How much would you pay for a Thunderbolt->30 adaptor from Apple?

appleguy123 said:

If Apple released the iPad 3 with a USB 2 connector again, but offered a high speed Thunderbolt->30 pin wire, would you be willing to pay for it?

We don't know from the shell designs that this won't happen, only that thunderbolt won't daisy chain to other peripherals. The main problem is that Thunderbolt is owned by intel and not Apple.

It would also be cool to use the retina display as a great monitor with minimal lag.

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I think there may be some confusion what Thunderbolt is and what it isn't. What exactly would you want to to with this? A connection with a Thunderbolt-to-USB2 adapter will run exactly as fast as USB2. And using the iPad display as a monitor for your Mac would require some rather big changes in the way it is wired up, not something that can be overcome with an adapter.

Nothing, no interest in it.

Even better... You play werewolf games?

http://www.eblong.com/zarf/werewolf.html Is it this one?

gnasher729 said:

I think there may be some confusion what Thunderbolt is and what it isn't. What exactly would you want to to with this? A connection with a Thunderbolt-to-USB2 adapter will run exactly as fast as USB2. And using the iPad display as a monitor for your Mac would require some rather big changes in the way it is wired up, not something that can be overcome with an adapter.

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Even if the iPad had Thunderbolt chips inside it so that it is able to have a Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt connection the cost would overcome any benefits that a casual iPad user might have.

The only thing I can see that would help is the transfer speed to transfer info to and back of the iPad. However Apple is moving towards a concept were a user does not need to be connected with a cable. In iOS 5 they allowed iOS devices to sync wirelessly.

The other potential benefit is that 3rd party accessories would be able to use thunderbolt speeds but looking at the current 3rd party accessories for the Mac they are few and expensive and most of then are based on fast data storage. Which the iPad isn't able to benefit from as iOS does not have any file system.

Don't waste your money Thunderbolt is not for the iPad as of yet, there isn't any applications for it and at the moment it is for data transfer and extending the screens on Thunderbolt enabled Macs.

I use it to extend the screen on my iMac and MBP as well as data transfer to HDD's.

Controllers in the iOS devices arent even fast enough to saturate usb 2.0 speeds, why would you want Thunderbolt?

Skika said:

Controllers in the iOS devices arent even fast enough to saturate usb 2.0 speeds, why would you want Thunderbolt?

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Because apple makes it... duh

gnasher729 said:

I think there may be some confusion what Thunderbolt is and what it isn't. What exactly would you want to to with this? A connection with a Thunderbolt-to-USB2 adapter will run exactly as fast as USB2.

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From the connectors on both ends to the software, everything about todays iPod sync needs to be overhauled. And since TB is getting an awfully slow and expensive start then it only seems natural for Apple to bring TB to the mass market by putting TB on iOS.

So Im guessing the OP is stating it wrong because what we should be seeing is TB on future iOS hardware with a TB->USB adapter to ensure compatibility with "Windows/Legacy" hardware. That gives older machines the same connectivity but unlocks the benefits of TB for iOS.

The obvious thing is to say Thunderbolt offers high speed data transfer to your computer. But where I see a major benefit is if they put TB on the Time Capsule and AppleTV.

1) Time Capsule 5 should evolve into being an iTunes Server also so having TB enables external or internal HDD's for your iTunes library. So your iOS device slips right in there with Thunderbolt for data sync.

2) AppleTV 3 would benefit from having TB because if Apple starts serving 1080p downloads (or even... [gasp]... iTunes 3D) in the iTunes Store then you'll want a faster pipe than WiFi or AirSync for such large files. So what we'd get is thunderbolt enabling Time Capsule Server --> AppleTV or iOS --> AppleTV.


And back to the OP's question, This is Apple's game so if they want us to switch from USB to TB then it should cost the end user nothing. You bundle the sync cable and adapter and we'll buy the hardware that uses it.

urkel said:

So Im guessing the OP is stating it wrong

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OP's assumptions are wrong. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Thunderbolt-Dock Connector won't run at Thunderbolt speed as it's limited by the dock connector.