Does USB Type C Herald the End of Apple's Proprietary Connectors?

An anonymous reader writes The Verge has an interesting editorial about the USB Type C connector on the new Macbook, and what this might mean for Apple's Lightning and Thunderbolt connectors. The former is functionally identical to USB Type C, and the latter has yet to prove popular in the external media and "docking" applications for which it was originally intended. Will Apple phase out these ports in favour of a single, widely-accepted, but novel standard? Or do we face a dystopian future where Apple sells cords with USB Type C on one end, and Lightning on the other?

Comments

Depends where's the money

[hyperar]

They would do whatever makes them more money, is there any doubt about that?

Re:Depends where's the money

[Lunix Nutcase]

They would do whatever makes them more money, is there any doubt about that?

No, because all publicly-traded corporations do that.

Thunderbolt == PCI-E

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know who the hell thinks it's a good idea to extend the PCI-E connection to the outside and to allow sticking any untrusted device into that. At least with "classic" USB the operating system has a fighting chance to fend off malware coming in through that (OK, some OSes don't even try). But with PCI-E? No chance.

I have no idea whether USB-C inherits this brain damage or not.

Re:Thunderbolt == PCI-E

[thegarbz]

With classic USB? You mean the classic USB which has DMA and is open to all the same security risks as Thunderbolt and Firewire, and a proof of concept exploit has been shown where a USB stick silently acts as a keyboard and starts firing commands into a terminal, or a USB attached mobile phone becomes a malicious network card that modifies data in transit.

You should already be treating USB as untrusted.

Innovation vs. Commodity

[RogueWarrior65]

Apple has never been a commodity computer company. Herd mentality always seems to head in the direction of the cheapest tech out there even though there are far superior offerings out there. Just look at how VHS won out over Beta. That's video tape for those of you too young to know or care how we got where we are.

Re:Another failure

[Lunix Nutcase]

Something is only overpriced if no one is willing to pay the price.

Dongle Insanity

[aaarrrgggh]

No, it heralds the beginning of another cycle of replacing various dongles and endless cables, much like what will happen when USB-C is eventually replaced with a standard that can accommodate 5K or 8K displays, more power, etc., which would generally be anticipated in about 3-4 years.

It wouldn't be that big of a deal to me, except for the fact that I need at least three sets of adapters for home, office, and weekend place, and ideally a fourth set for my travel bag. Between Ethernet, VGA, DVI, HDMI, USB, and SD this seems like a mess for me.

But what really pisses me off is that none of my USB receptacles that I have hard-wired in will work with the power requirements for the USB-C devices.

Re:Hmmm

[Totenglocke]

So you think that a Mac user would never need to charge their laptop, connect to a second screen, and access a flash drive at the same time? I wasn't aware that Mac users just stared at the system instead of actually using it to do something.

Re:Another failure

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple is overpriced & their customers are stupid. The two are not mutually exclusive.

No,

[gigaherz]

Because Apple makes a lot of money selling proprietary overpriced cables. They are overpriced enough that they can get away with including identification systems that attempt to prevent third-party cables from working.

ok, then

[fyngyrz]

As I understand it presently, there's no ethernet on USB-C. That's really disappointing. I have applications that require the higher dependability of ethernet as opposed to wifi. And the whole USB to Ethernet dongle thing... that tends to not work so well, at least thus far. There's also the additional security of not being OTA, where anyone in range can intercept your packets.

I'm all for as wireless as possible -- charging, etc. -- but I really don't think it's a good idea to remove the hardwired network connection. Particularly in that ethernet is so well supported across the board.

there's a dongle for that.

[goombah99]

there's a dongle for anything really. Apple just deprecates things slightly ahead of people realzing they soon won't need that. I recall when apple dropped the modem socket. I figured I needed that for sure and bought a modem dongle but then found I never used it. Ethernet had become easy to find then next time I traveled. When they dropped the ethernet socket, I bought an ethernet dongle. I used it about 10 times in many years. Wifi is just ubiquitous. Even when it's not around tethering to my phone was easier than reaching in the bag for the dongle and then finding a chair near an availble ethernet port. When they dropped the DVD I thought I'd miss it but oddly about the same time I stopped burning DVDs and started using thumb drives and DropBox only. The same was true when apple dropped parallel ports and then Floppies.

