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I read the first two pages of this thread and then gave up. So many people whining about something I would bet will never affect them as they'll never need 4 high speed TB3 peripherals in a million years.

I've been on MacRumours for years but it's moved on from a great forum of Apple loving users to a forum full of Apple hating trolls who just love to moan about something. There's one guy in this thread that has posted something negative on virtually every flipping thread posted in the last six months.

If you don't like the new products/ports/screen/price/CEO then go buy another product from somewhere else. There are literally thousands of companies producing tech out there - pick one and go away.

I want my old MacRumours back, not this hate filled cess pit of whiners.

As to all the people wanting Tim Cook out - Steve Jobs himself said he was the best man for the job and do you think the board of Directors keep paying him TENS of MILLIONS of dollars because he's rubbish? You don't get to keep a job like that if you're not performing. He is CEO of the largest company in the world yet this forum is full of people who think they know better than he does. Makes me laugh and be sad all at the same time.
Here here!
 
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Thunderbolt isn't proprietary. It's owned by Intel. It just so happened that only Apple was willing to adopt it and no other company was, resulting in the port being found predominantly on Apple computers.

Yep, the poster's getting confused with Lightning port.

That being said, a USB type A port would be useful to millions of iPhone users, not just those with USB drives (which incidentally are probably in the billions).
 
Except carrying it
You can't lift a few pounds?
plugging in 2 full speed thunderbolt 3 devices
Nobody uses thunderbolt. It's even more of a dud than Firewire... so much so that Apple even switched to the USB-C port.
running it on battery for more than 6 hours :rolleyes:
Nothing about battery life is listed on their site. Now you're just making things up.
... and then theres Windows
I don't like Windows either, but if Apple keeps neutering Macs and Mac OS I'll switch back, however, this is subjective anyway.
 
"One cable to rule them all" has been the holy grail the tech world has been seeking for literally decades. Now that it's here, and Apple gives us not 1, but four of these ports that can each convert into anything any user could want and now it's all about Apple's greed? Really?

Dedicated function ports have always been a huge compromise because with few exceptions they perform a single function and take up a lot of space. Not every user needs an HDMI port. Many users will never, ever use a SD card reader. Some people will complain because they don't have Ethernet built-in. Someone else is still complaining because they don't have VGA. Someone else will want 4 USB ports rather than two. Ad infinitum. So any choice of ports that Apple has made in the past has been a big compromise because they could only serve the needs of a portion of users. Yep, you are going to need some new adapters today, but they are going to have a long life, and anyone who has been doing serious, dare I say, 'Pro' work with their laptop has always had a bag of adapters that goes with them. Most of them outdated every few years.

Oh come on, Apple have no interest in playing to the idea that the market wants a universal port. Have you seen Lightening? All other smartphones use Micro USB. No way Apple are switching to Micro USB any time soon. They don't think that way.
 
If you don't like the new products/ports/screen/price/CEO then go buy another product from somewhere else. There are literally thousands of companies producing tech out there - pick one and go away.

For a few years there, I could have my cake and eat it, too. Leading edge OS combining Unix performance and robustness with a user-friendly GUI that non-programmers liked, leading edge hardware performance, the best connectivity, leading edge apps on OS X, 17" matte displays, hardware serviceability. We had it all. We still could. Instead, we have "thin". Anorexia is more accurate.

I want my old MacRumours back, not this hate filled cess pit of whiners.

I want my old MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, Xserve, and connectivity back.

Things I love about recent systems -- retina displays, faster CPUs, fast SSDs, 16 GB memory, faster GPUs.

Things I whine about -- systems that are optimized more for appearance than functionality.
 
What notebook has Micro-USB? As for HDMI, there are USB-C to HDMI cables and an official spec. The longer Apple keeps USB-A the longer it takes for the superior standard to be adopted.

