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Comment by lucidlive | Hacker News Reader

Not to mention how they removed MagSafe which is possibly one of the best Apple inventions.

OTOH, you can now use a standard charger that is shared with increasingly many new devices. How many people are actually knocking laptops off tables because of the power cord?

> How many people are actually knocking laptops off tables because of the power cord?

I would say I did this at least twice a month.

Does the USB C cable not disconnect? From the ones that I've played with, it seems fine. The force required to disconnect USB C cables from a port is less than Magsafe, and the results are the same.

Also, remember Apple designed USB C, with half the engineering talent that worked on the standard coming from Cupertino. They've specifically thought all these use cases and issues through, to build a solid connector for the next decade.

> They've specifically thought all these use cases and issues through, to build a solid connector for the next decade.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

It's a decent connector, but it still has a limited lifespan (all connectors with mechanical pieces or interference fits do), and isn't going to release from shear force applied to the connector. Even if it does release, it will be after wrenching both the computer and connector inside the computer, neither of which is great for long life.

If you pull it out straight? Of course it's fine.

If you accidentally yank it up or down? It's like it's glued in there. 45° angle? Also glued in there.

MagSafe, the whole point was it didn't matter what angle it was pulled, it would separate easily and with no damage.

I have literally never knocked a laptop off anything because of its power cord, or for any other reason. I have, however, had MagSafe disconnect itself against my will from the slightest touch.

You know what's even cooler though? I'm a happy USB-C MacBook Pro user, and so I've put MacBook USB-C power supplies all over my house, wherever I might find myself working. Recently I picked up a Nintendo Switch. It charges via USB-C. This means I effectively have 4 charging points for this gadget, automatically, just because of my MacBook Pro. That is awesome.

In my house 0 people and one cattle dog. With a four foot fall from the breakfast nook below I assume it wouldn't of been pretty.

Back in the day, I watched someone do it to their brand new first-generation MacBook pro. I had never felt so bad for someone breaking something but, somehow, he made more selling it for parts than what he paid for it.

It only takes once to ruin a laptop.

And I've had my magsafe release many times in the years I've had it. Not every time would have resulted in the laptop going walkabout, but it would have resulted in a short stop and possibly damage to the USB-C socket and cord instead.

Anecdotal, I know, but I tripped over the cord on my laptop today and as the magsafe connector smacked me in the back of the leg I thought to myself "if that was USB-C, I'd have broken something" Laptop would have gone flying off the table, cable or connector would have broken or more likely, just would have ripped the connector out of the laptop and weakened both the socket and the cable, rendering the socket useless over time. USB-C is cool for some things, but, magsafe is far far superior. Apple should have put both on the new MBP.

Before MagSafe, this was actually a common thing. And broken charger cord tips, or worse, the sockets.

Of course, we also had shorter battery life, so working without being plugged in was a joke.

I don't understand how this wasn't the bigger news. Touch bar, meh, most people don't care either way. Price increase? it's apple.

Everyone i've talked to who got one laments the loss of magsafe, though. I've also heard at least one person offline say they were less interested in buying one because of that

The loss of MagSafe is far outweighed by the fact that I can plug the power cable into either side of the laptop and charge my laptop using the same portable battery pack that I use to charge my phone. Literally doubles my time away from a plug.

Also. I like the Touch Bar a lot. This laptop had some real software problems on release, but at this point with 10.12.4, I'm an enormous fan.

I find there are a lot of opinions from people who don't own one. Maybe it's just me.

If only this weren't scam-ware, we'd have a decent solution:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1041610927/znaps-the-9-...

The cynical side of me wonders if apple is doing this whole screw the ecosystem up (monitor, mac pro, magsafe, time capsule, etc) so they can rescue it and get another round of upgrades out of it.

How do you know this is scam-ware? Looks plausible and possible to me. What am I missing?

Check the comments:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1041610927/znaps-the-9-...

It's too good an idea to not be implemented eventually. In fact, a low profile, magnetic data/power form factor should probably be the next iteration of USB-C.

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