Apple Rumored To Remove Old-School USB Ports On Next MacBook Pro (vice.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: First the headphone jack, now the USB port? Rumor has it that Apple may get rid of the USB 3.0 port and the Magsafe port (where the charger plugs in) on the next generation of MacBooks. Japanese tech site Macotakara, which accurately predicted that Apple would kill the headphone jack on the iPhone 7, now also claims that the USB port is on the way out. The move would be similar to Apple's latest 12-inch MacBook and its streamlined profile. There's also word that Apple may discontinue the 11-inch MacBook Air to focus instead on the 13-inch laptop. Discontinuing the 11-inch MacBook Air would also potentially boost sales on the 12-inch MacBook. If these rumors are in fact true, then the new MacBooks will have only a USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 ports. Both of these ports are about the size of the part of an iPhone charger that plugs into the phone. But since most laptop accessories still plug in via the USB port, Apple owners might have to use an adaptor, or upgrade their technology. Meanwhile, the new MacBooks would likely be charged through the USB-C port or Thunderbolt 3 port. Currently, Apple already sells a USB-C dock with other USB and HDMI ports for $79. The USB-C port uses USB 3.1 Standard, according to PCWorld, which will connect to a wide variety of accessories, such as external hard drives, cameras, and printers. The USB 3.1 can also transfer data between the host computer and the peripheral accessories at a speed of 10 gigabits per second, which is twice as fast as the USB 3.0. Apple is expected to reveal the new Macs at an October 27th event in Cupertino, California.

Comments

I only want one feature

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro.

There is only one feature I require to justify an upgrade: a matte display.

Apple didn't not provide it. Therefore, no upgrade.

No MagSafe would be a step backwards

[seoras]

That would not be good. I've tripped over my power cable far too many times and been grateful for having Magsafe.
I had hoped Apple would find a way of continuing MagSafe with USB-C even though they didn't with the MacBook.
The only way I can envisage Apple keeping MagSafe with USB-C is to re-located it to the power brick end of the cable.
Feels like a big step backwards if they don't do something to retain one of the best psychical features of Mac laptops.

Re:No MagSafe would be a step backwards

[dgatwood]

Actually, it would be really easy to keep. You just make a six-inch USB-C-to-MagSafe adapter and plug your existing MagSafe or MagSafe 2 cable into that adapter. As an added bonus, the too-weak magnet used in MagSafe 2 would be adequate if it were in the middle of a cable instead of in a position to get knocked loose by your lap. And a MagSafe connection even a few inches into the cable would be just as good as a MagSafe connection on the device.

Unfortunately, thanks to Apple's over-patenting, the only company that can legally make such an adapter is Apple, so if they don't, the average cost of owning a Mac just tripled.

Re:No MagSafe would be a step backwards

[rgbscan]

They already sell these on Amazon. Look for "breakaway usb-c cable"

Re: No MagSafe would be a step backwards

[fluffernutter]

I've tripped over ThinkPad cables and they were fine.. because they were built properly. On the other hand my mac port falls out every single time I move my laptop which is incredibly annoying.

Re:No MagSafe would be a step backwards

[AdamThor]

Holy shit, magsafe is the best freaking thing in the entirety of the Apple universe. It is an oversight that it isn't on everything. iphones. ipads. Other vendors laptops. Electric toothbrushes. Vacuum sweepers. Magsafe is the pinnacle of all of Apple's output. It is genius so banal that mediocrity must slay it.

Re:No MagSafe would be a step backwards

[bingoUV]

First they came for the ethernet port, but I didn't speak up because I could live without one.

COURAGE

[fyngyrz]

No standard USB ports?!?!?

Such COURAGE!

/s

Re:COURAGE

[Hognoxious]

This isn't courage. It's HEROISM!

Or is it Sparta? I'm fucked if I know.

Re:COURAGE

[dgatwood]

Meh. Most people who carry around USB devices can carry around a different cable just as easily. In the grand scheme of don't care, it's a lot less annoying than the headphone jack would have been.

And as much as I think removing the HDMI port is annoying, the truth is that I already have to carry around a retractable HDMI cable, so carrying an adapter for the relatively rare situations where I use the HDMI cable isn't that annoying either.

