Day: August 28, 2019

Albeit somewhat expensive…

With the new computer comes new connection issues. In the 7 years since my MacBook Air was born, Apple converted to a different connection method. The computer industry approved and introduced USB-C.

This is a FAST directionless connection that provides power, video, Hard Drive connectivity, Ethernet, and a host of other connection possibilities. In short, it’s neat.

BUT… what do you do with all your old devices? The plugs are incompatible and for those of us that like SD cards for photography and lose that nifty SD card port on the sides of our computers now, you’re kinda stuck using old USB.

You need little adapter thingies and lots of little adapter thingies are a pain in the ass.

Not to mention that your sleek new hotness of a computer looks like it’s got some kind of fungus with all the adapter thingies plugged in.

Unless… you pick up a hub. I’ve done a fair amount of shopping for hubs. A lot of it I’d done long before my MacBook Air died. I’d figured that if I ended up with some kind of new hotness, I’d get a hub and the hub I’d get was the CalDigit.

This nifty piece of technology allows me to connect everything all at once and charge my computer at the same time with a single cable.

It’s got an SD slot, USB ports, audio in, and out, optical out, Ethernet, and several USB-C ports to allow connection of newer devices.

You can even charge devices from the USB ports just like you always did and since the adapter that runs the hub is also the power source for the computer, you don’t need to buy another power adapter (As I had in the past). I always had one adapter in the backpack and one on the desk at home.  Now, all I have to do is plug my computer in to the hub and we’re good to go. I can keep the original power adapter in the backpack.

My old superdrive CD burner, and my little 1 TB backup drives all mount normally and well it’s a clean elegant system.

As soon as I get my desk cleaned up I’ll take a picture so you can see what the setup looks like when I’m home.

CalDigit did a nice job matching the Space Gray color of The TS3Plus to my MacBook Pro and the device’s enclosure is aluminum to help with heat dissipation.

I like not having to replace all my old hardware all at once just because I got a new computer.

Which is not to say that I’m not going to be consolidating data since I can connect all the hard drives at once and I can also do the same with the memory sticks that I seem to accumulate.

So if the change to USB-C is holding you back for fear of losing compatibility, Fear not… But open your checkbook.

This little jewel costs $300.

But replacing all your storage devices would cost you a lot more than that in hardware and time moving data.

Just food for thought.