“I think the MagSafe connector is one of Apple’s best ideas ever. It’s on the end of every Mac laptop’s power cord. It attaches to the laptop with a powerful magnet—but if anybody trips on it, it detaches and falls harmlessly to the floor. The laptop doesn’t go crashing down with it,” David Pogue writes for The New York Times.
“In this year’s laptops, though, like the MacBook Air and the 15-inch Retina display MacBook, Apple changed the design of the MagSafe connector to make it skinnier… The beauty of the MagSafe connector was that Apple had found precisely the right balance between attachment and detachment. Strong enough to hold the connector in place, weak enough to detach if it gets yanked,” Pogue writes. “The MagSafe 2 connector fails that balance test. Badly. The magnet is too weak. It’s so weak, it keeps falling out. It falls out if you brush it. It falls out if you tip the laptop slightly. It falls out if you look at it funny. It’s a huge, huge pain.”
Pogue writes, “The poorly designed MagSafe connector is infuriating. It’s the worst Apple design blunder since the hockey-puck mouse.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’re still using the nice, aluminum, barrel- and L-shaped original MagSafe with our 11-inch MacBook Airs and, right now, now we’re dreading anything with MagSafe 2 on it. What’s your everyday experience with MagSafe 2? Same as Pogue’s, diametrically opposed, or somewhere in-between?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Jeff A.” for the heads up.]
MagSafe 2 is better.
The best part os how you elaborate on that.
It’s a dangerous thing to get between a Fanboi and his object of desire.
The Magsafe was fine and didn’t need improving, kind of like screwing up scrolling, save and other recent Apple eff ups.
How was scrolling screwed up? In Lion, Apple finally implemented logical, intuitive and natural scrolling direction (you slide finger upwards to move the content upwards). One no longer has to think whether one is scrolling on an iOS (or Android, for that matter) device, or on a desktop computer — they all scroll in the same direction, intuitively and logically.
Logical? according to apple!
Move your fingers up and the page goes down? Awesome.
Even better – break every convention since xerox – isweappro.
– that being said it’s a move to reflect the growing tablet/smart phone market and it’s starting to make more sense, maybe unnatural scrolling is “logical scrolling” as it makes sense on a workstation
Beatind a long dead horse here (almost a year-and-a-half old), but that’s OK).
With the logical, intuitive, natural scrolling, as implemented finally in Lion, you move your fingers up (or slide your one finger up on the “Magic mouse”, the page scrolls — UPWARDS! It does NOT scroll down, as it does in Windows, and did in pre-Lion Mac OS.
Try it and you will see.
We were all conditioned (by decades of unintuitive scrolling) to accept that when we push our mouse wheel up, the page would scroll downwards, towards the beginning of the page. There is a logical explanation for this illogical, unintuitive and unnatural behaviour. Originally, mice had no wheels, and there was no trackpad to slide fingers on. We had the scroll bars on every scrollable window on the side (in Windows, they still exist!). The scrollbar represented the position of the current window relative to the entirety of the scrollable document. If you moved that scroll bar up or down, the document would scroll in the corresponding direction. While this was in opposite directions (you move the scroll bar down, document scrolls upwards), it was intuitive and logical, since the scroll bar represented the window in relation to the document itself.
Eventually, mice got wheels, and eventually we got trackpads, and now we have a carry-over concept where we use the mouse wheel to move the scrolling document, but the direction of that movement was carried over from moving the scroll bar.
Anyone who has tried natural scrolling has quickly adopted it because it is simply natural. There are fewer and fewer people who don’t have at least one touch-screen device (an iPhone, or similar, an iPad or similar), and for those, natural scrolling on desktop is even more natural.
After switching, my office Windows desktop is positively distracting and illogical.
It’s great how that had nothing to do with my comment.
As usual, it’s all about you.
No, it’s all about threading, genius.
I agree, they won’t make a 7″ iPad.
I like Tacos too.
Exactly. Thankfully it’s easy to disable the ‘natural’ scrolling direction, and make it work properly again, in Prefs. Save As? Ugh. Oh, and kudos to Apple for its Mountain Lion installer dutifully corrupting my 4x SSD RAID volume beyond repair. Steve Jobs must be doing violent backflips in his grave by now.
how hard is it to go into trackpad settings and click a box? some people complain about anything…geez
I find the MagSafe 2 better as well. It’s nothing as weak as mentioned in the article above. Mine is really solid, I think that Pogue got a defective one to be honest.
I find it is better, too. The first was good, the secord verion with 90 degree turn was very bad, and third version is back to doing the right thing.