What is annoying, if true, is the removal of the SD card slot. Yes, Apple's SD card slot is many years out of date and should have been updated at least half a decade ago to support UHS-II, but Apple's inclusion of an SD card slot, slow as it is, has been a significant driving force in pushing camera companies to move to SD instead of CF, and has resulted in standardization that otherwise would not have happened.

Without that anchor, the industry is very likely to devolve into the wild west of card formats again. In five years, some consumer-level cameras will use CFast, others will use UHS-II SD, and others will use XQD. I wouldn't be surprised to see three or four other formats by the time all is said and done.

If true, this is a crippling blow for standards. And I really have to ask what makes this laptop "pro" at that point. It sounds like the only meaningful difference between it and the standard MacBook will be a second USB port. They're apparently dropping all the other distinguishing features that made it worth hundreds of dollars more—the HDMI port, the SD card slot, MagSafe... and the only thing replacing all that lost hardware functionality is a set of soft-reconfigurable action buttons at the top of the keyboard. Whee.

Re:Courage

[TeknoHog]

I also don't understand why an Apple product needs a charger. By the time the battery runs out, it's already obsolete and you should buy a new model.

Re:COURAGE

[Anonymous Coward]

In this refresh we removed even more features you rely on, and then charged you extra for the privilege.

Apple. Because we don't give a shit about what you actually need.

Re:COURAGE

[AmiMoJo]

What USB cable? All flash drives have the USB connector built in.

Re:COURAGE

[dgatwood]

With the way Apple is designing products these days, someone really ought to dig him up, strap magnets to him, and power half the Bay Area.

Re:COURAGE

[Darinbob]

Carry around? The macbook is essentially a desktop computer for many people. It may go mobile now and then but not with a bunch of accessories. We have power adapters, display adaptess, test equipment, and a host of USB devices, all staying on the desks.

Apple needs to stop thinking of its macbook as a hipster toy used to show off to other cafe patrons, but as a real computer doing real work. And yet the damn thing still freaks out and resizes and moves every window every time a monitor is plugged into it as if the developers never bothered to debug that code as being too important enough.

And making it smaller? The current ones already overheat easily because of having everything packed into too small of a space, so that the most popular macbook accessory I see is the laptop stand. Because it's so hot you can't put the laptop on your lap anymore.

Please Apple, I want a larger screen display, I want the same ports to stick around from one year to the next, I don't want to see change for no purpose other than to have change. There is no way to make the macbook pro smaller and still make it usable - if you want tiny unusable tech jewelry then that's what the macbook air is for. If we buy your expensive adapters then what guarantee do we have that it won't change again in the near future? Listen to the customers for once.

Re:COURAGE

[aethelrick]

I think keeping the cats fed was the biggest challenge to the feline-toast turbine wasn't it?

Re:COURAGE

[vux984]

since they provide a seldom-used (but still used) function in a laptop with good WiFi.

Used an an awful lot by mobile pros who work with large files, or pros who configure networks. Maybe Apple should create a sku with a couple extra usb ports, a gigabit port, as thick as the 2011 mbp with the extra space used for battery. They could call it "Macbook Pro".

They can renamed the current macbook pro, macbook Air+

In the end, it actually provides more flexibility for individual needs,

Fewer options is greater freedoms! Taking things out provides more flexibility! What double think! What newspeak! Much wow!

without overly-complicating base designs or unnecessarily increasing hardware costs.

Nobody buying a $2500 pro laptop in 2016 is concerned about the cost of a few ports. Indeed that's what the $2500 is for... because we want it to have all these capabilities built in, and we're willing to pay what ever it costs to get it.

It's reached the point where I'm considering buying a thunderbolt dock to keep in my laptop bag. Has all the ports I'll need, and I'm less likely to misplace or forget it. And its cheaper than the combined price of all the hubs, adapters, and dongles I currently need to carry around.

