• Fades@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    This post is actually so stupid, they didn’t take shit from us, it’s still right there.

    Nobody uses a firewire cable anymore, USB-A/B is very outdated. On my work macbook with is a M1 Macbook Pro, I have a card reader, a usb-c and an hdmi port on one side, and a headphone jack, 2 usb-c ports and magsafe power ports.

    Even if there wasn’t, and it was just all usb-c, you can accomplish all of the same things ports. The old macbooks only had these ports on one side and the other had like one firewire or something.

    USB-C can be used to deliver audio, video, ethernet connection, etc. You didn’t lose any functionality. Worst case scenario you’d need a hub for the card readers or a usb to usb-c adapter, or ethernet to usb-c.

    My work provided me with a usb hub that includes usb-a/b slots, hdmi, ethernet and power, which takes a single usb-c port. They’re cheap and work just fine if you really need more than 4-5 ports.

    Don’t take it from me though!

    2024 16" macbook pro: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/121554

    • Charging and Expansion
    • SDXC card slot
    • HDMI port
    • 3.5 mm headphone jack
    • MagSafe 3 port
    • Three Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) ports with support for:
      • Charging
      • DisplayPort
      • Thunderbolt 5 (up to 120Gb/s)
      • Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
      • USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
    • monotremata@lemmy.ca
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      18 days ago

      I really don’t think it’s that stupid. Your particular machine has a lot of ports, yeah. But there are plenty of machines out there, like the 12-inch non-pro macbook, that have ONE USB-C PORT and absolutely no other ports. That’s clearly limiting. Like, you can connect it to ethernet, if you buy an additional USB-C ethernet adapter, but if you want to be able to ethernet and have it connected to power at the same time, you need to buy a special power brick that combines the two functions, because they didn’t include any other ports.

      Plus, there are a bunch of things that still use USB-A. I’ve got a bunch of old thumb drives that work like that, especially for transferring video files to my TV, which only supports USB-A itself. Wireless dongles for mice and game controllers, which still offer a latency advantage over bluetooth, tend to be USB-A as well. I’ve also got a wearable pulse oximeter that requires a special cable to load data, and the other end of that cable is USB-A only. Again, you can get an adapter dongle, but that’s never as convenient as just having the right port in the first place.

      I went a bit out of my way to get a laptop with a decent collection of ports (and it’s a bit of a less portable laptop as a result, maybe more like a desktop replacement), but even it has for some reason dropped the SD card reader, which I would have used a lot. I had to get a dongle for that. And I had to get one that used USB-C in particular, because my USB-A ports are usually both filled.

      Basically the selection of ports used to be something that laptops used as a point of differentiation and pride in a crowded market; but Apple managed to invert this, making the prestige marker having a slimmer laptop with as few ports as possible, and that was a dumb change. I do think the pendulum is swinging back, as with your Pro macbook, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to be frustrated with the way this element of the market went in such a consumer-hostile direction for a while.

    • lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 month ago

      This post is actually so stupid, they didn’t take shit from us, it’s still right there.

      It’s not. it’s quite visibly not there.

      USB-A/B is very outdated.

      I take it you are offering to provide me with the adapters needed for all my USB-A devices, and my square-USB printers, for free? Because your mouth certainly runs well oiled.

      USB-C can be used to deliver audio, video, ethernet connection, etc. You didn’t lose any functionality. Worst case scenario you’d need a hub for the card readers or a usb to usb-c adapter, or ethernet to usb-c.

      Worst case scenario is if you have one sole USB-C connector and it breaks or is damaged. You’d lose all the eggs you had in one basket, whereas with separate adequate connectors you’d at least get to keep some workflow.

    • helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      The recent macbooks are heading back in the right direction.

      I think a lot of the complants come from wanting a portable computer/setup, and having a hub or a bunch of adapters takes away the portability.

      I think the ideal I/O for me would be;

      • Power
      • 4x USBc (displayport, high speed, etc.)
      • 1x USBA (flash drives are still mostly A, and if you have a wireless USB mouse, not needing an adapter or dealing with bluetooth is great)
      • 3.5 headphone/mic combo jack
      • Ethernet
      • HDMI, at least until more monitors have USBC inputs, although having an adapter cable isn’t too bad.

      This is where I like framework approach with the customizable IO, but I think they need to shrink the blocks to give 6-8 ports. 4 is simply not enough, with one used up for power.

    • Dupree878@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Exactly, I’m looking at these pics and don’t even have cables to fit any of these other than a USBC anymore. And I love that I can charge with a regular cable and don’t have to bring a charging brick anywhere. Just a phone charger works