Wait for Next Years 2018 MacBook Pro Update if You Can

[turbineseaplane]

What will he do once they are all USB-C? What if they were just DVI? I give talks, lectures, and seminars at university and it never fails that I get dinged with not having DVI or VGA or something - even when using my 2015 15” Pro. It’s far superior for everybody to use the same best port or preferably wireless.

I still don't understand your point.
He said he goes into conference rooms that always have HDMI and thus he misses that built in port.

Why are you mentioning wireless?

I don't even see how it's related.
He has no control over what's there and uses what they have...HDMI in this case.

 

[ibivibiv]

"he" won't have to worry about that for a very long time. In reality, I don't see the AV industry falling all over themselves to add USB-C as their standard interface just so the Apple Laptops will work. Removing the defacto standard for video at this moment with no clear vision for supporting USB-C was just a bad, bad move. I really wonder who let that slip.
[doublepost=1508900631][/doublepost]Also, it would be fine if they used Apple TV's for wireless. Unfortunately half the time it is some goofy http based thing that doesn't work and the thing that always works is hdmi. Oh but wait, you have to have a dongle. Does anybody have a dongle?

 

[vxh.viet]

With all due respect, Apple TV for wireless is an unreliable solution. We have one unit in our office and the damn thing is only good for streaming Spotify. Every time people try to do their presentation it comes up with issue.

Unless there's a standard wireless solution for these problems that every manufacturer actually follow which I highly doubt Apple will ever do, then the "wireless" is just another HDMI, VGA, DVI situation in a different form.

At least for now, we know for sure HDMI works consistently for multiple devices, not just Apple's.

 

[ibivibiv]

With all due respect, Apple TV for wireless is an unreliable solution. We have one unit in our office and the damn thing is only good for streaming Spotify. Every time people try to do their presentation it comes up with issue.

Unless there's a standard wireless solution for these problems that every manufacturer actually follow which I highly doubt Apple will ever do, then the "wireless" is just another HDMI, VGA, DVI situation in a different form.

At least for now, we know for sure HDMI works consistently for multiple devices, not just Apple's.

Exactly, so unless you want to play "who has the dongle", HDMI is the thing to have for the next 3-5 years at the very least. Thanks Apple for being so....."courageous".

 

[Chancha]

HDMI is there to stay for the entire generation of UHD 4k blu-rays, 4k TVs, and 4k projectors that are coming which are more cinema targetted than conference rooms nowadays. All devices that are intended to be in that chain is having a HDMI2.0 port, and guess what, the Apple TV 4k does too.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

Stupid question but why not try a dongle for hdmi? Is that not supported in the current version of the MacBook Pro?

 

[vxh.viet]

It's supported but people just loathe the idea of carrying additional dongle for these not-yet-obsolete, still-very-relevant port(s). Plus there're some reported issues with devices plugging via dongle instead of directly into the native ports which can be quite limited for the non TouchBar model.

read this or digging around the forum you will find plenty of post regarding that issue.

I wholeheartedly agree with the writer, throughout the history of technology, one can always dream of but will never achieve the unified standard to do anything. And it's understandable. The greed and the profit for the manufacturer to lock their customer in is too great for them to do otherwise. One port/ one way to do everything does look very nice as a marketing tag line, but sadly, will never come true 🙁

 

[Freyqq]

"he" won't have to worry about that for a very long time. In reality, I don't see the AV industry falling all over themselves to add USB-C as their standard interface just so the Apple Laptops will work. Removing the defacto standard for video at this moment with no clear vision for supporting USB-C was just a bad, bad move. I really wonder who let that slip.
[doublepost=1508900631][/doublepost]Also, it would be fine if they used Apple TV's for wireless. Unfortunately half the time it is some goofy http based thing that doesn't work and the thing that always works is hdmi. Oh but wait, you have to have a dongle. Does anybody have a dongle?

USB C is not going to replace those ports for a long time because it has no backwards compatibility. No one sells a converter from HDMI -> USB C, only USB C -> HDMI.

