What Was Apple Thinking? The New MacBook Is All About That One Port (Op Ed)

[codyleemanofaction]

This isn't a power laptop you'd want more than one peripheral connected to, or so it would seem. "Power Users" will have the option of the MB Pro for that, as stated above, this seems more like an iPad with a full keyboard. Price is nuts, but otherwise USB 3.1 with Type-C connector will work for most people.

 

[jeffunit]

I am not sure why the article mentions USB 3.1. The notebook has a type C connector and a USB 3.0 port.

Nope--USB 3.1 (Gen 1) / USB Type-C connector.

My bad. It is USB 3.1 according to https://www.apple.com/macbook/specs/
However it is USB 3.1 Gen 1 (up to 5 Gbps), which is the same speed as USB 3.0. The USB 3.1 Gen2 mode speed is 10Gbps. So this has the ability to handle up to 100 watts and all the other features of the physical connector, but it is only as fast as a USB 3,.0 connector.

Quite silly to only have one connector. It should have 2 or 3 of these, plus a HDMI and display port. Selling the dongles for about $70 means people will likely need several dongles to do something like charge the notebook and use something like a thumb drive at the same time.

 

[btmedic04]

Mark my words, Apple will make a second SKU with two Type C connectors and charge an additional $500 for it.

 

[fuzzion]

If my company was worth 1 thrillion dollars , i too would not care at all.

 

[bradsm87]

Airprint is not required for wireless printing at all. Mac OS X can print to LPR or IPP network printers just like a Windows computer.

 

[Simon Anderson]

There will surely be USB-C hubs in abundance soon enough... which split out to say, 4 x USB-C plus 4-USB-A/3.0 backw.comp. receptacles. And SD to USB-C dongles will be simple and cheap. No need to buy Apple for this sort of stuff.

Laptops are designed for portability... that's it's primary function. To be used while out and about without anything plugged in to it.

Reality is of course these days people buy them for their primary/sole PC... and place them on desks etc... but minimising the number of ports is in-line with it's primary function. If you need more than one thing plugged in at the same time you're using it for something other than it's primary function. i.e. "sitting on a desk charging" is not its primary function... Having to use a hub: sure, ugly, inconvenient, messy... but you're using it for a non-primary function, and you must be punished!

I dunno, as an industrial design decision it makes perfect sense. But for "the real world" you'd think you'd just fork out an extra gram or two + $2 to put an extra port on there... A small number of use cases will be very frustrating or expensive for a short time... until hub-bundance 2015 (that's right, you heard it here first, hubundance).

 

[pilsner]

They should have just put an USB-C port on the left AND on the right side. Then you could a.) charge the notebook and connect something else at the same time and b.) you'd also have the advantage of connecting the power cable on either side, whichever is more convenient for you, thereby fixing the age-old problem of "the power outlet is always on the wrong side of the notbook".

 

[ohim]

The problem is that people think this is a small laptop (a truly glorified netbook) rather than what it really is: The new MacBook is the iPad Pro. It is slim, lightweight, capable of basic productivity work, but still a consumption device at heart. An iPad does not need to run multiple peripherals, because that is not what it is meant to do.

No, you are wrong, for the price this device has is not just an iPad with a keyboard. They should have put some connectivity into this. I admit, it looks amazing for what it is but in the world of digital stuff, you can`t even copy a damn SD card into this one, you can`t use a mouse with ease...

 

[Rattenmann]

So, why do you guys think a user is buying a notebook?
While a second USB would not HURT, it is hardly needed.

If you want to plug in x things, a notebook is not exactly a good choice for your usecase. And Apple knows that. They don't waste ressources, battery and weight to implement something that a REAL notebook user would not use anyways.

You really need more then one port? How about you just look at the right product line then and not at something you obviously don't need.

Again: an additional port would not hurt, it never does. But it would come at the price of space in the piece of hardware. Space that could have been used for more important things. Don't just expect a port to show up without a tradeoff.

