When Apple announces new products, we love to analyze and dissect all the new stuff, and there was plenty to talk about with this round of releases. But Apple didn’t just add new features to its latest products this time—it also took away some stuff that has been there for a while. Here are four features it took away from the 10th-generation iPad and Apple TV 4K that may start disappearing from other products as well.
Lightning
We all know that Apple’s proprietary Lightning port isn’t long for this world, and Apple isn’t wasting any time getting rid of it. The Lightning port was removed from both the 10-generation iPad and the Siri remote and replaced with USB-C, leaving iPhones, AirPods, and a few Mac accessories as the last remaining devices to feature Lightning.
But there’s one quirk with this round of releases. The new iPad has a USB-C port for charging, so you’ll need an adapter to charge the Apple Pencil, which still has Lightning. So the road to USB-C is still a little bumpy.
Headphone jack
Apple has had a target on the headphone jack since the iPhone 7, and the 9th-gen iPad was the last iOS/iPadOS device to feature a headphone jack—and it still is. Apple removed the jack from the 10-gen iPad’s redesign and once it stops selling the 9th-gen iPad, none of Apple’s tablets will have one.
That will leave the Mac as the only Apple product to still include a 3.5mm headphone jack. Apple had plenty of recent opportunities to remove the headphone jack from the iMac and MacBook with the Apple silicon transition, but it has thus far relented. It’s arguably more important on the Mac than the iPhone and iPad for audio input devices, especially for pro users, but still, we wonder how many more redesigns it’ll survive.
Built-in ethernet
It’s no secret that Apple wants to rid the world of wires, and one of the biggest is ethernet. Ever since the iBook’s AirPort Wireless Wi-Fi Card arrived in 1999, Apple has been trying to get rid of unsightly networking cables, and the Apple TV 4K continues that trend. It’s not gone completely, but you need to buy the $149 model to get an ethernet port—the cheaper $129 model doesn’t have one.
Apple did something similar with the 24-inch iMac. Because it was so thin, Apple removed the ethernet port from the body of the machine and instead moved it to the power adapter—but it’s not included in the cheapest model. It’s been years since Apple included ethernet on its laptops too, so only a handful of desktop Macs—Mac Studio, Mac Pro, and Mac min—support built-in wired internet now. The ethernet port on Apple’s desktop Macs probably isn’t in immediate danger, but it’s definitely endangered.
‘Solid’ Retina displays
Apple introduced the Liquid Retina display with the iPhone X and it’s since expanded to nearly every product it sells with a screen, most recently the 10th-gen iPad and M2 MacBook Air. Now, just a handful of products remain that don’t have a Liquid Retina display: the iPhone SE, ninth-gen iPad, 13-inch MacBook Pro, 24-inch iMac, Studio Display, and Pro Display XDR, and several are rumored to make the switch soon. So if you like square corners, buy one while you still can.
Author: Michael Simon, Executive Editor
Michael Simon has been covering Apple since the iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with technology goes back to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the lift-up keyboard for swapping out the drive. He's still waiting for that to come back in style tbh.