Using the USB-C port and adapters on your MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015) | Hacker News Reader

Using the USB-C port and adapters on your MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015)

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20 pointszdw45 comments

They should've put USB and other ports on the power brick, making it a hub. That would be a good match for the common use case where a charger and a few USB devices are permanently placed together on a desk.

Then they would have needed to supply a usb 3.0 charging cable. I guess one reason why they are using only a usb 2.0 cable is that they want it to be thin.

IANAEE, but maybe it's due to the cable length and signaling requirements of the 3.1 spec when transferring that amount of power. I wouldn't be surprised if you're right about it being the thin cable, though.

You can get full featured cables supporting 3.1 with power delivery support

One example: http://www.belkin.com/us/F2CU030-Belkin/p/P-F2CU030/

A million times this. Hopefully they'll make one after it's released and people complain, but I'm not very hopeful. At least it's standards-compliant so Hypermac can make batteries for it and other companies can make power adapter + hubs :)

Sort of like the old Voodoo Envy power brick w/ Ethernet: http://blog.laptopmag.com/hands-on-with-the-voodoo-envys-wi-...

Pretty sad to see MagSafe go. It's saved my laptop's life many times before.

Also, it's crazy that none of the adapters has more than one non-C USB port.

It might be possible, theoretically, to build a breakaway adapter for USB-C. Maybe further downstream on the cable itself, so the USB-C plug remains in but the cable comes away and can be re-connected.

The ONLY problem with this is safety. USB-C can easily kill, so any breakaway would need to cut power reliably.

USB type C supports up to 20V DC for power delivery. It certainly can't "easily" kill. Assuming an unusually low 300ohm internal resistance, and electrodes piercing the skin and positioned such that current flows through the heart, that's still only 67mA. That's potentially lethal with AC, but well below any published threshold I can find for DC. Despite rumors of deaths from 9V DC with electrodes piercing the skin I'm unable to find any officially documented deaths from such low DC voltages.

Just hook a hub up to the single port. Super elegant!

So this basically amounts to a mandatory $80 mark-up for a not-so-optional USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter, right?

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

Without it, the machine is essentially limited to wi-fi speeds for everything you try to do.

Yes, it is "limited" to something like 500mbps. At least the 2013 models got that, this one might be fast, 802.11ac can go faster than gigabit ethernet.

You could spend $12 on a superspeed+ USB-C to USB-A adapter at amazon. But that doesn't get you power.

I predict USB-C high power hubs will happen soon and we'll all be happy.

I was really excited about the machine until I realized I would have to take the dongle everywhere I traveled. I don't want a dongle and I certainly don't want an $80 one. I do want to attach a device and a power cord at the same time.

I would be fine with two ports. I have no idea why they didn't put another port on the right. Maybe to sell $80 dongles?

How long before PC's ship en masses with USB-C? Keyboards, mice, scanners, cameras, printers, Android phones, etc. It'll be nice to finally have a small reversible connector.

It'll probably be a few years, and it'll probably start with the front ports and hubs before the rear ports start to get changed over. USB's got 20 years of devices to support, and a lot of people would rather not have to get all new cables for their existing devices. Though I do foresee that things like mice and keyboards will ship with A<->C dongles for a few years, much like the USB<->PS/2 adapters of 15 years ago.

Yes, the Mac had USB about 5 years before it became popular on the PC. However, you aren't clear as to why they can't simply throw in a couple small USB-C connectors now. No one has to buy new cables. You'll still have all those legacy ports.

http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/...

Aren't almost all of those things normally wireless now? Apart from charging phones.

I don't see a lot of wireless mice in PC-land. They exist, but don't seem to be as common as with Macs. I did have one for a bit, but switched back because it ate batteries way too fast.

Batteries last very-very long in many mice designed for PCs. The biggest reason I'm sticking to a wired one is weight and response time.

Quite a lot of phones support wireless charging these days.

Which, the newest 2 Nexus phones and the Palm Pre? 0 iPhones can do wireless charging, and those are pretty popular. Wireless charging still also requires a big dock thing to be plugged in to USB or mains power; it's not as if all (or any, that I'm aware of) laptops have a built-in zone which charges anything you lay down on it.

The Galaxy S6 and a bunch of others, including some HTC Droids, 8X and others, LG G3, many Lumia devices, Blackberry Z30 and Classic. But yes, not the iPhone.

Wait what? They're allowing "USB 3.1" to be used to refer to 3.0 speeds? Since when does "gen 1" mean "exactly the same as the previous generation"?

