With the MacBook Air arriving it’s time to find a solution to connect all my hard drives and accessories to it.
What’s the best hub out there to connect usb-a and sd card readers to a MBA?
Thank you!!
I’m not qualified to answer “best” but I can say that I have had OWC’s USB-C Dock for Mac and PC since it came out (early 2016, although it was originally intended to ship late 2015).
It has performed well, and has apparently outlasted the MacBook, which currently kernel panics on reboot. I plan to keep using it now with my new MacBook Air.
OWC probably won’t be the cheapest option, but they have a longstanding and excellent reputation in the wider Mac community. I’d definitely order from them before I’d get something randomly selected off Amazon, for example.
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My CF/SD card reader had a USB Micro-B connector (the type that actually looks like a B shape) on the back, I got a new usb-c to Micro-B cable from amazon and that’s worked fine for the card reader.
My graphics tablet was mini-B and again, some solution, a USB-C to mini-B cable has worked fine.
I’ve found it handy to have a handful of small usb-c adapters kicking about but the new cable solution dodges having to use a dongle which is nice 
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My coworker has a Satechi Aluminum Multi-Port Adapter V2 for his MacBook Air. He normally has a Dell 4K Monitor and an external hard drive plugged into it. Unfortunately, if he plugs a second external hard drive into it, his monitor no longer powers up. According to the genius at the Apple Store, the MacBook Air can’t provide the necessary power to drive all three things.
TL;DR: Get something powered.
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Thank you @tjluoma and @wweber.
Both look great. The price point is hard to justify to my needs, but will have a better look.
Oh, @tjluoma, my bad. By “best” I meant a functional hub that I can trust it will work fine and for a long time 
Indeed, I’m looking at cables as well. Anker has a pretty decent ones.
My MBA has 2 USB-A ports and a SD card slot. That’s one of the things I’m going to miss the most. I don’t use them that often but at least they’re there.
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I’m happy with my VAVA, but haven’t used it as a docking station really. It has pass through power which is handy but you may need something with a dedicated power supply as @wweber suggests.