11 ms·
It may not be the ports you want but 4x Thunderbolt/USB-C connectors is not exactly "no ports".
by dasmoth 10y ago
It may not be the ports you want but 4x Thunderbolt/USB-C connectors is not exactly "no ports".
- ynniv 10y agoNo HDMI. No miniDP. No ethernet. No SDHC reader. No USB port that 100 out of 100 keyboards and mice will plug into. No audio input port. There are no^H^H only useless ports.
- aianus 10y ago> No USB port that 100 out of 100 keyboards and mice will plug into I haven't had a non-bluetooth input device since 2009.
- untog 10y agoWe're not all you. I strongly prefer USB devices because I don't have to care about battery charging and pairing. It just works.
- aianus 10y agoClearly Apple believes there are more people like me (with bluetooth cars, headphones, keyboards, and trackpads) than people like you. Anyways, his "100 out of 100" comment is comically wrong.
- untog 10y agoNo, Apple believes there are more people willing to convert to being like you, and buy all new devices. Not that there are today. And they're welcome to do so, but they're pushing consumers like me away from their products.
- hota_mazi 10y agoThey might believe it but their world market share in the personal computer space being around 5% clearly shows they're wrong.
- paradite 10y agoThe USB standard has evolved along the way. It is ironic that you "prefer USB" devices but fails to show support for USB-C ports. (Edited to be less personal)
- untog 10y agoOh, come on. I don't "support" anything, being a fanboy of a peripheral plug variant is a life I don't even want to contemplate. I'm very happy to adapt to new things, when they offer a demonstrable benefit to me. What benefit does a USB-C keyboard give me, exactly? I don't need the extra bandwidth to transmit keypresses. Why not include one or two traditional USB3 ports alongside the USB-C ports to ease people over to a new standard?
- anonymfus 10y ago>What benefit does a USB-C keyboard give me, exactly? That you can connect it to phones with USB-C without any dongles. Almost all new phones have USB-C. Except one from Apple.
- untog 10y ago...why on earth would I want to connect my full-size PC keyboard to my phone?
- AtheistOfFail 10y ago/u/MechanicalKeyboards would like a word with you.
- paradite 10y ago> I'm very happy to adapt to new things, when they offer a demonstrable benefit to me. It takes time before you can see the demonstrable benefit. For starter - USB-C solves the which side to plug in issue - It's a unified charging port besides data transfer (one charging cable for all devices in the future) - It's also a unified display port (one display cable for all devices in the future)
- awj 10y ago> We're not all you. Which, apparently, is only an acceptable response if you're criticizing the decision to remove ports. I have literally no need for a 3 1/2 floppy these days, but I'm sure not everyone "is me". Should that be a standard adapter as well?
- Chos89 10y agoNo, because the floppy is on 1% devices and the usb is on 99,99%, not really a fair comparison
- jhildings 10y agoMight be a OK solution if it was not that OSX continuously losing Bluetooth connection, the mouse paring when switching mouse is buggy or you want to play computer games at all.
- bdcravens 10y agoMany developers use mechanical keyboards - I haven't seen any with Bluetooth (typing this on a Das Keyboard Ultimate)
- ascagnel_ 10y agoThey do exist! I occasionally use a Varmilo VB87M that connects via BT and charges an internal battery with micro-USB.
- nerfhammer 10y agoThere's no reason for this. The switches in a mechanical kb aren't electrically any different than those in a membrane kb. Not that I'm seriously suggesting it, but it occurs to me that you should be able to make something with an Arduino to make any kb bluetooth.
- majewsky 10y agoThe point is that they're mechanically different, not electrically.
- nerfhammer 10y agomechanical difference has nothing to do with their wirelessness or lack thereof
- bergie 10y agoI use the Filco Minila Air. Bluetooth keyboard with all the different cherry switches available.
- skMed 10y agoNot a knock here since I know this is not a majority case, but for marginally quick typists, I would say these wireless/bt keyboards are useless. Input lag is dreadful.
- threeseed 10y ago
- crooked-v 10y agoI despise bluetooth keyboards because they always disconnect at the wrong time. Now, I do stick with wireless keyboards in general, but that's because the proprietary Logitech dongle has never failed me in years. If Apple can ever make a Bluetooth keyboard that "just works" in the sort of way they're advertising their upcoming AirPods will, including working properly during the boot menu and every time I restart into Windows, then I might reconsider it.
- mynameisvlad 10y agoWhat dasmoth is saying is that there are 4 ports, but they may not be the ports you want.
