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Shouldn't we be celebrating USB-C?
- Thread starter manny88
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This is already the case with HDMI and DisplayPort. You need specific versions to get 4K or 5K resolutions.
Asking broadly, since this is a common complaint…
What did you do when Apple dropped ADB? What about serial, parallel, and SCSI? Or the original FireWire? What about losing the ability to plug in a special cable and get composite video plus stereo audio? What about those expansion cards that dropped into the Apple II? What about when 5 1/4" floppy disks disappeared?
Was it all torches n' pitchforks every time a connector standard was obsoleted?
I think Apple has done a lot wrong in the last two months. Individually, you can argue the reasoning for each change. But when we step back and look at the apple eco system, its clear they have failed to deliver a consistent message to their customers. In recent weeks, we have seen them reeling from those oversights in hardware selection.
I think USB C is something to celebrate. Apple is making the right decision by only supplying USB C on the Macbook and I expect them to do the same with future products. However, theyve made some poor choices and you can tell they know it.
Apple has embraced USB C as the future (especially with TB3 using the same port). However, they look like they completely dropped the ball with the iphone 7. I definitely think the iphone 7 should have had USB C instead of lightning---but thats been beaten to death. If they had done that, they couldve potentially ditched the audio jack from the macbook pro. Regardless, leaving the wall adapter and iphone 7 cable with USB A on one end wasnt ideal. Although it works, it doesnt speak well for the eco system.
As far as the SD card... Macbook Pros definitely have a large professional photographer following. And with a price tag exceeding $2000, theyre definitely a professional grade laptop. Photographers are pissed to lose the SD card slot and they should be. Apples Phillip Schiller recently said that SD card slots are cumbersome, that the card sticks out from the side of the device when plugged in and (most ridiculously) that many photographers are already using dongles because they have compactflash cards (GTFO Apple, no one uses compactflash--thats why you put SD card readers on the laptop in the first place.
Accesibility and ease of use are not the highlights this year for apple -- and that is really the foundation of apple. IMHO, Apple lost focus this year with hardware. Theyve scrambled incompatible and dongle necessary hardware into multiple products and even worse, theyve done a bad job communicating their direction to consumers. Bad quarter for apple management.,
I think USB C is something to celebrate. Apple is making the right decision by only supplying USB C on the Macbook and I expect them to do the same with future products. However, theyve made some poor choices and you can tell they know it.
Apple has embraced USB C as the future (especially with TB3 using the same port). However, they look like they completely dropped the ball with the iphone 7. I definitely think the iphone 7 should have had USB C instead of lightning---but thats been beaten to death. If they had done that, they couldve potentially ditched the audio jack from the macbook pro. Regardless, leaving the wall adapter and iphone 7 cable with USB A on one end wasnt ideal. Although it works, it doesnt speak well for the eco system.
As far as the SD card... Macbook Pros definitely have a large professional photographer following. And with a price tag exceeding $2000, theyre definitely a professional grade laptop. Photographers are pissed to lose the SD card slot and they should be. Apples Phillip Schiller recently said that SD card slots are cumbersome, that the card sticks out from the side of the device when plugged in and (most ridiculously) that many photographers are already using dongles because they have compactflash cards (GTFO Apple, no one uses compactflash--thats why you put SD card readers on the laptop in the first place.
Accesibility and ease of use are not the highlights this year for apple -- and that is really the foundation of apple. IMHO, Apple lost focus this year with hardware. Theyve scrambled incompatible and dongle necessary hardware into multiple products and even worse, theyve done a bad job communicating their direction to consumers. Bad quarter for apple management.,
The only thing a normal user plugged into serial / parallel was a mouse or printer / CDROM. There was years with USB coexisting with serial / parallel / PS2, no one just removed those ports the second USB existed and said buy USB dongles.
ADB coexisted with USB for a few years and lost usage rapidly.
SCSI still exists in the server market (SAS, serial attached scsi).
FireWire never took off and USB won that fight. USB and Firewire coexisted also for years.
Never seen composite video standard on a PC / Laptop. You got a jack? Then you got stereo audio, use a jack to those red and white, so that is still on the MacBook Pro 2016.
