News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up by thadk on Friday July 13, 2018 @11:37PM (#17528669)
The area around the hinge on the 2011-2015 Era Macbook was plastic. It seems like they wanted to do away with that, a major mechanical break point, which meant removing travel distance from the keys so the screen could close more directly. (My 2011 MBP screen hinge was a bit wobbly a few years in.) You could look at the USB-C dongles in a similar way: older USB ports could fail eventually on that era MBP. The newer USB-C ports are probably "rated" for more insertions/removals.
Re:The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up by blackguardx on Friday July 13, 2018 @11:49PM (#17528693)
You are correct. USB A ports are usually only rated to 1500 insertion cycles because that is what the standard specifies. Micro USB and USB C ports are specced at 10,000 insertion cycles.
Re:The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up by marksi on Saturday July 14, 2018 @09:46AM (#17530323)
I am stunned to hear micro USB is rated for that many insertions. The implementation must not live up to the standard. In my experience, anecdotal, I know, microUSB is the most unreliable of all the USB form factors I've experienced. Bad connectors on cables, and ports that regularly fail internally (not levered off the board.) I have considered replacing ports with miniusb, or a tethered B port because micro has been such an utter failure on so many of my devices.
Re:The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up by 21 on Saturday July 14, 2018 @10:53AM (#17530556)
MicroUSB is supposedly designed in such a way that the stress is placed on the cable connector which is easier to replace, not the device connector which is attached to an expensive device.

But yeah, I can't imagine Micro-USB being more reliable than regular USB-A.

Re:The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up by smsm42 on Saturday July 14, 2018 @05:18PM (#17532436)
Yep, had several devices fail because of micro-usb going bad. And the worst part is that since it's how you charge it, there's no option not to use it daily (yeah there's wireless charging standards, but adoption is abysmal so far).
Re:The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up by xvf22 on Friday July 13, 2018 @11:47PM (#17528691)
Each of the USB-C ports needs a controller and if any of the four have an issue the computer will not charge.
Re:The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up by adrianN on Saturday July 14, 2018 @01:48AM (#17529025)
One of the USB-C ports on my work laptop recently failed but the machine still charged from the other one.
Re:The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up by xvf22 on Saturday July 14, 2018 @09:37PM (#17533370)
Was going by this [1] which seems to show that if one of the charging ICs goes bad it can cause the rest not to work. This is probably one of many failure mechanisms.

[1] https://youtube.com/watch?v=MY8LlHfK9ZA

Re:The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up by saagarjha on Friday July 13, 2018 @11:54PM (#17528709)
I believe MacBook Pro has two Thunderbolt controllers, one for each side.
Re:The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up by Jdam on Saturday July 14, 2018 @01:54AM (#17529044)
The USB controller is unrelated to USB power supply.
Re:The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up by dzhiurgis on Saturday July 14, 2018 @03:10AM (#17529217)
The way that usb-c wobbles and how easily it unplugs proves its not designed for proffesional use.
Re:The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up by matthewmacleod on Saturday July 14, 2018 @03:15AM (#17529227)
No, that proves literally nothing.

It’s hardly an industrial connector, but AFAIK it’s rated for 10k inserts which is more than enough.

Re:The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up by dzhiurgis on Saturday July 14, 2018 @03:21AM (#17529251)
Try unplugging XLR
Re:The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up by coldtea on Saturday July 14, 2018 @05:04AM (#17529489)
Then again, we don't use USB-C to connect on stage microphones to their cables in live shows...

Of any problem with USB-C it unplugging has never been an issue...

Re:The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up by mft_ on Saturday July 14, 2018 @06:53AM (#17529785)
Not unplugging, but on my 2017 MBP it sometimes take a jiggle or even unplug/reinsert to get things to connect properly: monitor, dongle, etc.
Re:The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up by 21 on Saturday July 14, 2018 @10:54AM (#17530561)
Yeah, that's exactly what I need, XLR plugs on my phone :)