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Things change, deal with it. I've swapped USB cables to USB-C cables. Only USB drives, which i rarely use anymore require an adapter. Meanwhile, I can use all 4
by donkeyd 7y ago
Things change, deal with it. I've swapped USB cables to USB-C cables. Only USB drives, which i rarely use anymore require an adapter. Meanwhile, I can use all 4 ports to:
- Run a display
- Charge my laptop
- Charge a phone
- Connect a drive
I can even use a single port to both charge the laptop and run a screen with multiple USB devices attached to it.
I now need to daisy chain converters to use my PS/2 mouse on my MacBook Pro though, so that's a bit of a hassle.
Also, I can use the same charger and dongles for my work notebook, which is Windows based. I wish every new thing was USB-C, because I love it.
(This is a copy of a previous comment, because I feel it is relevant again.)
- dmix 7y agoYou can also use one USB-C to both charge your Macbook and drive a powerful 4k monitor plus a few extra USB-A ports on the back of the monitor. Being able to come to work and plug in a single cord and have it drive my mechanical keyboard, headphone amp, monitor, and power is pretty amazing IMO.
- jedberg 7y agoBut that would still be possible if they added a USB-A to the laptop.
- schwartzworld 7y agoOP never heard of a USB hub
- jedberg 7y agoI’ve never seen a USB-C hub that works consistently.
- jkestner 7y agoLike the original iMac eliminating SCSI, DIN-8 serial and ADB for USB-A, the point of removing old ports is to ensure support for the new ones. Local pain, long term gain. (Uh, once they sort out the many flavors using the USB-C form factor.)
- jedberg 7y agoAll of those ports were already on the decline because their replacements already existed and were better. Every one of those ports existed on a machine with its replacement at some point. Apple never made a machine with both USB-C and USB-A. They never allowed for a transition. Because of that, people aren’t moving forward because they are holding back upgrades.
- NikolaNovak 7y ago>>Being able to come to work and plug in a single cord and have it drive my mechanical keyboard, headphone amp, monitor, and power is pretty amazing IMO. Just imagine having a dock, and not needing to plug any cords :-) Also, like most things Apple removed (I'm looking at you, 3.5mm), how has the removal enabled your use case? To put it other way: you could have everything you outlined even if they had magsafe + USB-A but with removal of those things, we can't have things we want/need/desire, for no appreciable gain to you.
- dmix 7y agoAfter 4yrs of using USB-C I don't have any USB-A stuff besides a single microsd card reader for an DSLR camera. Otherwise I have no use for a USB-A. If I did I have two tiny adapters in my drawer... my office has a few of them if anyone needs them but I've never seen them used there either.
- llampx 7y agoSo you're saying you only need one USB-C port... whereas the Macbook Pro has 4 and not a single USB-A one.
- dmix 7y agoAt work I've only used one. At home I bought a 2 pack of USB-C to USB-A the size of a quarter and never had a problem... only because I don't want to buy a new SD-card reader. But now even my external harddrive is USB-C (and incredibly fast/tiny at that) I almost never use them. https://www.amazon.com/Upgraded-Basesailor-Compatible-Chargers-Standard/dp/B079LYHNSR/ https://www.amazon.com/Upgraded-Basesailor-Compatible-Charge... I really don't get what the big deal is. A $9 purchase which I now use less and less as more products adopt USB-c...
- NoodleIncident 7y agoI have this exact setup on the Thinkpad in front of me. It is great, and it's hilarious to see my phone's lockscreen pop up on the screen when I end up charging it with that cable. You know what else this laptop has? Two ports I don't recognize (thunderbolt and dock?) on the left, and on the right, two USB-A, ethernet, SD card reader, HDMI, and headphone jack. It's a false dichotomy to say that you can only get the one-port connection by throwing away all the other ports you might need.
- dmix 7y agoNo one made that dichotomy, idk who you guys are arguing against. If you don’t want Apple products cool. I personally have no need for Ethernet, sd card readers, and USB A 24/7. Like I said elsewhere this is a non problem for me. Obviously if it is for you you can buy a giant dell laptop with 20 ports.
- joshklein 7y agoI agree that it would be nice if everything were USB-C, including my 2019 iPhone XS, which I connect to my 2017 MBP with a third-party adapter.
