USB-C is more dream than reality.

[smoledman]

https://daringfireball.net/linked/2017/10/16/usb-c-marco
https://marco.org/2017/10/14/impossible-dream-of-usb-c

The money quotes:

Before today’s USB-C can become ubiquitous and homogeneous, the next protocol or port will come out. We’ll have new, faster USB 4.0 and Thunderbolt 4 standards over the same-looking USB-C ports. We’ll want to move to an even thinner USB-D port. The press will call it “the future” and Apple will celebrate its new laptops that only have a USB-D port — two, if we’re lucky.

And we’ll have to start over again, buying all new cables, dongles, hubs, chargers, batteries, and displays to adapt it to what we really need.

USB-C is a dual disaster. It’s fundamentally confusing because all USB-C ports and plugs look the same, but can have very different features.

Now that all modern Apple MacBooks are USB-C-only, USB-C’s problems are MacBook problems, too.

Wow. No wonder Microsoft is going so slow with USB-C. If you don't get the charging cables, data transfer cables, hubs, dongles all 100% RIGHT, it's a disaster for the consumer. Apple apparently doesn't care, they are coasting on the Mac's reputation right now, which MS can't do with Surface.

 

[BluAffiliate]

RIP USB-C.

 

[theluggage]

Wow. No wonder Microsoft is going so slow with USB-C.

I had a good go at USB-C - and why it's not the technical leap forward that some people seem to think - here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...2-macbook-to-999.2059453/page-8#post-25258620

Big irony is that the one area that USB-C does address a problem that needed solving is on mobiles and tablets - which is the one place that Apple isn't rolling it out.

On the desktop, if you didn't notice, Intel is trying to hijack USB-C to promote Thunderbolt ("the USB-C that does everything") by adopting the connector and making its Alpine Ridge TB3 controller the go-to way to implement USB-C on a computer. Personally, I'd have thought that your 8-device chain of 40Gbps RAID arrays needed something that was less likely to fall out of the socket than a MiniDP plug...

I think they'd be dumb to change the physical port anytime soon - but, yeah, we've already got USB 3.2 in the pipeline (Good news - your cables will be compatible), native HDMI alt mode (c.f. your current USB-C to HDMI cable which uses DisplayPort Alt Mode) as well as displayPort 1.4 (already part of the USB-C spec - just as soon as anything implements it). They'll all make USB-C more powerful - at the cost of further muddying waters already turbid with confusion as to what connects to what with which cable...

Credit where credit is due - having 4 USB3 + 2xTB3 on my new iMac does mean that if I don't want Thunderbolt or external displays then for the cost of a couple of adapters I can have 2 extra USB3 ports. Frankly, though, I'd rather have 6 USB3s, a couple of dedicated Thunderbolt ports plus two DisplayPort outputs on a desktop computer that has plenty of space for a dozen ports - and the bandwidth to drive them - without having to double-up.

 

[Tech198]

USB-C may be good, but I think it short-falls as not everyone is gonna buy dongles.... particularly Apple gets you back in store just to purchase an the correct adapter, if only a Mac had integrated... Your balancing thinnest vs integration. (and in Apple's case, they rather make it in-convenient so they can add something else they think is better by all)

Never used USB C, but the Thunderbolt to Eithernet dongle always falls out, so i reckon the same would be true with USB-C dongles too..

It's an adapter after all, not something that just 'clicks' (locking mechanism) in place, which will always be better.

 

[smoledman]

Has no effect on Apple. Mac sales 5.4 million last quarter, nobody cares about dongle-hell, I guess nobody uses USB port anyway with Bluetooth everything.

 

[Tech198]

Possibly.... But i hate using Bluetooth is well ... The thing is, we thrive on convenience, and if its easy to do we'll use it that way...

I use USB all the time. Never used Bluetooth before in my life believe it or not.. and rather use the simple turn key solution as "well I "might" need it on day"

Yes, well if and when i do need it, i'll turn it on.

 

[DRDR]

If - which is difficult for normal users - you buy the correct (and rather expensive) components, you can achieve awesome results.

My Macbook Pro is connected with one long TB3 cable to a 4k-Display, an Apple 27 LED Cinema Display, two Samsung T3, one Sandisk Extreme 900, a webcam, a soundcard, a TV card and a PCIe-Extension box while being powered through the same cable. And it works. Although getting it right is not inexpensive and needs some planning.

So I agree and disagree with the articles at the same time. But writing that "some USB-V to lightning" cables work and some don't is wrong, because there is only one cable (1m or 2m) that you can buy.

 

[ActionableMango]

Never used Bluetooth before in my life believe it or not.

I have so many Bluetooth devices paired to my iPhone that the list exceeds the size of the screen, and so I have scroll down to see them all.

You and I together bring balance to The Force.

 

[Hanson Eigilson]

Wow. No wonder Microsoft is going so slow with USB-C. If you don't get the charging cables, data transfer cables, hubs, dongles all 100% RIGHT, it's a disaster for the consumer. Apple apparently doesn't care, they are coasting on the Mac's reputation right now, which MS can't do with Surface.

I totally agree, and i really liked the stuff marco wrote about it, summed up how i feel about it much better than i could