With this new macbook, one cannot charge and use a mouse at the same time without an $80 addon.

Is Apple's logic "that's what you get for having friends or working with people who do not buy the latest apple devices"?

This is exactly like the removal of the DVD drive in MacBook Airs. "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO USE MY DVDs?!?!?" The answer is: don't. Download things over the network instead.

Same logic applies here.

Seen such messages right when I NEEDED those files. Also - remember epic KDE failure? When they had corrupted repository and it was perfectly mirrored to 1500+ other repos? And they had to search offline PC with a uncorrupted snapshot?

In general "all cloud" tech is at most 50% ready for use by everyone.

For a disruptive product to be successful it should not be behind its time (where others are already there) it should not be too far ahead of its time (The technology might not be ready, the people might not be ready to understand the product, etc), It has to be just ahead of its time. I am sorry but I maintain that Apple has overshot with this product. This is not like removing DVD support or even removing flash support, because a lot of the world is still wired. Except for those who are fortunate to live in their own Apple bubble, many of the people who buy this will have to frequently face the frustration of owning such a device with practically no reward (apart from shaving of a few inches and grams off their laptop).

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB112LL/B/apple-mouse

That mouse has literally been around forever, and no it's not what users are generally using now.

For gaming, you can get less input lag with wireless mice with dedicated dongles if you're intent on going wireless.

Can't you just use bluetooth? I prefer a bluetooth mouse anyway. Wires get in the way.

Though I guess it's not that surprising. Back in the day, my Gen4 iPod came with a power brick, a USB cable and a Firewire cable. Now you get a single USB cable.

Go ahead and stick with your thinkpad.

To me, this is a great tradeoff: I get a lighter and thinner laptop for 100% of my computing, the downside being an adapter when I return the the dark ages of VGA connectors.

In fact, for my MacBook Pro, I will have fewer connections. Instead of power and Thunderbolt, I will just get one of the connectors that bridges power, external monitor and USB peripherals and plug in a single thing when I "dock" my laptop.

I will take that any day over the awkward Dell and Thinkpad docking stations I see my coworkers use.

I completely agree with this assessment. Even here on HN the majority of users are not giving presentations or even screen sharing. When it does matter, there is often a third party device they have to present from anway.

I'll take the adapter not being in the box, as for most users they won't be using it enough to warrant the extra cost.

Personally, I think VGA is an abomination and people should react a bit stronger to be invited to a venue and having to deal with standards from 1987.

Oh, forgot about iPads, 2 different ones for that, and android phones at least 2 MHL connectors and whatever google does in their phones. We haven't even got onto mini and micro HDMI.

At least 10 different connectors on recent devices then? Don't you just love standards?

If you're going to harp on hospitality, please remember it cuts both ways.

College students? It's always a big hassle finding a dongle whenever a MacBook user has to give a presentation in class.

Instead of buying mini DVI to VGA or Lightening to HDMI adapter, just buy this?

Wireless is usually OK in my living room but I would not count on wireless video working reliably in a conference room with 500 people on their laptop/phone. Shudder.

Moreover the YubiKey also acts as a PGP smartcard, giving you a private key (for e.g. SSH) that an attacker can't extract even if they obtain root on your laptop.

As much as I would like a "Retina MBA", the lack of a separate USB port is a dealbreaker for me too.

This is similar to standard SSH agent forwarding attacks. A sysadmin connects to a malicious server via SSH. If the sysadmin turns on agent forwarding, then "malicious root" can remotely ask the sysadmin's agent (running on the sysadmin's laptop) to authenticate to any other machine that accepts the sysadmin's public key. The malicious root can log in to any other server the sysadmin has access to, as long as the sysadmin still stays connected.

For the 2FA OTP portion: No. The button needs to be physically touched.

For the PGP (ssh) portion: Yes. (but again, the attacker can not obtain a copy of the private key, that's the critical difference to your scenario)

That's why (at least for critical servers) you should combine the two. That way an attacker can at most piggyback your connections. He can not initiate his own because he can not touch the button.

It's a slick device.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7357/11147888116_9be011e0b1_n...