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No. There is no room for ports on the sides. It's got an edge to edge keyboard, which previous machines didn't have. Remember that ports are three dimensional, with depth. You can't just photoshop a picture of a port on the edge of the computer.

OK, then LIKE I ALREADY SAID BUT YOU IGNORED, make the damn case SLIGHTLY WIDER (or the battery slightly smaller or whatever) to accommodate it! And spare the bull fecis that an extra quarter inch would be worse than having only ONE stinking port. You also have no explanation for the lack of a 2nd port on the other side. :rolleyes:

The upper right hand side is used for audio.

Yeah, audio ports take up SO much room. :rolleyes:

These images give a clearer picture of the internals and the space available for the USB-C port. The keyboard and the batteries take up the available space for additional ports.

I see NOTHING on the opposite side to prevent a 2nd port from being installed there.
 
OK, then LIKE I ALREADY SAID BUT YOU IGNORED, make the damn case SLIGHTLY WIDER (or the battery slightly smaller or whatever) to accommodate it! And spare the bull fecis that an extra quarter inch would be worse than having only ONE stinking port. You also have no explanation for the lack of a 2nd port on the other side. :rolleyes:



Yeah, audio ports take up SO much room. :rolleyes:



I see NOTHING on the opposite side to prevent a 2nd port from being installed there.

You need to LOOK again.

This is from the 11" 2015 MBA teardown. The audio takes up as much if not more space than the USB-C connector.

2Mirwqf3YenXnjiw.huge

CwHgE2LVqPYbanGU
 
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I think I am going to start a business printing and selling little USB-C port stickers. Stick them on all sides of the new MacBook--wherever you want a new USB port without the hassle of actually having to engineer one into the machine. No need to sacrifice size or battery life. With my stickers, you can have six USB-C ports, three on each side. Heck, line the back with them too for even more expansion capability. Impress your friends! Tell Jony Ive where to "Stick It!" Buy ten ports and I'll throw in two extra ports for free! Kickstarter project coming soon!
 
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I think I am going to start a business printing and selling little USB-C port stickers. Stick them on all sides of the new MacBook--wherever you want a new USB port without the hassle of actually having to engineer one into the machine. No need to sacrifice size or battery life. With my stickers, you can have six USB-C ports, three on each side. Heck, line the back with them too for even more expansion capability. Kickstarter project coming soon!

Why just limit the sticker to USB-C?

Think of the possibilities.

macbook-dongle-life.jpg
 
Its one of the more interesting things Apple have done recently, which I admire. But not for me. I like my ports on my laptops. And why ditch MagSafe? It was like a huge selling point.

Sucks to be Apple if the tech world just ignores USB-C like they did with Thunderbolt.

Just when u thought a standard was in, Apple changes it's minds.

At least they could have done 2 USB-C ports.

The possibilities are pointless if you still need a dongle to even do anything. At least with current Mac's you can attach external drives when u need them.... And now you must also attach a dongle to if you want to charge your new Mac.... How exactly is that easier ??

Unless Apple wants us all to store everything on SSD's now which could be implied here.
 
Just when u thought a standard was in, Apple changes it's minds.

At least they could have done 2 USB-C ports.

Even a power port plus a USB-C port would have been better. When you can't even do a single thing without unplugging it without some kind of hub adapter, it's pretty miserable, IMO. Why not a power plug plus a single Thunderbolt connector? You can convert/hub almost anything off Thunderbolt. It's expensive, but how is a $75 dongle ANY better? At least the Thunderbolt connector could connect to real drives and monitors without a dongle. Thunderbolt hasn't even gotten really big support and now THIS?

Frankly, I hope this ship sinks faster than the Titanic.
 
I have to assume you've already submitted your design resume to Apple HR. Clearly Apple's current crop of people don't know much. You'll rise quickly through the ranks I'm sure. /s

The problem is not the capabilities of the designers, it is the priorities they are given.
 
