It sounds to me like all that you are arguing is that you are not in the market for this product. That's fine, I'd want something else too.
The MacBook is not a tablet alternative, the tablet is a MacBook alternative.
That's all a matter of perspective and opinion, is it not?
I think back to my classes this last summer and I recall two students that took tablets to class. One student had a nice case/keyboard combo that made me think for the first couple days of class that it was a laptop. He used it pretty much like a laptop, at least during class, taking notes and such. The other student that had a tablet with him regularly tended to just prop it up on the desk and watch soccer with the sound off during class. In both cases it seems like a tablet or laptop would have done just as well. A stripped down simple small laptop fits in this space well. For people that need to plug in more stuff regularly then a single port laptop is not suitable.
Here's a bad car analogy. I like my Ford Explorer, it's a nice little SUV built on a small truck frame. It's got RWD/4WD and a tow hitch, very truck like. If I had to replace it tomorrow I'd buy something like it again. In talking to my brother a while ago I find out that the new Ford Explorer is built on a car or "crossover" frame, has FWD/AWD instead of RWD/4WD, among other changes. In my mind that is not how an SUV should be built. With the changes in technology and market demands we see that Ford changed the design of a popular product to match.
Apple did the same as Ford. Technology allows for things like AirPlay, AirPrint, Bluetooth (for sound, keyboard, mouse), and WiFi which means people are less likely to plug something in to their laptop even if there are ports for it. Market demands for smaller, lighter, and cheaper means we get this MacBook.
I like Ford, and I like Apple, therefore I'm likely to buy from them again. Since both companies have changed the products I know and use I'll tend to look at other products they offer if I feel the need to replace what I own now.
Hillary Clinton is an evil person. She left Americans, people under her employ, to die in Libya. Afterward she claimed that this obviously preplanned attack, on the anniversary of another planned attack on the USA, was just a protest over a movie that got out of hand. The maker of this movie was then jailed over a minor probation violation to make things look at least nominally consistent with her claims. This man was jailed as a scapegoat because he dared exercise his right of free expression.
This e-mail scandal is nothing compared to the crimes she's committed before. The operation of the Clinton Foundation as a charity is a sham. It does give a lot of money to help the poor but that is only to launder the money they get. A good front company will do what they say they do or else it wouldn't be a front. Behind the scenes they pocket a lot of money, divert some to their political friends, who also seem to operate front companies that do construction and such. The Foundation was used as a way for foreign nations to buy influence in the State Department when she was Secretary.
This FBI investigation over the improper handling of secret e-mails is just one of five FBI investigations that Clinton is involved with right now. It's not a question on if she broke the law, only the matter of which laws specifically she broke and how many times. She belongs in jail and for the rest of her life.
Her crimes makes her unsuitable for public office but even if that is ignored just her policies alone make her unfit. She's been talking about how we need to go to war with Russia. Her policies on political campaign reform would be the end of free expression in the USA. Her immigration policies alone could collapse the economy. Her idea on the right to keep and bear arms requires that we redefine what the words "right" and "keep" mean, sort of how Obamacare allows you to "keep" your doctor redefining.
One bright spot in all of this is that Clinton does not appear to be in good health. Not that I wish anyone ill but I do believe that if she is elected that she will do serious damage to the republic, the only thing that may stop her now is her own mortality.
If I stopped there I suspect that people would reply to me on how Trump is terrible and they'd vote for Clinton only to keep Trump from winning. Trump didn't leave people to die at the hands of thugs and terrorists. Trump didn't use the power of government to silence his opposition. Trump, having never been in government, has never abused the powers of public office. He's been a private citizen all this time, and as a businessman has had to fight the government to make money and employ people. He knows where government has failed business and I expect that if he wins that we will see economic growth. Trump is far from perfect but at least he's not the next in line to maintain a criminal dynasty in the USA.
Professionals needs ports to connect external drives,
There are four USB-C ports capable of ThunderBolt 3 which can give 40Gbps speeds. The best I see on most other laptops and desktops are USB 3.0 (5Gbps), eSATA (6Gbps), or the older ThunderBolt (10 or 20Gbps). Just what do you expect? One might need to get a new cable or dock to connect their existing drives to the USB-C port but any professional that needs to connect to various drives to transfer data will have a dock on their desk or a fistful of cables in their laptop bag to connect to what they need.
sd card readers to transfer content and backup from multiple devices,
This may be a valid complaint but I still consider this a nit to pick. While SD card readers have been common on laptops and desktops for a while I find that XQD is becoming popular. Every digital camera I've ever seen had some way to plug into a computer to transfer the photos, newer ones will have Bluetooth and/or WiFi as well. With SD card readers costing $8 I do think that this is a very minor point.
ethernet ports to transfer files fast and in a reliable way,
Professionals will have a fistful of cables in their laptop bag to connect to a network. When traveling there might be an Ethernet port in their hotel room or wherever they may be and a professional should know enough to carry a cable to connect. I'll just leave the USB or Thunderbolt adapter on the Ethernet cable when I pack, when I have to plug in to the network I just attach each end and I'm good. I'd expect a professional to be able to figure this out.
graphics cards that are on the higher end,
The MacBook Pro can support output to two 5K displays or four 4K displays. With the addition of a PCIe breakout box one can add any of a number of GPUs if the one in the laptop is somehow insufficient. The MBP can be configured with 4GB of video RAM, most laptops don't even have that much for main RAM. Again, just what do you expect?
HDMI connectors because that's the type of connector they will find in any situation,
USB-C to HDMI adapters cost $25. Cry me a river. This is a $2000 laptop and you are bitching that your old HDMI cable doesn't plug into it without buying a common off the shelf adapter?
expandable RAM for fast renders and multitasking among a host of other stuff.
Is it that professionals demand "expandable" RAM or that the computer comes with a lot of it? It seems rare any more for people to expand the RAM in a laptop anymore since most people just buy how much RAM they want when they get the laptop. The desktop machines we have at work for the graphics people do not support more than 24GB, what we install is something like 12GB, 16GB, or maybe 20GB. It would be nice if Apple offered a laptop that supported more RAM but finding one elsewhere is also rare.
Outside very few businesses, there is no Apple-only workflow.
You're telling us all about how your wife doesn't need a Pro computer. But she likes it, and that's fine.
I'm not the original poster, just someone speculating on possible reasons. So, not my wife and I don't know the person posting.
Meanwhile there is a very large segment of users who do a hell of a lot more with your computer than your wife does. These people now have to look at companies other than Apple to find a computer that does what they want.
I consider myself an IT professional and I've come to the realization a long time ago that adapters are just the cost of doing business. If I have a $2000+ laptop and a $200+ display then I'm not going to throw a fit over a $15 cable and $15 adapter to connect the two. Put this in perspective and consider what you are bitching about.
When I pack my laptop to do some work I will consider what I will be doing and I'll pack what I need to do it. Mentally I consider the adapter part of the cable and I leave the adapter attached to the cable. If I think I'll need to plug into an Ethernet network I'll pack an Ethernet cable with the USB adapter attached. I've been able to find cables that have USB-A on one end and a Cisco compatible serial RJ-45 on the other end, this is much nicer than the cluster of adapters and cables I used before. Considering the type of work I do I really only use Ethernet and serial ports. I will rarely want to plug into an external display and with a collection of adapters for VGA and DVI I do fine. In fact considering the kind of work I do I often use two serial and/or Ethernet connections at a time. If you know of a laptop that has two Ethernet ports and two serial ports then I'd like to see it.
I have three laptops that I use regularly and depending on what I'll be doing I'll pick one of them. They have different sets of ports on them but regardless I still find myself grabbing the same cables with the USB adapters I've left on them. It's just easier that way. Even though one laptop has a serial port built-in I still tend to grab the USB to RJ-45 to plug into Cisco gear. The USB end is smaller than the clunky DB-9 adapters and I don't have to think about if I grabbed the right laptop to go with the right cable since all the laptops have USB ports.
If in the future I find myself buying a new laptop I'll probably get another Apple since they've served me well. I do have a lot of USB-A cables but I've found adapters that can turn that into USB-C at $6 for a pack of three. I'll likely just get a pack of them and stick the adapters on the end of the cables I already use and consider the problem solved. I'd have to get another video cable or adapter but it seems with every laptop I've bought I had to do that. I've got laptops with S-Video, VGA, Mini-DP, HDMI, DVI, and probably others. Buying adapters is just part of the deal it seems.
My first laptop and the newest one I own cost over $3000 each. I had a couple in between but not nearly as nice as those two were when new. Each time I had to buy adapters to do my work because that is life. My first camera had CompactFlash for storage, my current one uses SD. I had to buy a CF reader for my first laptop because that is life. For a while my primary camera and laptop both had SD slots which was nice but now I mostly just use my phone to take pictures. If I need photos off the camera now I just plug it into the computer I'm using with a USB cable.