Never had an Apple II. So no clue about those expansion cards.
5 1/4" floppy coexisted with 3 1/2" in the same computers, eventually 5 1/4" died off.
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USB didn't become a viable alternative to Firewire until USB2. Firewire was still a lot faster. USB 1 was painfully slow. Ok for low volume items like printers and modems. Really stunk for data drives. Have an USB 1 enclosure. Most camcorders of the era had ieee1394 aka Firewire connections.
Laptop with Parallel, serial, vga, power, microphone, speakers, ps/2 port (or was it two), floppy, security connector and pcmcia card slots. Used several of those at work.
It would be easier to take Apple seriously on their party line on usb-c, if the iPhone 7 also used usb-c instead of a proprietary lightning connector.
It's easy for me to nod my head approvingly at Apple's move to all-USB-C / TB3, as everything I do with my computers I can still continue doing, with minimal extra expenditure and effort beyond what purchasing a new computer would entail anyway. Certainly nothing that I would consider not worth the cold-turkey standardization on this superior connector format.
That's not the case for everyone, of course, and there's always the chance that I might end up on the other side of a shift like this one in the future, far less enthused about it. This time I got lucky with Apple's choices, as I have before. I never invested heavily in the 30-pin connector accessory market, or relied on add-ons that used the 3,5mm port (such as the CC readers) on the iOS side. So far I have not bought into lightning accessories either, and on the (i)Mac side I have just one USB-A menory stick (a non-issue to replace, as it's always connected to just one computer), a USB-A microphone (also a non-issue to switch the replaceable cable with a USB-C one) and an external USB-A HDD (ditto). No dongles needed, just switch the cables and get a new stick (it's about time, too). And it's not like I'm causing unduly stress on the environment - that stick's something like eight years old and the iMac's six.
So yeah, I'm fine with with the change and looking forward to the next iMac where this trend will no doubt continue. Those things I listed above are peanuts compared to the one-time purchase price of a Mac anyway.
That's not the case for everyone, of course, and there's always the chance that I might end up on the other side of a shift like this one in the future, far less enthused about it. This time I got lucky with Apple's choices, as I have before. I never invested heavily in the 30-pin connector accessory market, or relied on add-ons that used the 3,5mm port (such as the CC readers) on the iOS side. So far I have not bought into lightning accessories either, and on the (i)Mac side I have just one USB-A menory stick (a non-issue to replace, as it's always connected to just one computer), a USB-A microphone (also a non-issue to switch the replaceable cable with a USB-C one) and an external USB-A HDD (ditto). No dongles needed, just switch the cables and get a new stick (it's about time, too). And it's not like I'm causing unduly stress on the environment - that stick's something like eight years old and the iMac's six.
So yeah, I'm fine with with the change and looking forward to the next iMac where this trend will no doubt continue. Those things I listed above are peanuts compared to the one-time purchase price of a Mac anyway.
The original Macintosh could very well of launched with a 5 1/4" drive.There were a number of the engineering prototypes build with one. The story around it is famous in Apple lore.
Literally everything you own will work.
Assuming most of your devices are USB, all you need is to replace the USB cable from your laptop to your hub. One cable. No unsightly dongle even needed.
No DisplayPort? Technically you have four of them. Here is a DisplayPort cable for example that's already been tested to work:
https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Dis...E+USB+3.1+TYPE-C+TO+DISPLAYPORT+ADAPTER+CABLE
If you object to spending $30 on the cable -- okay, fair enough, but you are spending $1500-$2500+ on the computer already (something worth complaining about). And when you want to upgrade that monitor, you can choose to go with Thunderbolt, DisplayPort, HDMI, USB-C, even VGA. Multiple monitors? Your choices are wide-open.
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Not A cable, a bag full of cables and dongles and card readers. $30 is only the tip of the iceberg.
For most people, a USB hub cable and maybe a monitor-related cable will really be all they need. Throw some $5 USB adapters in your bag/car/keychain and you are well covered.
Therein lies the conflict.
Everybody wants the benefits of USB C. But nobody wants to be the one to have to deal with the fallout of the transition.
