OT: That hilarious laughing Apple Engineer clip - I've seen it a few times before in other contexts - but what was original clip all about?

I have a Surface Pro 2 and use a Toshiba USB docking hub for it in the office to connect to external monitors, LAN, keyboard and mouse.  When I travel I find one USB port is enough

One thing I like about the Surface is the charger has a USB port.  That means I don't need to carry a separate charger for my cell phone or any other USB device.

andrewNZ: The main complaints from the op article are.

1) Cant use the same charger for mac and iphone
Woopdee freeking dooo. You never could anyway, maybe plug the phone into the laptop just like before.

2) Cant connect airpod jobbies to MBP without a dongle.
Bull pies. They're bluetooth.

3) No headphone jack on the iphone.
Most people really don't care, I certainly wouldn't. Get some bluetooth headphones, or don't buy one.

Or get a dongle. When lightning came out that rendered by car charger redundant. Until I bought an Apple 6 inch 30 pin to lightning cable. Not too hard really.

tdgeek:

 

andrewNZ: The main complaints from the op article are.

1) Cant use the same charger for mac and iphone
Woopdee freeking dooo. You never could anyway, maybe plug the phone into the laptop just like before.

2) Cant connect airpod jobbies to MBP without a dongle.
Bull pies. They're bluetooth.

3) No headphone jack on the iphone.
Most people really don't care, I certainly wouldn't. Get some bluetooth headphones, or don't buy one.

 

Or get a dongle. When lightning came out that rendered by car charger redundant. Until I bought an Apple 6 inch 30 pin to lightning cable. Not too hard really.

 

Use the dongle that came in the box of the iPhone, or the lightning EarPods that came with the iPhone.

The one $85 adaptor will be enough for me and alot of other people. It has an HDMI port, a USB-A port and a charging port, So it can pretty much be used to dock at your desk.

Apart from that I know lots of new devices are going to have USB-C, so obviously anything new you buy, make sure it's USB-C, or make sure to get some C-B, and C-MicroB cables

This is the first change of this kind in 20 years, and I think it's for the better. One port for everything, you can now use the same charger to charge your android phone and your Mac, (And maybe next years iPhone)

While dongles are a pita equally painful is using a ultrabook with multitudes of things plugged into it. Maybe just me and my big hands but I also like to use a mouse and having anything plugged into that side always seems to get in the way. A nice simple hub like above is the way forward imho

Is there a plug that can charge and move data at the same time?

Wade:

 

While dongles are a pita equally painful is using a ultrabook with multitudes of things plugged into it. Maybe just me and my big hands but I also like to use a mouse and having anything plugged into that side always seems to get in the way. A nice simple hub like above is the way forward imho

 

Or use a bluetooth mouse

I have deployed a new Dell Latitude (the latitude that is the 'business' version of the XPS) at work that has USB-C.

It is brilliant. USB-C port for charging, also for data. works really well. The port replicators for them 'just work' - on the desk is the port replicator, plugged into power (using an older laptop power supply - barrel connector). When the boss gets to work, he just connects the one USB-C cable from the replicator to his notebook, and it does everything - charging, USB ports, DVI/HDMI ports, Ethernet and Audio. He also has a mini replicator so he can connect to HDMI/VGA and ethernet while away from the office.

Dell seem to have done this right (the notebook also has a USB port), and I see it as a great way forward.

andrewNZ: The main complaints from the op article are.

1) Cant use the same charger for mac and iphone
Woopdee freeking dooo. You never could anyway, maybe plug the phone into the laptop just like before.

The problem is that you can't plug your new iPhone into a new MBP to charge it, at least not with the included USB cable. You need to buy a new cable or a dongle.

andrewNZ:

 

2) Cant connect airpod jobbies to MBP without a dongle.
Bull pies. They're bluetooth.

The AirPods are charged with a lightning to USB cable, and this won't connect to the new MBP. You need to buy a new cable or a dongle.

andrewNZ:

 

3) No headphone jack on the iphone.
Most people really don't care, I certainly wouldn't. Get some bluetooth headphones, or don't buy one.

Perhaps they won't care, but the fact remains you can't plug your new iPhone headphones into a new MBP without a dongle. And you can't plug your existing headphones into a new iPhone without a dongle. Just about all (non-Apple) Bluetooth headphones are charged with Micro-USB, and so you'll need to buy a new Micro-USB cable if you want to charge your Bluetooth headphones from your new MBP.

And that's the main complaint of the article - you will have to buy (and carry) at least one, but more likely two or three, new dongles/cables with your new MBP.