Whenever I marvel at the amazing tech we have, I remember that this remarkable culture chose to inflict Bluetooth on itself.
Or surprisingly low standards for “nice”.
(Oh, and: printers. I bet you hate printers more).
An USB-C to 3.5mm adapter with excellent quality costs about $10, and I can just keep it permanently plugged in to my headset for the very few times I do need it.
A USB-C hub costs much more and supplies less power to downstream devices than two dedicated USB-C ports would.
It's probably minuscule for something like 3.5mm audio (even though analog noise on the board might be a concern), and the computer already needs a DAC/ADC for its built-in speakers and microphone, but when in doubt, I'd rather take a port that I can convert to another using a cheap adapter than a fixed-purpose one I never use.
My guess is they’ll ditch it if/when they make a water proof laptop. No ports at all, induction charging only. Johny Ives's dream after retirement.
For all the hate that printers get, it’s a deceptively hard problem that they tackle:
- They must pull a single sheet of paper perfectly straight out of a stack. That’s hard even for dextrous human hands.
- They must use a fluid that dries instantly yet won’t clog even if unstirred for months.
Having said that, the reason printers went WiFi instead of Bluetooth is that the combined rage towards such a device would be enough to collapse it into a black hole. And you don’t want a singularity in your everyday office.