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USB-C in 12-Inch MacBook Adds Limitations but Opens Up Possibilities

Seems like an opportunity for a company to develop a power adaptor for USB-C that includes a quick-detach, magsafe-like connection near the USB-C plug end.

Another opportunity is to create a docking station that plugs into USB-C and offers all the ports you would normally use on a desk, so you can easily and quickly transition from laptop to desktop by plugging one cable into the USB-C port.
 
kodos said:
After a couple of product cycles, I think I can see the limits of Jony Ives' design talent and vision.
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^^ This.

When Tim said they were completely reinventing the MacBook, I was actually a little excited. But then it looked exactly the same as the old ones.

A bit thinner, smaller logic board, interesting batteries, wow space grey and gold. It's hardly a "reinvention" in my mind.

Not that I dislike the current notebook design; it has become iconic and it works fine. But the hyperbole is just getting to be a bit much.

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chabig said:
That looks nice, except a second port can't fit there. Remember that all of the MacBooks so far have had space to the left and right of the keyboards. This machine, with its edge to edge keyboard only has space at the top, above the keyboard, between the keyboard and back of the case.

Image
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Then make it a bit wider perhaps?

The one thing I don't understand about the new Apple of recent years is that they will cripple the functionality of a device to shave off a millimeter or two that no one would ever notice.
 
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When making this I was disappointed to see Apple only do the high speed network adaptor with a thunderbolt connection. The USB one shown here is the slow kind. Also, while they have an SD card reader with a lighting connection, they don't have one in USB 3 flavour, there are no Apple USB hubs either. So you'll have to resort to mostly third-party junk if you want to do anything useful with your USB-C port.

Apple's short lead, hard-wired into a chunky white box design, is really impractical. It's a shame Mr Ive didn't put the same effort into designing these as he did with the Macbook.
 
I hope that they won't build their next computer without any ports at all so you have to buy a new one when its battery dies!
 
So how do I connect a peripheral and charge at the same time? Even with the dongle I don't see how this will work.
 
age234 said:
Then make it a bit wider perhaps?

The one thing I don't understand about the new Apple of recent years is that they will cripple the functionality of a device to shave off a millimeter or two that no one would ever notice.
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Sure. Make it a bit bigger to add another port. While you're doing that, throw in another "nice to have" port, then perhaps widen it a bit more for an SD card slot. Then add make it thicker for MagSafe. Pretty soon, it loses its reason for being.

No, this is not a MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro. If you want one of those, don't buy the new MacBook. For many, this will be a great machine.
 
This sounds like I'm being snide, but I'm serious:

Do you think they just intended the usage of a Macbook like this to be "wire free" most of the time? They're implying "stop using USB thumb drives", etc...just store it in the cloud, and download it from there. Only use the USB-C port for charging and if you absolutely HAVE to connect to something else in a crunch".

It really seems that way. Crappy part is that most users don't operate that way.
 
umm uhh

Yeah... This is an over blown iPad. So basically folks, please come to terms, this is direct competetor of the g o o g l e c h r o m e line of netbooks, basially this is nothing but a fancy netbook, so accept and use it as such.

You want ports, buy a used 17" MBP.
 
jamesryanbell said:
This sounds like I'm being snide, but I'm serious:

Do you think they just intended the usage of a Macbook like this to be "wire free" most of the time? They're implying "stop using USB thumb drives", etc...just store it in the cloud, and download it from there. Only use the USB-C port for charging and if you absolutely HAVE to connect to something else in a crunch".

It really seems that way. Crappy part is that most users don't operate that way.
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That may be the message Apple is sending. If it is, I don't like it.
 
anek007 said:
Please stop defending Apple. Apple is playing their customers for a fool. The iSight camera from the macbook air is 1.3mp. I wouldn't be surprise if it's the same camera as on the iPhone and iPad. The new MacBooks video card is pushing 2304x1440 to the screen.
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I was not defending Apple. If you go back and re-read the thread, you'll see that I said that I don't agree with what they did with the webcam. That said, it doesn't make logical sense that they would choose to ship a machine in 2015 with a 480p webcam unless there was some reason related to hardware that they chose not to put a 720p or better webcam in that particular machine.

They haven't shipped a computer with a non-HD camera in several years so I have to believe that doing so with the new MacBook was not their first choice. It's akin to Apple releasing a new computer next year and putting a rotational hard disk in after using nothing but SSDs in their machines for several years.
 
bingeciren said:
Let’s take the existing maxed out 11” Air and improve it a-la Jony style.

-Replace the 11.6 inch with 12 inch retina display.
-Replace the 2.2 GHz Dual-Core intel I7 with 1.3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core M processor.
-Since the existing fan hardly comes on and mostly inaudible, eliminate the fan.
-Get rid of 2 USB3 and 1 Thunderbolt port replace it with a single USB-C port.
-Replace the existing keyboard keys with shorter travel keys.
-Get rid of the mechanical switch and replace it with a buzzing feedback on the trackpad.
-Keep all dimensions practically the same.
-Preserve the existing battery life.
-Drop the weight by a "whopping" 16 grams (0.35 pounds).
-Render it impossible to connect to a Thunderbolt Cinema Display or any other Thunderbolt device.
-Make carrying a dongle necessary to connect to nearly every existing USB-A peripheral and charge extra for the dongle.
-Price it so that the Maxed out 11” Air is $1,649 and the new maxed out Macbook is 1,599. (without the dongle!)
-Make it look gorgeous and colourful and present it with a hoopla at the Keynote for people to applaud and cheer for it and call this a progress.