It's going to be half-impossible to figure out what actually supports 10Gbps.

ArsTechnica has a good explanation about this:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/03/explaining-the-usb-3-1-...

In short: "USB 3.1, by contrast, is a much smaller change—so much so that the USB 3.1 specification has actually absorbed the USB 3.0 spec. For whatever reason, this has led to some odd name changes. The 10Gbps version of USB 3.1 that you probably think of when you think about USB 3.1 is called “USB 3.1 Gen 2.”"

I predict that there will be a kickstarter for a small attachment that will provide 3+ ports. A port extender that is attached to the side.

One port is not enough when that port is used to charge the device.

You can't even use a logitech mouse unless it is bluetooth capable!

EDIT: Something like this: http://media02.hongkiat.com/zendock-cable-management/zendock... just smaller and with two ports.

It's not clear that you read the article, as it describes several devices like that, and the whole point of the article is the somewhat obvious point you're making with the rest of your comment.

For Kickstarters, this one looks pretty nifty:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/668098663/infiniteusb-o...

I am thinking of something that is permanently attached not a dongle.

Ah, I think I understand now, thanks for clarifying. Though I'm sure one will be made, IMHO I'd much prefer a dongle. My ideal dongle would have AC adapter + USB + Gigabit tthernet + HDMI + 2-3 USB ports all in a small package: a docking station over a standard USB connector.

The USB C connector carries two logical USB interfaces, to have more ports than that you're going to need a USB hub in there was as well, and all sorts of mess trying to get USB 3 speeds to actually function properly.

What is the USB hub situation with USB-C? I haven't see a hub that will charge and provide ports like a Thunderbolt hub.

Dang, I had no idea "Thunderbolt hub" was even a product category. I've been lamenting the fact the only way to get that sort of functionality was a $1000 monitor...

This would be the high-end http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echo15thunderboltdock.html

This is around the norm https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thunderbolt/Dock/OWC/Thunder...

The good thing about a USB-C version would be taking the place of the power cable too.

I would have loved to see the availability of a "give me all the ports from an 11" Air" adapter: literally giving me Display Port (not HDMI! and then I can continue to share Display Port adapters with all of my friends), two USB ports (which I use quite often :/), and (this is the most hilarious part) MagSafe 2 (so I can continue to share power adapters with all of my friends as well, and get to continue to use MagSafe).

The current crop of adapters for this device is infuriating: I already carry around VGA and HDMI Display Port adapters... now to have those two adapters, they are forcing me to carry around adapters that are twice as large (so I can still get power, and then get... just one... USB port). If I am going to be effectively carrying around a second massive adapter (in addition to two small ones), it should be an orthogonal one :/.

I certainly don't mind the idea of a universal connector that is capable of doing everything. Now give me four of them instead of just one, and we'll be all set.

Does anyone know if there is an adapter that gives me the possibility to connect a Macbook to a Cinema Display ?

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The Macbook supports "displays at up to 1920x1200" over HDMI, so that probably wouldn't work. USB-C should theoretically be able to pass 4k @ 60hz via Displayport 1.2, but they don't seem to be releasing a multiport adapter for that.

Google released a USB-C to Displayport adapter that might work, but then you'd be on battery power.

That adapter only supports up to 1080p at 60 Hz, and the 30" cinema displays are 2560x1600.

It would be so great if the connector/port module was customizable _on_ the laptop. I.e. I could get a laptop with USB-C, DP, USB-A, while someone else could use the same machine built with USB-A, VGA, card reader. Without all these clunky adapters.

So what happens when you connect one Macbook to another with the USB C Charge cable?

Something like this: http://venturebeat.com/2015/04/06/watch-this-microsofts-surf...

Your MacBook supports USB Target Disk Mode when you use it with a compatible, full-featured (“super speed”) USB-C cable. Note that the USB-C Charge Cable (included with MacBook) does not support USB Target Disk Mode.

Probably nothing.

To elaborate: USB-C has 24 pins and looks like up to 18 conductors. That's power, ground, more power, four shielded differential pairs, an unshielded twisted pair, and three special function wires. A full cable is going to be thicker and stiffer than one that just has enough to support charging. The user experience of a thin, supple charging cable is going to be different from a ticker, stiffer, superspeed+ cable.

From the article, it looks like you can mount one Macbook's hard drive on another macbook by starting it in "USB Target Disk Mode".

No mention of the Thunderbolt display. Hmm.

I get an "Access Denied"

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