'Design' isn't just how something looksit's also how it works. Jony Ive has said as much himself, though I can't find the reference. So removing 'convenience' for '[aesthetic] simplicity' isn't good design in my opinionit's form over function.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
John Gruber: Apple Invented USB Type C
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
'Design' isn't just how something looksit's also how it works. Jony Ive has said as much himself, though I can't find the reference. So removing 'convenience' for '[aesthetic] simplicity' isn't good design in my opinionit's form over function.
maybe pull the drive and put in a small replacement drive. They'll replace the graphic card, and send it back - put your drive back in an you're in business.
Do you have a second mac to transfer your info to?
You can have your MBP be the Firewire disk an get everything off it starting it in Firewire mode.
I feel your pain, same here. My 2008 MBP 17" is still going strong and has all the connectors which make my life easy and let me use my stuff.
Unfortunately Apple is on this mad trip to take away all conveniences just for looks.
One still will have to have adaptors to connect things. Is it really that cumbersome to connect something to a MacBook?
Discontinuing MagSafe alone is bad enough. People will still keep tripping over the cord, guaranteed.
I will not be pushed into the cloud as I do not trust it, especially Apple's version. After iDisk, me.com, mac.com etc. they still don't have things right.
That being said, of course I will still upgrade when the time (money
comes and adapt, but for now that is a disappointing future outlook.----------
Good idea.
Or transfer via Firewire if there is a second mac available.
See my post below.
Interesting to watch this earlier MacBook promo video with a bit of hindsight. Jony Ive couldnt imagine the design being any simpler back in 2008. Seven years later, look how much is gone! What's else could they possibly remove I wonder?
It isn't merely aesthetics. Removing ports allows them to build a slimmer, lighter device. Given that most people only use those ports a small fraction of the time, but must carry around their weight 100% of the time if they are built in, that's a reasonable trade-off for a device whose primary design goal is to be as thin and light as possible.
Apple makes plenty of other laptops that meet your definition of convenience.
Thunderbolt is definitely open since its created by Intel (Apple may have designed it), and it has been adopted by Lenovo and Acer in the past. And yeah looks like the Surface's port is not Thunderbolt but mini display, although they look identical.
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/0...ssues-can-thunderbolt-break-out-of-its-niche/
The Surface has a mini-displayport, which Apple chose to use on their laptops as the connector for thunderbolt.
I find it's about 50/50 at 3 pounds. It can pull the laptop several inches before detaching, which can be enough to pull it right off a table depending on how it's placed.
I love the Magsafe adapter as much as anyone - but between the weight issue, the practical problems of frequently interrupting data and video transfer with the less secure connection, and the overall benefits in flexibility to be had by moving to usb-c, I completely understand the reason for ditching it.
Well 'open' generally refers in the context of computer licensing, to being 'open' to do pretty much what you like with it. In that context, with strict licensing, I don't consider thunderbolt to be open at all. But I can see where we were talking past each other.
And if they continue to make them, I'll be happy. The scary thing is, they're calling this 'the future of the notebook'.
Agreed. I'm very interested to feel the trackpad and keyboard in an Apple Store. My wife needs a new laptop, but $1299 is pretty rough, considering you can get a very capable Air on the refurb store for hundreds less.
No need.
The majority of MacBook customers will not need to plug anything in except for power.
I haven't read much on the new macbook, but I have to wonder if we start to transition from using laptops the way we used to (plugged in most of the time, occasional battery use)
My ipad doesn't have a magsafe connection, but the way I use it, I plug it in an charge overnight every few days.
If the macbook has a similar battery life, then I don't see the need to have it plugged in all the time. Charge it overnight, have it cord-free all day.
If you are using it as a desktop, then you can plug it in, but you aren't likely to trip on the cord.
I think the far bigger problem with the new macbook is the single port. USB-C is great, but two ports would be a lot more useful.
May not turn out that bad
OK, I know so many people are irritated with MagSafe going away in this laptop. But here's the deal... I seriously get irritated with mine when I'm using it on my lap, at least the latest version. I bump it with my leg and it pops off with no effort. The original MagSafe worked great, but this version with lighter laptops doesn't work as well. Maybe it has less magnetic pull because of its size, or to work with lighter devices... I don't know.
But here's what I do know... the new MacBook will be much lighter and much smaller and I can see MagSafe as being a giant pain in the butt if you have it plugged in. So take a look at the use case. It's a laptop designed more to be used all day without being plugged in and then charged at night... so much less of an issue than power was before. But if I do need to have it in my lap, the charger won't pop off either.
Another thing to keep in mind is MagSafe was invented in a time when spinning hard drives would be damaged if dropped, including other sensitive parts. By making the entire device unibody construction, solid state and less parts, you make a more solid device. I suspect that the USB-C cord would detach and the device will probably not sustain much damage. It's a cost/benefit balance and in this case I think Apple made a decent call.
OK, I know so many people are irritated with MagSafe going away in this laptop. But here's the deal... I seriously get irritated with mine when I'm using it on my lap, at least the latest version. I bump it with my leg and it pops off with no effort. The original MagSafe worked great, but this version with lighter laptops doesn't work as well. Maybe it has less magnetic pull because of its size, or to work with lighter devices... I don't know.
But here's what I do know... the new MacBook will be much lighter and much smaller and I can see MagSafe as being a giant pain in the butt if you have it plugged in. So take a look at the use case. It's a laptop designed more to be used all day without being plugged in and then charged at night... so much less of an issue than power was before. But if I do need to have it in my lap, the charger won't pop off either.
Another thing to keep in mind is MagSafe was invented in a time when spinning hard drives would be damaged if dropped, including other sensitive parts. By making the entire device unibody construction, solid state and less parts, you make a more solid device. I suspect that the USB-C cord would detach and the device will probably not sustain much damage. It's a cost/benefit balance and in this case I think Apple made a decent call.
I've had the same experience with my wife's 11" MBA. Not a big deal when you're just charging. A bit more problematic once you are asking that connection to carry data and video signals.
I love it when people make definitive comments like this with absolutely nothing to back it up!
and apparently if you dont use it above a vague % of time you dont need it.
incidentally people coping with all these handicaps are also somehow proof it was the right call even though in many cases there was nothing gained ie removal of ir sensor and optical drive in the imac.
Last edited:
While Thunderbolt 2 is not fast enough to drive a 5K display at full resolution at reasonable refresh rates (60 Hz), it is fast enough to transfer 4x PCIe 2.0 and to connect an external graphics card. Of course, it's not as fast as an internal graphics card but still fast enough for virtually all applications including most 3D games, if you include enough VRAM. Even USB 3 (and thus the USB-C port on the new MacBook) would work for most applications.
So all Apple would have to do is include a GPU in the 5K display. As an additional bonus, it could work with all Thunderbolt Macs (and maybe even with the new MacBook if the display supports both Thunderbolt and USB), and their internal GPU would not matter.
The workaround Dell uses (use two DisplayPorts in parallel) would only work with the Mac Pro. While there are other Macs that have two Thunderbolt ports, they only have a single thunderbolt bus, i.e. both ports share the same bandwidth.
Why? What makes the new MB a "must have" compared to the Air? As far as I'm aware they shaved a millimetre or two from it's belly, gave it a Retina screen and took away some very handy ports...
More like they wanted it to be universally adopted and too many ignorant people would block or slow down its growth simply because they irrationally dislike apple.
Those three things you mentioned are a pretty big deal. I don't understand the purpose of the Air at this point but I think the new MacBook is pretty amazing. I'm not 100% sold but I still remember the way I felt when I saw the original MacBook Air and it did not have an optical drive. I thought "who would buy a computer with no optical drive?" Now my notebook and main desktop are both "optical free".
doesn't make sense
So you give up MagSafe, probably the smartest "real" connector made, for power.
If this connector is the be all end all for data (which is what Thunderbolt was supposed to be) then why not just have this in addition to MagSafe?
No, instead typical Apple, put, just 1 connector on the side, so that, and I am guessing will need a "bus adaptor" that has ports for all of the crap I have now. USB, ThunderBolt, Charging, Ethernet. That adaptor, will be just how large? or will there be like 5 different configs of it so I can buy the ones I need?
Plus it is going to be a kluge like the HDMI Lightning Digital AV connector. The way you connect power? That's elegant Jony.
This, is a stupid idea. But, All of the Apple geeks will suck it up as usual.
Personally, if Microsoft puts LTE in the Surface 3 it will throw a wrench in smaller laptops anyway. Especially if they can value proposition the price.
So you give up MagSafe, probably the smartest "real" connector made, for power.
If this connector is the be all end all for data (which is what Thunderbolt was supposed to be) then why not just have this in addition to MagSafe?
No, instead typical Apple, put, just 1 connector on the side, so that, and I am guessing will need a "bus adaptor" that has ports for all of the crap I have now. USB, ThunderBolt, Charging, Ethernet. That adaptor, will be just how large? or will there be like 5 different configs of it so I can buy the ones I need?
Plus it is going to be a kluge like the HDMI Lightning Digital AV connector. The way you connect power? That's elegant Jony.
This, is a stupid idea. But, All of the Apple geeks will suck it up as usual.
Personally, if Microsoft puts LTE in the Surface 3 it will throw a wrench in smaller laptops anyway. Especially if they can value proposition the price.