- masklinn 10y agoThey're literally all the ports, currently with adapters, eventually likely out of the box (except for ethernet I guess).
- thesimon 10y ago> They're literally all the ports, currently with adapters, If a notebook has got a HDMI port would you say it has a DVI port, because all you need is an adapter? > eventually likely out of the box Nope, only power cable and charger in the box.
- an_account 10y agoBy "out of the box" I think he meant periferals with USB-C cables, no adapter required.
- f_allwein 10y agoit does have an HDMI port, and a SDXC slot.
- stemuk 10y agoAs far as I got it there is one audiojack on the right, or am I mistaken?
- KingMob 10y agoYes. At least Apple didn't "obsolete" my $300 headphones, or I would definitely be getting a Linux/Windows box for my next laptop.
- mark-r 10y agoIf you have $300 headphones you should probably look into an outboard D/A converter anyway.
- UVB-76 10y agoAny word yet on whether it still has Mini Toslink support?
- bdcravens 10y agoApple's answer is adapters, ala headphone jack on iPhone 7. Probably not a good answer, but that's the party line it seems.
- maxxxxx 10y agoNow that's super "elegant". You have a very clean device and a big bag with adapters.
- eropple 10y agoI don't think this is going to really be a thing, aside from fairly specialized use cases. Some devices with integrated cables are going to require adapters (and, fortunately, an A->C adapter is tiny, or carry one of those Anker 4-port USB hubs that's the size of a pack of gum), but I'll just buy new five-dollar cables for my type-B devices and not really care too much about it. Having to re-buy all of them is a drag, I am totally not saying that doesn't suck, but I'm not worried about having a bag full of them.
- imtringued 10y agoAt some point we have to agree on a standard railway gauge. The transitioning phase will be painful but the advantages are worth the switch.
- robotresearcher 10y agoThunderbolt is a multiplexed port. Typically, you plug it into your big screen. The external keyboard, mouse and speakers are attached to the big screen. Now your MBP charges from that cable too. No need to tell me that your use case is slightly different. You can't please everybody. Edit: I just discovered that the LG screen Apple is selling as a proposed match for their new laptops does NOT have legacy ports on the back, but just more USB-C ports. This seems very dumb. I don't want three $39 dongles on the back of my screen.
- GVIrish 10y agoYeah so now you have to carry some sort of multi-adapter in addition to your ultra clean laptop. > It also doesn't have a floppy drive or an IBM serial port. So how long do you think until cameras stop requiring a SD card? How long until most peripherals go to USB-C? Any way you slice it, for the next 3-5 years people are going to need to carry around a dongle (or dongles) with their Macbook. Not the worst thing in the world, but certainly doesn't make the user's life appreciably better.
- robotresearcher 10y agoEdit: removed sarcastic response to a comment about a different use-case. Too late to delete.
- GVIrish 10y agoSure you can't please everybody. But you can certainly displease most of the people who buy your products. Not saying the ports is a dealbreaker, just that it makes things more inconvenient for probably the majority of users, with little offsetting benefit.
- jsz0 10y agoAdapters and dongles are pretty much unavoidable these days. There are simply too many semi-modern ports still in use for each type to be included on a laptop to cover everyone's needs. It makes sense to move towards modern ports that provide more functionality and better backwards compatibility via adapters. In that sense I'd argue they do make people's lives better because it's a solution to almost every potential problem. Back in the USB2 era it was simply impossible to connect many devices to a laptop. Now we have multi-function ports that can accommodate multiple external PCI-E enclosures.
- Bud 10y agoWrong all around. Thunderbolt is a superset of HDMI. Thunderbolt is ALSO a superset of miniDP. Mac laptops haven't had Ethernet for many, many years, except via the Thunderbolt or USB adapters, both of which will still be possible on this machine, too. Yes, the SD card reader was left out. Wrong on USB ports; it's absurd to suggest that "100 out of 100" keyboards and mice plug into USB-A. Most such products these days are, in fact, wireless, and those which aren't can simply use a very very cheap USB-A to USB-C adapter.
- EugeneOZ 10y agoand lack of ethernet port was never an "awesome feature", but reason for jokes about adapters for "just $99".
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- PhantomGremlin 10y agoMac laptops haven't had Ethernet for many, many years That's true, but only if by "many years" you really meant "yesterday". The following laptop was still available for order from Apple's website until yesterday's announcements: http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook-pro-core-i5-2.5-13-mid-2012-unibody-usb3-specs.html http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macb... Connectivity includes AirPort Extreme (802.11a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0, Gigabit Ethernet, a Firewire "800" port, two USB 3.0 ports, a "Thunderbolt" port, audio in/out, and an SDXC card slot.
