Luca writes rationally about the controversy over Apple’s keyboard and connector changes:

I find particularly funny how the most innovative industry is capable of the most conservative reactions to any little change. Apple changes a useless part of the keyboard, and suddenly everybody is so dependent from the Function Keys. The ESC button moves 5 millimetres to the right, and there is a sudden uprising. The jack […]

via The Conservative Paradox — Luca Sartoni

I agree that these are forward-thinking improvements and not the disaster critics are claiming. I don’t buy the argument that it’s a cash grab – Apple’s revenue from cables and adaptors is pocket change to them, an imperceptible subpixel rendered in their quarterly charts.

But it does seem short-sighted to launch a new range of high end notebooks with such poor gadget support. Virtually none of the accessories currently sold in the Apple store can be connected to the new MBPs without an assortment of adaptors. There’s no hub, no dock, no wired router, no SD card reader. USB-C flash drives are rare and expensive. The iPhone 7 doesn’t ship with a cable that connects to a new MBP. You can’t charge a Magic Keyboard or Trackpad. You can’t use your iPhone 7 lightning earbuds at all, as far as I can tell.

If this was a brand new change, I could understand a bit of lag in availability. But it’s 18 months since the 12″ MacBook was released with its single USB-C port. Surely that’s more than enough time to ensure the availability of more than just a few clumsy dongles. All of these things will be resolved with time; but if a year and a half isn’t long enough to improve the situation, then how long will we have to wait?