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Apple's New MacBook Pro Requires a $25 Dongle To Charge Your iOS Device (networkworld.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Network World: As Phil Schiller explained during today's event, Apple's new MacBook Pros feature four Thunderbolt 3 USB Type-C ports, and conveniently, each of these can be used to charge the machine. Now, USB-C is incredibly versatile, and Apple will use the advanced port for power charging, HDMI and much more. However, with USB-C the only game in town, you might reasonably be wondering: How in the world do I connect my iPhone to my sleek new MacBook Pro? The frustrating answer is that you won't be able to do so out of the box. Instead, you'll have to buy a dongle. This is especially frustrating because many people use their notebooks for a) charging purposes when an outlet isn't necessarily handy and b) for transferring photos and other data. Now, you might reasonably state that you can just rely upon the cloud for items like data transfer, but there's no getting around the fact that Apple's efforts in the cloud still leave much to be desired. How much will it cost to connect your iPhone to your brand new MacBook Pro? Well, Apple sells a USB-C to Lightning cable on its website for $25. While this is undoubtedly frustrating, we can't say that it's entirely unexpected given Apple gave us a preview of its preference for USB-C when it released its 12-in. MacBook last year. Still, it's a funky design choice for a decidedly Pro-oriented device where the last thing a prospective consumer would want to do is spend some extra cash for a dongle after spending upwards of $2,399. Lastly, while we're on the topic of ports, it's worth noting that the new MacBook Pros also do away with the beloved MagSafe connector.
Especially when you chain 37 adapters and hubs together to gain back the functionality you had just 3 years ago...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
They really should have made the switch to USB-C on their iPhone 7 and iPad. It seems to be virtually the same size. And what else uses lightning besides those few device lines?
Non-techies often giggle when I use the word "dongle". Can't we find a better word before HR hauls me in for alleged harassment?
Table-ized A.I.
It looks a lot like the past
This signature is false.
Looks like they already have a $7 third party option. I am not affiliated with the brand that I've never heard of, nor Amazon. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0...
but...it's always been that way, with all the previous Apple products too.
Their fucking phones are the old smart phones on the market that don't use a USB standard.
https://griffintechnology.com/...
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
How can Apple possibly justify wasting valuable internal space on the 3.5mm headphone jack? If they removed that archaic interface they could likely shave off another 0.15mm, present another glossy graphic where that 0.15mm saving looks like a 30% reduction in thickness, and sell their customers yet another dongle.
Wow, charging over wireless? I hadn't heard of that feature.
Really? How does that charge it you fucking moron? It's right in the title.
Yeah, but they were talking about CHARGING the phone, you fucking retard.
Do you need a dongle for your dongle?
But some just want to bitch.
It converts between Lightning and USB-C but accomplishes it by converting the Lightning port to an internal Firewire port, which then converts to an internal USB port, which converts to an HDMI port, and finally goes out as USB-C.
I'm tired of shelling out $80 when their crappy connector frays and splits.
Qi
Something like this would have never happened under Jobs. He was meticulous that stuff worked together, easily, out of the box. Apple's lost its way with each product manager driving each product.
...if you think about the ear phone situation. The new macs still have a 3.5mm jack for ear phones and no special wireless chip. Hence there are no ear phones which will work with both your mac an your iPhone.
People used to claim that Apple was a hardware company but given the current state of their hardware this is hard to believe. I think they are turning into a dongle company where they plan to make their money selling dongles to let you connect all their hardware together.
what a weird thing to lie about.
You must keep calling it that until they no longer exist or are no longer needed. They are horrible, and the name for them should be just as horrible or embarrassing as possible.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
They are currently busy removing that archaic interface known as the keyboard one row at a time. Given them a chance to finish that before they start removing all the remaining ports.
You must be new around here. Turn in your geek card and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_power_transfer
Just don't call them dongles while there are women around.
One would think that you could be sure there was a lack of them in areas with high concentration of nerds, but even tech conferences aren't safe any longer.
That's a separate device, thus not an iPhone feature. That functions over something other than Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. I don't need a geek card clearly, I understand things better than you. I'm a nerd.
Cool, but where is there any evidence that there is a wireless Mac charger in the laptop? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? LOL. You Apple fanboy retards are so autistic that it's no wonder that the rest of the world treats you like shit. Oh, and thanks so much for the economic recession, you autistic pieces of shit. We REALLY needed a second great depression. It was fucking awesome. Thanks so much, you goddamned autistic fucking retards. And fuck you, you stupid aspies. Why can't we have high IQ polymaths? Why do we have to settle for highly specialized retards that can fuck up the entire world?
I am in the market for a new mobile phone and a new laptop. I was was considering the Galaxy Note 7 but waited for the iPhone 7 to be released before I bought a phone. The removal of the 3.5 mm audio port really turned me off from the iPhone 7 and the explosions turned me off of the Galaxy Note 7. At this point I'll likely pick up a Google Pixel or an older iPhone 6s. As for laptops, I just ordered a Dell XPS 13 Developers Edition. I was seriously considering a MacBook Pro but couldn't get over the old 4th gen processors in the (current ones) so I waited for the announcement today to see if the single port rumors were true. 2 USB-C ports (in the 13 inch version) just isn't going to cut it and that touch thing looks like a gimmick. I suppose I won't be going back to apple after all. I can't imagine Jobs would like this crap happen.
LOFLMASO
Get a dock if you want to use lots of (legacy) ports on a compact laptop! I bring my computer home and plug in TWO cables. (power and thunderbolt) and suddenly I have: printer, scanner, SD card reader, firewire backup drive, speakers gig ethernet, 1080p display, and several more open USB3 ports. (as well as another thunderbolt and mic port I'm not using atm)
Compare that to plugging in ALL that crap one cable at a time before the dock. Now with USBC hubs, ONE cable will do all of that since C combines the data and the charge. I'm still running a 2010 mbp, I'm due for an upgrade, and a dock will be the first accessory I get for it.
