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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?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by iamjacksusername on Tuesday November 08 2016, @05:55PM
What is the famous line? When the only thing you can think of is to start removing features from a product, the product is finished. The laptop as an innovative product is finished. You could make the argument that Apple pioneered the laptop-as-fashion accessory market by making laptops that looked good and then pioneered the laptop-as-ultraportable by making laptops that did not weigh 5 pounds. Now, where are they going from here?
Tim Cook can be oblique as long as he keeps the profits coming but the press is beginning to turn on him. Every article I have read about Apple references the same "strong pipeline" quote with the mention that Apple Car is dead and the Apple Watch is a niche product. The last two years have been paid for with goodwill but, if the business press does not see something innovative next year, you can bet there will be talk of new leadership.
My mother who is as as non-tech as you can get, bought a Surface Book because it was interesting and worked for her. My wife, who is just as disinterested in tech asmy mother, just bought a Surface Book as well because she saw my mother's and thought it was really cool. None of them expressed any interest in a Mac laptop and they are the target market based on Apple's traditional advertising af "it just works." If Apple is losing that market to Microsoft, I'm not sure where they want to go.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 08 2016, @07:02PM
Jobs would never allow apple watch, because it is a product looking for a purpose. "Me Too" is not a fucking business strategy, it's a shitty survival mechanism (looks at Microsoft).
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Wednesday November 09 2016, @04:58PM
He wouldn't?
Two words: Apple Newton