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Apple Pencil to Ship With Adapter for Charging With Lightning Cable

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Apple's upcoming iPad Pro accessory, the Apple Pencil, will now ship with an adapter that will allow it to charge using a standard Lightning cable, reports 9to5Mac. The Apple Pencil, which has a Lightning connector on the end for charging, was originally designed to charge by plugging into the bottom of the iPad Pro.

applepencil1-800x51.jpg

With the adapter, which will fit over the Apple Pencil's Lightning connector, it will also be able to charge using a regular Lightning cable. This will expand the number of ways the Apple Pencil can be charged and it will alleviate concerns about potential damage to the Apple Pencil from being knocked or bent while plugged into an iPad Pro.

applepenciladapter-800x138.jpg

The iPad Pro appears to be on track for a launch in the first weeks of November. AppleCare employees and retail staff are currently receiving training on the new larger-screened tablet, with the training completion deadline set for November 6.

Apple's iPad Pro is the company's new flagship 12.9-inch tablet. It includes an A9X processor, 4GB RAM, and according to Apple, is as fast as many desktop class machines. Pricing on the iPad Pro starts at $799 for a 32GB Wi-Fi only model and goes up to $1,079 for a 128GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model.

The Apple Pencil, which allows for pressure-sensitive drawing on the iPad Pro, is a standalone purchase that will be available for $99. Apple is also selling a Smart Keyboard for the iPad Pro, priced at $169.

Article Link: Apple Pencil to Ship With Adapter for Charging With Lightning Cable
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/10/29/apple-pencil-lightning-cable-adapter/
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What a poorly thought out solution. Who's bright idea was it to think the primary way we would desire to charge this is by plugging it into the lightning port of the iPad Pro? If Samsung or Microsoft included an "adapter" as a solution, MR members would be howling at their inept planning (or lack thereof).
 
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MacRumors said:
It includes an A9X processor, 2GB RAM,
Click to expand...

Im pretty sure that you guys reported it has 4GB of RAM that someone figured out from some files in xcode.

anyway, thats interesting but also quite ugly, they should just make the connector in a rubber base or some swivel thing so it doesnt brake off.
 
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theheadguy said:
What a poorly thought out solution. Who's bright idea was it to think the primary way we would desire to charge this is by plugging it into the lightning port of the iPad Pro?
Click to expand...

Probably the same people who put the charging port of Magic Mouse 2 on the bottom of the mouse. :)

In related news, if Apple ever made a Lightning-to-Lightning cable, this could be used as an exension/coupler--but then we probably wouldn't need it in the first place since you could just plug that cable into the bottom of the iPad while not having an expensive pencil sticking straight out the bottom of your iPad. (Just an expensive cable you better not want to set the iPad down on.)
 
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jmgregory1 said:
Why didn't Apple just make the Pencil's charging port be a female Lightning port? The idea of having the Pencil stick out the bottom of the iPad Pro, was ridiculous thinking on their part. It's not like it's so hard to use the charging cable from the iPad to charge the Pencil.
Click to expand...

I agree with you, it should have been a female port! But, if I would guess it is because in a pinch, you'll have the pencil and iPad, but you may not have a cable or adaptor, so you can charge it for 30 seconds the "ugly" way, and use it 8 hours w/o having to charge it again, until you can get to an adaptor, or cable.
 
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That's a good move by Apple. Having the pencil stick out of the iPad wasn't my favorite option. Only $15 for a cable, me thinks Apple may of had an ulterior motive.
 
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jmgregory1 said:
Why didn't Apple just make the Pencil's charging port be a female Lightning port? The idea of having the Pencil stick out the bottom of the iPad Pro, was ridiculous thinking on their part. It's not like it's so hard to use the charging cable from the iPad to charge the Pencil.
Click to expand...

A female lightning port, like so many other devices (iPhones, iPads, iPods, Keyboard, Trackpad, etc) would have made a lot of sense. I guess they really wanted the ability to give it a quick charge/topup using the iPad; enough so that they're even shipping it with that little female to female lightning adapter.

Anyway, plugging the pencil into the iPad isn't supposed to be the primary method of charging, it's purely to top it up if the battery is low/dead. 15 seconds of charge for 30 minutes of use.
 
