Apple’s latest MacBook updates were undoubtedly sleek-looking machines, especially the ones with the fancy new Touch Bar strip above the keyboard.
But as is the fashion these days, the company decided to do away with a load of ports and connections in the pursuit of an ever slimmer chasis.
And one of the casualties in this latest round of porticide, much to the dismay of users around the world, was the beloved MagSafe connector.
The power port design used magnets to ensure if someone tripped over the charging cable, it would simply disconnect rather than bring the laptop tumbling off the desk.
But Apple opted to add a load of USB Type-C, or Lightning, ports to its latest round of MacBooks – though, it now seems the erstwhile MagSafe connector could make a return in the future.
That is, if Cupertino follows through with this latest patent (via) which details what it refers to as a “magnetic adapter”.
The device in the patent is a MagSafe connector design with a Universal Serial Bus Type-C connector insert, which basically means you would be able to add the MagSafe port to a MacBook by just plugging in this small adapter.
Interestingly, the charging cable shown in the patent diagrams is an older design. What that means remains unclear – is this an adapter that can only be used with older charging cables? If so, why on earth would Apple want to limit it like that?
Of course, there’s no guarantee this device will ever make it to the production phase, as Apple files for patents all the time that never come to anything.
But we’d expect such a device to do quite well were it ever released, so we’re hopeful that we’ll see the MagSafe adapter arrive in the future.
Sоurсе: trustedreviews.com
Thunderbolt, not lightning (very very frightening) .
Let’s hope so. But for this design to work they need to take care of one other important piece of business and that’s spacing the USB-C ports far enough so that adapters and dongles don’t obstruct each other. After the years of properly spaced ports on the Retina Macbook Pro models, it was a shock to see Apple revert to stuffing all the ports so close to each other again. If I can put a MagSafe adapter for one of my power supplies and a USB-A adapter for a flash drive next to each other–that’s my standard.
Let’s hope it’s true, next stop soldering RAM and storage (post-purchase upgrades), at least 32GB RAM and matte display option. The return of a 17″ would get me to line up to buy Apple products again….
Macbook Duh more like…
Alternatively it could simply be that them having a patent on this means other accessory makers can’t make it without permission…