When Apple launched the iPhone 15 sequence on Tuesday as its first smartphones to function a USB-C port, observers might be forgiven for considering that this meant Apple had lastly, formally consigned its proprietary Lightning connector to the IT workplace closet within the sky.
“USB-C has develop into a universally accepted normal,” iPhone product-marketing VP Kaiann Drance stated in asserting the change. “It’s been constructed into Apple merchandise for years.”
However Apple’s retailer continues to function Apple merchandise that require a Lightning cable to recharge–together with all of its desktop keyboards and pointing gadgets, a majority of its Bluetooth headphones and one older iPad mannequin.
And since a lot of these peripherals are more likely to outlast the computer systems they serve, the necessity to fish out a Lightning cable to recharge an Apple product will most likely persist for years following the Sept. 22 launch of the iPhone 15, 15 Plus, 15 Professional, and 15 Professional Max and even after Apple stops promoting older, Lightning-required iPhone fashions at cheaper costs.
Think about the instance sitting on my desk, the Magic Keyboard with Contact ID and Numeric Keypad that Apple shipped in 2022. That $179 enter system and a smaller, no-number-pad $149 model signify Apple’s solely choices for individuals who need the comfort of Contact ID biometric authentication on a Mac desktop, so in fact I purchased one to accompany my Mac mini.
However when this keyboard’s battery runs down—or it drops the Bluetooth connection to my Mac for some never-explained motive—I’ve to fish out the USB-C-to-Lightning cable that got here with it and that’s ineffective for each different computing system I personal.
Apple’s $79 Magic Mouse 2 and $129 Magic Trackpad 2 additionally require Lightning to recharge—and since that rodent has its Lightning port on its backside, you may’t use it whereas it expenses, a design failure that Apple has ignored because the mouse’s 2015 debut.
(The costs for the mouse, trackpad and numeric-keypad keyboard are $20 greater if you would like them in black; unpacking the grasping weirdness on show there must wait for one more publish.)
And though Apple up to date the AirPods Professional Tuesday with a charging case that makes use of USB-C, the remainder of its headphone lineup stays in a Lightning limbo. The $129 2nd-generation AirPods, the $169 Third-generation AirPods, and the $549 AirPods Max all want that now-deprecated cable.
The identical goes for the $99 1st-generation Apple Pencil, the one form supported by the Tenth-gen iPad that Apple launched final yr. Till Apple updates that stylus, pill purchasers who need the Pencil’s finer enter have to make use of a dongle to pair and cost it by way of the iPad’s USB-C port.
The Ninth-generation iPad, nonetheless offered by Apple beginning at $329, additionally requires Lightning to cost. However as a result of it’s additionally the one presently offered Apple pill left with a headphone jack, it may’t be lengthy for Apple’s world. Apple did, nevertheless, quietly drop two different Lightning-required charging equipment this week: the MagSafe Battery Pack and the MagSafe Duo Charger.
(Apple didn’t reply a question about potential USB-C replacements for these devices, not that we anticipated an organization that does not touch upon unannounced merchandise to touch upon unannounced merchandise.)
And the identical exterior pressure that pushed Apple to hitch the USB-C membership with its new iPhones will pressure it to make the identical transition on these different merchandise no later than October of 2024. That’s when the European Union regulation requiring USB-C charging on most moveable gadgets will go into impact. And because the EU made clear in its October 2022 announcement of this “widespread charger” rule, it covers not simply telephones, tablets, and headphones but in addition wi-fi mice and keyboards.
That regulation, nevertheless, doesn’t require an organization to place a mouse’s charging port in a spot that allows you to use the factor whereas it expenses, so the Magic Mouse’s worst function might stay on at the same time as Lightning lastly dies.
