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USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter for New MacBook Includes HDMI and USB 3.1 Connectors

richwoodrocket said:
USB C looks a lot like the Lightning connector from a far. Up close it looks like something that doesnt belong on a macbook, but a mobile device. Apple, please at least bring a few more ports back.
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You do realize that this machine IS a mobile device, right?! It's an ultra-portable for goodness' sake!

It's not so tough, so follow along with me. The iPad has only a single port, Lightning, used for charging, accessories, and video out. Imagine a person who wants a device not much larger/heavier than an iPad, but it runs Mac OS X, has trackpad and keyboard, runs real Mac apps. But essentially has a very similar use case as an iPad. THAT'S WHAT THIS IS.
 
Henk Poley said:
I wonder why they couldn't fit a row of USB-C to the sides.
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That would cut apple's profits for several dollars and leave no room for future upgrades. So, no.
jwdsail said:
Can't imagine why Apple couldn't make the new MacBook with MagSafe and Thunderbolt.. Why artificially cripple the MacBook so damn much?
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By looking their OS development to focus on handoff etc., the most logical explanation is that they want to sell you more than one Mac. Portable Mac is designed to be so portable, that it doesn't work well on desktop.

One has to admire Apple's strategic imago building. First they freed "the rest of us" from the pain and stress of expanding our current macs, so when we need something else, we just buy a new mac. Now, the 2nd step is not only when our needs change, but where it changes. Macs are getting so highly sophisticated, that average mac user is going to buy a mac every year and loving it! Insanely genius!

If they had wanted to introduce "a desktop replacement" they would have told us more about connectivity and dongles.
For desktop, it's pretty clear, that you need a hub with 4 ports of usbC: one for mb, one for power, one for display and one for wired peripherals. The message of this hub not showing up is pretty clear. Of course there will be these from 3rd party, but all awkwardness is blamed on 3rd party and apple can offer an elegant solution: another Mac!
 
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nagromme said:
Actually, looking through the Apple support forums, people are saying you CAN use a Thunderbolt display with non-TB Macs, via DisplayPort only.
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Can you share the link? This might be interesting...
RoastingPig said:
your trippin dude...theres no pcie on usb-c so therefore no thunderbolt display. thunderbolt displays do not have a displayport only mode.
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There might be pcie inside typeC in the future.
Just check the wikipedia's page for typeC. Very easy and quick.

Frankly, I'm amazed how much people here talk about typeC and doesn't even check the basic common known facts about it from single wikipedia page.
 
Matt Leaf said:
I feel like this is missing the point a little.

It has all day battery life.

You charge at night and then hit the road in the morning, just like iPad.

But in regards to the adapter: its ugly.

They should have put two C ports in. At least then you could charge, or adapt, whichever way you wanted to go.

Phil did mention they were working with 3rd parties on adapters, so maybe we see something more sleek yet.
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*sigh* ... I don't mean to be insulting, but this is the problem, people like you hearing marketing buzz words instead of looking at the tech specs. Since when did "all day power" equate to 8 hours web browsing\9 hours iTunes playback? They never address the fact that that's in ideal conditions with minimal brightness and nothing processor intensive going on. You hear their marketing buzz words, yet fail to see through it.

This is the same (or less) battery life as the Air generation. While 8-9 hours (likely 5-6 in real world use) is great, it's far from being able to charge then forget about it for the whole day.

In a market where there are many laptops with 12-20 hour batteries, "all day" to me means all day, not a portion of the workday.... but they rely on people such as yourself to see the headline and say wow that's cool. They can't advertise a headline that it gets 8-10 hours because that's half of competing products.

They're working with 3rd parties on adaptors? USB C is a standard, APPLE is the third party in the technology. LOL

I do agree they should have included 2 usb c ports though. This may be the biggest downfall of the computer in my eyes.
 
Doebldodl said:
The total sum in adapters thus is $510 (FIVE-HUNDRED-TEN DOLLARS!) or 39% on top of the MacBook price. And no, I am not making this up - this is _what I'd have to spend to replicate my current setting_.

For the exact same $1299 for the 12" MacBook, I can get an all new 13" MacBook Pro - no adapters required. And for the $510 saved in adapters, I could get an Apple Watch with a leather loop. Or a nice 4K display. And a beer.
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You make an interesting point, but many typical users don't use Macs at work and at home. They also don't plug a lot of stuff into their computers. My wife, for instance, runs all of her work through an iPad Mini 2 in a keyboard case. This device isn't for you.