This is just a headline grabber looking to wind up the haters by giving them something to hate that they have no real reason to hate. Anyone that's somehow finding it possible to be hurting for an additional $25 after buying a $2,000+ computer can just get on ali or amazon or ebay and pick up two cables for $6 shipped or something like that. But considering how few ports the computer has, you'd be stupid to get a handful of cables and adapters that you can only use one or two of at a time. Get a dock! Problem solved, and solved well.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Well, except for getting rid of the magsafe, which is one of the best features it used to have.
It's not the port on the computer that's the problem, but the one on the iPhone. Instead of a proprietary port, the iPhone should use a standard port and that standard is USB with USB-C being its latest incarnation.
Psssst, here's a clue - laptops are supposed to provide portability, and not require you to carry around a bunch of extra cables and docks.
Get a dock if you want to use lots of (legacy) ports on a compact laptop!
Uh... if I wanted a 'compact laptop' I'd buy a macbook air.
I wanted a pro laptop; I want a gigabit ethernet port. That is not a "legacy" port. I want regular USB. I want HDMI. These are not legacy ports either. These are what the other devices you will encounter on the road have. From the TV in the hotel to the flash drive a coworker will hand you. I don't want to have reach into a bag of dongles to find an adapter for every goddamned thing.
I'm fine with it being a bit heavier, and a bit thicker if it gives me more ports and more battery. Again, I wanted a pro laptop ... if I wanted a compact laptop that focused on minimalism... I'd have bought a macbook air.
I want more RAM, I want more SSD. This laptop might be a fine device... but its just a fancy macbook air. I'm in the market for a pro laptop.
Anyone that's somehow finding it possible to be hurting for an additional $25 after buying a $2,000+ computer can just get on ali or amazon or ebay and pick up two cables for $6 shipped or something like that.
Its not the money for the cables, its having to buy them at all. Its that I spent $2000+ for a computer with all the functionality I wanted built in. I wasn't trying to save money; I was trying to buy a pro laptop. Charge me another $200 and build-in the fucking ports. Not having to carry around a bag of shit is worth it to me.
Get a dock! Problem solved, and solved well.
A dock is something you leave on your desk. I need the ports to follow me around so I can use them where I go.
So your solution is Buy a laptop for $2000+ Then buy another slightly smaller laptop sized dongle to fix all the shortcomings of the first laptop.
FFS that is not a problem solved well. You know what a problem solved well would be... build the fucking dock INTO the goddamned laptop, and call that a "pro" laptop.
I was almost with you until you used the term autistic inappropriately. Apparently you don't even know what the word means. Try one that makes sense.
My previous post here was cynical but correct in saying that people were going to need a fucking peripheral. I guess the marketing lunatics really are running the asylum at Apple now. So fucking pathetic and they will never get another dollar of my money.
I'm sure they're devastated.
If it were and adapter and you'd still need a cable it might be called a dongle, but what Apple sells is a straight up cable. No Dongle in sight.
...to "Throbbing Pleasure Shaft."
There! Problem solved!
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
For about $4 try http://www.banggood.com/Origin... but feel free to pay more if you want.
You need to lay off the fucking crack. First that bullshit that I need to pay more for your new goddamned deficient and defective by design iPhone 7, then you actually expect us to pay even MORE for your crappy (it's Bluetooth and therefore I know it's crap despite Timmie's assurances to the contrary,) stupid, designed-to-be-lost headphones, which the phone can't be charged WHILE using (another idiotic design-FAILURE,) and of course they neglected to make it wireless charging, and passed up a golden opportunity as long as they're saying a big, fat FUCK YOU to the customers, to make a truly waterproof iPhone....
In done with CrApple. Fuck you, Timmie, you asshole. Fuck the LOT of you.
Yea I swear I saw Hillary fire a stinger missile at the plane.
Connecting an ios device to a mac is a front pull-up panel button. the big one marked "AIRDROP". the devices find each other.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
This issue is this is a $1500 laptop running pretty modest hardware (top bin, but very modest) and to top it off they are charging for adapters...and this is to work with there own newest product (Iphone 7, which I have).
I have a 2012 macpro and think im just going to add a bigger ssd...which at least is an option. Most of the gripes are purely about the cost cutting schemes these "features" are passed off as. Having less isn't more, if I wanted the thinnest fucking laptop ever I would just get an ipad or use my phone.
By releasing these new Macbooks with only USB-C ports Apple is creating a potentially huge market for USB hubs with a USB-C upstream port and legacy USB downstream ports. If the market isn't already flooded with such devices it will be soon.
Use the cloud or WiFi to your computer. That's how phones work now. It's crazy. Try it, you might like it.
You only need to connect your phone to your Mac to use iTunes. And who here is going to stand up for how much they want to use iTunes?
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
THIS THIS THIS ^^^^^
If I wasn't an AC I would gift you mod points.
Um, yes, they do have Bluetooth, as well as BLE. Works just fine with my BT headphones, which I can guarantee are older than BLE itself is.
. Define sqrt(x) as something really evil like (x / rand()), and bury it deep. Watch your coworkers go nuts.
"Still, it's a funky design choice"
Sorry I've lost track, what does funky mean this decade?
No, stop lying. Hillary was about to fire a stinger missile, but she froze up and couldn't pull the trigger.
Later Michael Bloomberg claimed that if it wasn't for Hillary's Parkinsons, he'd have taken his anti-gun money back.
Respect the Constitution
plug it into the wall, like always?
The sort of person who values apple products and thus sees the purchase price as a value, will not have any trouble spending 1% more to get a dongle. As noted they don't need this. They do not need to use the cloud, apple to apple is trivial by wi-fi or blue tooth. This story is indeed STOOOPID. Apple haters of course won't see any value in the 2.5K purchase to begin with so their opinions hardly are relevant.
