Thunderbolt 3/USB-C Adapters, Cables, and Hubs for New MacBook Pro

[PBRsg]

I get it, Apple is standardizing on the USB-C Thunderbolt 3 interface. Why then not extend USB-C 3.1 to iOS devices and have one standard across the board? That way, people can buy a USB-C headset and use it across all their iDevices as well as their non-Apple PCs and mobile devices.

 

[Rocket Man]

Apple should supply 3 adapters of your choice, for free, upon purchase of one of their new USB-C Only laptops. If they can afford the humility of a free adapter in each iPhone 7, they can afford to do that.

They only did it for the iPhone because they didn't have the balls to showcase how petty & greedy they have gotten. Also forums like this may have helped pressure them to include an adapter (seem to recall daring them not to include one in these forums). You will NEVER see an included adapter again in an Apple device.

 

[Doctor Brian]

Wish there was a adapter that converted the CEO of Apple into someone competent.

EXACTLY. THE PORT SITUATION IS RIDICULOUS. THE LONG LAG TO INTRODUCE A NEW MACBOOK PRO IS INEXCUSABLE TO LOYAL CUSTOMERS.

 

[derek916]

Why are all of you using your laptop to charge your phone

 

[TigerWoodsIV]

Why are all of you using your laptop to charge your phone

While it is annoying to not be able to, I rarely plug my phone into my MBP now. If I get one of these, I'll just shell out extra cash for a hub and be done. Or I'll buy the 27" 4K LG (not the one Apple collaborated on) and then I have some USB ports on that. Sucks, but I've made my current display and MBP last forever. I plan on doing the same when I get a new one.

 

[jonnysods]

So many dongles... what do those pictures remind me of?

That's right....

Funny how things change.

I was showing my colleagues this exact picture this morning and telling them how crazy this has all gotten.

I'm disappointed it's come to this. So many dongles. And I need a hub with at least 2 thunderbolt ports on it. Hope there is one out there...

 

[MallardDuck]

Oh come on guys, stop the whining.

How many actually have REAL-life experience? How many of you already use the retina Macbook? How many have used the Macbook Air of the first (or later) generation?

How often did you REALLY need adapters?

In almost 9 years of owning Macbook Airs, I've NEVER needed the ethernet adapter. I've used HDMI maybe once or twice. I needed an VGA adapter to connect my Macbook to projectors once in a while. I can't remember the last time I actually plugged in a USB thumbdrive. I use dropbox like almost always. I do use external drives quite frequently, but not really on the go, so a dock sitting on my desk or a teeny-tiny adapter will just be fine. I don't own cameras with SD, so I've been using external card readers since forever.

For me, nothing much will change. I look forward to just buying either a small dock or a bunch of USB-C to USB-A cables for my external drives.

Seriously, you're making a mountain out of a molehill.

Ethernet, a couple times a month when hotel wifi sucks.
HDMI every single day to connect my 13 to my monitor, and a couple times a month for customer monitors
Mini DisplayPort every day to connect my 15 to my monitor
VGA couple times a week to connect to customer projectors
DVI once every couple of months to connect to a customer adapter
USB-a x4 to connect iTunes library, backup drives, iOS devices, and external storage to the macs, including portable hard drives to store and backup 200-400gb of photos while on a shoot
Sd card, hardly ever as I use cf most of the time.

I'm looking at a minimum of 6 dongles in my bag. HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, and USB-a are the new ones.

It's a transition, and it sucks. But that would have been fine if the darned adapters were available, worked properly, and weren't another couple hundred bucks on top of a price increase for a mediocre set of improvements.

 

[ksnell]

By the way, on another forum, I saw this:


"After the Hello Again event, a friend sent me a vid in which SJ talks about Xerox and "Toner Heads" and how he thinks that Apple now suffers from the same disease:

I came across this pic today on twitter: all the dongles that Apple sells. A lot of the functionality that your computer used to be able to do has now been delegated to expensive dongles.

Apple's now run by "Dongle Heads".
"

LMAO at Dongle Heads!!!!! And Apple should rename their Apple Stores to Adapter Stores.

Brilliant. I wonder if Mr. Cook has seen this video, and if he would understand how it applies to him.

 

[MallardDuck]

Why are all of you using your laptop to charge your phone

Because conference rooms have limited power outlets and I have to plug in the computer. Ditto for hotel rooms, airplanes, and airports. We don't all work at a desk with a big power strip.

 

[Soccertess]

I have Bluetooth active noise cancelling headphones, I charge them using my iPhone charger, or the iPad one, or any of the other USB outlets I have. The cable is quite short (about 12 inches), that hanging off my laptop while I use it on my lap would be horrid. AND, they charge at home while I am at work with my laptop... bloody MIRACLE that is.

And USB-C being an international standard will mean that cheap adaptors will not be far away.