This might fit into my workflow if I replaced my rMBP with this and a 5K iMac. But that's a lot of money. However, I've been planning on selling my rMBP the next time the 5K iMac is updated. I'm just hesitant to have no portable Mac. I keep crossing my fingers that the iPad and this machine will eventually cross over, especially considering how many things the new MacBook now has in common with the iPad and especially the rumored iPad Pro.
 
toke lahti said:
I'm amazed how much people here talk about typeC and doesn't even check the basic common known facts about it from single wikipedia page.
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You can replace "typeC" with any technology term, and sadly the statement will still apply here on MacRumors. Everyone loves to repeat what they hear, not what they know, and people take what they hear as what they think they know. Sad really.
 
alvindarkness said:
Not to mention you wouldnt be replicating your current setup, you would be getting a laptop that performs far far worse than what you already have CPU wise. A better investment would be an SSD for your 2012 MBP if you havent already done so and keep it. IMO anyway.
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My MBP is pretty much maxed out already, and indeed, it easily handles any task I throw at it. However, for 99% of my tasks, even the 12" MB would be more than sufficient - and only weigh a third on my daily commute.
 
I have a MBP and rarely use the ports on it, unless I'm sitting down and doing some actual work where I'm transferring files or something. I can see how this can be an issue with some people but most just use the power port on an every day basis.

My thoughts? I wish it had a MagSafe 2, Thunderbolt, and Lightning port. That's it.

MagSafe 2 because MagSafe. Thunderbolt for docking into TBD, external drives, etc. Lightning for headphones and iDevices (I envision Apple having a Lightning to Lightning cable with faster data transfers and charging than if it had a USB end).
 
Nicky G said:
You do realize that this machine IS a mobile device, right?! It's an ultra-portable for goodness' sake!

It's not so tough, so follow along with me. The iPad has only a single port, Lightning, used for charging, accessories, and video out. Imagine a person who wants a device not much larger/heavier than an iPad, but it runs Mac OS X, has trackpad and keyboard, runs real Mac apps. But essentially has a very similar use case as an iPad. THAT'S WHAT THIS IS.
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It’s half baked. Yes you can be minimalist but most people want a bit of versatility at least.
Two ports is passable but one is almost useless. You should be able to plug two things in at once. Your charger and one peripheral. I reckon that’s what most people see as a minimum.
It’s an awful money grabbing decision by Apple.

One thing they have proven themselves to be is market leaders at innovating new ways of extracting money from people that don’t actually need to waste it.
 
H2SO4 said:
It’s half baked. Yes you can be minimalist but most people want a bit of versatility at least.
Two ports is passable but one is almost useless. You should be able to plug two things in at once. Your charger and one peripheral. I reckon that’s what most people see as a minimum.
It’s an awful money grabbing decision by Apple.

One thing they have proven themselves to be is market leaders at innovating new ways of extracting money from people that don’t actually need to waste it.
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How often do you sit in class or at Starbucks with your MacBook, plugged in, and with a USB mouse and USB drive attached? Oh, and with it going to an external display?
 
davidg4781 said:
My thoughts? I wish it had a MagSafe 2, Thunderbolt, and Lightning port. That's it.
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I'd prefer MagSafe 2, Thunderbolt, and two USB Type C. I'd even be willing to give up MagSafe if they have three USB Type C ports or the new charging-enabled Thunderbolt port. The headphone port is fine.

No Lightning. Apple needs to ditch Lightning in favor of USB Type C on all devices. It was innovative when it came out, but USB Type C does everything it does plus much more, as an industry standard.

My iMac has every port on the back full. But I rarely plug anything in to my laptop. (My work laptop, I plug in an external monitor, headphones, and a wireless keyboard/mouse receiver - and then only because they have Bluetooth disabled by policy. Display is the only one I'd plug in regularly if they allowed me to use Bluetooth.)
 
I consider my MacBook air to be minimalist when it comes to ports. I've recently converted from windows which is ports galore so that's why I think my Air has minimal ports. I don't think I'm ready for the MacBook yet. I considered the surface pro 3, one of the reasons why I didn't get it was because it only has one USB port so there is no way I'd consider the new MacBook.
 
Frizers said:
$79.... even by apple standards... wow.
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You get off lucky at 79

Try $119 in Australia
http://store.apple.com/au/product/MJ1L2ZA/A/usb-c-vga-multiport-adapter

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nagromme said:
It's almost as though Apple offers options for different needs/wants...
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And we all know how well that did for apple in the period 1990 - 1997. Removing all these options is what in part saved Apple. Jobs did this.