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theheadguy said:
What a poorly thought out solution. Who's bright idea was it to think the primary way we would desire to charge this is by plugging it into the lightning port of the iPad Pro? If Samsung or Microsoft included an "adapter" as a solution, MR members would be howling at their inept planning (or lack thereof).
Click to expand...

I imagine the idea is to make it impossible to find yourself in a situation where you have a dead pencil. If you're in the park or on a train or anywhere, but haven't charged your pencil in a while, it's no problem. I don't think this adapter's a 'solution' for anything other than keeping the pencil permanently charged at a desk workstation, and Apple's never shied away from optional desk-based adapters.
 
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kds1 said:
Seriously?
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Seriously. The process for charging the Apple Pencil this way is:

1. Remove cap from Pencil. Make sure not to lose your cap.
2. Attach adapter to Cable.
3. Connect adapter to Pencil.

Most other products, both from Apple and other companies, generally have a single step:

1. Plug charging cable into product.

A few products (not Apple's) have an additional step:

1. Remove charging cover. Don't worry about keeping track though - it's attached.
2. Plug charging cable into product.

So yes, this is a seriously poorly thought out solution, involving 3-4x as much effort as most other charging solutions, and at least 2x as much effort as even poorly thought out solutions.
 
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Despite the criticism here, I like this solution, because it provides two ways to charge the Pencil. The idea of plugging it into the bottom of the iPad is supposed to allow for 'emergency' rapid charging, when you're using the Pencil - remember it can get a decent amount of battery life from a short charge. And then when you plug it in for a full charge, e.g. at night, it uses a standard Lightning cable. I don't really see what's 'ugly' or 'stupid' about this. If you're in the middle of working, and your Pencil runs 'dry', you can just plug it directly into the iPad for a few minutes so you can get right back to work. That's much, much better than having to go find a cable and wall outlet, plug it into the wall etc. Imagine you're in the airport or on a plane, for example....
 
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swarmster said:
I imagine the idea is to make it impossible to find yourself in a situation where you have a dead pencil. If you're in the park or on a train or anywhere, but haven't charged your pencil in a while, it's no problem. I don't think this adapter's a 'solution' for anything other than keeping the pencil permanently charged at a desk workstation, and Apple's never shied away from optional desk-based adapters.
Click to expand...

I think the idea to do top up charges by plugging it in to your tablet is a novel one. The practicality of it though is a head scratcher.

And regular full charging of it was completely missed. This adapter seems like a "oops, here's an adapter cause when we designed this, we didn't think ti through fully"

When you're charging your tablet, why wouldn't that also be an opportune time to charge your pen? why not make it so both can be charged at the same time from the same powersource? even this solution is inelegant as you cannot charge the pen while charging the tablet. Unless you buy a 2nd set of power for the pen. This means you're only charging one thing at a time. Which will inevitably lead to situations where you get stuck with such an inelegant solution as a pencil sticking out of the bottom ofr your tablet for an indefined length of time, or plugged into the wall while you're using your tablet.

I'm not a fan of replacable AAA batteries like Microsoft went. Too much waste (although they claim 1 year out of 1 AAA battery), I would still rather a rechargable solution, but I'm not sure what Apple was smoking when they threw this together
 
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profets said:
A female lightning port, like so many other devices (iPhones, iPads, iPods, Keyboard, Trackpad, etc) would have made a lot of sense. I guess they really wanted the ability to give it a quick charge/topup using the iPad; enough so that they're even shipping it with that little female to female lightning adapter.

Anyway, plugging the pencil into the iPad isn't supposed to be the primary method of charging, it's purely to top it up if the battery is low/dead. 15 seconds of charge for 30 minutes of use.
Click to expand...

Apparently this is too complicated for people to understand, and they have visions of being forced to walk around with the Pencil sticking out of their iPad.
 
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Can't wait till this thing gets it's own leather case.

Seriously, this just proves how much Apple has fragmented their Hardware. Everything has different plugs and requires different adaptors. What a gong show.
 
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I wish I had a use case for the iPad pro. This is exactly what I was looking for like 20 years ago.
 
LordVic said:
I'm not a fan of replacable AAA batteries like Microsoft went. Too much waste (although they claim 1 year out of 1 AAA battery), I would still rather a rechargable solution, but I'm not sure what Apple was smoking when they threw this together
Click to expand...

They're actually AAAA batteries in the Surface Pen.... they last for ages. I've only changed my battery twice in a year, with extensive usage.
 
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