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Comment by bane | Hacker News Reader

It just means we're going to stay stuck in dongle hell.

When I'm on the road the minimalism of a Mac is nice, but at my desk, hooked up to everything I really need for heavy work, my desktop is a cluster-f of cables and adapters and wires.

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This seems like the fix for dongle hell to me. You plug everything into your monitor, tucking your cables away nicely, and then you have a single cable going from your monitor into your laptop.

Most monitors do this now with a USB hub, except you have two cables (video and usb).

Too bad USB-C didn't also do microphone in.

Can't you just use USB microphones?

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e...

Small sample size and all, but I find USB microphones to be rather susceptible to electrical noise from stuff like USB hubs. I have to plug them directly into my machines to get a clean signal.

Probably better to use a USB microphone instead of integrated sound card A/D anyway...

To be fair, it's at least a single standard dongle hell. And now with USB-C you can have thunderbolt-style docks that give you a near-universal docking experience (ie: DVI/HDMI/dozens of USB ports/DVD drive/power) with a single cable when you're at your desk.

I agree, that is the theory. However we might be at least a year from such hubs being affordable.

I guess what I am saying is, I wouldn't want to be queued outside the Apple store for one of these. The supporting accessories aren't there yet (yes, even with Apple's two hubs/adapters).

However when they do the refresh on this line, one or two years from now, the supporting hubs, wires, and so on will be available and it will be a very fun experience.

Isn't it only dongle hell for a few years? Theoretically monitors, printers, hard drives, etc will all have USB-C connectors as well at some point.

So we are basically back to the old days of Daisy-chaining SCSI devices?

What's wrong with USB hubs?

Nothing is wrong with hubs, but now there is yet one more thing you have to have available (at least until they become more prolific in external devices)

Want a legit answer? They lack power isolation. I had a device surge/short while attached to a USB hub (it was a branded one), and everything else attached died: Keyboard, Mouse, motherboard, and a phone.

This was back pre-USB 3, and the power limit of USB has only increased since then (USB 3, USB-C, etc). This means the wires get hotter, the hub gets hotter, and any short/surge will have an even more dramatic effect (e.g. fire?).

Honestly USB hubs should be up to the same spec as a surge-protector/multi-tap, but they aren't, even though they carry enough electricity to kill someone.

http://www.amazon.com/HDE-SuperSpeed-Individual-Switches-Inc...

No, since they can all be connected to a single hub. This is way better than now, where you need one power cable, one, keyboard cable, etc.

No, we will have wi-gig devices, most things will talk wirelessly.

What does the USB-C equivalent of this [1] look like on a laptop with only one port? Apple basically killed the always-plugged-in peripheral with this revision, there's no way you could create something small enough that it wouldn't break in a bag that still provided pass-through for charging or other devices.

Do all monitors/printers/hard drives/etc provide pass through so you can charge? Or do you have to unplug your laptop from the power to get to your hard drive if you lose your dongle?

Not to mention the fact that every single mac apple peripheral you've ever owned is now worthless.

If they threw USB-C on as the charger alongside a USB and Thunderbolt I'd be stoked that mac is embracing new technology. If they put two or three USB-C ports and nothing else I'd be impressed with their commitment. With just one port, I'm left wondering what the hell they're thinking people use their laptops for.

[1] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2TY1K447...

I'm not sure why you'd want to use such a wireless mouse receiver with a computer that has bluetooth built in?

Also, I haven't plugged in a printer in years. Many printers have Wifi built in, and if not, you can always attach it to an Airport base station.

External storage? Use Apple's Time Capsule or any other NAS to back up your data wirelessly.

I've even seen companies use Apple TVs connected to a projector for wireless presentations.

Sure, a USB thumb drive is invaluable when you need to copy some files to your uncles 10 year old laptop with broken wifi; but you can get pretty far without wires if you want.

About 70% of the wireless mice on Newegg are not bluetooth mice. Non-bluetooth mice can have longer range or less lag for example.

