Apple is no stranger to having to get rid of old technology. In fact, the original iMac not only eliminated Apple’s legacy ports, but also pioneered the elimination of the floppy drive.
In other areas, the company has been more aggressive with the transition to solid-state storage and the integration of Retina-grade displays, with little to no qualms about replacing aging hardware.
So, it seems the company doesn’t normally pay attention to the nostalgic aspects when it comes to shelving technologies that have become state of the art. Recently, rumors point to another feature that could be in the spotlight: the Lightning connector.
The Lightning connector
This connector debuted on the iPhone 5 in 2012, with which more than 10 years have passed since its arrival on the market. Rumors suggest that it will be replaced by the USB-C connector, which has already happened in several iPad models, in addition to being the connector for modern Macs.
Although the transition would cause some degree of consternation among the fan community, any progress requires a wise decision. As the tagline of one of the Star Wars movies says: let the past die. Kill him if necessary.
With that in mind, here are a few additional features that can still be found in Apple products today, but all indications are that they will reach end of life sooner rather than later.
Touch Bar or Touch Bar
In some corner of Cupertino, there’s almost certainly a lab with an unholy experiment: a MacBook whose entire keyboard has been replaced with a featureless slab of glass.
But in public, Apple’s latest attempt to bring its touchscreen technology to the Mac is frankly not a success. Yes, indeed, it’s time to end the Touch bar and not let him continue to suffer.
To be fair, he’s already being arrested. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 chip is the only remaining product in Apple’s portfolio that still comes with the tactile button strip instead of function keys.
Most likely, when versions of computers with M2 processors arrive, the Touch Bar will come to a better life. That’s not to say the idea of using touch technology on the Mac is bad, but the way the Touch bar doesn’t seem the most appropriate.
Granted, it promised a higher degree of customization and flexibility than static buttons, but its lack of tactile feedback, or even the fact that it couldn’t be used without looking, made it more cumbersome than useful.
Combined with the fact that Apple seemed to believe it would never need hardware and software updates again, that means the Touch Bar died sooner than expected, and frankly, it’s time to finally put this feature aside. Mac. .
1080p webcam
Is there a new Mac feature that has caused as much consternation as the meager webcam? What was once more or less a late feature on Apple laptops has been catapulted to the peak of interest in the latest models due to video calling during the pandemic.
Only newer Macs have dropped the use of the 720p webcam in favor of the somewhat disappointing 1080p. This is an area where Apple should have taken a giant leap a long time ago.
Forget 1080p, it’s very 2010. How about a 4K webcam? After all, there was no talk of including cameras of this quality in iPhones and iPads: the latest iPhones have front and rear cameras capable of recording video in 4K resolution.
It’s certainly a more expensive proposition, but considering that most people who buy a Mac with a built-in webcam spend at least $1,200 (and probably a lot more), adding a single 4K-capable camera doesn’t seem like a lot is too much to ask.
So even if Apple doesn’t want to admit it, remote work isn’t going to end anytime soon. And it’s not that Apple isn’t taking advantage of it either, but FaceTime is much better today on an iPhone or iPad than it is on a Mac.
SIM cards
We are in 2022, on the doorstep of Apple launching its new iPhone 14and everything indicates that the most advanced mobiles you can buy always have a SIM card slot to insert the one associated with the operator.
There’s the argument of backwards compatibility and there are certainly countries around the world where a physical SIM card is even more common (even in the US).
But with the announcement of eSIM mode, everything is much easier to manage cellular connections and manage through an app, than having to deal with tiny chips that can easily be lost or damaged.
The benefits for Apple are clear: removing the SIM slot frees up valuable space inside the iPhone, making it more liquid- and dust-proof. In addition, the need to include the SIM extraction clip in all boxes is omitted.
And while SIM cards have been useful when you want to have two different phone plans (for example, when traveling outside your country), the latest iPhones and iPads already support dual eSIMs. This is clearly the line to follow in the future.
SIM cards are out of fashion; they’ve gotten smaller and smaller over the past two decades and it’s time for them to finally go away and join floppy disks, SCSI connectors and dot-matrix printers wherever they are.
Original article by Dan Moren and published in PCWorld United States.
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