HDQDD

I suggest you go back and READ my original post. I'm personally not interested in the Air *because* it isn't powerful enough for my work, but I do respect the upgrades made on the Air line. Just because someone doesn't plan to buy something doesn't mean they don't respect the innovations for others.

Your Apple fanboidom is clouding your reading comprehension.

I said I look forward to seeing the Air features in the Pro line. You're the only one whining here...and blabbing about Chevy Cruzes?! Wow...

chx1975

The USB Type-C port is a curious beast. It is, in fact several connectors in one:

1. A high speed data path
2. Power delivery
3. A USB 2.0 port

Now, the high speed data path can be used for really speedy USB, 10 GBit/s "Superspeed+" mode. Then you can connect this to a USB hub much like what you've used in the last decade plus -- just this one will be a lot faster and have as many USB 1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1 devices connect to the hub as you wish.

*Or* it can be used in an alternate mode. This can be a lot of things, currently DisplayPort, and MHL is supported but the potential is there for Ethernet and even PCI Express and whatnot. However, let me emphasize again: if you do this then your superspeed+ USB is not there. You can still use the power delivery lanes and the USB 2.0 port. The latter is a usual High Speed USB 2.0 port just need a simple and cheap converter to separate it out.

There will be a lot of confusion because the charging only USB C connector on the (some video)/USB2/(USB C charging port) adapters is visually not distinguishable from the versatile port on the machine.

Even more confusion will arise when accessory manufacturers will create a USB-C "docking station" that has a kind of DisplayLink chip in it. Remember, DisplayLink is the technology behind USB-to-DVI adapter but this time the bandwidth is quite there to do uncompressed video over USB 3.1 -- it's less than half of the available bandwidth. With compression you can even do a dual display adapter! At least for 1080p60 or 4k30 you can. Perhaps it'll even be possible to drive a 4k60 monitor this way. There's a possibility that such a docking station will feature one or more of the familiar blue USB 3.0 ports or even USB-C ports just for fun and confusion. Because these USB-C ports are now locked to USB mode and can't be used with native display adapters.

Other docking stations, however, will use the DisplayPort alternative mode, add an MST (MultiStreamTransfer) hub and drive three displays natively and happily (as long as they are only 1080p). These devices can have USB 2.0 ports but not 3.0/3.1. However, we have seen Gigabit Ethernet over USB 2.0 so when you see a small USB-C docking station with say two HDMI, an Ethernet and a few USB 2.0 ports then good luck figuring out what it is: is it a USB 3.1 with DisplayLink type chips? You need a driver for your display and in general, expect problems. Is it a DisplayPort splitter? That's good but then there's very little USB bandwidth. The only sure sign are USB 3.0 ports -- those mean the USB-C port is operating in USB mode.

Basically there will be a tonne of scenarios where users can plug in something into an USB-C port and it simply won't work. At all. Or where you plug in a monitor, expect it Just Work and faced with needing to download drivers.

Oh and people have gotten used to using simple and cheap (passive) DisplayPort to HDMI/DVI adapters. That worked well because your DisplayPort connector was in almost every case a DisplayPort++ connector and it simply emitted HDMI/DVI signals if you asked it nicely. Now, in this case, if you have a USB-C to DisplayPort female then you can't just plugin in a passive DP-HDMI cable and expect it work. You need a not-so-simple DisplayPort-to-HDMI active converter and need to actually convert the DisplayPort signal into a HDMI signal. When building a USB-C-to-HDMI you might want to convert the MHL signal instead but at least Google's adapter goes the DP route.

Boogie711

I totally don't get what you're saying. (And BTW - I can't use an iPad because I can't display for an 8 hour training day. Why? Because 'power-in' is also 'display-out' on an iPad.)

With my Macbook Air, I have my AC power supply - plugs into Magsafe on the left hand side.

On the right side, I have my Mini Display Port. I plug an adapter into that to make it VGA, and plug THAT into the LCD projector.

And on not-so-uncommon occasion, I plug in a USB stick with any client supplied videos, logos or materials as part of my coaching/training session.

NOW, with a Macbook - I need AC power. That clogs up my only port. What Apple is saying is "We want you to buy a special adapter. So, out of this adapter, I need:

AC power
USB A
Mini Display Port.

All of which will be splayed out on one side of the machine now.

What am I missing?

ScottC

All the dongles I have for my iPads (both lightning and dock) have the display output and a power input.

FreakingFlyer

I read that there will be no Thunderbolt converter.

And yet I own Apple's $1000 boondoggle monitor that only takes Thunderbolt.

So, game over for me.

ScottC

I am pretty confident that your Thunderbolt monitor will also support a DisplayPort connector. You should be ok with the USB-C dongle to HDMI, then an HDMI to Mini DisplayPort. You'll lose the use of the USB ports as DisplayPort/HDMI is one-way, unlike Thunderbolt which wraps the video in a PCI signal.

skofarrell

When would you ever need to plug a flash drive into a chromebook?

bocastephen

How does the thing keep cool without a fan especially when software starts chewing up resources?

WIRunner

The processor is pretty low power to start (and low speed by many standards), the only option that it has is to throttle the speed to allow things to cool down. The same thing happens with an mobile phone or a tablet, when things heat up the rest slows down.

lensman

I have HDMI adapters for both my old 30-pin iPad and my newer Lightning connector iPad. The 30-pin version plugs into my iPad and provides both HDMI and 30-pin for power. The Lightning version plugs into my iPad and provides both HDMI and Lightning for power.

Not missing anything there. Get the new MacBook and deal with the splay or get the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro and keep doing what you're doing.

Besides ScottC's solution, you can just keep buying from the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro line.

Apple retired Firewire off the MBP in 2012 after many years of providing that option. I'm sure they will keep Thunderbolt on some subset of their machines for many years to come.

I don't need the ports and so will be getting the new MB 12 to replace my MBA 11. I'm also going to go over to the Chromebook Pixel (2015) thread to see if I should get one of those too! ScottC, you're a bad influence on me! lol

deniah

new chip is 4.5w, old one 15w

look at this scale comparison between logic boards... very impressive

ScottC

Not really that impressive. I currently have an HDMI dongle with a full Win 8.1 environment.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/...ute-stick.html

Oh, and mine has USB, MicroUSB, HDMI, Audio and MicroSD all in the tony stick, which means even it has more ports than the new Macbook

Chipsets are getting smaller and smaller, and heat isn't as much of an issue as it used to be.

deniah

wow, that looks great!

all you have to do is carry around an external monitor, keyboard, mouse, and AC power source , to get your work done on an airplane!

tmiw

How do you have one of these when they're not available for sale yet?

Speaking of the Compute Stick, I wonder if I can rig one of these up with a HDHomeRun + CableCard and an external hard drive and pretty much replace my parents' cable box. TWC charges a ridiculous amount for the privilege of renting a DVR (on top of the monthly rental for the box).

DYKWIA

There are versions already available :-

http://www.stickpcstore.com/hannspre...-snnpdi1b.html