Take Apple’s late-2016 MacBook Pro, its latest flagship laptop. The new model ships only with USB-C ports. But all of Apple’s current devices, including the iPhone 7 and a rechargeable Bluetooth keyboard and mouse come with USB-A cables, which cannot connect to the new laptop. A replacement cable can be had— for $20. Over time, this problem will work itself out as USB-C replaces USB-A entirely. But if good design is in the details, why should anyone spending thousands of dollars on a supposedly well-designed machine have to wait on the details?
The iPhone is no better off. Starting with the iPhone 5S, first released in 2014, Apple adopted a software-controlled fingerprint sensor mounted on the home button. Known as Touch ID, the feature allows users to authenticate to unlock the phone, download products from the App Store, and make payments at participating retailers with Apple Pay. But even the slightest disturbance on a finger makes Touch ID unreliable. Washed your hands recently? Ate a banana? Dug in the dirt of the garden? Touched something too warm, or too cold, for too long? Good luck authenticating with your fingerprint. A mere inconvenience when unlocking the phone, but Apple Pay won’t work at all without Touch ID. So fat chance using that new digital wallet on a rainy day, or after tactically interacting with worldly substances.
And what about autocorrect? As funny as it once was to guffaw over its foibles, the feature hasn’t become smarter, so much as its users have become more acclimated to managing its errors when writing and reading smartphone-composed messages.
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