Patent Watch: MagSafe Coming To The iPad?
October 8, 2010
When you consider how great Apple's MagSafe charging plug is, it's a bit surprising that they haven't included it in every one of their products yet. The fact that this magnetic plug can just unplug itself when you step on the cord has saved many devices. Soon it may also be saving our iPads and iPhones.
Apple has been holding onto the 30-pin connector for quite a while now. Even as Apple has been pushing the carriers to provide smaller SIM cards to save space, this plug will eventually have to go as well. What will replace it? In an effort to standardize, we've been hearing that Apple could go with a mini-USB plug. However, according to some new patents unearthed by Patently Apple, they might actually be thinking about another one of their proprietary plugs; the MagSafe. They'll have to change it a bit and make it weaker, as the current version is way too strong for our light iPhones and iPads. Nevertheless, if they go for it, it will be a very nice step forward to make these less likely to fall and shatter, while keeping them small and reducing the amount of dirt our iDevice ports collect.
On the downside, it will make it almost impossible to use any existing dock accessories, but everything works over Bluetooth now anyway.
What do you think?
