 dadkinsCan you do Blu?Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
kudos:18 | USB Port Here is an image for everyone to look at and consider.
Instead of a "cool" flip-down door that causes issues, simply putting the USB on the back next to the power connector(or is that under a door too?) or just as with nearly every other machine on the planet, just place it in the open(screw aesthetics!).
They aren't big! 
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Think outside the Fox... Opera | |
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  ptrowskiGot Helix?Premium
join:2005-03-14
Putnam, CT
kudos:4
 ·VOIPo
| Re: USB Port said by dadkins:just place it in the open(screw aesthetics!). If you do that it them goes from the "Form" side of the house to "functional", and that is not what they were trying to achieve.
Now stop making sense!  | |
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 | emptywigHuh? What?Premium
join:2002-08-05
Pasadena, TX | Re: USB Port They could add a removable plastic cover to conceal the USB ports. If you're concerned about aestethics, you can carefully keep track of the little cover and replace it after every use. If you don't give a lick, you toss the thing back in the box after you've unpacked your MB, and never look back.
wig - Moving to Mac-world this year
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"There is nothing- absolutely nothing- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." | |
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| emptywigHuh? What?Premium
join:2002-08-05
Pasadena, TX | said by ptrowski:said by dadkins:just place it in the open(screw aesthetics!). If you do that it them goes from the "Form" side of the house to "functional" The Frank Gehry School of Computer Design 
wig
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"There is nothing- absolutely nothing- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." | |
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 DogfatherPremium
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA | The MBA is curved. There are no flat surfaces on the edges thick enough for a USB port. Cramming parts into the machine is like cramming parts inside an airplane wing. Each component gets a tiny bit of area and the engineers have to work within that space allotted them. IOW the I/O engineer just can't throw a USB port anywhere he/she wants.
This USB problem could be as simple as Apple designing to Intel's USB physical clearance standards, but a few other USB device manufacturers not. I'm not saying that is the case here but it could be (I haven't read the USB size standards). It's could be like when Intel makes mainboard specs and some mainboard manufacturers design mainboards with capacitors near the CPU socket that are too high and out of spec. When you try to install a big heatsink, it can hit the caps. | |
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| dadkinsCan you do Blu?Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
kudos:18
1 edit | Re: USB Port Show me what the power port looks like...
Place the (one and only) USB port next to it on the back and leave the pretty front and sides alone.
Naw, lets fuck it up and put the USB, headphones and DVI(?) in a door that hoses headphones and USB devices...
Yeah! That's it!
EDIT: MagSafe power... see pic!
Yeah, a 1/2 inch USB port next to this thing is out of the question, huh?
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Think outside the Fox... Opera | |
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| |  GlobalMindDomino Dude, POWER Systems GuyPremium
join:2001-10-29
Hollywood, FL | Re: USB Port said by dadkins:Show me what the power port looks like... Place the (one and only) USB port next to it on the back and leave the pretty front and sides alone. Naw, lets fuck it up and put the USB, headphones and DVI(?) in a door that hoses headphones and USB devices... Yeah! That's it! I have to say I am with you there dude.
I suppose I am not cool enough for this pc device. I want something that actually does what I need it to without having to dangle all kinds of crap off of it. | |
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| | | emptywigHuh? What?Premium
join:2002-08-05
Pasadena, TX | Re: USB Port I'm predicting a return of the fanny pack, this time as a repository for all the dangle hanging from the MBA. Apple will market it as the Mac Book Ass Pac, and it will cost $195.
wig
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"There is nothing- absolutely nothing- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." | |
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| | | | GlobalMindDomino Dude, POWER Systems GuyPremium
join:2001-10-29
Hollywood, FL | Re: USB Port said by emptywig:I'm predicting a return of the fanny pack, this time as a repository for all the dangle hanging from the MBA. Apple will market it as the Mac Book Ass Pac, and it will cost $195. wig Oh damn that's funny. Nice work. | |
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| | DogfatherPremium
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA
2 edits | 
MagSafe for MacBook Air |
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| | | dadkinsCan you do Blu?Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
kudos:18 | Re: USB Port And they *could* have placed a USB port on the back instead of trashing the functionality.
Would not detract from the looks and would actually work.
No flat surfaces, but you have to muck up the "curved lines" with a drop down door that makes alot of USB devices unusable without an "adapter".
Kills off the use of many(better) headphones as well.
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Think outside the Fox... Opera | |
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| | | | DogfatherPremium
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA
4 edits | Re: USB Port Again, you haven't seen the inside of this notebook. It's not a 17" desktop replacement where weight and size are of no (or nearly no) consideration. Given the mainboard design (which I saw during the MacWorld Keynote) I don't see how they could have placed a USB port on the back side.
And if they did, you would have another group of people complaining their 3G modems where hanging off the back of the air, defeating the purpose of it being small enough for a airline tray or having to hang off the back made them susceptible to damage.
My point is no matter what, someone will find SOMETHING to bitch about. If it wasn't USB, it would be the lack of a swappable battery (a bitch of mine) or any of the other zillion design compromises that have to be made when designing the world's thinest notebook.
In the All Things Mac forum there was a poll »[Poll] What would you add to the MB/MBP with no DVD? of missing stuff that if all were included would have the thing the size of an iMac LOL | |
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| | | | | dadkinsCan you do Blu?Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
kudos:18 | Re: USB Port WTF? 17"?
Remember who had the thinnest before? Did they kill off function? No!
Like I said, this cannot be taken seriously as a work machine.
NOT a main machine, a work machine.
Work sometimes requires input. That input might be a CD or DVD.
SOL, huh?
Travleing, hotel, ethernet... OOPS!
This is a novelty!
It is not designed for the working traveler.
This is for sitting on the coffee table and people to OOO and AHH over.
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Think outside the Fox... Opera | |
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| | | | | | DogfatherPremium
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA
4 edits | Re: USB Port Work machine?
Way faster than other machines in it's class with a full size screen and keyboard unlike competitors. It also has 2X the standard memory of competitors. Try running CAD on a 1.2GHz machine with a 12" screen and a microscopic keyboard. Hell, try typing anything on these other tiny keyboards. They're like using a PDA.
Optical drive?
If you have that 1 in a million chance that you somehow forgot to install some program but just happened to have brought the disc with you, you can use a USB bus powered optical drive. Otherwise, when at home or work you can take over other machines optical drives wirelessly.
Traveling and need wired ethernet?
USB ethernet adapter, not a problem if you're already anchored to a hotel with wired ethernet.
Need both, use a hub.
You obviously don't travel for business as all of the built-in components (or lack thereof) you complain about are desktop replacement requirements only. In the field yer wireless and already have your SW installed. At the hotel you can use USB. The MBA owns the R500 and TZ150 hands down. We now get to watch, Sony, Lenovo and Toshiba scramble to respond to the latest threat to their business. | |
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| | | | | | | dadkinsCan you do Blu?Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
kudos:18 | Re: USB Port Whatever you say my friend. | |
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| emptywigHuh? What?Premium
join:2002-08-05
Pasadena, TX | This design problem is as simple as not giving this machine to real people in real life.
wig | |
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 koolman2Premium
join:2002-10-01
Anchorage, AK | Wouldn't using a short 2"-long USB extension cable solve all the problems? If someone needs multiple USB ports at once, they could always get a small unpowered USB hub and hook it up when they need it.
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There's no place like ::1. | |
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