Interfaces change, but making the switch too early makes it needlessly painful. I mean, how does it make sense that Apple's own iPhone and iPad don't plug directly into Macbooks without a dongle?

I mean, why stop there? Apple could just go to zero ports and force everyone to use Wi-Fi peripherals. They could sell a wi-fi peripheral hub for backwards compatibility. Then they could get rid of the power port and use inductive charging. That would make for an insanely sleek machine, even if it were insanely painful to use.

Dongle? Just use a USB-C/Lighting cable. Having the right cable has never been considered odd.

And even that's optional. I never plug my iPhone into my MacBook, because everything syncs seamlessly via "the cloud"; only use Lightning cable for charging, and I'm looking forward to dumping even that when I upgrade to a Qi-enabled iPhone in a couple months. Yes, I look forward to "zero ports".

The only need for cables at this point is high-power/high-bandwidth/high-security applications. Qi doesn't deliver 60 watts, and my employer overloaded the security so I have to use a Lightning/USB-C cable for debugging ... so I'm happy to have 4 tiny identical ports that do the job.

> Apple's own iPhone and iPad don't plug directly into Macbooks without a dongle?

The newest gen of iPhones come with C to Lightning rather than A to Lightning now. Because that's also the requirement for USB-PD fast charging for the iPhone and Macbook. They've also sold the cables separately for the last two years for the USB-PD fast charging.

> How does it make sense that Apple's own iPhone and iPad don't plug directly into Macbooks without a dongle?

There is no real need to plug an iPhone or iPad into your MacBook though.

How else am I going to get my photos off my iPhone without uploading them to Apple's cloud service? Even their KB tells you to connect it via USB: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201302#importmac

Airdrop, for one. I don't think I've ever plugged my iPhone into my Mac.

Why the "without"?

$10/mo (for 2TB) and the photos are promptly backed up, and transferred to your Mac. Full-res, backed up remotely, stored locally. Deliberate transfer becomes "already there".

I don't want my data in the hands of any cloud service. I'm sure theirs works well between all their products for you and many others, but it's just not for me. :)

They've moved to wireless where it makes sense, like with Audio and WiFi (for most).

But in many other cases, due to latency issues and such (like displays), USB serves really well.

My ipad Pro plugs directly into my macbook Pro without a dongle.