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Some Apple Stores to Stop Selling First-Generation Apple Pencil Until USB-C Adapter Stock Improves
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Ahahahaha. 'The only problem...'. Sounds like not being able to pair it is another problem. A big one. May as well not own the pencil if you can't pair it in the first place!
Better than schools not even being able to pair the new iPads with the pencils! I hope this flops hard, Apple deserve it. Idiotic.
Here's the thing, it can't be paired to an iPad-9 using a cable, but no one has proven the same is true with the iPad-10.
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I wonder if Apple eventually releases a USB-C version of of the first Generation Apple Pencil over the next several months, which would work without an adaptor. That would be similar to the USB-C version of the Logitech Crayon, which was just released.
Yeah the more I think about the argument that this was done for compatibility continuity with the education market, I can’t help but think that as long as the 9th gen is being sold at the lower price point, no schools or businesses are going to pick the 10th gen over the 9th gen anyways. It’s either the 9th gen or much more likely, chromebooks.
It’s not like Apple typically hesitates breaking compatibility anyways. They’re normally pretty bold and unapologetic about it. This iPad feels like it was made strictly to hit a specific price point by stripping whatever they could to get there.
Schools are never going to want anything to do with a pencil charged by plugging it into a dongle that has to be plugged to a cable that has to be plugged to either a tablet or a wall charger.
They could drive insane any bachelor, let alone a grade student.
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Apparently because they moved the camera in the landscape position and the magnet required to charge the pencil would not be a good idea near the camera.
But I agree - this is one of the most ridiculous decisions I've ever seen Apple take in 17 years in this ecosystem.
The iphone cable? You don't get it. But yes, you could connect the stylus to an iPhone to charge it - propably.
You just can't sell two things as a package if they don't go together.
I’m a little confused. The pencil has a female-female lighting adapter in the box. So can you not just use a regular lighting to USB-C cable to pair and charge?
As many times as I see it I can't get over that photo. An iPad connected to a stupidly-long cable, connected to an adapter, connected to an Apple Pencil.
Nope, the Apple Pencil has a Male lightning connector, connecting to the female lightning connector, that with the female USB-C connector makes it possible to charge the Apple Pencil 1st Gen.
In former times, it was plugged into the iPad itself.
Also only new boxes ship with said connector, all the old stock that is out there needs you to purchase the dongle.
The old pencil has always been either a long cable or plugging it in directly into the iPad, which is even worse.
Feels like dejavu.
But i think the cable is the lesser of two evils, even with an adapter attached to it.Also not that special to have a cable to charge a device...
I keep waiting for Apple to post a press release reading, “We were kidding! There’s NO way we would release such a poor product! The idea was just an in joke to lift up company morale, and somehow was accidentally released to the general Public. Sorry…. Still, it was a funny idea wasn’t it?”
The answer to this is the same answer as “why don’t the Pros have the camera on the long side of the device?” - because they can’t put the camera and the pencil charging mechanism on the same side. I expect they’ll figure it out with a redesign but until then they’ve made some weird decisions and this is one of them.
Why would you need plug it into your iPhone?
You can connect a Pencil 1 to the iPad 10 with an iPhone cable because the Pencil 1 comes with a Lighting adapter. When the new Pencils ship then you can choose which style cable adapter you want.
But it makes sense for Stores to not automatically sell the Pencil 1 unless the customer accepts that it doesn't come with the USB-C adapter.
Jason Snell thinks it’s because of the cost of the technology to implement the wireless pairing/charging. And Apple is never going to give up margin on a product.
I highly doubt the designers made that decision. It’s the bean counters/marketing folks who said the product can’t be more than X price and the margins must be Y.
I think more realistically it's that until the Pencil 3 is released with two smaller magnets which would sit on either side of the camera, Apple's choices were Portrait camera and centered Pencil-2 or landscape camera and off-center Pencil-2. Apple's research may have led them to prioritize a larger screen, landscape stereo speakers, and a landscape camera over an off-center Pencil 2.
