Time to update your… cable?
Anybody else feel like the barrage of app and operating system updates is getting to be a bit much? Not only the pace of updates, which shows no signs of slowing, but also the continual expansion of devices that require updates.
Keeping your computer updated was no big deal. Then gaming consoles, smartphones, tablets, e-readers, smart watches, smart TVs, routers… it’s easy to feel like you spend more time updating devices than using them. And the latest? You need to update your power cord.
If you use recent Apple Magsafe 3 Cables it’s time to update their firmware.That’s right, now something as simple as a power cable gets firmware updates.
To be fair to Apple, the update seems to happen automagically without a user having to initiate the update. But I’d wager most users don’t even realize that their Magsafe 3 cables have enough complexity to require an update in the first place.
I guess there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle, but maybe things are out of hand when something as simple as a power cable needs firmware updates.
Is it that simple, though? Power cables are pretty damn magic: I can plug my laptop or my phone in to my 65 watt power supply and they both get just the right amount of electrons. Maybe that regulation all happens in hardware logic, I don’t really know.
But! If it is all in hardware and there’s a fault, the solution is for the manufacturer to tell everyone to get an entirely new cable instead. Is that better?
I’m pretty cynical when it comes to technology. On the other hand, we ask our tech to do a lot these days, without us having to think about it. It shouldn’t surprise us that complexity is a result.
(On the other hand, this could be as silly as it seems on the face. Who can say?)
If it works for your phone and laptop, I’d expect the logic (at least for the phone) has to be with the phone and not the cable since the Magsafe cable isn’t compatible with the phone. But, obviously, the cable has firmware that does ~something, presumably to the benefit of the MacBook or whatever.
“we ask our tech to do a lot these days, without us having to think about it. It shouldn’t surprise us that complexity is a result.”
I mean, that complexity means I *do* end up having to think about it. Just seems to me that a world where our power cables need firmware updates has gotten out of hand. I’d like fewer systems that need updating, not more. What troubles me more is that I doubt it’ll stop here, and heaven only knows what devices are going to require firmware updates a few years from now.
Anyway, there’s a teardown vid of the cable if you want to see just how much they’ve shoved in there: https://www.chargerlab.com/quick-easy-latest-teardown-of-apple-usb-c-to-magsafe-3-cable-2-m/