If you own a MacBook or a new MacBook Pro, you are probably familiar with the need for dongles associated with mobile electronics today. I am getting a taste of this myself with my Lenovo Yoga 720, as it only has one USB-A port, and two USB-Cs. However, that is a walk in the part compared to either one or four USB-Cs alone.
A couple of days ago, I posted about the release of the new MacBook Pro. The detail that has garnered the most coverage and interest is the keyboard, and whether Apple has chosen to try and solve the issues with dirt and grit causing key failures now, or in a future Pro update. At the time, I said that it looks like Apple either made changes and wouldn’t admit it because of the potential negative impact on pending lawsuits, or decided to wait until the next major re-design of the MacBook Pro.
It’s been an unexpectedly busy couple of days in Apple news. First off, Apple released an updated version of the MacBook Pro yesterday. These new 2018 versions have new Intel processors, more RAM, better screens, and a “quieter” keyboard. Unfortunately, Apple has not mentioned any design changes to the keyboard based on the number of complaints of failures due to dirt and grit getting under the keys. While a specific mention of this could be problematic for Apple due to ongoing litigation over this issue, the feeling around the industry is that this version of the keyboard will not be a significant improvement.
Today proved just how fickle, and even devastating, the Apple rumor mill can be. This is doubly true when the rumors come from someone with a reliable track record. Such was the case early this afternoon, when Mark Gurman (and Ian King) of Bloomberg reported that Apple will be moving away from Intel’s processors as soon as 2020. It touched off a firestorm of coverage and speculation, and also caused Intel’s stock to fall 6.4% by 3:30 PM Eastern today. Ouch.
Photo Source: Patently Apple
There is a lot of smoke on the topic of touch and virtual interface for there not to be a fire somewhere. We have the Touch Bar that Apple added to the MacBook a couple of years ago. A couple of weeks ago, Apple was awarded a patent for a clamshell device with an OLED keyboard. Now, as reported by Patently Apple, an Apple patent application for a virtual keyboard that was filed in 2017 was published just a couple of days ago. Where the awarded patents was fairly open ended, this application has some valuable specifics and diagrams,
One great Apple innovation that fell by the wayside in the name of progress when the MacBook and MacBook Pro both went all USB-C was the MagSafe charge connector. It was a hit from the moment it was announced, and its loss was widely lamented by Apple fans.
While the “dongle life” has become a way of life for many MacBook and MacBook Pro users, there is an easier way to get multiple devices connected using the built-in USB-C ports. A USB-C Hub cuts the number of dongles needed to connect all of your legacy accessories down to just one.
If you own a new MacBook Pro and have no desire to live the dongle life, then HomeSpot has you covered. Their USB-C Hub converts two of the laptop’s four ports into Thunderbolt 3, USB-C, SD, MocroSD, and two USB 3 ports, with a second model that adds HDMI, as well.
I used a Chromebook several years ago and I actually really enjoyed the simplicity of it. It was a super fast, super easy barebones computing experience. Few bugs. No viruses to worry about. No fuss. It shared the same instant on capability of the iPad, but it was even more to the point without the all the apps. That can be both a positive and a negative, but you might surprised by how much you can do in a browser until you actually try it.
We know that Apple is continuously prototyping and testing all kinds of different products, both new and variations on existing ones. While we will never see the vast majority of these experiments, it is interesting to think about what could be. You can pretty much assume that anything we have thought about that is within Apple’s product umbrella has been at least drawn up, if not built to some level of completion. I’m going to occasionally be asking you about some likely experiments that Apple has dabbled with, and ask you the question- “Would you buy this?”