All you say was kinda true for the magsafe ones, I recently saw the adapter that comes with a new macbook air:

- no little clip anymore

- no long cable anymore

- not the smallest Watt-for-Watt anymore (the new GaN ones are smaller)

- and of course: no magsafe anymore...

But I'm sure that three years from now they will have the "courage" to go back to their older superior design.

They’ve managed that courage for their keyboards now.

All Magsafe chargers I've seen fell apart in a few years time. Even chargers that were used only on a desk and saw no stress had their cable expand a little near the connector (enough for the small clip got stuck), then turned yellow, then yellow-green and sticky, finally becoming brittle and just eroding away.

I have never experienced anything like this with other brands nor with no-name brick chargers. Even Chinese knock-off replacement cables for Magsafe chargers didn't fail like that.

Cables turning yellow and sticky is a uniquely Apple experience.

I have boxes of cables accumulated over decades. Every other brand of cable is basically in the same condition it was when it went into storage.

But Apple cables are fucking disgusting (there is simply no other way to say it). Why are they so sticky? Why are they so yellow? Every Apple cable seems to be affected--headphones, power supplies,and dongles.

My guess is it has something to do with the "soft" touch finish and the white coloring.

IIRC the thing that makes BPA plastic yellow over time is the gradual oxidation of a fire-retardant chemical added to it. You can reverse this process with bleach+UV light, reducing the chemical back to its non-oxidized form (sort of like how you can use activated charcoal to absorb moisture from the air, and then bake it to re-activate it.) If your 30yo white plastic isn't yellow, that's because the manufacturer skimped on the fire-retardant and it's likely highly flammable.

No idea about why some plastics get sticky, though. I'd imagine it's the plastic's polymer literally breaking down, but it might also be some additive "sweating" out. Maybe it's the very same fire-retardant chemical. (Old yellowing hard plastics don't get sticky, but they don't tend to have plasticizers in them, so they need far less flame-retardant.)

Somebody told me a while back that Apple cables self-destruct when other cables don't because a while back Green Peace talked Apple into no longer using PVC for their cables. The replacement plastic is presumably better for the environment but is less durable (possibly negating any environmental benefits by increasing the amount of e-waste produced?)

I don't know how much truth there is to this theory though. It doesn't seem to explain the poor strain relief.

If that were the case, I’d expect that Apple would use it in their marketing. A more environmentally friendly cable could be a good selling point.

Oh, they do: https://www.apple.com/environment/our-approach/

I never knew that! From their "Integrating Toxicological Assessments in Material Selection for Apple Products" white paper:

"Removal of BFRs and PVC were challenging since alternatives were not readily available at the time. The largest obstacle was identifying a replacement to PVC in AC power cords, where strict safety standards favored PVC and created barriers to its elimination. Apple worked with multiple material suppliers and tested dozens of different formulations until the right combination of performance and safety were achieved with lower toxicological and ecological risk than PVC. Apple then had to persuade dozens of safety agencies around the world to allow it to certify the alternative materials. Millions of PVC-free power cords are in use today with Apple products."

https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/Toxicology_in_Material...

> "Every Apple product is free of PVC and phthalates with the exception of AC power cords in India, Thailand, and South Korea, where we continue to seek government approval for our PVC and phthalates replacement."

Investigating magsafe cable durability in those countries might be a way to corroborate or refute the PVC theory, though I wouldn't know where to start.

The first generations of magsafe adapters did not have stress relief at all, because form over function was still in full swing. Every charger had the cable completely break apart at the connection to the brick, because stress relief ruined the pretty minimalist design.

To say it's nothing but function means denying the evidence.

    Every charger had the cable completely break apart at
    the connection to the brick, because stress relief ruined
    the pretty minimalist design.

I had one of these. Mine didn't break. A lot of them broke, to be sure - but that's because the users don't understand that a multiwire cable isn't a shoelace and shouldn't have knots and zero-radius bends inflicted on it.

I've always been careful with my magsafe chargers, and I'm a former recording studio engineer so I'm not a newbie about cables and strain relief. However, using my laptop on my lap provided too much exercise. The insulation on every magsafe I've ever owned has failed eventually.

These things were spec'd to go on table tops and then never move. It's a crying shame because otherwise magsafe was a really elegant design.

You don't have to be careful with laptop charging cables from any other manufacturer. This is not a problem intrinsic to multiwire cables. It's a problem limited to cables from this particular manufacturer. You could strangle an elephant with a charging cable from Dell or Lenovo and the cable would be none the worse for wear.

the problem is not just when you wrap it, is that if you move the cable in any way (say, move your laptop around, trip on the cable, etc), it will bend in that spot.

If you tie up your cable in the loop-up-then-down-then-sidewise it will improve things, but then you will put it in your bag and it will bend at that spot anyway as soon as some pressure is applied on the up-loop.

This is why every manufacturer uses strain relief, including apple now.

Saying "users are using the product the wrong way!" is the epitome of form over function.

I'm convinced the heating of the brick is a contributing factor to the cable 'sliding out' near the brick. I treat my charging cables like they are made of spiderwebs and I'm on my third magsafe.

I try to keep the brick laying flat on my tile floor for this reason. The tile surface is a reasonably effective and convenient heat sink; moreso than a carpet floor or wood table anyway.

I wish they'd just make these things properly.

They might be lighter, but I consider not having a cord in between the heavy transformer and the wall plug to be a design flaw. Unless you have receptacles with vicegrip like prongs, like they are when they brand new, the transformers tend to unplug themselves over time due to their weight and gravity.

Edit: Oh, and whatever they put in that white rubber seems to really attract cats. Not sure what it is, but it's the only cables in my house that the cats like to chew on. Friends/family have experienced the same.

I’m pretty sure MacBooks come with a cable that extend its range. The official name for is a “power adapter extension cable.”

New ones do not include this cable in the box anymore.