Huh. Apple seemed to have finally completed their conversion to USB-C. And then they came up with yet another proprietary connector for the battery pack? That's frustrating.
However, given that this is a device you use while standing and walking about, it would be dangerous to have it suddenly turn into a high tech blindfold just because you snagged the cable on something.
Apple would be free to work on "more elegant" common standards instead of trying to force people into their ecosystem by using proprietary garbage, which then has to be forbidden by the EU yet again.
It's hard to tell given the lack of appropriate pictures, but it seems like that "solution" is basically recessing the USB-C port so deeply that only their cable can reach it.
It’s a power cable that locks on both ends so it doesn’t come loose and cause the device to shut off. Why does a USB-C plug matter, when no one has a locking USB-C cable anyway?
They could have trivially made that connector USBC with the locking tabs such that you could insert a normal USBC cable, just without being able to lock it. Instead they decided to force a new connector on everyone.
It’s not intended to be a consumer replaceable connector. People opened up the device and figured out that you can get to that cable, but it’s not mentioned anywhere and not designed to be used directly.
They’re not trying to force a new connector on anyone - they don’t even sell anything that uses it that part.
It’s the way one proprietary part talks to another proprietary part.
If you want to charge the system through USB-C, it has a port for that on the battery pack.
> It’s not intended to be a consumer replaceable connector.
Isn't this exactly what people are complaining about though? Yes, you can design this to not be consumer replaceable, but would it be that much more effort to just use a more standard connector instead?
The point is that you have to lock in a source of power while in use. There is no battery in the device and you’re meant to move around while using it! The other end is a special plug that locks yet can spin around so you can move the battery pack or with the regular power cable more freely.
Plain old USB-C cables are simply not suited for this kind of device. That’s why USB-C is only used to charge the battery. Hopefully you’re not too blinded by political agendas to see the engineering that went into this.
However, given that this is a device you use while standing and walking about, it would be dangerous to have it suddenly turn into a high tech blindfold just because you snagged the cable on something.