6 ms·

Honestly, I've been working with the USB-C only MBP as my only development machine for a year now, and I haven't once wished it had a classic USB port on it. At

Honestly, I've been working with the USB-C only MBP as my only development machine for a year now, and I haven't once wished it had a classic USB port on it. At my desk it's plugged into monitors which have ports on them. Having a single cable for all my peripherals is quite nice.

bodas 8y ago
If it's meant to be used at a desk all the time why does it have to be thin and light?
- lclarkmichalek 8y ago
  Because I go to meetings and work from home sometimes. Only thing I'd use a standard USB for would be charging, which isn't really something I do in meetings, and I have plenty of chargers at home.
  - bodas 8y ago
    As someone who occasionally writes apps for iPhone I have to use the USB port all the damn time.
    - briandear 8y ago
      They make thunderbolt lightning cables.
      - photojosh 8y ago
        <nitpick>It's USB-C, not Thunderbolt. Same cable, different protocol.</nitpick>
        photojosh 8y ago
        And I'll nitpick myself, it's not the same cable either, just the same connector.
    - indemnity 8y ago
      Have you tried the WiFi running/debugging? Works pretty well for me.
      - jason_slack 8y ago
        Good point. I forget about Wifi running and debugging.
      - blhack 8y ago
        This is seriously where we're supposed to be for a pro laptop? It shouldn't work "pretty well" when you're using a $2000+ machine. It should work perfectly every single time. This is what built apple into the company it is. "pretty well" wasn't good enough. This sounds like the type of concession I would have made in 2005 on my gentoo laptop. "Yeah, USB doesn't work, but there is a workaround that sends that data over wifi! It even usually works!"
        wilsonnb2 8y ago
        Uhm, no, you're just supposed to spend the $19 on a USB C -> Lightning cable to connect them. The wifi thing is just convenient for many people. If it's not good enough or "pro enough" for you, there is still a cable that you can use. I don't really see the problem here. Assuming I buy the base model MacBook Pro and the cheapest iPhone 8, I've just spent $2000 dollars and I don't see how I can justify complaining that I need to spend an extra 1% on a cable to connect them.
        indemnity 8y ago
        It's not a workaround, it's an additional capability. Before they added this feature, a USB cable was the only way to do this, and it still works, and works reliably. If you have a USB-A connector on your Lightning cable, you'll need an adapter, if you have a USB-C connector, you won't. From the OP's complaint, he didn't like having to do this with USB, so I suggested the WiFi option to avoid cables. Maybe you read that as "the USB option does not work", which is not the case. WiFi depends on the quality of your WiFi network. Mine is rock solid, so "pretty well" is my engineer answer to cover the cases when AP is flakey, range is crap, etc.
  - manigandham 8y ago
    You didn't answer the question. It doesn't need to be so dysfunctionally thin and light to travel between work and home sometimes. Nobody is going to suffer from an extra pound of weight.
    - georgebarnett 8y ago
      He did answer the question, only with reasons that you don't seem to agree with. I also mostly use my MBP plugged in and yet still want my laptop to be as light and thin as possible for when I'm carrying it around during the day/commuting. An extra pound of weight makes a huge difference to me walking home.
      - manigandham 8y ago
        > An extra pound of weight makes a huge difference to me walking home. That's hard to believe. Are you walking 50 miles? How would you notice an extra pound? What about the rest of the stuff you carry, your clothes, your shoes? Is everything else already optimized? Why does the (likely) most expensive full-size computing device need to lose weight vs everything else, especially when it's infringing on the actual user experience of working with it?
        coldseattle 8y ago
        Not to mention the bag of adapters and hubs you need to function with a computer with just a single USB-C port.
        slow_donkey 8y ago
        Is it really that hard to believe that some people prefer to have a lighter laptop. My daily driver is thinkpad but I really appreciate my mbp when traveling or for conferences because it's much more portable and I can carry it with ease
        deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
- deleted 8y ago
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ataturk 8y ago
It's decent when your employer springs for a "dock" type devices that allows a single USBC hookup to the laptop, including power, which is the setup I had at my previous role. It sucks when you have to attach and detach a whole bunch of dongles each time you sit down at your desk, as with my current role. I could buy the dock thing myself I suppose, but then it's personal property I have to worry about and could disappear, etc.
EpicEng 8y ago
I see this so often it's becoming ridiculous. "pfft, it works fine as long as you use it less like a desktop!" We'll I can build a much more capable desktop for one third the price, so no thanks. If the intention is to use it as a desktop then why keep sacrificing function for fractions of a mm?
- derefr 8y ago
  The intention isn't to use it as a desktop. The intention is to not plug anything into the computer (other than the charging cable, sometime) except when using it as a desktop. Everything is wireless these days. Input devices, audio devices, networking. You basically only need a cable to charge the thing (with your USB-C charger), for mass storage (where most new mass-storage devices are USB-C devices as well, and if you have a well-used old one you can keep a dongle stuck to it), and for displays (at which point you are in a "docked" use-case, and so you can just use a USB-C dock or Thunderbolt-display-with-dock.) All other use-cases are so rare or esoteric that you can just put them off until you get home and to your desk. Or are you constantly balancing your laptop and a USB-only printer on your lap or something?
  - garmaine 8y ago
    Portable console via USB-A KVM switch. I often do find myself balancing a laptop next to a rack of servers.
  - llampx 8y ago
    So as soon as I get up from the desk I should stop using anything USB? Never connect to anything HDMI unless I'm at my own desk? I think that's preposterous. Not to mention, Apple wouldn't be selling very many dongles if this was really how most people used their laptops.
statictype 8y ago
Your monitor supports usb c and has ports on them? Do you feel this is a standard setup that more than 10% of the market have?
- lallysingh 8y ago
  The Mac's market share is roughly 10%. But in the high end, where all the profit is.
- lclarkmichalek 8y ago
  I use two Apple displays, which have thunderbolt I think? I use an adaptor for that anyway. No, I'm very lucky to be provided with good resources where I work.
imron 8y ago
> and I haven't once wished it had a classic USB port on it. While I haven't missed classic USB (thanks to a dongle with old USB slots) I have however wished I still had a magsafe power cord. It also doesn't help that the dongle I bought is a multi port one (ethernet, USB-A, HDMI and others) and for whatever reason, using it on battery noticably reduces battery life.

