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Comment by copsarebastards | Hacker News Reader

> What most people have missed is that USB allows charging and data over the same port. So you can easily get a power adapter that has a charging tip which has on the same cord another USB-C port (socket) which you can plug into your display chain, or port replicator or what not.

What you seem to have missed is that this is nobody cares.

Nobody is going, "I really wish I could charge my laptop through the same port I connect my external hard drive to." This just isn't a problem people have.

However, plenty of people say about the MacBook Air, "I really wish I could transfer data from my external storage hard drive to my thumb drive while my MacBook Air is plugged into my monitor." The new MacBook Air that they've oddly rebranded to confuse with the entire MacBook brand will have a much worse problem in this respect.

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It's a problem I have. Apple don't have docking stations; it's frustrating unhooking multiple devices so I can wander to a meeting room, only to hook them up again later. A single cable would be amazing (even more so if it was MagSafe, but oh well).

A USB 3 hub can fulfill any function a traditional docking station would other than extremely low latency I/O which most users don't care about.

That doesn't account for my screens, charger, etc. It's an admittedly minor concern, but I imagine it'll be very nice when I can just plug in a single cable :).

The thing I've come to appreciate better is that everybody needs different tools. When I was working as a Systems Engineer and needed to connect via serial port to ratty old servers, this new Macbook would have had me screaming. As a developer at my current workplace, I don't need infinite connectability, just portability :).

You could certainly do that with 2 ports, or 4, but you're being forced to do it now. I'm not okay with that. Just a simple scenario where you're charging and want to connect your 6th gen iPod to the computer needing an adapter is mildly annoying. 2 would be preferable. Apple should really host a survey on their site regarding this.

Consider the people you are hearing it from and are around.

Most of the people in my life (outside of work) have no issue. Most of them don't have second monitors or external hdds. They might have a thumb drive or a Chromecast.

If you're a power user get a power user machine. Get a MacBook Pro.

If your MacBook Air is connected to your monitor then it will likely have standard USB ports on it like most do today. That said few people use external storage or thumb drives anymore especially the target demographic of the MBA.

Gotta admit it'll be pretty cool when Apple updates the Studio Display to provide your MacBook with video, audio, power, and USB over one cable. A return to the dream that ADC promised.

With the amazing difference of being an industry standard, so I can get that experience with Dell products if I desire.

"I wish I could charge my MacBook and Chrome Pixel using the same cable", that's one big advantage.

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