I agree that there will need to be an option for Lightning, with the iPhone 7 going to Lightning for audio output. That option may be a USB-C dongle. I doubt it will be used for charging because It's likely not rated high enough for a notebook computer.
I think a magsafe usb-c connector would be a bad idea, unless it is only used for power. Losing the power on a battery powered laptop for a minute is not a problem. Losing a data connection while you are connected to a network, external drive, or blu-ray burner can be a problem.
The adapter would remove the data functionality of the specific port.
But that ruins the advantage of a single power and data cable to plug into a hub, or a next-gen Apple Display with hub features.
It ruins no features. It would be a small adapter and optionally plug into one of the 3 or 4 USBc ports—hopefully the port of the user's choosing.
But if it will only do power or data then you'll need another cable to do the other thing.
A single cable providing power and data would be a feature.
It's almost like those ports will still exist on the machine.
What?
If it's a feature you don't care about that's fine, but other notebooks have single port docking and it's a very nice feature for those that use it regularly. My Macbook Air currently has an awkward two port solution from my Apple Thunderbolt Display, made worse because the ports are on opposite sides of the machine and the cable does not gracefully allow for that.
A single cable, single port for data and power would be a big improvement, Magsafe or no; and since my desk is well arranged the cable is not at high risk from trips or quick detachment, so seperating the functions would be hindrance rather than a benefit. I suspect most people who would be using the port for data would be in a similar scenario; ODDS, external HDDs, other accessories, these aren't things where the cable is in a place where it's likely to be a trip hazard.
Would you define USBc as a single port with data and power?
Of course I do. But we're not talking about straight USBc, because you said "The adapter would remove the data functionality"
You mean the optional adapter?
The optional adaptor that restores convenience functionality that is built in to the current notebooks (except the new MB).
So I can have the convenience of one port, or the convenience or the Magsafe (with the inconvenience of an "adaptor") but not both.
You don't see how this seems sub-optimal and that there's a feature comprimise?
I think a magsafe usb-c connector would be a bad idea, unless it is only used for power. Losing the power on a battery powered laptop for a minute is not a problem. Losing a data connection while you are connected to a network, external drive, or blu-ray burner can be a problem.
The adapter would remove the data functionality of the specific port.
But that ruins the advantage of a single power and data cable to plug into a hub, or a next-gen Apple Display with hub features.
Under what sceneario is your hub not on the desk near your laptop and placed so far away from your laptop that the single cable is a trip hazard that requires you to use a USB-C cable with a magnetic quick release?
I think I adequately expressed that it isn't already. Nevertheless, Magsafe is a desirable feature even without the trip hazard. It's less fiddly than plugging in and removing a USB plug.
If USB-C can handle Thunderbolt 3 connections, then 4 USB-C inputs makes sense. Currently MBPs have 2 Thunderbolt and 2 USB (plus HDMI, power, headphone and SD card inputs). The mag-safe adaptor makes a lot of sense if the power that can be sent through is sufficient to charge the unit in a reasonable time. My 1st Gen rMBP charger delivers 85W, which may be out of range for USB-C. On the other hand, if the standard MagSafe connector is kept, Apple could simply allow charging via USB-C as well. This would be a boon for travelers, who could charge their machines from any USB connection whether it be from an airplane, battery pack, car outlet, coffee shop etc without having to pull out a bulky charger. The charging would be slower than normal but it could be sufficient to reduce or stop battery drain in normal use. One adaptor I feel would be useful is a bar that snaps onto the side of an MBP (or MacBook 12") and plugs into a USB-C port (and other ports for stability). The bar could be long enough to provide ports for various needs (HDMI, VGA, TB, power, USB, Ethernet, Display port) depending on the thickness and size of the Mac. It would remove the need for multi-adaptors and could also work as a dock in an office situation. If made from aluminum, it would look like an extension of the MBP body itself.
I think I adequately expressed that it isn't already. Nevertheless, Magsafe is a desirable feature even without the trip hazard. It's less fiddly than plugging in and removing a USB plug.
Have you used USB-C or are you basing this on other USB port interfaces?
I think I adequately expressed that it isn't already. Nevertheless, Magsafe is a desirable feature even without the trip hazard. It's less fiddly than plugging in and removing a USB plug.
Have you used USB-C or are you basing this on other USB port interfaces?