- jeeva 10y agoJust to point out that assuming "most wireless HID devices are Bluetooth" is likely incorrect - a huge amount of the devices I see come with a dongle of some kind, that plugs into... (you guessed it) USB A sockets.
- Bud 10y agoYou are mis-quoting me. I didn't say Bluetooth. I said wireless. That includes the stupid dongle-antennas.
- pkulak 10y agoHDMI, miniDP and SD ports should never be present on a "pro" machine of any kind. "Pro" doesn't mean "more". Sometimes it means less. Like fleet cars that don't have cruise control. You don't need cruise when your job is driving around the city and you shouldn't need a SD card slot for any job that's not photography.
- cptskippy 10y ago3D Printers typically have SD or MicroSD slots for uploading STLs for unattended printing. Most electronic music equipment like keyboards, synths or sampler pads have SD/MicroSD as well. Hell a lot of shop tools like CNC mills and welders have SD Card slots. Don't most Action Cameras use SD or MicroSD? Most professional grade video cameras will record simultaneously to multiple media formats and one of those is always an SD Card. Anyone tinkering with a Raspberry Pi is going to need an SD reader too. If you're doing any data logging with embedded micro controllers then you're probably using SD or MicroSD as well.
- heartbreak 10y agoAnd if your job is photography, you're not using SD.
- robhu 10y agoWhat do you mean? A lot of cameras today use SD cards, e.g. Nikon D810 / D500.
- rbritton 10y agoProbably CF cards. Most pro-level cameras have that as the primary card slot with some also offering a secondary card slot that is SD. Our cameras all do. The standard slot on regular cameras tends to be SD, though.
- toyg 10y agoMy professional photographer friend will be mightily pissed off by the loss of SD slots. Every dongle is a bit more gear he has to drag around the city while shooting. My professional radio guy will be mightily pissed off at losing HDMI. Or rather would be, if he were still bound to the Apple ecosystem - he left it several years ago, never to return, because the price/performance ratio on their desktops went down the toilet when they stopped making user-upgradeable "cheesegraters". Apple has gradually abandoned the Pro market. I thought they were simply trying to move everyone to laptops, but now I can see that they really have no use for non-iDevices.
- oatmealsnap 10y agoWouldn't you want to rely on an professional external DAC and transfer the audio to your computer digitally instead of having an audio-in port?
- ynniv 10y agoI didn't want to call it a mic port for just that reason: it also accepted lossless digital audio.
- FireBeyond 10y agoAnd only $39 a pop for USB-C Lightning cables. That's some balls, Apple.
- Casseres 10y ago>And only $39 a pop for USB-C Lightning cables. >That's some balls, Apple. No, that's courage. /s Although I'm surprised they left the headphone jack if removing it is supposed to be "the future". There seems to be some discontinuity between the Macbook and iPhone lines.
- organsnyder 10y ago> There seems to be some discontinuity between the Macbook and iPhone lines. I'm amused that I'll be able to charge my Nexus 6P with my Macbook Pro charger (unless Apple really screws something up), but my colleague won't be able to charge his iPhone.
- Casseres 10y agoReal courage would be to admit that USB-C is better than Lightening, and to switch their new iPhones to USB-C.
- AtheistOfFail 10y agoBut you can't charge licensing fees on that. The issue is that Apple is making you a third party customer while they rake in cash from selling a non-standard connector. Reminds me of Firewire, it should die quickly.
- clintonb 10y agoFireWire had higher bandwidth than USB 1.0/1.1. USB 2.0 had higher bandwidth (480 Mbps) in bursts. FireWire (due to the dedicated hardware) could sustain 400 Mbps transfers. The use of FireWire on the first iPods and DV cameras was a good choice.
- goerz 10y agoI find the lack of at least one legacy USB port extremely worrying. Will the following work with a USB to Firewire/USB-C dongle? * boot from USB (bootable CarbonCopyCloner backup) * Yubikey (government issued, so I can't easily get an updated key) * Kensington R800 presenter (supposedly, it's "just a USB keyboard", but I've had it not work via Bluetooth dongle or with the USB to Lightning dongle for the iPad, even though regular USB keyboards work)
- imtringued 10y agoUSB C is just the form factor. USB 3.1 Gen 2 is commonly supported by USB C ports. USB 3.1 Gen 2 is backwards compatible with USB 3.0/3.1 and 2.0 but not USB 1.0/1.1. You may need an active adapter or hub from 2.0 to 1.1 instead of just a passive cable.