Excuse me but for the weight and size I am not seeing any benefit, if portability is the main issue here. Yet I lost the connection to my existing Cinema Display, lost the Magsafe adapter, lost serious CPU power, gained a dongle to carry around and all for a measly 16 grams in weight, Gold colour and retina display?

Somehow I’m not convinced. I’ll wait for the next generation.
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+1. I fully agree with all statements in this post.
 
I can't believe they intentionally only fitted one port?? Maybe the engineering challenges meant a second port was impossible - in any event its a MAJOR screw up.:eek:
 
Having only one port is a major turn off. The thought of having to buy a dongle just to be able to charge and connect other peripherals in 2015 is just... no. I would even trade the audio jack for another USB-C. It's not like Bluetooth headphones are a rarity.
 
macosxuser01 said:
Then explain why MacBook Air comes with a 720p FaceTime camera?
Like I don't use FaceTime on my laptop but still why did Apple go backwards with that? Did they think nobody would notice?
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I'm disappointed too but one benefit will be better FaceTime video streams since the file sizes will be smaller. I usually FaceTime with a few people from my Mac to their phones and the poor connections on their end makes for a not so good experience. Also eats up their data plan. 480p looks great on a phone and the file sizes are much smaller so maybe that went into their decision?
 
bingeciren said:
-Get rid of 2 USB3 and 1 Thunderbolt port replace it with a single USB-C port.
-Replace the existing keyboard keys with shorter travel keys.
-Get rid of the mechanical switch and replace it with a buzzing feedback on the trackpad.
-Keep all dimensions practically the same.
-Preserve the existing battery life.
-Drop the weight by a "whopping" 16 grams (0.35 pounds).
-Render it impossible to connect to a Thunderbolt Cinema Display or any other Thunderbolt device.
-Make carrying a dongle necessary to connect to nearly every existing USB-A peripheral and charge extra for the dongle.
-Price it so that the Maxed out 11” Air is $1,649 and the new maxed out Macbook is 1,599. (without the dongle!)
-Make it look gorgeous and colourful and present it with a hoopla at the Keynote for people to applaud and cheer for it and call this a progress.

Excuse me but for the weight and size I am not seeing any benefit, if portability is the main issue here. Yet I lost the connection to my existing Cinema Display, lost the Magsafe adapter, lost serious CPU power, gained a dongle to carry around and all for a measly 16 grams in weight, Gold colour and retina display?
Click to expand...
So, you mean by adding 16 g they could have added all that is missing back?

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Clumber said:
Love this :)

Basically they've created a Chromebook. Brilliant if you are 'on the go' all the time and only need basic functionality, completely useless for anybody needing a computer for... I don't know? Work?
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But apparently Chromebooks do have some decent success.
 
I would like to see one of the blogs do a poll of what connectors people use regularly with apple laptops, with or without adapters. For me it would be:

usb (for external hard drive backups, external CD/DVD drive, thumb drives, updating garmin, charging iphone, etc)
hdmi (for connecting to family and friends's TV's to show pictures or videos or websites)
vga (for connecting to projectors at work)

So it seems I would need $160 worth of adapters and to keep track of two dongles to continue doing that stuff, if I upgraded to the new macbook. Now I only need to carry the vga adaptor. Would like to see a cheaper 3rd party adapter/dock with the ports I use.
 
manu chao said:
But apparently Chromebooks do have some decent success.
Click to expand...

Mostly because of their price. at $300, a chromebook, while mainly an online computer, with limited capability, offers the everyday user who primarily uses web based services a competent enough computer to do their basic everyday tasks.

this is similar in nature, though admittingly at least having a more robust OS can do more. But still predominantly aimed for the average user who will be doing basic computer tasks.

Difference is. It's $1500.

thats going to be a tough pill to swallow for many, especially considering that for similar price, you can get into an rMBP that, except for approximately 1 lbs and a couple inches of volume, is infiniately more robust and powerful.

my 2011 MBA is dying on me. screen has gone, the RAM is too low for Yosemite to perform well. I was debating replacing it with the new device, till I saw the Price and lack of ports. Guess this laptop isn't for me.
 
LordVic said:
Mostly because of their price. at $300, a chromebook, while mainly an online computer, with limited capability, offers the everyday user who primarily uses web based services a competent enough computer to do their basic everyday tasks.

this is similar in nature, though admittingly at least having a more robust OS can do more. But still predominantly aimed for the average user who will be doing basic computer tasks.

Difference is. It's $1500.

thats going to be a tough pill to swallow for many, especially considering that for similar price, you can get into an rMBP that, except for approximately 1 lbs and a couple inches of volume, is infiniately more robust and powerful.

my 2011 MBA is dying on me. screen has gone, the RAM is too low for Yosemite to perform well. I was debating replacing it with the new device, till I saw the Price and lack of ports. Guess this laptop isn't for me.
Click to expand...

For this machine, I am willing to adjust my lifestyle a bit in particular as it relates to ports.
 
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