 

[The Mercurian]

What will he do once they are all USB-C? What if they were just DVI? I give talks, lectures, and seminars at university and it never fails that I get dinged with not having DVI or VGA or something - even when using my 2015 15” Pro. It’s far superior for everybody to use the same best port or preferably wireless.

The thing is though - nobody updates a projector year on year. Maybe every 5 or 10 years. So if projector manufacturers started using USB-C tomorrow - it would be 5 or 10 years before they are common in conference rooms. You cannot rely on wireless when travelling either.

 

[turbineseaplane]

C'mon Apple - There's room on the 15" to put a couple useful items back on there.

 

[tkermit]

C'mon Apple - There's room on the 15" to put a couple useful items back on there.

There's still room to further increase the size of the trackpad, making it spill over the edge to create an infinity effect...



This what you had in mind?

 

[turbineseaplane]

There's still room to further increase the size of the trackpad, making it spill over the edge to create an infinity effect...

View attachment 727285

This what you had in mind?

It's only half a joke honestly - I could completely see them doing that..

 

[ibivibiv]

or the day when there are NO ports and you have to buy a battery powered "wireless dongle hub". I love looking to the future but in certain instances, it just isn't practical. Like this gripe, I have with the HDMI port. I just don't get the benefit it gives me to not have the defacto standard for monitors, tvs, and projectors for the foreseeable future?

 

[turbineseaplane]

I just don't get the benefit it gives me to not have the defacto standard for monitors, tvs, and projectors for the foreseeable future?

There is no benefit to it.

For some strange reason some users on the forum just insist on defending basically any change Apple makes.

They went too far, too soon, on some of the port removal, at least on the Pro models and certainly on the 15" models where there is ample room and that no doubt skews a bit towards a user base that would benefit immensely from a few of those convenient connections being built in still.

 

[ibivibiv]

I would say that Apple has really gotten themselves a bad bit of PR. In those same conference rooms, when you can't plug your laptop into the HDMI, everyone universally starts hating on Apple for not having that one simple port. The others you can argue back and forth on, but that one port gets some serious bad airtime for them in the business world.

 

[spacebro]

I would say that Apple has really gotten themselves a bad bit of PR. In those same conference rooms, when you can't plug your laptop into the HDMI, everyone universally starts hating on Apple for not having that one simple port. The others you can argue back and forth on, but that one port gets some serious bad airtime for them in the business world.

I wonder how many more years mac owners have to wait for usb-c to replace HDMI. It feels like we just now upgraded all the vga cables to hdmi. I don't think the port takes up that much room in the old MacBook, and the electronics support it anyway so it seems dumb to me for them to leave the port out.

 

[vxh.viet]

I wonder how many more years mac owners have to wait for usb-c to replace HDMI. It feels like we just now upgraded all the vga cables to hdmi. I don't think the port takes up that much room in the old MacBook, and the electronics support it anyway so it seems dumb to me for them to leave the port out.

And the SD card slot, sure people can plug in a dongle but it's really a hassle. No matter if the hub/dongle is attached directly or via a cable, you will sure have to detach/ attach every time you put it in the bag. Having a SD card slot is really that much convenient. I don't see how the camera industry will change to cloud storage or ultra speed wireless transfer or whatever-the-hell-it-is anytime soon.

By terminating the SD card slot and HDMI we can see Apple no longer target their Macbook Pro toward businessmen/ photographer/ pro users anymore.

 

[New_Mac_Smell]

And the SD card slot, sure people can plug in a dongle but it's really a hassle. No matter if the hub/dongle is attached directly or via a cable, you will sure have to detach/ attach every time you put it in the bag. Having a SD card slot is really that much convenient. I don't see how the camera industry will change to cloud storage or ultra speed wireless transfer or whatever-the-hell-it-is anytime soon.

By terminating the SD card slot and HDMI we can see Apple no longer target their Macbook Pro toward businessmen/ photographer/ pro users anymore.

New Sony camera has USB-C, SD was never a 'Pro' card - more for casual consumers. Useful in a laptop but not exactly a 'Pro' feature to begin with. Cameras have also been using WiFi transfer for many years now, pretty sure even low level amateur cameras come with WiFi these days.