I just don't get why people are so worked up over this. People seem perfectly willing to spend $2000+ on a new laptop but throw a hissy fit if they also have to spend an additional $20 so they can plug in their peripherals that cost them another $2000+. People need to get a grip.
No, I don't want one of those. They are messing with the standard and getting predictably mixed results. I read the reviews on that page and I'm not impressed. I bought my last phone for something like $50 knowing that I'd not be using it for long. I gave up on getting a new smart phone at the time since I saw all kinds of craziness with the charging ports used. I now see that I have a choice with getting a phone with USB-C or Lightning which don't have the "which way is up" problem of the older iterations of USB.
I'm not going to spend any more money on anything USB-A or -B if possible. As I sit in my basement office I can see my large investment into USB devices so I'll be using them for a long time yet. As these things need to be replaced I'm going to use USB-C or whatever else that might come along.
A single USB-A on a laptop along two USB-C would be fairly decent. The problem with "get an adapter" : most existing adapters plug onto USB-A . So it's get an adapter for the adapter.
My short reply... As pointed out in other posts on this thread there are manufacturers that offer small and inexpensive USB-A to USB-C adapters. How small? Smaller than those USB to PS/2 adapters common with mice once upon a time., just put the adapter on the device and then consider it just part of the device. How inexpensive? I've seen them selling as low as three for $6. With prices like that I believe quite strongly now that anyone that complains about the lack of USB-A ports on a new $2000 laptop is ignorant or just looking for something to complain about.
Further explanation... It seems any more that anytime I plug something into a computer I'll need an adapter. Standards are great aren't they? We have so many to choose from. With the use of a USB-C port that supports USB 3, ThunderBolt 3, DisplayPort, and power then at least I don't have to wonder about what kind of adapter I need so much. If it plugs into a USB-C port then there is a good chance it will work.
This is nothing new, We've always needed small adapters or the right kind of cable to plug things in. I look around the pile of electronics around me and I can see all kinds of cables and ports. SCSI had three different ports, DB-25, HD-50, and Centronics 50. FireWire had the 4 pin i.LINK connector, the 6 pin connector, and the 9 pin 800 Mbps connector. I mentioned mice before, it was common for mice to have a PS/2 connector and a PS/2 to serial adapter in the box, later they came with a USB connector and an adapter to PS/2. Serial, do I have to go into all the different adapters for serial ports? I keep a USB adapter in reach that will allow me to plug into hard drives that have 2.5 inch IDE, 3.5 Inch IDE, or SATA. Parallel printer ports were a thing but I avoided it myself for the most part, there were at least two different kind of ports for that. Ethernet had this problem for a while, until people settled on RJ-45. Even though we have pretty much just one port for Ethernet it seems we must still be aware on the speed of the ports and if we need a crossover cable or not. Needing the right kind of video adapters was a thing until everyone pretty much settled on VGA, which was short lived as a bunch of digital connectors came about.
At work we have to support a wide variety of computers of various ages. The older computers all pretty much have VGA. I believe we got rid of all the CRT displays by now so if an older computer comes in needing service we need to find an adapter. Most of the computers have DVI, if there is an older display with VGA ports then we need an adapter, we have a shoebox full of DVI to VGA adapters for this. Newer computers tend to have DisplayPort, we don't have many DisplayPort capable displays yet so we end up buying DP to DVI adapters. We see a handful of computers with mini-DP or HDMI and so we have a couple mini-DP to DVI and HDMI to DVI cables around for that. Any new displays we buy will have DP inputs so as people get new computers they will replace the older ones with VGA and DVI. That means more cables and adapters as we make that transition.
What fills me with dread though is that USB-C has three different video alternate modes, MHL, DP, and HDMI. I can foresee many headaches from that alone. Add in that USB 3 and ThunderBolt allow for external GPUs then we get into even more headache inducing territory. While I dismiss the "get an adapter" complaint for the most part I will concede that the future of connecting displays and projectors will likely be problematic for a long time yet.
I'm of two minds on the loss of the Magsafe port. First is the point you make, the cord will break free and not drag the computer down if tripped over. This is nice but I've had problems of it not making a proper connection because, for example, a small stack of papers slid under the cable. It would appear connected at a glance but it would be tilted just enough that power wouldn't flow. What is nice about having the USB-C port for power is that the power brick can be plugged in on either side of the laptop. Sometimes when sitting in a tight spot I can't find enough room to comfortably keep the computer plugged in. By being able to plug it in on either side I may be able to avoid this problem. Another nice thing is that since the computer uses standard USB-C power delivery for charging then I'm not locked into buying an Apple power adapter. I've seen laptops be trashed only because the charger would be damaged and a replacement could not be found. With a standard port this is much less likely to happen.
I have seen someone that made a Magsafe like power cable for USB-C power delivery. It's a cable with a USB-C connector on each end but one end has a magnetic breakaway point. I don't know how well these things work but it is an option if that Magsafe function is a must.
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.
Agreed. I hate having to figure out which way is up on those damned connectors. The "big" A connectors are bad enough, when using the micro connectors for my cell phone is worse. considering that I have to plug in the phone everyday I'd appreciate a connector that can be flipped either way and still fit.
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.
As a long time Apple customer I appreciate that Apple has decided to adopt more widely used ports on their computers. Technically the old connectors like ADB and NuBus weren't Apple only but they were so obscure that few others bothered. Use of USB-C avoids the lock-in that ADB and NuBus had. Apple computers are so far from "lock-in" on the hardware that they'll run any OS that any other major hardware maker will. If you are going to complain about vendor lock-in then it's not Apple hardware you should complain about. I'd think a better case could be made with Microsoft software.
How many different USB devices do you have that you'd even consider soldering a USB-A port to your new laptop?
I saw a small cheap (about $10) USB-A to USB-C adapter on Amazon. Given the small size and low cost it should be trivial for someone willing to invest $2000 in a new laptop to buy a handful of these adapters to leave on the cables for the devices they'd be plugging in. That's assuming one is too lazy to just keep track of a single adapter.
To answer your question, yes the wires would fit. The USB-C connector has all the same pins as a USB-A port plus a few more. USB 1.1 or 2.0 uses only four of the contacts in the USB-C connector. If you want USB 3.0 speeds from your USB-A port then you'll have to wire in the other five contacts too. USB-C has an additional two data lanes on top of the two used in the USB 3.0 to get the higher data rate, it also adds additional power contacts. Getting the connector to actually fit inside the computer though might be difficult considering how tightly packed it is.
Because she likes to type on the computing equivalent of a Rolex watch. A Casio would do just as well to tell time but then it wouldn't look as cool when she goes to the coffee shop to write.
It could also be that she wants the larger display. It's like wanting a car with nice seats, you might not want or need the fancy stereo and bigger engine but if you really really want those seats then you'll pay for the rest of the package.
I've become spoiled with having laptops with a 15 inch display, I wouldn't consider going to anything smaller if I had the choice. I might not need such a powerful computer either but if I had to replace my laptop tomorrow then I'd be looking at buying a MacBook Pro.
The rest of PCs, electronics and professional gear overall - which composes the vast majority btw - will keep using universal standards.
The USB-C ports on the new MacBooks is from a "universal" standard, that's what the "U" in USB stands for. What is rather compelling about these ports is that every port will support USB, ThunderBolt, DisplayPort, and power. If you want to plug in a DisplayPort display then use a DisplayPort cable, not an adapter but a cable. Just like how people routinely buy a DVI to HDMI cable to plug a computer to a display its not a matter of the cable doing anything more than carry the signal, it doesn't "adapt" anything.
Right now the USB-C connector is still new, it will take time before manufacturers bring these cables to market. Because of how the USB-C standard is defined these passive cables are very limited in length and/or data rates. If you want the longer cables, or the 40Gbps max speed, then one will need to buy an active cable but even then it's not technically an "adapter". If you want to plug HDMI displays to a new MacBook then you'll need an adapter cable but in time these will be common and cost no more than any active DisplayPort cable.
I had to deal with ports disappearing before and it sucks. I had, and still have, a lot of devices that I use with legacy ports and I've learned to buy the adapters I need when I get a new computer. At some point though the devices just need to be retired even if they still work like new. I have a PS/2 trackball i like and I've got a PS/2 to USB adapter for it. At some point though I'm just going to have to buy a new trackball, either because it wears out or because I just can't find an adapter any more. Although I expect USB to last a while, perhaps even longer than I do.
A "professional" would not be bitching about having to buy a couple $30 cables to plug in their new $2000 laptop to their existing devices. That's the cost of doing business. If you don't like what Apple charges for the cables then shop elsewhere because these ports are standard, not only do they support the USB standard but also the ThunderBolt and DisplayPort standards. This should make the cables cheaper since they can be passive cables rather than active USB adapters.
