> - can be plugged into a computer you're statistically more likely to have than a new MBP with only USB-C ports

With regard to the Apple ecosystem, I think it's valid to complain that the cable included with the new iphone does not connect to the new macbook, when they were announced at the same time. Even if it's only supposed to be used in an emergency, does that mean in an emergency you should be punished for staying within the Apple ecosystem?

I think Apple has been pretty clear that they are moving their ecosystem to wireless connectivity. The iPhone connects to the new MBP over wifi quite well.

And yet after the iOS10 update a lot of people had to plug the iphone in to restore it. I was also affected and was glad that I had a computer ready. I know about others who just didn't have a device close by they could use (iPad/iPhone only) and had to go to an Apple store.

Next time there will be people who had a laptop but not the adapter, because you are never supposed to need it.

That's of course just an edge case, but the fact that it just happened shows that it can be important. And Apple used to be known to always deliver a great user experience, not just in 95% of the cases.

If they were though, they could've made wireless charging a thing five years ago. (although that conflicts with their aluminium devices)

It was almost 2 months before USB-C appeared on the MBP line. The announcement came a full month after the iPhone 7s landed in people's hands.

Yet the MacBook line has been USB-C only for a year and a half.

So you're saying that it was even less statistically likely (before the release of the new MBPs) that an iPhone owner would have a computer with USB-C exclusively.

One of the advantages of plugging in your iPhone to your Mac is the easiest zero configuration cellular tethering on the market.

Android and Linux is (shockingly) also automatic. I plugged my phone into my laptop because I didn't want to run down the phone battery while using it as a mobile wifi hotspot. I was shocked to notice that I had Internet access on the laptop before I even enabled the mobile hotspot functionality.

It turns out that when I plugged the phone into the laptop USB, it showed up as a USB ethernet device, which NetworkManager then happily auto-configured.

So clearly 2016 is the year of the Linux laptop.

This has been true for a while now. I remember being equally surprised when this worked on Ubuntu in (I think) 2013.

It's super easy to tether to an iPhone nearby. In fact right now, I click the wifi icon and 'personal hotpot: iphone' appears within .5 seconds.

Instant Hotspot fails more than half the time between my 6s+ and 2013 rMBP (Sierra). And to get the WiFi hotspot to work you have to have the setting app open to the hotspot page.

This may seem stupid, but do you use it when both devices haven't been connected to the internet recently? Seems like it works better if the laptop was recently able to access your iCloud account.

I've not had issues with it using my 6 and 2015 rmbp. It works when my comp is not on wifi and my cell has a cellular connection.

He's OK with the cable. He's not OK with only USB-C ports.

How often do you plug your iphone into your mac? Honestly? Once I setup wifi-syncing I've maybe plugged in the usb cable to the computer to the iphone 3 times this year.

Pretty often when I'm in a coffeeshop or using tether mode, in order to keep the phone battery charged from the much beefier laptop battery.

That can be solved with an external battery, but using a short USB-Lightning cable has been easy and great. Now we'll just need to make sure we buy yet a different cable if we use a new-new laptop, which isn't that upsetting.

Also amusing to me, this is the same thing people were talking about when Apple moved from the 30 pin connector to lightning.

And Firewire to USB, and VGA to DVI to Displayport to HDMI, and...

I'm just surprised that apple did the thing everyone wanted: switch to a standard. And now bam, nope this is horrible. Its time for usb c, sucks now but it'll pass. Be more worried about usb c incompatibility more than usb c.

The coolest thing about USB-C is that it's the same in both ends...

Doesn't mean all USB-C is compatible with all USB-C sadly. So we'll have lots of my $BRAND cable didn't work with $OTHERBRAND problems.

I never heard of this. Sounds really bad. :-/ Any examples in the wild?

Daily — for charging and tethering on the go.

Daily.

I tether for internet access and backup the device.