's sort of like challenging religion, Apple's brand loyalty is so mainstream that questioning their doctrine (or in this case products) is blasphemous to their cult following.

The Macbook is overpriced relative to its value and that offends people's consumer freedom.

Another mind numbingly daft post. Let me break this to you - this forum exist for MacBook existing and perspective users to share experiences and discuss our computers.

Your incoherent opinion of the MacBook being "overpriceed for its value" and "offending people's freedom" (what??) is of zero interest to any of us. Take it elsewhere.
 
It's meant as a more of a portable device than the other laptops. Apple clearly sacrificed some things to get it as small as it is and in that respect this makes sense to me. That said, there are things that appear to be in the pipeline that are bothersome in this context: iPhone's without a headphone jack or the rumors that the MBP may also come with only a single USB-C port.

I'm sort of wondering, if slimness is the answer, and functionality is getting tossed, well, maybe we can all go back to paper. It is incredibly thin.
 
Lol. That or an adaptor should have been in the box. How does a company sell 2 flagship items that can't connect to each other??

I don't think anyone would consider the MB to be "flagship".

At any rate, you can still connect wirelessly. And since most computers still have USB-A, it only makes sense to include a USB-A Lightning cable.
 
That said, there are things that appear to be in the pipeline that are bothersome in this context: iPhone's without a headphone jack or the rumors that the MBP may also come with only a single USB-C port.
I mean this respectfully because I know how text loses tone. Don't worry about it. Any problems that technology creates, gets solved. Like someone else said: Bluetooth, AirPlay, cloud storage. It's just the beginning. We're solving problems. Let's not get scared of future potential problems. We can be confident they will be solved. And that they will be better. Can't we agree that computing is 1000x better than even 10 years ago? So why worry about the next?
[doublepost=1466653899][/doublepost]Dear America,

What does the new MacBook ask of you? It asks that you make it your second computer for couch emailing, or airplane travel. It asks that you simply charge at night and use cord free all day. But more importantly it asks you to stop juggling data between your 8 old external HDs. Buy a f****** NAS already. Or 1 large HD. Or subscribe to Dropbox like a g******** grownup. Why do you need so many cords America? We're tying to help you be cool. Don't walk into Starbucks with an Incase backpack full of Best Buy peripherals. I mean if that's your thing, get a MacBook Pro, or better yet bring in your PC tower. Do you America. But don't hate on people who know how to compute with style.

Sincerely,
Apple
 
Lol. That or an adaptor should have been in the box. How does a company sell 2 flagship items that can't connect to each other??


Btw- I got a generic adaptor off amazon for a couple bucks
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Erm. So you can make a secure backup of your iPhone to iTunes ....???
No need, iCloud.
 
It has to be said...any laptop charging two devices, even if it has two ports and the right cables, doesn't look very sexy on anybody's lap. It just doesn't.
 
I am no Mac fan, in fact, MacBook is the first Mac I've ever owned (my first PC was a 386SX25)
I am loving the Macbook as my best computer purchase ever. I even have a gaming pc at home, fully water-cooled mITX build with GTX 980 in NCase M1 and a 27" 144 Hz Asus Monitor.
Though I travel a lot now due to work and this Macbook is a life saver.
So far I haven't plugged in any peripherals except a kingston usb drive that has both usb-c and usb-a ports. I use magic mouse 2 (bluetooth) and beats solo 2 wireless headphones (bluetooth) and sync my iPhone and iPad wirelessly

Though if I saw that photo OP mentioned, I would never have purchased Macbook /s
 
Yes, you can charge it with the Apple Multiport adapters or with several third party adapter that have pass-through charging ports. It charges a bit more slowly since the adapter "shares" power with the other ports, but it works.

Then in my mind not problem.
we all need adapters of some kind in our lives anyway.
 
this photo only makes the person using the MB look (sorry) stupid. [...] This pic almost seems staged for the purpose of making the MB look incapable or deficient because of the single port.

Well said. That are the points I was subtly making. That picture doesn't represent the reality of what you MUST do to connect two USB devices. The guy has a USBC to A adapter connected to a USB hub connected to the phone and something else. Why create that hairy mess when there are simpler & sleeker solutions readily available? (Who even plugs their phone into their computer on a regular basis anymore, let alone on a bus?)

I recently came back from a two week vacation trip and carried my rMB with me to copy the photos from my cameras and back them up to the cloud. I used this USB3 SD card reader with a Nonda USB3 to USB3 adapter as a simple & small solution for reading SD cards. I've yet to need a hub or multiport adapter. If I should develop that need, there are several decent options available.
 
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Sorry but I cannot agree to this.
On one hand, its good that you came to the conclusion that a single port is not a good fit for you, but on the other hand, its also a bit surprising that a picture triggered your revelation.

Its not like the single port, and dongle is earth shatteringly new and the folks using or wanting it, never contemplated the ramifications of such a design. I've long eschewed the design design, but I frame that opinion in light of my personal needs.

Yes, the MacBook has a single port which some users will find bothersome, but I will say, for many its not a problem.
 
On one hand, its good that you came to the conclusion that a single port is not a good fit for you, but on the other hand, its also a bit surprising that a picture triggered your revelation.

Its not like the single port, and dongle is earth shatteringly new and the folks using or wanting it, never contemplated the ramifications of such a design. I've long eschewed the design design, but I frame that opinion in light of my personal needs.

Yes, the MacBook has a single port which some users will find bothersome, but I will say, for many its not a problem.

My main problem is the fact that one day we will have no choice.
 
The cool kids backup to iCloud nowadays. ;)
And that's what apple wants you to do, since they sell iCloud storage. The downside is that there are plenty of times that I find myself w/o any wifi access.
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My main problem is the fact that one day we will have no choice.
You will still have a choice, but it may boil down to Apple vs. non-Apple laptop. I will not be surprised to see Apple embrace the single port on its other lines in the name of a thinner designs. I'm at a point now that I find it hard to justify spending 2k on a laptop, lack of ports makes it even less worthwhile.
 
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