If you think Apple computers suck so much then don't buy them. Seems simple enough to me.
That's how it with with USB originally. Suddenly, new Macs had USB instead of ADB. No transition period, there weren't ones that did both, it was you had one, and now you had the other. So all those ADB peripherals you had that were expensive like high end keyboards or dongles for software licensing just wouldn't work at all on new systems without an adapter. They weren't replacements available for many of them initially either. It took time.
That's not true. The PowerMac tower computers had an ADB port to plug in the old ADB devices. The iMacs didn't keep the ADB ports but the towers did. I had to haul out a lot of old beige PowerMacs and replace them with blue PowerMacs so I know what I'm talking about. Most of the people I worked with wanted to have a new keyboard but a handful of them kept their old beige ones. When the blue PowerMacs were hauled away though then the ADB keyboards had to go too. The G4 PowerMacs didn't have the ADB ports but the G3 ones did.
In a few cases we had problems with ADB devices not working any more but the problem was not a lack of an ADB port but a lack of updated drivers. During this time Apple was going from MacOS 8 to MacOS 9 to MacOS X. If someone had an expensive ADB device, like a drawing tablet, the problem was a matter of getting drivers from the manufacturer. There was a lot of this going on at the time, USB replaced ADB, Ethernet replaced LocalTalk, IDE and FireWire replaced SCSI. I hauled away a lot of SCSI devices at that time. Again the issues of keeping the devices working tended to be a matter of drivers regardless of the ports. SCSI flat bed scanners were one of the big ones, those were expensive devices but they were not supported for very long. We could have gotten a SCSI adapter but no drivers, so they were hauled away too.
USB-C does not replace or supercede or do what HDMI and Ethernet connectors do, however.
What I have been doing for years is have a collection of cables with the adapters attached, I just treat them as one cable with a lump in the middle. You have to have the right cable to connect one device to the other, just get the right cable. I don't understand the frustration here. When I pack up my laptop I toss in a few things, a mouse (because I hate trackpads), the laptop charger, an Ethernet cable with a USB adapter attached, a DVI to HDMI cable, and a DVI to VGA cable. If I think I'm going to plug into a Cisco device I also toss in a USB to RJ-45 serial cable, this was a really nice find since the cable and adapter setup I had before was much larger and weighed enough to unplug itself If I wasn't careful. It's really just a matter of getting the right cable for your computer.
I remember when the original iMac came out. Back then USB existed for a long time but few people actually made any devices for it. With the exception of Apple it was very difficult to find anything that plugged into the iMac and actually worked. In about a year though there were all kinds of devices. What was a bit strange was the tendency for the devices to be brightly colored to match the iMacs of the time.
So far it's been a matter of days since Apple released this computer and again we see a lag of devices. If it really bothers you so much that Apple doesn't have the ports you need on your computer then perhaps you should shop elsewhere. I also find it odd that people that will spend $1500 on a computer will bitch so much over a $30 cable. Consider the cost of the cable as part of the computer cost. If the ports you wanted where built-in then the computer would not be as small and light and also cost at least another $100.
Also, if Apple had all those legacy port on their computers then they'd be selling a computer that looked like all the competitors. Apple is differentiating their products this way. Again, if you want a computer with things like HDMI and Ethernet built-in then I'm certain that there is a competitor out there that offers such a computer.
Let's see, so far in my life I've been a farm hand, a university computer lab monitor and first tier IT support, a soldier in the US Army, electrical engineer doing firmware development and testing, web application developer, and top tier computer support. Now I'm wanting to get back to something closer to software development I took a look at what was offered in training that the Veteran Administration might pay for. I tried those one week "boot camp" classes that would teach what you should need to know to pass one of those tests for certification from places like Microsoft, CompTIA, Cisco, and so on to be a certified something. I started with some network and security certifications and thought I might move on to something like "Certified Microsoft App Developer" or whatever they call it.
In theory the 40 hours of lecture in one week is approximate to the lecture time one would get in a typical three credit semester long course at a college but having the lecture all in one week does make the process very different. The "boot camp" expect that all the material is soaked in during the lecture, with whatever study time you can do each evening, and any self study you can do on your own before taking the "final" that is in the form of your certification test. Depending on what kind of work you want to do, and what kind of training you can find in your area, this may work for some people.
There are several well respected (and some not so respected) schools that offer classes online in software development. These courses can be toward a bachelor degree, a certificate of some sort, or even a masters degree. Where I live there is only one school within commuting distance that offered on campus graduate level software development courses. Half of my "boot camps" were online and I very much preferred having an instructor in the room. I thought, for me at least, I'd best learn in a semester long course where the instructor was in the room with me. So I signed up for courses at the local university.
If anyone is choosing to take courses at a university then make sure you get a good advisor. While the advisor I had at first was perfectly capable of reading my transcripts from my previous schooling many years ago and translate that to course equivalents at the university, and then create a plan that would lead me to a degree plan, she had little knowledge of what was actually taught in the courses. She pretty much left me on my own to figure out the classes and I ended up with a really bad semester, one course was beyond my experience and education, another was on web development and not that difficult but it didn't apply to the degree I was seeking (something I discovered when signing up for courses for the next semester). I got a different advisor, someone that knew the courses better (and actually taught some of them) and did much better the next semester.
Even though the academic advisors are there to evaluate you for the courses it is your job to evaluate the advisors. I had a bit of a runaround with the school since me, being someone returning to school after many years from being in a university before, they didn't know what to do with me. I'll be taking courses that should teach me Java, Perl, and other web oriented languages, so that I can market myself as a web developer again. Things changed since I last did web development so I decided I needed to update my skills and I found a path that works for me. Given my service in the US Army the American taxpayer is paying for tuition.
Having Uncle Sam pay the bill gives me certain freedoms and restrictions that others on this forum may not have. Point is that one needs to decide what is the goal of the training. For me the goal is to learn how to be a web application developer. Decide what kind of learning environment works for you, on-line, on campus, one week "boot camps", or semester long courses. Find out what is available to you, evaluate the costs, and decide how you want to pay for it. Some employers offer compensati
It's just human nature to list his requirements as he did so I don't blame him. Would you rather have a more complete list? Such as list off requirements for things like having a QWERTY keyboard, run on 120VAC, have a track pad, etc.?
When you go shopping for a car do you specify to the dealer that it have four rubber tires and a windscreen? People will specify what differentiates newer models from older and competing new models. At one time people would have specified things like intermittent wipers and anti-lock brakes.
I remember the ancient days when laptops came with two battery bays so that a person could exchange one battery while the other kept the laptop running. While at university I remember there being a charging station for the spare batteries so that the staff could charge up a handful of batteries so the laptop wouldn't die on them while they were working away from their desk.
Later on CD-ROM drives became a thing and people had the option of pulling out the drive to make room for a second battery. I don't recall anyone actually doing this but it was an option. About this same time, as the student IT guy, it was my job to take the laptop battery charger to the surplus inventory warehouse. I don't recall ever seeing a means to charge a laptop battery other than the laptop itself since.
At some point the CD drives, while still removable, didn't have the battery connection points in that bay any more. This was so people could instead opt for a floppy drive, DVD drive, or simply to leave the bay empty and save some weight. While not necessarily battery related I also noticed the removal of these drives become more difficult over time. I guess people didn't upgrade and/or replace them as often as they used to. The loss of the spare battery connection points must have also signaled that having a spare battery wasn't the selling point it used to be.
What remained for a long time though were user replaceable batteries. People just didn't seem to carry spare batteries anymore, which showed in the design of the laptop bags. It used to be that a laptop bag might have pockets for three or four spare batteries, then pockets for one or two, and then none.
People might have to replace the batteries in a laptop once or twice in the useful lifespan of the computer. Again this was reflected in the ease of replacing the batteries. It used to be that replacing a battery took one hand and an easy to locate latch, back when computers had the option for two of them. Then it became a matter of flipping them over to reach a less obvious latch. Then batteries started to be behind a door, first held in place with a latch and then later with a screw. Now, most every laptop will require one to remove several screws to get to the battery, assuming the battery is user replaceable at all.
We saw a similar series of events happen with cell phones. People, for the most part, don't want to replace batteries. People want their electronics to last as long as possible between charges. This has been reflected in what people buy and therefore in what manufacturers offer. If people were still content with having to carry four spare batteries with them to keep their laptops and cell phones running through the day then we'd have much smaller and lighter devices, but then we'd also have to carry those batteries somewhere somehow. But the truth is that people will willingly sacrifice in the size and weight of their devices in order that they'd never have to be concerned with changing the batteries. One way to make up for some of the size and weight of having higher capacity batteries is to remove the pieces and parts that make them easy to replace. This has the added benefit of making the devices more durable and cheaper.
