Sometimes I like to spend the morning working at my local coffee shop (fave.co/3LuUIYW). The atmosphere is nice, the owner always greets me with a sincere "Hello, my friend, it's good to see you!"-and it's a lot warmer than my garage office at home.
The problem is, the internet connection isn't great. The streaming background music in the shop acts as an audible network connection monitor-every so often you'll hear it stutter and pause as a sign that the connection has gone wonky. When that happens, the Wi-Fi in the shop stops working-most of the time, it's just for a moment, but it's a flag that gets raised, and it means I need to be aware of something I really shouldn't have to pay attention to at all.
Free Wi-Fi isn't too difficult to find in places like San Francisco, but free reliable Wi-Fi is. Even paid or registration-required Wi-Fi (like at a hotel) is flaky. We can't do anything to fix it other than complain to people who already know, but there is something we can turn to as an alternative: the cellular service we already subscribe to on our iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches.
But there's a problem with that too: The Mac is missing from that list. It's about time for Apple to change this, and with the rumored redesign of the MacBook Air (fave.co/3MveUtQ) seemingly imminent, I hope we start to see Apple equip its laptops with the overdue ability to connect to cellular networks.
This story is from the June 2022 edition of Macworld.
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This story is from the June 2022 edition of Macworld.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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