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Apple Discontinues Thunderbolt Display (macrumors.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Apple has officially told several news sites that it plans to discontinue the Thunderbolt Display, which has been available online and in Apple retail stores since it was first introduced in 2011. "We're discontinuing the Apple Thunderbolt Display. It will be available through Apple.com, Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers while supplies last. There are a number of great third-party options available for Mac users," said an Apple spokesperson. Rumors suggest that Apple will launch a new version of its Thunderbolt monitor later this year, featuring an upgraded 5K resolution and discrete GPU. The new Thunderbolt Display may even launch alongside next-generation Skylake Retina MacBook Pros, which too are rumored to be released later this year. fyngyrz writes: So, bought into the whole Thunderbolt monitor thing from Apple? Might want to collect a few right now, while you still can. It appears that the Thunderbolt monitor is going the way of the analog [headphone] jack over at Apple. Isn't it fun to be part of an unsuccessful experiment?
dumb monitors are bad, they need to be smartified so that the only way you access them is through apps. Otherwise they are losing a big chunk of data.
I hope.
Because it is going to be USB-C next.
For all of the hate we dish at Apple we sure do like talking about them 'round here.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Putting an gpu in one much less usb+e-net on an MAX pci-e x4 link is an poor idea. Also most mac's other then mac pro only have 1 TB bus. And right now the mac pro without cutting down the gpu's to x8 x8 or x16 x16 switched thought one x16 link does not have the pci-e for TB 3.0. Or they can make the mac pro have 2 cpus.
>> It appears that the Thunderbolt monitor is going the way of the analog [headphone] jack over at Apple. Isn't it fun to be part of an unsuccessful experiment?
I'll make a bet right now that killing the headphone jack will be a step too far and Apple will be forced to bring it back pretty quickly.
>> It appears that the Thunderbolt monitor is going the way of the analog [headphone] jack over at Apple. Isn't it fun to be part of an unsuccessful experiment?
I'll make a bet right now that killing the headphone jack will be a step too far and Apple will be forced to bring it back pretty quickly.
You underestimate the power of the cult of Apple.
I sort of wanted one at work. I have a Thunderbolt (2.0) hub, that has thunderbolt in, with thunderbolt, gigabit ethernet, usb 3.0, audio, mini display port, and hdmi out. The hope was that one cable was all I would need to plug in whenever I dock my laptop at work, which has two monitors. Turns out that the only way to get two monitors with fed from one thunderbolt cable is if one monitor takes thunderbolt directly. So while one thunderbolt cable can do one 4K monitor, it can't do two 1920 monitors. Oh well, at least it's only two cables I have to plug in.
Back in my ultimate Mac bigot days I managed to keep from getting burned by OpenDoc (by ignoring it as snake oil) and QuickDraw3D (by adopting it very gradually, thereby not losing much when it was suddenly cancelled with no replacement.) A lot of guys dove in and lost whole product lines if not companies.
Apple custom hardware is even less dependable. Don't buy anything you can't afford to have orphaned without notice.
Love Apple all you want, but don't trust 'em. They were never in business to help you, and now they don't even have to care.
The passing of the Thunderbolt Display is not an unsuccessful experiment, thunderbolt and thunderbolt 2 can't handle what's needed for future display technology. Displays are going 5K or multiple 4K displays, so a higher bandwidth channel is needed. The Thunderbolt Display was an awesome device, well supported Ethernet, USB, and FireWire as well as being daisychain-able. But the technology grows. And old tech goes. Whatever happens you know USB-C will fall in five to six years, thunderbolt 3 about as long. My desktop has two thunderbolt displays, an acer touchscreen (all the same res) and a Mac Pro drives it all along with a Pegasus2 raid. And it was so gee wow when put together. Now I want what doesn't exist, an 8 k CinemaScope pattern display with the height of a 40 inch 16x9 4K display. So wheel of incarnation back to one display. And curved (because at a desk you're closer) ... It will have to be a much higher bandwidth connection, so thunderbolt 3 or better.
And before you mark me as a troll, consider this
From the summary...... So, bought into the whole Thunderbolt monitor thing from Apple? Might want to collect a few right now, while you still can. It appears that the Thunderbolt monitor is going the way of the analog [headphone] jack over at Apple. Isn't it fun to be part of an unsuccessful experiment?
So it looks like Slashdot has gone full troll itself.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
"HaHa"
or sexy, I am confused by kim, zune, stairway to heaven, and spirit. John B. is dead, and John P.J. may as well be since he never amounted to much, certainly not. And why did Eddie fire David? Pig headed man. Old looking as death itself. The booze kills young, or makes u look like death itself.
I have no shirt.
And you underestimate the power of the buyers. Remember how the 3rd-generation iPod shuffle didn't have any buttons? That experiment failed, so the fourth-generation iPod shuffle had buttons, just like the 1st and 2nd generations.
and nothing of value was lost.
