6 ms·

Think about it. Eighty dollars just to get less than you had before (with the 11-inch Air). And you're already paying the Apple tax, plus that ugly adapter defe

Think about it. Eighty dollars just to get less than you had before (with the 11-inch Air). And you're already paying the Apple tax, plus that ugly adapter defeats the purpose of the whole making-it-pretty thing. All in the pursuit of a few millimeters.

lazyjones 12y ago
> Think about it. Eighty dollars just to get less than you had before (with the 11-inch Air) or: $70-odd additional margin for Apple that people will be happy to pay once they notice they need it regularly. Clever.
zanny 12y ago
I easily expect monitors to start supporting Type C input, where they feed the host machine power and do USB passthrough to a classic USB interface hub with maybe a daisychained type C port on there as well. Its temporary. In five years everything will have these ports and adapters will not be necessary. In the same way today you can get a DP to VGA adapter instead of having a bulky analog video output, even if it costs $15.
- igrekel 12y ago
  Yes and yet I am still lugging adaptors - DP to VGA - DP to HDMI - DP to DVI Because I never know what I'll have when I present and you know what, I nearly always have to revert back to VGA, its not like HDMI is new ! I have a nice integrated laptop but I have all these parts around in my bag that I sometimes lose or forget connected to a projector somewhere. What may have seem like a simpler solution really wasn't in the end.
  - zanny 12y ago
    It isn't meant to be a simpler solution, but staying on analog video was never an answer. The only reason VGA projectors are still in use because they still work because we have all these passthrough options. Without them businesses would have replaced them as soon as VGA was going out of style, aka, 2002.
    - makomk 12y ago
      Replaced them with what? HDMI, which needs an adapter and can't be fed from VGA sources? DP/MiniDP, which again needs an adapter and can't be fed from VGA or HDMI sources? Maybe USB-C, which doesn't need an adapter if you bought an Apple laptop within the last few hours and don't need to put it on charge? (Otherwise it requires an adapter in order to interface with DisplayPort - but hey, at least it has that backwards compatibility!) VGA's popular because it's the only option that actually works for everyone, and it's not for a lack of newer alternatives - in fact, the plethora of newer alternatives is the problem here.
  - JBiserkov 12y ago
    The one video adapter to rule them all http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NXDD5HQ/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NXDD5HQ/ Otherwise, completely agree - the current situation is messed up. Yet I'm glad Apple is leading the way, just like with SSDs. Full disclosure: I don't own any Apple products or stock.
  - wmoxam 12y ago
    Most people aren't travelling around presenting everywhere. Having a ton of adapters seems to be required for that niche
  - veidr 12y ago
    I feel your pain because I also have to make presentations—and thus carry display adapters in my bag. But the vast majority of people never have to make presentations or hook up to legacy projectors and monitors. So bulking up the machine itself to accommodate that does not really make sense.
- gcr 12y ago
  That's what Apple said would happen for Thunderbolt. I don't want to shell out another $900 monitor to replace my existing $900 monitor that adds no new features on top of what I had previously.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
buffportion 12y ago
As someone who travels regularly for work, I am absolutely OK with Apple trimming as much as they can from their laptops.
- cookiecaper 12y ago
  Next they should trim the keyboard, monitor, battery, touchpad, and everything else except the Apple logo, since that's really all that matters anyway. Then you'll be able to travel really light. I am all for portability but there comes a point where you start trimming essential functions. I'm not saying every laptop needs to have a SCSI port, but ONE connector?! I thought Apple was bad before with two USB slots and mini-DP. My Thinkpad Yoga, which I bought specifically for portability, manages to have 2 USB connectors, HDMI, built-in SD card reader, and other useful peripherals onboard, and yes, I do actually use these. I think MacBooks are cool but I always find myself unable to use them for serious work. If I was a casual computer user that just needed to update Facebook once in a while, they'd probably be fine, but every time I've tried something more serious than that with one, I've ended up on a non-Apple product because why torture myself over fashion?
  - aaronem 12y ago
    I suppose it depends on how you define "essential", or perhaps "serious work". Granted, most of what I do with my MBP is modern full-stack stuff, which I gather doesn't qualify as "serious" even if it does make me a good living. But I don't see how the type and number of ports on my laptop would make much difference if I were, say, writing Linux kernel modules for hardware nobody uses, or building a window manager in Haskell, or whatever the current definition of "serious" is among those who put so much weight on the term. I need to plug in a real keyboard; all else is commentary. (And who does embedded away from home, anyway? There's too much you need besides the computer, unless you're targeting an emulator, in which case what need have you of physical ports?) But, hey, it's always easier to feel superior than it is to see the other guy's point of view.
    - EdwardDiego 12y ago
      I have a wireless mouse that works via a USB dongle, and I use a USB headset for my Skype calls with my business team. I also charge my cellphone from a USB port, especially when travelling, as it's far more convenient to have one plug adaptor and my Macbook Pro power supply than carrying a plug adaptor and a multi-box everywhere. At the moment, the two USB ports I have on my MBP are pretty much bare minimum but every now and then I find myself juggling peripherals.
nfoz 12y ago
"And you're already paying the Apple tax" Can we stop with this meme? There's no tax. There's a price for a product. Buy it or don't. I have followed the laptop market quite closely for very many years and I'm consistently disappointed in my attempts to find non-Apple laptops that are of comparable quality and specs at similar price points. And let's stop pretending that "specs" are simply "cpu/ram/harddrive", as those are a small subset of the factors that matter to consumers.

