
New Macbook Pro can't walk and chew gum at same time (watch wifi and USB = fail) - jhack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYVjIjBMx6o
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captainmuon
I wonder if this is caused by running everything over the same bus.

Graphics is internally PCIe, which is what thunderbolt basically is, which is
also routed through USB-C ports. And WiFi is probably an internal USB device.
They probably don't have a separate controller for each port, so the
throughput is limited. I wouldn't think video capture saturates the bandwidth
already, but it probably messes with the timing enough that the WiFi driver
gets confused.

If it is really that, and not a mere software problem, then it should also
show up when e.g. mixing external monitors and USB devices, or in other
combinations. If that is the case, this would be really nasty.

Edit: someone on twitter says it is probably RF interference
[https://twitter.com/jcenters/status/794273083469139968](https://twitter.com/jcenters/status/794273083469139968)

~~~
fjarlq
White paper:

USB 3.0* Radio Frequency Interference Impact on 2.4 GHz Wireless Devices
(Intel, April 2012)

[http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/...](http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/white-
papers/usb3-frequency-interference-paper.pdf)

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georgeecollins
Just looking at all those dongles he has to use makes me sad. Apple makes
wonderful hardware but what a hassle to not have an HDMI cable and regular
USB.

So Apple expects me to use a dongle for HDMI, a dongle for USB and a dongle
for ethernet. A bridge too far.

~~~
astrodust
No, Apple feels it's pretty crappy you have to use dongles for everything, but
it's _crappier_ if you still have display-only ports like HDMI six years in
the future.

This USB-C conversion might be world-ending for people who haven't lived
through things like this before. There was a time when notebooks had PS/2
keyboard ports, when they had _parallel_ ports for printing. These have all
died, but the conversion was always awkward and painful.

Have a USB computer but a parallel printer? Converter. Have a VGA display but
a DVI notebook? Converter. Have an HDMI port but a DVI display? Converter.

The future Apple's trying to _force_ here is where Thunderbolt and USB are
ubiquitous and these converters fade into history.

~~~
mikestew
_Have a VGA display but a DVI notebook? Converter. Have an HDMI port but a DVI
display? Converter._

Have an HDMI port, but the monitor the client gives you has _only_ a VGA port?
In 2016? I didn't look up the model number, but there's no way that monitor is
more than a few years old. And it's not some cheap no-name; it's a Dell or HP
(not at the office to check, but it's name brand). I didn't know such things
were still made. The last time I recall seeing a VGA-only monitor was like
twelve years ago.

My point, and a rebuttal to the sibling comment, is that offering legacy ports
just drags this out further. If you have to use a dongle, you'll for damned
sure make sure the next monitor you buy doesn't require a dongle.

Whereas maintaining a legacy USB port, as requested by the sibling, means I
don't have to put USB-C ports on my device because everyone still has a legacy
USB port, and I can save a few bucks. And thus here we are in 2016 with me
looking at the back of a monitor while thinking, "VGA _can 't_ be the only
port on this thing".

~~~
dvtv75
> If you have to use a dongle, you'll for damned sure make sure the next
> monitor you buy doesn't require a dongle.

I have to use a dongle. I don't care if the next one requires it or not,
because I already have it.

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pedalpete
I worked with one of the inventors of WiFi and he always cursed Apple's
implementation of the spec and how he could get WiFi to fail in specific
circumstances with his mac, when other devices where fine.

Of the 3 macs I've owned, I've always had WiFi issues - more so than my other
machines.

This 'might' be related to whatever their underlying implementation is - sorry
I don't know more details.

~~~
colanderman
The Broadcom chips they use break if they receive any WMM (WiFi QoS) packets.
I had to blacklist my MacBook Pro from receiving WMM-tagged packets on my
router just to get its WiFi working. (Every other device I own works fine with
WMM.)

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slededit
My first uneducated guess is RF interference. Thinking back to even my first
iBook my mac laptops always seemed to have worse wifi reception than my
windows laptops.

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joesmo
I'd add WiFi to the list of wireless technologies Apple is too incompetent to
implement properly in their laptops along with RF and Bluetooth, but it was
already on the list for a few years now. These are the kinds of problems I
wouldn't expect a cheap netbook to have, let alone an extremely overpriced,
pseudo-pro Apple product. It's finally obvious to everyone (I hope) that
Apple's engineering and product design has fallen to shit. I'm sure they will
continue to make profits selling their current mediocre and future garbage
products, but it's clear to me that Apple always was and probably forever will
be Steve Jobs' company. It might survive without him, but it will probably
never thrive again, just like it never managed to thrive without him in the
past. They had a great ten year run in the laptop field and for that I'm
grateful to Apple, but it's clearly been time to move on for a few years now
(just based on the declining quality of their software, software which they
were never good at writing outside of OS X up to a few years ago). RIP.

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RantyDave
It looks to be a driver problem to me...

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bahro
Shitty third party USB-C adapter throwing off all kinds of RF.

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spdegabrielle
Use AirPlay to your Apple TV. I can do that with my 2013 MBP. The power is the
only port I use. I use wifi and Bluetooth instead of ports, dongles & cables,
I'm not unusual. Get over it - there are more important problems.

