Even though I had a 5K iMac on my desk for a year before replacing it with my iMac Pro, I’ve never gotten good at plugging things into the back of the machine without looking. As someone who imports photos and video from an SD card on a regular basis, you’d think I’d be better at finding the port on the back.
I recently picked up Satechi’s $49 awkwardly named “Aluminum Type-C Clamp Hub Pro” to help with this problem. It puts a SD card slot, Micro SD card slot, three USB 3 and one USB-C port around the front of the iMac, all enclosed in a small body that fits perfectly flush with the front of the computer. It plugs into one of the USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports on the machine, which worked well for me, as I had one free.
It attaches by inserting four rubbery inserts into the grille across the very bottom edge of the machine. A twist of the knob built into the enclosure tightens things down. Everything that touches the iMac is soft, so I’m not worried about scratching it, but it’s secure enough that I’ve been able to plug stuff in without worrying about the thing falling onto my keyboard. I did mount in slightly inset from the edges (where Satechi’s directions tell you to put it) to avoid interfering with the speakers.
Having a bunch of ports facing me is totally a sin against the Church of Ive, but it’s been really handy in the week or so I’ve had it mounted under my iMac Pro.