“When the MacBook Air first debuted in 2008 there was a lot of media carping about ‘compromises’ and it being too thin for its own good,” Brooke Crothers writes for Forbes. “Fast forward to this past week and the new MacBook: only one connector (like the 2008 MacBook Air) and 13mm of compromises.”
MacDailyNews Note: Actually, the 2008 MacBook Air offered one USB 2.0, one MagSafe port, one 3.5 mm headphone jack, and one Micro-DVI video port. The new MacBook offers one USB-C port and one headphone port (headphone/optical digital audio output (minijack) with support for Apple iPhone headset with remote and microphone).
“But it will succeed because it meets a market need (like the Air before it). And because it’s Apple,” Crothers writes. “The new MacBook, I think, will eventually succeed (racking up big sales numbers) where others have not because it doesn’t try to be a tablet, like many of the kludgey 2-in-1s. It just tries to be a laptop that’s as portable as a tablet.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: For users like us, who have iMacs on our desks, but want the lightest possible notebook for working on the road, the new MacBook, with its Retina display, is way too tempting. The more we consider it, the more we want it. For years, the only port we’ve ever used on our MacBook Airs is the charging port. We’ll be upgrading our portable Macs from 11-inch MacBook Airs to MacBooks this summer, barring any decision-altering MacBook Pro/Air developments in the meantime.
Ports are still very important. There are other things I’d be concerned about. For one its not too strong at all. Second no user upgrade able stuff. I love apple but they try to corner the market on upgrades for their own stuff not cool at all. Especially the fact you pay a premium to get upgrades from them as bto options. I do believe you should be able to upgrade ram and cards of need be. Example no user upgrade path for the 21 inch iMac as memory is soldered. On the 27 inch there is an upgrade door for user upgrades to ram. Bad apple
I can understand not making the new MacBook or the Airs upgradeable. The weight and space savings are pretty significant there. On the other hand, on desktops, it really sucks. On the MacBook Pros, it’s a shame because they’ve made them significantly less Pro by doing so, which is why so many of us have held on to our pre-Retina Pros for so long.
The new MacBook may be successful, but there are a lot of us MacBook Air owners who would’ve upgraded had they just offered 1 more USB-C port.
It’s been a while but when I was traveling, what I hated most was making sure I had all the accessories, cables, power supplies, etc. It is the era of the cloud. If I have the web and the cloud, why do I need a (insert physically connected device name here)?
You can’t find a MIDI keyboard in the cloud. 😉
I’m not a musician, as most people aren’t. I was talking about DVD’s, HD’s, etc.
Sure, most people aren’t, but I’m sure there are other examples of hardware applications that can only be accomplished with physical connections. 😉
Actually you very wrong, midi over bluetooth is very common and eliminates much of the spaghetti wiring issues that plague small studios and home studio users.
http://createdigitalmusic.com/2014/10/cool-tricks-wireless-midi-can-now/
http://www.synthtopia.com/content/category/computer-music/midi-interfaces/
Sure, there are plenty of garbage 3rd party products that claim to be awesome and wireless. Have you attempted to use them? Bluetooth SUCKS. WiFi is not always reliable. Radio waves are simply not a complete replacement for a wire, period. Apple is just wrong in assuming that a MacBook doesn’t need a lot of data ports and a separate charging port. The 2015 MacBook isn’t worthy. It’s a hobbled MacBook Air, not a capable entry-level MacBook.
Actually, I don’t see that many wireless MIDI devices in the links you sent me. And even in one of the links you sent me, it still says he’d want to stick with wired MIDI for recording and performance (which, for a pro musician, what else is there? 😉 )
The MBA became popular once it gained ports and power, prior to that it was a niche machine.
This is so true, and while many people are predicting the same thing will happen with the new MacBook, that is, it will get a second USB-C port (as early as next year), I’m not to sure we’ll see that.
The good news for those who don’t care about ports is that Skylake is coming later this year, and Cannonlake in 2017. These will bring very significant speed boosts and efficiency increases.
However, look at the architecture inside the new MacBook and compare it to what happened with the MacBook Air. The MacBook Air was significantly restructured due to major component changes all around. The new MacBook won’t experience the same level of component changes.
The die shrinkage all the way down to 10nm in Cannonlake, won’t make the board significantly smaller, and more so, not in an area where they can place a USB-C port.
I have a bad feeling Apple is hell bent on keeping the single USB-C.
