Welcome back to another week of From the Editor's Desk with yours truly, and we have quite a few things to discuss this time around! So let's dive right in.
According to Jon Prosser, he has "confirmed" that Apple's eventual plan is to go port-less with iPhone charging in the coming years, instead of adding a USB-C port to the iPhone. Honestly, this doesn't make a lot of sense to me, considering that they eventually replaced Lightning on the iPad Pro with USB-C, so why wouldn't it eventually come to the iPhone at some point? Does Apple really hate USB-C that much? They use it on their current lineup of MacBooks, after all.
And the thought of an iPhone without a port at all, and only relying on wireless charging, is kind of a downer, at least in the current state. Right now, wireless charging is convenient for topping off your iPhone battery throughout the day, but if you want to charge it up from zero to 100, it's going to take forever. That's because right now, iPhones only charge wirelessly at a fraction of the speed of a lot of Android devices, so unless Apple changes how fast iPhones can charge up wirelessly, it's going to be a total PITA to only be able to wirelessly charge an iPhone. And what happens when there an iPhone completely fails and needs to go into recovery DFU mode? How would that work with a port-less iPhone?
It's an interesting rumor, to say the least, and I just don't see it happening unless a lot of changes are made. Plus, how am I supposed to continue using my iPhone while charging if I can't just plug it in? C'mon now.
Speaking of future iPhones, there's a new foldable iPhone 12 concept video floating around right now, and I have to admit that it looks pretty awesome. I honestly don't have a real desire for a foldable iPhone, but if Apple made something like the concept shown here, I think it would do pretty well. If Apple is planning on a foldable phone in the future, then I'm sure that they're coming up with plans for it, but I don't expect to see anything like this until at least a few years from now.
Now that we've all had the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro for a few weeks, it's being reported that some people are experiencing battery drain issues while using the Magic Keyboard. But it may actually just be a hardware issue with some Magic Keyboards, or perhaps a bug with iPadOS 13 itself. In the end, you probably don't need to worry about increased battery drain on your iPad Pro while using the Magic Keyboard, as you could try returning it to Apple and exchanging it for a new one if you're within the 14-day window. If you have AppleCare+ on your iPad Pro, then it includes the Magic Keyboard, making it easier to get a replacement.
Since we've talked about the possible future and present, let's talk a little bit about the past. Apple has added five MacBooks to its list of vintage products this week, but honestly, it's nothing to really worry about right now if you have one of these older MacBooks (or even older). With Apple, "vintage" means products that sold more than 5 but less than 7 years ago. "Obsolete" means products that have been discontinued more than 7 years ago. Despite the moniker, vintage products will still get hardware service from Apple service providers and Apple Retail Stores. When you think about this, Apple products really give people incredible value over the years, as our own Luke Filipowicz discusses in his editorial.
Personally, I'm still using a late-2013 Retina MacBook Pro as my daily driver. The battery has some issues and definitely does not last as long as it originally did, so I leave it plugged in all day. But otherwise, it's still running Mojave (I have another MacBook Air running macOS Catalina for newer things), does everything I need it to do for work, and everything still works just fine. I've used it every day for the past almost seven years, and it works great, considering the age. I plan to upgrade my desk setup hopefully by the end of the year, but the point is that Apple products do hold up for a long time, so they're well worth their premium price tag.
In other news, Disney has surprised everyone by announcing that the theatrical version of Hamilton will arrive on the Disney+ streaming service July 3, 2020. That's more than a year early than the original date of October 15, 2021, in theaters. I know we're still a few weeks away from Hamilton, but I'm excited to watch it since I have never seen the Broadway play.
Anyways, that's it for this week, iMorians. Until next week!
- Christine Romero-Chan