 

[cst1992]

Here I am, with a $700 Lenovo G510, that has 9 ports:
Proprietary power port
USB2.0 x1
USB3.0 x2
Audio jack for headphones
HDMI port
LAN port
VGA port for connecting a monitor
A SD card slot

As compared to this MacBook, I can charge my laptop and connect a mouse and two hard drives at the same time; with two monitors extra connected and support for connecting wirelessly and/or through Ethernet to any generic router out there with a cable that requires less than $5 to buy. The laptop also has a slot for reading SD cards.
So all in all, it's not as high-end(?) as this Apple "MacBook" over here, but it is much more usable, and more user friendly.
So thanks for the tempting offer, but I'll stick with my big, ugly, black Lenovo laptop for now.
Not to mention I could slip a 1TB Samsung 850 EVO in there for the extra $500 you want for the 256GB flash storage on the cheaper MacBook.

 

[cst1992]

The problem is that people think this is a small laptop (a truly glorified netbook) rather than what it really is: The new MacBook is the iPad Pro. It is slim, lightweight, capable of basic productivity work, but still a consumption device at heart. An iPad does not need to run multiple peripherals, because that is not what it is meant to do.

If it's perceived as a laptop, it should behave as a laptop. You don't go to a business meeting carrying a tab, do you? You go with a proper laptop. If it's a tab, make it a tab, don't mix things.
If this were priced $200, I'd have understood. but it's not, and people are supposed to buy it as a laptop. I, personally, find the idea of carrying around a dongle with my laptop weird, and I'd like to just be able to connect most devices directly to the laptop.

 

[dimitrik]

I agree 100%.

The biggest problem is collaboration. It's all well and good to use the latest wireless technologies - I have a NAS, online storage and can buy bluetooth peripherals (although bluetooth is honestly still pretty unreliable).

But what about when someone gives me a document on a USB stick? Ask them to put the files online? It's ridiculous! This thing needs a standard USB-3 port, period.

And speaking of wireless the MacBook, still doesn't have a cellular connection. So whenever you're outdoors, you better pry for good wifi to access that online storage.

As a typical user with simple needs (surfing, email, office, the odd movie), I just don't see a solid use-case scenario for this thing. Pity 'cause it's gorgeous otherwise.

 

[cst1992]

Seems there are a lot of Apple fanboys on this thread, downvoting people's posts, but haven't they got anything to say?

 

[cst1992]

So, why do you guys think a user is buying a notebook?
While a second USB would not HURT, it is hardly needed.
...
Don't just expect a port to show up without a tradeoff.

Why is it not needed?
And what is the tradeoff? It's just an extra port on the motherboard.

 

[Cataclysm_ZA]

The Asus Zenbook has the exact same stats as the MacBook (with a minor exception, the Zenbook is a 16:9 screen where as the MacBook is 16:10 screen) and cost ~$550 less than the MacBook. In all seriousness, 160 extra pixels (2560x1600 vs 2560x1440) and Mac OS X is not worth $550.

The Macbook's resolution is actually 2304 x 1440. It is pixel-doubled, so the effective desktop resolution is 1152 x 720. If you set the Zenbook to 200% scaling, its effective resolution would be 1280 x 800.

 

[synphul]

Considering the price, functionality loss isn't really tolerable. People complain about older ports, if you don't use it you don't use it. Does it hurt anything? It's about versatility and this product is extremely lacking in that dept. The same reason when I was looking for a tablet, ipads you had to buy a preset amount of storage up front and that's what you were limited to. For less money and no thicker or clunkier of a tablet, the samsung galaxy tab 4 had a small amount of internal memory and microsd support. Add more to it, remove it, swap sd cards. Amazing. Such a minor thing and yet so simple and elegant to give the user options that it won samsung the sale for apples lack of adaptability.

Bottom line, if others can do it, if it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to do it, if it doesn't make the product more bulky or anything else then there really is no excuse. This tablet should have had at least one usable standard usb port, maybe even a micro sd option, any number of things. All I'm seeing is another premium apple product falling short on delivery. "All the bulk of a notebook with all the dysfunction of a tablet" isn't a winning sales pitch.

