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Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

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Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#371

Post by p_l »

pilsetnieks wrote: post #369
JohnBooty wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very quickly meetings started with question of "who has a laptop with real HDMI/DisplayPort? We would like to start in 15s instead of 15 minutes of fighting with dongles..." I don't understand this. There are plenty of arguments against against going all-in on USB-C and forcing people to buy/carry multiple dongles. I don't like dongles myself! I still use a (pre-USB C) 2015 MacBook Pro, partially for that reason. I g…

Unless you happen to have a cheap 3rd party dongle, use 2.4GHz wifi, and have to have internet access while doing your presentation or whatever. (3rd party dongles often have bad shielding and it interferes with 2.4GHz signal, it's a pretty widespread issue. You cannot really "fight it," though, you need to get another dongle.)

Oh, I forgot the interference issues - those are very "fun" even for deeply experienced technical people.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#373

Post by throwaway2048 »

BluSyn wrote: post #14

My controversial hot take-- I have never needed an SD card, and have gone all-in on USB-C. I will be very disappointed if they add back in USB-A/HDMI/SD ports, or remove USB-C charging in favor of proprietary charge port. Sounds like unnecessary feature bloat. Please just do MagSage + USB-C, so I can maintain my one-cable-for-everything, making traveling lighter and simpler. Here's my counter argument to all those th…

Don't worry, once they do it, you will think how brilliant it is.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#374

Post by ricardobayes »

p_l wrote: post #260
jimnotgym wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since 2015 we have had all this clutter in the meeting rooms with different chargers, adaptors for monitors, projectors etc. In fact every mac user I know has a little hub to run everything! I'm currently using a Thinkpad and I have never felt that I had too many ports! I don't carry any adaptors.

on site at a client fresh after they started upgrading people to USB-C/thunderbolt MBPs/Airs... Very quickly meetings started with question of "who has a laptop with real HDMI/DisplayPort? We would like to start in 15s instead of 15 minutes of fighting with dongles..."

Only companies with disfunctional IT departments who didn't bother to install streaming devices to the big screens.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#375

Post by flomo »

rbanffy wrote: post #147
m463 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An extra port is not inconvenient - you just won't use it. A missing port is SUPER inconvenient. Can't tell you how annoying it is to require a USB-A dongle or adapter, same with HDMI.

The extra port competes with USB-C. If Apple wants to make USB-C more valuable to users, they must ensure companies make more products for it and, therefore, remove such redundant ports. I have an HDMI monitor connected to my MacBook via a USB-C to HDMI/USB dongle, which also charges the computer, keyboard and trackpad, and another another via a UDB-C to DisplayPort cable. I've been using my SDcard based camera less…

I'm all in on USB-C as a personal user, including a docking station and a bunch of dongles.

But USB-C's port/cable standards are such a huge mess that there will probably never be a time when you can walk into a random conference room and find a USB-C video plug which 'just works'. The reality is Mac users come into meetings with a dongle hanging off their machine. And maybe Apple finally realized that's not a good look.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#376

Post by strogonoff »

BluSyn wrote: post #14

My controversial hot take-- I have never needed an SD card, and have gone all-in on USB-C. I will be very disappointed if they add back in USB-A/HDMI/SD ports, or remove USB-C charging in favor of proprietary charge port. Sounds like unnecessary feature bloat. Please just do MagSage + USB-C, so I can maintain my one-cable-for-everything, making traveling lighter and simpler. Here's my counter argument to all those th…

I have a dock that has all the connectivity options I need (an entirety of which can’t possibly fit in a portable device) while stationary, and it also charges my laptop. While on the go, I can pick dongles for what I need at the time. Most of the time it’s either nothing or a memory card reader.

The need for memory card reader becomes increasingly rare, as devices have AirDrop, cameras have Wi-Fi, and for larger files like CinemaDNG footage I’d have to use a portable SSD anyway which connects over USB-C.

Besides, memory card dongle dies and I buy a replacement for $20; built-in card reader dies and part of my laptop is dead weight until I send the whole thing in for service.

I can’t come up with anything I can imagine being useful as far as extra I/O is concerned, considering how blazing fast TB 2 and USB 4 already are; perhaps there are some novel connectivity options though.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#377

Post by Geee »

lostapathy wrote: post #249
Geee wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With a really small USB-C memory stick that fits completely in the hole.

Do those exist? If so, link please.

There are ones that fit almost completely in a USB-A port. https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-64GB-Cruzer-Flash-Drive/dp/B0...

Maybe we'll see one for USB-C some day.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#379

Post by vvatermelone »

exhilaration wrote: post #262
varispeed wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use SD cards daily to transfer data from cameras or different devices for further processing. It is handy to be able to just slide it in. I also have a dongle in an other laptop which works fine, but you need to be careful with these - I bought one cheaper dongle and it totally destroyed my SD card upon inserting. Unfortunately there was no backup as there was original material on it. So now I first do backup on a…

The dramatic decline in camera sales has been discussed a few times on HN, here's a random google result: https://www.mirrorlessrumors.com/dont-look-at-this-graph-sho... Cameras are rapidly turning into a niche product, it makes no sense for any laptop manufacturer to include an SD card reader at this point.

I don't think it's fair to represent that graph as the death of the standalone camera, at least with regard to the 2020 data. The fact that nobody could go anywhere or be with anyone probably had a lot to do with it.

Re: Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features

#380

Post by Arainach »

oblio wrote: post #276
minikites wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The extra port competes with USB-C. If Apple wants to make USB-C more valuable to users, they must ensure companies make more products for it and, therefore, remove such redundant ports. The userbase of all tech products is too big for this to be reasonable now. This attitude was only successful during a time when fewer people overall each owned fewer devices individually. USB-A won and it will be around forever. HD…

HDMI will probably be around for TVs, but with USB 4 I imagine we're 5-10 years from most of the current ports going away completely, except for a collection of USB C ports of different levels (3, 3.x, 4).

Other than storage, no peripherals care about USB 4. We can't get away from USB-A because all of the devices that MATTER use it and its variations. Even today no one that I've seen makes a USB-C to USB-Micro (or USB-Mini - yes, I still have multiple products that use that) cable. I have no interest in having to chain multiple adaptors off all my computers for everything I do. Keyboards, mice, printers, cameras, microphones, audio adapters, gaming controllers, smartwatches, sensors, Arduino boards -- none of these things need any more speed or any more power. They don't want a new connector and they don't want to pay royalty fees for use of a new connector. The only things that might benefit from USB 4 are monitors (and how often to people replace monitors anyway? I ran my U2410s for a decade and only replaced them because I wanted a higher refresh rate) and storage devices (and to be honest I don't use external storage that often since online storage is so simple these days).
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