Right now, my $1,000 2012 Air has a charger, usb keyboard, usb phone charger, and a usb conference mic plugged into it. I don't even want to imagine carrying around the number of dongles that would allow me to do the same on a 2017 Pro machine.
Using dongles is also not the issue. Having a versatile port is a good thing.
The issue is that they seem to be neglecting common use cases in their own platform. As in, you cannot plug an iPhone to their own computer, not even to charge it. This is inexcusable. At the very least, they've lost control of timing (if the next iphone happens to have a USB-C port).
> Right now, my $1,000 2012 Air has a charger, usb keyboard, usb phone charger, and a usb conference mic plugged into it. I don't even want to imagine carrying around the number of dongles that would allow me to do the same on a 2017 Pro machine.
A single USB-C port can replace all that and more, you can also carry power and video. There's no reason why those can't be provided by a single "dongle". Which would actually be more convenient to carry around.
Would it have killed Apple to include a USB-C to USB3 dongle? I can't believe their margins are that thin.
Am I just confused? A USB-C to lightning cable connects an iPhone to a new mac without a dongle, no? It's just a different cable than before.
Probably more like 5 years at best.
Removing all USB-A ports would have been a bold move in 2018, but in 2016 it's delusional.
With only 2 ports, you need a ridiculous number of big dongles or hubs to get serious work done, and any pro user with >1 external HD, display, or gigabit wired is rightfully wondering what the hell Apple was thinking.
Wouldn't having a single multi-port hub actually be superior? Instead of a bunch of cables connecting your laptop to multiple different devices you have one cable to the hub. Much easier to get up and move with.
See the first five minutes of this video [3], which actually involves Apple's "Digital AV Multiport" adapter, to see the near-term experience of "dongle hell."
[1]: http://www.bourgedesign.com/
[2]: http://www.macrumors.com/2016/11/03/owc-debuts-13-port-thund...
Most people still use USB-A accessories.
See the difference?
See the similarities?
Mice and keyboards work perfectly well on a USB-A connection, there is really no need to force everyone to buy dongles or to upgrade all your peripherals to USB-C.
In fact there is some parallel here; we all know that USB-C is the way of the future. Every phone, every laptop, every desktop will eventually have these ports for everything. It will replace every proprietary DC power plug. But right now, just like it was in 1998, the future isn't quite here yet.
And that was just one model, the Air. If you wanted an optical drive you could buy a white macbook or a MBP. Now there are no options.
If the new ports are about elegance, I wish Apple made dongles with long cables, so as to hide the adapter part.