GENIUS TIPS
EDITED BY HOWARD OAKLEY
EXPERT ADVICE
Our resident genius solves your Mac and iOS problems
Contact us
Email your queries and your questions togenius@macformat.com
The hubris of hubs and docks
From the first USB hubs to the latest Thunderbolt 5 docks, what should have been simple ways to expand the ports on a Mac have proved unreliable. Some USB devices in the past could stop working when connected to a hub, others would only work when hooked up to a powered hub. Thunderbolt 4 hubs seemed better until you discovered what should have been a fast external SSD slowed to a crawl. Experience with Thunderbolt 5 docks and hubs is mixed. Claims made that they can drive three 4K displays have proved impossible, at least with the latest M4 Macs, and vendors have had to recant. Where they are proving more successful is in mixing and matching Thunderbolt 3, 5 and USB4 standards, although writing to Thunderbolt 3 SSDs remains oddly slow.