lazyjones 12y ago

> Think about it. Eighty dollars just to get less than you had before (with the 11-inch Air) or: $70-odd additional margin for Apple that people will be happy to pay once they notice they need it regularly. Clever.

zanny 12y ago

I easily expect monitors to start supporting Type C input, where they feed the host machine power and do USB passthrough to a classic USB interface hub with maybe a daisychained type C port on there as well. Its temporary. In five years everything will have these ports and adapters will not be necessary. In the same way today you can get a DP to VGA adapter instead of having a bulky analog video output, even if it costs $15.

igrekel 12y ago
Yes and yet I am still lugging adaptors - DP to VGA - DP to HDMI - DP to DVI Because I never know what I'll have when I present and you know what, I nearly always have to revert back to VGA, its not like HDMI is new ! I have a nice integrated laptop but I have all these parts around in my bag that I sometimes lose or forget connected to a projector somewhere. What may have seem like a simpler solution really wasn't in the end.
- zanny 12y ago
  It isn't meant to be a simpler solution, but staying on analog video was never an answer. The only reason VGA projectors are still in use because they still work because we have all these passthrough options. Without them businesses would have replaced them as soon as VGA was going out of style, aka, 2002.
  - makomk 12y ago
    Replaced them with what? HDMI, which needs an adapter and can't be fed from VGA sources? DP/MiniDP, which again needs an adapter and can't be fed from VGA or HDMI sources? Maybe USB-C, which doesn't need an adapter if you bought an Apple laptop within the last few hours and don't need to put it on charge? (Otherwise it requires an adapter in order to interface with DisplayPort - but hey, at least it has that backwards compatibility!) VGA's popular because it's the only option that actually works for everyone, and it's not for a lack of newer alternatives - in fact, the plethora of newer alternatives is the problem here.
- JBiserkov 12y ago
  The one video adapter to rule them all http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NXDD5HQ/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NXDD5HQ/ Otherwise, completely agree - the current situation is messed up. Yet I'm glad Apple is leading the way, just like with SSDs. Full disclosure: I don't own any Apple products or stock.
- wmoxam 12y ago
  Most people aren't travelling around presenting everywhere. Having a ton of adapters seems to be required for that niche
- veidr 12y ago
  I feel your pain because I also have to make presentations—and thus carry display adapters in my bag. But the vast majority of people never have to make presentations or hook up to legacy projectors and monitors. So bulking up the machine itself to accommodate that does not really make sense.
gcr 12y ago
That's what Apple said would happen for Thunderbolt. I don't want to shell out another $900 monitor to replace my existing $900 monitor that adds no new features on top of what I had previously.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

buffportion 12y ago

As someone who travels regularly for work, I am absolutely OK with Apple trimming as much as they can from their laptops.

cookiecaper 12y ago
Next they should trim the keyboard, monitor, battery, touchpad, and everything else except the Apple logo, since that's really all that matters anyway. Then you'll be able to travel really light. I am all for portability but there comes a point where you start trimming essential functions. I'm not saying every laptop needs to have a SCSI port, but ONE connector?! I thought Apple was bad before with two USB slots and mini-DP. My Thinkpad Yoga, which I bought specifically for portability, manages to have 2 USB connectors, HDMI, built-in SD card reader, and other useful peripherals onboard, and yes, I do actually use these. I think MacBooks are cool but I always find myself unable to use them for serious work. If I was a casual computer user that just needed to update Facebook once in a while, they'd probably be fine, but every time I've tried something more serious than that with one, I've ended up on a non-Apple product because why torture myself over fashion?
- aaronem 12y ago
  I suppose it depends on how you define "essential", or perhaps "serious work". Granted, most of what I do with my MBP is modern full-stack stuff, which I gather doesn't qualify as "serious" even if it does make me a good living. But I don't see how the type and number of ports on my laptop would make much difference if I were, say, writing Linux kernel modules for hardware nobody uses, or building a window manager in Haskell, or whatever the current definition of "serious" is among those who put so much weight on the term. I need to plug in a real keyboard; all else is commentary. (And who does embedded away from home, anyway? There's too much you need besides the computer, unless you're targeting an emulator, in which case what need have you of physical ports?) But, hey, it's always easier to feel superior than it is to see the other guy's point of view.
  - EdwardDiego 12y ago
    I have a wireless mouse that works via a USB dongle, and I use a USB headset for my Skype calls with my business team. I also charge my cellphone from a USB port, especially when travelling, as it's far more convenient to have one plug adaptor and my Macbook Pro power supply than carrying a plug adaptor and a multi-box everywhere. At the moment, the two USB ports I have on my MBP are pretty much bare minimum but every now and then I find myself juggling peripherals.

nfoz 12y ago

"And you're already paying the Apple tax" Can we stop with this meme? There's no tax. There's a price for a product. Buy it or don't. I have followed the laptop market quite closely for very many years and I'm consistently disappointed in my attempts to find non-Apple laptops that are of comparable quality and specs at similar price points. And let's stop pretending that "specs" are simply "cpu/ram/harddrive", as those are a small subset of the factors that matter to consumers.