- auggierose 7y agoYou could just use a lightning to usb-c Apple-cable instead ... No need for an adapter.
- joshklein 7y agoIf Apple had provided me the cables to connect the current generation of their two products to each other, I would use them.
- auggierose 7y agoIt seems that Apple's hand-holding doesn't go far enough for some customers :-)
- joshklein 7y agoI’m not sure you understand. Shouldn’t the people who want to plug their new iPhone into their new laptop be less inconvenienced when those products are all from Apple, not more inconvenienced? People with modern Thinkpads could use their iPhone out of the box while those with MBPs could not. If Apple can’t be bothered, what a strange thing to blame me for.
- auggierose 7y agoI don't blame anyone. I just find you amusing.
- heartbreak 7y agoThe current generation "Pro" line iPhones ship with lightning to USB C cables that connect to the current generation "Pro" line MacBooks.
- heavyset_go 7y ago> Things change, deal with it. Other companies have dealt with change better than Apple. For example, I can buy a professional tier laptop from Microsoft or Lenovo with plenty of USB ports, while Apple's reaction to change has been to ignore their professional users' use-cases.
- movedx 7y agoThen go and buy one of those laptops. Use what works for you. Just because you’re not a fan of it doesn’t mean it isn’t a solid solution for the rest of us. And the rest of us mostly like having change forced on us — it means we’re progressing forward instead of shouting at clouds for being in the way of the sun.
- heavyset_go 7y agoYou're repeating the OP's "deal with it" sentiment. I'm sharing how other companies have dealt with it, and offer similar professional tier laptops with more USB ports.
- movedx 7y agoSure. So buy those laptops? I'm not having a go at you directly, I'm having a go at the idea that it's constructive to even point out how a piece of hardware doesn't solve a problem for you and that there are others options. We know.
- heavyset_go 7y ago> I'm having a go at the idea that it's constructive to even point out how a piece of hardware doesn't solve a problem for you I'm going to have to disagree, the lack of USB ports doesn't solve a problem. It's just a limitation that doesn't affect you, but certainly affects other professionals and their ability to do their jobs efficiently.
- movedx 7y ago
- pentae 7y agoHaving 4 USB-C's is a bit like having 4 Ferraris. Sometimes you need something a bit more practical. People will still be using USB-A for the next 10 years. Having to use a dongle for USB-A on a 16" macbook is pretty ridiculous. There's still a billion USB-A accessories out there and will be for a long time. Apple jumped the gun in a major way. This wasn't like dropping the floppy disc or CD-rom drive considering how small the USB-A port is.
- pkulak 7y ago> People will still be using USB-A for the next 10 years. Possibly. But they'll be using it for the next 100 if no one ever removes it from anything.
- catalogia 7y agoIf people actually started using electronics for 100 years instead of throwing them out every few years, that would be fantastic. It would also be a very radical departure from the status quo and I don't think it a likely scenario, so rest easy I guess..
- chongli 7y agoWhile it may be fun to try to design something that lasts s hundred years and that people will want to use in a hundred years, who would want to sell it?
- jedberg 7y agoThe floppy drive died because a better option came out. If USB-C is truly better, than all new accessories would use it. There needs to be a transition period where everyone has USB-C and USB-A so that the peripherals can naturally move to the better technology. Right now I've never seed a good USB-C to USB-A converter. I work at a lot of conferences, and any time a speaker comes with a new MacBook and a USB adaptor, it's a disaster. They all suck.
- AdamN 7y ago
- TheOtherHobbes 7y agoIf you were Apple's only user, you might have a point. But you're not. Music professionals, video professionals, photographic professionals, and plenty of other professionals all have collections of USB peripherals which aren't going to be updated any time soon - either because there are no USB-C replacements, or because a complete replacement program might easily run to four figures, edging up to five for some users, and in extreme cases will be as high as six. Some of these people tour or travel a lot. Having to rely on dongles - which can be lost, or stolen, or which may stop working for random reasons - is very much not a good idea. Telling these professionals to "deal with it" is unhelpfully obtuse.
- wilg 7y agoI think this person was saying to replace the cables, not replace the peripherals or use dongles.
