“The object of affection outside Apple is USB Type-C, which is quickly becoming the go-to connection port for this year’s top-shelf devices, bringing the new charging standard tantalizingly close to becoming universal for your household’s smartphones, tablets and laptops,” Ben Fox Rubin and Stephen Shankland report for CNET. “And what’s not to love about this blandly named flavor of USB? It’s one port that can be used for charging, running video to a TV and downloading files. It’s also reversible so folks don’t have to fumble to orient cords properly. With lots of devices using that standard, people won’t need to fill a drawer with different cables; they’ll just need a USB-C cord or two for PCs, phones and tablets.”
“Yet things are rarely simple in the tech world, especially when Apple is involved,” Rubin and Shankland report. “The Cupertino, California, tech giant on Tuesday unveiled a new keyboard, mouse and trackpad that charge using Apple’s proprietary Lightning port, the same type found on the iPhone and iPad. For now, at least, that dashes the hope that Apple may move to a standard everyone else is slowly embracing.”
“People can be forgiven for thinking Apple, the most valuable company worldwide, may shift away from Lightning to USB-C: In March it introduced a new MacBook laptop that uses a headphone jack and just one port, which happens to be USB-C. But with the new accessories supporting Lightning, it now seems less likely Apple will make such a change anytime soon, forcing many users to keep swapping different cords,” Rubin and Shankland report. “‘I’d be shocked if they went that way with the iPad and the iPhone,’ said Mike Feibus, principal analyst at TechKnowledge Strategies, of Apple switching to USB-C.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Why would we want our Apple Magic peripherals to have USB-C ports when we have, at all times, Lightning cables hanging off our iMacs for iPhones, iPods, iPads, and now for Magic Mouse 2, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Trackpad 3?
New Magic Mouse, design fail.
Lightning port….. Under mouse. Can’t charge and use it.
https://mobile.twitter.com/flyosity/status/653934461436960768
Old Magic Mouse much better, at least you can replace batteries and continue on. Mm2 dies… No mouse for a while.
Yo disphit.
A 2 minute charge gives the mouse 9 hours of usability. You could have charged your mouse up for the day in the same time it took you to scribble that nonsense.
I plug something in to charge, it’s plugged in to full.
Bet you are the type to run into a gas station and get 1-2 gallons cause that will get you through the next day or two.
If the Apple car had a design that requires you to remove one of the tires to plug it in…. You’d praise Apple on finally getting you to learn to change a tire lol.
Two minutes is the time it takes to get a cup of tea or do some stretches to loosen up your body after afew hours sitting. How difficult is that?
And when CUSTOMERS are waiting….. you point out the bad design of the apple mouse.
Did you know you get a warning way before it dies?
You guys will defend Apple at all costs.
Cause you spend 100% in front of your Mac to see any pop up.
Hell my apple keyboard has died before with zero popup, come home and can’t type in my password…
You know that pop up does NOT stay on screen right?… It pops up and fades away, so if you are not in front of the screen when it pops up…. Out of luck.
And shit happens, nothing goes as planned.
That’s what your mom said! 🙂
I asked a simple question. I think I found your problem: your attitude.
I’m pretty sure it is a modal notification. Ironically, search engines list lots of responses for people trying to figure out how to disable these notifications.
My attitude????
That’s funny.
Read what I said in the beginning, can’t charge and USE the mouse at the same time.
Now read the attacks after that.
The attitude problem is with those that will defend Apple for everything. that popup for the battery low can show on screen if you even bump the desk.. So it can easily be missed.
It’s a sad day when people become so sensitive that a simple question is an “attack.” I agree with hkiphone09’s non-attack, take the 2m quick charge time to loosen up.
what have you done before when customers were waiting and batteries were dead?!
Change the batteries. It’s pretty easy to get a spare set and keep them in the charger.
Agreed. Apple’s battery charger pack includes 3 pairs of batteries for this very purpose.