I'm concerned about the feasibility of USB-powered hard drives with this setup. On my Macbook Pro, if I plug more than one of them into a hub (as opposed to separate USB ports), they start flaking out on account of lack of power, even if the hub is powered.

Well, if the hub has enough power, supports USB-PD, and the drive supports USB-PD, then it should be able to draw up to 100W of power.

Then your hub is not doing a good job of providing the 500 mA that it supposed to give to devices, or your USB powered hard drive actually requires more than 500 mA to do its thing.

I believe my drives use 500mA each for power.

Make sure the power brick that your powered hub came with is capable of powering the N+ devices you have at the same time. Most of the 4 port hubs come with 2A power supplies, however sometimes they skimp on actually being able to deliver that power.

Apple laptops have been limited by a lack of docking ports, which is my favorite use case for having a work and home workstation. Now, instead of hooking up a power cable, monitor cable and USB hub, you slide one connector in. How is that bad?

It would not be bad, but the adapter that gives me two ports will be a part of my trip.

At airports for example I'm carrying only my MacBook and usually put in there charger and the my phone, now I have to also carry an adapter to do that.

Well with the Thunderbolt Display or various other Thunderbolt docking stations, 2 cables to the Macbook already was a reality

Sounds like what you want is a ... Desktop Computer.

You mean that portable USB hard drives should be used with desktop computers, not portable laptops?

In the current era of ubiquitous saas/cloud services, abstracted file systems, multiple device types, large internal storage options, dropbox, box, drive, and icloud, there are many, many people who haven't used a USB drive in years (or ever) and have no use for one.

This is one of the great things about buying an Apple Cinema Display. My Displayport model provides audio/video over one cable, camera/microphone over another, and a third MagSafe connector. The Thunderbolt design allows for audio/video/camera/microphone/ethernet/firewire/even more thunderbolt, plus a magsafe connector.

I think we'll see a lot of small USB hubs with a USB-C connector to your laptop and all your USB/audio/Displayport/ethernet out, so that getting back to your desk is one cable to plug in and not a half-dozen.

Other than cost (which is certainly a factor) I guess I've never understood why people schlep around a laptop and use the same laptop for their desktop by plugging in cables. I know people do this who could easily afford an additional more powerful desktop.

I use a MacPro driving 3 27' displays and also have a few portables as well. It's just a matter of synching info. I can't imagine having to deal with hooking up a portable.

mostly because a) don't need a more powerful desktop and b) the syncing is not well streamlined

I'd seriously consider an iMac if Apple would solve b.

>It's just a matter of synching info.

Synchronizing is hard. That's the problem.

I want to close my laptop after a day at the office and be able to continue working on the train or an airplane, immediately, if I need to.

This isn't easy to do without having a single machine.

To their credit, it seems Apple is at least trying to solve this problem with their recent foray into 'live' document dragging between iOS/Yosemite. Though it's hardly the ubiquitous solution we want, it is a first step.

Some of us like to own as few things as possible.

Plugging my 2013 Air into my desk when I come home isn't a big hassle - I plug in the speaker cable, the power cable, the video cable, and the USB hub. It takes me ten seconds[1] to do unless one of the cables falls; they're normally sitting right where I put the Mac. It sits on a lower shelf and runs closed; there's a Bluetooth keyboard and a Wacom tablet on my desk. (I'm an artist.)

It'd be nice to have the single connector I guess. Once I got an adapter[2] and plugged everything into that I'd save all of, I dunno, five seconds?

I'm also not driving three displays. I have never liked multiple displays. They don't work well with a Wacom tablet, and I go crazy from constantly seeing slight color differences; when I'm at a cafe, I use the laptop screen; when I'm at home, I use the external monitor.

Now you have one person's explanation of why she schleps around a single laptop that she also uses for her desktop.

1: Literally; I just timed it. 6.6s to leisurely unplug it, 10.3s to casually reconnect it.

2: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MJ1K2AM/A/usb-c-digital-av...

Binder clips are useful for avoiding cable falls: http://www.efficientlifeskills.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/1...

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