The second version could pull a MacBook Pro off a table before it would let good.
A 1.5 star rating says otherwise. I think the cumulative experience of many persons is more reflective of the design and functionality of the new connector than a single person’s observation.
In my experience it seems to vary from adapter to adapter (and/or device to device). Both me and my SO got new MBAs recently (13″ and 11″ respectively), and while mine works about as well as the one on my old MBP, hers definitely falls out much too easily. Using my adapter with her machine seems to work better, but still not perfectly.
Looks to me like a manufacturing cock-up somewhere, not a design problem. Then again, it’s also a sample of precisely two devices…
Anyone else able to see anything similar?
Magsafe2 is WAY worse, it’s a laptop you can’t put on your lap because the power cord is angled to fall out. It’s retarded, and apparently so are you.
I finally found a fix – just backed the Kickstarter. It’s called the Snuglet.
Pogue is right. I love my retina MacBook Pro. But I hate MagSafe 2. It has nothing to do with progress going on. Just a bad design and weak like US bridges.
Overreact much? Yes it falls out a little more often than the old style, but it’s not the end of the world. Talk about first world problems.
Tech writers have to produce, even on a slow week. This drivvle helps feed their families.
+1
‘Drivel’, by the way.
Thank you for saying that. It’s like the old joke, “Isn’t it amazing that there’s just enough news everyday to fill all the pages of the paper exactly?”
No it’s not the end of the world, it’s just an inferior design.
And in the first world we spend money and should get shit that works. Every society has problems that are annoying, if you wanna go deal with third world problems instead be our guest shithead.
I haven’t noticed any problems with my new 13 inch MacBook air.
I do have a problem.
I’m so upset about this tho.
I have a Early 2011 MBP and love the MagSafe Connector (which MDN refers to as the silver barrel), when I saw the Magsafe 2, I was really dissapointed that they went backwards to the 2006 design. It’s the little things that worry me about Apple, not to the point of pulling the fire alarm, but enough misteps will eventually force you to change course, you will be on a new Vector (as Steve said in his Smithsonian tapes). I hope Apple course corrects.
Being responsable for hundreds of MacBooks and macbook pros, the aluminum barrel was a welcome improvement.
People tend to grasp the old one where the wire meets the connector and as a result, over time they fray and break. The barrel fixed this.
Apple is starting to HP itself I fear. Backwards design steps, key players leaving and those new commercials are god-freaking-awful.
I preferred the original white T-shaped connectors myself.
The silver barrel version is more likely to pull a MacBook off the table if it’s pulled straight back. With the machines getting lighter and lighter, it could start becoming a problem.
Pros and cons to both.
I was using my 2006 MB with the T-plug, and just got the 2012 MBP with the “old” L-plug.
The T plug I found much easier to manually put in and take out, since it had a better grip area. People were just stupid and pulling on the cord all the time–you aren’t supposed to do that for wall plugs, why do it for a computer plug?
The L plug I always have to roll between my fingers to get it in, and taking it out properly I need to lever it out from the back, and my normal home setup doesn’t make that as easy as removing a T-plug.
I don’t really care about it protruding out–normally I have it plugged into an external monitor and keyboard, so the adapter and USB plug juts out far more than the power cord ever does.
Surprised this escaped their Q/A team. With sufficient (-) feedback, Apple may quietly upgrade the MagSafe 2 to a work as expected.
I’ve had my new MBA 13″ now for about 3 weeks, from my standpoint there is no difference in the connectors. I’m mainly using the MagSafe2 adapter to connect to my 24″ Apple display, but when I have used the included power pack, no real difference. However, I do wish that they stayed with the barrel design rather than go back to the older design, but it doesn’t really matter. It works, I don’t think about it that much.
Mine is fine. Pouge is nothing but asswhining baby.
I have had my new MacBook Pro for a month and have had no problem with the MagSafe 2 – I was surprised to read the comments of David Pogue. I do however find the adaptor to use the old power cable a pain.
Another stupid Apple production brought to you by the thoughtless zombies in Cupertino. See the Save as debacle. And loss of color on the Finder sidebar. Stupid, stupid decisions.
The “Grey on Grey” theme is probably the most disappointment Apple has ever caused me. It’s just boring.
BLN: You’re not funny. You’re not making sense. You’re just incoherent. Give it up dude.
I love the old design. The barrel was often too hard to rotate into just the right position quickly and in some instances it blocked the ports. I don’t like that this one is weaker, but kudos to Apple for going back to a superior solution!
