Macbook M1 Accessories

The M1 Macbook has only an audio jack and two USB C ports, so a dongle was a necessary expenditure. I ended up buying the model shown in Figure 1. It only cost about Rp300,000 or A$30, so certainly not expensive. It was bought online of course. In a store, it would have cost twice as much.

Figure 1

After clipping it in securely, it is working fine. I tested it out by inserting a memory card. However, I left it connected overnight and noticed a significant drop in the battery percentage. The problem is that the dongle lights up in blue when inserted which is useful in a way but it also drains the battery. I don't think there's any way to disable the light, so it's only to be inserted as needed. I have a USB 3 card reader with USB C connector so I can use that where memory cards are involved and it doesn't draw any power. For HDMI output however, I'll need the dongle.

So far I've downloaded VLC for playing movies, Calibre for my ebook library, Chess X for playing and analysing chess moves and SageMath for mathematical investigation. Most of the work I do is done within the Chrome browser.