11,000 people bought an adaptor to give the new MBP the same features | Hacker News Reader

11,000 people bought an adaptor to give the new MBP the same features

businessinsider.com.au

26 pointsvictorinax14 comments

Am i the only one who sees having a variety of ports as a good thing? I want an sd slot. I want multiple usb ports. I want an hdmi port, and having a vga port means one less adapter to carry on the plane. (Vga-only projectors are still out there in some classrooms.) I want separate mic and headphone jacks. And i couldnt care less if my netbook is 2mm thinner than someone elses.

I am reminded of a jeremy clarkson comment about elite cars. At the top end, you pay more to get literally less car. They strip out all the comfort features to save weight, resulting in sleek but near-unusable machines. Thats where apple is headed. I want more, not less connectivity from all my devices.

Apple is fighting a war between thinness and battery life. Brighter screens (which we'll see more of with HDR content becoming more mainstream) means more battery usage, which means Apple needs more battery to offset brighter screens, but Apple also wants each MacBook Pro iteration to be thinner (or just as thin) so that means sacrificing other components to make room for battery. They're doing the same thing to the iPhone.

If the screen is the value, mbs will eventually become nothing more than expensive media players. The mechanical keyboard will disappear next, replaced by wireless voice recognition. That should save a few watt-hours. It isnt like anyone might want to do some actual work on these things.

So we're just voting up article-length ads for adapters now?

The new MacBook Pro only has USB-C ports. How many more articles pointing that out does HN need?

Did you know about that adapter before now?

Sure, the MBP only has two ports, but a lot of people seem to think it needs more and now more people know that there is an option. That particular adapter seems to fit the bill quite nicely.

Except for the lack of an audio port, apparently. That would have been very useful.

The laptop still has one built in.

> "companies are selling adapters that add back all the ports that some Apple users think the company should have included in the first place"

This is what is being voted up. Might be an exaggeration (number of adapters sold / number of laptops sold), but this is not an ad.

Would you say an article on "Teenagers use Tinder" is an ad for Tinder, or an insight into that demography?

I'm getting a bit tired of these articles. Writing this on a new MBP I have not yet once needed an adapter. I'm sure at some point I will, but for the time being I am quite content with having a couple minimal USB-C ports and my headphone jack (keep off that one Apple!).

Maybe they can add Magsafe to one of these and restore all the functionality missing?

Maybe Apple should do that?

Still can't believe these are selling as-is.

MagSafe is patented by Apple. HyperMac (the company behind this) used to sell the only external battery back that used a MagSafe cable. They got sued by Apple and stopped. I highly doubt they'd make that mistake twice.

Technically, there's another external battery that uses the MagSafe cable.

http://mct-corp.com/store/index.php?product/page/1619/%22The...

At the time, they were the only one. I'm not surprised more have popped up since.

Good old patents stifling innovation. If Apple isn't going to use them they should at least license them to accessory makers for their own equipment.

Anyone remember the original HyperDrive? Also a Mac add-on product. Mentioned here: http://vintagemacmuseum.com/collection/rare-items/

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