The iPad’s Smart Connector is criminally underused

Apple seems to have a fetish for rare or exclusive ports. The original iMac was one of the first computers to adopt USB. Later Macs adopted FireWire, then Thunderbolt, the second of which only became common on Windows PCs with the arrival of USB 4. Perhaps the most infamous one is Lightning, which Apple stubbornly clung onto for iPhones, iPads, and various accessories from 2012 through to early 2025 — despite the fact that USB-C had been an option since 2014. In fact, it only began transitioning iPhones to USB-C when European regulators forced its hand.