Adapters cause short term pain, but they are better in the long run because they encourage the new standards to be adopted. It's ludicrous that my 2014 HP work notebook has a built-in VGA port. VGA has hung around for way too long because PC makers kept it in. It's a vicious cycle. Apple is the one company who can break that cycle for the rest of the industry because they design the hardware and the software. They should be applauded for advancing USB-C and Thunderbolt 3.
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But those other ports also take up space and would actually reduce the functionality. If they put legacy ports on one side and TB3 on the other, you wouldn't have the flexibility of charging from either side (now a bigger deal since they dropped MagSafe). If they did a mix-and-match with 1 TB3 on each side and legacy ports next to them, they'd be left with the decision of which ports to include. 1 USB-A and 1 TB2? 2 USB-A? None of that is very Apple-like. Going all-in with TB3 should not have surprised anyone.
Usb-c is just the interface. The interface is suppose to maximise usage without a lot of adaptors. What Apple should have done was offer the most used ports, and a couple usb-c ports. But Oops. Apple went with adaptors. Cant believe people are defending this.
 
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Usb-c is just the interface. The interface is suppose to maximise usage without a lot of adaptors. What Apple should have done was offer the most used ports, and a couple usb-c ports. But Oops. Apple went with adaptors. Cant believe people are defending this.

Because until and unless PC makers start favoring USB-C ports then there is little incentive for peripheral makers to follow suit. HP makes the Spectre that has only USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 ports.

It isn't possible to offer Thunderbolt 3 (or any Thunderbolt) or USB 3.1 Gen 2 over USB-A ports, with or without adapters. But it is easy to offer HDMI, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 2, USB 3.1 Gen 2, and earlier standards over USB-C. And there are native cables that offer USB-C on one side and HDMI, DisplayPort, Lightning, etc. on the other. It's an industry standard, albeit a new one that hasn't yet achieved widescale adoption.

I can't believe people like you would think that a company that dropped EVERY legacy port in 1998 in favor of USB wouldn't do the same 18 years later when a newer and better industry standard came along. The writing has been on the wall since April 2015 when they released the MacBook with only a single USB-C port (not even Thunderbolt 3). They sang the praises of a single port for I/O and charging. And now they offer 4 of the ultimate port.

The problem with offering 2 TB3 and "a couple of the most used ports" is that it would limit flexibility and create design issues, all to support legacy technology Apple wants to see deprecated. If they left in 2 USB-A people would be complaining about them dropping a TB 2 port. If they left in 1 USB A and 1 TB3 people would complain about needing a hub. And it isn't as if there is a dearth of third party USB-C accessories. There are plenty on Amazon.

People complained that these notebooks don't innovate, but I think adding 4 TB3 ports is innovation. They are 4 very powerful ports capable of connecting just about anything.
 
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Because until and unless PC makers start favoring USB-C ports then there is little incentive for peripheral makers to follow suit. HP makes the Spectre that has only USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 ports.


The difference is, the Spectre is sold as a essentially the 2016 netbook equivalent. It's not a work machine, it's not a business machine. It's an emails-and-Youtube machine. It's the Macbook sort of area.
 
Because until and unless PC makers start favoring USB-C ports then there is little incentive for peripheral makers to follow suit. HP makes the Spectre that has only USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 ports.

It isn't possible to offer Thunderbolt 3 (or any Thunderbolt) or USB 3.1 Gen 2 over USB-A ports, with or without adapters. But it is easy to offer HDMI, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 2, USB 3.1 Gen 2, and earlier standards over USB-C. And there are native cables that offer USB-C on one side and HDMI, DisplayPort, Lightning, etc. on the other. It's an industry standard, albeit a new one that hasn't yet achieved widescale adoption.

I can't believe people like you would think that a company that dropped EVERY legacy port in 1998 in favor of USB wouldn't do the same 18 years later when a newer and better industry standard came along. The writing has been on the wall since April 2015 when they released the MacBook with only a single USB-C port (not even Thunderbolt 3). They sang the praises of a single port for I/O and charging. And now they offer 4 of the ultimate port.
PCs and androids have been adopting usb-c. They just didn't abandon other perfectly good interfaces. Again, usb-c is just the interface. It's ridiculous to have only a new interface for the sake of newness.
 