HP has Kaby Lake and DDR4- If Apple doesn't match that, I'll have to pass
The Kaby lake in the HP is a dual core mobile processor, like you would get in an up to date MBA. MBP use mobile quad cores, which in skylake form are a recent release, and aren't out in Kaby Lake form until next year. But yeah DDR4.
if they update the MBA it will be interesting how they market a KabylaKe MBA and a skylake MBP. Aside from performance that is
Skylake or Kabylake. Intel can provide Apple/MBP specific skylake processor which is equivalent to Kaby lake in performance. My interest is in Intel's ICE lake 10nm processor in MBP. Ice lake processors will run cooler, longer battery power at higher performance..
I know there are times you want to improve things, but when you get something right you get something right, you don't just kill it off because it looks better or removes some circuits. I guess you could call this the purest example of: "If it ain't broke don't fix it." Ask yourself this how many people do you know have a broken Magsafe port? (I know a couple people out of 5 million will rush to this post to give their comment but seriously!)
I know there are times you want to improve things, but when you get something right you get something right, you don't just kill it off because it looks better or removes some circuits. I guess you could call this the purest example of: "If it ain't broke don't fix it." Ask yourself this how many people do you know have a broken Magsafe port? (I know a couple people out of 5 million will rush to this post to give their comment but seriously!)
So you're saying you want a dedicated MagSafe port and one less USB port, over simply moving the magnetic mechanism to the cable so you can gain another USB port, and use both sides of your laptop for attaching a power cable?
I think a magsafe usb-c connector would be a bad idea, unless it is only used for power. Losing the power on a battery powered laptop for a minute is not a problem. Losing a data connection while you are connected to a network, external drive, or blu-ray burner can be a problem.
The adapter would remove the data functionality of the specific port.
But that ruins the advantage of a single power and data cable to plug into a hub, or a next-gen Apple Display with hub features.
It ruins no features. It would be a small adapter and optionally plug into one of the 3 or 4 USBc ports—hopefully the port of the user's choosing.
But if it will only do power or data then you'll need another cable to do the other thing.
A single cable providing power and data would be a feature.
It's almost like those ports will still exist on the machine.
What?
If it's a feature you don't care about that's fine, but other notebooks have single port docking and it's a very nice feature for those that use it regularly. My Macbook Air currently has an awkward two port solution from my Apple Thunderbolt Display, made worse because the ports are on opposite sides of the machine and the cable does not gracefully allow for that.
A single cable, single port for data and power would be a big improvement, Magsafe or no; and since my desk is well arranged the cable is not at high risk from trips or quick detachment, so seperating the functions would be hindrance rather than a benefit. I suspect most people who would be using the port for data would be in a similar scenario; ODDS, external HDDs, other accessories, these aren't things where the cable is in a place where it's likely to be a trip hazard.
Would you define USBc as a single port with data and power?
Of course I do. But we're not talking about straight USBc, because you said "The adapter would remove the data functionality"
You mean the optional adapter?
The optional adaptor that restores convenience functionality that is built in to the current notebooks (except the new MB).
So I can have the convenience of one port, or the convenience or the Magsafe (with the inconvenience of an "adaptor") but not both.
You don't see how this seems sub-optimal and that there's a feature comprimise?
I find it hard to believe Apple will abandon a popular PATENTED design feature.
it would not surprise me at all to see Apple reengineer the way it works. Maybe use the Smart Connector, maybe a USB-C to power MagSafe. I'm confident Apple will do something elegant, like they usually do.
I find it hard to believe Apple will abandon a popular PATENTED design feature.
it would not surprise me at all to see Apple reengineer the way it works. Maybe use the Smart Connector, maybe a USB-C to power MagSafe. I'm confident Apple will do something elegant, like they usually do.
I find it hard to believe Apple will abandon a popular PATENTED design feature.
it would not surprise me at all to see Apple reengineer the way it works. Maybe use the Smart Connector, maybe a USB-C to power MagSafe. I'm confident Apple will do something elegant, like they usually do.
Guess we just need four days of patience.
I can give them a few more days. I've waited this long already.
I think a magsafe usb-c connector would be a bad idea, unless it is only used for power. Losing the power on a battery powered laptop for a minute is not a problem. Losing a data connection while you are connected to a network, external drive, or blu-ray burner can be a problem.
The adapter would remove the data functionality of the specific port.
But that ruins the advantage of a single power and data cable to plug into a hub, or a next-gen Apple Display with hub features.
It ruins no features. It would be a small adapter and optionally plug into one of the 3 or 4 USBc ports—hopefully the port of the user's choosing.
But if it will only do power or data then you'll need another cable to do the other thing.
A single cable providing power and data would be a feature.
It's almost like those ports will still exist on the machine.
What?
