LaCie just announced a USB 3.0 drive with a USB-C connector to fit the new MacBooks, but it won’t have USB 3.1 throughput speeds.Ī few years ago, Apple turned to Thunderbolt as its main high-speed connector in Macs, but the arrival of the USB 3.1 port doesn’t mean that protocol will disappear. The lack of peripherals is a problem also faced by Thunderbolt, a faster but more expensive connector technology used in other Macs. For one, don’t expect USB 3.1 flash drives to go on sale in the next couple of years. In tests, USB 3.1 connections aren’t reaching the full throughput of 10Gbps, but speeds will get faster as the controllers and chipsets are refined. USB 3.1 chipsets are still being developed and tested, and it could be months before peripherals start appearing.

You can plug older USB devices in, but you’ll need this $19 adapter. The MacBook comes with a USB Type-C charging cable, and the others will need to be bought separately. There are other cables besides Type-C for the MacBook to connect to older USB and micro-USB ports.

This means all devices running on USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 will be able to talk with the MacBook port. USB 3.1 (via a Type C connector) is the one and only IO port on the new MacBook.

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