All this hysteria over a problem you do not currently have and will be solved by the time you need it.

See, I disagree. While I am careful to charge my headphones at home, I like having the option to plug it into my laptop in a pinch. Anyways, just a shame that the Apple ecosystem is fragmented. It's poor product planning. I would completely shut my mouth if all devices were charged wirelessly by something like wattup, but we aren't there yet.

 

[sir1963nz]

This computer should have been a serious blow your mind upgrade. It's been years. Looks like most people would be happy with similar size MacBook Pro that has up to 32gb memory and a mix of USB c and old USB ports.

It should have been touch screen too IMO and make an awesome iPad Pro/ MacBook Pro combo. Perfect for designers.

Then release this MacBook Pro as a larger MacBook. Simples

1) Apple is limited by the Chips Intel supplies, they have ZERO contr

Great... that's a perfect argument why the Macbook and/or Air should do that.

That's not a professional workplace.

And real professionals use desktop machines

USB A is the standard everyone uses today your argument is completely wrong. As the other guy replied. It is not used by few it used by tons and the immediate price cuts and dismal upcoming sales will dictate this.

5 1/4 floppies were THE standard
then
3 1/2 floppies were the standard
then
zip disks
then CDs
Then DVDs


RS232 was the standard, so was the Parallel port, USB killed them

CPM was the standard
the it was MSDOS... etc etc etc

Standards change, thats all there is to it.

And yet the people I know who use Photoshop etc are really keen to get one of the MBPs with Touch bar.
They see the opportunities, not the problems.

And I remember Apple was about to go broke since the 1980s, each new machine was going to be then end of them.

My prediction is, Apple will see a **** load of the new MacBook Pros to professionals who see new opportunities to improve their work flows using Touch Bar and are not going to let a $20 dongle get in their way. I also predict the touch bar will become bigger over time, and who combined with e-ink lettering/colouring on the keyboard they are going to sell even MORE. And then in 2 years time, no one will remember this fuss because the doomsayers will be criticising the next Apple products.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

This is true. https://twitter.com/glorphindale/status/793464972638621696/video/1

 

[Soccertess]

I'd be very disappointed in Apple if they created a modern laptop with one foot stuck in the past making an otherwise beautiful machine look like a Dell. Just get a $4 adapter and use it when you need it; they're tiny.

View attachment 669797

Sorry, this is the garbage coming out of Apple these days. Form over functionality. Apple didn't have success because of it's form, it was a combination of the both. I avoided upgrading to a 12 macbook, I spoke with my wallet. I didn't get an Iphone 7, and I'm pretty sure I won't touch a macbook pro until something changes.

By the way, on another forum, I saw this:


"After the Hello Again event, a friend sent me a vid in which SJ talks about Xerox and "Toner Heads" and how he thinks that Apple now suffers from the same disease:

Apple's now run by "Dongle Heads".
"

Fantastic VIDEO! Bravo!!! Really puts things into perspective. It's like the Dongle head Tim has focused the company on what is the easiest thing to do for the supply chain, gave the designers full reins of products, and let a fashionista push watch bands over utility.

Tim should go make sell some sugar water

 

[sir1963nz]

See, I disagree. While I am careful to charge my headphones at home, I like having the option to plug it into my laptop in a pinch. Anyways, just a shame that the Apple ecosystem is fragmented. It's poor product planning. I would completely shut my mouth if all devices were charged wirelessly by something like wattup, but we aren't there yet.

I have had my current MBP since 2011, 5 going on 6 years and I will continue using it for another year or so.
I have USB to serial adaptors, Thunderbolt cables, Firewire cables, etc etc etc.

My RS232 adaptor cost something like $80 at the time, so over the say 5 years that is $0.044 a day

My Coffee habit in the morning sees me spending about $5 a day, or $9125 over those same 5 years , i.e. more than my laptop + cables + spare PSU + external screen + 12TB RAID array + RAM upgrade + 480GB SSD retrofit + Software

I do work with my laptop, I make money with it, its used to service scientific instruments like centrifuges, etc etc, I also edit my videos on it (Final Cut), play games on it, design PCBs on it, program Microcontrollers with it, use it with my USB based Logic Analyser, and it still costs me LESS than my coffee habit over 5 years.

 

[KPOM]

Ethernet, a couple times a month when hotel wifi sucks.
HDMI every single day to connect my 13 to my monitor, and a couple times a month for customer monitors
Mini DisplayPort every day to connect my 15 to my monitor
VGA couple times a week to connect to customer projectors
DVI once every couple of months to connect to a customer adapter
USB-a x4 to connect iTunes library, backup drives, iOS devices, and external storage to the macs, including portable hard drives to store and backup 200-400gb of photos while on a shoot
Sd card, hardly ever as I use cf most of the time.