 

[mapesdhs]

I agree. Reminds me of the old saying, better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

Ian.

 

[Raven_BC]

When we talk about the apple products we should consider one simple truth: it's not about thinking, it's not about quality or the complexity, repair-ability, etc. It's just about greed killing the planet and the species living here including us - people!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O82cKVp7dO8 - here is quite reasonable explanation given by Russel Brand

 

[hgghyxo]

What about an USB hub for type c? Can't it make it work, for power,mouse , display or anything else....?

 

[theblade]

There will surely be USB-C hubs in abundance soon enough... which split out to say, 4 x USB-C plus 4-USB-A/3.0 backw.comp. receptacles. And SD to USB-C dongles will be simple and cheap. No need to buy Apple for this sort of stuff.

Laptops are designed for portability... that's it's primary function. To be used while out and about without anything plugged in to it.

Reality is of course these days people buy them for their primary/sole PC... and place them on desks etc... but minimising the number of ports is in-line with it's primary function. If you need more than one thing plugged in at the same time you're using it for something other than it's primary function. i.e. "sitting on a desk charging" is not its primary function... Having to use a hub: sure, ugly, inconvenient, messy... but you're using it for a non-primary function, and you must be punished!

I dunno, as an industrial design decision it makes perfect sense. But for "the real world" you'd think you'd just fork out an extra gram or two + $2 to put an extra port on there... A small number of use cases will be very frustrating or expensive for a short time... until hub-bundance 2015 (that's right, you heard it here first, hubundance).

So basically that's like saying: "you're using it wrong". Last time that didn't go so well.

 

[unbreakable926]

"Ironically, considering the use cases outlined above, the MacBook is really for power users -- people who have the latest tech (eg, a monitor with USB-PD), or who have gone to the trouble of setting up networked storage. But chances are, most of the folks purchasing a MacBook will be college students and average users who won't necessarily be equipped to work around the MacBook's portlessness."

I think that is a wrong assessment that this computer is for power users. This MacBook is the bottom entry level computer in Mac laptop line and it IS designed for students and average users. It is designed as a step up from the iPad, which only has one lightning port.

Don't let the price mislead you that this is a high end laptop (it isn't). The last time Apple had a white plastic MacBook, it sold for $899. This is part of that same line of laptops, but Apple added all this new technology in order to raise the bottom of their price bracket on the MacBook line. Expect the new tech in this MacBook to eventually make it to the other MacBooks and the prices to go in those accordingly.

That's kind of my point. This is clearly *supposed* to be something average users would buy, but only more technical users will get the most out of it.

To me, its more like it's for average users without a concept of practical spending. Apple has always seemed to try to push boundaries of less for more. And the worst part about these devices to me is the people that buy them. Those who continue to allow themselves to be price gouged by Apple just feed the company's motivation to continue doing it. Inevitably, consumers will by this and Apple will continue to push their grossly overpriced devices the same way they have been for years.

 

[mapesdhs]

When we talk about the apple products we should consider one simple truth: it's not about thinking, it's not about quality or the complexity, repair-ability, etc. It's just about greed killing the planet and the species living here including us - people!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O82cKVp7dO8 - here is quite reasonable explanation given by Russel Brand

Yikes, you actually watch Brand's drivel? The guy's a loon. I wish there was a way to ensure his stupid vids
never show up in my youtube results.

Ian.

 

[Robert Ostrowski]

i agree it needed an addition usb type c port. Even without device available, just being able to charge it, and have an open connector, changes everything.

 

[Rhinofart]

I'll stick to my 17" MacBook Pro with all sorts of connectors, a beautiful big screen. Did I mention all sorts of connectors? Get your head out of your arse Apple. If I wanted something as hamstrung as an iPad I'd get one.

 

[antilycus]

Stupid. It's just Apple trying to milk customers on accessory charges when they didn't need to. Greedy is the Apple trademark.