[blashyrk]

Why? Do you consider Apple to generally be some sort of force of good?

I find Apple to be an incredibly cynical company. They are cynical towards their users (donglebook back when USB-c was hardly adopted, the whole "you're holding it wrong" saga etc etc). They are even more cynical towards the developers on their platform, no need to waste words on that after the recent malicious compliance of EU laws etc

[scarface_74]

You’re right about adopting USB C too early. They should have also stuck with SCSI and ADB with the original iMac.

But this is a first, someone complaining that Apple used an industry standard too early.

[blashyrk]

Except, of course, it's not about using it too early, it's about getting rid of what EVERYONE at that point used (USB-A) too early. So they could shave off a few mm of the laptop body as if it were a designer bag and not a device with a "pro" designation.

Same as with the 3.5mm jack on the iPhone.

They, of course, would then sell adapters at a premium because why not.

[bzzzt]

If they didn't make the MacBook USB-C only manufacturers would still be churning out USB-A devices like there's no tomorrow. At least, due to economies of scale there are more devices and cheap adapters to use and even the original Thunderbolt promise of 'one wire' display, power and data is becoming a lot more common.

But of course, it's all about the few bucks Apple earns on a sub $10 adapter.

[blashyrk]

Oh right, Apple removed USB-A for the betterment of the world.

Just like Apple removed HDD support and that's why we all use SSDs now. Or how they removed DVD-ROM and that's why we use portable flash memory. And PS/2 peripherals in favor of USB ones.

Oh wait... Seems like I'm wrong, all of those happened organically! Huh...

Apple created the problems (USB-A and 3.5mm removals) and sold the solutions (dongles and adapters at a huge premium, and of course their Bluetooth earbuds).

Just look at adapter/airpods sales figures and the money Apple made post removal of those. I suppose you think Apple is above such business practices because they're some elegant, high brow company. But they're not, they're just a company.

In fact, that slimming of the macbook came back to bite them in the ass due to inappropriate heating for the Intel cpus at the time. All the macbooks between 2018 and the first M1 were just expensive, overheating garbage.

You had to put the 2019 macbook pros in the freezer so that they reached their advertised performance.

[bzzzt]

USB-A to USB-C adapter dongles are standard and only cost a few dollars. That's completely insignificant next to Apples other profit centers.

Of course the vision behind removing the 3,5mm port was of a wireless future (and after untangling my Earpods for the 100th time I agree). There was a simple dongle sold and you can still buy Earpods with Lightning or USB-C port if you want wired. It's not like you are forced in any way to wear Airpods, other Bluetooth or USB-C headphones work fine. Airpods just happened to be a succesful fashion item. Removing the port allows for a bit more battery (yeah, I know they didn't use the space on the iPhone 7) and simplifies the design a bit (no DA converter needed, one less port that can break, no support calls from people who plug in an old Nokia 3,5mm cable thats wired different). While the gains are mostly for Apple I don't see simplifying something so less things can go wrong as inherently evil. If they really wanted to be evil they would have supported only Airpods.

Ps. I've used the 2019 MacBook pro that liked to spin up its fans but had no real issues with performance. Keyboard was okay too ;)

[scarface_74]

Or you know, you could buy the same dongles from third parties. That’s the beauty of standards. Also by abandoning old ports it incentivizes other companies to produce compatible hardware - just like the iMac did for USB in 1997.

As far as phones, now most premium phones come without a headphone jack. But most people aren’t walking around with cords hanging from their phones anyway - they use Bluetooth headsets

[bzzzt]

> Why? Do you consider Apple to generally be some sort of force of good?

No, but I don't presume they are purely guilty/cynical if there also might be good reasons for the changes they are making. Also, presuming Apple as a company has perfect knowledge and will not ever make a mistake is not realistic. There are things like unintended consequences, of which they also fixed a lot.