You got to give it to Apple. They’re the one company that constantly tells its consumers on what they do and don’t when it comes to their products, despite what their consumers might say. First they removed the conventional USB port and for the most part, it was accepted well. I mean, how else was Apple going to push their lightning port? Then they decided that the headphone jack simply wasn’t needed, we’re not in the 90’s, right? And for the life of me, I can’t figure out why people agreed yet again and consumed the iPhone 7, left and right. Thankfully there were eager companies ready with solutions to add back the missing functionality, at a cost. I want to add to those magazines and websites that claim that the missing port issues turned out fine, it didn’t. Forcing consumers to buy an adaptor to user their existing hardware is not FINE. Not everyone wants to run out and purchase a pair of Bluetooth headphones, so if you’re saying otherwise then you’re either forking over the cash for those users or you’re an idiot.
The headphone jack wasn’t Apple’s latest victim either, as they recently decided to do away with SD card slot on their newest MacBook Pro. In fact, Apple exec Phil Schiller had the never to claim that the port was useless and that most users have access to wireless transfer technology and that it was “proving very useful”.
Because of a couple of things. One, it’s a bit of a cumbersome slot. You’ve got this thing sticking halfway out. Then there are very fine and fast USB card readers, and then you can use CompactFlash as well as SD. So we could never really resolve this – we picked SD because more consumer cameras have SD but you can only pick one. So, that was a bit of a trade-off. And then more and more cameras are starting to build wireless transfer into the camera. That’s proving very useful. So we think there’s a path forward where you can use a physical adaptor if you want, or do wireless transfer.
I definitely disagree with that. Not only do most camera users, especially those who’ve paid a pretty penny for DLSR cameras, not all have access to wireless transfer abilities but the connectivity isn’t that great. I’ve tried this multiple times on several cameras I own and sure it worked at times, but not as much as I’d like. Then what about speed issues? What about those who have insanely huge storage cards? What about writing back to those cards, bi-directional over wireless is not a fun experience at all. And yes, while there are cards such as the Eye-Fi , but again adding that functionality comes at a cost. Now, I’m not downing the wireless transfer technology, when it works it’s great. It shouldn’t, however, be something that’s forced upon users. I’m also not sure that Apple is entirely connected to the implications of using that tech in place of SD Cards. What about system administrators that need to use SD Cards for their day to day? That’s just one reason for me to keep the cards in place, yet another reason for me to ignore the MacBook Pro if I ever wanted to use it in place of my trusty Windows laptop. No, I don’t want to be forced to purchase a memory card reader – why doesn’t Apple just include one for free with any MacBook Pro purchase instead. Ironically, I’ve spoken to a handful of faithful MacBook users and I’d expected them to agree with Apple’s decision – this wasn’t the case at all. Many were just as confused as I was, claiming that this was a really “bone-headed idea”.
Oddly enough, the MacBook Pro does include the missing headphone jack that’s missing from the iPhone 7. So, what signal is Apple trying to send here? Oh, that’s right – Professionals that use the MacBook Pro still need the use of the headphone jack, but professionals that use the iPhone 7 don’t, nor do professionals that are looking at the MacBook Pro need the SD Card slot. If I had been eyeing the MacBook Pro, I’m pretty sure I’d weigh this omission pretty heavily. It may not seem like a deal breaker to many, but it does to me. Especially since my current laptop, which is nowhere near as expensive as the MacBook Pro, includes an SD card slot that fits the entirely of my storage cards when in use.
Are you a user that depends on the SD card slot and someone that was thinking about picking up the MacBook Pro? If so, we’d love to hear what you think about this in the comments below.
