Apple Laptop Ports, Bug Bounty Program – TMO Daily Observations 2019-08-07
John Martellaro and Charlotte Henry join host Kelly Guimont to talk about port differentials on MacBook models and Apple’s macOS bug bounty.
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I just recently set up my college-bound daughter, Luddite Lindsey, with a 2018 MacBook Air with an OWC 14-Port Thunderbolt 3 Dock. Being honest, the 14 port dock was admittedly overkill for her needs, but that’s how daddy rolls with his tech 🙂
On the show you expressed interest in hearing from users who have a laptop and a dock.
So let me explain the setup and also tell you why John is wrong….DING !!
As I indicated above, while my daughter is wonderful in so many ways, her abilities and interest in tech is not in her wheelhouse. So, to keep things as simple as possible, I have set her up where she only needs to “plug in” the laptop, connecting it to the dock. Because of the dock, this will do all of the following:
> Charge the laptop
> Mount several volumes on a 4TB external drive attached to the dock. This external drive serves as both backup storage as well as relieving her limited 256GB SSD on the laptop from bulky files that are not needed when mobile. The volumes on this external drive are:
— Large data volume for her iTunes Library, Photos Library, iMazing Backups of her iPhone & iPad, and misc documents that are not needed all the time (not that she would ever think to put anything here).
— Time Machine (automated)
— Carbon Copy Cloner backup (automated backup)
> Dummy Plug for a ‘fake’ 4K display connected via mini-displayport, allowing the laptop to stay awake when the lid is closed.
> As an added benefit, the 2 High Powered (Always Charge) USB ports can be used for charging her phone and iPad even when the computer is not plugged in.
This set up allows for the Time Machine, CCC, & iMazing backups to all happen auto-magically (without active participation from Luddite Lindsey) with the simple & single action of connecting one cable to the computer. This was an important consideration for me since Lindsey would never be bothered connecting the external drive separately and thus would never backup her system. Hopefully, she will never need a backup, but ‘when’ she does, I will be able to help her get back up and running from 950 miles away 🙂
Give ‘em 2-ports and they’ll say Apple’s arrogant – we want 4. Give ‘em 4-ports and they’ll say Apple’s arrogant – we want 6. Design decisions are Apple’s prerogative not arrogance.
I remember people bitching about iPads having only 1 proprietary port even though that form-factor is clearly designed to be operated cable-free/wireless as with all mobile tech. “Pro” machine use-cases are more likely to be docked with external display/GPU/Audio kit unlike the dual-core Air.
I’d like to see Apple deconstruct the Mac range with pluggable 35x120x5mm cards/modules holding; SSD, Neural, Graphics & CPU combinations into 21/27” Display, Mini, Nano & Book enclosures.