131–140 of 170 posts
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Yeah, here's the adapter from my 2004 PowerBook: http://imgur.com/RTLKM
It's interesting that the older ones DID have the vented / slotted strain relief sheath. I wonder how much more expensive that is to manufacture vs a stylistically cleaner, simpler solid sheath.
Makes sense, considering that each mold cost upward of half a million dollars.
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The "Industrial Design is King" thing is true at other companies as well. I've seen horribly broken products go out the door, where the fixes involve making ID changes, but the ID changes couldn't be made to happen because of (a) the lead time -- usually a year -- and / or (b) it would have destroyed the "cool look" of the product in someone's eyes.
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You really think so? I mean these are cables, there's no secret how to make them and they've been making them for decades, so they'll probably know what they are doing. There's no user experience on cables. It doesn't seem so far fetched to me.
Your comment "There's no user experience on cables" makes it clear that you really don't understand Apple. Users experience the entirety of Apple products and there isn't a user-facing component that doesn't get serious design scrutiny. And yes, Apple probably know what they're doing. But they're not building failure into their cables, I can promise you that. They may be making a trade-off between the look and feel o…
Even the mere act of removing an Apple product from its packaging when first bought -- something that only happens once -- is extremely well thought out.
My reply, I think it may not have made reddit as I've never posted before: I'm calling BS on this whole thread. The reason for the breakage is in the green circles, not the red ones: http://i.imgur.com/EYSo5.jpg The 2007 cables had small buttons on the sides that you had to press to disengage the connector from the device. This meant you had to pull on the body of the connector to remove it. The 2009 design removes t…
While in the general case you may be absolutely right, my iPhone power cable suffers from this exact problem, and I have always removed it by grabbing the connector body, not the cable. I know it's just one anecdote, and your assessment probably applies to a large number of these cases... but it doesn't apply to all of them.
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There is no reason they couldn't take a flimsy piece of a plastic tube and cover the ugly-but-functional rings on the old style adapters. That way the rings retain functionality, and they are covered, everyone is happy. When the tube breaks, it just exposes the "ugly" rings, but the cable won't actually break. Why they couldn't do this - I don't know. But there must be a good technical reason for it - if I -a softwar…
But there must be a good technical reason for it - if I -a software person- can think of something like that, I'm sure they already thought of it too. The rings have to be exposed, that's how they work. Consider a hypothetical cable that's flexible, but fragile. Fold it in half, and it explodes violently, killing your customers and inspiring such a mighty class-action lawsuit that it leaves your company a smoking gre…
Parent's point was that if we assume Apple is optimizing for showroom appearance, better to put the bling over the function bits and let the going break after a few months, instead of having only bling and letting the bling break and kill the device and user with it.
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To provide a counterpoint, I've had my MacbookPro for over 3 years now and still have the same power cable and adapter as when I bought it. I never wrap it, toss it around in my bag with all my other junk, carry it in all weather, and I use it every day. My connection works fine and my brick hasn't overheated. Not to say you're not having those issues, just that there are good experiences and bad experiences with eve…
The problem is with the the cables from the past couple of years, that's probably why your stuff works and his more recent gear does not.
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>I understand the aesthetic decision, but there is no reason why Apple couldn't have made the wire that runs from the brick to your laptop detachable. A detachable wire would violate Apple's aesthetic; thus, you can't detach it. You answer your own question. Does Apple not replace that for free like they do the iPhone/iPod chargers?
I've had mine replaced for free, but only after being accused by the 'Genius' of 'doing it wrong' by wrapping my cable around the provided tabs.
I wonder if this applies to the problem I've had ever since I've gotten a MBP in the fall. I am now on my 4th charger. No matter how I handle the adapter, it still manages to stop working within 3-4 months. The first one was probably my fault as I didn't keep the brick as ventilated as I could've, so I think it eventually fried itself. The second one is still a mystery as I tried to use it one day and it didn't work.…
my last cord has now lasted 9+ months since I started doing this (I move it daily)
Why isn't the iPod/iPhone/iPad connector using the magsafe design?
USB carries both power and data, while MagSafe carries only power. This doesn't sound like a problem until you realize that the USB pins have to be unplugged in a strict order: data before power. This is enforced in the connector with varying pin lengths. With MagSafe, there is no guarantee of connection order.
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Out of curiosity, how often are you using the Ethernet port at those places?
Haha, good point. I said ethernet because it is the first port blocked. The cord also blocks the display port and makes the first USB port awkward to use (this is the biggest annoyance for me, as I often have flash drives/my iPhone/a USB keyboard with me and there are only two USB ports on the laptop).