But you know what would be really cool... if they put some extra battery in the dock. And added a keyboard, screen, touchpad, CPU, SSD, and RAM. Then I could just carry around the dock, and not bother with a useless laptop. ;-)

PS:

Those Ethernet "Dongles" (as you call them)

A dongle is a piece of hardware that attaches to a computer and allows a piece of secured software to run. [...]

The term dongle has expanded beyond software protection to include any small device that plugs into the Universal Serial Bus (USB) or other computer port, regardless of what it does. These devices are usually used to provide some function that is not built in to the computer itself. This includes adding memory, supplying Bluetooth® and WiFi® connections, and adding adapters so that other devices can be plugged in.

http://www.wisegeek.org/what-i...

Re:COURAGE

[david_thornley]

Actually, when Atlantis was about to sink, they took a lot of cats and fastened toast to their backs, so if they actually fell to the ground the cats wouldn't land on their feet or the buttered toast wouldn't fall on the buttered side, and suspended the continent from them. This worked until they forgot to feed the cats, so they had nothing to eat but the toast on each other's backs. This caused Atlantis to sink beneath the waves, a real cattoastrophe.

Escalation?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm thinking of history.

1) Apple removes optical drives. These were widely used, but on the decline.
2) Apple removes 3.5mm jacks (how courageous). These are widely used, and holding steady.
3) Apple removes USB. These are widely used, and moreover critical for many peripherals, especially mice, keyboards, and thumb-drives. (I'm sure it will be a courageous first step, and the early adopters will get a free $300 proprietary mouse included when they buy the computer.)

They seem to be escalating. What next? Apple removes the monitor from the MacBook; although I guess if they did so it would easily let them create the thinnest, lightest, most portable MacBook ever.

Re:Escalation?

[bjb_admin]

No the next step is the keyboard, since it takes up a ton of space!

Re:Escalation?

[avandesande]

Remove all the guts and you have a nice high tech clamshell to carry around a paper pad and a pen.

Re:Escalation?

[Calydor]

I think the problem is that the form-factor has changed, which means you need new EVERYTHING.

That is the problem energy-saving light bulbs faced until they had the brilliant idea of going with the old form factor from incandescent bulbs: No existing lamps or lampshades would fit the new bulbs, so no one BOUGHT the new bulbs.

If buying a new computer also means buying a new cell phone, mouse, keyboard, speakers, digital camera, printer, scanner, etc. then people probably aren't going to be lining up to buy that new computer.

Re:Escalation?

[jedidiah]

There's no reason to remove "legacy" connectors if they don't actually get in the way. The only reason to do so is to fuck your end users.

Re:Escalation?

[maglor_83]

If this was about removing legacy USB, they would put 6 of the bloody things in.
If this was about catering to customers needs, they would have a 4-2 split.
If this was about making money from selling dongles, they would do what they have done.

Re:Escalation?

[newcastlejon]

Right, Apple - with approximately 230 billion USD in cash on hand - is really worried about the size of its bank account.

Yes, that's generally the best way to increase the size of one's bank account.

Re:Escalation?

[friedmud]

1. Laptops come with built-in mice called trackpads. In Apple's case those trackpads are awesome and I guarantee you that 99% of people are using them.
2. Your "average" user never plugs anything into their laptop other than power... ever. My wife has literally _never_ plugged a single other thing other than power into her Macbook Air... and I suspect she never will.
3. There are already USB-C thumb-drives... many of them even have dual adapters built in (USB-C and USB-A). They aren't even expensive. This will be a non-issue.
4. Who uses "thumb-drives" anyway? File transfer is all done using Dropbox (or equivalent) or email.
5. The mice and keyboards Apple sells are generally wireless and won't have any issues with this change. Most other peripheral companies also make wireless keyboards and mice that will still work fine. "$300 proprietary mouse"? What are you smoking?
6. Even an actual USB-C _wired_ mouse (shudder) is only ~$10...
7. USB-C to USB-A adapters are $5-$6 for people who really need them.

I love how people love to invent apocalypses when Apple changes things. They always forget that normal people (non-technical people) "just use the machine the way it is" and won't be impacted by any of this.

Re:Escalation?

