One of the greatest losses in terms of features for Apple’s MacBook lineup has to be its MagSafe connector. For those unfamiliar, this is basically a magnetic port that was used in Apple’s laptops to charge them, where it could be easily detached by lightly pulling on it. It also had the added safety advantage in the event you trip over the wire, your entire laptop won’t end up on the floor as well.
We’re not sure if and when Apple plans to reintroducing the feature to its laptops, but the good news is that the company still appears to be exploring the idea. According to a recently discovered patent, Apple has patented the idea for connector adapters to have a MagSafe connector receptacle that will support USB-C, which is currently what Apple uses to charge its laptops at the moment.
What this means is that the laptop could in theory continue to use USB-C, but the MagSafe adapter means that it will still feature magnetic capabilities. The patent was filed for back in 2017 which suggests that this is a relatively recent filing and could still be fresh on Apple’s mind. However whether or not this patent becomes a reality remains to be seen.
That being said, we suppose we can’t blame Apple for switching to USB-C. The use of USB-C ultimately reduces the number of cables that are needed to hook up various accessories. For example hooking up a MacBook to a monitor with USB-C means that it does away with the need for a HDMI cable and a separate power cable, making it a much more elegant process.