Alleged Photos of Apple's New Dock Connector

[tburk32]

So judging by the pictures this is going to be wireless charging right? No cable between the usb and the dock connector. Leading the way in technology


Only joking. It's not typical for Apple to produce a product that isn't well thought out (i.e. being shocked by the open terminals) so it should be interesting to see when it comes out. I for one would love to see the magsafe type of a connector and not for the safety feature but the ease of plugging it in and also because not having an open dock on the bottom of the phone for lint or other things to get stuck in.

 

[junjunior]

it might be new thunderbolt for iphone

 

[TheOrapple]

Nothing says that contacts are the same on both sides.
That could possibly be a 15 or even 16 contact system and still be able to be used in any of the two possible ways.

Let me explain..
We have 16 contacts on sides, plus ground that makes 17 contacts. If one of the side contact is used as a detector (grounded too), phone could use it to detect orientation then "remap" all contacts accordingly. A pretty simple IC in the phone could act as a switch and wire the contacts on the fly as one of the two possible ways.

It could be a bit simpler if they were to loose an other pin. The mirrored pin on other side would be 'lost' in order not to have it being double use (ground or signal). That would be a 15 signal interface, but yet quite a nice one.

Apple has the money and brain to make such a simple component. In whatever version they want to.

We will only know once we have the motherboard connector. If there are contacts on the two sides, my guess is that it is a 16 or 15 active contacts system. And THAT would be a clever interface.

Waiting for the next leak.

I bet on 16 pins, just for the fun of it. What's your word?

 

[szw-mapple fan]

man, Apple parts are leaking left and right. what's up with that? I want to keep the element of the surprise!

Why are you even on macrumors if thats what you want?

 

[AidenShaw]

So, can we expect a USB 3.0 connection or a Thunderbolt one?
I'd love to connect my iPhone 5 via Thunderbolt and have almost instant backups and syncs.

Why not just use Thunderbolt for everything now?

Do you realize that the flash on the Idevices is slower than USB 2.0?

T-Bolt syncs would be the same speed as USB 2.0 syncs - but you'd need an Apple $50 cable to connect.

 

[snowleopard48]

The problem I have with all of these new connector rumours is that doesn't Apple just want one connector for everything, and isn't that thunderbolt?

Thunderbolt is small as it is, so why don't they just go with that?
Like others have said, yes, the devices are slower than USB2, but still I doubt Apple would care if it meant one universally compatible connector...

 

[silroc]

The problem I have with all of these new connector rumours is that doesn't Apple just want one connector for everything, and isn't that thunderbolt?

Thunderbolt is small as it is, so why don't they just go with that?
Like others have said, yes, the devices are slower than USB2, but still I doubt Apple would care if it meant one universally compatible connector...

Is their mission to make one holy all-governing connector or is it to make ungodly sums of cash?

I think the latter. If the former leads to the latter, then that's what they will do.

IMO

 

[Steve.P.JobsFan]

Man this has me excited!!!!

Please tell us you mean the emotional version of being excited, not the other one.

 

[sclawis300]

You do realize we basically have the phone right now, right? Or are you still holding on hope?

I don't think you understand. The actual assembled iphone 4 was leaked. Not just parts. I was not implying this is not the real thing. You said this was the most leaked phone, I was simply pointing out that it was not.

 

[Gjwilly]

Gizmodo has a pretty detailed analysis of the design of this connector.
http://gizmodo.com/5935305/the-next-iphones-foolproof-dock-connector

Mostly conjecture but it explains all of the advantages over the existing 30-pin, micro-USB, or any other off-the-shelf part that Apple could have gone with.

 

[RemE]

I remember being really pissed when Apple dumped the compact and solid firewire port on my first iPod for the complicated and fragile current dock connector at the next generation. I thought it was a big mistake from day 1, but it did offer much greater I/O capabilites for the future. I've marveled that this complicated and fairly delicate connector has served us this well for so long.

I've always babied my cables and accessories and haven't had many issues over the years, but I have seen massive carnage with my friends and family's abuse of the stock connectors. There just never was enough room for propper strain relief for the cables. The original mag safe was the same way, I couldn't believe they would not make it an angle connector and have a good strain relief. After the class action law suit over the failing/melting mag safe cables, Apple changed the connector to a very nice angle design, better late then never.

From what I can see, this new connector design could be one of the best ever for a portable device.

A-The seemingly cast metal seamless outer frame with side detents could give a butter smooth feel to insertion. If they use spring loaded balls or pins in the device, the connector would slide in and "click" with the positive feel of a mag safe connection. This feel would be consistant for years.

B-The white portion holding the gold pins could be plastic, or better still it might be ceramic which I have seen in similar connectors. This again would make this male plug almost indestructible.

C-The gold stripe contacts will be self cleaning as the tab is inserted and if they do mirror the contacts and allow inserting without orientation, the life of the cable will be even longer as there are essentially two sets of contacts on the plug so the wear is shared between the two sides (for cables, not docks.). So far the rumors of the jack are for contacts on one side only so we don't get redundant connections at all times by using all contacts at all times.

So I say hats off to Apple, I think this connector looks like a wonderful evolution for devices that are sipping power and data many many times per day. I must plug my iPhone into docks/cables/car probably 10-50 times per day so I'm accepting this change with open arms.

Lastly, the only fear I have is that this connector could have a controller chip in it. This could do things from power control to product ID checking which could make it hard for non Apple accessory makers by making the connection "certified" and thus controlled by Apple. My company has products with this feature in some of our cables today to hold off cheap clones.

Normally I wouldn't care too much but frankly Apple doesn't make close to everything I need. Their cables are too short for some applications not to mention the tons of other cool add-on's that are out there.

Guess we'll know for sure soon enough!