[Megane]

SCSI? nobody else (in the consumer market) used that

ADB? nobody else used that (it was for the keyboard/mouse, not printers)

Mini-DIN 8 RS-422 serial? nobody else used that

Firewire? hardly any non-Mac people used that, and most of the PCs that did used the stupid Sony iLink connector with no power so they could connect to cameras, and cameras don't use it anymore

Optical out? That stupid little switch in my MBP's headphone jack gets stuck into "optical cable present" mode when I unplug headphones, but fortunately I can store a toothpick (to unjam it) in the hinge area above the keyboard and it will still close properly

USB A? There are over 15 years worth of everybody using it, and the plugs are everywhere. I have a crate overflowing with cables and various thingies that use it. But nothing yet with USB C. Don't get me wrong, I think USB C is a good thing, but even modern TV sets that got rid of S-video inputs in favor of HDMI still have composite video inputs.

MagSafe have save me tons of money

[BLToday]

I can't count the number of times I've tripped over a laptop cable. I've lost multiple hard drives but only one broken screen with my Windows laptops. Thanks to MagSafe I've lost zero anything on my MacBooks.

Re:MagSafe have save me tons of money

[chinton]

If you've lost multiple hard drives and a broken screen because you keep tripping over the cords, maybe you need to think about where you are plugging things in.

Re:MagSafe have save me tons of money

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the reason it's going away. It's too successful at saving you money (at the expense of Apple's bank account). Can't have features like that when you have to please the shareholders.

Re:MagSafe have save me tons of money

[kuzb]

It sounds more to me like the problem is with you, not the hardware. I've never tripped over a laptop cable, because I don't create situations where that's possible to do.

Do they want to sell these things?

[HBI]

One gets the impression that they don't. I mean, I wasn't their market anyway. I absolutely despise the no-buttons touch panel on recent Macbooks. But not having any useful ports completely rules out the device even for my wife.

Courage

[iamacat]

Come on, why stop here? Now that OSX has Siri, let's also remove screen, trackpad and keyboard. Looking forward to iEcho.

Not happy at all for a "Pro" laptop from Apple....

[King_TJ]

I've been a long time Apple supporter, even going so far as to pay all the $$$'s for one of the late 2013 "trash can" Mac Pro workstations, shortly after it was released. (I did that only because I owned both a 2006 and 2008 Mac Pro tower before it, and both were excellent computers that I got years of daily use out of -- paying for themselves several times over with the work and entertainment value I got out of them. I figured I'd invest in the new direction Apple was taking things, with faith they'd make sense of what seemed at first to be kind of a step backwards in design and functionality.)

Well, unfortunately, what I'm seeing is a trend away from Apple catering at all to "power users" or "computer enthusiasts". Under Steve Jobs, at least their push towards minimalist styling/design was still well-balanced with giving the user what they really needed to get things done. (EG. When Apple declared the 3.5" floppy was dead and removed it? The rest of the Windows PC world thought that was crazy. Yet the advent of IOMega Zip disks, Syquest cartridges, dirt cheap CDR media, flash drives, SD and CF cards and more proved Apple was right. They were just pushing people a little further towards that "cutting edge" of tech, instead of sitting complacent in the middle of the "tried and true, but fading in usability" zone of technology. And when Apple decided to quit including optical drives in any of their systems? Again, some people threw fits but it's ultimately proved to be the sensible solution. External CD/DVD/Blu-Ray players and recorders are cheap and easy to plug in if/when needed, and they don't bulk up or weigh down a computer when you DON'T intend to use one. It also means when they break down, which they do fairly often with all their mechanical parts inside, they're easier to replace.)

With Thunderbolt? I feel like Apple tried, once again, to "skate to where they thought the puck was going to be" instead of to where it was. But that time, perhaps they took a chance and weren't quite right. Nonetheless, it wasn't really a big problem for users because it was only there in addition to plenty of other ports. The ability for Apple's Thunderbolt port to double as a "Mini DisplayPort" connector ensured people would use it with a dongle to attach extra monitors even if they never used it for anything else. And on higher end systems like my Mac Pro? It's actually quite useful since you pretty much need some kind of external drive enclosure to have a decent amount of storage space directly attached to the machine. There are a number of good options for multi-drive cabinets with Thunderbolt connections, and it provides great throughput without bottlenecking a USB bus.