Fucking Slashdot Morons are out in force today. Apple made a profit of 45.7 Billion Dollars. What made the headlines was the fact that for the first time in 15 straight years, they didn't break a previous record in the process; 2016 Profits were 14% below 2015. But note that the long awaited iPhone 7 only came on the Market at the end of the last Quarter.
"Removing features like the 3.5mm jack really hurt them when their competition who has a 3.5mm is flourishing because of their mistake."
And Apple Smartphone Market Share is holding at 43.5% in the US, and gained slightly overseas. Samsung is in second place at 28.5%... and every other manufacturer is in the single digits. Math isn't really your strong point, is it?
Where Apple _really_ screwed up is in dropping their ~$900 MacBook Air 11. These things are ubiquitous in Education; they really do just Work. Nothing works with the USB-C of the small but too expensive MacBook 12, and the MacBook Air 13 is too both big, heavy, and too expensive. Hell, the R&D costs of the 11 were written off years ago; they should have kept it around for another couple of years, at around $700, until USB-C became common and the 12 could take its place. (K-6 are best served with cheap disposable Chromebooks.)
The stupidity of Apple Inc. Executive, like Jony Ive -- Greatest Genius Born To Earth Who Could Not Figure Out How To Start An Apple ][, is astonishing.
And those 4 Thunderbutt ports are controlled by ONE logic board with a circuit spliter, i.e. a network switch. Lose the logic board and loose all the ports all at once!
What a "Novel" design Jony Ive.
For Apple Inc. the end has happened. Although it will take some time for Cook et al. to burn through the $200+ billion sitting in Irish banks and the $300+ billion sitting in Chinese Communist Party banks.
Ta ta
I'm reluctant to bear my ignorance, by what can't USB C be magnetically configured? Because I do USE my laptop for a living and minding port plugs and wires is a pain in the ass. What I believe is proved by this continued design is the MAJORITY of Pro buyers ARE NOT engineers, sound, video, etc., but business hacks showing off the sleekness factor for meetings. A working Mac is tethered and ungainly and this latest port design makes it worse, but it doesn't matter because the larger market is conspicuous consumption types. Maybe this is an open secret to everyone. Maybe it's just one of the many FanBoi arguments I've ignored because I've run Linux on a few laptops, but am most productive with my Apple.
Would were! Should is! Could be! And live a hundred times three.
Wow, charging over wireless? I hadn't heard of that feature.
It requires a dongle -- that you plug into the wall.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Oh wow, look, no wires!
Honestly, why are tech reporters still living in the stone age?
You use the charger you got with the phone dum-bass.
"Still, it's a normal design choice for a decidedly Pro-oriented device since there's no reason a prospective consumer wouldn't spend a few dollars extra cash for a dongle after spending upwards of $2,399."
I guess that story isn't as good since it doesn't make as many Apple haters foam at the mouth.
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
given some of the mixed reviews their seems to be a good reason it is only $7
So the solution to the syncing problem is to put your phone down five inches from your laptop, upload to your Cloud account (on a capped internet connection), then download it on the other device (on the same capped internet device) instead of creating a physical connection between the two? Or hell, just a local wireless connection if we're only talking about syncing and not even getting into questions about charging?
This. THIS is what causes all that bandwidth saturation the ISPs are so afraid of!
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
Which is it?
"you won't be able to do so out of the box. Instead, you'll have to buy a dongle."
"Apple sells a USB-C to Lightning cable on its website for $25."
When my 2010 MBP gives out, I will look for a more recent used model. I will not buy another new Apple product. This is the beginning of the end for Apple; it will not crash and burn, but is on the same path as MSFT started on about 15 years ago...downhill
http://www.simulationexams.com/tutorials/aplus/essentials/laptops-portables/images/docking-station.jpg
Because an $8 one won't work, right?
https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Rankie-Hi-speed-Including-ChromeBook/dp/B01EL4PVFE/
You do realize that you can just get a USB-C to HDMI cable, that is a single cable to connect directly to your monitor?
- These characters were randomly selected.
Messed up as this may be, I don't think calling it a dongle is right. The iPhone just ships with the wrong cable, and you need to replace it with another one.
the 'fixed' iBook G4s that still had the EXACT SAME cold solder failure.
I got bitten by one of those on my first and last apple product back in '03. I really liked the battery life of the G4, the dedicated gpu, etc. It had gentoo on it within the first hour however when OSX was taking longer than 30 seconds for the initial bootup without even a splashscreen. The G4 was a pig compared to my previous P3 and at the time broken P4 laptops, but the added 2 hours of battery life made it bearable for schoolwork... right up until it failed on me the day before a midterm was due with either the southbridge or gpu failure. I had to decase it to get my files off and as a result never tried to send it in for warranty work. It is still collecting dust out in the garage somewhere.
Apple quality has never been that good, but they charge a premium for it nonetheless and whitewash over its failings to a consumer base that will buy it even if it is crap compared to the competition. And I say that having had a lot of 'crap' from the PC camp, but nothing with quite as sudden a failure as that system. Most failures were intermittent enough to allow backing up and wiping before a return. Or at least made the hard disk accessable for a pull, backup, reformat cycle. The Firewire hard disk mode would've been perfect... except the cold solder failure caused it not to work, as was a documented problem on the g3s. Finland or somewhere's consumer organization did an inspection of a failed g4 and found the exact same failure the g3s had, while apple claimed up and down it was impossible because they had remedied it.
Professionals care about not having the need for an adapter, because they easily get lost or simply forgotten at home.
Let's remove basic functionality, charge them more for the uniqueness, and then overcharge them *again* for basic equipment they need to restore it! It's just like on-disc DLC, but with hardware! We are geniuses!