I'm looking at a minimum of 6 dongles in my bag. HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, and USB-a are the new ones.

It's a transition, and it sucks. But that would have been fine if the darned adapters were available, worked properly, and weren't another couple hundred bucks on top of a price increase for a mediocre set of improvements.

Or a small multiport hub of which the article described several.

That said, I don't consider a wider color gamut, Skylake, lighter weight and replacement of the FN key row with something potentially more useful to be mediocre.

 

[kb3tzt]

I was thinking of upgrading. With the lack of ports and my need for for all these dongles, I will not even consider a new MacBook. I am now considering a surface. I haven't owned a windows box in over a decade. This is a perfect example of when a designer oversteps their roll. I blame Ives for this mess

Good luck with the surface. had one of those and came over to macbook. with the surface you will need a display port adapter if your monitor does not support, which mine didnt. it has micro sd, so youll need an adapter for that. only has 1 usb port, need a hub for that. you can buy microsofts docking station for 200, it has a brick for power supply, so ease of transporting goes out the window. plus, windows 10 will force upgrades on you weather you want them or not at some point. i was told this by a rep, and it actually did do that on mine with updates turned off. i went with a 2015 macbook, it has only 1 usb-c port. i use apples adapter with 1 usb, 1 hdmi and a charge through port. works like a champ. its to take with me, but i only use it if i need to use sd card hub, and thats only to transfer photo shoots to the macbook. i have a usb-c ssd drive i can hook up if i need more storage. gonna get a bigger dock for home use, as i run my macbook in clamshell mode. as a side, i do pro photo shoots and do photo editing and have not regretted the single usb-c port. wish it had 2, but oh well i live with that.

 

[d5aqoëp]

I get it, Apple is standardizing on the USB-C Thunderbolt 3 interface. Why then not extend USB-C 3.1 to iOS devices and have one standard across the board? That way, people can buy a USB-C headset and use it across all their iDevices as well as their non-Apple PCs and mobile devices.

I dare Apple to abandon Lightning interface on iPhones and go with USB-C based thunderbolt port. Does Apple have the guts to do it?

 

[TigerWoodsIV]

I dare Apple to abandon Lightning interface on iPhones and go with USB-C based thunderbolt port. Does Apple have the guts to do it?

They need to. By the iPhone 8, there'll be more USB-C peripherals and then everyone can just be happy and use one thing. It's ridiculous we have so many standards. USB-C is really small and supports a ton of bandwidth. I look forward to the day when we don't need all these damn different connections.

 

[KPOM]

They need to. By the iPhone 8, there'll be more USB-C peripherals and then everyone can just be happy and use one thing. It's ridiculous we have so many standards. USB-C is really small and supports a ton of bandwidth. I look forward to the day when we don't need all these damn different connections.

USB-C is bigger than Lightning. I think we are more likely to see a USB-C to lightning cable included in the box at some point, at which point we'll probably have multiple 1000-post threads from iPhone owners angry about how they have to buy an extra cable to connect their iPhones to their PCs and buy all new docks, and camera kits.

 

[TimTjomme]

I probably know the answer allready.. but still a little bit of hope..

Will the thunderbolt adapter work on a MacBook 12"

 

[McTaste]

the hyperdrive adapter looks like a good solution to a problem that shouldn't exist

 

[johngwheeler]

I have a Surface Pro 4 at work. It has 1 USB port and 1 Display port. You still need adapters for Ethernet, VGA, SD Card reading and a hub if you need more than 1 USB.

The Surface Book adds 2 more USB and an SD card reader.

Honestly, to get the most out of the service (to make it a desktop replacement) you kind of need the dock to make it easy. At that point what is the difference between docking the mac and docking the surface?

After all that, USB-C will be mainstream by the end of 2017 and you will be behind the times.

The MS Surface has an SD card reader behind the kickstand.

 

[TigerWoodsIV]

USB-C is bigger than Lightning. I think we are more likely to see a USB-C to lightning cable included in the box at some point, at which point we'll probably have multiple 1000-post threads from iPhone owners angry about how they have to buy an extra cable to connect their iPhones to their PCs and buy all new docks, and camera kits.

It's the brave new world of dongles. Because as the years go by, why not have everything be more fragmented?

 

[ateslik]

$39.99 and more ports than a Macbook Pro. That's just sad.

 

[Service Droid]

It's the brave new world of dongles. Because as the years go by, why not have everything be more fragmented?

Anytime a new standard comes along there are dongles and adapters everywhere to help people transition from their older tech, that's just the way it has to be.

Give it a year or 2 when people and companies see the massive advantage of USB-C and more and more peripherals become available with it and things will change. This fragmentation as you call it is only the beginning and very soon things will be even more unified than they were previously. More unified than they have ever been.

On a side note ... Ground control to Major Dong