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posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday November 08 2016, @03:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the one-more-thing-to-lose dept.

A tweet posted shortly after Apple's recent Macbook launch event underlined the absurdity: Apple now sells 17 different types of dongle.

In its ever-escalating war against connectivity ports, Apple's latest computers do away with the SD card port, a full-size USB port, and the HDMI port.

Instead, you'll need a dongle to convert those "legacy" connectors, as Apple put it on Friday, into the new, smaller USB-C port.

"We recognize that many users, especially pros, rely on legacy connectors to get work done today and they face a transition," the company said in a statement, without acknowledging that Apple's newest iPhone, released just last month, is one such "legacy" device - without a dongle (or a different cable, sold separately), you can't connect Apple's new smartphone to Apple's new laptop.

"We want to help them move to the latest technology and peripherals, as well as accelerate the growth of this new ecosystem."

That help will be a decent discount on the price of the dongles - it calls them adapters - until the end of this year.

How long before they release new dongles that must be individually charged?


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  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday November 08 2016, @05:54PM

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday November 08 2016, @05:54PM (#424151) Journal

    There are so many cheap jokes about Apple and "dongles" to be made.

    But on a more serious note: PizzaRollPlinkett is entirely correct, and Apple have lost their collective minds. This release did just about everything wrong. How much do you want to bet most of the actual Mac team was fired and it's the iPad guys who were behind this one?

    I'm still shaking my head in disbelief. You do NOT sell a device without Ethernet or USB-A -- or, for that matter, basic fucking repairability! -- and call it "Pro" anything. They don't even have any killer apps any longer; creative types have long since switched over to Windows and Wacom/Intuos. I don't know a single friend who does art or music who uses a Mac any longer!

    I don't know what Ives is thinking, but it's got nothing to do with reality.

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  • (Score: 2) by Absolutely.Geek on Tuesday November 08 2016, @08:26PM

    by Absolutely.Geek (5328) on Tuesday November 08 2016, @08:26PM (#424223)

    Unfortunately Ethernet ports are not long for this world; I was looking for a new business laptop, the new Dell XPS 15 with the 4k display was at the top of my list. But after reading that it had no Ethernet port, I thought well it looks l=nice but I can't use it, I need Ethernet far too often to have it be a dongle.

    I really like the XPS 13 developer edition but there has never been a XPS 15 dev edition.....WTF!!!! come on Dell pick up your game; the XPS line is one of your "pro" lines.

    Pretty much if you want good specs and an Ethernet port these days; go for a gaming system. ASUS ROG or Razer Blade.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 09 2016, @09:33PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 09 2016, @09:33PM (#424869)

      >Unfortunately Ethernet ports are not long for this world

      It's not Ethernet in particular. It's ANY extraneous gadgetry, plug, or soldered part that can be nixed in order to save a dollar. There's Wi-Fi in many peoples' homes & cafes these days? Let's save $1 and drop that part!

      Of course the seller of such (in)complete engineering marvels can then charge more for their 'modernization' & 'forward thinking' put into such a futuristic device.

      Why not just invent the sub-cutaneous iNugget that has no ports, keyboard, nor screen. Just insert it under your skin and your eyes will light up from behind, commands are done through singing & dancing.