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Apple’s keyboard, trackpad, and mouse still have Lightning ports (www.theverge.com)

submitted 1 year ago by thehatfox@lemmy.world to c/apple_enthusiast@lemmy.world

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[-] qwertyqwertyqwerty@lemmy.one 37 points 1 year ago

It makes all the sense in the world to move these devices to USB-C. My bet is that they still have stock/parts to clear out, and we'll see a USB-C refresh like we did with the AirPods Pro 2. As far as the mouse design goes, they must be selling these mice like crazy to continue to sell the dumbest mouse charging design for 8 years running. Otherwise, maybe they want to completely redesign the mouse and they just aren't ready to release it yet.

[-] aeronmelon@lemm.ee 25 points 1 year ago

The moment apple releases a mouse that can be used while charging, it will be impossible to even resell the current model.

Cook is going to let the Christmas rush flush as much of the channel out as possible and then rev the accessories in the spring.

[-] eek2121@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

The first iteration of the mouse used regular (or rechargeable ) AA (or was it AAA?) batteries. I still have that mouse, but lost the battery cover.

[-] weedwhacking@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago

People love to shit on the goofy looking Magic Mouse charging setup - when in reality 99.9% of people that own one charge it maybe once, twice a year and don’t really mind its charging spot.

[-] BURN@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Yep, I was one of them, then I got one for work and charge it once a month or so while I’m in a meeting. The battery life is so long on them that there’s almost never a situation where I’d even want to use it plugged in

[-] spunkycomics@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Largely agreed, although I specifically just now opened up Lemmy on my phone because my mouse died and I’m having to top it off to make it to my next work meeting. So it’s definitely not not a hassle sometimes.
I love the mouse, but even a tiny red LED visible on the top to remind me of low battery at the end of the day would be great if they’re intent on keeping the bottom port

[-] hayes_@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

Doesn’t it warn you on your laptop from like 20% down?

I always laugh at how early it starts warning me to charge mine.

It’s a goofy design but I agree. It would be cool if I could plug it in to charge while using it but it barely affects me.

[-] spunkycomics@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

It does, but when I click away that pop up at 10am mid-work, I almost always forget to plug it in at 5 later in the day.
I need something present but not intrusive so I don’t just x it out. I always see the pulsing LED on my Logitech mouse, so it’s hard to forget about it entirely

[-] beefcat@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

It's not an issue 99.9% of the time, but I would be livid if I forgot to charge my mouse for whatever reason and needed to plug it in while in the middle of work.

But I also hate the general design and ergonomics of the mouse, so it was never going to be for me anyways.

[-] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Did someone mention design and ergonomics?

[-] SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social 3 points 1 year ago

It's not an issue for my users at work. Generally, they keep the bundled Magic Mouse in a drawer, and just one of the Logitech wireless mice we buy, or one of the Dell wired mice that we have tons of.

[-] hemmes@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

It's a really nice mouse, sleek, super portable, and I never use mine.

I have the trackpad (general productivity, day to day use), a Logitech MX Anywhere 3S (engineering drawings and other editing that flows better with a mouse), and the MX Master 3 (all of the above, best productivity mouse I've ever used).

My preferred mouse is the MX Master which stays at the home office and flips between devices. The trackpad stays at my work office, and the MX Anywhere travels with me. The Magic Mouse simply doesn't have enough utility for anything I'm doing.

[-] InactiveBeef@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

The MX Master 3 is hands down the best mouse on the market. I have a Windows laptop for work, and a MacBook for personal use and I can just flip between them so easily.

[-] kellperdog@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

I didn’t know I was capable of liking a mouse as much as I like my MX master 3. I also highly recommend the MX Keys keyboard.

[-] bamboo@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

I have an mx keys mini at work and an mx mechanical mini at home. Highly recommend both keyboards! The mx mechanical in particular has a 10 month battery life if you don’t use the backlight.

[-] MeanEYE@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If they are charged through those ports, they can not keep them. Period. They might think they can get away with it, but they can't. Law clearly states that anything battery operated must use type C for charging.

[-] lustrum@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago

Didn't it say "launched"? So you can continue to sell an older design. The same reason apple are selling the iPhone 14 still without issues.

[-] MeanEYE@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

That's probably the catch. This law comes into power 2024. Things that are being sold now can still be sold.

[-] TryingToEscapeTarkov@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Will be funny when they don't allow them in for import anymore.

[-] happyhippo@feddit.it 2 points 1 year ago

Starting 2024.

Let's see in a couple of months. I'm on Apple France and the magic mouse is for sale (85 frigging Euros, are you kidding me?). With lightning.

[-] TheMusicalFruit@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

I’m convinced people that use Apple products don’t care that much about which connector is used, it’s mostly non Apple users that have a hard on about fighting the man. People in the ecosystem already have a lightning cable, those entering it will likely get one with their device, just like you get a USB-C with a non Apple devices. I get the need to standardize, but the amount of coverage and passion it gets seems so silly.

[-] my_blackest_day@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

You are describing me. I don’t give 2 fuck about the type c changing port, I have a ton of good lighting cable. Also plug-in a lighting cable is more satisfy than a type c, it has that click-sound when I plug in.

[-] beefcat@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I like that my new phone has USB-C, but yeah, I basically have a bunch of perfectly good lightning cables, some of them more than 10 years old, that are now e-waste. We spent $100 buying new cables, because we didn't have enough to cover all the places we normally stash chargers away for convenience (cars, couch, home office, etc.)

It's definitely better in the long run, but this felt more like ripping off a bandaid. The bigger deal for me is 10gbps speeds letting me shoot pro res footage straight to an attached SSD, but this is a pretty niche use case.