Even a power port plus a USB-C port would have been better. When you can't even do a single thing without unplugging it without some kind of hub adapter, it's pretty miserable, IMO. Why not a power plug plus a single Thunderbolt connector? You can convert/hub almost anything off Thunderbolt. It's expensive, but how is a $75 dongle ANY better? At least the Thunderbolt connector could connect to real drives and monitors without a dongle. Thunderbolt hasn't even gotten really big support and now THIS?

Frankly, I hope this ship sinks faster than the Titanic.

Because Thunderbolt is going nowhere fast. It will remain a niche product included on their more powerful laptops, but with this jump, USB will provide enough of the benefits of Thunderbolt with far wider support. Within a year, the market will be flooded with usb-c adapters of every flavor and every price point, and make docking Macs that come with them easy for the first time, in well, virtually forever.

When you are connecting to drives and monitors, who on earth cares that you need a 'dongle'? In that case, the 'dongle' is also going to be known as your 'dock'. You're just making things up to complain about.
 
It doesn't matter what you say to some folks. Their reply is always going to be that Apple could have added more ports. That's true. The counterpoint to that is that the design would have had to be changed in order to do so. Which they see as a worthwhile tradeoff. That's fine, but then Apple already makes other laptops where they make that tradeoff.

No they don't.

The most common complaint about the existing 11" MacBook Air is the screen resolution. Not the size, not battery life, not processing power.

The implicit argument here that the 11" MBA could not support a Retina display is so silly it does not even deserve addressing.

Apple could easily have put a Retina display into the existing 11" MacBook Air chassis along with probably 2 or 3 USB-C ports (replacing the existing power and/or Thunderbolt ports). They could have done this alongside the new MacBook and seen what consumers preferred.

They didn't.
 
No they don't.

The most common complaint about the existing 11" MacBook Air is the screen resolution. Not the size, not battery life, not processing power.

The implicit argument here that the 11" MBA could not support a Retina display is so silly it does not even deserve addressing.

Apple could easily have put a Retina display into the existing 11" MacBook Air chassis along with probably 2 or 3 USB-C ports (replacing the existing power and/or Thunderbolt ports). They could have done this alongside the new MacBook and seen what consumers preferred.

They didn't.

You're right. They didn't because the MacBook is not an Air. It's a new device built on an entirely new chip platform. I know that people wish that Apple would just add retina to the current Air lineup, but the way I read this is that Apple just hasn't updated that lineup yet, so they aren't going to make an incremental change to a device that will likely see an overhaul in the relatively near future. I would not be surprised to see a new Air, or new laptop that takes the place of the Air, with retina screen, once Skylake becomes available.
 
The real wonder to me is why Apple retained the headphone jack.

Audio should go bluetooth, and that space on the right side could be a USB 3 port.

If Apple doesn't like the current crop of bluetooth headphones, that would be a wonderful design challenge for Jony!
 
Because Thunderbolt is going nowhere fast.

Wisdom demands in return exactly how "fast" is USB-C going so far that the above answer is a valid one? :rolleyes:

So far, I see Google Chromebooks and one model of Macbook that carry it. Apple didn't even include ONE single port on ANY of their other updates/refreshes. Who needs USB-C on an iMac or Mac Pro or anything at all for that matter? It's a product in search of a market. They already came out with reversible USB cables (spring-loaded connector with connections on both sides). Other than bi-directional power (not needed on desktops and not really on notebooks either as they really get in the way more than anything else; the only place they might be handy is on something like an iPad or iPhone, in which case goodbye Lightning port and WTF did they bother? Oh yeah to sell more cables).

In short, Thunderbolt was an advanced product that was BETTER than USB3 and a hell of a lot better than USB2, but it still fails because it's NOT NEEDED by everyday people. So again, I ask who the hell NEEDS USB-C? The answer is the same as Thunderbolt. Very few. To the rest of us it's just more cables, more adapters and more of a ROYAL PAIN IN THE ARSE than anything else and therefore WE DON'T WANT IT.

It will remain a niche product included on their more powerful laptops, but with this jump, USB will provide enough of the benefits of Thunderbolt with far wider support. Within a year, the market will be flooded with usb-c adapters of every flavor and every price point, and make docking Macs that come with them easy for the first time, in well, virtually forever.

