GasBandit
Staff member
Apple will never satisfy my lust for cheap, powerful hardware
- Thread starter strawman
- Start date
B
BErt
I did have a lot of fun playing around on xda developers and such...but 1) having to administer 60+ devices and 2) Not having to pay a phone bill anymore made me a big fan of iOS
Also, I stand corrected. Having now looked in the options, it's 0.5x transition time, aka twice as fast. But it sounds like you already figured that out.Huh. Neat. That is faster.
Well, never mind then
GasBandit
Staff member
Yeah, that's what I did.
1998 - No more floppy
2003 - No more native pre-OSX support
2006 - No more "Classic" (OS9) environment
2009 - No more removable battery
2011 - No more PowerPC compatibility
2012 - No more optical drive
2016 - No more headphone port
...it's not the first time they've decided to axe some portion of a device. Can't say there isn't prior history of the behavior.
Time will tell whether it's remembered as an attempt to push people towards the future or mere hubris.
--Patrick
2003 - No more native pre-OSX support
2006 - No more "Classic" (OS9) environment
2009 - No more removable battery
2011 - No more PowerPC compatibility
2012 - No more optical drive
2016 - No more headphone port
...it's not the first time they've decided to axe some portion of a device. Can't say there isn't prior history of the behavior.
Time will tell whether it's remembered as an attempt to push people towards the future or mere hubris.
--Patrick
I do admit, Apple has a history of having foresight with removing then-popular features that are about to be obsolete (first iPhone was killed for not having a stylus) but I just don't think this one is the same. I don't want to have to charge my headphones, or carry around an adapter. Not to mention my earbud replacements should be relatively cheap, not $160.
We can't even tell how much more the "ordinary" Lightning buds will cost.
(checks online store)
...oh, I guess we can (they're just not available yet for purchase).
Regular (1/8" minijack) EarPods = $19
Lightning EarPods = $29
Well, they're compatible with any Lightning-equipped model, even iPads.
No word on sample rate conversion, impact on battery life, etc. Guess we'll hear about that later.
--Patrick
I guess I should go check out what apple said yesterday.
I don't think I'm upgrading this year, so it's probably a moot point.
As far as earphonegate, I use it daily but I don't disagree with getting rid of it particularly since it appears there's an adaptor. Now I just plug in one cable in the car and it charges and plays my music.
I think it'll be a non issue this time next year, relegated to the heap of non removable battery and no ad card slot. Some people will care religiously, and others who thought they would care find that they are fine with the new arrangement.
I don't think I'm upgrading this year, so it's probably a moot point.
As far as earphonegate, I use it daily but I don't disagree with getting rid of it particularly since it appears there's an adaptor. Now I just plug in one cable in the car and it charges and plays my music.
I think it'll be a non issue this time next year, relegated to the heap of non removable battery and no ad card slot. Some people will care religiously, and others who thought they would care find that they are fine with the new arrangement.
What size card do you have in the SD slot, and what is the maximum it supports?
How often do you swap batteries?
My GF has 128 GB in there and is using a large part of it on photos and music - I don't actually have one in there right now, though I've used it to transfer photo's from my camera to the net before. A phone with 16GB memory and a 128GB card is far, far cheaper, and more versatile, than buying a phone with 128GB memory.
Battery wise, though, yes, I've switched a bunch of times - using hers to access my phone when my battery's (almost) dead, charging the other one (we bought one SIM card while trekking in New Zealand, for example, and I used both batteries in that phone, and hers only for Wifi and charging battery). Also, I've had a few crashes where the phone didn't respond to the power button and only removing the battery got it to turn back on.
Well, sounds like you would be disappointed with the iPhone then.
The reset thing is a mystery, though. Why would the hardware designers make it so you couldn't force a reset without removing the battery? I understand there's generally a reset capability, but why would they design it so sometimes that didn't work? I wonder if that's the real reason they added the removable battery back to the S line of phones. The fact that an android phone can get into such a state where it cannot be used until you remove the battery sounds ridiculous, but I've heard this isn't uncommon for androids and the community simply accepts it.