That’s what I said in the beginning, old MM just swap batteries and off you go. Can’t charge and use the new MM now. One or the other, and no.. A 2 minute charge is not the answer.
Really!? You use your mouse 24/7. There’s not a moment in your day that you’re not using the mouse and can have it plugged in?
“No mouse for a while”
2 freaken minutes, that’s a bathroom break.
The OLD trackpad that is not white (yuck) and sealed without a battery that can be changed is now sold out on Amazon.
Do not want a cable on my WIRELESS accessories.
Am I the only one who thinks it’s odd that USB-C was used on the MacBook but nowhere else since? Maybe next-gen Lightning wasn’t quite ready yet.
Disappointed that MM2 has no new magic. I like the built-in rechargeable battery but no Force Touch or other features for the next 6 years is quite a disappointment. I may actually have to consider moving to a trackpad which is painful for an old skool mouse user.
It seems clear that Mac and iOS are colliding with the MacBook being a tiny iPad Pro-like Mac and the iPad Pro being a giant Mac-like iPad with optional keyboard, both now with Force Touch. I’m guessing the two will merge eventually with Mac/iOS apps running side-by-side in svelte hardware hybrid.
Joe, Apple has stated that there will be no merge. It’s not in the best interest of each product. However that does not mean there won’t be borrowed UI features and functionality. Mac OS X and iOS will always be their own.
Apple has said lots of things over the years. 😉 It seems clear there is an intersection and Apple will continue to meld the two at that point, not doing away with other categories that will remain separate.
They have been merging GUI elements and program behaviors, much to the disliking of many.
I agree with the MDN take. I like, no, make that love my Lightning cables.
Correct my if I’m wrong but I thought these connectors where physically interchangeable. Is this not true?
They are reversible, if that’s what you mean, in that they can be flipped upside down and still work (unlike USB 2/3, for example), but USB-C and Lightning (and for that matter, Thunderbolt as well) are not interchangeable. They are completely different ports. Don’t break your stuff :p
The Lightning cable is more of a “male” cable, while the USB-C is more of what I could call an external-female, where the port itself contains the male connector piece. If you really wanted to break your stuff you could probably shove the Lightning cable end into the USB-C end (although I would not recommend trying this).
MDN: well you might have a MacBook. Heaven knows it can do with a decent keyboard…
Here I was hoarding all my cables like I couldn’t get enough. Now with this accessory upgrade I’ll have a bunch more. Each new device comes with a lightning cable. Awesome!
I’m looking forward to getting a Magic Trackpad 2. Hope it’ll work with my old Kensington Turbo Mouse Pro which is still using USB RF communication. And still works great in El Capitan.
Maybe I’m just old. I can’t rely on a wireless keyboard and mouse..there will always be a scenario, although rare..that will make you SOL when things go wrong.
I prefer a wired keyboard..with a number pad..cause I’m a grownup..type fast..and use numbers…. Wireless mouse + wired keyboard is a safe desktop setup..especially with the USB ports on the wired keyboard …cause reaching behind a 27 inch iMac with a 27 inch monitor to its right…sucks ass.
Please keep the wired keyboard with number pad.
At the very least, I can’t do without the arrow keys.
Careful.. You will get attacked for saying the design of the iMac isn’t the best ever.
USB ports in the back have always been annoying, I have a 4 port hub on the iMac base because of that.
Would love for Apple to make a wireless full size keyboard also, the numpad does come in handy.
Quite ridiculous statements about grownups, typing fast, and using numbers. I type very fast and have been around awhile. I would have agreed with wired-is-more-reliable a long time ago but after using the Apple Bluetooth keyboard for the past 6 years I have never had a problem with its responsiveness or connection reliability. Not once.
I learned to type numbers across the top row, but if you do number data entry all day then a 10-key is much more practical. I know very few people who actually need this. If you regularly connect USB devices then the wired keyboard hub is quite handy, or just get a USB hub.