Why does everyone keep saying this? You don't need a dongle to do that. A USB-C to Lightning cable works just fine.
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Steve Jobs Introduced the MacBook Air Exactly 10 Years Ago Today
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Why does everyone keep saying this? You don't need a dongle to do that. A USB-C to Lightning cable works just fine.
The day of that historic and notable keynote in January 2008, I was watching with casual interest.....and then Steve pulled out this incredibly thin, light and small machine from an ordinary manila envelope and I sat up, took keen notice and said, "WHOA!!!!" I was instantly hooked and could hardly wait to get to the local Apple store to see one for myself. They had some problems with weather conditions in China and flights were delayed, etc., so that the store only got a few for display purposes only at first. I walked into the store, spotted the table with the display models, said, "wow," and gently picked one up. This was a COMPUTER?! It was so elegant, so thin, so sleek..... Put it down so that I could play with it, admire its functionality and speed (the SSD version). I looked with curiosity at that unusual arrangement for the ports. Huh. Weird, but never mind. I wanted one. I lusted after it but of course could not buy one that day because they had none in inventory to sell. I picked it up again, hugged it (yeah, I know....!) and gently, reluctantly set it down on the table......
As soon as they had them in stock at the store I was back again, this time able and ready to buy, which I did. I went for the gusto -- the 64-GB SSD model, figuring that since I had another Mac already anyway, the small capacity of the drive wouldn't matter, and it really never did. I loved that thing, but definitely there were limitations which I occasionally ran into as time went on. That machine is still in use, still going strong in the hands of a friend who is very happy with it. The day that I first saw and handled a 12" MacBook I was vividly reminded of that first-generation MBA and how I felt about it...... That little machine which came gracefully sliding out of the manila envelope into Steve's hands in January 2008 was indeed a game-changer.
As soon as they had them in stock at the store I was back again, this time able and ready to buy, which I did. I went for the gusto -- the 64-GB SSD model, figuring that since I had another Mac already anyway, the small capacity of the drive wouldn't matter, and it really never did. I loved that thing, but definitely there were limitations which I occasionally ran into as time went on. That machine is still in use, still going strong in the hands of a friend who is very happy with it. The day that I first saw and handled a 12" MacBook I was vividly reminded of that first-generation MBA and how I felt about it...... That little machine which came gracefully sliding out of the manila envelope into Steve's hands in January 2008 was indeed a game-changer.
Happy Birthday.
Oh, by the way: the Mac mini turned 13 on January 11th
Oh, by the way: the Mac mini turned 13 on January 11th
Because the MacBook will replace it that’s why, it’s only around until the MacBook drops in price and then it will probably be discontinued.
Raising the bar to which future laptops would strive to surpass.
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Mine's not crippled. Super-fast, great battery life, and powerful. Late-2016 13" rMPB Escape Edition
Ahh memories. A friends brother came up with that manila envelope sleeve. The guy made tons of money off it.
Bought one for work late last year. Works perfectly for my needs and is great to travel with.
Happy Birthday MacBook Air.
Happy Birthday MacBook Air.
I remember that manila envelope sleeve! I was sorely tempted to buy one, but then in the end didn't after all.....
Nice tribute. I bought one about 8 years ago and loved it. Nothing else came close. I still have it. Sadly, like so many Apple products, they have abandoned this. Apple has become to me a great tribute to what Jobs built, and Cook has slowly turned into a smartphone company / social experiment.
My best friend was an avowed Windows fan when Steve Jobs announced the Air. No way would he even have owned a Mac. But 1 week after it shipped he came up to me in the office and handed me a manilla envelope - with his new Air inside. He was grinning from ear to ear, and explained to me that he just had to have it. He used it all the time - it was a great machine. He spent over $3000 on it (SSD model), and two nights ago I bought my wife a new Air (with much better specs) for $800 on sale. I still think it's a great machine.
Ah. Is that a recent cable? In any case, I always thought of a dongle as being a cable or wire connecting disparate interfaces. Here's a Wikipedia definition with regard to MacBooks:Why does everyone keep saying this? You don't need a dongle to do that. A USB-C to Lightning cable works just fine.
Adapters for the MacBook
MacBooks use a single USB-C connector for its design advantage, and employ a variety of dongle-like adapters for interfacing with larger connectors, such as the USB-A connector, FireWire, Ethernet, VGA, HDMI, and Thunderbolt, amongst others. Apple has traditionally received criticism for preemptively abandoning legacy ports over the years in favor of having newer technology on its older products sooner, and has released different forms of these adapters over time with the introduction of new technologies.
Technically, the cable above is a dongle. A cable with the same interface on either end would not be a dongle, like lightning to lightning, or USB-C to USB-C (if the same technology is involved, mini-ports or male/femaie wouldn't qualify as dongles). Dongles are generally more expensive due to their needing two different cable technologies for transfer. There is also the possibility of redundant data and/or lost data due to differing pin configurations.
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I was never sure if this guy was serious .....but it’s absolutely hilarious
A guy bought the air back when it was released and did his unboxing:
A guy bought the air back when it was released and did his unboxing:
Hmmm, perhaps with an
Why does everyone keep saying this? You don't need a dongle to do that. A USB-C to Lightning cable works just fine.
