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New iPad Only Supports First-Gen Apple Pencil, Requires Adapter to Charge

I'll be the contrarian here and state that this is actually a smart move by Apple. The only misstep was keeping the 9th gen available.

The 9th gen was the last of the "classic" design. And it is great specimen of that for those of us who love that design.

The 10th gen serves as a great entry level of the new design. Sure, some of the tech is trailing edge (relatively speaking) but it still offers a tremendous value for those who prefer the Air/Pro style.

I'm thoroughly enjoying my iPad Mini 5 and iPad 9th gen. And will do so for as long as possible. I'm a big fan of this older design. If I ever become a fan of the newer design, I'll buy the 10th gen without hesitation.

I'm one who has been making a slow exit from Appleland, but they are doing a masterful job of keeping me connected. (insert Al Pacino clip, "just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in.") 😁
 
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Really grateful that I can still use my 7 year old surface pen on my 3 year old Surface Pro and the fact I can buy the newest pen that came out after my Surface and it would still work and actually give pressure improvements.
 
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mikegoldnj said:
This is moronic. Release a new product that is only compatible with an old product, not the newer version already released?
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It likely isn’t yet feasible for the iPad to both sport a webcam in landscape mode while also supporting the wireless charging mechanism. How would you propose the 2nd gen Apple Pencil work in this scenario?
 
Abazigal said:
It likely isn’t yet feasible for the iPad to both sport a webcam in landscape mode while also supporting the wireless charging mechanism. How would you propose the 2nd gen Apple Pencil work in this scenario?
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Move the pencil charger to the short edge where the camera used to be.
 
I'm curious if it finally allows us to connect stock Lightning Earpods to USB-C-enabled Macbooks.
 
miric said:
I'm curious if it finally allows us to connect stock Lightning Earpods to USB-C-enabled Macbooks.
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Wouldn't you need a Lightning (female) to USB-C (male) adapter for that? The Pencil-Adapter is Lightning (female) to USB-C (female). Adding another USB-C m-m cable might work.
 
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Yes, but no adaptor cleaning cloth included. I am sure it’s in the works as a separate accessory, though.
 
Hurda said:
Wouldn't you need a Lightning (female) to USB-C (male) adapter for that? The Pencil-Adapter is Lightning (female) to USB-C (female). Adding another USB-C m-m cable might work.
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Yeah, so usb-c cable to adaptor to lightning EarPods. o_O
 
OK, someone help me out here. This adapter design seems unnecessarily complicated. Given that this adapter has two 'female ports', one lightning and one USB-C, it requires a USB-C to -C cable to pair the Pencil with the iPad 10. Why create an 'adapter' that also requires another cable?

Wouldn't it make more sense to have an adapter with a female lightning port (for the pencil) and a Male USB-C tip (to plug into the iPad)? To pair the Pencil you would just plug the adapter into the iPad. To charge the Pencil you could plug the adapter into any USB-C charger. That would be closest to the simplicity of the original iPad / Pencil combo.
 
I7guy said:
Maybe you can help out apple; feedback @ apple.com.
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I’m sure they already know. Not sure why you’re picking me out of all of the people complaining about this.

Based on everything we know so far (including the reviews released today that largely question why this model exists between the iPad 9 and iPad Air), it seems frustratingly likely that the decision to go this route is feature rationing to encourage people to ask themselves “why not just spend $xxx more for a better iPad.” It was a harder sell to get people to spend $270 more than the iPad 9 to jump up to the Air before the 10 existed. Now they can get people to consider stepping up from iPad 9 to 10, then look at the Air and ultimately buy that one (or, even better, one of the iPads Pro).

And Apple certainly has a robust market research process that has told them which price points to hit, the feature differentiation necessary at each level to encourage comparison shopping, and how much profit will be gained with each move.
 
Spock1234 said:
OK, someone help me out here. This adapter design seems unnecessarily complicated. Given that this adapter has two 'female ports', one lightning and one USB-C, it requires a USB-C to -C cable to pair the Pencil with the iPad 10. Why create an 'adapter' that also requires another cable?

Wouldn't it make more sense to have an adapter with a female lightning port (for the pencil) and a Male USB-C tip (to plug into the iPad)? To pair the Pencil you would just plug the adapter into the iPad. To charge the Pencil you could plug the adapter into any USB-C charger. That would be closest to the simplicity of the original iPad / Pencil combo.
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Unfortunately I can’t think of any reason beyond Apple not wanting to make it easy to use a lightning cable to charge a USB-C iPad.
 
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Mw0103 said:
I’m sure they already know. Not sure why you’re picking me out of all of the people complaining about this.

Based on everything we know so far (including the reviews released today that largely question why this model exists between the iPad 9 and iPad Air), it seems frustratingly likely that the decision to go this route is feature rationing to encourage people to ask themselves “why not just spend $xxx more for a better iPad.” It was a harder sell to get people to spend $270 more than the iPad 9 to jump up to the Air before the 10 existed. Now they can get people to consider stepping up from iPad 9 to 10, then look at the Air and ultimately buy that one (or, even better, one of the iPads Pro).

And Apple certainly has a robust market research process that has told them which price points to hit, the feature differentiation necessary at each level to encourage comparison shopping, and how much profit will be gained with each move.
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I don’t believe this was done purposely. Maybe supply chain issues.
 
I think this is due to immature product development. Apple is rushing to release the product, while they still couldn’t solve camera on side edge with magnetic pencil 2. It looks like they still stuck on this issue, which also explained why iPad Pro M2 do not have side camera.
 
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Talk about a backwards step , the first pencil had the most ridiculous charging method outside the apple mouse ever invented , in fact it was arguably even worse . Just asking to get snapped off . Looked plain daft . Thought it was a joke at first

The 2nd gen is so superior why on earth didn’t they use that ?

On another note I heard this was the original redesign idea except it was was ditched for being too expensive

B2DDE2BC-56BB-4292-A86B-E02D2F0518B9.jpeg
 
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This whole iPad 10 is a mess. But functionally, why can't I use Apple's USB-C to Lightning cable and the original female-to-female lightning charging adapter that comes with Apple Pencil 1? Does that adapter only transmit power and not data for pairing? I am not buying the 10th gen iPad to find out, but maybe next time I go to Apple Store, I will bring that stuff along and try it on their demo machine.
 
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