<story><title>MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch</title><url>https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-14-and-16/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cactus2093</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s weird to sell the machine with a super high resolution 120hz mini LED screen though and then optimize the ports for the cheap $400 monitor market.&lt;p&gt;You&amp;#x27;re right though the HDMI port might come in handy in random situations, better to include it than not. The SD port is the one I really don&amp;#x27;t get. And I still maintain that the continued lack of USB-A ports is a much bigger dongle problem than the lack of HDMI port was.</text></item><item><author>sintaxi</author><text>Every monitor and TV manufactured within the last decade without exception has an HDMI input and monitors that support thunderbolt are nearly double the cost. Even if money is no object that HDMI port will prove to be useful.</text></item><item><author>atourgates</author><text>For all the times Apple seems to be willing to &amp;quot;stick to its guns&amp;quot; and ignore consumer complaining, this seems like a weird time to give in.&lt;p&gt;They basically made a line-in-the-sand on USB-C adoption, and it pretty much worked.  I&amp;#x27;d argue that an HDMI and SD card readers are less useful, and certainly far less versatile than additional USB-C ports.&lt;p&gt;For all the dongle jokes of a few years ago, I don&amp;#x27;t really see a reason to go back to less versatile ports in laptops.</text></item><item><author>cactus2093</author><text>&amp;gt; All the ports you could ever want&lt;p&gt;I agree with everything else you said and I think overall these machines will be awesome.&lt;p&gt;I would disagree with you on the ports though, I think this is kind of a miss for Apple. They caved into some of the loudest complaints from several years ago which were already coming from a loud minority and that minority is now smaller than ever.&lt;p&gt;And if they were set on changing the ports these certainly aren&amp;#x27;t all that you could ever want. A few USB-A ports as well as keeping at least the 4 USB-C ports from last year (instead of reducing to 3) would have been more useful for more people than the HDMI and especially the SD ports are.&lt;p&gt;(HDMI used to be useful for plugging into a projector for presentations, that use-case is now nearly non-existent now that all meetings tend to happen over zoom, webex, teams, hangouts, etc. even when in-person. HDMI used to be useful for monitors but increasingly displayport over usb-c is supported by everything except the lowest end monitors. SD used to be important for stills and video footage, but increasingly cameras use CFExpress, CFast, output over hdmi to an atmos-style recorder, or even micro-SD for small GoPro style cameras, all of which will still need dongles. Devices like Raspberry Pis require micro SD not standard SD).&lt;p&gt;They also could have added the nifty ethernet-over-magsafe via the powerbrick that the iMac has and they didn&amp;#x27;t do that.&lt;p&gt;Edit: One additional thought - I&amp;#x27;m seeing from the comments some reasonable situations where HDMI still comes in handy - cheap monitors, plugging into a tv to watch something, and I guess there are still lots of people physically plugging in at work for presentations. Fair enough, but in that case it&amp;#x27;s weird that this is a &amp;quot;Pro&amp;quot; feature. These are all very non-pro usecases and you&amp;#x27;ll still need dongles around for anybody with a non-pro machine (like a macbook air).</text></item><item><author>d3nj4l</author><text>These look positively &lt;i&gt;insane&lt;/i&gt;. 120Hz HDR displays. Can be specced with up to 64 GB of RAM and a GPU that (apparently) matches a 3070. All the ports you could ever want &lt;i&gt;and&lt;/i&gt; magsafe. I can&amp;#x27;t wait to get my hands on one.&lt;p&gt;The notch doesn&amp;#x27;t bother me because it&amp;#x27;s literally more room on the screen. Laptops with the camera below the screen tend to have an uncomfortable angle that look sup your nose, and the design suggests that they may be adding Face ID in a future iteration.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Bud</author><text>They didn&amp;#x27;t optimize the ports for the cheap monitor market, at all. These machines support Apple&amp;#x27;s extremely expensive display and all the various 4K and 5K displays out there, admirably.&lt;p&gt;And they ALSO have the single most needed and bitched about port if it&amp;#x27;s absent, by far, for nearly all business users, which is HDMI. Far and away the best thing they could have added.&lt;p&gt;I personally will not use it often, but when I do, it will be invaluable, and for the users I support, it will be a tremendous increase in convenience and ease-of-use.&lt;p&gt;If you need a lot of USB-A ports, get a CalDigit dock and be done with it. If you need just 1, there are extraordinarily tiny adapters.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s time to get over USB-A.</text></comment>