I think Cook is going back to the bad old 90's days with all these overabundance of options.
 
davidg4781 said:
How often do you sit in class or at Starbucks with your MacBook, plugged in, and with a USB mouse and USB drive attached? Oh, and with it going to an external display?
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Obviously, yes.

DKShN.jpg
 
At first I was excited about this device, now not so much.
I can sort of see where they are going...this is a "road warrior elite" machine...charge it and go, maybe bring the charger with you bla.

My problems....I need the SD slot, I have a thunderbolt display, that won't work with this new mac book it seems. I get the bluetooth mouse ok but that eats up power, same with headphones. This is more like an iPad with a keyboard...and might fit for some people but this won't replace my MacBook Air (which I was hoping it would).

That dongle, that just just an odd abomination and seems stupid as it doesn't work with thunderbolt for displays and I get that is a problem of the USB-C port (at least I think it is)
 
Can this adapter be plugged into the power brick, then attached to the computer via the charging cord? To keep cords and adapters off your desk.
 
Apple is losing me as a customer. I used to buy pretty much every single product on day 1 or relatively soon after launch. But not this time around.

Apple, as a company used to force some new standards/stuff into its products because it believed it was a way to push the user experience.

But by going full on with a SINGLE USB-C, Apple just jumped too quick without figuring the UX through.

The new MB is supposed to be a product for someone who needs the ultimate portability while retaining full productivity. It could have been the perfect laptop for road warriors since all they need is to be able to run browsers and Office in the lightest form possible while being able to plug into/onto storage, projector... etc effortlessly.

So now they need to bring multiple adapters to achieve that. First an adapter to get normal USB (since it would take a long while until USB-C becomes mainstream. You can't expect all your customers/clients/partners to be USB-C ready) and video output. Then another adapter to get the right video output. Not to mention if one wants to use its laptop as THE charging station for iDevices, they now need to find a USB hub capable of delivering 2.1A.

What's the point of getting it down so thin when you have to carry adapters with you to actually use it?

The Asus UX305 is better in almost every sense at 2/3 of the price. If someone figures a way to hackintosh that thing, nMB is done.
 
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E3BK said:
Obviously, yes.

Image
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I could be wrong but isn't that an iMac?

Stephen123 said:
Still seems unclear if it can charge while using the USB-C port for data.
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From what I remember USB-C supports this, we just don't have hardware yet to make it happen. I'm guessing some kind of hub would make this happen. Power goes into the hub, one cable goes from hub to MB, and you plug in whatever you need to into the hub. It would be great if the drives had an extra USB-C port to daisy chain either other devices or power supply.

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JayMBP said:
Apple is losing me as a customer. I used to buy pretty much every single product on day 1 or relatively soon after launch. But not this time around.

Apple, as a company used to force some new standards/stuff into its products because it believed it was a way to push the user experience.

But by going full on with a SINGLE USB-C, Apple just jumped too quick without figuring the UX through.

The new MB is supposed to be a product for someone who needs the ultimate portability while retaining full productivity. It could have been the perfect laptop for road warriors since all they need is to be able to run browsers and Office in the lightest form possible while being able to plug into/onto storage, projector... etc effortlessly.

So now they need to bring multiple adapters to achieve that. First an adapter to get normal USB (since it would take a long while until USB-C becomes mainstream. You can't expect all your customers/clients/partners to be USB-C ready) and video output. Then another adapter to get VGA (trust me, if you think VGA is obsolete, you have not worked in the right environment). Not to mention if one wants to use its laptop as THE charging station for iDevices, they now need to find a USB hub capable of delivering 2.1A.

What's the point of getting it down so thin when you have to carry adapters with you to actually use it?

The Asus UX305 is better in almost every sense at 2/3 of the price. If someone figures a way to hackintosh that thing, nMB is done.
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Guess this isn't for you. Why buy something that's not going to fit your needs?

And when was the last time you bought a Mac that had VGA? You had to get an adaptor to make that happen. What's the difference of having a MDP to VGA adaptor or a USB-C to VGA/USB3/USB-C adaptor? You'll still have one hanging off your Mac.

And your charging thing's silly. Who drags around a MB to charge their iPhones and iPads? Get a 4 port hub to do that if that's an issue for you. The current MBPs have maximum 2 USB ports anyway. This has one once you factor in the adaptor that you need to get VGA.

Dell will gladly sell you a laptop with built in VGA. I don't need that nor do I want all that extra stuff on my MacBook. It's a waste of space and adds extra cost. I'd rather Apple use that money for something that'll benefit me.
 
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