bodas 8y ago

If it's meant to be used at a desk all the time why does it have to be thin and light?

lclarkmichalek 8y ago
Because I go to meetings and work from home sometimes. Only thing I'd use a standard USB for would be charging, which isn't really something I do in meetings, and I have plenty of chargers at home.
- bodas 8y ago
  As someone who occasionally writes apps for iPhone I have to use the USB port all the damn time.
  - briandear 8y ago
    They make thunderbolt lightning cables.
    - photojosh 8y ago
      <nitpick>It's USB-C, not Thunderbolt. Same cable, different protocol.</nitpick>
      - photojosh 8y ago
        And I'll nitpick myself, it's not the same cable either, just the same connector.
  - indemnity 8y ago
    Have you tried the WiFi running/debugging? Works pretty well for me.
    - jason_slack 8y ago
      Good point. I forget about Wifi running and debugging.
    - blhack 8y ago
      This is seriously where we're supposed to be for a pro laptop? It shouldn't work "pretty well" when you're using a $2000+ machine. It should work perfectly every single time. This is what built apple into the company it is. "pretty well" wasn't good enough. This sounds like the type of concession I would have made in 2005 on my gentoo laptop. "Yeah, USB doesn't work, but there is a workaround that sends that data over wifi! It even usually works!"
      - wilsonnb2 8y ago
        Uhm, no, you're just supposed to spend the $19 on a USB C -> Lightning cable to connect them. The wifi thing is just convenient for many people. If it's not good enough or "pro enough" for you, there is still a cable that you can use. I don't really see the problem here. Assuming I buy the base model MacBook Pro and the cheapest iPhone 8, I've just spent $2000 dollars and I don't see how I can justify complaining that I need to spend an extra 1% on a cable to connect them.
      - indemnity 8y ago
        It's not a workaround, it's an additional capability. Before they added this feature, a USB cable was the only way to do this, and it still works, and works reliably. If you have a USB-A connector on your Lightning cable, you'll need an adapter, if you have a USB-C connector, you won't. From the OP's complaint, he didn't like having to do this with USB, so I suggested the WiFi option to avoid cables. Maybe you read that as "the USB option does not work", which is not the case. WiFi depends on the quality of your WiFi network. Mine is rock solid, so "pretty well" is my engineer answer to cover the cases when AP is flakey, range is crap, etc.
- manigandham 8y ago
  You didn't answer the question. It doesn't need to be so dysfunctionally thin and light to travel between work and home sometimes. Nobody is going to suffer from an extra pound of weight.
  - georgebarnett 8y ago
    He did answer the question, only with reasons that you don't seem to agree with. I also mostly use my MBP plugged in and yet still want my laptop to be as light and thin as possible for when I'm carrying it around during the day/commuting. An extra pound of weight makes a huge difference to me walking home.
    - manigandham 8y ago
      > An extra pound of weight makes a huge difference to me walking home. That's hard to believe. Are you walking 50 miles? How would you notice an extra pound? What about the rest of the stuff you carry, your clothes, your shoes? Is everything else already optimized? Why does the (likely) most expensive full-size computing device need to lose weight vs everything else, especially when it's infringing on the actual user experience of working with it?
      - coldseattle 8y ago
        Not to mention the bag of adapters and hubs you need to function with a computer with just a single USB-C port.
      - slow_donkey 8y ago
        Is it really that hard to believe that some people prefer to have a lighter laptop. My daily driver is thinkpad but I really appreciate my mbp when traveling or for conferences because it's much more portable and I can carry it with ease
        deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