Variation on a Theme….
This is a another example where Apple has allowed design for design’s sake to get in the way of function! Aother notable example is putting the speakers on the back of the iPad. They sound fine, if your sitting behind it. Not intentionally hi-jacking this thread, but those two blunders are so obvious they really make me wonder if someone has partaken too much Kool-Aid! Was it me? These things are disappointing to a huge Apple fan, like myself, and impossible to refute when the naysayers come knocking–because they really do have a point this time!
The original (and now the new) MagSafe design is far superior. The elongated, L-shaped one was dangerous (wouldn’t disconnect when pulled from behind). This is the one single purpose of MagSafe (compared to ordinary plugs): to ALWAYS disconnect when pulled.
If the magnet is weaker than it should be, then this is a simple QA problem, which is solved by taking it back to a store and getting a better one. But as far as design is concerned, the L-shaped one had a major flaw and Apple was wise to switch back to the T-shaped design.
You sir are dead wrong, the L shaped connector fixed the design flaw that escaped usability testing.
The original white one would fray where the wire and connector came together as a result of people pulling it/grasping it there. The Barrel fixed this.
I am responsible for hundreds of Macbook and MBP’s at work and we were constantly replacing the originals, I’ve never replaced the silver one.
I disagree. The primary purpose, and the most significant property of the MagSafe adapter is to prevent your portable Mac from flying off the table/desk and to the floor when cable is accidentally yanked. Those old enough to remember “I’m a Mac – I’m a PC” ads will remember the one highlighting specifically this feature:
With the barrel-shaped MagSafe connector, this feature definitely, positively and certifiably does NOT work consistently (as experienced by me, thanks to my little daughter). The scenario in which this occurred to me is not in the least far-fetched or unreasonable (which is why MagSafe is one of those typical only-Apple type of ideas that solves a common problem).
The barrel-shaped plug isn’t much better than the traditional angled power plugs. The L-shape solves the problem of users torturing the cable at the point of entry in to the T-shaped plug to the point of breaking, but it makes MagSafe feature unreliable, and therefore pointless. Sooner or later, some idiot was going to sue Apple for damages/losses resulting from a MB(P) flying off to the floor when pulled by the L-shaped cable. A cable that was abused to the point of breaking can be easily and cheaply replaced. There is very little consolation from the fact that the power cable looks perfect when the laptop ends up on the floor because somebody tripped on the cable.
My old MB (2007) had a T-shaped cable. My kids (and occasionally, my wife, and even myself) have tripped that MagSafe cable at least 100 times, without consequences. My new (2010) MB came with the L-shaped cable and, after several successful MagSafe disconnects, Murphy’s Law made sure that it would get tripped in such a way to send the computer flying to the floor when an external USB drive was connected to it…
I don’t want to see the barrel-shaped cable on Mac laptops anymore! They were a poor solution to the problem that is all to common (regardless of what BLN may think).
I have had my new MacBook air for only 5 days but have had no problems with it. After reading Pogue’s article, I picked up my Air, tilted and shook it, no problem. Pogue’s cable may have weak magnets, he should exchange for a new one I agree the barrel connector had some advantages. The cable didn’t stick straight out the side of the computer which was more sleek. But if power was behind you and you faced the cable in that direction, a USB port got blocked. A couple of times when I accidentally yanked on the cable, it didn’t release until the computer had moved a few inches on my desk. In a different position it could have fallen on the floor. I suspect you’re right about the motivation for this change – better odds the connector will release when yanked.
As for frayed cable at the connector, I hope this design is more rugged than the original. We’ll find out over time.
I still disagree, I think the bigger problem to consumers is the ac adapter cord fraying and breaking. Would be interesting to see some data on number of laptops smashed vs prematurely worn out adapters.
I will say, I do not relate to the tripping over the cord argument . I can think of two times in the time MagSafe has been around where my cord would be a trip hazard. Both times I was alone in a wiring closet. At work, the adapters are in carts or tucked under and behind desks. I have replaced DOZENS AND DOZENS of adapters, have yet to replace a computer that was pulled off of something.
Seems to me the pulled by cord would be the rarer of the problems.
Interesting discussion…
I won’t argue that, although my own anecdotal evidence suggests that literally EVERY person I know who has a laptop has either sent it a few times flying into the floor (non-Macs), or has triggered the MagSafe connector. Meanwhile, I have yet to see the above-described frayed power cable (not even sure what exactly that means).
Be that as it may, a damaged computer (not to mention a crashed hard drive with unrecoverable data) is significantly more expensive to repair/replace than a frayed power adapter plug (and, based on a few comments here, Apple will sometimes do it for free).
