Apple Losing USB Is a Loss for Music

> Still, if you're a Mac user planning to upgrade to the new MacBook Pro, you should probably prepare for the fact that you're going to need to be carrying around a lot of dongles for the foreseeable future.

USB-C is the future of USB, for very ease of use (reversible), size (phones are already transitioning), performance (multi-protocol capable), and power (up to 100W!!!) reasons.

Like all transitions to new ports, it will be a bit painful. But complaining about dongles for USB drives seems a bit silly since all of those drives will eventually use USB-C, like the many thumb drives available [0] (if you have existing drives, then sure, but obsolescence is a requirement of technology).

0: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&Is...

Whoever wrote this article appears to misunderstand what those ports on the new macbook actually are. They are USB ports!

USB-C to be specific

While yes it's an uncomfortable transition period, the idea of a common socket for all connections is amazing! This isn't Apple killing USB in favor of thunderbolt (which happens to run over the same connector), it's apple using the latest USB spec.

They didn't lose USB. As I understand it, Thunderbolt 3 is completely compatible with USB 3.1 Type C and backwards compatible with adapters with all previous versions of USB.

Also, bam[1]! Problem solved.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Type-C-Smartphones-Tablets-SD...

A USB-C hub solves the dongles, and cheap high-capacity flash drives are already on the market. How is this a problem?

However, the removal of MagSafe is disappointing. I'm not even a Mac user and I would love to see a standardized version of that port, if not even a knock-off adapter for standard DC ports.

The big loss is to musicians who use iOS for creating music. This involves several often expensive hardware boxes, such as quality audio interfaces and most modern synthesizers, none of which are USB-C compatible. So we are looking at much more expense than mere single dongle hell.

Wow, this is overwrought. Just buy another inexpensive USB-C stick drive and bam!, you're done.

Why can't Apple just make a magnetic USB-C?