Welcome to our weekend Apple Breakfast column , which include all of the Apple news you missed this week in a handy bite - sized roundup . We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it go great with a morning time cupful of coffee bean or tea , but it ’s cool if you need to give it a read during lunch or dinner party hours too .
Blame it on the dongle
Macworld ’s review of the 10th - gen iPad go live this hebdomad ( and is linked below ) . It ’s a unknown followup : In many shipway , it ’s a positivistic write - up , with the attractive design , excellent cameras , and Magic Keyboard Folio affirm all gain sincere congratulations . But there were enough quibbles to knock it down to 3 star – not least the frankly ludicrous dongle require to pair the iPad with the only version of the Apple Pencil it supports .
Dongles , which be extra and get lost , and make everything less convenient , are understandably a sore point for Apple users , and they seem to be proliferating . Using a dongle always prompt me of what Steve Jobs said about ( appropriately enough ) styluses : if you see a dongle , they blew it . A dongle is a tacit acknowledgment that something has gone incorrect . Either the untimely mathematical product has been bought for the problem , or it was designed wrong in the first place . Apple has had plenty of dongles over the old age , but the Apple Pencil arranger is particularly irritating .
1. It doesn’t even work as a Lightning to USB-C adapter
A general - use Lightning / USB - C transcriber would have some usefulness , but as a Redditor come upon throughextensive examination , the dongle looks like a unmarried - exercise product . So , if you were hoping to expend the dongle to repurpose your old Lightning cable ( for charge a USB - C iPad , for example ) , you ’re out of luck : in fact , a received male Lightning connection does n’t even accommodate into the dongle .
2. You’ll lose it
Of of course , you will . It ’s tiny and it does n’t bind to anything when not in use . And then your Apple Pencil will be useless until you bear another $ 9 .
3. It’s there to upsell you to a better model
The dongle is very much of a piece with Apple ’s general approach this year , which we ’ve also find out with the weirdly conservative iPhone 14 upgrade : Buy the better role model . Apple is a company that is enormously detail - oriented , and at a certain point you have to assume that the fault in its unveiling - grade products are not there because of managerial missteps or lack of resourcefulness , but because they want to prod you into corrupt something more expensive .
4. It creates more e-waste
As observe below , the dongle is now bundle with the first - gen Apple Pencil , but we have to take that at least some of those wo n’t be needed ( when the Pencil is corrupt by a ninth - gen iPad owner , for example ) and will end up in a landfill . Others will be lost ( see compass point 2 ) and end up in a landfill . And the fact that it does n’t work as a worldwide - manipulation adapter ( see point 1 ) will impart to the figure of Lightning cable length end up in a landfill .
Inefficient design is n’t just bad for the user — it ’s bad for the environment . And if Apple cared about the environment as much as it claims , it would have found a better solution .
5. Apple’s had years to sort this out
Apple still sell the 1st - contemporaries Apple Pencil because it still sells a Lightning iPad . The 9th - gen manikin is the last iPad to have a Lightning port , so as long as it ’s still sold , the original Apple Pencil needs to exist . Fair enough . But the USB - C switch did n’t happen yesterday . The first USB - C iPad Pro and the second - gen Pencil came out in2018 .
Given four year to design for the change - over on the standard iPad , it ’s cockeyed that Apple has n’t come up with a more refined answer than this . The most obvious would be bread and butter for the second - gen Pencil , so whether it ’s an engineering issue , cost issue , or upgrade number ( see point 3 ) , the whole Lightning thing seems to have taken Apple by surprise .
6. Does Apple really need the extra money?
Apple , we keep hearing , is the most worthful company in the human race , with a rating well in excessiveness of $ 2 trillion . Overthe most late quarter , Apple made the comically unimaginable total of $ 90 billion , so it could in all probability afford to neglect out on a few dollars here and there in favor of user goodwill and an improved substance abuser experience . But no : Apple loves hoovering up the nickel and dime . It ’s shoving extra ads onto the App Store , press up the prices of its subscription services , and now charging $ 9 for anadapter . ( Granted , the adapter does now come devoid with the 1st - gen Apple Pencil , but if you bought one years ago , you ’ll ask to yield up . )
The USB - C to Apple Pencil Adapter is Apple ’s design at its worst : We only need to use it because Apple was lazy , stubborn , and a little greedy .
This article was edited on November 14 to remove a surgical incision which said the dongle can not be used to charge an Apple Pencil straight from mains tycoon . In fact it can be used for this purpose .
IDG
Apple can be great or it can be Google – butit ca n’t be both , tell Jason Snell .
The iPhone’smost promising featureis being wasted . MagSafe could have offeredunique experiences , but all we got were magnets .
The Macalope is bear on aboutApple ’s attitude . It seems money canmake anyone a jerking .
This epicM1 Mac mini - Nintendo Wii mashupis themod of our aspiration .
Even withrecord profits , Applecan’t buy our trust .
This Chrome featureis so good it might make usswitch from Safarifor good .
As Apple’sprices keep going up , where will the note value number from ?
There’sdoom on the horizonfor Apple – andads are the only answer .
Reviews corner
In ourApple Watch Ultra reassessment , we look at aconvincing Garmin killer – but one with downsides to consider .
OuriPad ( 2022 ) review , meanwhile , finds abeautiful dashing hopes .
( We ’ve also compared the2022 and 2021 iPad models , to see whichstandard iPadis right for you . )
Finally , our3rd - gen Apple TV 4 K reviewconcludes that thebest new characteristic is the toll .
( On arelated musical note , Michael Simon explains why hebought a 2021 Apple television set 4Kinstead of a new one . )
The rumor mill
Apple is reportedly working on abig Siri changethatnobody require for .
The nextround of M2 Macsmay have beenpushed back to 2023 .
TheiPhone 15 Promightnot have any actual button .
Theglowing Apple logocould be thenext MacBook featureto make a retort .
Podcast of the week
Apple ’s iPad lineup is set for the 2022 holiday shopping time of year , and one thing is certain : There are a lot of models to prefer from . We ’re speak about thestate of the iPadin this episode of the Macworld Podcast .
you may catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast onSpotify , Soundcloud , thePodcasts app , orour own site .
Software updates, bugs & problems
Apple is planning a majorhome screen layout changeiniOS 16.2 .
Apple has piece apair of security department flawswith themacOS Ventura 13.0.1 update .
Googlewarns all Mac usersto patch a ‘ eminent risk’Chrome security department flaw .
“ Privacy concerns”have been heighten overusage data collectionon the App Store .
The2nd - gen AirPods Projust catch amysterious firmware update .