Within 3-5 years, I don’t think there will be a MacBook Air, nor will there be MacBook Pros. There will only be the MacBook, and it will look a lot like this new MacBook (only with the addition of different screen sizes).
I don’t disagree but I hope you’re wrong. I don’t want a desktop computer and use a high-end 15″ rMBP as a desktop replacement with a lot of external storage (9 TB). I don’t see my storage requirements nor need for ports shrinking. If Apple abandons the portable pro/prosumer market, then that market will abandon Apple. I won’t deal with multiple dongles and hubs just because Jony Ive has a particular aesthetic he finds more important than functionality.
Oh, I feel your pain. I have a MacBook Air for travel and a pre-Retina 15″ MBP. I never upgraded to Retina because I prefer to have dual internal bays. It’s quad-core i7 with 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and 1TB HDD, so I consider any rMBP after it to be a downgrade.
And I eat external 4TB hard drives for breakfast.
That said, I mis-wrote what I meant…
On the 15″ (new) MacBook, I’d see them offering more than one USB-C port. And while I have a bad feeling Apple won’t add another port to the 12″ when space is opened up with Skylake or Cannonlake, there is certainly the possibility that they might.
I have a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. I use these ports regularly: MagSafe (to charge), USB (to attach wireless mouse dongle, to attach external hard drive, to attach USB flash drives, to attach iPhone, to attach Garmin GPS, to attach Apple superdrive), audio output jack (to attach headphones), HDMI (to attach television set), SD card slot (to attach memory card from GoPro camera).
I’m personally not ready to whittle down to just one port, but I’m sure it is fine for many other users who don’t use their Mac the way I use my Mac.
YES, ports ARE needed, even on the road. BAD move
People don’t buy products that fit their needs. They buy products that fit their fantasies. That’s why so many people buy overpriced, oversized and over stupid SUVs to drive ten miles to work everyday. To be seen driving a sedan would be to face the truth about who they are.
At least, for those of us who do need ports, there’s still the MacBook Pro. Especially for those of us whose laptop is our _only_ computer. Music professionals especially, who hook up MIDI keyboards and other peripherals, ports are still very necessary.
I suppose as wi-fi on planes and trains becomes more prevalent, using thumb drives will be less and less necessary. But there are some industries where connecting to physical hardware is still necessary.
But again, for that, there’s still the MBP. 🙂
WTF, It has a port and its shit cuz of it!! A huge step backwards, way to go apple!
I thought it was hilarious when Phil Schiller casually said “so what about ports, you ask? Well you can use wifi and Bluetooth. Nobody uses ports anymore. Just buy wireless devices.”
Shiller can stick his bluetooth where the sun don’t shine. Wires are by far the most reliable secure connection method for everything.
Indeed, although I use wifi 50 hours a week for work and then some for my personal and academic use.
I actually only use one port regularly, my Thunderbolt (well, and charging obviously), because it connects my wired keyboard (attached to monitor) and wireless mouse (attached to keyboard). I think the true power in this port is in docking station type setups. Thunderbolt is great for that. I hope USB-C is too.
It wasn’t the lack of ports that bothered me. At least USB-C is a n open standard and we’ll be able to buy black adaptors (This “white” thing is what makes me question Jony Ivy designs – Build a beautiful machine in Aluminum & Black, Silver & Black. Space Gray & Black, Gold & Black, then tack on cheap white power cables and keyboards with white keys).
I was looking for a replacement for my Late 2010 MacBook Air. After seeing the new MacBook, updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, I ended choosing the updated 13″ MacBook Pro. I wanted a Retina Screen and the Intel M(mobile) chip was a turn off for the MacBook (they somehow aren’t good enough for an iPad, but they are for a more expensive computer – Yes, I know they’ve improved, but they are an unknown in the Mac world).
The MacBook is beautifully designed and will sell well. Buy the machine that suits your needs best…
There are already 3rd party charges and cables. Being USB-C, anyone can (and many will) make them, not just for Apple products. Google has one available already in black (charger and cable).
I just purchased a new MBPro 13″ Retina. Needed the ports for many of the reasons already noted including an external display port for projectors.
Hell yeah we need ports!!! Where are all the ships going to dock?
I am very excited by the new MacBook. For me, it was the most exciting thing from the “Spring Forward” event.