Flooded with adapters? :eek: :eek: :eek:

Who the bleep wants THAT? How about we just don't use that horrible idea and simply don't buy products with USB-C ports unless the have all the other ports we want as well. Yes, that's a MUCH better idea. If they wanted a new style USB port, they should have made it backwards compatible without crazy adapters (like a + shaped connector that uses the horizontal for USB1/2/3 functions and the vertical part for the new power connections, etc.). That way, a traditional plug could be used in a pinch and if you need the new functions, newer devices and plugs could make use of it. Of course, that won't help apple make a PAPER THIN Macbook, but that's a niche market and as I indicated above, will simply not go anywhere fast.

In other words, I don't WANT to buy a dozen $75 adapters to make what should be a $500 notebook (which costs well over $1000) to "work" in the most basic of circumstances. Anybody who does, be my guest. I think this will be a flop. Two ports might have eeked by, but you'd still get tons of complaints about a dozen adapters needed to make it usable, all costing $$$$.

When you are connecting to drives and monitors, who on earth cares that you need a 'dongle'? In that case, the 'dongle' is also going to be known as your 'dock'.

WHAT dock??? :eek:

How much is that going to cost and when is it going to be available??? Obviously, we're not just talking about an adapter to connect a USB3 hub. This notebook lacks ANY other ports what-so-ever, so it's going to need at the very least a power supply connection to the notebook through it, multiple USB3 ports, Ethernet and monitor ports. There's also Firewire, additional audio, midi and perhaps even some level of Thunderbolt support to possibly consider. Hell my Mac Mini even has an SD card reader built into it. They couldn't fit THAT on the new Macbook either.

The current Apple monitor (singular) is a Thunderbolt "dock" model and doesn't even support USB 3 yet after four years. So exactly HOW SOON do you think I can expect a new monitor with a USB-C hub built-in? How many YEARS did it take to get a single solitary Thunderbolt dock/hub from all those vendors that promised one? Two or three years? And forget any kind of PCI type expansion that Thunderbolt can use.

Now you want me to buy at least one $12 USB3 to USB-C adapter (or replacement cable) for every single USB cable I might use on the road or at least one to connect a USB3 hub at home (I actually use TWO 7-port USB hubs (one USB2 and one USB3) with my Mac Mini plus a few devices like my 3TB media drive that I connect directly since these hubs seem to "hiccup" once a day or so and think they've ejected the drive momentarily which OSX doesn't like so I plug those straight in, which is not hard to do when you have FOUR ports. But if I wanted to "dock" this thing at home, I need at least one adapter and then daisy-chain the hubs and then pray that the drive doesn't disconnect (which it will sooner or later). That still doesn't get me power or ethernet or firewire or anything else. Yeah, again, WHEN can I expect that "dock" you mentioned?

You're just making things up to complain about.

Yeah, I just "made up" all of what I wrote. Too bad for actual consumers it's all true. :rolleyes:
 
Yeah, I just "made up" all of what I wrote. Too bad for actual consumers it's all true. :rolleyes:

Everything you complained about can be boiled down to the simple fact that this is the future of USB. The vast majority of people will need one adapter to make this device have all the flexibility they need. You can go on and on about the negative consequences of 'all' these adapters, but the point is not that everyone will need all (or even many) of them, but rather that there will be a wide array to fit everyone's own unique needs and preferences.

Have you never used a dock before? The whole point of a dock is that it provides a large array of ports, usually a larger number than the smaller device residing in the dock has physically on it. Yes, it will contain all manner of USB, Ethernet, displayport/hdmi/whatever, SD card readers; whatever you or anyone else might want there will be a market for it because it can all travel over the same, singular cable. Given that at the moment, there is not a single device that anyone wants that you can actually take delivery of, you'll have to give it at least a few months before these products become available. I would say that within a year there will be all manner of choices available. That will depend on how aggressive other manufacturers are about adoption this format. Again, given that it's USB, I would expect that to be rather quick, with the majority of computers placing type-c ports along-side some traditional type-a ports. The fact that Apple chooses not to do this on their most compact computer doesn't diminish the value of the standard as a whole. This is just Apple being Apple and being on the absolute forefront of the future of computing.

