Dongles. Dongles. Dongles. You'll need a lot of them for the new MacBook
Apple's new MacBook is pushing the notebook's future closer toward wireless everything — Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirDrop, Continuity and Handoff all play crucial parts in this mobile dream — but you're most likely going to have to pay up for extra cables and adapters/dongles to hook up all of your other existing wired accessories.
It's the day after Apple's big "Spring Forward" event in San Francisco where it introduced the new MacBook and announced pricing for the Apple Watch. We're all still reeling in and absorbing all of the nuggets of news the company didn't have time to talk about on stage.
Although we went into the event expecting the Apple Watch to take center stage, it was the new ultra-thin and light MacBook that stole the show.
It's easy to fawn all over the new MacBook's gorgeous high-res Retina display, two-pound lightness and 13.1mm thickness all day long. Or perhaps its fanless logicboard design, new keyboard with "butterfly" mechanism keys, new Force Touch trackpad or 9 hour battery life has us all pumped.
But no matter how futuristic the new MacBook is, it's got one ugly (or pretty, depending on where you stand) truth: USB-C.
To recap, USB-C is the future of USBs. It's smaller and reversible. With a single USB-C port you can charge, output video and transfer data. It's the ultimate consolidation, but it's not perfect.
While a USB-C port enabled Apple to build an even thinner MacBook, the new port also breaks clean compatibility with all existing full-sized USB accessories. To connect a flash drive or an external USB hard drive or a wired mouse or keyboard, you'll need to buy a USB-C to USB dongle. To charge the new MacBook andoutput video to an external display andget a full-sized USB, you need to buy another separate, more expensive dongle. To get an SD card reader, you'll need to buy a USB SD card reader and one of the USB-C adapters.
Below you'll also find my quick sketches of the rats nest your new MacBook will be with all those adapters and USB hubs hanging out. It ain't pretty.
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