Another benefit of making it difficult to replace batteries is it keeps people from putting in after market, and therefore likely substandard, batteries that can damage a device. Now that batteries have reached the durability and capacity we have today it is rare for anyone to even consider the lack of a user replaceable battery as a problem. There are times like this, where a battery problem highlights where the inability for a user to replace a battery can be problematic, it would seem that the makers of these devices are willing to put up with the challenges because of how rare it happens. People seem willing to buy these devices. If people demanded user replaceable batteries then the device makers would continue to offer them.
If the lack of user replaceable batteries bother you then perhaps you need to be more vocal. But then money speaks louder than words. If you want that feature so bad then you will have to pay for it.
What person do you become when your parents preferred a machine to you for years?
You mean like Dad being more interested in watching a movie on TV than reading me a bedtime story?
There was a time when my brothers and I thought Dad was illiterate. In school we'd read stories in school about the poor literacy rate of some adults, and see TV shows about how people that can't read but "fake it" by doing things like learning enough to read a road sign, and order food in a restaurant by looking at the pictures on a menu or asking the wait staff about the daily specials.
I don't know if this is a reflection of dads being dads or of government funded schools and mass media trying to teach kids that their parents are quite likely stupider than their teachers. If a kid thinks that their parents are idiots then they can be made more receptive to what the government tells them if it should conflict with what their parents tell them.
That's an issue of government trying to destroy the family, which I'm quite certain was not where you were going but I believe to be a related issue. It depends on what these parents are consuming on these electronic devices. If they are getting government approved messages on how they should be freed from the drudgery of making their children breakfast and let them eat it at school then I think that is just as much, or a greater, threat to "family time" than what people complain about with phone calls interrupting meal time with the family. It's kind of hard to share a meal if the kids leave for school to eat. Some schools want to offer evening meals, and meals over the summer.
Think of school lunch programs too. Should not the feeding of children be the responsibility of the parents? Is it really that difficult to pack a lunch for school kids? There was a McDonald's next door to my high school. Some might consider it child abuse for a parent giving a child money for lunch and instruct them to eat at McDonald's instead of school cafeteria. Some might consider parents forcing children to eat a government mandated meal at school cafeteria as abuse. Either way I believe it should be the parents' choice on what their children eat, even if the school doesn't "approve" of it.
Also, who is calling these people during meal times? There's a lot of rules on robo-dialing that don't apply to political campaigns. I understand the implications of a campaign being able to communicate with potential voters but does it have to happen at meal time?
Maybe Dad didn't always talk to us at meals because he was watching TV at the time but at least I saw him every morning and night for meals and while doing chores on the farm. I know this will sound like a combination of tin foil hattery and "get off my lawn" style old man grumpiness but kids these days aren't being pulled from the family by just the electronics but by the government teaching kids them that the government feeds them and educates them, parents don't. Al Gore and such would give talks to kids on how parents are destroying the environment if they aren't using the right kind of light bulbs or driving the right kind of car. That's assuming they have parents (plural) and not a single parent because their dad was replaced by a government single mother subsidy.
You want to see your family life less "contaminated"? Then eat breakfast with your children instead of sending them off to school to eat. Pick them up at school instead of having them walk or ride a bus. Pack their lunches. Also, turn off the TV and cell phones at meal time. When (or if) you let your children watch TV then watch TV together. Play games with your kids, read them books. If this is cutting in on your time to do dishes and such then make them part of it. Have them fold their own clothes and help with dishes. Tell them they can watch TV with Mom and Dad after the dishes are washed, the floors swept, and everything put away. Oh, and make sure Dad is around to watch TV, no government check can replace a father.
That's not completely accurate, as Verizon paid less than $0 We actually paid them, on average, around 1.1 billion/year with our tax dollars! Do you think that helped those schools, police, fire departments, and social programs for the communities they "serve"?
Yes, at least for the fire and police parts. For fire and police to act in the saving of life, limb, and property they must know about the problem. People having the ability to call for emergency services, with perhaps a telephone, would improve response times.
Also, Verizon as an entity may not have paid taxes but all the employees did. They paid income and sales taxes with their wages. These employees spending money on income taxes means some of that money goes toward funding the schools.
I generally oppose tax dollars going towards subsidizing anything, especially so if the subsidy is something not spelled out in the government's enumerated powers. It might be a stretch but a functional and generally accessible phone infrastructure could be construed as means to move communications under the "Postal" clause. Much like how the government subsidizes/funds USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc. for the movement of letters, packages, and money (by various means, including electronic fund transfers), there is a need for electronic communications, such as phones and internet, to work in parallel for when electronic communications would be more appropriate. This competition with electronic communications provides an incentive to keep prices low and/or enables them to focus on moving letters and packages rather than be concerned about e-mail and phone communications too. There is also the power of Congress "To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions" where being able to call up reserves quickly by telephone is certainly advantageous. The Internet was made for things like this too even if that has become a small part of how it is used now.
If you are complaining that people complain that some of these telephone and internet companies have taken these government funds with the promise of more services which they later failed to live up to then I believe many of those complaints have value. If the government paid for Verizon to provide high speed internet to the poor and they did not live up to their end of the deal then there may be grounds for the government to punish the company for not living up to their end of the contract. If the contract included an expectation of these poor people to pay their phone and internet access bills and people were not paying them then Verizon failed in a way where the government is partially at fault. It is quite likely the government failed on their end to properly estimate the ability and desire for the people in these communities to pay their fees.
This would be much like USPS or FedEx taking a bunch of money from the government for building a big warehouse and sorting facility, buying a bunch of delivery trucks, and hiring a lot of deliverers and sorters, but not enough people were shipping enough letters and packages to support all of this. Or they took the money, didn't build up anything, and left the people with a desire to move a lot of packages and such with not enough staff and facilities to handle the load.
So, you might be right to be upset about Verizon taking that government money but for the wrong reasons.
That's weird, your post got cut off. Anyway, I was just reading on the internet about a girl that axed her mom and dad to death. She said he did it was because they kept ignoring her and using their smartphones instead of talking to her. Glad to hear things are well with you but you might want to be more considerate to your child or you'll end up like those unfortunate people, right?
I remember watching The Waltons on TV (a show about a family living in a Virginia rural community through the Depression and WWII) where one episode focused on the family getting a telephone. It was a big deal and not without people being concerned about how it might affect their life. A rather humorous, and quite realistic, scene involved the patriarch having to leave the bathtub to answer the phone. I believe the episode ended with them getting rid of the telephone but it reappears later in the series with much less fanfare.
Then came television. People were concerned about how that might affect the family too. I lived through some of this as I remember Dad bringing home a second TV after Mom demanded the one TV we had be removed from the kitchen. Dad did not want his TV viewing to be interrupted by supper. Come to think of it I was probably watching The Waltons while eating supper.
Computers, internet, video games, all technology that was going to invade "family time". That's just the electronics. Some of you may have read enough history to know how big of a deal clocks were to how society worked. Automobiles were also supposed to ruin "family time" or something.
Same stuff on a different day. People learn to turn the stuff off when they should or suffer the consequences.
When shopping for a phone I want to know how it fits in my life, and in my pocket. Perhaps this is not an issue with most phones but if I'm going to choose between the different iPhone models, which are larger than most phones, then I want to make sure the phone fits in the leg pocket of my carpenter jeans comfortably. That seems reasonable, no? When shopping for a new wallet I'll want to make sure it fits in my pocket too. These are things that go in pockets, people are going to want to see if they want it in their pocket. If the phone is glued to the stand then I can't even get an idea of the most common selling points of a phone, it's size and weight.
I can imagine a lot of new phone sales are lost because people lose interest because they can't pick it up and hold it to their ear and not have a brick the size of a small automobile glued to the back, and a spring loaded tether that has enough force to lift that small automobile on the back of the phone from the floor to the magnetized stand. These people will likely still buy a phone, because people buy phones, but if the impulse is lost because of poor presentation then they lose out on selling their phone to that person. The small probability of someone walking out of the store successfully with a phone in their pocket may be worth the gain in future sales.
If I'm told I cannot see if a product that is designed to fit in a pocket does in fact fit in my pocket then I'll tend to shop elsewhere. I can imagine I'm not alone. I hope this trend spreads. I tend to avoid shops that at like I'm going to walk off with their products without paying for them. This is a sign of poor quality neighborhoods and perhaps even poor quality products, because the good stuff isn't generally sold in the bad parts of town.
That's a neat trick. Question, can Apple turn a pumpkin into a carriage? Thinking this further just never mind. That carriage would be useless if it had to stay in WiFi range of an Apple Store.
Have you not read the packaging? It says to let stand for a minute before eating.
Oh, right, this is Slashdot. If people cannot be bothered to read the articles then it should not be a surprise if they do not read the heating instructions on a burrito.
Slashdot Mirror
It sounds to me like all that you are arguing is that you are not in the market for this product. That's fine, I'd want something else too.
