Macbook Pro: 2 USB ports...

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macboer

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How much do you hate only having 2 usb ports on your Macbook Pro?

I mean how often do you go, "damn, I wish there were more. Oh how I wish there were MORE!"
 
Hehehehehehe... Question answered in the iPhoneZA forums ;)
 
macboer said:
How much do you hate only having 2 usb ports on your Macbook Pro?

I mean how often do you go, "damn, I wish there were more. Oh how I wish there were MORE!"
Click to expand...
Never? I wouldn't complain if they moved them apart just a little bit more.
 
bwana said:
Never? I wouldn't complain if they moved them apart just a little bit more.
Click to expand...

Yea, fat 3G sticks suck on the MBP, but since i've got the air, one port on each side is awesome :)
 
If you are using the USB ports mostly at your desk get a powered USB hub. leave all your devices permanently connected to the hub and the hub connects to the laptop via a single cable.
 
I had an idea for short USB extension cable to solve this exact problem! And that could be used as a social upliftment project...

You get a few hundred / thousand of the extensions, then get unemployed peeps to make each one unique by doing african beadwork around each one...

Not only does it make each one-of-a-kind, but also makes them rigid enough to prop up the USB 3G dongle at the best angle for reception!

And then sell them at R50 / R100 a pop for charity...

Was gonna make up a few and send em off to El Jobso, but he went and died before I could...

Maybe the new guy would be willing to order like a million of em and give quite a few thousand people a job?

But I'll be out of (south) africa for the next 2 years - anyone else wanna take over?
 
macboer said:
How much do you hate only having 2 usb ports on your Macbook Pro?
Click to expand...

Yeah, but at least these days they're on the same side. My old pre-unibody has one on each side, so external 2.5" HDD means either a USB extension cable to reach around or a dedicated power cable.

ponder said:
If you are using the USB ports mostly at your desk get a powered USB hub.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what I'm doing, but finding one that doesn't lose some speed is a tricky business.
 
Annoys me that they are so close together. A third really would not have killed anyone. I like a mouse (carpal track pad can go to hell) and eventually bit the bullet and got a magic mouse just so I could free up a USB port.
 
My biggest gripe about the new Macbook Pros is their closely spaced USB ports.

My 2008 15" MacBook Pro had one on each side of the laptop - perfect.

Then I bought a 2010 15" MacBook Pro, and the dumb engineers changed their mind and put two right next to each other....WTF, with most devices I can only use one at a time, and I'm not into adding hubs and extra bits hanging off - that solution sucks. They need to go back to one on each side of the MBP !!
 
ponder said:
Look for a USB hub with dual upstream ports. Google 'USB HUB 2 Upstream ports'
Click to expand...

I very much doubt that second upstream port is for data. I'm not aware that the USB protocol supports binding ports. At best, it probably just split the downstream ports half/half between the two upstream ports. More likely than not, the extra port is for extra power.

Anyway, the problem is USB is CPU bound. And most USB hubs are cheap low-end hardware to start with. Even the more expensive D-Link and Belkin make drive access slower compared to even daisy-chained FW400.
 
Now that I think back two would have been a problem before I had firewire CF card readers. Now that's a connector that really bugs me.
 
koffiejunkie said:
At best, it probably just split the downstream ports half/half between the two upstream ports.
Click to expand...

This ^^

Bottom line is USB is a kuk technology when it comes to heavy data transfer, it's fine for keyboards, mice and stuff like that.
 
A lot of the time two would be enough, but the Macbook Pro doesn't have two useable ports because they're too close together.
 
noxibox said:
A lot of the time two would be enough, but the Macbook Pro doesn't have two useable ports because they're too close together.
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The ports are generally far enough apart for most uses except when you're using a 3G dongle - I think there is a market for the stubby usb cables that chris2.0 described.

A more lickable solution would be for apple to build in the 3G connectivity with an ipad like sim card slot.
 
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