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Comment by mdeslaur | Hacker News Reader

Seriously? Couldn't they have put _two_ ports in it so you can plug something in while it's being charged without lugging around a usb hub?

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"Seriously? Couldn't they have put _two_ ports in it so you can plug something in while it's being charged without lugging around a usb hub?"

I have been a macbook air user since 2008 (6 years with a 13 and 1+ with an 11) and I love them.

I will not buy one that has zero ports available while I am charging. No hard feelings - I just can't do it.

I am not a feature wizard and I don't need to address every possible use case, but I absolutely need to have the ability to charge my laptop while using a cellular dongle. It's an absolute requirement.

The current MBA design with a port on each side is sensible and highly usable, and is vastly superior to a design that limits you to zero ports while you are charging.

Let's not even discuss hub use while traveling. It's a clownish suggestion.

You will probably be able to buy a charger with a hub.

They'll likely release a series of peripherals that have one intended focus and an additional port, similar to iPad peripherals. The iPad HDMI adapter[1] has two inputs, one for HDMI and one for power, so you can charge and play at the same time

[1] http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD098ZM/A/apple-digital-av...

This won't work well when using an air to do presentations and you can't switch between a monitor and power....

The slightly cynical me tends to think the thunderbolt port was great and on every mac. now new adapters...

Here at Microsoft all our meeting rooms are supporting wireless display tech - apple air play included. This seems to be in line with apple's history - ditch technology that is approaching its end of life and force the newer tech to take over. There's still the ability to do wired external displays, but it's at the same convenience the usb cd drives were when apple phased them out.

As someone who likes to have a second monitor when I can, where are my wireless display tech for monitors? It would be awesome if all I had to do was turn on my monitor and not have to deal with cables, but currently that is reality.

Seriously though, I'm looking forward to cable-less future when it come to monitors.

Well, it never really took off outside the Mac world. This may be an improvement. I look at my Mac Mini that currently has power, Thunderbolt display, 3 disks, USB hub with 30-pin and Lightning, and DVD, though, and wonder WTF they are thinking about 1 port. IF the daisy chaining works and I can still charge my iPad, it could be really nice.

If you require so many peripherals concurrently, why would you consider a notebook?

Yeah, because anyone who wants to use two USB devices at the same time clearly bought the wrong computer.

People have different use cases to you. Deal with it.

Probably so that s/he can carry it around with him.

Mac minis aren't notebooks.

I believe that was his point. Why is wnissen comparing his current All-in-One to a notebook?

Presumably accessory manufacturers will create peripherals that allow video out + power at the same time?

That's the stopgap solution, I think. Looking at the larger picture, it's silly that a projector only looks for video-in, instead of video-in/power-out, considering it's already plugged to a wall outlet.

You think the end game is "We'll improve the hardwire connection to the project so it can backfeed power" rather than "We'll just get rid of the wire"?

And a USB rootkit bundled in for free!

Alert!

It looks like you connected a device from an untrusted Vendor ID which is enumerating as both a [display|power source|input device] and a [USB Mass Storage device]. Do you want to allow this?

[Unmount device] [Allow both]

You should expect USB-C native displays to also power the connected device, and they will easily begin showing up this year.

It has 10 hours of battery life, so I think the idea is that you don't plug it in as often.

Couldn't you then be using the monitor's power source to charge the laptop? Presumably the monitor is plugged into the wall and can transmit power to the laptop while the laptop transmits data to it.

I believe (someone correct me if this is wrong?) that you can in principle daisy chain a USB-C connector for both data and power?

The USB 3.1 spec has separate pinouts for power out and power in, so this should be possible. Anyone who wants to use the USB for peripherals regularly will just need a hub.

With that battery life, I don't suspect I'll ever be charging it while using it - I'll only ever charge it while I'm asleep.

Hours less than the current Air.

Air 13", yeah. Sounds about on par with the Air 11".