The MacBook is not a tablet alternative, the tablet is a MacBook alternative.
That's all a matter of perspective and opinion, is it not?
I think back to my classes this last summer and I recall two students that took tablets to class. One student had a nice case/keyboard combo that made me think for the first couple days of class that it was a laptop. He used it pretty much like a laptop, at least during class, taking notes and such. The other student that had a tablet with him regularly tended to just prop it up on the desk and watch soccer with the sound off during class. In both cases it seems like a tablet or laptop would have done just as well. A stripped down simple small laptop fits in this space well. For people that need to plug in more stuff regularly then a single port laptop is not suitable.
Here's a bad car analogy. I like my Ford Explorer, it's a nice little SUV built on a small truck frame. It's got RWD/4WD and a tow hitch, very truck like. If I had to replace it tomorrow I'd buy something like it again. In talking to my brother a while ago I find out that the new Ford Explorer is built on a car or "crossover" frame, has FWD/AWD instead of RWD/4WD, among other changes. In my mind that is not how an SUV should be built. With the changes in technology and market demands we see that Ford changed the design of a popular product to match.
Apple did the same as Ford. Technology allows for things like AirPlay, AirPrint, Bluetooth (for sound, keyboard, mouse), and WiFi which means people are less likely to plug something in to their laptop even if there are ports for it. Market demands for smaller, lighter, and cheaper means we get this MacBook.
I like Ford, and I like Apple, therefore I'm likely to buy from them again. Since both companies have changed the products I know and use I'll tend to look at other products they offer if I feel the need to replace what I own now.
Hillary Clinton is an evil person. She left Americans, people under her employ, to die in Libya. Afterward she claimed that this obviously preplanned attack, on the anniversary of another planned attack on the USA, was just a protest over a movie that got out of hand. The maker of this movie was then jailed over a minor probation violation to make things look at least nominally consistent with her claims. This man was jailed as a scapegoat because he dared exercise his right of free expression.
This e-mail scandal is nothing compared to the crimes she's committed before. The operation of the Clinton Foundation as a charity is a sham. It does give a lot of money to help the poor but that is only to launder the money they get. A good front company will do what they say they do or else it wouldn't be a front. Behind the scenes they pocket a lot of money, divert some to their political friends, who also seem to operate front companies that do construction and such. The Foundation was used as a way for foreign nations to buy influence in the State Department when she was Secretary.
This FBI investigation over the improper handling of secret e-mails is just one of five FBI investigations that Clinton is involved with right now. It's not a question on if she broke the law, only the matter of which laws specifically she broke and how many times. She belongs in jail and for the rest of her life.
Her crimes makes her unsuitable for public office but even if that is ignored just her policies alone make her unfit. She's been talking about how we need to go to war with Russia. Her policies on political campaign reform would be the end of free expression in the USA. Her immigration policies alone could collapse the economy. Her idea on the right to keep and bear arms requires that we redefine what the words "right" and "keep" mean, sort of how Obamacare allows you to "keep" your doctor redefining.
One bright spot in all of this is that Clinton does not appear to be in good health. Not that I wish anyone ill but I do believe that if she is elected that she will do serious damage to the republic, the only thing that may stop her now is her own mortality.
If I stopped there I suspect that people would reply to me on how Trump is terrible and they'd vote for Clinton only to keep Trump from winning. Trump didn't leave people to die at the hands of thugs and terrorists. Trump didn't use the power of government to silence his opposition. Trump, having never been in government, has never abused the powers of public office. He's been a private citizen all this time, and as a businessman has had to fight the government to make money and employ people. He knows where government has failed business and I expect that if he wins that we will see economic growth. Trump is far from perfect but at least he's not the next in line to maintain a criminal dynasty in the USA.
I'll take a portion of your rant line by line.
Professionals needs ports to connect external drives,
There are four USB-C ports capable of ThunderBolt 3 which can give 40Gbps speeds. The best I see on most other laptops and desktops are USB 3.0 (5Gbps), eSATA (6Gbps), or the older ThunderBolt (10 or 20Gbps). Just what do you expect? One might need to get a new cable or dock to connect their existing drives to the USB-C port but any professional that needs to connect to various drives to transfer data will have a dock on their desk or a fistful of cables in their laptop bag to connect to what they need.
sd card readers to transfer content and backup from multiple devices,
This may be a valid complaint but I still consider this a nit to pick. While SD card readers have been common on laptops and desktops for a while I find that XQD is becoming popular. Every digital camera I've ever seen had some way to plug into a computer to transfer the photos, newer ones will have Bluetooth and/or WiFi as well. With SD card readers costing $8 I do think that this is a very minor point.
ethernet ports to transfer files fast and in a reliable way,
Professionals will have a fistful of cables in their laptop bag to connect to a network. When traveling there might be an Ethernet port in their hotel room or wherever they may be and a professional should know enough to carry a cable to connect. I'll just leave the USB or Thunderbolt adapter on the Ethernet cable when I pack, when I have to plug in to the network I just attach each end and I'm good. I'd expect a professional to be able to figure this out.
graphics cards that are on the higher end,
The MacBook Pro can support output to two 5K displays or four 4K displays. With the addition of a PCIe breakout box one can add any of a number of GPUs if the one in the laptop is somehow insufficient. The MBP can be configured with 4GB of video RAM, most laptops don't even have that much for main RAM. Again, just what do you expect?
HDMI connectors because that's the type of connector they will find in any situation,
USB-C to HDMI adapters cost $25. Cry me a river. This is a $2000 laptop and you are bitching that your old HDMI cable doesn't plug into it without buying a common off the shelf adapter?
expandable RAM for fast renders and multitasking among a host of other stuff.
Is it that professionals demand "expandable" RAM or that the computer comes with a lot of it? It seems rare any more for people to expand the RAM in a laptop anymore since most people just buy how much RAM they want when they get the laptop. The desktop machines we have at work for the graphics people do not support more than 24GB, what we install is something like 12GB, 16GB, or maybe 20GB. It would be nice if Apple offered a laptop that supported more RAM but finding one elsewhere is also rare.
Outside very few businesses, there is no Apple-only workflow.
I don't see how this is relevant.
Why are you even talking?
If I knew then I'd tell you.
You're telling us all about how your wife doesn't need a Pro computer. But she likes it, and that's fine.
I'm not the original poster, just someone speculating on possible reasons. So, not my wife and I don't know the person posting.
Meanwhile there is a very large segment of users who do a hell of a lot more with your computer than your wife does. These people now have to look at companies other than Apple to find a computer that does what they want.
I consider myself an IT professional and I've come to the realization a long time ago that adapters are just the cost of doing business. If I have a $2000+ laptop and a $200+ display then I'm not going to throw a fit over a $15 cable and $15 adapter to connect the two. Put this in perspective and consider what you are bitching about.
When I pack my laptop to do some work I will consider what I will be doing and I'll pack what I need to do it. Mentally I consider the adapter part of the cable and I leave the adapter attached to the cable. If I think I'll need to plug into an Ethernet network I'll pack an Ethernet cable with the USB adapter attached. I've been able to find cables that have USB-A on one end and a Cisco compatible serial RJ-45 on the other end, this is much nicer than the cluster of adapters and cables I used before. Considering the type of work I do I really only use Ethernet and serial ports. I will rarely want to plug into an external display and with a collection of adapters for VGA and DVI I do fine. In fact considering the kind of work I do I often use two serial and/or Ethernet connections at a time. If you know of a laptop that has two Ethernet ports and two serial ports then I'd like to see it.
I have three laptops that I use regularly and depending on what I'll be doing I'll pick one of them. They have different sets of ports on them but regardless I still find myself grabbing the same cables with the USB adapters I've left on them. It's just easier that way. Even though one laptop has a serial port built-in I still tend to grab the USB to RJ-45 to plug into Cisco gear. The USB end is smaller than the clunky DB-9 adapters and I don't have to think about if I grabbed the right laptop to go with the right cable since all the laptops have USB ports.
If in the future I find myself buying a new laptop I'll probably get another Apple since they've served me well. I do have a lot of USB-A cables but I've found adapters that can turn that into USB-C at $6 for a pack of three. I'll likely just get a pack of them and stick the adapters on the end of the cables I already use and consider the problem solved. I'd have to get another video cable or adapter but it seems with every laptop I've bought I had to do that. I've got laptops with S-Video, VGA, Mini-DP, HDMI, DVI, and probably others. Buying adapters is just part of the deal it seems.
My first laptop and the newest one I own cost over $3000 each. I had a couple in between but not nearly as nice as those two were when new. Each time I had to buy adapters to do my work because that is life. My first camera had CompactFlash for storage, my current one uses SD. I had to buy a CF reader for my first laptop because that is life. For a while my primary camera and laptop both had SD slots which was nice but now I mostly just use my phone to take pictures. If I need photos off the camera now I just plug it into the computer I'm using with a USB cable.