So apple will make dongles to bridge the momentary time you need to bridge with legacy devices, then you will find everything new you buy is wireless. It's interesting the headphone jack is still there since bluetooth chips are so cheap, easy to use, and are smaller than the headphone jack itself. I guess the problem for wireless headphones is powering them requires too many batteries.

History Repeats itself

[Crazy Taco]

First, it's effectively PCIe - that should already start brewing ideas. Instead of crappy USB-to-serial adapters or parallel adapters that barely work, a Thunderbolt variant would work just like a real connector on your PC (and is practically driverless). Thunderbolt also has the uncanny ability to hook up huge daisy chains of drives without losing too much speed between the first and last drive - most of the loss in speed comes from having more devices on the line than the actual order of them. If you want to deal with big ass external arrays, Thunderbolt makes that all the more convenient.

While all this is true, back in the day we heard the same sorts of arguments about Firewire being awesome for disk arrays, daisy chaining and video camcorders, and it never really gained any traction against USB, and instead flickered out. USB will no doubt just create a v4 standard to address shortcomings *just enough* to keep the protests at bay, and then with its wide install base and cheaper cost will no doubt trounce thunderbolt, and Apple will eventually drop it just like firewire.

History always repeats itself when it comes to connectors in the consumer space, because most consumers don't see enough benefit in their use cases to justify the high cost. Most are not running big arrays of disks in their closets. As a result, the cheap, widespread technology wins, not necessarily the most feature rich technology. Thunderbolt's best hope is that it can continue to live on in the enterprise space somewhere and not die completely.

Dear god, do not drop Thunderbolt support based on the silly musings of a bunch of people buying the cheapest crap hardware they can possibly buy and then being pissy they don't have the same functionality. Fortunately Apple doesn't generally listen to a bunch of whiners on slashdot.

They do, however, eventually listen to the market. Where are the firewire ports on your Apple?

Re:Hmmm

[gman003]

Here's Apple's real problem: the MacBook Air is a better laptop in almost every aspect.
* The MacBook Air is significantly cheaper
* The MacBook Air is significantly more powerful
* The MacBook Air has much better connectivity and usability
* The MacBook Air requires no external adapters besides power, the MacBook will likely be used with a video and/or network adapter as well

* The MacBook has a better display
* The MacBook is 15% lighter and 25% thinner, but they're practically indistinguishable compared to regular laptops, or even the MacBook Pro

Honestly, what they should have done is this:
Make a new MacBook Air using most of the MacBook's features (thinner, USB-C ports for charging/connectivity), make the better display an add-on option (to keep the MBA as the entry-level Mac option), and don't needlessly split your product line.

That's one of the few things Jobs did that I won't argue with - he streamlined the product lineup. When there were multiple computers that fit the same niche, he ditched all but one. The MacBook and MacBook Air now fit the same niche - almost exactly. There is zero reason for them to both exist.

I do like the idea of ditching legacy ports for thinness. I wouldn't need it myself, but I like the idea. But just one USB-C port, period? If it were me, I'd have four USB-C ports, a Mini-DisplayPort or Thunderbolt (or two, even), an audio port, and maybe a Micro-HDMI (since HDMI is way more common than DisplayPort, and you can convert Micro-HDMI to HDMI with a dirt-cheap passive cable). That's more than enough connectivity, but it still uses nothing that would impact your thickness. There's no need to limit it to just one USB port.

Losing the MagSafe charging connector? Arrrrrgh

[presidenteloco]

That is a severely regressive design move.
This computer should have retained magsafe for charging then had one of these USB-C things for, you know, port stuff.

My current MBP would have been knocked from table/chair to floor ten times now if not for magsafe. What the hell were they thinking?

I can only hope the next ultralight MB Pro retains magsafe and a couple of ports.