Hacker News Reader

Comment by Ashanmaril | Hacker News Reader

I mean, the idea with MagSafe is that if someone trips over it, it won't yank the device to the ground, so that still applies to stationary devices.

But on the other hand, I'm not sure who has a desktop computer with cords draped across areas people are walking.

View on HN

Which makes you wonder: why the hell did they remove it from the MBP...only to re-introduce it to another product 3 years later?

Do different product teams just not talk to each other at Apple?

Jony Ive is no longer working at Apple and he was the God-King of industrial design. I suspect the MagSafe charger disappeared because of his efforts to make USB-C the one cable to rule them all. But after all the trouble with dongles and the butterfly keyboards I suspect more sensible heads have taken over and we can have these nice things again.

I don't understand why, with Apple's design chops you'd say they would be able to make a USB-C Magsafe hybrid.

Hell, I can fantasize about one right now: make a specialized Apple USB-C charger cable with a plug a teensy bit smaller than standard USB-C, then magnetize the encasing of the plug. In addition, the furthest left and right side USB-C ports on the MacBook should be magnetic where this encasing would touch the port. This would make it so that the plug itself is loose in the socket and is purely held in place by the magnetism.

Of course this means that particular cable is only suitable for use in MacBooks as it would slip out of regular USB-C sockets. It should have a clear Magsafe symbol because of that.

In a further iteration, that kind of magsafe-C port could even be added to iPhones and iPads.

Something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Adapter-iSkey-Transfer-Compa...

there are magsafe Usb-C cables. [1] I owned one similar, worked ok but itself was a bad quality, but I'm pretty sure that good quality cables like this are very possible.

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-MacBook-Charging-Braided-Dev...

USB-C everything is a great idea, USB-C ports on macbooks wasn't an issue. It's that they were stubborn and kept lightning on the iphone and provided a lightning to usb-a cable, which was ridiculous

I guess that they would have used USB-C here too, but the power supply is 143 watts and USB-C only supports 100. As long as they need to use a non-USB-C connector, they might as well make it a nice one.

I think the worse thing is that the iMac needs to ship with a USB-C to Lighting cable in order to charge the terrible Magic Mouse via its ridiculous bottom port that prevents use of the mouse while charging. And even the brand new magic keyboard still charges over Lighting. Lightning needs to die.

I’ve been looking for a Magic Mouse replacement with cable, but I can’t find any with horizontal scrolling.

Does anyone know any?

Maybe they reverted their decision and will re-introduce it also to the laptop line.

That's what I'm hoping!

They wanted USB-c charging and less ports I guess.

Here’s hoping the m1x/m2 ones bring it back

I had this question too, but couple of days ago, I tripped over USB-C power cable for my MBP, and it just unplugged without taking my laptop from the table or any damage whatsoever. So... may be it fits this use-case anyway?

A sample size of one is hardly data.

Clearly not, since Tim had to steal M1 chips from the Mac team to put it in the iPad.

But on the other hand, I'm not sure who has a desktop computer with cords draped across areas people are walking.

Photo studios for one. Or anyplace outside of a studio where photography is being done long term. I saw this at a factory where a photographer was hired to take pictures of all 14,000 (!) SKUs for a new web site.

Cats. They walk everywhere. Especially keyboards

Indeed. I'm taking a break now because my cat decided my work laptop is nice and warm.

iMac 2013: Simply adjusting the screen yanks the cable off. iMac 2021: Can’t wait to lose my work. It makes so much sense on a Macbook where there is a battery to take over.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com