But now, I feel like options are getting deleted just because Apple would prefer to have fewer configuration options to stock in their lineup, or because they're pushing change just for the sake of being different. (That whole elimination of matte vs. glossy displays is a great example, even if it still happened under Steve Job's watch. There was clearly a LOT of demand for anti-glare screen displays, yet Apple simply ignored it and told people "Tough luck. We think you'll love our product enough to buy it anyway, so we don't care.")

This move to USB-C? I think the new standard is just fine for netbooks or "Ultraportables" where people are primarily concerned about how light and thin it is, and probably don't WANT to connect very much up to it. But it definitely has no business in a Macbook PRO laptop being sold any time this year ... Not unless it's just there in additional to a couple of regular USB 3.0 ports. Otherwise, you're ignoring a universal standard that has no signs of dying yet. Go shop for a new inkjet printer and tell me how many have USB-C connections on them vs. traditional USB right now. Same for any digital cameras with connection cables.)

Secondarily, I agree that this change means eliminating a connector (mag-safe) that really does offer a great feature that competing laptops never had. IMO,

Re:only 2 ports and no power jack?

[EvilSS]

How fucking thing does this $1200+ laptop need to be

To meet Apple standards it needs to be at least 8.562 thing

Replacing USB-A with USB-C != removing USB

[j2.718ff]

Apple may get rid of the USB 3.0 port

I've only heard about plans to replace USB-A with USB-C, not to eliminate USB ports. USB-C is an actual standard that already exists. USB-A to USB-C adapters are easy to come by, and as time goes on, more and more devices will be using USB-C. I have no problem with this. In fact, my cell phone already has a USB-C port.

Re:only 2 ports and no power jack?

[JustNiz]

If you're enough of a gamer to want to use an nVidia or AMD video card, then just buying any Apple product seems like a particularly bad move in the first place.

What's Next?

[chipschap]

What will Apple remove next? The keyboard and the screen?

Maybe they can just remove everything. Now that would be a MacBook "Air".

Re:So, no more usb mouse?

[kuzb]

The solution seems simple to me. Stop giving Apple your money. There's nothing revolutionary about macs except the ways they extort you in to paying more after the fact.

Re:Not happy at all for a "Pro" laptop from Apple.

[Yaztromo]

Go shop for a new inkjet printer and tell me how many have USB-C connections on them vs. traditional USB right now.

I think you chose a poor example. Most printers that I'm aware of feature a USB Type-B connector on them, and don't come with any sort of cable.

USB Type-C is just a new USB connector. It's still signal compatible with existing USB devices. As virtually all inkjet printers don't come with a cable, you just ensure you buy a USB Type C to USB Type B cable to go with your printer, the same way you'd need to buy a USB Type C to USB Type A cable.

Yaz

Re:First question

[Jarik C-Bol]

https://www.amazon.com/Adapter...

5$.

Re:only 2 ports and no power jack?

[unixisc]

They're probably figuring that OS X alone makes the laptop so much more valuable than fully featured laptops running Windows 10, just b'cos of the OS being used.

That said, why does the summary talk about the USB port in terms of version number? That says nothing. The proper way to describe a USB port and what sort of USB port we'll have would be the type used - Type A, Type B, Type C, Mini USB, Micro USB, et al. If Apple is thinking of dropping a Type A USB port, how does it expect anyone to connect that laptop to a printer? Or do they expect everybody to print to iCloud?

Re:USB connector is awful

[aaarrrgggh]

I agree several thousand-fold. Unfortunately, it didn't and is now pervasive. People have electrical outlets with them built in... There is something to be said for a bad, yet pervasive standard.

Re:Film at 11.

[fluffernutter]

I have old usb keyboards and mice kicking around that we use. Also we use flash drives a lot and android phones. We have some usb mics.

If I have purchased a $2000 computer why should I have to keep a set of dongles around so that I can use the system properly? A $2000 computer should do everything I need it to out of the box. It shouldn't have to be 'completed' with a $5 dongle.