2004-2008 SPOT Smartwatch
2006-2012 Zune
2012-2015 Kinect for Windows
2010-soon Windows Phone
> Isn't it fun to be part of an unsuccessful experiment?
What? The monitors did what they were supposed to do, are doing what they were supposed to do, and will keep on doing the same thing they were supposed to do. It's also entirely possible that they will work with thunderbolt 3 via an adapter.
They also stayed on the market for 5 years, which is unheard of for a modern display: most companies like Dell discontinue their displays after a year or two.
If you have a Thunderbolt monitor, it's not like it's going to stop working... I don't get the snide comment about being part of a "failed experiment", it's no more a "failure" than any other monitor ever has been.
I personally would have loved a 5K Thunderbolt, and think we may have seen one yet in a ew months (probably with the same auto-color balancing feature the newer iPad Pro 9.7" offers). But I didn't buy something that doesn't work for me, a while ago I needed a higher res display so I bought a 4K LG monitor I really like and will be happy to use until a really nice Thunderbolt monitor (or something else better) comes along.
One thing really bugs me about the LG monitor though - it has about five USB ports on it, but it's basically the equivalent of an unpowered USB 3 hub! Seems like it wouldn't have taken much effort to supply decent power through the output ports, an iPad connected cannot even charge while in use.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
With a 27" resolution of 2560 x 1440, those pixels are as expensive as gold.
There are quite a few 3rd party Thunderbolt 2 displays on the market, many of which are better than Apple's original eg LG 34" ultra wide.
My guess is they are either:
- exiting the display market entirely
- launching a Thunderbolt 3 display later in the year @ 5k , and miscalculated the run down of parts inventory of the old display (which may be tied to Intel issues with TB 3 capable chipsets)
Thank god they did away with it. Thunderbolt 1 and USB 2: when you looked at the specs, that thing did not have any real reason to exist anymore.
For ~$500, there is the LG 27MB85R, exactly the same dimensions and resolution except it has Thunderbolt 2.
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"... it is a wise child that knows his own father."
Manufacturer discontinues display, has new model planned. Big deal.
Why is BeauHD Openly trolling in the summary and where the fuck is the new management that claimed that they were taking slashdot back to it's roots?
I suffered through the Dice dark ages and saw so many other old school slashdotters leave.
I saw the new owners denounce the worst of Dice's excesses and had hope but openly trolling the way this submission did destroys what little expectation I had that this could happen.
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
So, bought into the whole Thunderbolt monitor thing from Apple? Might want to collect a few right now, while you still can. It appears that the Thunderbolt monitor is going the way of the analog [headphone] jack over at Apple. Isn't it fun to be part of an unsuccessful experiment?
Unlike headphones, I think you'll find that Thunderbolt display owners will find their displays still functioning tomorrow. In fact I would not be surprised if their display continues to do what they paid for, for many years to come.
If I bought a product that does (and continues to do) what I bought it for, how is that a failed experiment?
>> It appears that the Thunderbolt monitor is going the way of the analog [headphone] jack over at Apple. Isn't it fun to be part of an unsuccessful experiment?
I'll make a bet right now that killing the headphone jack will be a step too far and Apple will be forced to bring it back pretty quickly.
Nah they'll just keep reminding you they do adapters (for a reasonable fee, of course) then once everyone's finally either bought one or gone to wireless headphones, that's when they'll bring it back.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
If my not obese what? I prefer my sex partners to be at least grade-school literate... Sorry!
I have a thunderbolt display @ work and they have a ton of problems.
> Isn't it fun to be part of an unsuccessful experiment?
Yup, I have the Lenovo ThinkPad T540p, and its successor model is a counter-example. For those who don't know the history, Lenovo inherited the IBM ThinkPad when they bought their PC division in 2005. ThinkPads have a...distinctive...styling; they're boring black boxes whose design hasn't changed much since the 90s. They're bland, super-rugged business notebooks optimized for work. I'm an old fart (40) and use them exclusively - the hipster project managers and other execs with the MacBook Airs sneer at me when I pull out the computer in meetings and they tell me "We need to get you a new laptop." I paid for them out of pocket when companies were refusing to buy them because they weren't the "standard" HP garbage.