I just took a look at the usual suspects (dell, asus, acer, hp etc) for a MBP replacement to run Linux as my main laptop. They are all spec limited in ways the MBP is not. 256G storage, 8G ram. No option to upgrade. The machine I would be replacing has 1TB storage and 16G ram. 'Power' machines are huge and ugly.
I was not impressed. I thing the MBP I have may be peak laptop. They're all downhill from here.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
So. Do you think this MacBook Pro is a pro laptop?
Get a dock if you want to use lots of (legacy) ports on a compact laptop!
Get a desktop if you want to connect a computer to something.
Get a mainframe if you need the processing power.
Portability? No one buys a laptop for portability! /retarded translation.
You do realize, you don't have to buy Apple laptop. You can buy a laptop that has all this functionality you're looking for from different brand. Be it Asus, Acer, Gigabyte. All have sleek looking, nice screen, all the ports you're looking for.
I've done it when I moved away from MacBook Pro 17", since Apple stopped making 17" laptops. Bought a nice 2.8kg 17" gigabyte laptop, and never been happier.
If Apple continued making 17" laptops, I might have not switched back to PC. Kind a same with deal I did when I switched from iphone4 to galaxy s2. It was about the screen size. If apple had a iphone4plus, I might have not switched.
Apple, not content with merely making their hardware incompatible with industry standards, today embarked upon an even bolder, more forward-thinking strategy - to make their own hardware incompatible with their own hardware. Top board members and key marketing department spokespeople have championed this new design direction for the company as "really right on, man." and "oh wow, far out."
with an "apple engineer", this fits so well here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Signature deleted by lameness filter.
When you go somewhere to make a freaking presentation, you are handled a HDMI cable (it used to be a DVI one. And before a VGA one). You have to connect it to your laptop. This is what happens in a "pro" setting. Sometimes, the guy gives you an USB key and say: the docs we need to look at on screen are on the key. You need to connect the key to your machine.
This is why it is called a "pro" laptop. It does those things.
I think they are turning into a dongle company where they plan to make their money selling dongles to let you connect all their hardware together.
Yes.
Best proof is when you compare the price of chinese knock of and Apple-certified dongles.
The only single difference between a plain simple adapter/cable that you can build yourself, and apple's over-priced stuff, are the special chips whose only puprose boils down to "So we can charge you for expensive Apple-certified dongles"
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
The point is that now that Apple has ditched every other type on connector on the MacBook Pro, the peripheral manufacturers will start making devices with the USB-C connector. Printers, monitors, TVs, chargers, disc drives, optical drives, mice, keyboards, everything. Everything with the same connector. At last!
If apple had kept an old-stipe USB-A connector on the Mac, then the peripheral manufactures would just stick with the same old USB-A/B/micro/mini/UCB-3/HDMI/VGA/DVI/displayport/etc. connectors, and you need 103 different cables stuffed into a drawer.
USB-C is the way to go. Well done Apple.
And put one in every f-ing conference room at every company site? We already have HDMI cables running up through the conference room tables that work with every Mac or PC laptop we issue.
Looking back from 2018, I bet we'll say that Apple did have the right vision here (as opposed to their headphone craziness), but the "pro" laptops should hang on to legacy ports for 2-3 years beyond the consumer models so that the rest of the world can catch up.
I didn't really believe you. This is good- you are wrong. But I have an idea as to *WHY* you are wrong.
I went to Dell's website. I selected 15-16 inch laptops (you mentioned that the bigger machines are huge and ugly- since the MBP is 13 and 15 inch, you must mean larger than 15 inch is huge and ugly). I then selected the core i7 6th gen (skylake), and filtered by RAM ("12gb and up"). The results included a Dell XPS 15 for about 2600 bucks. This had: 1 TB Solid State, 32 Gigs of RAM.
http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop...
Here's my guess: you (probably, maybe) erroneously were looking at SEVENTH gen Intel processors (kabylake). The MBP, and the one I linked, are SIXTH gen (skylake). Intel hasn't shipped their top of the line kaby lake laptop processors yet: if you filter by that, you only find the machines that have been refreshed to use the actually-released chips yet, which are by definition not top of the line in any way.
Well then don't get anything based on an ultrabook platform. For example a dell precision 5000 weighs 4 lbs, has modular ram and you can get it with 16GB RAM and 1+ TB storage. HP has similar offerings. How hard did you look?
we're Apple! We aren't even compatible with ourselves.
Let's be honest here, even a Apple fan has to admit Apple is going the wrong direction with the MacBook Pro. Where this notebook was once a valid option for the business person. It has now become a CEO boutique notebook than a real business workhorse. Nobody wants to tote around dongles to use stuff that in the real world is still being used. Like SD cards, USB mice, USB drives, etc. How many like myself are disappointed to see the MagSafe connector go? Maybe USB C will eventually make a real presence over time, but right now it's very much not winning over the traditional USB connector. We now know that Apple is abandoning the MacBook Air because who would pay a grand for a lousy screen resolution, and pathetic performance. Your choice now is a even more restrictive port MacBook or a less flexible MacBook Pro. I seriously don't see Apple gaining any new buyers of these models. If your working in the real world you at least expect Apple to make products that work together in its own family. Requiring a dongle adaptor just to charge your iPhone on a Mac is embarrassing to say the least.
When Lost the Dongle was a plus.
Best Slashdot Co
Not to worry. A sucker is born every minute
...the Apple Fan-Zombies will praise them for being "innovative" and "amazing"!
Evil Apple, evil Microsoft, Trump vs. Clinton.....The fucking Asteroid can't hit the Earth soon enough...
How dumb do you think we are? Of course we know that. There are obvious work-arounds. And I'll carry that cable around with the USB-C to USB-A cable to read someone's flash drive, and I'll carry that around with my SD reader so I can view pictures from my non-USB-C camera. I'll have a bag full of cables and adapters I have to drag around with me to get the same functionality that I already have with the previous MacBook Pro model I own, which I'll probably continue owning for the foreseeable future until Apple gets a clue or I switch to some other manufacturer with a clue.