It's basic human nature to want all the benefits without any of the drawbacks.
Everybody wants the benefits of USB C. But nobody wants to be the one to have to deal with the fallout of the transition.
It's basic human nature to want all the benefits without any of the drawbacks.
No one has an issue with adding USB C ports, but would it have hurt them to leave at least one USB legacy port around?
If you want to make a transition then at least provide some options, don't just totally abandon what happens to be a majority of MacBook users which are dependent on USB 2/3.
I wouldn't have bought the new one if it had all of the old connections. We knew months ago it was going to have 4 USB-C ports from leaked cases. The only thing I was hoping was that all 4 were TB3 and not just USB. Apple came through with that. Now I have 4 of the most powerful and versatile ports available today. I intend to use this laptop for at least 4 years like I did the 2012 rMBP.
I haven't had to buy any dongles just two new cables for my external HD and Memory card readers. I may get an HDMI dongle but that will just stay at home. I will also buy the very small USBA-USBC connector to have if I do need to plug in a thumb drive or something on the go.
I haven't had to buy any dongles just two new cables for my external HD and Memory card readers. I may get an HDMI dongle but that will just stay at home. I will also buy the very small USBA-USBC connector to have if I do need to plug in a thumb drive or something on the go.
USB C is the future but there is one thing Apple and some USB C is the greatest thing ever posters have to understand: Right now is the ****ing present, not the damn future.
If USB C can do all that fine have 2 ports of USB-C and 2 legacy ports but a freaking $ 3 produce SD card reader on a so called pro machine. Also removing MacSafe was done to get this thing even lighter and thinner, altough most people didn't ask for that.
We aren't talking about you. We are talking about the majority of previous MacBook owners, which are disappointed. If you keep disappointing your own consumer base then you are going to loose out in the long run. It is quite obvious given the backlash that Apple dropped the ball on this thing, just because a few people do not require dongles doesn't change that fact.
The thing is, I don't think people are necessarily mad at the change, they are mad that they are making the change NOW when there are very few devices supporting it. It's the future, everyone gets that, it's a great piece of tech. Think of it like using a 4k TV when there is no existing NATIVE 4k content. Doesn't make sense.
What apple should have done is throw 2 usb-c ports on there along withs one legacy ports instead of making it full usb-c before there is that much support for it.
What apple should have done is throw 2 usb-c ports on there along withs one legacy ports instead of making it full usb-c before there is that much support for it.
If this line of thinking had been persisting for the past twenty years, we would have over a dozen different ports crowding at least three sides around our laptops.
Of course not. Almost everyone is using USB 2/3 ports right now, most of the other ports taken out were already abandon by a much larger segment of users in the past. Leaving one old USB port on the new machines at least till the next upgrade isn't a regressive idea. It is common sense.
USB-C is a bus with a single controller for all four ports.
Nobody remembers how bad SCSI was behaving with broken tape drived, early CD burners or other crap devices.
With seperate HDMI and DisplayPort, an Ethernet chip and a USB Host Controller, everything worked fine.
I suspect that USB-C will be a highly praised nightmare for a long period of time.
Everything was working fine, now we have crappy adapters, incompatible firmware on TB chipsets and people still think this was the right move.
Some really old standards did not need to be abandoned. Not for design, certainly not for complexity.
I'm baffled that so many people defend USB-C as the future.
It will have a future, but not as the great unified connector that people makr it to be.
There are pretty old standards in audio, video, radio technology etc. besides computers.
Smart people know that working simple solutions should never be superceeded.
If the beep hits the fan, long wave radio will save lives. Not HDMI over Thunderbolt.
Nobody remembers how bad SCSI was behaving with broken tape drived, early CD burners or other crap devices.
With seperate HDMI and DisplayPort, an Ethernet chip and a USB Host Controller, everything worked fine.
I suspect that USB-C will be a highly praised nightmare for a long period of time.
Everything was working fine, now we have crappy adapters, incompatible firmware on TB chipsets and people still think this was the right move.
Some really old standards did not need to be abandoned. Not for design, certainly not for complexity.