Agree, dongles are only required when the market is transitioning between formats. I remember when mice and keyboards were transitioning between PS/2 and USB, we had dangles for them (admittedly they were plugged in 100% of the time into the lovely beige box under the desk). I even remember having a dongle for my old keyboard (from Tandy) DIN-5 to PS/2.
Just wanted to recap the MacBook Air part and you know what? I ended up watching the complete keynote. What a difference to the notes presented in our days. We learned that Tim is having some other focus and strenghts, but what a difference!
Actually had one of those.
Looked cute (I got seduced). Expensive. Poor keyboard, poor battery life, had to carry a dock around to connect stuff... hmmm - that sounds familiar :->
...except with the Sony the dock and external drives were included... and it had a detachable battery!
But seriously - that thing was tiny (even c.f. an Air) it was very underpowered (even relative to its contemporaries) the keyboard was cramped (although ISTR the feel was OK) and the screen was small. The real downfall was, in 1998, you needed the CD drive, the floppy drive (and probably a ruddy Zip drive as well). It did have built-in USB ports - but this was 1998 and USB was only just taking off so you did need and the dock with the parallel port etc.
The thing that set the Air (and subsequent 'ultrabooks') apart from other ultra-portables and netbooks was it was relatively powerful and had a decent-sized keyboard... and, of course, 10 years on, some people could manage on a USB port and WiFi.
(Not me - sometime in the 00s I remember buying an Ethernet switch and half-a-dozen ethernet cables and lugging them to a meeting so I could demonstrate a website...)
Of course, Sony also had a hand in designing the original Apple Powerbook - which basically defined the design of modern laptops by moving the keyboard back and having a pointing device in the middle of the palm rest... and the Vaio range was what you bought if you wanted a Mac but needed a PC (before Intel Macs removed the dilemma... anybody remember SoftWindows?)
Yup... The original had an underpowered CPU, 2 GB of RAM, 80 GB spinning hard disk, low-res camera, 1 USB 2.0 port, 300 charge-cycle battery. All for $1,799. And it still overheated.
Tim Cook should have been fired. Oh, wait...
Jobs had a passion for his company that hasn't been duplicated, at least at the CEO level. I would say that Bill Gates had a similar focus with Microsoft when he ran the corporation. They both had at least one thing in common: they were FOUNDER/directors. I think that founders of companies tend to have a real passion, often manifesting itself as a high level of creativity across a company or corporation, often missing with their successors. If you look at various successful enterprises, you'll generally find a creative and passionate founder as its initial inspiration. Look at Amazon and Facebook as examples. If you look at Google's history, I think you'll find its success was rooted in the founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. I found Eric Schmidt to be more like Tim Cook - both took their corporations to historic financial successes, but at a cost of their original passion and creativity. Just my opinion ...
MacBook is a terrible child of the Air. To be fair, the revised Air was as close to perfect one could get. It’s just a shame Apple milked it for years and years without updating the screen or internals. And to sell these to schools is shameful, but Tim clearly doesn’t mind selling out of date technology as long as you have some cash.
My hope is Apple brings back a real keyboard at a minimum to the consumer line, and a donglefree, real pro laptop with pro battery life, keyboard, et al.
My hope is Apple brings back a real keyboard at a minimum to the consumer line, and a donglefree, real pro laptop with pro battery life, keyboard, et al.
How so? The MacBook will end up replacing the Air, the MacBook is better in almost every way (I believe the Air has longer battery life)
MacBook has a much better display it’s also thinner lighter and more up to date than the Air. I think Apple should introduce a bigger 14” version tho.
Steve Jobs had creativity and a way of thinking out of the box -- many his ideas were brought into fruition and because he was so charismatic he was able to pitch them almost effortlessly, gently enveloping us in that wonderful RDF (Reality Distortion Field)...... That is what made his keynote presentations so remarkable, and why we're still remembering and talking about them years later.
Here's how good a design the MacBook Air is.
All that Apple really has to do to make the machine more current is update the screen with a technology that is less than 10 years old. Maybe swap the TB2 port for TB3.
But that upgrade will never happen.
So, enjoy the current port-less wonders sporting a keyboard that feels like you're typing on a wooden table and can't be upgraded.
When Jobs was alive, design and functionality were equally important.
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The screen on the MacBook is better, but that's about it.
It has a slower CPU
It has slower GPU performance.
It has only one port for charging AND connectivity.
No SD slot
No MagSafe
The 'keyboard' sucks.
You can't swap out the SSD.
It's more expensive (plus dongles)
Dongles. Dongles everywhere.
But it is a nice fashion accessory for people who only need to check their email, browse the web and maybe type something in Pages.
All that Apple really has to do to make the machine more current is update the screen with a technology that is less than 10 years old. Maybe swap the TB2 port for TB3.
But that upgrade will never happen.
So, enjoy the current port-less wonders sporting a keyboard that feels like you're typing on a wooden table and can't be upgraded.
When Jobs was alive, design and functionality were equally important.
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The screen on the MacBook is better, but that's about it.
It has a slower CPU
It has slower GPU performance.
It has only one port for charging AND connectivity.
No SD slot
No MagSafe
The 'keyboard' sucks.
You can't swap out the SSD.
It's more expensive (plus dongles)
Dongles. Dongles everywhere.
But it is a nice fashion accessory for people who only need to check their email, browse the web and maybe type something in Pages.
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