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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.
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?
What really frustrates me is that you can use a Google phone and use the USB-C to USB-C cord that COMES WITH YOUR MAC. The only major phone that doesn't use USB-C at this point is the iPhone, but Apple use USB-C for their laptops now. So it seems the best combo is a Mac and an Android, from a cables perspective. Why?
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.
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?
It isn't a cost thing, it is another fucking cable/dongle to lose/break/get stolen.
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.
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.
If it's any consolation, Adria Richards still doesn't have a job since that incident. Now that's what I call social justice.
Money isn't really the issue. But what do you do when you realize that you have lost or left your dongle behind? It's another device to carry, to lose, to break. It's the opposite of "just works".
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
I thought Apple people liked cleanliness and absolute order; I mean, look at an Apple store. Having to remember to carry around a bunch of dongles everywhere seems to be the opposite of that.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
A dongle by its very nature sticks out. It is totally phallic.
You've never seen breasts, have you?
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.