I'm baffled that so many people defend USB-C as the future.
It will have a future, but not as the great unified connector that people makr it to be.
There are pretty old standards in audio, video, radio technology etc. besides computers.
Smart people know that working simple solutions should never be superceeded.
If the beep hits the fan, long wave radio will save lives. Not HDMI over Thunderbolt.
Apple was never going to put a legacy port in place with the new USB C ports. I know that some laptops are being produced with both ports, but Apple wants to push the market and its customers to USB C. If they had included a USB A port, people wouldn't spend the money to replace current devices and cables. They would just use the single port and save the USB C connection for docks (that allow them to use the old ports)
What sucks about a port change is that although we have a single port type on the MacBook side, accessories makers don't have incentive to switch to USB C, so we are likely to continue with the same issues we have now- multiple cables. External DVD players, hard drives, webcams, printers etc are unlikely to adopt USB C as fast as the PC manufacturers do. There's no motivation for a company like Brother to redesign an entire label makers mother board and casing to accept a new cable. They just don't care and probably won't change anytime soon. Especially if the new USB C hardware is more expensive than the older stuff.
Intel and all the PC manufacturers are going to need to push those third parties to adopt USB C connectors in their products, even if it means pulling support for older gen connectors.
Apple is going to need to commit to USB C if they expect it to succeed. That means all of their devices and products from laptops, to phones to wall adapters will need to start being USB C. Otherwards, this will just be another thunderbolt 1/2 that never really took off. The difference here though, other PC and tech manufacturers are embracing USB C. Maybe it won't go down like display port thunderbold after all. Maybe it will
What sucks about a port change is that although we have a single port type on the MacBook side, accessories makers don't have incentive to switch to USB C, so we are likely to continue with the same issues we have now- multiple cables. External DVD players, hard drives, webcams, printers etc are unlikely to adopt USB C as fast as the PC manufacturers do. There's no motivation for a company like Brother to redesign an entire label makers mother board and casing to accept a new cable. They just don't care and probably won't change anytime soon. Especially if the new USB C hardware is more expensive than the older stuff.
Intel and all the PC manufacturers are going to need to push those third parties to adopt USB C connectors in their products, even if it means pulling support for older gen connectors.
Apple is going to need to commit to USB C if they expect it to succeed. That means all of their devices and products from laptops, to phones to wall adapters will need to start being USB C. Otherwards, this will just be another thunderbolt 1/2 that never really took off. The difference here though, other PC and tech manufacturers are embracing USB C. Maybe it won't go down like display port thunderbold after all. Maybe it will
I'm very pleased with the USB-C, but for my displeasure, its the sum of the parts.
All USB-C (a temporary decision will require some dongles), the disappearance of HDMI, that's not a legacy port, its still very much active and used. The removal of the SD Slot, something that I use all the time. The removal of Magsafe connector. I travel and I'm mobile, the magsafe connector is not a nice to have but a must have. I would have probably lost my computer a number of times if it wasn't for the magsafe connector.
So yeah, USB-C is the future, and like any new technology, there will be growing pains, but what I don't like, that I need to buy a USB-C Dongle that gives me USB-A, I need to buy a SD card reader, I would need to buy some sort of adapter that gives me the magsafe type of connection to protect my investment.
Then of course there's the small touches that made apple really special, like the glowing apple, or the bong on start up. I know not every one liked those, but I did.
All USB-C (a temporary decision will require some dongles), the disappearance of HDMI, that's not a legacy port, its still very much active and used. The removal of the SD Slot, something that I use all the time. The removal of Magsafe connector. I travel and I'm mobile, the magsafe connector is not a nice to have but a must have. I would have probably lost my computer a number of times if it wasn't for the magsafe connector.
So yeah, USB-C is the future, and like any new technology, there will be growing pains, but what I don't like, that I need to buy a USB-C Dongle that gives me USB-A, I need to buy a SD card reader, I would need to buy some sort of adapter that gives me the magsafe type of connection to protect my investment.
Then of course there's the small touches that made apple really special, like the glowing apple, or the bong on start up. I know not every one liked those, but I did.