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A brief history of Apple killing off ports and drives you loved - and others you didn't

A brief history of Apple killing off ports and drives you loved - and others you didn't

The Apple device that made the most drastic changes is also the one that brought the company back to life after years of struggle: the iMac G3. That all-in-one famously ditched the floppy disk when it launched in 1998, but it also did away with the SCSI and ADB ports Mac owners used for connecting hard drives and keyboards and mice, respectively.

In their place were a couple of ports using USB, a then smallish standard that soon became the most widely accepted connector in consumer tech.

Apple got equally trigger-happy in 2008, when it launched a trio of new MacBooks, including the first-generation MacBook Air. That machine was incredibly slim for its time, but to get there, it had to lose the Ethernet port and the CD/DVD optical drive.

Those things are far from “dead” today, but Steve Jobs wasn’t necessarily wrong when he declared that most people wouldn’t miss the optical drive in the first place. The continued rise of digital media — and the many like-minded Ultrabooks that soon followed the Air — should prove that.

However, those who still wanted to watch DVDs on the MacBook Air could do so — with a $99 adapter.

One thing that applied to both the Air and that year’s regular MacBook was the lack of a FireWire port. (The MacBook Pro, meanwhile, went from two FireWire ports to one.) Apple’s speedy USB equivalent was a key feature of the first iPod but gradually drifted away in favor of USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt. It was gone from Macs for good by 2013.

In 2012, the iPhone 5 peeved hundreds of millions of iOS users by killing Apple’s 30-pin dock connector in favor of another proprietary standard, Lightning. That thinner port seems like a worthwhile upgrade today, but watching Tim Cook decree a decade’s worth of accessories worthless with the latest iPhone wasn’t exactly easy at the time.

And again, there were dongles: a standard Lightning to 30-pin adapter for $29, and a wired one for $39.

The jury’s still out on whether or not Apple’s ultra-slim MacBook will ever gain the prestige of its predecessors, but it did cause some MacBook Air-style déjà vu when it launched last year. Like the original Air, it features one lonely USB port — only here, it’s based on the still-growing USB-C. No USB 3.1, no Thunderbolt, no HDMI, nothing else.

But, as always, there are plenty of accessories you can buy to make the MacBook more connected, from a $19 USB-C to USB adapter, to a $79 USB Digital AV Multiport adapter.

Which brings us to this year, and the headphone jack-less iPhone 7. Again, time will tell if Apple's push into wireless audio will prove wise.

Unlike most of the other swaps on this list, it's hard to say that the standard Apple is promoting here (Bluetooth) is clearly superior than the one it's replacing (3.5mm).

Bluetooth still has connection, battery life, and audio quality issues that have yet to be solved en masse. And for all of Apple's claims that the headphone jack was eating up valuable space, the iPhone 7 itself isn't notably thinner or longer-lasting than the iPhone 6s.

If you'd prefer to stay wired, you have to turn to a pair of Lightning-based headphones — which are still nowhere near as ubiquitous as 3.5mm pairs, and usually more expensive to boot — or use the included dongle. Extras of the latter go for $9.

Finally, there's the new MacBook Pro. Though plenty other devices had adopted USB-C before the latest Mac's unveiling (MacBook included), Apple is one of the first to wipe away all other ports and exclusively use the standard on a notebook that's ostensibly designed for professionals.

Given the Pro's relatively modest upgrades, some of those professionals have questioned whether the slimmer design allowed by ditching the usual ports is worth the inconvenience of carrying a bunch of adapters. Making the switch will be annoying to start.

However, unlike the iPhone 7's push toward Bluetooth and Lightning, the MacBook Pro is promoting a more advanced and more open technology. It has clear rough edges with compatibility and reliability today, but given some time, it should be the path forward.

Just try not to lose your dongles in the meantime.

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