<story><title>MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch</title><url>https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-14-and-16/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cactus2093</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s weird to sell the machine with a super high resolution 120hz mini LED screen though and then optimize the ports for the cheap $400 monitor market.&lt;p&gt;You&amp;#x27;re right though the HDMI port might come in handy in random situations, better to include it than not. The SD port is the one I really don&amp;#x27;t get. And I still maintain that the continued lack of USB-A ports is a much bigger dongle problem than the lack of HDMI port was.</text></item><item><author>sintaxi</author><text>Every monitor and TV manufactured within the last decade without exception has an HDMI input and monitors that support thunderbolt are nearly double the cost. Even if money is no object that HDMI port will prove to be useful.</text></item><item><author>atourgates</author><text>For all the times Apple seems to be willing to &amp;quot;stick to its guns&amp;quot; and ignore consumer complaining, this seems like a weird time to give in.&lt;p&gt;They basically made a line-in-the-sand on USB-C adoption, and it pretty much worked.  I&amp;#x27;d argue that an HDMI and SD card readers are less useful, and certainly far less versatile than additional USB-C ports.&lt;p&gt;For all the dongle jokes of a few years ago, I don&amp;#x27;t really see a reason to go back to less versatile ports in laptops.</text></item><item><author>cactus2093</author><text>&amp;gt; All the ports you could ever want&lt;p&gt;I agree with everything else you said and I think overall these machines will be awesome.&lt;p&gt;I would disagree with you on the ports though, I think this is kind of a miss for Apple. They caved into some of the loudest complaints from several years ago which were already coming from a loud minority and that minority is now smaller than ever.&lt;p&gt;And if they were set on changing the ports these certainly aren&amp;#x27;t all that you could ever want. A few USB-A ports as well as keeping at least the 4 USB-C ports from last year (instead of reducing to 3) would have been more useful for more people than the HDMI and especially the SD ports are.&lt;p&gt;(HDMI used to be useful for plugging into a projector for presentations, that use-case is now nearly non-existent now that all meetings tend to happen over zoom, webex, teams, hangouts, etc. even when in-person. HDMI used to be useful for monitors but increasingly displayport over usb-c is supported by everything except the lowest end monitors. SD used to be important for stills and video footage, but increasingly cameras use CFExpress, CFast, output over hdmi to an atmos-style recorder, or even micro-SD for small GoPro style cameras, all of which will still need dongles. Devices like Raspberry Pis require micro SD not standard SD).&lt;p&gt;They also could have added the nifty ethernet-over-magsafe via the powerbrick that the iMac has and they didn&amp;#x27;t do that.&lt;p&gt;Edit: One additional thought - I&amp;#x27;m seeing from the comments some reasonable situations where HDMI still comes in handy - cheap monitors, plugging into a tv to watch something, and I guess there are still lots of people physically plugging in at work for presentations. Fair enough, but in that case it&amp;#x27;s weird that this is a &amp;quot;Pro&amp;quot; feature. These are all very non-pro usecases and you&amp;#x27;ll still need dongles around for anybody with a non-pro machine (like a macbook air).</text></item><item><author>d3nj4l</author><text>These look positively &lt;i&gt;insane&lt;/i&gt;. 120Hz HDR displays. Can be specced with up to 64 GB of RAM and a GPU that (apparently) matches a 3070. All the ports you could ever want &lt;i&gt;and&lt;/i&gt; magsafe. I can&amp;#x27;t wait to get my hands on one.&lt;p&gt;The notch doesn&amp;#x27;t bother me because it&amp;#x27;s literally more room on the screen. Laptops with the camera below the screen tend to have an uncomfortable angle that look sup your nose, and the design suggests that they may be adding Face ID in a future iteration.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>toyg</author><text>SD is absolutely massive in Asia, on a level that I think cannot be gauged properly from the West. I reckon these ports have been added with an eye to the Asian market rather than California.</text></comment>