The MacBook is not in any way, shape or form designed to be a replacement for your Mini. I can't fathom how you are making that connection. If you want to attach those drives to the dock, you will need one device; the dock that's appropriate for the connections you want to make.
 
Next year, or two..: Apple looses all ports making this laptop the "first truly ultra-thin portable, and the first non-expandable Mac"

For everything else, there is always the Pro line. or the Air since it still has ports on it.

At least there will always be alternatives in Apple's line up...

Plus, Apple's heading that way anyway with this Mac, since everything needs external dongles now. They may as well skip the middle ground and go all cloud based.

"The Mac re-imagined..... It's Apple's Chromebook."
 
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You're right. They didn't because the MacBook is not an Air. It's a new device built on an entirely new chip platform.

I'm not sufficiently engulfed in the RDF to know what that is supposed to mean.

The MacBook is an incremental evolution of the MBA. A bit thinner and lighter, a fancy new trackpad and a higher resolution screen.

Some of us are rather annoyed they didn't focus more on evolving the bits people wanted them to.
 
I'm not sufficiently engulfed in the RDF to know what that is supposed to mean.

The MacBook is an incremental evolution of the MBA. A bit thinner and lighter, a fancy new trackpad and a higher resolution screen.

Some of us are rather annoyed they didn't focus more on evolving the bits people wanted them to.

It uses the new Core M chip which is a brand new chip, in a brand-new category from Intel. It's effectively as fast as the higher-end chips that use much more powerful for short burst of activity, yet uses just 5w maximum total power, compared to the 15w of the chip used in the Air, and 28w in the 13" rMBP. It's a chip that provides much of the power of a full Intel chip, but using the power, and taking up the physical space of a tablet chip. It is what has allowed Apple to build this computer. The Air's 15w chip is Intel's standard ultrabook chip; for most manufacturer's it's the primary chip they use in their laptops. It's unlikely that Apple will stop producing laptops around it, but they may have decided that the extremely small advances that came with this iteration (Broadwell) were worth an entire re-design of the Air platform. Skylake, coming later this year, promises bigger advances that might make sense to base a new design around.
 
It uses the new Core M chip which is a brand new chip, in a brand-new category from Intel. It's effectively as fast as the higher-end chips that use much more powerful for short burst of activity, yet uses just 5w maximum total power, compared to the 15w of the chip used in the Air, and 28w in the 13" rMBP. It's a chip that provides much of the power of a full Intel chip, but using the power, and taking up the physical space of a tablet chip. It is what has allowed Apple to build this computer. The Air's 15w chip is Intel's standard ultrabook chip; for most manufacturer's it's the primary chip they use in their laptops. It's unlikely that Apple will stop producing laptops around it, but they may have decided that the extremely small advances that came with this iteration (Broadwell) were worth an entire re-design of the Air platform. Skylake, coming later this year, promises bigger advances that might make sense to base a new design around.

reminds me when the manager of a company i was once working for used adjectives to describe the months were sales werent that good but actual figures and percentages when they were good.

but i wonder with the new trackpad and how expensive it is compared to the old one. if it can in someway replace a wacom then i wonder is this both the machine for it in terms of specs and market and what would the price be without it.
 
Everything you complained about can be boiled down to the simple fact that this is the future of USB. The vast majority of people will need one adapter to make this device have all the flexibility they need.

I always love the "vast majority" type comments that make massive assumptions on zero statistical data as if you know what "most" people need/want.

Have you never used a dock before?

You seem to be under the impression I don't know what a dock is when my POINT was/is that THERE IS NO DOCK AVAILABLE FOR USB-C. How can I or anyone else use a dock with it if there are none to buy? I spelled that out already, but you seem to have glossed over what I wrote so I don't feel like wasting more time on it. I can't buy what doesn't exist. USB3 hubs don't work at USB 3.1 speeds and no hub out there has the power/passthrough/video out or other unique features to the USB 3.1 + USB-C spec. Thus, your argument is null and void until such time as someone makes at least one of these devices. So far, I've seen Apple's adapters and not much else available. But the Macbook IS available and so any users of it will have problems doing these things in the mean time.

