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This is a really baffling decision from Apple - normally they're very good about having tightly integrated ecosystems where everything just 'works' with everyth
by cfcf14 5y ago
This is a really baffling decision from Apple - normally they're very good about having tightly integrated ecosystems where everything just 'works' with everything else. That's kinda the entire value proposition in my eyes.
- wmeredith 5y ago> normally they're very good about having tightly integrated ecosystems where everything just 'works' with everything else As a long time Apple user (since the 90's), I feel like this hasn't been true in a while. The number one exhibit is the dongle-hell they've been putting their customers through for the last 5 years. I have a watch, phone, headphones, a computer, and a tablet by Apple. All were made in the last two years. I have to carry a handful of different cables and power adapters if I want to charge them all. It's a huge pain in the ass and is FAR from the definition of "just works".
- ascagnel_ 5y agoThey put out a $130 (!) charger that charges both phones (or anything else on Qi, including some of their wireless headphones) and watches[0], yet that uses their proprietary Lightning cable, not USB-C, so if you bring a tablet/laptop, you're still stuck needing to bring a second cable and possibly a second charger with you. [0] https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MHXF3AM/A/magsafe-duo-charger https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MHXF3AM/A/magsafe-duo-cha...
- CydeWeys 5y agoMeanwhile, over here in non-Apple land, I bring a single high wattage USB-C charger with me when I travel, which is sufficient to charge my laptop, phone, and headphones. Then I have tiny 1' USB-A bridge cables that I use to charge my other devices through my laptop (Kindle, battery pack, smartwatch). All pretty simple, all dirt cheap cables, no dongles.
- sangnoir 5y agoWhich is why Apple captures the most "profit share" and goes to extreme lengths to maintain "Apple families"[1] to dissuade compatibility/inter-op as much as possible. 1. As evidenced by Apple's internal arguments against iMessage on Android during the Epic hearings
- matwood 5y agoAnd in apple world, add a usbc->lightening cable and it's exactly the same. This whole dongle complaint has reached comic level proportions.
- matwood 5y agoI carry a dual usbc power brick, a usbc->usbc cable and a usbc -> lightening. This covers the MBP, iPad Pro, iPhone, APP. The watch is an odd one out so a special usbc->watch is required. This is true regardless of any other solution. Now if we go backwards to the old MagSafe era I had to carry a power solution just for the MBP alone. If I wanted to use it as the power hub (could also do the same above) I could carry a usba->lightening (assuming all the other devices were still lightening), and usba->watch. But what normally happened is I also brought additional charge bricks. I just don't see how 5 years ago was radically better than today. A couple devices still have lightening on one end /shrug. A cable with usbc on the other mostly hides that for now.
- slivanes 5y agoDon't you need to buy a cable/dongle to get an iPhone and Macbook connected? They've made a billion dollar market for dongles, imo unnecessarily.