Apple engineers seem to feel a bit nostalgic in Cupertino. After reports the company apparently plans to kill the Touch Bar, a Bloomberg report states that the company intends to bring back the MagSafe charger and SD card slots.
For those of you unfamiliar with MagSafe, this was the company’s way to prevent your laptop (or you) from crashing if you inevitably step over the charger. The company began dropping MagSafe after USB-C was introduced with the 2015 MacBook. Just as good as USB-C, it does not help much to stumble.
An upcoming MacBook Air, to be released in late 2021 or somewhere in 2022, will likely see MagSafe again. It also includes some USB-4 ports (which still use the USB-C form) and is smaller and lighter than the current MacBook Air. This will be achieved in part by shrinking the rings.
It’s not clear what form the new MagSafe charger will take – whether Apple will revive the old connector or come up with a new one.
Either way, it strikes me as a strange move. The company recently boasted of not including more chargers with its smartphones, citing environmental reasons, so it looks odd that they would re-install a charger if USB-C is such a reliable connection for devices within its power abilities fit.
But according to Bloomberg, the return of MagSafe is an attempt to appeal to Mac loyalists. For that, the SD card slot is reportedly being brought back to the MacBook Pro – a feature we haven’t seen since 2016. This will definitely attract most photographers on MacOS; it’s 2020, but it looks like SD cards are going nowhere soon.
Apple has apparently also considered cell phone connectivity and Face ID on upcoming Macs, but none of the features are likely to arrive this year. There was also a 15-inch MacBook Air underway, but the project is apparently being scrapped for now.
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Published on January 22, 2021 – 23:26 UTC