I just don't get why people are so worked up over this. People seem perfectly willing to spend $2000+ on a new laptop but throw a hissy fit if they also have to spend an additional $20 so they can plug in their peripherals that cost them another $2000+. People need to get a grip.
Define legitimate religion...
One that the speaker is a member.
No, I don't want one of those. They are messing with the standard and getting predictably mixed results. I read the reviews on that page and I'm not impressed. I bought my last phone for something like $50 knowing that I'd not be using it for long. I gave up on getting a new smart phone at the time since I saw all kinds of craziness with the charging ports used. I now see that I have a choice with getting a phone with USB-C or Lightning which don't have the "which way is up" problem of the older iterations of USB.
I'm not going to spend any more money on anything USB-A or -B if possible. As I sit in my basement office I can see my large investment into USB devices so I'll be using them for a long time yet. As these things need to be replaced I'm going to use USB-C or whatever else that might come along.
A single USB-A on a laptop along two USB-C would be fairly decent. The problem with "get an adapter" : most existing adapters plug onto USB-A . So it's get an adapter for the adapter.
My short reply...
As pointed out in other posts on this thread there are manufacturers that offer small and inexpensive USB-A to USB-C adapters. How small? Smaller than those USB to PS/2 adapters common with mice once upon a time., just put the adapter on the device and then consider it just part of the device. How inexpensive? I've seen them selling as low as three for $6. With prices like that I believe quite strongly now that anyone that complains about the lack of USB-A ports on a new $2000 laptop is ignorant or just looking for something to complain about.
Further explanation...
It seems any more that anytime I plug something into a computer I'll need an adapter. Standards are great aren't they? We have so many to choose from. With the use of a USB-C port that supports USB 3, ThunderBolt 3, DisplayPort, and power then at least I don't have to wonder about what kind of adapter I need so much. If it plugs into a USB-C port then there is a good chance it will work.
This is nothing new, We've always needed small adapters or the right kind of cable to plug things in. I look around the pile of electronics around me and I can see all kinds of cables and ports. SCSI had three different ports, DB-25, HD-50, and Centronics 50. FireWire had the 4 pin i.LINK connector, the 6 pin connector, and the 9 pin 800 Mbps connector. I mentioned mice before, it was common for mice to have a PS/2 connector and a PS/2 to serial adapter in the box, later they came with a USB connector and an adapter to PS/2. Serial, do I have to go into all the different adapters for serial ports? I keep a USB adapter in reach that will allow me to plug into hard drives that have 2.5 inch IDE, 3.5 Inch IDE, or SATA. Parallel printer ports were a thing but I avoided it myself for the most part, there were at least two different kind of ports for that. Ethernet had this problem for a while, until people settled on RJ-45. Even though we have pretty much just one port for Ethernet it seems we must still be aware on the speed of the ports and if we need a crossover cable or not. Needing the right kind of video adapters was a thing until everyone pretty much settled on VGA, which was short lived as a bunch of digital connectors came about.
At work we have to support a wide variety of computers of various ages. The older computers all pretty much have VGA. I believe we got rid of all the CRT displays by now so if an older computer comes in needing service we need to find an adapter. Most of the computers have DVI, if there is an older display with VGA ports then we need an adapter, we have a shoebox full of DVI to VGA adapters for this. Newer computers tend to have DisplayPort, we don't have many DisplayPort capable displays yet so we end up buying DP to DVI adapters. We see a handful of computers with mini-DP or HDMI and so we have a couple mini-DP to DVI and HDMI to DVI cables around for that. Any new displays we buy will have DP inputs so as people get new computers they will replace the older ones with VGA and DVI. That means more cables and adapters as we make that transition.
What fills me with dread though is that USB-C has three different video alternate modes, MHL, DP, and HDMI. I can foresee many headaches from that alone. Add in that USB 3 and ThunderBolt allow for external GPUs then we get into even more headache inducing territory. While I dismiss the "get an adapter" complaint for the most part I will concede that the future of connecting displays and projectors will likely be problematic for a long time yet.
I'm of two minds on the loss of the Magsafe port. First is the point you make, the cord will break free and not drag the computer down if tripped over. This is nice but I've had problems of it not making a proper connection because, for example, a small stack of papers slid under the cable. It would appear connected at a glance but it would be tilted just enough that power wouldn't flow. What is nice about having the USB-C port for power is that the power brick can be plugged in on either side of the laptop. Sometimes when sitting in a tight spot I can't find enough room to comfortably keep the computer plugged in. By being able to plug it in on either side I may be able to avoid this problem. Another nice thing is that since the computer uses standard USB-C power delivery for charging then I'm not locked into buying an Apple power adapter. I've seen laptops be trashed only because the charger would be damaged and a replacement could not be found. With a standard port this is much less likely to happen.
I have seen someone that made a Magsafe like power cable for USB-C power delivery. It's a cable with a USB-C connector on each end but one end has a magnetic breakaway point. I don't know how well these things work but it is an option if that Magsafe function is a must.
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.
Agreed. I hate having to figure out which way is up on those damned connectors. The "big" A connectors are bad enough, when using the micro connectors for my cell phone is worse. considering that I have to plug in the phone everyday I'd appreciate a connector that can be flipped either way and still fit.
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.
As a long time Apple customer I appreciate that Apple has decided to adopt more widely used ports on their computers. Technically the old connectors like ADB and NuBus weren't Apple only but they were so obscure that few others bothered. Use of USB-C avoids the lock-in that ADB and NuBus had. Apple computers are so far from "lock-in" on the hardware that they'll run any OS that any other major hardware maker will. If you are going to complain about vendor lock-in then it's not Apple hardware you should complain about. I'd think a better case could be made with Microsoft software.
How many different USB devices do you have that you'd even consider soldering a USB-A port to your new laptop?
I saw a small cheap (about $10) USB-A to USB-C adapter on Amazon. Given the small size and low cost it should be trivial for someone willing to invest $2000 in a new laptop to buy a handful of these adapters to leave on the cables for the devices they'd be plugging in. That's assuming one is too lazy to just keep track of a single adapter.
To answer your question, yes the wires would fit. The USB-C connector has all the same pins as a USB-A port plus a few more. USB 1.1 or 2.0 uses only four of the contacts in the USB-C connector. If you want USB 3.0 speeds from your USB-A port then you'll have to wire in the other five contacts too. USB-C has an additional two data lanes on top of the two used in the USB 3.0 to get the higher data rate, it also adds additional power contacts. Getting the connector to actually fit inside the computer though might be difficult considering how tightly packed it is.
Because she likes to type on the computing equivalent of a Rolex watch. A Casio would do just as well to tell time but then it wouldn't look as cool when she goes to the coffee shop to write.
It could also be that she wants the larger display. It's like wanting a car with nice seats, you might not want or need the fancy stereo and bigger engine but if you really really want those seats then you'll pay for the rest of the package.
I've become spoiled with having laptops with a 15 inch display, I wouldn't consider going to anything smaller if I had the choice. I might not need such a powerful computer either but if I had to replace my laptop tomorrow then I'd be looking at buying a MacBook Pro.
The rest of PCs, electronics and professional gear overall - which composes the vast majority btw - will keep using universal standards.
The USB-C ports on the new MacBooks is from a "universal" standard, that's what the "U" in USB stands for. What is rather compelling about these ports is that every port will support USB, ThunderBolt, DisplayPort, and power. If you want to plug in a DisplayPort display then use a DisplayPort cable, not an adapter but a cable. Just like how people routinely buy a DVI to HDMI cable to plug a computer to a display its not a matter of the cable doing anything more than carry the signal, it doesn't "adapt" anything.
Right now the USB-C connector is still new, it will take time before manufacturers bring these cables to market. Because of how the USB-C standard is defined these passive cables are very limited in length and/or data rates. If you want the longer cables, or the 40Gbps max speed, then one will need to buy an active cable but even then it's not technically an "adapter". If you want to plug HDMI displays to a new MacBook then you'll need an adapter cable but in time these will be common and cost no more than any active DisplayPort cable.
I had to deal with ports disappearing before and it sucks. I had, and still have, a lot of devices that I use with legacy ports and I've learned to buy the adapters I need when I get a new computer. At some point though the devices just need to be retired even if they still work like new. I have a PS/2 trackball i like and I've got a PS/2 to USB adapter for it. At some point though I'm just going to have to buy a new trackball, either because it wears out or because I just can't find an adapter any more. Although I expect USB to last a while, perhaps even longer than I do.
A "professional" would not be bitching about having to buy a couple $30 cables to plug in their new $2000 laptop to their existing devices. That's the cost of doing business. If you don't like what Apple charges for the cables then shop elsewhere because these ports are standard, not only do they support the USB standard but also the ThunderBolt and DisplayPort standards. This should make the cables cheaper since they can be passive cables rather than active USB adapters.