… USB port on my MacBook Pro. Mainly for thumb-drives, but occasionally for something else. Mainly, though, for thumb-drives. Yes. Said that twice. And, my MBP is powered up 99% of the time, and plugged in over half that time. Suddenly I NEED an extra port! OK, sure, a little planning and some contortions and I can work around this problem. And I can (maybe?) get a converter to fit the USB in my car.
Did Apple intro the new MacBook to help push the sales of the MBP?
Oh it has ports all right, it now requires you to carry an adapter to plug into anything. So FAIL. Because who wants to carry hat around. It defeats the purpose of the original intent.
Let me get this right:
Since Buffy doesn’t need ports to do Facebook Apple wants to screw over those of us who might actually need them at the lower end of the laptop market.
Mr Cook, there a millions who NEED port connector but do not need to be spending $2k on a laptop.
A computer is a tool- not a fashion statement.
I can run Parallels on my 11″ Macbook Air, esp. after an upgrade to a 1.0tb drive from OWC. I can not do the same on the Mobile processor on the new Macbook. I will, therefore, not be buying one, no matter how nice it looks. I really want an ultraportable with Retina, but am not willing to give up, you know, being able to do something on it. And note: I’m an avid fanboi.
Don’t get the Hate
They sell a MacBook Pro for people that want power and ports
They sell a MacBook Air for people that want ports and portability
They sell a MacBook for people that want portability above all else
They took nothing away, They just added a new option
If it doesn’t work for you don’t buy it
It does fit my needs and I am waiting to place an order
It’s not Hate.
It’s pointing out that the new MacBook would’ve been a perfect device and offers many things that many of us have been wanting for a while now, but the lack of an additional USB-C port is a deal breaker and the thought that “ports aren’t needed anymore” is absurd to many of us.
It’s funny when people are talking about the lack of additional ports as if it’s some sort of “feature”. It’s not. It’s just the opposite of that.
And the “it’s not for you” argument is BS as well. We get that the product isn’t for us… a lot of us. But it’s not like as if the same product exists with two USB-C ports. The alternative products have many negatives for them as well (lack of Retina on the Airs, and increased size/weight on the Pros).
I disagree, The ports aren’t needed anymore, battery life is at a point where a laptop can be used without a cord for a full work day or cross country trip. Connectivity can be provided via wireless or bluetooth tethering. In my particular use case as a network engineer I use a Airconsole to provide wireless serial connections and ethernet connections for wireshark’s captures.
I see the addition of USB C as a positive no more proprietary chargers a combo USB-C and USB charger replace two things in my bag.
all worth it for the weight loss IMHO
You disagree with what exactly? You might not need anything other than 1 charging port, and that’s not something I can disagree with.
“all worth it for the weight loss IMHO”
Exactly how much does adding 1 additional USB-C port weigh?
Enjoy your inferior experience that costs more than the current MBA and gives you less then.
The internet. Where complainers go because everyone in the real world has learned to avoid them.
I would like to run Parallels and Photoshop on this machine. Does anyone know how powerful the processor is for real world tasks?
Not powerful enough. The new MacBook is a netbook.
I predict that many buyers of the new MacBook will be crying when they begin to realize how limited it really is. Those who are praising the MacBook as the “future of all Macs” don’t know what they’re talking about.
It is truly funny to look at all the harping and whining about needing ports.
Apple has always mercilessly eliminated things that nobody used. Let us look back some twenty years:
Floppy disk
Analog modem
ExpressCard slot (remember that one and the torrent of complaints here when it was taken away?)
VGA port
DVI port
Ethernet
FireWire port
SuperDrive…
I’m sure I missed quite a few; this was what I could remember in two minutes.
I have no doubt that those who chimed in here use their USB ports on their current Macs. That doesn’t make them majority of users (or even a significant minority).
My daughter has MBA that was given to her by her school (everyone grade 5 – 12 gets to take one home). In the past three years, she has never connected anything to it, other than the charger.
There are millions of ordinary laptop users who never need to connect anything to their Macs. They are overpaying for ports they never use. Apple just made a computer for them. As for the readers here, they can still get the (cheaper) MBA, or the (more expensive) MBP.
The difference with everything that you listed is that either there was significant savings in space, weight, cost or complexity; or the port was replaced with something better.
This is why so few people are complaining that it’s USB-C, but rather many people are complaining that it’s only 1 USB-C.
Even for those not plugging in anything, having a 2nd USB-C port would have advantages, if nothing else, just to be able to have the option of plugging the power into the right or left side.
Furthermore, just because people aren’t complaining about what was historically removed now, doesn’t mean it wasn’t a significant issue for them earlier.