[-] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

We spent $100 buying new cables, because we didn't have enough to cover all the places we normally stash chargers away for convenience

Now you can join the rest of the world and pay much less for cables and chargers. The $100 was a sunk cost that Apple stole from you. It's gone. Sell the cables with your old phone.

[-] beefcat@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Now you can join the rest of the world and pay much less for cables

The USB-C cables I just bought were not any cheaper than my lightning cables. In fact, I think they were actually a bit more expensive, because I only opted for cables that are certified for 100w power delivery and some of them for USB 3.1 speeds.

and chargers

This makes no sense, lightning cables always worked with ordinary usb chargers.

[-] KevonLooney@lemm.ee -1 points 1 year ago

You can get a 6ft USB C cable for $4:

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=38885

You would need 25 of them to spend more than $100. Are you just buying the USB C cable from Apple? That might be the problem.

[-] beefcat@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Those are 58% off right now, their regular price is $10. The regular price for the lightning version of these Monoprice cables is also $10. Right now i can see a three pack of 6 foot lightning cables on Amazon for $8.40, or $2.80 per cable. The benefit to switching is solely because of convenience and standardization, it is not saving me any money.

I also spent a lot more on some of my USB-C cables because i wanted them to support 3.1 speeds. That costs more if you go for USB-IF certified cables, which you probably should if you’re plugging them in to anything expensive.

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[-] BURN@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

You’re entirely right

I have to do more work to switch from lightning to USB-C because very little to none of my devices use it. More use lightning because I’m already in the Apple ecosystem.

The people I see complaining about it are almost, but not always, android users

[-] my_blackest_day@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Honestly, why can Android user just leave iPhone alone? I get it, you don’t like Apple and iPhone is general, just go back and use your fking droid phone? It’s not like Apple hold a gun and force you to use an iPhone, you have a freedom to buy whatever tf device you want, your money your choice?

[-] Devcatdan@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Mac(work)/Windows(play)/Android user here. I think folks get vocal about it because for a time, it actually affected everyone negatively since other companies wanted to follow apple's choice to make special cables. But it's is a predatory practice that only hurts you and creates waste for everyone. Some people go about it the wrong way, but they are trying to help you/everyone

My Mac 2019 has 4 USBC ports, I really like that I can use the same charger and cable for my Mac, Surface, Pixel, Logitech mouse and Xbox controllers - It feels like I'm finally in the future

[-] NullaFacies@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

Honestly. And the same people complaining about e-waste are the same people who want an accessory to switch cables.

[-] bamboo@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

Over the long term, unifying cables reduces e-waste. In the short term it does not.

[-] JustARegularNerd@aussie.zone 2 points 1 year ago

Someone who uses Apple products chiming in, you're right on. I have a magic keyboard which I occasionally use with my iMac (although I've been using Logitech's peripherals more recently and been extremely happy) and if I put the politics of it all beside me, I don't care. I'll just grab my lightning cable to charge up my keyboard once a month.

[-] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 year ago

That EU ruling saved the world they don’t even know. Because if left to companies, well waves broadly at Silicon Valley

Kill Lightning. Kill USBA. Kill DC plugs once and for all.

[-] JustARegularNerd@aussie.zone 4 points 1 year ago

I was gobsmacked last week to see my colleague open a brand new Amazon Dot thing ($20AUD smart speaker) and see it with a barrel jack. Really?

[-] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Making record profits, gotta trim those “expensive” parts.

Literally nothing a single USBC port can’t replace. One world, one port ffs. Can we just get that done as a species at least? flips water bottle

[-] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

We need cable standards to go with the ports too

[-] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah that’s a shit show too

[-] Pechente@feddit.de 12 points 1 year ago

That’s so upsetting. I’d love to replace my Magic Trackpad for one without a lightning port but for some reason they don’t refresh their peripherals.

[-] hibsen@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Why, though? If you already have it and it’s already hooked up to a lightning cable you already have, what would a refresh get you?

There’s a bit of comfort in only ever needing one type of cable, I guess, but I’m not sure it outweighs the hassle for me.

[-] Pechente@feddit.de 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The battery in the Trackpad is also slowly dying and it appears to be a glue sandwich, so there’s no easy way to replace it. So whenever I gotta charge it every few weeks, I need to dig up my lightning cable just for that. I’d prefer to replace the Trackpad entirely, especially if a new generation offers more features or other hardware advantages.

[-] maxprime@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

Maybe I’m a caveman but I have never minded cables on stationary peripherals.

Mice and gamepads for sure are wireless. But nearly everything else is wired for me and I have no issues.

[-] Pechente@feddit.de 7 points 1 year ago

I think it depends on your setup. I prefer to have no cables on the desk. There’s already a switch and a gaming PC, so the risk of cable clutter is high. Whatever I can eliminate, I do.

[-] coffeebiscuit@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

You liar! Is right behind your screen and it’s already hogging a usb port! /assumption

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[-] Syldon@feddit.uk 4 points 1 year ago

It wasn't just about comfort; it was for standardisation. Having a proprietary interface opens up the threat for gouging the customer. If everyone uses the same cable then you can buy it anywhere.

[-] hemmes@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

I love that this article is three sentences and says it all. The damned charging port on the mouse {SMH}, Apple...good grief.

[-] beefcat@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

The bigger problem with the trackpad is the low polling rate. It's fine with a 60hz display but it feels choppy at 120hz (i.e. the native refresh rate of 14" and 16" MBPs). Hopefully the inevitable USB-C version brings this up to par.

[-] DirigibleProtein@aussie.zone 4 points 1 year ago

Yea, I’m very disappointed that no one has come round yet to convert my devices. Do we have a timeline when this will happen?

[-] thelazywriter@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

It’s gonna be a mix of Lightning and USB-C for a while. Don’t throw out those cables just yet!

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this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023

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