If you think Apple computers suck so much then don't buy them. Seems simple enough to me.
That's how it with with USB originally. Suddenly, new Macs had USB instead of ADB. No transition period, there weren't ones that did both, it was you had one, and now you had the other. So all those ADB peripherals you had that were expensive like high end keyboards or dongles for software licensing just wouldn't work at all on new systems without an adapter. They weren't replacements available for many of them initially either. It took time.
That's not true. The PowerMac tower computers had an ADB port to plug in the old ADB devices. The iMacs didn't keep the ADB ports but the towers did. I had to haul out a lot of old beige PowerMacs and replace them with blue PowerMacs so I know what I'm talking about. Most of the people I worked with wanted to have a new keyboard but a handful of them kept their old beige ones. When the blue PowerMacs were hauled away though then the ADB keyboards had to go too. The G4 PowerMacs didn't have the ADB ports but the G3 ones did.
In a few cases we had problems with ADB devices not working any more but the problem was not a lack of an ADB port but a lack of updated drivers. During this time Apple was going from MacOS 8 to MacOS 9 to MacOS X. If someone had an expensive ADB device, like a drawing tablet, the problem was a matter of getting drivers from the manufacturer. There was a lot of this going on at the time, USB replaced ADB, Ethernet replaced LocalTalk, IDE and FireWire replaced SCSI. I hauled away a lot of SCSI devices at that time. Again the issues of keeping the devices working tended to be a matter of drivers regardless of the ports. SCSI flat bed scanners were one of the big ones, those were expensive devices but they were not supported for very long. We could have gotten a SCSI adapter but no drivers, so they were hauled away too.
USB-C does not replace or supercede or do what HDMI and Ethernet connectors do, however.
What I have been doing for years is have a collection of cables with the adapters attached, I just treat them as one cable with a lump in the middle. You have to have the right cable to connect one device to the other, just get the right cable. I don't understand the frustration here. When I pack up my laptop I toss in a few things, a mouse (because I hate trackpads), the laptop charger, an Ethernet cable with a USB adapter attached, a DVI to HDMI cable, and a DVI to VGA cable. If I think I'm going to plug into a Cisco device I also toss in a USB to RJ-45 serial cable, this was a really nice find since the cable and adapter setup I had before was much larger and weighed enough to unplug itself If I wasn't careful. It's really just a matter of getting the right cable for your computer.
I remember when the original iMac came out. Back then USB existed for a long time but few people actually made any devices for it. With the exception of Apple it was very difficult to find anything that plugged into the iMac and actually worked. In about a year though there were all kinds of devices. What was a bit strange was the tendency for the devices to be brightly colored to match the iMacs of the time.
So far it's been a matter of days since Apple released this computer and again we see a lag of devices. If it really bothers you so much that Apple doesn't have the ports you need on your computer then perhaps you should shop elsewhere. I also find it odd that people that will spend $1500 on a computer will bitch so much over a $30 cable. Consider the cost of the cable as part of the computer cost. If the ports you wanted where built-in then the computer would not be as small and light and also cost at least another $100.
Also, if Apple had all those legacy port on their computers then they'd be selling a computer that looked like all the competitors. Apple is differentiating their products this way. Again, if you want a computer with things like HDMI and Ethernet built-in then I'm certain that there is a competitor out there that offers such a computer.
Let's see, so far in my life I've been a farm hand, a university computer lab monitor and first tier IT support, a soldier in the US Army, electrical engineer doing firmware development and testing, web application developer, and top tier computer support. Now I'm wanting to get back to something closer to software development I took a look at what was offered in training that the Veteran Administration might pay for. I tried those one week "boot camp" classes that would teach what you should need to know to pass one of those tests for certification from places like Microsoft, CompTIA, Cisco, and so on to be a certified something. I started with some network and security certifications and thought I might move on to something like "Certified Microsoft App Developer" or whatever they call it.
In theory the 40 hours of lecture in one week is approximate to the lecture time one would get in a typical three credit semester long course at a college but having the lecture all in one week does make the process very different. The "boot camp" expect that all the material is soaked in during the lecture, with whatever study time you can do each evening, and any self study you can do on your own before taking the "final" that is in the form of your certification test. Depending on what kind of work you want to do, and what kind of training you can find in your area, this may work for some people.
There are several well respected (and some not so respected) schools that offer classes online in software development. These courses can be toward a bachelor degree, a certificate of some sort, or even a masters degree. Where I live there is only one school within commuting distance that offered on campus graduate level software development courses. Half of my "boot camps" were online and I very much preferred having an instructor in the room. I thought, for me at least, I'd best learn in a semester long course where the instructor was in the room with me. So I signed up for courses at the local university.
If anyone is choosing to take courses at a university then make sure you get a good advisor. While the advisor I had at first was perfectly capable of reading my transcripts from my previous schooling many years ago and translate that to course equivalents at the university, and then create a plan that would lead me to a degree plan, she had little knowledge of what was actually taught in the courses. She pretty much left me on my own to figure out the classes and I ended up with a really bad semester, one course was beyond my experience and education, another was on web development and not that difficult but it didn't apply to the degree I was seeking (something I discovered when signing up for courses for the next semester). I got a different advisor, someone that knew the courses better (and actually taught some of them) and did much better the next semester.
Even though the academic advisors are there to evaluate you for the courses it is your job to evaluate the advisors. I had a bit of a runaround with the school since me, being someone returning to school after many years from being in a university before, they didn't know what to do with me. I'll be taking courses that should teach me Java, Perl, and other web oriented languages, so that I can market myself as a web developer again. Things changed since I last did web development so I decided I needed to update my skills and I found a path that works for me. Given my service in the US Army the American taxpayer is paying for tuition.
Having Uncle Sam pay the bill gives me certain freedoms and restrictions that others on this forum may not have. Point is that one needs to decide what is the goal of the training. For me the goal is to learn how to be a web application developer. Decide what kind of learning environment works for you, on-line, on campus, one week "boot camps", or semester long courses. Find out what is available to you, evaluate the costs, and decide how you want to pay for it. Some employers offer compensati
It's just human nature to list his requirements as he did so I don't blame him. Would you rather have a more complete list? Such as list off requirements for things like having a QWERTY keyboard, run on 120VAC, have a track pad, etc.?
When you go shopping for a car do you specify to the dealer that it have four rubber tires and a windscreen? People will specify what differentiates newer models from older and competing new models. At one time people would have specified things like intermittent wipers and anti-lock brakes.
I remember the ancient days when laptops came with two battery bays so that a person could exchange one battery while the other kept the laptop running. While at university I remember there being a charging station for the spare batteries so that the staff could charge up a handful of batteries so the laptop wouldn't die on them while they were working away from their desk.
Later on CD-ROM drives became a thing and people had the option of pulling out the drive to make room for a second battery. I don't recall anyone actually doing this but it was an option. About this same time, as the student IT guy, it was my job to take the laptop battery charger to the surplus inventory warehouse. I don't recall ever seeing a means to charge a laptop battery other than the laptop itself since.
At some point the CD drives, while still removable, didn't have the battery connection points in that bay any more. This was so people could instead opt for a floppy drive, DVD drive, or simply to leave the bay empty and save some weight. While not necessarily battery related I also noticed the removal of these drives become more difficult over time. I guess people didn't upgrade and/or replace them as often as they used to. The loss of the spare battery connection points must have also signaled that having a spare battery wasn't the selling point it used to be.
What remained for a long time though were user replaceable batteries. People just didn't seem to carry spare batteries anymore, which showed in the design of the laptop bags. It used to be that a laptop bag might have pockets for three or four spare batteries, then pockets for one or two, and then none.
People might have to replace the batteries in a laptop once or twice in the useful lifespan of the computer. Again this was reflected in the ease of replacing the batteries. It used to be that replacing a battery took one hand and an easy to locate latch, back when computers had the option for two of them. Then it became a matter of flipping them over to reach a less obvious latch. Then batteries started to be behind a door, first held in place with a latch and then later with a screw. Now, most every laptop will require one to remove several screws to get to the battery, assuming the battery is user replaceable at all.
We saw a similar series of events happen with cell phones. People, for the most part, don't want to replace batteries. People want their electronics to last as long as possible between charges. This has been reflected in what people buy and therefore in what manufacturers offer. If people were still content with having to carry four spare batteries with them to keep their laptops and cell phones running through the day then we'd have much smaller and lighter devices, but then we'd also have to carry those batteries somewhere somehow. But the truth is that people will willingly sacrifice in the size and weight of their devices in order that they'd never have to be concerned with changing the batteries. One way to make up for some of the size and weight of having higher capacity batteries is to remove the pieces and parts that make them easy to replace. This has the added benefit of making the devices more durable and cheaper.