If it's a feature you don't care about that's fine, but other notebooks have single port docking and it's a very nice feature for those that use it regularly. My Macbook Air currently has an awkward two port solution from my Apple Thunderbolt Display, made worse because the ports are on opposite sides of the machine and the cable does not gracefully allow for that.
A single cable, single port for data and power would be a big improvement, Magsafe or no; and since my desk is well arranged the cable is not at high risk from trips or quick detachment, so seperating the functions would be hindrance rather than a benefit. I suspect most people who would be using the port for data would be in a similar scenario; ODDS, external HDDs, other accessories, these aren't things where the cable is in a place where it's likely to be a trip hazard.
Would you define USBc as a single port with data and power?
Of course I do. But we're not talking about straight USBc, because you said "The adapter would remove the data functionality"
You mean the optional adapter?
The optional adaptor that restores convenience functionality that is built in to the current notebooks (except the new MB).
So I can have the convenience of one port, or the convenience or the Magsafe (with the inconvenience of an "adaptor") but not both.
You don't see how this seems sub-optimal and that there's a feature comprimise?
At this point you're just not making any sense.
I maybe could express myself better. Let me try again from the top.
The assumption is that Apple will remove the MagSafe charging port in favour of USB3. There are advantages to this: reversible cables, common cables, power and data through the same port, multiple ports for charging. There are disadvantages in that MagSafe is easy to use and has the quick release.
The further proposal is that there will be an adaptor to restore magnetic connectivity to the USB port, to which you add the caveat that no data will be allowed along the adaptor. There are advantages to this in that there will be no chance of data interruption in the event of cable disconnection. There are disadvantages in that this means no data can travel through the adaptor. In situations where there is little chance of accidental cable disconnection (I.e. A desk based hub, or new Apple Display) this would not be usable, even though a magnetic port would be desirable for the ease-of-use factor.
I would counter that there are probably more instances where data would be used where the connection is safe than there are instances where it is not. People do not generally plug in power and data devices in situations where the cables present a trip hazard.
So I don't think your caveat is required. Power and data please.
Of course it depends on the form of the adaptor. My assumption is that it will be relatively unobtrusive and you'd leave it in the notebook all the time, so you effectively have a MagSafe port all the time. I may be wrong in that assumption. Something like https://griffintechnology.com/us/breaksafe-magnetic-usb-c-power-cable but smaller.
I find it hard to believe Apple will abandon a popular PATENTED design feature.
it would not surprise me at all to see Apple reengineer the way it works. Maybe use the Smart Connector, maybe a USB-C to power MagSafe. I'm confident Apple will do something elegant, like they usually do.
Given the plethora of ports that Apple is trying to consolidate into the type C connector, I am hoping for 6 type C thunderbolt 3 ports, as that would give the same number of connections as the current MBP:
MagSafe Power connector - replaced by type C connector thunderbolt 3
Thunderbolt type 2 (1 of 2) - replaced by type C connector thunderbolt 3
Thunderbolt type 2 (2 of 2) - replaced by type C connector thunderbolt 3
USB type A connector (1 of 2) - replaced by type C connector thunderbolt 3
HDMI port - replaced by type C connector thunderbolt 3
USB type A connector (2 of 2) - replaced by type C connector thunderbolt 3
Fewer than 6 ports means that something will have to be doubled up to maintain the same level of functionality. I'd prefer the flexibility of maintaining the number of ports, acknowledging that type C connector thunderbolt 3 can do more than the legacy ports being replaced.
How to make the power connection MagSafe without adding point of failure to all the data connections seems obvious: move the MagSafe connection to the other end of the cable.
Make the connector at the power supply MagSafe.
How would that help? It doesn't matter which end of the cable gets disconnected, your data still gets interrupted which can cause corruption and other problems.
What data?
The whole point is to MagSafe the POWER connector, while not introducing a point of failure for DATA connections. Nearly all cases of damage or near-damage I've seen have been tripping over the power cable.
Put a magnetic custom jack directly on the power supply (requiring a proprietary cable), and you have MagSafe for the power cord, but all data cables work just like data cables always have.
The magsafe-port is brilliant and still one of the best innovations Apple has ever made, and the combination of a power/usb-port on a Pro-laptop sounds insane. I really hope they've thought it all through, because I think it will be a huge step back, and seriously, isn't the Macbook Pros thin enough for devices with such hardware?
On the other hand, if they made a USB-C size magsafe-port, that would be awesome.
The magsafe-port is brilliant and still one of the best innovations Apple has ever made, and the combination of a power/usb-port on a Pro-laptop sounds insane. I really hope they've thought it all through, because I think it will be a huge step back, and seriously, isn't the Macbook Pros thin enough for devices with such hardware?