HDMI was made for TVs, DP was made for computers. HDMI lacks cable retention and included DRM which is what made it an odd choice for computers, only reason it's there is for some kind of standardisation as it's basically the same technology just different ports - which is where USB-C is quite useful as it combines all these different technologies into a single port.

People seem to miss the point of USB-C, it's just a single port. So you don't need to upgrade your 30 year old VGA to a DP, and then a mini-DP, and then an HDMI every few years as the port technology adapts. This always resulted in defunct ports on your computer and requiring dongles or adapters to make use of new technology. With USB-C you can just get a new cable and still make full use of the ports on your computer, meaning it will last for longer and isn't as prone to obsolescence as previous models. Short term yes you loose an immediate port, long term you gain any port you want.

 

[ibivibiv]

I wonder how many more years mac owners have to wait for usb-c to replace HDMI. It feels like we just now upgraded all the vga cables to hdmi. I don't think the port takes up that much room in the old MacBook, and the electronics support it anyway so it seems dumb to me for them to leave the port out.

You are assuming the AV industry will bother to move to that port standard at all. Right now they support HDMI, Display port and a few DVI's running around in addition to rca. I don't expect them to all suddenly be clamouring to add yet another port just to accommodate Apple's "courage". They don't hold the sway in that space they do in mobile devices.
[doublepost=1508990611][/doublepost]

New Sony camera has USB-C, SD was never a 'Pro' card - more for casual consumers. Useful in a laptop but not exactly a 'Pro' feature to begin with. Cameras have also been using WiFi transfer for many years now, pretty sure even low level amateur cameras come with WiFi these days.

HDMI was made for TVs, DP was made for computers. HDMI lacks cable retention and included DRM which is what made it an odd choice for computers, only reason it's there is for some kind of standardisation as it's basically the same technology just different ports - which is where USB-C is quite useful as it combines all these different technologies into a single port.

People seem to miss the point of USB-C, it's just a single port. So you don't need to upgrade your 30 year old VGA to a DP, and then a mini-DP, and then an HDMI every few years as the port technology adapts. This always resulted in defunct ports on your computer and requiring dongles or adapters to make use of new technology. With USB-C you can just get a new cable and still make full use of the ports on your computer, meaning it will last for longer and isn't as prone to obsolescence as previous models. Short term yes you loose an immediate port, long term you gain any port you want.

2 assumptions here: the AV industry bothers to adopt that port, and also that the USB-C somehow doesn't become defunct ala 30 pin or any other port Apple has backed as well. Ports become defunct no matter what they are. The point here is replacing a universally current and foreseeable future gen port with one no one uses for this purpose and doesn't seem to be adding for this purpose. Take your example of VGA. Imagine at the peak of its use suddenly Apple replaced it with USB-A port, a port that barely anyone used for video ever at the time or after. That is closer to an example than anything else I can think of. It is a head scratcher entirely.

 

[Apple Fritter]

Short term yes you loose an immediate port, long term you gain any port you want.

If it'd just work that way. By the time USB-C is the gold standard interface from lawn mowers to toasters, Apple will jump to USB-Y 18.7, because it's the future. So you'll be carrying dongles for as long as you work with MacBooks.

Of course, you get to dump your dozen dongles @ $90/ea. every time Tim has enother courage episode.

Smart move for Apple since the phone hype will eventually go the way of the dodo and even though they drove away all other customers, they can still keep their company running on producing dongles at the same revenue level. Yay.

 

[New_Mac_Smell]

If it'd just work that way. By the time USB-C is the gold standard interface from lawn mowers to toasters, Apple will jump to USB-Y 18.7, because it's the future. So you'll be carrying dongles for as long as you work with MacBooks.

Of course, you get to dump your dozen dongles @ $90/ea. every time Tim has enother courage episode.

Smart move for Apple since the phone hype will eventually go the way of the dodo and even though they drove away all other customers, they can still keep their company running on producing dongles at the same revenue level. Yay.

Except USB was a data protocol, later used for greater power delivery (USB-A/B/2/3/SS/Micro/Mini...). HDMI is a video/audio format, used for high bandwidth (VGA/HDMI/mHDMI...). DP is for video. 3.5mm/Tosslink is for audio. All separate and growing in their own way. USB-C combines all of these into a single port so you only need one port, the other end can be any of these with ease, which you can't do with various adapters and such without extra costly electronics transcoding signals and formats.

