I don’t know why I found this account so delightful. I guess it’s just the can-do spirit. I’ve had an iPhone 12 Pro for a while, and I’m a fan of the new MagSafe feature. I find it convenient for daily charging, and it eliminates the danger of failing to line up the phone just right on a Qi charger. I also have a handy 3rd party car mount that’s great for cars without CarPlay. The magnet on the iPhone is pretty strong, and now I know that if I ever drop my phone into a canal, I may be able to retrieve it by “magnet fishing.” When an unlucky Berliner dropped his phone into a mucky canal, his friend suggested using the MagSafe magnet to fish it out. After several hours of experimentation, they succeeded!
Btw, for non iPhone products, I use NetDot magnetic USB patches, I cannot live without now. It automatically connect just by approaching the USB port to the charger plug. And indeed you can lift a phone from the magnetic plug.
https://www.amazon.com/NetDot-Magnetic-Compatible-Smartphones-i-Product/dp/B07QJ5DTDR/
https://www.amazon.com/NetDot-Magnetic-Charging-Transfer-Compatible/dp/B07QJXLDCH/
Gen12 are round and includes USB 2.0 data, so it’s not just charging.
Kochise,
That is pretty neat. I’ve seen many devices with ports that stop working and even charging because micro-usb didn’t hold up. Time will tell if USB-c will last long term but so far it’s better. A magnetic connections seems like a winner. I favor 90 deg. angle connectors though because the strait connector makes it considerably less convenient to use the phone while it’s charging.
On a separate note: I’m not a fan at all of these Amazon affiliate & tracking scripts that are auto-loaded on osnews when a user posts a link to a product (use browser developer tools to see the amazon.com scripts). I don’t mind manually checking the link that Kochise posted, using a private window if I choose, but if osnews is not getting a commission from embedded affiliate content then my opinion is that allowing amazon (and others) to track us by automatically running their scripts on osnews does more harm than good and isn’t worth the privacy tradeoff.
Anyone else have opinions about this wordpress “feature”?
Alfman, thanks for pointing out that WordPress was set up to rewrite Amazon links into those fancy embeds. It’s actually a plugin that we installed at one point, but you made me realize that it was probably sending affiliate revenue to someone else, so I’m going to investigate using a different plugin that sends the affiliate revenue to us instead.
Back on topic, I’m very interested in these magnetic connectors. I’m always afraid of wearing out my micro-usb connectors (though not nearly as worried as I am about my devices with mini-usb!) and I love Apple’s old Macbook magsafe connector. I’m so happy that Apple is supposedly bringing back MagSafe in the next Macbooks. I’d be a proponent of magneting all the things.
You are indeed very true. I “discovered” magnetic holders (metallic plate to stick on the back cover of the phone) and these USB plugs. Both are God given. Yet beware not to let the phone fall on the plug otherwise it’ll bend, it’s still rather fragile. To “break” the connection and avoid pulling out the plug because of the magnetic strength, just “twist” the charger plug on the side like you’d open a beer cap to lessen the contact to a single point.
As for the 90° connectors, there are available, and also spare plugs (micro-USB, USB-C and Lightning in EU) :
https://www.amazon.com/NetDot-Magnetic-Charging-Transfer-i-Product/dp/B07WRBCNRK/
https://www.amazon.com/NetDot-Gen12-Micro-Connectors-Without/dp/B07QJ2RKS9/
https://www.amazon.com/NetDot-Gen12-USB-C-Connectors-Without/dp/B07QGZW8X9/
Just keep in mind the Gen12 variant can be attached regardless of the orientation because the magnetic connection is round. Unlike the other variants.