I want more battery life, not thinner. I want a decent complement of commonly-used ports, not 4 that don't physically match *anything* else I own or have *ever* encountered in the field. I like the magsafe connector. It has it's flaws, but it's better than any other power connector I've seen. Basically Apple has "innovated" itself away from what this Pro user wants. It started with the "glue everything in" approach that reduced upgradability internally, was reinforced by removing anti-glare screens as a build option, and now it's removing ports from the outside. Much as I like my current one, I won't be buying a new MacBook Pro.
"Get a dock if you want to use lots of (legacy) ports on a compact laptop! I bring my computer home and plug in TWO cables. (power and thunderbolt) and suddenly I have: printer, scanner, SD card reader, firewire backup drive, speakers gig ethernet, 1080p display, and several more open USB3 ports. (as well as another thunderbolt and mic port I'm not using atm)"
Buy a used MacBook Pro and you get a built-in SD card reader, firewire, gig ethernet, legacy USB ports, and standard HDMI out with no dock or adapter necessary. It's like having a portable dock built in! What an innovation!
You know what I expect after the announcement of these new 2016 models? A run on remaining pre-2016 models and a vibrant used MacBook Pro market, not a spike in sales of new laptop docks. It's not the price of adapters, it's the substantial loss of functionality unless you drag them along that is the problem.
Get it yet?
It has been able to grow a big flock of iSheep who think of paying through the nose for the trinkets that Apple comes up with. Year after year, like the good iSheep that they are, they keep coming for more. Like I said, hats off to Apple.
You can't use local WiFi to transfer between an iPhone and iTunes? They force you to go through the cloud? What a hassle.
Try charging your phone via bluetooth, genius. Let me know how that works out for you.
Won't there be two kinds of such cables?
USB-C can provide either Displayport, or HDMI. So if your computer provides Displayport (like this mac) then the cable will need a Displayport to HDMI converter built-in. But if your computer (let's say a phone) provides HDMI then you need not that converter (will the converter's presence make it fail or will it have some smarts to let the HDMI through? I don't know but hopefully the latter)
If your USB-C provides no video signal at all, then you can do it but with a USB display adapter (such as DisplayLink chips).
So, here are three sorts of cables afterall, and god forbid you get an active one that is cheap and only supports 1080p.
Also, if you need to connect to a ceiling mounted video projector and the cable is short, have fun
That's a load of bollocks. We had pro machines, but that was last years model. Listen, if you regard the removal of ports that ensure compatibility with every other fucking device in existence as a feature, good for you. A fool and his money is soon parted. The rest of us will vote with our wallets.
I want a gigabit ethernet port. That is not a "legacy" port.
Depends on how you look at it. It's a very old connector that is simply too thick for a modern laptop. We should have standardized on a smaller interconnect cable a long time ago, but haven't. Either it's an RJ-45 adapter to some proprietary connector (since there's no standardized option) or you just externalize the interface entirely, since the bus is fast enough. Either way, you need an adapter.
I'm not a huge fan of this laptop, but that's one thing I totally understand.
what a weird thing to lie about.
It's not a lie - show me where to plug in lightning earphones into the new mac WITHOUT using a dongle and I'll retract. I've been a loyal mac user for the past decade with a desktop and a laptop both of which are in desperate need of an update and I really just want a new mac. However I am not going to pay full price for a 3 year old Mac Pro machine nor am I going to pay over $4k (Canadian) for a high end laptop with an already out of date CPU and GPU. Apple have dropped the ball so much that I'm doing what would have been unthinkable a year ago: I'm looking at switching to windows and I'm not happy.
The future is a 7" laptop, and not a 7" with wasted space as on early netbooks!
The laptop only has letters and the space bar on the keyboard, but all the other keys are available on a couple touch rows. On the second touch row, the missing 50 keys scroll by at a high speed and you hit the virtual key you need when it comes by.
There is no storage inside, except for the firmware and a SIM card. You can store the OS on a USB or Thunderbolt drive connected to the single USB-C port - if you're a luddite and don't use the cloud or something wifi to boot your OS from! If you plug a mouse instead, you'll be able to use it in the firmware configuration program.
I like peripherals, so I plug my laptop into a 42U rack. It solves the problem so elegantly. I've got everything in there : speakers, monitor, printer, scanner, hard drives, SD reader and the legacy mouse!
There's just one power cable to the 42U, and one cable from the 42U to the laptop. But I heard they're working on the iDesk, which has a wireless charging surface built-in and soon you won't need a cable between the laptop and 42U anymore!
$2399 for the laptop, $1999 for the iDesk and $3499 for the 42U(*)
(*) speakers, monitor, printer, scanner, hard drives, SD reader or legacy mouse not included.
PS : when the iDesk comes out the laptop will have no ports whatsoever left, naturally.
iphones do NOT have bluetooth anymore!
Yes they do, or else my wife's iPhone 7 is connecting to the built-in Bluetooth in her car by magic.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
So I guess just buy a Dell Latitude 7XXX or Thinkpad TXXX and call it a day!
Maybe Tim Cook is trying to create products in his own image -- you know, Cook is a cocksucker, and
maybe he wants Apple to suck too. It sure does seem like the SUCK has been achieved in this round
of design fuckups.
For Schiller, Ive, and Cook, I wish terminal cancer, and the sooner the better.
Psssst, here's a clue - laptops are supposed to provide portability, and not require you to carry around a bunch of extra cables and docks.
Then don't carry a phone charging cable around with your laptop.
How is USB-C to lightning different from carrying a lightning cable around already?
Presumably you do, which is why everyone's complaining about dongles?
Now that Apple isn't going to be making models with the MagSafe connector, here's to hoping that they'll start licensing it to other PC manufacturers. It's a good design, it would be a waste to let it collect dust in an IP warchest.
