Archive for June 20, 2012

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The MagSafe to MagSafe 2 Adapter

Paul Kafasis:

This is the MagSafe to MagSafe 2 adapter attached to a piece of card stock, along with the box it came in, the booklets of information which accompanied it, the piece of cardboard to which that box was attached (and to which a packing slip is still attached), and the box in which all that arrived.

MagSafe 2 seems like a good idea. I’m glad Apple is going back to the T-shaped connector; the asymmetrical one that debuted with the original MacBook Air was not very usable. But it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to ship my adapter separately, weeks in advance of the notebook it’s designed to work with. I expected that Apple would just stick it in the computer box, in a little plastic bag, like it used to do with the Mini-DVI adapters.

Update (2012-07-30): David Pogue doesn’t like MagSafe 2:

The magnet is too weak. It’s so weak, it keeps falling out. It falls out if you brush it. It falls out if you tip the laptop slightly. It falls out if you look at it funny. It’s a huge, huge pain.

Update (2012-08-01): Lukas Mathis:

Obviously, I should have been more careful. But with either an L-shaped connector or the MagSafe 1’s stronger magnets, this probably wouldn’t have happened. And perhaps the thicker glass on the older MacBooks would have survived this accident. Tiny design decisions can add up.