Magnetic self-locating connectors have been around forever. I have a waffle iron from the 60's that's got one. The patented part is the specific size and shape (and pinout I guess) of that particular connector that prevents 3rd parties from making compatible adapters. Apple is far from alone in trying to profit from that shenanigan. It is, of course, profoundly wasteful for manufactures to pursue "nickle-and-dime" profits in this manner at the expense of the public and the environment. Something the cellphone charging standard in Europe tried to address.

Just goes to show that there are plenty of places where Apple doesn't do much thinking different after all.

I wonder how patenting a specific implementation of an already-known thing is allowed. Why is this considered an original invention?

Among other things, it violates the intent of patents "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts".

I think they've patented innovations in their thing like you can put it in either way up and it's got a chip with little lights in the end. They waffle on for pages in http://www.google.com/patents/US7311526

I'm not sure they should be able to patent fairly simple upgrades like that but I guess that's the US patent system.

Using a magnet to connect to the device.

You can't just reduce something to its simplest component when discussing patents. It's the specific application that matters.

I guess this would be similar to the Samsung/Apple patent wars which happened?I guess that explains why no-one else tried making anything similar.

Well it's their own connector too, not a standard like USB. Everything about it is likely patented.