Another benefit of making it difficult to replace batteries is it keeps people from putting in after market, and therefore likely substandard, batteries that can damage a device. Now that batteries have reached the durability and capacity we have today it is rare for anyone to even consider the lack of a user replaceable battery as a problem. There are times like this, where a battery problem highlights where the inability for a user to replace a battery can be problematic, it would seem that the makers of these devices are willing to put up with the challenges because of how rare it happens. People seem willing to buy these devices. If people demanded user replaceable batteries then the device makers would continue to offer them.
If the lack of user replaceable batteries bother you then perhaps you need to be more vocal. But then money speaks louder than words. If you want that feature so bad then you will have to pay for it.
What person do you become when your parents preferred a machine to you for years?
You mean like Dad being more interested in watching a movie on TV than reading me a bedtime story?
There was a time when my brothers and I thought Dad was illiterate. In school we'd read stories in school about the poor literacy rate of some adults, and see TV shows about how people that can't read but "fake it" by doing things like learning enough to read a road sign, and order food in a restaurant by looking at the pictures on a menu or asking the wait staff about the daily specials.
I don't know if this is a reflection of dads being dads or of government funded schools and mass media trying to teach kids that their parents are quite likely stupider than their teachers. If a kid thinks that their parents are idiots then they can be made more receptive to what the government tells them if it should conflict with what their parents tell them.
That's an issue of government trying to destroy the family, which I'm quite certain was not where you were going but I believe to be a related issue. It depends on what these parents are consuming on these electronic devices. If they are getting government approved messages on how they should be freed from the drudgery of making their children breakfast and let them eat it at school then I think that is just as much, or a greater, threat to "family time" than what people complain about with phone calls interrupting meal time with the family. It's kind of hard to share a meal if the kids leave for school to eat. Some schools want to offer evening meals, and meals over the summer.
Think of school lunch programs too. Should not the feeding of children be the responsibility of the parents? Is it really that difficult to pack a lunch for school kids? There was a McDonald's next door to my high school. Some might consider it child abuse for a parent giving a child money for lunch and instruct them to eat at McDonald's instead of school cafeteria. Some might consider parents forcing children to eat a government mandated meal at school cafeteria as abuse. Either way I believe it should be the parents' choice on what their children eat, even if the school doesn't "approve" of it.
Also, who is calling these people during meal times? There's a lot of rules on robo-dialing that don't apply to political campaigns. I understand the implications of a campaign being able to communicate with potential voters but does it have to happen at meal time?
Maybe Dad didn't always talk to us at meals because he was watching TV at the time but at least I saw him every morning and night for meals and while doing chores on the farm. I know this will sound like a combination of tin foil hattery and "get off my lawn" style old man grumpiness but kids these days aren't being pulled from the family by just the electronics but by the government teaching kids them that the government feeds them and educates them, parents don't. Al Gore and such would give talks to kids on how parents are destroying the environment if they aren't using the right kind of light bulbs or driving the right kind of car. That's assuming they have parents (plural) and not a single parent because their dad was replaced by a government single mother subsidy.
You want to see your family life less "contaminated"? Then eat breakfast with your children instead of sending them off to school to eat. Pick them up at school instead of having them walk or ride a bus. Pack their lunches. Also, turn off the TV and cell phones at meal time. When (or if) you let your children watch TV then watch TV together. Play games with your kids, read them books. If this is cutting in on your time to do dishes and such then make them part of it. Have them fold their own clothes and help with dishes. Tell them they can watch TV with Mom and Dad after the dishes are washed, the floors swept, and everything put away. Oh, and make sure Dad is around to watch TV, no government check can replace a father.
That's not completely accurate, as Verizon paid less than $0 We actually paid them, on average, around 1.1 billion/year with our tax dollars! Do you think that helped those schools, police, fire departments, and social programs for the communities they "serve"?
Yes, at least for the fire and police parts. For fire and police to act in the saving of life, limb, and property they must know about the problem. People having the ability to call for emergency services, with perhaps a telephone, would improve response times.
Also, Verizon as an entity may not have paid taxes but all the employees did. They paid income and sales taxes with their wages. These employees spending money on income taxes means some of that money goes toward funding the schools.
I generally oppose tax dollars going towards subsidizing anything, especially so if the subsidy is something not spelled out in the government's enumerated powers. It might be a stretch but a functional and generally accessible phone infrastructure could be construed as means to move communications under the "Postal" clause. Much like how the government subsidizes/funds USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc. for the movement of letters, packages, and money (by various means, including electronic fund transfers), there is a need for electronic communications, such as phones and internet, to work in parallel for when electronic communications would be more appropriate. This competition with electronic communications provides an incentive to keep prices low and/or enables them to focus on moving letters and packages rather than be concerned about e-mail and phone communications too. There is also the power of Congress "To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions" where being able to call up reserves quickly by telephone is certainly advantageous. The Internet was made for things like this too even if that has become a small part of how it is used now.
If you are complaining that people complain that some of these telephone and internet companies have taken these government funds with the promise of more services which they later failed to live up to then I believe many of those complaints have value. If the government paid for Verizon to provide high speed internet to the poor and they did not live up to their end of the deal then there may be grounds for the government to punish the company for not living up to their end of the contract. If the contract included an expectation of these poor people to pay their phone and internet access bills and people were not paying them then Verizon failed in a way where the government is partially at fault. It is quite likely the government failed on their end to properly estimate the ability and desire for the people in these communities to pay their fees.
This would be much like USPS or FedEx taking a bunch of money from the government for building a big warehouse and sorting facility, buying a bunch of delivery trucks, and hiring a lot of deliverers and sorters, but not enough people were shipping enough letters and packages to support all of this. Or they took the money, didn't build up anything, and left the people with a desire to move a lot of packages and such with not enough staff and facilities to handle the load.
So, you might be right to be upset about Verizon taking that government money but for the wrong reasons.
That's weird, your post got cut off. Anyway, I was just reading on the internet about a girl that axed her mom and dad to death. She said he did it was because they kept ignoring her and using their smartphones instead of talking to her. Glad to hear things are well with you but you might want to be more considerate to your child or you'll end up like those unfortunate people, right?
I remember watching The Waltons on TV (a show about a family living in a Virginia rural community through the Depression and WWII) where one episode focused on the family getting a telephone. It was a big deal and not without people being concerned about how it might affect their life. A rather humorous, and quite realistic, scene involved the patriarch having to leave the bathtub to answer the phone. I believe the episode ended with them getting rid of the telephone but it reappears later in the series with much less fanfare.
Then came television. People were concerned about how that might affect the family too. I lived through some of this as I remember Dad bringing home a second TV after Mom demanded the one TV we had be removed from the kitchen. Dad did not want his TV viewing to be interrupted by supper. Come to think of it I was probably watching The Waltons while eating supper.
Computers, internet, video games, all technology that was going to invade "family time". That's just the electronics. Some of you may have read enough history to know how big of a deal clocks were to how society worked. Automobiles were also supposed to ruin "family time" or something.
Same stuff on a different day. People learn to turn the stuff off when they should or suffer the consequences.
When shopping for a phone I want to know how it fits in my life, and in my pocket. Perhaps this is not an issue with most phones but if I'm going to choose between the different iPhone models, which are larger than most phones, then I want to make sure the phone fits in the leg pocket of my carpenter jeans comfortably. That seems reasonable, no? When shopping for a new wallet I'll want to make sure it fits in my pocket too. These are things that go in pockets, people are going to want to see if they want it in their pocket. If the phone is glued to the stand then I can't even get an idea of the most common selling points of a phone, it's size and weight.
I can imagine a lot of new phone sales are lost because people lose interest because they can't pick it up and hold it to their ear and not have a brick the size of a small automobile glued to the back, and a spring loaded tether that has enough force to lift that small automobile on the back of the phone from the floor to the magnetized stand. These people will likely still buy a phone, because people buy phones, but if the impulse is lost because of poor presentation then they lose out on selling their phone to that person. The small probability of someone walking out of the store successfully with a phone in their pocket may be worth the gain in future sales.
If I'm told I cannot see if a product that is designed to fit in a pocket does in fact fit in my pocket then I'll tend to shop elsewhere. I can imagine I'm not alone. I hope this trend spreads. I tend to avoid shops that at like I'm going to walk off with their products without paying for them. This is a sign of poor quality neighborhoods and perhaps even poor quality products, because the good stuff isn't generally sold in the bad parts of town.
That's a neat trick. Question, can Apple turn a pumpkin into a carriage? Thinking this further just never mind. That carriage would be useless if it had to stay in WiFi range of an Apple Store.
Have you not read the packaging? It says to let stand for a minute before eating.
Oh, right, this is Slashdot. If people cannot be bothered to read the articles then it should not be a surprise if they do not read the heating instructions on a burrito.
Yes, because it's not like there is a news article in a major US newspaper that says the same thing.