Nope, the Air 11 has a 720p camera the new Macbook only 480p for some weird reason (this spec seems out of place)

Not that weird; I'm guessing the 720p camera module just couldn't fit. Lots of emphasis for this laptop went into "thin" engineering, and as should be clear with current smartphones, making thin but high quality cameras is a very difficult endeavor. (The iPhone 6 has the camera module jutting out of the case...)

You would be right only that the Air is thinner than the new Macbook in the Camera area =) (0.11 vs 0.14)

It's what, 9 hours? If you want to compile some code, you probably get 8 hours. That's fine, but that's a cycle or more every day, and that has an effect on the battery life. If you want to plug it in to a screen you ideally want to charge it, too, instead of degrading the battery. Your screen is in a socket, your MB should, too.

Given it's USB-C there'll be plenty of hubs, docks etc... but it'd have been nice to get it out of the box (charger being a hub), or at least having two ports.

1 port is just ridiculous, it's basically 'we force you to make big tradeoffs, like an external screen or charging, unless you want to buy and carry with you various externals for what is supposed to be the most portable device in our Mac lineup'.

Lack of an SD card is another one of those things. Not as big of a problem but would 2 ports have really been that difficult?

> 1 port is just ridiculous

Apple make plenty of higher-end products for people that want to compile code all day and have multiple ports.

This one is a "MacBook" and the other one is a "MacBook Pro". I think it's clear which one fits your needs better.

Happily, there are millions of people that don't want to code all day, and have probably never plugged anything into their laptop other that power. So this device is for them, not you.

Two ports would be nice in case one became unreliable... which seems pretty likely since everything plugs into it and it doesn't have a magsafe-like disconnect if someone trips over a cord...

Apple are obviously very concerned about aesthetics and having as little ports breaking the smooth lines of the design hinder that. However personally I would of thought having an additional type c connector on the opposite side would actually improve the ascetic design by providing more symmetry. If they added another and let you charge the device from either side, it would also improve usability, I know I get annoyed when my wall charger is on one side and I have to stretch the cable around to the other side of the laptop.

Apple is primarily a profit-driven company. They front noble reasons for "optimizing" down to 1 port for everything, but the reality is they're mandating that you buy their $79 adapter.

My guess: the power brick will have ports on it. That would solve several problems nicely.

Doesn't look like it, but of course it's entirely possible. With USB-C not being an Apple thing, I fully expect elegant chargers, hubs and docks to solve this.

But it'd have been nice to get it out of the box, as it's an additional $50-150 depending on how fancy/slim/functional you want your new charger to be, at which point choosing it over the MBA with 8gb/256gb with a few hours extra battery life and an extra inch seems even less interesting.

The display adaptor has a spot to charge from so you can drive a display charge and use USB, all at the same time.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MJ1L2AM/A/usb-c-vga-multip...

Eventual Windows competitors will have more than one port, but they won't be identical. Only a single port will be able to be used for charging, the others will be data-only.

That's too inelegant a solution for Apple, they'd rather just have a single port than have two ports that look like they should be identical but aren't.

Then just have two ports that are identical? Is there something that holds them back from charging from two different locations?

A port that supports 100W power input requires a significant amount of external components. Switching that between locations is also a significant challenge (IOW, it costs significant money and space). Just switching between the wall and the battery is hard enough, adding a third location will add a significant amount of space and $.

It will also add significant protection costs: what if somebody plugs 2 chargers into the laptop? They'll be at almost but not the same voltage, and amperage levels will be high enough that significant damage could result. Obviously the laptop will only do the upgrade voltage & amperage handshake with one of the chargers, but I imagine that redundant hardware protection will also be required.

My Dell Venue 8 Pro comes with a single micro USB port that is used for both charging and data.

I don't really consider it to be a competitor though because Apple doesn't offer anything that can compete with a touchscreen device that can be used as a tablet and also a full general purpose computer.

I guess their idea is that you charge it overnight and don't have to charge it during the day.

I am assuming the charger will have another port on it that you can use for other devices while it's plugged in.

I really hope that all the gadget will just be stackable...

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