Controversy surrounds Apple's decision to use USB-C in the new MacBook. Is it one interface to rule them all, or is it just another port we'll see on future Macs?
Apple's glitzy new MacBook is a pretty amazing piece of engineering and design that polarizes Mac users more than anything I can remember since the last colored MacBook, the black one that came out in 2008.
The new MacBook does away with all expansion and power ports we've become familiar with — no MagSafe 2, no USB 3, no Thunderbolt 2 — in their place instead is a USB-C connector.
It's a triggering event for some iPhone and iPad users who are still bitter about having to throw out or adapt their 30-pin dock connector cables and accessories (including setups in many vehicles) after Apple introduced Lightning connectors on the iPhone 5.
Quite frankly, I find the hand-wringing over USB-C to be embarrassing and a bit silly, just as I did when Lightning struck.
People were upset when Thunderbolt first appeared on the Mac, displacing FireWire 800 as the high-speed peripheral interface of residence. Here we are years later, two full generations into Thunderbolt and there are still plenty of adapters to let people who bought FireWire hardware continue to use their legacy hardware.
USB-C isn't just new to the Mac. It's new to the PC too. But it's USB. It's going to be adopted, very broadly, and there's already a trickle of cables and converters coming forth that will be turned into a torrent before too long.
Surely the MacBook isn't the one Mac computer every single Mac user needs or even wants today. If you don't, if it has too many limitations for your taste, then walk away. Look at another model.
It takes a company with confidence and vision to understand that sometimes the best way to grow a market is to build a new one. That's what Apple is doing with the MacBook. It's creating an entirely new category of personal computer experience that hasn't existed before now.
If it's not the right experience for you, that's cool. Apple still has other Mac products. As for the death of FireWire? As I write these words, the $1,099 MacBook Pro remains available for order in the Apple Store. It'll be the last Mac to have FireWire 800, sure, but it's still here.
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