So, a couple model generations ago, Lenovo decided to try to turn the ThinkPad into a black MacBook Pro. They changed the keyboard in one generation, a move some purists consider sacrilegious but I was actually OK with. Then, they got rid of status LEDs and introduced a horrible trackpad monstrosity -- and made the thing totally unusable without an external mouse connected. People (including me) flipped their lids and swore they'd never pay the premium price for a ThinkPad again. Lenovo is slowly walking back the changes. The sad thing is you have to pay $2000+ for a laptop with a hard disk status LED - they only brought those back on the workstation models. :-)
Normal companies will (usually) listen to customers when they screw up and reverse changes. Apple is even more consumer-focused now and has no reason to support hardware long-term the same way other manufacturers do. They'll just discontinue the display, roll out a new one, and the consumers will line up to buy it. In the Lenovo case, they realized there's a core market of people who will pay good money if you give them an anti-hipster work-focused laptop. It's similar to the reason why Ford kept making the Crown Victoria basically unchanged for 30 years and only made small incremental improvements.
There was a Samsung Galaxy S model where they left off the microSD slot.
They've fixed that mistake.
Sadly Apple used another unsuccessful connection to hook stuff up. Thunderbolt goes the way of Firewire and it's not surprising to me. But let's also understand how expensive these monitors were, and you could buy a comparable monitor from a another company for way less. Apple still fails at being competitive with accessories and they seem unwilling to price effectively against competition anymore. They are basically priced based of their name sake and it is not working as well anymore.
My guess is that you're not an Apple user, since you enjoyed oral sex from a girl.
When I was referring to 'Apple" I was referring to my swollen lightly massaged testicles, and Thunderbolt because when you cum it's really intense. I suppose be cause I capitalized the words people took it that way however I wasn't referring to Apple at all. I think it's is a really interesting observation though, that Apple users have disappeared so far up their own arseholes that they can't even see the funny side of something and instantly take it as criticism.
I mean, no one is suggesting Tim Cook uses an iDildo are they?
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
"Isn't it fun to be part of an unsuccessful experiment?" The monitor won't stop working after apple discontinues it. Everyone that has one will be fine. It is no secret that Intel is "rebranding" Thunderbolt as USBx because the USB has a great fanbase. Even to the point that people accuse Apple of using a proprietary port unlike the Windows world usage of the USBx ports. Actually, both ports are proprietary, and owned by INTEL, it is just that USB is so popular that you get economies of scale that you just couldn't get with Thunderbolt, so INTEL decided to incorporate all of the cool functionality of Thunderbolt into the USB family with the newest version.
I have fond memories of a former-girl friend performing...
My guess is that you're not an Apple user, since you enjoyed oral sex from a girl.
Amazing what a small change in punctuation can accomplish. Also makes it fit better with the theme.
I thought it was a fantastic idea, and I really wanted one. I just wasn't going to pay a cool grand for it.
I'll make a bet right now that killing the headphone jack will be a step too far and Apple will be forced to bring it back pretty quickly.
I sincerely doubt that. I think the real question is whether Apple sticks with lightning or switches to USB-C. USB-C audio will be standardized. There is a lot of anxiety over the 3.5mm jack now but I feel that is due to uncertainty.
I realize this is a little off-topic, but here goes anyway. My predictions:
1. Phones will transition to digital audio quickly as the product cycle is fast. Most people won't notice.
2. 3.5mm analog jacks will stick around as a secondary option for a while, but eventually disappear.
3. Computers will switch to USB-C too. The 3.5mm jack will stick around longer there because computers tend to be bigger, have more ports, and longer life cycles nowadays.
4. TVs, home stereo equipment, cars, etc. will pick up USB-C digital audio as well (following the now established standard). This transition will be slower than computers, but it will still happen.
5. When this is all over, people will think of USB-C similar to how they think the of the 3.5mm jack now. IOW, a ubiquitous standard that can do anything, why would you want to muck with it. By this time, USB-C will be the de-facto port for video, audio, peripherals, charging, docking stations, etc.
6. If Apple is still using lightning at this point, they are doing it solely to control users.
Now, this is speculative but I do feel that this will happen. It feels a lot like the first round of USB adoption. I remember being upset that firewire didn't take off and fumbling with the various PS/2 to USB adapters, cursing at bad drivers, etc. But USB did eventually replace a group of interfaces and most things work smoothly without hassle. USB-C is not one company's pet, it is being developed and promoted with wide participation from the industry. Lightning is, however, one company's pet and that is the potential monkey wrench in this situation.
And I'll take that bet, sir. I'll even raise you that Apple sticks to it's guns forever, pushing that "superior" technology until they saturate their market with cables and dongles and docks and all manner of useless stuff.
THEN they will abandon the tech and make everyone buy it ALL OVER AGAIN.
FUCK EACH OTHER IN THE ASS
Ooooh, look, its a trump supporter talking to himself, they do that a lot, being batshit crazy cunts.
Since as you note " a lot of times" hubs provide special ports for Apple devices. If you are making a $1k+ monitor with enough USB ports you can probably afford to spend $2 more on parts to make them useful to everyone.
I'm not sure how right you are though, even a cheap cigarette lighter USB adaptors I got at a gas station offers a 2A and a 1A USB port...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley