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Apple Cuts USB-C Adapter Prices In Response To MacBook Pro Complaints (theverge.com)
One of the biggest complaints with the new MacBook Pros is the lack of ports. There are between two and four USB-C (Thunderbolt 3) ports depending on the model you select -- that's it. If you need a SD card slot, HDMI, USB, or VGA port, you will need an adapter. In response to the criticism, Apple says they will be cutting prices for all of its USB-C (Thunderbolt 3) adapters: "We recognize that many users, especially pros, rely on legacy connectors to get work done today and they face a transition. We want to help them move to the latest technology and peripherals, as well as accelerate the growth of this new ecosystem. Through the end of the year, we are reducing prices on all USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 peripherals we sell, as well as the prices on Apple's USB-C adapters and cables." The Verge reports: It's a sign that Apple recognizes these dongles are a hassle, and it seems to hope that reducing the prices on them will lessen the pain of this transition. Starting immediately, all of Apple's USB-C adapters and some of its USB-C cables will have their prices cut by $6 to $20: USB-C to traditional USB adapter from $19 to $9; Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter from $49 to $29; USB-C to Lightning cable (1 meter) from $25 to $19; USB-C to Lightning cable (2 meters) from $35 to $29; Multiport adapter with HDMI, USB, and USB-C from $69 to $49; Multiport adapter with VGA, USB, and USB-C from $69 to $49; Only USB-C charging cables aren't being discounted. Apple is also cutting prices by around 25 percent on all third-party USB-C peripherals that it sells. SanDisk's USB-C SD card reader is getting a slightly steeper discount, from $49 to $29. The discounted adapters will be available at Apple's physical and online stores through the end of the year. It still has no plans to ship adapters in the box with the new MacBook Pro.
The computers look good when displayed in the Apple Store and in advertising because they don't have any dongles plugged into them. So they appeal to Jony Ive's sense of elegant design.
It's only when you buy one and need to use it in the real world, interfacing to the gear you have, that Jony's sleek lightweight machine is encumbered with dongles and the like, because having a star designer in control of everything seems to mean function now comes second to form. Do the engineers get a look in?
Let's face it... the dongle prices are nothing compared to the 2,500 to 3,000 € that you need for the macbook pro.
It's the hassle. For some people, including myself, also this (from an older comment):
I see one major problem with eliminating USB 3.0 ports. Currently there exist very small USB 3.0 sticks (example: Lexar S45 [amazon.com]) that can fit in the current MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops and increase the total storage capacity. These drives are so small that it's not necessary to plug them out when carrying the laptop around in a backpack, a fact that makes this setup an attractive way to save hundreds of dollars that would be necessary for buying a laptop with a 256 GB SSD instead of 128 GB let's say. The USB stick can be used to store music and photos for example, without affecting the overall perceived speed of the machine. There is no equivalent solution with USB-C AFAIK.
HDMI, USB, and SD cards are legacy? Seriously? ISA is legacy. PCMCIA is legacy. Apple is looking at a second year of declining profits if they continue the high-handed behaviour that just assumes the rest of the world will bend around them.
(Gordon Ramsay voice): It's not about the price of the bloody dongles you fucking donkey!
It's about not having to deal with all the extra connectors, keeping track of them, taking them with you when you travel and then worrying about losing them. It's about Jony Ive and Tim Cook having the arrogance to design both the iPhone 7/7+ and the new MacBook Pro with release dates less than a month apart, yet not include in EITHER BOX a cable that lets you connect these two devices directly to each other. What the fuck is that, Jony? Just tryy to justify that decision. I dare you. It's about marketing USB-C as the future but not actually providing any cables out of the box that connect to those ports! How many devices exist in the market that support this connectivity?
Anyone who has the money to spend on this laptop is not going to balk at another $50 of cables. But the fact that Apple expects them to play pin the tail on the dongle with their new laptop is a slap in the face. Every time you have to fiddle with a dongle, it is like Jony Ive personally reaching out and bitchslapping you.
Seriously, if I can't plug a flash drive directly into the machine then fuck it, I'm not buying it.
Just because some firm removes current interfaces, it does not make them legacy, in the same way newly written software need not necessarily be modern.
"We recognize that many users, especially pros, rely on legacy connectors to get work done today and they face a transition."
Really? I got the impression from the latest product design that they didn't recognize that fact at all.
You see, even when Apple is taking a step back and recognizing a necessity for professionals, they still have to act like cocky condenscendent f*ckers that do not understand the needs for the category. Just further confirms what I see wrong with Apple these days.
There is nothing f*cking "legacy" about these connectors. The company is bonkers and delusional. Professionals don't need help making any transition, and Apple does not offer a professional solution for most of the connectors they eliminated. No one wants to make a transition to a more primitive time when every company had their own proprietary connectors. This is bullshit.
It's just absolutely crazy. Does Apple really think now that ports not approved by the company are automatically legacy? This god complex of them is what's going wrong in recent years. Not only they stopped caring about what professionals really need, now they think they can tell what professionals should need, even though they seem to have no idea of what professional works composes outside their own headquarters. How about taking a walk on the real world every now and then to see what's really happening around? No one cares if you think removing a headphone jack is a corageous move.
Yes, professional cameras still uses memory cards. And a whole bunch of them don't have good wireless connection, when they even have wireless at all. Yes, most clients and 3rd parties still deliver content to be used in production with external HDDs and pendrives. No, most peripherals are not using USB Type-C and we don't expect this to change fast, even more when the standard has so many conflicting configurations. Most equipment on the music production and audio side are still on regular USB.
The rest of PCs, electronics and professional gear overall - which composes the vast majority btw - will keep using universal standards.
And those standards will keep improving. Professional work couldn't care less about what Apple thinks of ports, they'll be used as demanded.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with having multiple different ports inside laptops with dedicated hardware to work with them.
Close to even gaming laptops, with all their glaring looks and "look, I'm a gamer" designs, the Macbook Pro looks like a kid's toy.
Professionals needs ports to connect external drives, sd card readers to transfer content and backup from multiple devices, ethernet ports to transfer files fast and in a reliable way, graphics cards that are on the higher end, HDMI connectors because that's the type of connector they will find in any situation, expandable RAM for fast renders and multitasking among a host of other stuff. Outside very few businesses, there is no Apple-only workflow.
There's nothing Pro about the new Macbooks. It's ok for regular use, but in the vast majority of jobs involving content creation you will need multiple dongles to handle demand. Macbook Pros basically degraded into Ultrabook territory. Yes, they are still plenty fine for a huge category of users, but other than the core spec upgrade, I'm not seeing many benefits for professionals. They should just be honest about it and remove the Pro from the title altogether. These are nice all-rounder machines, but a severe downgrade in philosophy for people who intend to use these laptops for content creation.
Jony Ive and Tim Cook
Are both brilliant in their own right but it was Jobs that kept them inline. They designed what Jobs told them to.
Using a dongle on the latest and greatest of your flagship products is not something Jobs would have allowed. Knowing jobs if they came to him with that idea he would have replaced them both. He did it to Woz before them.
It sounds like the different departments at Apple aren't communicating. They need a new ringleader to keep them inline.
I don't know about you, but I enjoy news about complaints against Apple.
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Let me once again reiterate how grateful I am for Apple to have the courage to put the first nail in the coffin of the old, mildly annoying USB type A. I like the USB type C port better, and hope it replaces not just the Type A but also other ports. And, as a non-Apple user, this doesn't inconvenience me in the least and also gives me a good chuckle and another anecdote to point out the dangers of vendor lock-in.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Yeah? Well, here's one. They could have put a few dollars worth (if that) of still completely current hardware into the macbook pro, and then no one would need these WAY more expensive dongles.
Here's your Macbook (cough) "Pro", right here.
Buy now, while you're still DRUNK!
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.