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The difference is, the Spectre is sold as a essentially the 2016 netbook equivalent. It's not a work machine, it's not a business machine. It's an emails-and-Youtube machine. It's the Macbook sort of area.
It's not a "netbook equivalent." It has a MacBook Air-class processor. And even the Core M is not a "netbook equivalent." This isn't an Atom. The 2016 Core m5 runs as fast as a 2014 MacBook Air.

Netbooks don't need Thunderbolt. HP markets the Spectre to the traveling business crowd.
 
Wasn't it just some time ago that we were rewarding Apple for doing precisely this?

Does anyone remember the MacBook Air? Slow processor. No CD-Drive. Only 1 USB port. The MBA made a ton of sacrifices, all of which were considered essential components of a laptop, in the pursuit of thinness. As it turned out, most people could live without those features once thought to be indispensable. The sole selling point, it’s ultra-thin and light form factor, ended up being a key selling point that ultimately mattered more than all the other features it replaced.

That's great -- why don't you buy a MacBook Air then? Meanwhile there are a whole bunch of people who need a little more computer and Apple is not delivering it any longer. It's honestly a nice parallel to desktop Macs and Apple doing away with a consumer/enthusiast machine that do not have a built-in monitor.

Apple seems to think they can dictate what people want in a machine by simply refusing to produce the product. Maybe their hope is to somehow steer their entire customer base in a couple specific peg-holes and make things easier on themselves as a company. Fewer products simplifies design, manufacturing, and support, after all. But that's not how the world works. Apple may have been able to get away with things before by virtue of being in a monopoly position for hardware (and fanboys like to deny Apple is abusing this position in a Microsoft way -- but they are), but at some point there is a tipping where the MacOS isn't a big enough attraction to keep people buying products that otherwise don't meet their needs. At this time all it's doing is driving up demand for older, more full-featured Apple machines, but as time goes on people will just see this as a sign then need to change platforms.
 
PCs and androids have been adopting usb-c. They just didn't abandon other perfectly good interfaces. Again, usb-c is just the interface. It's ridiculous to have only a new interface for the sake of newness.
It's not for the sake of newness. It's because USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 support 100W charging from any port. And USB 3.1 Gen 2 requires USB-C (as does Thunderbolt 3). It isn't as if they could have offered the same bandwidth over a USB-A port. That isn't permitted under the USB specifications.

If they had left legacy ports in, those ports would be limited to the legacy uses.
 
It's not a "netbook equivalent." It has a MacBook Air-class processor. And even the Core M is not a "netbook equivalent." This isn't an Atom. The 2016 Core m5 runs as fast as a 2014 MacBook Air.

Netbooks don't need Thunderbolt. HP markets the Spectre to the traveling business crowd.


By "2016 netbook" I mean what you say... ie a device used for email, surfing, word processing (as a netbook was in 2008), no real heavy lifting.
 
Apple seems to think they can dictate what people want in a machine by simply refusing to produce the product. Maybe their hope is to somehow steer their entire customer base in a couple specific peg-holes and make things easier on themselves as a company. Fewer products simplifies design, manufacturing, and support, after all. But that's not how the world works. Apple may have been able to get away with things before by virtue of being in a monopoly position for hardware (and fanboys like to deny Apple is abusing this position in a Microsoft way -- but they are), but at some point there is a tipping where the MacOS isn't a big enough attraction to keep people buying products that otherwise don't meet their needs. At this time all it's doing is driving up demand for older, more full-featured Apple machines, but as time goes on people will just see this as a sign then need to change platforms.

Apple definitely does not have a monopoly. The fact that creative types are considering the Surface Studio (which has a Skylake processor and lacks any I/O faster than USB 3.0) tells you that much.

If anything, I think Apple has let their notebook line get too cluttered. They need to stop selling older models and eventually need to push the MacBook Air to retirement. To do that, they'd naturally need to drop the prices of the 12" MacBook and base 13" Pro. They may yet do that, but obviously 2016 is not the year.

But I have no complaints about them moving to all TB3 on the MacBook Pro. The transition will create some headaches but it's better to embrace the new and nudge the rest of the industry forward.
 
