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Comment by andrewfromx | Hacker News Reader

"The 13in MacBook Pro could be a wonderful computer, but it isn’t. Is it great to use? Absolutely, it’s brilliant, it’s beautiful, it’s almost everything Apple said it was, I absolutely love it … until it runs out of battery. Or you have to dig out yet another dongle to use a sodding USB flash drive, or a card reader, or attach a display." that's the exact opposite way I feel. I already was using a MacBook with USB-C so I'm used to the port issues. The battery life is great. The processing power is amazing. Don't listen to people telling you dongles and USB-C is bad. It's not bad. It's just the future.

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> Don't listen to people telling you dongles and USB-C is bad. It's not bad. It's just the future.

God I hate this argument. Sure it is the future. But what you and other keep forgetting/not mentioning is the fact that USB 2 (type A) isn't going to suddenly disappear. There are just too many use cases where a bigger throughput from USB 3+ isn't needed.

So what do you do? Throw away all usb 2 peripherals? Buy multiple adapters? To think of all the usb sticks that would be basically useless without a dongle...

When apple decided that CD/DVD's are deprecated it was an ok decision because a) Most media can be put on an external dive b) you can buy an external CD/DVD reader. And i think you need an USB-A dongle WAY more often then an CD/DVD drive.

Apple should have just keep 1 usb 3.1 (Type A) port => 1 USB-A + 2 USB-C for the non touchbar MBP. If the macbook would then be a few mm taller, excellent. More room for the battery.

I think anti dongle people look at using a dongle as a failure. Like you should be able to live your computer life without ever having to touch one. Vs. I use a usb-C to usb dongle every single day. I'm just used to dongle life. It's no big deal. I have best of both worlds. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CzfYo2fVIAANV8F.jpg

It may or may not be the future - Apple hasn't always picked the winners. Remember DisplayPort? Thunderbolt? FireWire? PERCH?

In the case of USB-C, it seems to be an industry wide push toward it. Not only Apple.

USB, and now USB-C. Also dropping things like RS232, parallel, floppy drives, cd/dvd drives, VGA ports.

When the parent argues that "Apple hasn't always picked winners" he already conceded that Apple has picked winners.

It is a bit of a pointless statement then. You could say that about any hardware company really.

USB-C is the industry standard for the connector, it is the future as it's already gaining widespread support across the entire industry. There is zero doubt about it, everyone will be switching to USB-C in the next few years.

The best part about USB-C is Alt Mode support, it allows you to use any protocols you want as long as it is supported on both sides. In this case with Macs, the TB3-enabled USB-C ports mean you can use Thunderbolt 3 without changing the connector port and not lose other protocols like USB 3.1 Get 2 (10Gbps), Power Delivery, etc.

By saying future proof, what they meant is that any future products using USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps), Thunderbolt 3 (40Gbps) and/or power-delivery up to 80-100W will be supported on these MBPs.

don't forget ping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes_Ping

The thing that I find confusing is that a lot of people call the new Macbook Pro "future proof" because it is all-in on USB-C.

And while I get most people can survive with 16GB today, limiting RAM isn't future proofing for people who plan on owning a Macbook Pro for five years. Over time, new revisions of operating systems and software tend to require more RAM, not less.

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