As I pointed out before, Apple still hasn't even updated their Thunderbolt hub monitor to USB 3.x specs so I wouldn't count on them offering anything usable. It took well over two years for a single usable Thunderbolt hub to become available for ANYTHING so again, I wouldn't count on these devices just appearing and becoming widely available.

In short, I wouldn't touch that Macbook with a ten foot pole or any other computer that offers no other connectivity or charges me $75 to connect a single mouse at the same time as power even.
 
It uses the new Core M chip which is a brand new chip, in a brand-new category from Intel. It's effectively as fast as the higher-end chips that use much more powerful for short burst of activity, yet uses just 5w maximum total power, compared to the 15w of the chip used in the Air, and 28w in the 13" rMBP. It's a chip that provides much of the power of a full Intel chip, but using the power, and taking up the physical space of a tablet chip. It is what has allowed Apple to build this computer. The Air's 15w chip is Intel's standard ultrabook chip; for most manufacturer's it's the primary chip they use in their laptops. It's unlikely that Apple will stop producing laptops around it, but they may have decided that the extremely small advances that came with this iteration (Broadwell) were worth an entire re-design of the Air platform. Skylake, coming later this year, promises bigger advances that might make sense to base a new design around.

"Intel releases lower power CPU. Most of world yawns, Apple fans go berko."

Seriously, it's a roadmapped, incremental improvement.
 
"Intel releases lower power CPU. Most of world yawns, Apple fans go berko."

Seriously, it's a roadmapped, incremental improvement.

Oh geez. This category of chip is entirely new. The Surface Pro world (from which I actually am coming, as a Surface Pro and Surface Pro 3 owner who has no Apple laptops) is also excited about the possibilities this category offers because it's the first time there is a chip powerful enough to act as a primary computer in a fanless design with excellent battery life.

The fact that you and the rest of the world might not recognize this is of no consequence, so long as the people actually doing things like building products around it, do.
 
It uses the new Core M chip which is a brand new chip, in a brand-new category from Intel. It's effectively as fast as the higher-end chips that use much more powerful for short burst of activity, yet uses just 5w maximum total power, compared to the 15w of the chip used in the Air, and 28w in the 13" rMBP. It's a chip that provides much of the power of a full Intel chip, but using the power, and taking up the physical space of a tablet chip. It is what has allowed Apple to build this computer. The Air's 15w chip is Intel's standard ultrabook chip; for most manufacturer's it's the primary chip they use in their laptops. It's unlikely that Apple will stop producing laptops around it, but they may have decided that the extremely small advances that came with this iteration (Broadwell) were worth an entire re-design of the Air platform. Skylake, coming later this year, promises bigger advances that might make sense to base a new design around.

I would be more careful in your place praising the new Core-M chip. Have you tested it?
Nobody knows how will it perform. We will see on 10 April, 2015.
 
I would be more careful in your place praising the new Core-M chip. Have you tested it?
Nobody knows how will it perform. We will see on 10 April, 2015.

There are a handful of other devices out there that are already using these chips and have been benchmarked. Individually, people will have to decide, and maybe test for themselves whether it will work for them or not, but we understand generally what kind of workflow it has been designed for. Typical light-office short burst it's quite fast at. Any sustained cpu or gpu intensive calculations, it is not.
 
Not a great time to make a long time investment to a mac laptop.
Air with retina would be great. Not coming.
A laptop for visual things for next 5 years will be hindered if not having hdmi2.0 AND dp1.3 (with single stream transport support for 4k).
Before next mbp models we don't know if there's new version of TB coming this year or will there be dp1.3 by other connection...

If Apple would just have stamped their logo on this one and put osX inside:
http://www.asus.com/us/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/ASUS_ZENBOOK_UX303LN/
(Of course updated with this years tech...)
 
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