Apple magsafe Touch Bar
4 months ago
Published January 16, 2021 by

Death of the Touch Bar? Rebirth of MagSafe?

Please Apple, make these rumors be true.

From Mark Gurman’s “Apple Plans Upgraded MacBook Pros With Return of Magnetic Charging” posted early Friday:

Apple Inc. is planning upgraded MacBook Pro laptops this year with much faster processors, updated displays and the return of its magnetic charger, according to a person with knowledge of the plans…

A major change to the new computers will be how they charge. Over the past five years, Apple has relied on USB-C ports for both power and data transfer on its laptops, making them compatible with other manufacturers’ chargers. But the company is now bringing back MagSafe, the magnetic power adapter that means any accidental yanking of the power cable would simply detach it from the laptop rather than pull down the entire computer. It was a favorite feature of the company’s portable PC lineup that was first introduced in 2006 and most recently revived for its latest lineup of iPhones…

In developing its next set of Mac laptops, Apple has also tested versions that remove the Touch Bar from its laptop keyboards. The Touch Bar, introduced as part of the last MacBook Pro redesign in 2016, turns the keyboard’s top row from function keys into a touchscreen strip that can display a variety of information and a changing set of controls to adapt to apps and tasks. Some professional users have said they found that control scheme less convenient than physical keys.

My take: MagSafe was a brilliantly executed solution to real problem. Touch Bar was flashy solution to a problem that didn’t exist — and the source of much user dissatisfaction.

See also: Why oh why did Apple kill MagSafe?

UPDATE: I should mention that Ming-Chi Kuo had these tidbits a few hours before Gurman. See 9to5Mac Thursday evening.

5 Comments

  1. Robert Varipapa said:
    What I hope is that one would be able to charge via MagSafe and with USB-C, obviating the need to carry multiple chargers and cables. USB-C has become so ubiquitous that this would be a no brainer (and I would think easy from an engineering standpoint!)

    0
    January 16, 2021
  3. John Konopka said:
    Curious that these things happen a few years after Mr. Ives left Apple.

    1
    January 16, 2021
  4. Romeo A Esparrago Jr said:
    We purchased ELECJET AnyWatt USB-C MagSafe Adapters so we could use our old 2012 MagSafe power adapters with our 2-3 yr old USB-C MBPs.
    I hated to throw them old, still excellent, high power adapters away & wanted to use them for work-at-home purposes.

    Stepped on my cord in the dining room and good ole MagSafe separated itself perfectly.

    I hardly use TouchBar.

    1
    January 16, 2021
  5. Troy Thoman said:
    Both would be positives (I miss my magsafe and hate the touchbar)… the cost savings of the touch bar removal should exceed the additional magsafe cost too.

    0
    January 17, 2021

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