wireless

We believe in a wireless future. A future where all your devices intuitively connect. – Jony Ive, opening line of the AirPods introduction

I was listening to the Accidental Tech Podcast recently, and there was a discussion and some lamenting over the loss of MagSafe. The hosts were bereaving a technology that had been so well received in its time. The reality is, that the move to leave MagSafe behind is part and parcel with how Apple has been doing things for decades.

People seem bewildered every time. No USB on iPads, no more firewire, no more headphone jack, no more MagSafe. These things aren’t being left behind because they don’t accomplish their job. It’s because they all have wires, and Apple sees that the future doesn’t have a place for wires on the devices we bring with us, which increasingly includes more of our computers and related accessories.

Apple didn’t get rid of MagSafe because it’s a bad power connector. They got rid of it because they no longer envision you using your laptop while it’s plugged in. Charging is what you can do with your computer when you’re not actively using it. That wasn’t feasible with a two or three hour battery life, but it’s definitely a reasonable expectation for normal use cases with today’s laptops.

This same reasoning is to blame for the hilarity that is charging a Mighty Mouse 2 with a cable sticking straight out of the bottom. They certainly could have put the connector at the top, such that the charging cable would make the mouse look and act like a normal wired mouse, but they don’t want you to use your wireless mouse that way. I imagine they’re future vision has a lower friction solution for charging as well, but in the meantime, this was how they went about accomplishing their wireless ambitions.

We’re just at the beginning of a truly wireless future we’ve been working towards for many years. – Jony Ive, closing line of the AirPods introduction