We know that Apple will vamp some intersection on a pretty regular agenda : the iPhone , for example . Others get slightly less frequent update , like the iPad or MacBooks .
But what about the Apple products that seem to sometimes go years without a refresh ? There are more than a few of them , and while some occasionally find themselves in the hearsay spotlight , others just continue chugging along as they are — perhaps sentence to an evolutionary dead - end , or mayhap to be upraise when Apple decides the moment is ripe .
Let ’s take a moment to praise some of these unsung Hero of Alexandria , and hope that they may one day realise a press exit or perhaps , unlikely as it might be , some stage time at an Apple case .
AirPort
For many of us , a Wi - Fi internet is no less essential to our unremarkable lives than die hard water or electricity . ( It ’s for certain just as frustrating when it ’s not working . ) Apple first rolled out its AirPort base station way back in 1999 , and since then it ’s update the equipment every few year , as well as exposit the line of business to include a minor version , the Express , and a version with an include intemperate drive for backup , the Time Capsule . The last update to the tune , which sum backing for the newest Wi - Fi standard , 802.11ac , was back in 2013 .
The AirPort Extreme was last update in 2013 .
I ’ve got an elder version of the AirPort Extreme in my house , and it ’s been run with nary a hitch since I first establish it about six years back . For a while , it seemed like there was a Modern , quicker Wi - Fi monetary standard every few year , but the latest ontogeny in wireless networking have been less about f number and more about coverage . Companies like eero and Google , for example , have started pluck out devices that utilise seamless mesh networks to blanket your entire firm .
Google will sell its Google Wi - Fi singly or in multitude of three .
This seems like the kind of lineament that Apple would want to get in on . presently , set up multiple airdrome to plow your family is not for the deliquium of heart . I ’ve had great hazard deploying the AirPort Express for several member of my category , but I know more than a few family who end up with some places in their houses that the signaling just wo n’t reach . Add in the kind of web control that devices like those or Circle with Disney bring home the bacon to manage web access for kid and it would make a desirable revamp to Apple ’s web oblation .
External display
When it comes to Apple ’s displays , Retina has been the watchword for the last several years . The company ’s bring high - definition screens to reasonably much all of its product blood line . But one whole arena has been disregard in the Retina transition : Macs with outside displays .
One welfare of Apple ’s Thunderbolt Display is that it can provide power and extra port to your laptop . Unfortunately , today Apple power some laptops with MagSafe but the MacBook with USB - C.
The last update to the fellowship ’s external video display ancestry was the 2011 Thunderbolt Display , which Apple stop sell earlier this yr . But Apple still sell two headless Macs , the mini and the Pro , each of which could sure use a high - calibre monitor . For the moment , the only real option is to go third - party which , while it might sure as shooting supply more bang for your sawbuck than the traditionally pricey Apple displays , does lack some of the niceties offered by first - company manikin , such as a power connector for laptop . ( Of course , these Clarence Shepard Day Jr. Apple hasmultiplepower connectors for its laptop , so that ’s a little more vexing . )
Rumors have been suggesting for some metre now that Apple will launcha Retina successorto its display line , perchance including an embed graphics circuit card to help labor the display . Like its precursor , it could also act as a docking root for Apple laptops which , if the MacBook is any indication , are become to be increasingly port - shy . While it probably wo n’t be cheap , that ’s hardly anything new : Apple ’s marque is predicate on hoi polloi paying a niggling more to get a minuscule more .
The iPod
Is the iPod dead ? Well , mostly . Like it or not , most people use their speech sound for listening to euphony these twenty-four hours . But mostly stagnant is still part live , and Apple ’s kept the shuffle , nano , and touch around . There are still plenty of great uses for those devices , whether it be for work out , lending out digital subject matter in school and depository library , or as gift for kids who are n’t quite ready for a headphone of their own .
The iPod touch was last brush up in the summer of 2015 with an A8 micro chip , new colors , and a better camera .
I do n’t look to see major change to the nano or shuffle — Apple seems to have taken them about as far as they ’re likely to go . The iPod touch is a slightly more interesting motion : unlike the others , it runs iOS and it was update just last year , which means it ’s compatible with iOS 10 . But it still lack many features that are standard on its iOS siblings , like Touch ID , and it ’s stuck at a iPhone 5s - style 4 - inch screen door .
Few of Apple ’s competitor ever made a twist of the iPod touch ’s ilk , alternatively preferring to direct customer to phones or diminished tablets . Not to say that Apple should follow the example of its rivals , but it sure enough seems that the penning for the iPod touch modality is on the wall . Still , an iOS equipment with a speech sound chassis factor and no data plan may stay a compelling production category — perhaps it could someday be reborn as an iPad micro .
Odds and ends
spate of other Apple Cartesian product could use some TLC . The Mac Pro and Mac miniskirt both receive pretty thin updates . Apple ’s wireless peripherals could perhaps tot up some of the features rumored to come to the MacBook Pro , like a customizable sense of touch bar and Touch ID . And hey , would it kill them to put out a wireless extend keyboard with a act pad ?
When it come to production , Apple ’s bring forth a reasonably recondite bench , and it ’s not going to update all of them on the regular : it has to pick and select what it dedicate its get-up-and-go to . But the virtue of having a broad catalog mean that Apple can always decide to bring some of those production back from the dead , when the time is right .