ataturk 8y ago

It's decent when your employer springs for a "dock" type devices that allows a single USBC hookup to the laptop, including power, which is the setup I had at my previous role. It sucks when you have to attach and detach a whole bunch of dongles each time you sit down at your desk, as with my current role. I could buy the dock thing myself I suppose, but then it's personal property I have to worry about and could disappear, etc.

EpicEng 8y ago

I see this so often it's becoming ridiculous. "pfft, it works fine as long as you use it less like a desktop!" We'll I can build a much more capable desktop for one third the price, so no thanks. If the intention is to use it as a desktop then why keep sacrificing function for fractions of a mm?

derefr 8y ago
The intention isn't to use it as a desktop. The intention is to not plug anything into the computer (other than the charging cable, sometime) except when using it as a desktop. Everything is wireless these days. Input devices, audio devices, networking. You basically only need a cable to charge the thing (with your USB-C charger), for mass storage (where most new mass-storage devices are USB-C devices as well, and if you have a well-used old one you can keep a dongle stuck to it), and for displays (at which point you are in a "docked" use-case, and so you can just use a USB-C dock or Thunderbolt-display-with-dock.) All other use-cases are so rare or esoteric that you can just put them off until you get home and to your desk. Or are you constantly balancing your laptop and a USB-only printer on your lap or something?
- garmaine 8y ago
  Portable console via USB-A KVM switch. I often do find myself balancing a laptop next to a rack of servers.
- llampx 8y ago
  So as soon as I get up from the desk I should stop using anything USB? Never connect to anything HDMI unless I'm at my own desk? I think that's preposterous. Not to mention, Apple wouldn't be selling very many dongles if this was really how most people used their laptops.

statictype 8y ago

Your monitor supports usb c and has ports on them? Do you feel this is a standard setup that more than 10% of the market have?

lallysingh 8y ago
The Mac's market share is roughly 10%. But in the high end, where all the profit is.
lclarkmichalek 8y ago
I use two Apple displays, which have thunderbolt I think? I use an adaptor for that anyway. No, I'm very lucky to be provided with good resources where I work.

imron 8y ago

> and I haven't once wished it had a classic USB port on it. While I haven't missed classic USB (thanks to a dongle with old USB slots) I have however wished I still had a magsafe power cord. It also doesn't help that the dongle I bought is a multi port one (ethernet, USB-A, HDMI and others) and for whatever reason, using it on battery noticably reduces battery life.