- donkeyd 7y agoYup. I DJ and use cameras all the time, so I'm not just a guy checking his Facebook. I swapped cables and have zero issues now. For every cable type there's now a USB-C equivalent for cheap on Amazon or Aliexpress. People just want to find something to complain about. Edit: Before anyone mentions that ‘now you need to bring cables’...When I DJ I always bring a bunch of spare cables anyway, because I don't what to rely on the location for providing me what I need. So I did this with my old mac too. Nothing changed except the type of cable.
- skavi 7y agomaybe they should be complaining to the peripheral manufacturers rather than Apple. USB C is better and a major player going all in is the only way to get the industry to switch.
- seandougall 7y agoSpeaking as one of those people, dongles don't bother me in the least. You're absolutely right that many peripherals are prohibitively expensive to update just for a connector, but they're also bulky and usually already involve lots of other cabling, so adding a dongle really doesn't make a big difference. Plus we're all used to having dongles just to hold license data anyway (thanks, Pro Tools), not to mention the menagerie of adapters that have been a way of life for decades in the audio world.
- schwartzworld 7y ago> Things change, deal with it Things do change, but change for the sake of change isn't a good thing. Meanwhile, I can use all 4 ports to: - Run a display With a dongle - Charge my laptop Did you need 4 ports to do this? How is this better than a magsafe connector? - Charge a phone Existing USB ports do this fine, and most charger cables have USB-A on one end. USB-C-USB-C cables are extremely limited in their use and are more expensive. - Connect a drive Again, no advantage over USB-A Apple has "solved" non-existent problems and in exchange they've created a whole new slew of problems. Why should I have to replace all my existing cables to work with a computer? It's because Apple is designing for slim cases above all else. (So slim and delicate that resting my hand on the case while typing causes random keypresses). I broke an early macbook screen by tripping over the charging cable. When they made the switch to magsafe cables it was to explicitly prevent this very common occurrence. They traded trip-proof laptops for the ability to plug your charger into 4 different ports. What possible advantage could that offer?
- servercobra 7y ago> Charge my laptop Did you need 4 ports to do this? How is this better than a magsafe connector? Being able to charge on either side is really, really nice. I miss MagSafe, sure, but this mostly makes up for it. I can also run my laptop off the ubiquitous USB-C battery packs now, which is glorious. USB-C-USB-C are going to be much more ubiquitous too, especially when the iPhone switches next cycle.
- tekknik 7y agoHere’s your magsafe solution, it took seconds to find: https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Charging-Compatible-Interface-Silver-2/dp/B07XL7PWV5/ref=mp_s_a_1_9?keywords=magnetic+usb-c+cable&qid=1573696331&sprefix=magnetic+usb-c&sr=8-9 https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Charging-Compatible-Interfac...
- schwartzworld 7y agoOh good, another attachment to buy.
- screye 7y ago> Things change, deal with it That argument can be used to explain away any problem. 4 usb ports are massively redundant. Even if someone loves usb-C having a usb-A port will add a lot of usability without compromising on anything else.
- codyb 7y agoI liked charging and connecting displays from both sides. What I didn’t like was that over three or four of the Apple USB-C to hdmi/usb-a/whatever the last one was (thunderbolt?) and one third party adapter I never found one that wasn’t super choppy with my input. So my Webcam would stutter, and my keyboard would suddenly repeating the same key 12 times (admittedly making for a pretty exciting experience with ViM). Very frustrating. It may have been my computer. Don’t think I’d heard of others with the same issues in my workplace. But really made working a PITA sometimes for me. Meanwhile my 2015 MBP did just fine with the same hub through switch setup, so it was most likely the USB C hardware driver in the Apple Laptop.
- pfranz 7y agoI think it's key you have 4 ports. I think the very small number of ports and requirement of dongles in order to get enough ports (and lack of USB-C hub) perpetuates USB. If you have 1 or 2 USB-C ports odds are you'll need a dongle. Since the only USB-C dongles don't multiply ports, it'll have multiple USB ports. If you had a lot of USB-C ports, you'd likely get adapters and switch to USB-C as you upgraded things. Now, unless you can switch to wireless, you basically have to replace it with a USB device.
- replete 7y ago> I now need to daisy chain converters to use my PS/2 mouse on my MacBook Pro though, so that's a bit of a hassle. Out of curiosity, what PS/2 mouse do you use?