[Macworld]

Post your comments for Mac News Briefs: QuickerTek battery extends MacBook life by five hours here

[reallycrazy]

What sucks is that the battery/charger costs an extra $100, because they have to buy, at retail, an Apple power supply and then cut off the cable (and then throw the power supply away), because Apple won't license the connector to anybody else.

[TheFLP]

I know, I know. Sigh...

Would it kill Apple to make the MagSafe cable detachable, with a non-proprietary plug at the other end? Even if they won't license the connector itself, we could at least use the cables we already have with products like these.

(And does anyone have a plausible explanation for Apple's attitude about MagSafe, aside from pure capriciousness?)

[heisetax]

MagSafe = Typical Apple ripoff!!!

[alansky]

@heisetax:
If that's your attitude, you made a wrong turn somewhere. Ignorant outbursts without a shred of evidence are kinda out of place here.

[JS2008]

You can answer your own question by responding to this question.

There are companies that are in business to make money AND serve the needs of their customers.

Other companies are just in it to make money.

Which category does Apple fall in?

e.g. removal of matte screens, magsafe exclusivity without licensing it to others when Apple doesn't offer options.

[sporks]

JS2008 said:

You can answer your own question by responding to this question.

There are companies that are in business to make money AND serve the needs of their customers.

Other companies are just in it to make money.

Which category does Apple fall in?

e.g. removal of matte screens, magsafe exclusivity without licensing it to others when Apple doesn't offer options.

Sigh. It is impossible to make money without giving a customer what he wants. It is also impossible to make money by giving every customer everything he wants. The way to make the most money is to give the right set of customers what they want.

Translation: Profit is not evil, and neither is it immoral for a company to not give you what you want.

[TheFLP]

JS2008 said:

e.g. removal of matte screens

Which they declined to do to the 17" MacBook Pro. And they did a complete about-face on Firewire across the whole MBP lineup (we'll see if they do the same for ExpressCard, but I'm not placing any bets), which makes it tougher to pigeonhole the company the way you want to.

Sweeping generalizations about blind profit motives don't improve on the "pure capriciousness" theory ? which isn't much of theory to begin with, though it might explain the Firewire flip-flop. Maybe.

A huge ecosystem has developed around the equally proprietary iPod dock connector because Apple didn't keep that one to itself. MagSafe has fewer applications and doesn't lend itself so easily to market domination (unless they expand the concept beyond laptop power supplies), but that strikes me as a poor reason not to make a few bucks licensing it.

It certainly seems like there are enough people complaining about melted insulation to create a thriving market for third party replacements. The MacBook power supply isn't exactly one of Apple's crowning achievements.

The final insult is the brain-dead simplicity of the MagSafe design. It doesn't take a genius to reverse engineer a symmetrical 5-pin power plug ? it's as if they're daring someone to violate the patent.

I don't get it.