As far as switching batteries, sounds like your usage requirements are more challenging than mine. If I know I'm going to visit an area with limited service (ie, cell phone power consumption increases, or all day GPS use) then I'll put a short cable and tiny USB battery in my pocket. That's very rare, though, because I almost always have my car with me. I'm sure it would be different if I used public transportation. Most of the time I only plug my phone in at night, it never gets below 80%, and I only use it for 2-3 hours a day total use, with maybe 300 alerts a day.
Let's not forget that Apple is not alone in this design choice: The Moto Z has no headphone jack
Honestly, I think they would have shown a lot more "courage", if they had gone one-port with USB-C instead of lightning.
I have no particular issues with lightning, and yes, you'd be asking apple fans to switch ports for charging again, but at least you'd be pushing people to get headphones that are usable on (some) non-Apple devices and will be the likely global standard in the very near future anyway.
Apple has always refused to play nice with other people's standards. That they can continue to sell Betamax in a VHS world shows how good their marketing has done their job, I guess.
USB C exists because the lightning connector had several significant advantages over existing connectors, and without the impetus of the lightning connector USB C likely wouldn't exist.
Will Apple transition to USB C for their mobile devices later? I doubt it. Apple wants consumers to understand their mobile devices aren't computers and use them as such. Further they want the mobile devices to be mobile and they are instead pushing wireless connectivity (air display, air print, HD wireless audio, cellular internet, etc) for those devices much harder than for their PC platforms.
Will Apple transition to USB C for their mobile devices later? I doubt it. Apple wants consumers to understand their mobile devices aren't computers and use them as such. Further they want the mobile devices to be mobile and they are instead pushing wireless connectivity (air display, air print, HD wireless audio, cellular internet, etc) for those devices much harder than for their PC platforms.
They're one of the ones pushing USB-C, though. The only data port on the 12-inch Macbook is a USB-C port, and the new Pro refresh line is credibly thought to have two USB-C ports (and some of the crazier rumors think they'll have 4 USB-C ports and no others).
EDIT: Granted, they have investment in the notion that their mobile devices are separate from their PC line, but with them pushing cloud services on both their laptops and mobile devices, it would make sense to easily allow them invested users of the Apple ecosystem to have cable standard parity across those devices.
EDIT: Granted, they have investment in the notion that their mobile devices are separate from their PC line, but with them pushing cloud services on both their laptops and mobile devices, it would make sense to easily allow them invested users of the Apple ecosystem to have cable standard parity across those devices.
Whoops, my bad. It's the USB<->Lightning connector that's only $19*, the analog EarPods are $29, same price as the Lightning ones.
Sony did announce they were ceasing all Betamax production as of this past March.
I'm with @SpecialKO on this, though. USB-C 3.1 is a port that can do the majority of what people want. Power? HD Video? Data xfer? All possible.
--Patrick
*...except for the 2m ones, which are $29.
fade
Staff member
Apple will HAVE to use USB for the iPhone next year. If they want to sell them in Europe.
in place of of the lightning port.
I hadn't seen that ruling before! In that case, I really don't know why they didn't go with USB-C. It would have brought them in line with EU regulations by using a cable standard they themselves have been aggressively pushing for their other devices.
I like that you threw in the (tm) there.
Yeah, it's been coming since at least 2015. If I recall, the chip inside the Lightning cable is there because it enables ... stuff? ..., but as you say, I don't know why everyone doesn't just go USB-C purely for convenience's sake.
--Patrick
Yep. iOS devices shipped to the EU include the adapter in the box to comply with the regulations.
I hadn't heard they changed the standard to USB-c, nor that they disallowed use of adapters to meet the requirement, so I'd say [citation needed] for those aspects of the law.
It's funny, though, because the existing micro usb regulation isn't that old, so changing it to another standard only a few years after the first standard will not reduce charger e-waste, and a host of other benefits the original regulation was meant to fulfill. Still, only having two standards vs each manufacturer having their own standard is better than nothing.