Get a dock and you will never have to plug anything into your laptop again! ... but you still have to plug them things into the dock.
You sound like you delight yourself when you're cleaning your food processor parts for an hour, after telling up everyone how great a time saver it is. Hope you're finished soon, so you can go empty the dishwasher, maintain the leaf blower you need for that 3m long driveway, and code up the server back end for that smart kettle that doesn't boil water yet.
lets not kid ourselves,
Apple has run out of steam..
its clear.. their design choices have bit them in the ass, (fuk fone 7)
Now, for all the support and money they have extracted from their constituents, they want more blood..
it seems to me that in an effort to force more money, Apple will shun their install base away..
the only ones whom can afford the APPLE platform might as well live in New York, Dubai or california. I mean in those places the salaries are so messed up, people can afford to throw their money away on a closed, force you to do things, cost alot-of-money platform in those regions..
Anywhere else,, just doesn't seem practical.
I mean, what, you have to carry a "kit" around inorder to use your expensive new toy in the environment its designed to run in, but at a premium ?
Clearly Apple is begging for money, but unlike a politician, there are no empty promises, apple will sell you Their new wheel at a premium to move the boat-anchor that is MAC/APPLE out of the way for a shiny, new, FULLY OPERATIOAL PC out of the box..
I can't wait for the public reviews
Another Dongle - this is the life of a Mac owner. There are several people in the office who have chosen a Macbook Pro or Air for portability.
But they all care a zipper pouch of Dongles & wires with them. Their dongles need dongles. Kind of like that old IBM ad for the universal dongle-dongle. They have cables for DVI, HDMI, VGA, printers, USB, cellphones ... arg. okay - you can't charge a device without a power cord (well - it isn't all that common...yet).
Hey Apple - stop it with the wires and dongles to another dongle. It sucks! My car, for instance, came with a 30-PIN iPod connector. The old school "Firewire" power model. But the iPod released that same year (2008) came with a new USB style 30-PIN meaning the power pins had moved. So I purchased a device that swapped pins for, humorously enough, $25. Then the iPhone5 came out and I had to purchase a 30-PIN converter pigtail cable. My car now has a Rube Goldberg series of wires and dongle converters strung together.
Our other car has a USB port in the dash. Everything just works. Apple - Standards are good - try it !!
Maybe instead of connecting via magic, it's using the connection power of courage?!
Sorry, but there are Usb-C to Lightning cables that you can buy. No need for dongles. There are 3rd party Apple-licensed vendors for those cables, too.
Are you serious? Just buy the fine USB-C to lightning cable and call it day. No need for docks, dongles, or anything.
As for gigabit ethernet: I dig why they don't want to put that on the laptop. The laptop is too thin to fit the jack, other vendors resort to ugly hacks like the movable-jaw RJ-45 receptacles that Apple will have nothing to do with - rightly so IMHO. A USB-C/Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter is $30. Plug your patch cord - that you have to have anyway - into it, and call the complete assembly a "cable". You can heatshrink them together if you think it'll make it cooler somehow.
I think you're making up imaginary problems.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
I completely agree. You've got 4 ports, and you can use them all for the same purpose (e.g. plugging in USB-2/3 peripherals), or for a mix of these and charging, displays, etc. That's the way to go. I wish every vendor did that on their laptops.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
It looks like Apple also cut the non-Retina MBPs. That is too bad as these were nice for a working MBP that you could actually upgrade and of course if you needed a optical drive for whatever you were doing.
Anyone who's been a MacHead for more than a few years knows that you always try to avoid buying overpriced commodity add-ons from Apple; you buy them from Amazon, Newegg or the like. In this situation, for example, you might choose to just use your existing charging cable with a USB-C to USB3 adapter for $10, saving fifteen bucks over the Apple adapter cable.
Amazon has a third party cable for $12. Also, I would prefer to charge it via external adapter since it will have more amperage to charge it faster. As for syncing, iTunes has been able to sync over wifi for years.
Everything with the same connector. At last!
Except it doesn't. Not in the real world.
the peripheral manufacturers will start making devices with the USB-C connector.
Yeah, well, if that pans out, 20 years from now a pro laptop can have just USB-C connectors. But it won't pan out, 5 years from now, USBC will probably be replaced by something else again.
If apple had kept an old-stipe USB-A connector on the Mac [...] and you need 103 different cables stuffed into a drawer.
That's exactly the situation the macbook pro has created for users TODAY.
As for gigabit ethernet: I dig why they don't want to put that on the laptop. The laptop is too thin to fit the jack,
I didn't ask for it to be that thin. Give me a thicker laptop with more battery, more ram slots, room for a 2nd SSD... If I wanted a thin laptop, then I'd understand giving up the ethernet port... and I'd buy a macbook air.
But thinner than the 2012 macbook pro (with gigabit port) ? I never asked for that. I liked the form factor of the 2012 just fine. (the minidisplay port was ass though). But then Apple made it thinner... and took away the ethernet because... Apple.
A USB-C/Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter is $30. Plug your patch cord - that you have to have anyway - into it,
So now I have to carry around "my special ethernet cord" everywhere I go. Whereas before i could use any ethernet cord on the planet or buy a new one anywhere for $5 if I left mine at home. A compromise made Just so my laptop could be extra thin... which is a 'feature' I never asked for. That's not progress.
Are they MAD / >>crazy / INSANE?????
Why is this framed as a problem with the MacBook? It sounds like the iPhone is the one trapped a decade or two behind the technology that everyone else takes for granted.
If I were stuck with one of those, I wouldn't waste the $25. I'd just upgrade to a decent phone.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
Wow, so I guess the Sennheiser bluetooth headphones that I am using with my iPhone 7+ right now isn't actually happening, because you say so.
Or, you're completely wrong. Perhaps lying for some purpose I can't undertstand.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
You said:
Hence there are no ear phones which will work with both your mac an your iPhone.