To me, the logic implies that it is better to risk fraying the power cord than to have a flying laptop.
Let us hope that the plug has a more rugged strain relief sleeve.
“The original white one would fray where the wire and connector came together as a result of people pulling it/grasping it there.”
Nope. There’s no way anyone could put enough strain on the connector/cable junction to cause the fraying. The fraying is caused by twisting the rectangular connector/cable connection. The one thing the connector can’t do is allow for twists in the cable. The constant strain from a twisted cable eventually destroys the connection. If you’re careful about that you will never have a problem. My teenager isn’t careful about that and destroys one every few months.
That’s an excellent explanation. Cheers!
As you are so clearly a superior industrial designer, please tell us exactly where you’d put the iPad speaker.
You’re not suggesting that Apple drill holes in the glass front and have the speaker there, are you?
This is exactly where an accusation about form over function is justified. A speaker’s job is to direct sound to the end user, not throw it out the side or back.
We did a video call on the weekend for a ceremony we couldn’t be there for, it was moderately noisy and my brother and his girlfriend couldn’t hear anything we said clearly until he put the bottom of the iPad to his ear, meaning he wasn’t looking at us, and he had to move the iPad back in order to talk into the mic. Think about how silly that looked, and the impression this gives to others around him who see this. It’s a problem with the iPhone, and worse on the iPad because of its size.
And no, the noisy environment is not an excuse. He heard fine when the speaker was pointed to him, so it follows that the same speaker, facing forward, wouldn’t have this problem..
Tradeoffs sometime have to be made for usability. Apple usually understands this when others don’t, like not including features just to meet a buzzword bingo. In this case style compromised usability.
One option: speaker slits on part of top and bottom edges of the glass. The Blackberry Playbook does this, it’s noticeable but just barely. Yes, it’ll break up the nice minimalistic design. Oh well. Don’t like it? Apple can come up with a better idea, they have lots of highly paid industrial designers and materials engineers. They made a power indicator that glows through solid metal, after all.
Sounds to me like Pogue got a unit with a magnet that’s out of spec. It happens. He should take the power supply to an apple store and get it replaced.
But if Pogue did that, he’d have to find something else to criticize so that he can continue the Times’ string of hit pieces. That takes too much energy.
The L-shaped, elongated design had a fundamental functional flaw, which is why Apple had to go back to the original MagSafe design from 2006.
Some people find the elongated, L-shaped connector more convenient (slimmer design, takes up less space), but it had a major problem that made it fairly useless for its primary purpose: to disconnect consistently and reliably when pulled with sufficient force.
When you tug on the L-shaped cable straight in the direction of the cable (away from the back of the computer when adapter is plugged sticking out towards the back), since the plug isn’t flush with the side surface of the computer (but is instead recessed, fitting inside a power receptacle by some 3-4 mm), the adapter can pull the entire computer down. This is exactly what happened to me with my 2010 white MacBook: my little daughter tripped over the cable behind the laptop that was sitting on the coffee table; the MagSafe didn’t disengage before pulling the entire computer off the table sending it flying to the hardwood floor, together with the attached USB hard disk, which, lacking sudden motion sensor, got damaged by the hard landing and lost all data. Little good did that MagSafe do when it send my MacBook flying to the floor (precisely the thing it was designed to avoid).
The original (and now the newest) MagSafe adapter design is much better, as it actually servers its main prupose: to consistently and reliably disconnect when tugged from ANY direction.
To save people from the galactically stupid, Apple has removed or hidden the file system, and turned on auto save by default without giving the option back to the user to disable it and reenable manual save.
To save people from clumsy, galactically stupid users, Apple has done away with what was a functionally efficient design of the MagSafe connector in that you could easily attach it to your MacBook without worrying about orientation, and the back end of the cable tucked in neatly behind the rear of the casing out of the way and out of sight, and the absence of a forward protrusion meant that the port immediately adjacent to it, the Ethernet port could be accessed relatively trouble free. But because one or two galactically stupid users trip themselves up over simple acts of life, the rest of us have to suffer for it.
Apple is trying its best to appeal to the galactically stupid.
Just because a few stupid people crash and fly through the windshield we all have to suffer with those ugly seat belts, right?
When the sum of the greater good can be demonstrated to prevail over the sum of the greater evil, having seatbelts is an advantage. But redesigning the seatbelt that tucked away in the B-column behind the driver to one that wrapped around your lap, like what Apple did with the MagSafe 2 connector is galactically stupid.
