The new MacBook: I hope you like dongles
There is one refrain that, for the last few years, always pops up at Apple events: thinness. Through magical material, design, and manufacturing advances, Apple keeps making its devices thinner. That's why it always amuses me when people slot the 6.9mm-thick iPhone 6 into a chunky case that completely counters Apple's advances. As Phil Schiller unveiled the new MacBook yesterday, a similar thought came to mind: If you buy a MacBook, the svelte silhouette of your new laptop might be ruined by a bunch of dongles.
In case you haven't read our hands-on impressions, let me bring you up to speed: The new Apple MacBook only has two ports. There's a 3.5mm headphone jack on the right, and a single USB Type C port on the left. There's no Mini DisplayPort, no Thunderbolt, no HDMI—not even the much beloved MagSafe power connector. Instead, if you want to plug anything in, you'll need a dongle. If you're the kind of person who plugs devices into your laptop—a keyboard, mouse, camera, external display, etc.—this is a bit of a problem.
