Apple Pencil 2nd Generation

This second generation Apple Pencil fixed the one thing people most disliked about the original: the awkward charging. 

Instead of a Lightning connector under a cap, plugged straight into the iPad, this one attaches magnetically to the side of a compatible iPad, and just resting it there both charges it and pairs it automatically. It launched at $129, $30 more than the original, and only worked with that year's brand new iPad Pro at first, with compatibility gradually extended to the iPad Air and iPad mini in later years.

The shape changed too. Where the first Pencil was fully round and glossy, this one has a matte finish and a single flat edge, both for grip and so it doesn't roll off a desk. That flat edge doubles as a small touch-sensitive area, letting you double-tap it to quickly switch tools, from a pencil to an eraser in a drawing app, for example, without having to put it down and reach for an on-screen button. Apple also dropped the removable tip cap and separate charging adapter entirely, since there was no longer a connector to hide.

One feature came later rather than at launch: Apple Pencil hover, which shows an on-screen preview of exactly where the tip will land before it touches the display, only arrived through a software update, and only on a couple of the newer iPad Pro models years after this Pencil first went on sale.