On the other hand, if they made a USB-C size magsafe-port, that would be awesome.
What's insane about moving the magnetic connector a few inches while allowing an additional data port (which people complain about), and allowing the user to charge from either side and not have to buy a proprietary cable, if they don't want to?
You do know that Mac notebooks have 3-5x the longevity on a single charge and that USB-C is a shallow port interface compared to the pre-MagSafe connector, right?
Fewer than 6 ports means that something will have to be doubled up to maintain the same level of functionality.
Only when charging. Since Mac notebooks have all day battery life, you'll be able to use that USB-C port for something else and then charge when you get home or are in the car, like with the iPhone and iPad. (Please don't infer that my comment is wanting less than 6 ports—I'll take 4+4, if that's an option).
Comments
I agree that there will need to be an option for Lightning, with the iPhone 7 going to Lightning for audio output. That option may be a USB-C dongle. I doubt it will be used for charging because It's likely not rated high enough for a notebook computer.
So I can have the convenience of one port, or the convenience or the Magsafe (with the inconvenience of an "adaptor") but not both.
You don't see how this seems sub-optimal and that there's a feature comprimise?
The mag-safe adaptor makes a lot of sense if the power that can be sent through is sufficient to charge the unit in a reasonable time. My 1st Gen rMBP charger delivers 85W, which may be out of range for USB-C. On the other hand, if the standard MagSafe connector is kept, Apple could simply allow charging via USB-C as well. This would be a boon for travelers, who could charge their machines from any USB connection whether it be from an airplane, battery pack, car outlet, coffee shop etc without having to pull out a bulky charger. The charging would be slower than normal but it could be sufficient to reduce or stop battery drain in normal use.
One adaptor I feel would be useful is a bar that snaps onto the side of an MBP (or MacBook 12") and plugs into a USB-C port (and other ports for stability). The bar could be long enough to provide ports for various needs (HDMI, VGA, TB, power, USB, Ethernet, Display port) depending on the thickness and size of the Mac. It would remove the need for multi-adaptors and could also work as a dock in an office situation. If made from aluminum, it would look like an extension of the MBP body itself.
it would not surprise me at all to see Apple reengineer the way it works. Maybe use the Smart Connector, maybe a USB-C to power MagSafe. I'm confident Apple will do something elegant, like they usually do.
The assumption is that Apple will remove the MagSafe charging port in favour of USB3.
There are advantages to this: reversible cables, common cables, power and data through the same port, multiple ports for charging.
There are disadvantages in that MagSafe is easy to use and has the quick release.
The further proposal is that there will be an adaptor to restore magnetic connectivity to the USB port, to which you add the caveat that no data will be allowed along the adaptor.
There are advantages to this in that there will be no chance of data interruption in the event of cable disconnection.
There are disadvantages in that this means no data can travel through the adaptor. In situations where there is little chance of accidental cable disconnection (I.e. A desk based hub, or new Apple Display) this would not be usable, even though a magnetic port would be desirable for the ease-of-use factor.
I would counter that there are probably more instances where data would be used where the connection is safe than there are instances where it is not. People do not generally plug in power and data devices in situations where the cables present a trip hazard.
So I don't think your caveat is required. Power and data please.
Of course it depends on the form of the adaptor. My assumption is that it will be relatively unobtrusive and you'd leave it in the notebook all the time, so you effectively have a MagSafe port all the time. I may be wrong in that assumption. Something like https://griffintechnology.com/us/breaksafe-magnetic-usb-c-power-cable but smaller.
- MagSafe Power connector - replaced by type C connector thunderbolt 3
- Thunderbolt type 2 (1 of 2) - replaced by type C connector thunderbolt 3
- Thunderbolt type 2 (2 of 2) - replaced by type C connector thunderbolt 3
- USB type A connector (1 of 2) - replaced by type C connector thunderbolt 3
- HDMI port - replaced by type C connector thunderbolt 3
- USB type A connector (2 of 2) - replaced by type C connector thunderbolt 3
Fewer than 6 ports means that something will have to be doubled up to maintain the same level of functionality. I'd prefer the flexibility of maintaining the number of ports, acknowledging that type C connector thunderbolt 3 can do more than the legacy ports being replaced.You do know that Mac notebooks have 3-5x the longevity on a single charge and that USB-C is a shallow port interface compared to the pre-MagSafe connector, right?
Only when charging. Since Mac notebooks have all day battery life, you'll be able to use that USB-C port for something else and then charge when you get home or are in the car, like with the iPhone and iPad. (Please don't infer that my comment is wanting less than 6 ports—I'll take 4+4, if that's an option).