4 ms·

It seems like there should be a design principle that the latest iPhone should always plug straight into the latest Macbook.

sliken 10y ago
And that a single set of earphones would work with both, especially since apple's so heavily into selling you music.
- CalChris 10y ago
  de minimis. I'd add that a MacBook Pro should be configurable for pros. This is really an expensive MacBook Air.
  - sosborn 10y ago
    Define "pros." I ask because the number of pros who can't use this machine seems incredibly narrow.
    - emp_zealoth 10y ago
      EDIT: I know that using a mac for what I'm describing is a goddamn joke, but you people are triggering me way to hard. World doesn't end on people writing text or working with 2D logos you know How about anyone in engineering? I mean real engineering not cobbling flavour of the month js together that you could do on a friggin i3 provided you get an ssd and you wouldn't know any difference. Try 3D CAD software with 3,5k parts, any rendering, anything that needs more than 16GB, how about an SD card slot? I've got a 10 inch e-reader with SD slot that I use to read/browse tons of things? People who need a proper mouse? How about an USB stick? Do I make literally everyone buy a shitty new Macbook so don't have to sit there for 15 minutes waiting for Wifi? I mean, it was early 2000's where I had to worry about fucking dongles and what-nots
      - sosborn 10y ago
        ok, mechanical engineers. What percentage of the market is that?
dlandis 10y ago
It's crazy to me that a company with so many designers in positions of leadership could miss something so obvious. I mean I know they were aware of the problem, but why wasn't there anyone with enough perspective and influence that could step back and call out how stupid it was?
abvdasker 10y ago
Ever since the iPod Steve Jobs's vision for products always put an emphasis on seamless integration between different offerings. Carrying around a set of adapters for these same-gen Apple products seems pretty contradictory to his original vision.
- tim333 10y ago
  If they'd just made the new pros with 3 usb C ports and one usb B then most of the connectivity headaches would have gone away. Also the 12" macbook could have had one usb C and one B. That's what I would have gone with.
  - basch 10y ago
    that wouldnt force peripheral companies to adapt, and youd own ten gadgets competing for one port.
  - stephenr 10y ago
    And then in 2 years time we have 1 less high speed usb-c port, when everything is using usb-c. Seriously, you're spending 2.5K on a laptop but $20 on an adapter for a device using a usb-a port is too much? This is just the typical Apple release bullshittery. No matter what they do, people want to complain for the sake of complaining.
    - tim333 10y ago
      Yeah but the vast majority of peripherals use usb-b. I solved the problem with the 12" Macbook by not buying it and sticking with my Air. My friend traded his Air in for the Macbook and hates that aspect of it - he has to get the adapter out all the time and tends to lose the things.
      - stephenr 10y ago
        Um, what? USB-B is a device-end port. It's the square port on your printer/scanner/etc type device. You probably mean USB-A, which is the rectangular one used by e.g. flash drives. Assuming that's what you meant: I don't care. People always harp on about how Apple does "planned obsolescence" to force hardware upgrades. Here they are, fully committing to cutting edge, amazingly versatile, backwards compatible, INDUSTRY STANDARD ports, meaning the MBP you buy in 2016 not only can use (via a relatively cheap new cable/adapter or a multi-device hub) any USB device released in the last 15 years, but also has a good chance of being future compatible with devices released for a good number of years, both low AND high speed. What is the response? Waaaaa I want to plug my old shit into my $2.5K laptop but $9 is going to break the bank. I have a 2011 MBP. It has 3x USB2, Firewire 800, Gig Ethernet and ONE freaking thunderbolt v1. Its still very usable, with one fucking exception. USB2 is slow as shit. Firewire drives have no adoption outside of Mac users, so they're not available everywhere, and when they are the price is ridiculous. If my MBP had 4 TB1 ports instead of all the legacy ports, yes I would have had to buy a couple of USB2 adapters back in the day, but I would be able to have multiple USB3 adapters now. The situation now is honestly the best scenario. Apple is embracing an industry standard and honestly the ones who aren't following it are the el-cheapo PC makers who are still shipping PS/2 and VGA ports.
ryaneager 10y ago
But they sell a lighting to USB-C cable so it does...
- scott_karana 10y ago
  It's optional and non obvious. I think it's completely plausible that someone would go to Apple.com, order a new phone and laptop, and then be surprised when they arrived...
closeparen 10y ago
I expect there's a long-term design principle that neither device should need to plug at all.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

sliken 10y ago

And that a single set of earphones would work with both, especially since apple's so heavily into selling you music.