Bluetooth "ear phones" still exist. And they work with both MacBook Pro and iPhone 7.
You are wrong.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
I wish every vendor did that on their laptops.
Why can't you have both? I'd like 4 USBC ports. And HDMI. And ethernet. And 1-2 USB3 A style port that's backwards compatible all the way back.
Now we''ve got the same 4 ports your perfect laptop has so anything you can do with your perfect laptop I can do with mine. Plus you don't need an adapter for 90% of the stuff you are likely to run into in the real world today.
No, it's not too thick. You can get a popout version that's thin. There's at least 3 versions of a popout rj45 port, ranging from super thin that used to be on PCMCIA cards and is far more prone to breaking, to ones that just pop out a little and are on thinner laptops.
to connect to what exactly? I mean what are these magical devices that just appear and connect to your laptop through osmosis? Your just carrying a different cable that doesn't cost anymore than any other cable.
Cool screed, bro. For someone that calls others 'retards', 'autistic', 'pieces of shit', 'fucking retards', 'stupid aspies', and 'highly specialized retards' you sure don't display a whole lot of intelligence or high function yourself.
But hey, thanks for wasting a few more bits of storage on the Internet, I hope you got a little anger release out of it, because it looks like you could really use it.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Is too incredible, Apple killed the USB port and the Audio Jack in 2016. Someone sold the idea that the USB-C is the best connector out there for the future and Apple bought that, forgetting that we live in the present and the USB-C form factor is less used than Thunderbolt 2
Get my e-mail after a captcha test in: http://tinymailt
You can have my AUI dongle when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
Even tho' most of my laptops, tablets, and phones now support things like Chromecast -- ooops, still need a dongle at the TV end -- I am loathe to buy a computer or tablet that doesn't at the very least have a standard microUSB, some flavor of HDMI, and an analog audio out jack. Plus a microSD slot if at all possible.
Poo on "hey just connect via BlueTooth [or RedTooth if you're Neo] or our new just-on-the-market special connector."
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
If you aren't buying an iPhone, then you won't have the problem with the MacBook. So either you don't understand the problem, or you are just a hater.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Bernie would have brought down the plane with a single .38 revolver.
This is really nothing new. Apple loves dongles. Just look at the Duo or the early PowerMacs. Dongle heaven.
>How hard did you look?
I went to their respective web sites. Selected the expensive model they were pushing that wasn't a 'gaming behemoth' with aliens on the back, tried to option it to the max (like I did with my MBP in 2013) and saw what I got.
The Dell precision has a low res screen, max 1TB (which is so 2013), 32GB RAM is double what I my MBP has, but it doesn't feel like the kind of upgrade that should be available after 3 years. I clearly have a problem with Dell burned in my brain after suffering Dell laptops circa 1999-2005 but I tried to suppress that.
This is disappointing. The MBPs have an excellent case but the new models are looking like they might not be for me. So the alternative is another brand running Linux (windows doesn't meet my needs). I'm not cost sensitive - I'll pay for more for something better. But I'm not seeing it. Maybe there's something good out there, but I'm being asked to compromise on something important like screen resolution or ports or storage.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Get a PC laptop and call it a day. You can even install macOS if you want. The new HP Spectra and Dell XPS are two excellent laptops.
I just bought a cheap refurbished Lenovo laptop, only $435 and has a 1080p screen, skylake processor and a discrete NVIDIA card. You can add a nice 512GB SSD for $120 if you want.
Open Source Java Web Forum with LDAP authentication
When will anyone learn that after the Apple ][ died that Apple is just a cash cow.
Pretty easy to minimize laptop size and keep a standard rj45 port. My HP ultrabook workstation has a spring loaded "hatch".
http://www.www8-hp.com/us/en/images/i_s01_zbook_ultrabook_gallery1_tcm245_2184080_tcm245_1970857_tcm245-2184080.jpg
Keep making excuses for Apple though.
When you go somewhere to make a freaking presentation, you are handled a HDMI cable (it used to be a DVI one. And before a VGA one). You have to connect it to your laptop. This is what happens in a "pro" setting. Sometimes, the guy gives you an USB key and say: the docs we need to look at on screen are on the key. You need to connect the key to your machine.
This is why it is called a "pro" laptop. It does those things.
This seems like a fairly weird critique -- I'm sorry but most environments don't have HDMI either.
And I'm not sure I've seen an HDMI adapter that allows for anything higher than 1920x1200. If you having a single monitor output, it should be something capable of dual-link (IE, 2560x1440).
As for gigabit ethernet: I dig why they don't want to put that on the laptop. The laptop is too thin to fit the jack,
Sounds like a design flaw to me.
I'm surprised apple doesn't charge you 25 dollars to look at their dongle.
No, stop lying. Hillary was about to fire a stinger missile, but she froze up and couldn't pull the trigger.
Later Michael Bloomberg claimed that if it wasn't for Hillary's Parkinsons, he'd have taken his anti-gun money back.
Hillary wasn't lying about her dangerous time in Bosnia, and this video proves it. She visits wounded soldiers and little girls, dodges RPGs, and caps an enemy soldier herself. Stone cold.
The new HP Spectra and Dell XPS are two excellent laptops.
Yup, that's probably what I'll end up doing. Dell precision makes a good pro laptop... all the ports including usbc, gobs of ram. 2nd hard drive. keyboard has all it's keys.
They'll even ship it with ubuntu if I want. Although I'll probably get Windows10 and use the new linux services stuff for the unixy stuff I want.
Why did I buy macbook pro's the last 10 years?
- Magsafe -- now gone. After losing a couple laptops over the years, I really valued this. Now its gone.
- upgradable -- not in years now. My 2011 mbp got an SSD upgrade, and a ram upgrade a couple years later. My 2015 is stuck with what it came with.