It's not for the sake of newness. It's because USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 support 100W charging from any port. And USB 3.1 Gen 2 requires USB-C (as does Thunderbolt 3). It isn't as if they could have offered the same bandwidth over a USB-A port. That isn't permitted under the USB specifications.

If they had left legacy ports in, those ports would be limited to the legacy uses.
Sigh...How about they add new **** while supporting current ****? Or are you saying people using usb-a and HDMI are just clinging to the past?
 
By "2016 netbook" I mean what you say... ie a device used for email, surfing, word processing (as a netbook was in 2008), no real heavy lifting.
Depends on what you mean by heavy lifting. I did OCR on about 7 GBs of files on my MacBook. It held up equally well as my Haswell Core i7.
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Sigh...How about they add new **** while supporting current ****? Or are you saying people using usb-a and HDMI are just clinging to the past?

The longer PC makers leave the older ports in, the longer it takes before new devices come out supporting the new standard. That's why we saw VGA ports on a significant number of Windows PCs until this past year.

There is a $19 USB-A adapter (and you can get $7 buds on Amazon that do the same), and USB-C to HDMI cables are becoming more common. Eventually those ports will go by the wayside, but it will take a while for USB-A because it has been around for so long. That said, once we see more external hard drives supporting TB3 and USB 3.1 Gen 2 speeds, USB-C will become more commonplace. There are already USB-C flash drives (though flash drives in general are falling out of favor). I'm not saying there is no value in USB-A devices, but I am saying that in order to move the industry forward it is easier to make a clean break on the PC side (since adapters can handle tasks during the transition).

Having used a MacBook for the past 18 months, I can say that I've adapted easily. My printer was already wireless and now so is my scanner. I don't find myself using my USB-C to A adapter all that often anymore.

And for displays, most of us were used to adapters of some sort, given how quickly the industry and Apple ran through standards such as VGA, DVI, DP/mDP, and HDMI. USB-C should be around for quite a while.
 
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Depends on what you mean by heavy lifting. I did OCR on about 7 GBs of files on my MacBook. It held up equally well as my Haswell Core i7.
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My point to your original post was that what's now being defined as a "Pro" machine in Apple world is what's defined as a 2016 (premium) netbook in PC world.

It's a totally wacky place to be.
 
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I find this hardware update underwhelming but they are still solid machines. But don't get me started on the dongle fiasco... Big issue with them pretty much abandoning the Mac Pro, and giving little love to the iMac.... Don't really know why? Even their AirPorts and other "accessories" are lagging.

I love macOS but in reality the recent updates have been little more than “here’s more phone features!

My fear is they are so insulated from what the user really wants (which is what happens when you become the worlds biggest company) they will stop innovating and others (Google/Microsoft) will pass them by.
 
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It's not for the sake of newness. It's because USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 support 100W charging from any port. And USB 3.1 Gen 2 requires USB-C (as does Thunderbolt 3). It isn't as if they could have offered the same bandwidth over a USB-A port. That isn't permitted under the USB specifications.

If they had left legacy ports in, those ports would be limited to the legacy uses.
Usb-c is just the interface. It's exactly the same as usb 3 with usb- a interface.
 
Usb-c is just the interface. It's exactly the same as usb 3 with usb- a interface.
No it isn't. Not on the MacBook Pro. It has TB3 and USB 3.1 Gen 2 which is twice as fast as Gen 1. Even Gen 1 isn't the same as USB 3.0 since the latter doesn't support native DisplayPort, HDMI, or 100W charging like USB 3.1 Gen 1.
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I find this hardware update underwhelming but they are still solid machines. But don't get me started on the dongle fiasco... Big issue with them pretty much abandoning the Mac Pro, and giving little love to the iMac.... Don't really know why? Even their AirPorts and other "accessories" are lagging.

I love macOS but in reality the recent updates have been little more than “here’s more phone features!

My fear is they are so insulated from what the user really wants (which is what happens when you become the worlds biggest company) they will stop innovating and others (Google/Microsoft) will pass them by.
Based on specs the vaunted Surface Studio has a Skylake chip, weak GPU, and doesn't offer a single Thunderbolt or even USB 3.1 Gen 2 port. It also doesn't have a wide gamut display.
 
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