CalChris 10y ago
de minimis. I'd add that a MacBook Pro should be configurable for pros. This is really an expensive MacBook Air.
- sosborn 10y ago
  Define "pros." I ask because the number of pros who can't use this machine seems incredibly narrow.
  - emp_zealoth 10y ago
    EDIT: I know that using a mac for what I'm describing is a goddamn joke, but you people are triggering me way to hard. World doesn't end on people writing text or working with 2D logos you know How about anyone in engineering? I mean real engineering not cobbling flavour of the month js together that you could do on a friggin i3 provided you get an ssd and you wouldn't know any difference. Try 3D CAD software with 3,5k parts, any rendering, anything that needs more than 16GB, how about an SD card slot? I've got a 10 inch e-reader with SD slot that I use to read/browse tons of things? People who need a proper mouse? How about an USB stick? Do I make literally everyone buy a shitty new Macbook so don't have to sit there for 15 minutes waiting for Wifi? I mean, it was early 2000's where I had to worry about fucking dongles and what-nots
    - sosborn 10y ago
      ok, mechanical engineers. What percentage of the market is that?

dlandis 10y ago

It's crazy to me that a company with so many designers in positions of leadership could miss something so obvious. I mean I know they were aware of the problem, but why wasn't there anyone with enough perspective and influence that could step back and call out how stupid it was?

abvdasker 10y ago

Ever since the iPod Steve Jobs's vision for products always put an emphasis on seamless integration between different offerings. Carrying around a set of adapters for these same-gen Apple products seems pretty contradictory to his original vision.

tim333 10y ago
If they'd just made the new pros with 3 usb C ports and one usb B then most of the connectivity headaches would have gone away. Also the 12" macbook could have had one usb C and one B. That's what I would have gone with.
- basch 10y ago
  that wouldnt force peripheral companies to adapt, and youd own ten gadgets competing for one port.
- stephenr 10y ago
  And then in 2 years time we have 1 less high speed usb-c port, when everything is using usb-c. Seriously, you're spending 2.5K on a laptop but $20 on an adapter for a device using a usb-a port is too much? This is just the typical Apple release bullshittery. No matter what they do, people want to complain for the sake of complaining.
  - tim333 10y ago
    Yeah but the vast majority of peripherals use usb-b. I solved the problem with the 12" Macbook by not buying it and sticking with my Air. My friend traded his Air in for the Macbook and hates that aspect of it - he has to get the adapter out all the time and tends to lose the things.
    - stephenr 10y ago
      Um, what? USB-B is a device-end port. It's the square port on your printer/scanner/etc type device. You probably mean USB-A, which is the rectangular one used by e.g. flash drives. Assuming that's what you meant: I don't care. People always harp on about how Apple does "planned obsolescence" to force hardware upgrades. Here they are, fully committing to cutting edge, amazingly versatile, backwards compatible, INDUSTRY STANDARD ports, meaning the MBP you buy in 2016 not only can use (via a relatively cheap new cable/adapter or a multi-device hub) any USB device released in the last 15 years, but also has a good chance of being future compatible with devices released for a good number of years, both low AND high speed. What is the response? Waaaaa I want to plug my old shit into my $2.5K laptop but $9 is going to break the bank. I have a 2011 MBP. It has 3x USB2, Firewire 800, Gig Ethernet and ONE freaking thunderbolt v1. Its still very usable, with one fucking exception. USB2 is slow as shit. Firewire drives have no adoption outside of Mac users, so they're not available everywhere, and when they are the price is ridiculous. If my MBP had 4 TB1 ports instead of all the legacy ports, yes I would have had to buy a couple of USB2 adapters back in the day, but I would be able to have multiple USB3 adapters now. The situation now is honestly the best scenario. Apple is embracing an industry standard and honestly the ones who aren't following it are the el-cheapo PC makers who are still shipping PS/2 and VGA ports.

ryaneager 10y ago

But they sell a lighting to USB-C cable so it does...

scott_karana 10y ago
It's optional and non obvious. I think it's completely plausible that someone would go to Apple.com, order a new phone and laptop, and then be surprised when they arrived...

closeparen 10y ago

I expect there's a long-term design principle that neither device should need to plug at all.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]