- Unix -- windows is basically caught up for my needs (between linux subsystem and hyperV ...)
nice big multitouch touchpad - used to be pretty mac exclusive, now everyone has them
- build quality -- apple still has good build quality, but lots of PC vendors make comparably good equipment
- keyboard... for a while PC vendors were doing stupid layouts with a slash next to a shortened enter key -- while my desktop keyboard has a wide enter key with the slash above it, so whenever i switch to the laptop, I'd hit \ instead of enter every single time. Mac's always had the wide enter key... but now that trend has mostly faded on the PC, while the mac goes and removes the function keys and the esc key.
- price was never a primary motivator; and I'll pay top dollar for a good product; but this latest batch of macs ratchets up the price for no discernible relative increase in capabilities. I'm not 'price sensitive' but I'm also not going to stand around and just get ripped off.
Maybe I'll buy a dell for a work laptop and a 13" macbook air as a toy for browsing the web on the couch and replying to email; and to keep at least a toe in OSX. But no point in buying a macbook pro for that. And that's just it... there's really nothing pro about the "pro" laptop. Its just a faster more expensive macbook air now.
I would cut some slack here. The better statement would have been. IPhone comes lightning head phones only, MacBook Pro does not come with a Lightning Port, only USB-C. But, they include a 3.5MM Jack. If I bought both devices new, I would need to get some sort of external Headset and Cable to use them "together". 1. Cannot use the Headphones that come with the IPhone with the new MacBook Pro. 2. I have to have a different charger for each device. That is accurate. Bluetooth and everything else is Outside of Apple's design. Their wireless ear buds will not use the special chip and I cannot remember right now if they will connect to Bluetooth. The Top level one is correct in spirit, but bad in wording.
It's the hip thing to do. Consider all your dongles like earrings for your shiny new iPhone and MacBook Pro. I mean sure you lose them and they catch on things but man don't you look hip.
Here's another example ASUS ZenBook Pro UX501VW.
Nice screen, nice case. i7
BUT - 512GB storage? and Oh Noes! That keyboard. Why the hell do they squeeze a number pad on to a 15" laptop. The main keyboard then skews left and it's all wrong.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Having used both, I'd rather not have either one. Even if it means buying an external.
Psssst, what are you guys whispering about??
After writing that I went back and found what you found, but look at the keyboard on the 15. That's a deal breaker.
The 13" 7000 looks better - the keyboard isn't messed up like the 15", but a tiny hard disk. Its's perplexing that they can't just put nice case, nice keyboard, hi-res screen (retina or better), 16/32GB RAM, 1/2/4 TB SSD in the same box. It's not that hard. All the pieces are there in very similar products, but not at the same time.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Apple's preferred use model is to send data wirelessly (wifi or BT), so why would they include a cable?
It isn't even a dongle; it is just a cable with a USB-C connector on one end and a Lightning connector on the other, without the bulky adapter part that makes a dongle a dongle.
And the cables don't last very long anyway. Except for one model, in almost daily use, I have had a USB Type-A male to Lightning male cable work for more than a year. I have a similar problems with USB Type-A male to micro USB cables. So, what's the big deal about buying a USB-C/Lightning cable slightly ahead of when you had to replace a USB Type A/Lightning cable anyway?
I am more bothered by the move away from MagSafe power connectors. I don't look forward to having a USB-C port on my laptop being damaged by someone tripping over the power cord.
note, BLE (low energy) is NOT AT ALL even CLOSE to what BT was. its a totally new thing, not interoperable and sharing only the stupid name for marketing reasons.
Just as well Apple don't have a Bluetooth Low-Energy device, but rather a Bluetooth 4.2 device. 4.2 is a subset of the 4.0 which includes among other things a dual-mode controller. There's no device on the market that isn't catering for special purposes that implements single-mode on the host side. The only devices which do are things such as bicycle computers.
apple is STOOPID for abandoning bt classic. yet another reason I have no desire to own any apple product. time after time, their control-freak nature rubs me the wrong way.
Before calling people "stoopid" and bowing to marketing you should learn about the marketing. The marketing is called Bluetooth Smart. The implementation of Bluetooth Smart allows full backwards compatibility using the same chip thanks to the only major difference being the signal modulation.
Research a device before calling people "stoopid" lest you yourself end up looking ... stupid.
Just as well they don't advertise
FFS.I'm sure I could stream audio from both to an external server as well, so it works with both.
But a BT headset is a combined RF transceiver, electronics, amp, battery etc. It's not the same as a pair of headphones that work with both.
When i got the powerbook (as a gift), i never was tempted by the hardware. I was tempted exclusively for OSX.
The hardware was inferior, no Intel (and today the bundled cpu is not top of the line), smaller screen sizes, no numeric keypad, no second button on trackpads, insane premium price, less RAM than competing laptops. The only decent hardware was the screen resolution itself.
I like having ports and features. I had to give it a serious thought to upgrade to this Lenovo, because it doesn't come with a DVD drive anymore, and doesn't have a fingerprint reader (which is nice and i can tell Apple users like it on their phones).
Also, as you said, Windows reliability has improved much and Microsoft has opened up to Linux enough to make OSX not tempting enough anymore. Sure, dumb start menu, spying and lack of windows update control are troublesome, but they can be worked around.
Open Source Java Web Forum with LDAP authentication
wait... Did you just say most environments don't have HDMI???
Wow, splitting hairs much?
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Yes, most environments don't have HDMI.
Conference rooms, maybe, though I've seen DVI more than HDMI (and sometimes VGA). Lecture halls, sure. If those are the only sorts of situations you need your laptop in, then by all means.
But most monitors don't have HDMI. Quite a few monitors are DVI only, and sometimes you'll find a higher-end model where the manufacturer splurges and throws in every connector under the sun.
So no, if space is at a premium, laptops shouldn't have built-in HDMI. A mini-displayport -> HDMI adapter has worked for me in every environment I've ever needed to use HDMI in.