I dunno, I get the feeling people in this thread just want to seek problems and hate. Glass half empty kind of attitude. Dongles/Cables have always existed and likely will, now you just don't need to keep replacing cables or buying adapters each time something new comes out as it can have USB-C, both ends can have USB-C if needs be. Couldn't do that with other ports.

Not going to say anymore, not trying to convince as could care less just don't understand the negativity towards progression alongside the same cries that Apple don't innovate and are slow to adapt. It's like talking to flat-earthers at this stage.

 

[mcpryon2]

The whole adapter thing doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me. I like having 4 ports that can pull multiple duty. It's nice being able to easily use two external monitors when I'm on the road editing. The keyboard problems I've had are my biggest issue. My 2017 top case that was replaced on my 2016 15" has been an improvement, but I still don't care for the keyboard.

Adapters and converters for cameras, switchers, and computers are just things we deal with and I would never expect to have seen a BNC or XLR connector, P2 card slot, or even a compact flash slot built into a laptop. We've been using interfaces and adapters for those for years. The express card port was nice on the old 17" but from what I saw a lot of people didn't use it. Maybe multi-function ports don't belong on the new MBPs in the overall scheme of things, but I like them.

The ones that piss me off a little are true dongles, like the ilok. I hate wasting a port (on any computer) so I can use Pro Tools.

We just deal with it and do the job.

 

[Apple Fritter]

Except USB was a data protocol, later used for greater power delivery (USB-A/B/2/3/SS/Micro/Mini...). HDMI is a video/audio format, used for high bandwidth (VGA/HDMI/mHDMI...). DP is for video. 3.5mm/Tosslink is for audio. All separate and growing in their own way. USB-C combines all of these into a single port so you only need one port, the other end can be any of these with ease, which you can't do with various adapters and such without extra costly electronics transcoding signals and formats.

TL;DR. Fact is, the next USB-XYZ will offer even more courage and allow you to own various other adapters and such at $90 a pop.

I dunno, I get the feeling people in this thread just want to seek problems and hate. Glass half empty kind of attitude. Dongles/Cables have always existed and likely will, now you just don't need to keep replacing cables or buying adapters each time something new comes out as it can have USB-C, both ends can have USB-C if needs be. Couldn't do that with other ports.

I'd love to see you nod appreciatively while somebody takes away things you need / have grown accustomed to. Not to mention that everything is working fine as it is. But yeah, let's fix what ain't broke, what the hell.

On a side note, the last great innovations before USB-C (TB1&2) were also so courageous that I have yet to plug in the first device before they corrode.

It's not like technical evolution would have come to a screeching halt if they'd just slapped two USB-C/TB3 on one side and 1 each USB-A / HDMI / SD on the other.

Not going to say anymore, not trying to convince as could care less just don't understand the negativity towards progression alongside the same cries that Apple don't innovate and are slow to adapt. It's like talking to flat-earthers at this stage.

Right… 🙄

 

[tkermit]

It's not like technical evolution would have come to a screeching halt if they'd just slapped two USB-C/TB3 on one side and 1 each USB-A / HDMI / SD on the other.

Agreed. It does seem like users could have had their cake and eaten it, too. I for one am also growing increasingly weary of seemingly having to accommodate Apple's desires where it should be the other way around.

 

[vxh.viet]

New Sony camera has USB-C, SD was never a 'Pro' card - more for casual consumers. Useful in a laptop but not exactly a 'Pro' feature to begin with. Cameras have also been using WiFi transfer for many years now, pretty sure even low level amateur cameras come with WiFi these days.

Only if the wifi transfer is reliable, doesn't crawl like snail and doesn't chew through battery like candy. Every time I see people say SD card slot being a "non-pro" feature I laugh a little. Heck, we are not arguing over the "Pro/ Non pro" title. One can be as much of a pro or non-pro for all I care. The thing I got problem with, even you said it your self, is it's useful in a laptop. So why would one remove a useful feature for absolutely no legitimate reason at all?