It’s not that there aren’t millions of people who don’t need more than 1 port, it’s that there are a lot of us where having 1 port is a deal breaker as compared to what the trade-off would’ve been by adding that second port.
Adding that second port would’ve made the new MacBook much more viable for a larger group of people while not making it any perceptibly heavier, expensive, complex, or larger in size.
“As for the readers here, they can still get the (cheaper) MBA, or the (more expensive) MBP.”
Typical, “this isn’t for you” BS.
If that is true, why do they even need a Mac then, why not just an iPad?
Transition periods are always tough, but a year from now the people who buy this notebook won’t even remember what a multi-port notebook looked like. I’d just need a dongle for a thumb drive because all my other machines have standard USB ports, so that’s a minor problem. I’ve stopped bitching and moaning about Apple’s decisions because Apple only looks forward and that’s just the way it is. It know most people think it’s crazy, but I honestly think Apple takes everything into consideration when making these types of changes.
Yeah, it’s an inconvenience for a while, and there’s always a period of adjustment but for new Mac users, it’s just the way things are. If Apple has a multi-port dongle, even it if cost extra, that’s good enough for me.
It will take more than a year, just look at thunderbolt.
If you need more ports then this Macbook is not for you plain and simple. Why carp on something that isn’t suited for your needs. Its like a commercial truck driver complaining about the towing capacity of a Ferrari. The new Macbook is targeted for a group of people who want the lightest most portable laptop and don’t care about having a spaghetti pile of doodads all plugged in at the same time. If that isn’t you, then buy the MacBook Pro.
For me, it was when the rumors were flying around about the new retina MBPs using only SSD, because the accompanying rumor was that the SSDs were going to be capped at 512GB, which for someone who has a 2011 MBP with a 750GB HDD, was a huge step backward and not one I was willing to take. There was a backlash I (and some others) got for complaining about it, that I wasn’t supporting new technology, even though what I was complaining about were the size offerings, not the medium.
Fortunately, you can now get a MBP with a 1TB SSD, and even though I have to pay more for the SSD, I’m willing to do so.
Again, if they did away with ports completely and just expected us to do everything over wi-fi and bluetooth, that would be too much for me, but since there is a prosumer computer that still has the ports in there, I’m willing to go with that.
The problem is that Apple chose to call this a MacBook, which historically had been clearly slotted in performance between the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro. Now Apple chooses to degrade the performance and user customization of its latest product not only below the prior MacBook, but below the current lowest performing MacBooks.
More than that, it signals that Apple no longer listens to pro users at all. Almost all newly released Mac software and hardware shipped in the last several years has eliminated usability and real world performance in order to become thinner and more tightly locked to Apple’s iCloud. People who use computers as productivity tools to make a living are one by one being left without realistic Apple choices.
The old MacBook was a great machine for the entry level user as his only mac. It could be hooked up to a large display, drive presentations, and work with all your legacy peripherals. The new MacBook doesn’t do any of that. If you want a real laptop with multiple ports to simultaneously connect multiple wired peripherals or displays or power, only the Macbook Pro remains, and it is priced well above what the typical student or first time buyer could justify.
The “griping” is legitimate. Apple is screwing over a large number of users by removing functionality with each new hardware release. The defense that “you can still buy the olf product” is a hollow promise that Apple reneges on every time. That’s why the enterprise never embraced Apple fully, because erosion of capability for the sake of fashion is Apple’s mantra. It doomed many past products (the Cube), and it looks like Apple wants to repeat the same stupid mistakes.
So there is already a USB-C thumb drive available?
New MacBook works for me ….. My iMac can do any heavy lifting needed ….
Solar power the charge and I don’t need any ports!
ports are so 2009 man
If that were true, then Apple would have dispensed with all ports and made it use an inductive charger. The fact that there is ONE port, still makes ports relevant.
The one feature I was hoping this MacBook would have is cellular data. Maybe when carriers are willing to let the gates open to unlimited desktop data for a reasonable price.
Maybe I’m spoiled in that I live in places where wifi is pretty prolific, but I can’t think of a lot of places where it would be worth it to pull out my MBP and do MacBook type work that don’t have wi-fi. The last time I had someplace that wasn’t wi-fi accessible that I would use my laptop on a regular basis was when I lived on Staten Island and rode the ferry into Manhattan, and even then the time I actually spent using my MBP wouldn’t have justified a cellular data plan just for that.