You mean the galactically stupid one who can’t figure out that “Duplicate” does pretty much the same thing as “Save As”?
You could, if you wanted to, scratch your nose with your big toe like a simian, a lower order form of life, and one held to be more stupid than humans, but what would be the point of that?
Save As was not only more efficient in that you could choose the folder into which the file went which duplicate cannot do. And why would I want to duplicate the file when my intention is to change its contents but save it to a different location.
isnt save as back in ML? Go to file n hit option… I never missed it as I only use it in pro apps (except once where I used duplicate) which had it right through Lion.
I haven’t noticed the grey…
I guess for people who are stuck in the 90s computing era with obsolete terminology, “Duplicate” is too complicated. I think it makes more sense.
If you’re about to change a file and want to preserve the original, duplicate it. There. Save-as all done.
I don’t know whether you have a portable Mac or not, but I’m sure that by labeling them clumsy and galactically stupid, you have offended pretty much every single user of portable Macs on the planet, since I am virtually 100% certain that every single one of them has at least once tripped on the power cable and successfully disconnected it from the Mac without consequences.
The original (and now the new) MagSafe adapter could (and still can) be plugged in either way, and it is actually better than the barrel-shaped one, as it does NOT block any port regardless of orientation (whereas the barrel-shaped one will block at least two adjacent ports if you can’t run the cable from behind).
Maybe the magnet was too strong and people literally were yanking the cable off. At another company I was at I had many mac laptop users all with the mag safe plug and most of their plugs either looked damaged on the chord near the connector or actually were damaged and no longer worked. Its a bit of a user error. Apple made a great idea but people will still find a way to wreck it. They probably made it weaker to extend the life quality of the chord.
I have 2 MagSafe 2’s for my MacBook Air. one for the office and one for the home. I find that the strength of the 2 MagSafes differ. The original one that came with my MBA is much weaker than the second MagSafe 2 that I purchased.
To clarify, when I say strength, I mean the strength of the magnetic force.
There’s an echo in here.
I tested the cord on the display model at the local Apple store, and it was too strong – it took some effort to pull it off. Maybe it’s a QA issue.
Magnetic forces will be the downfall of every life form.
http://www.apple.com/feedback
Or:
tcook@apple.com
I go for the new light hold AC power, since there is no downside to the plug coming out for me.
On the other hand: The FireWire 800 plugs designed by Apple are a different safety problem on a laptop. Unlike Ethernet or even FW400, the FW800 can wiggle free easily with almost no force. Problem?
With an external FW800 hard drive working for hours and the extra stiff FW800 cable shifts a bit, just a couple moves can release the connector with all the known problems.
The dilemma is that as the laptop themselves become much lighter the force to topple them to the ground is also reduced, as the same connector is used on all the MacBooks/Airs apple has had to reduce the force required to handle the lightest possible product.
Astute observation. Spot On! Bravo!
I’m surprised Apple hasn’t built intelligent electronics into the adapter that detects the model it’s plugged into, and varies the magnetic force using electromagnetism (on top of the base-level, permanent magnets). MBA = lighter, so less magnetic force and easier to separate.
Magsafe two is weaker, but better design. The Magsafe One barrel was more difficult to attach and could only be attached in one direction to not cover ports. The MagSafe two adapter is stronger connection that MagSafe Two. Who gives a crap. Pogue is a whiner and don’t worry MDN. It’s fine to use the MagSafe Two.
Well, personally I don’t have my MacBook plugged in unless I’m at a desk and the battery needs it – everyone forgets how great the battery life is, especially for newer machines like the MBA. If your MagSafe is coming off when you are on the couch… well, you’re not really working are you?
Yep, no need to plug it in until it is almost dead. It used to be that this was also the way to get a better and longer life out of your batteries. I think that is no longer the case, but I haven’t looked into it. I continue to run my devices with as full a cycle as possible just to be safe and so as not to waste energy.
Honestly I think people like to complain to just hear themselves or see themselves in print. I have a new MBA and also the last generation. Yeah the connector is smaller, WHOOPEE. Does that make it bad, no. I actually bought the Magsafe to Magsafe 2 connectors and they work like a charm. And for the record, it sure does not fall out easily on me, and I am running from meeting to meeting. Not sure what the persons issue is that wrote this, but get a life, go back to Dell if you do not like new designs
I like it so far on my MBP w/ Rd. I also use the MagSafe 2 adapter with a couple of old AC adapters. On all of my MagSafe 2 items, I have the same performance as MagSafe 1.