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Another Image of New Lightning Cable with Reversible USB Connector Surfaces

MH01 said:
Actually his explanation is credible, cause rechargeable batteries do deteriorate over time.

Have you noticed that you have less charge left at nights before you recharge? I would find it extremely difficult to believe that your battery has the same charge after 4 years :cool:
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My batter has declined in quality over the past 3 years (I have an iOS battery diagnostics program that shows the battery only lasts 60% as long as it originally did) - but I have found that iOS has definitely become more of a battery hog.

The two most battery hungry pieces of hardware on the iPhone are the screen and the GPS. Over the years, Apple has been slowly adding more and more GPS usage in the background to iOS, which causes a pretty dramatic reduction in how long the battery lasts. Additionally, with iOS 7, they shifted to a very white intensive interface, which it seems to me also contributes to the battery lasting less time.

I've combatted the GPS by going through and turning off access to the GPS to several programs and services which just didn't seem to benefit me at all. IE, Facebook or CNN. Neither of those apps need my location - what the heck are they doing with it? Location based iAds, Popular Near Me, and Frequent Locations? Turned all of that off (I understand the benefit of Frequent Locations, but it seemed to be having my GPS turn on nearly all day, causing my iPhone to die before noon).

Just turning off all those GPS services caused my battery (which gets unplugged at 5 AM) to go from lasting until ~11 AM to now lasting until 5 PM.

I wish Apple would put GPS information right in the Control Center. It should have a button to instantly turn your GPS off, plus if it's in use it should tell you who is using it. Frequently by the time I make it to GPS page in Settings whatever was using it has already stopped, so I can't tell its gray arrow from any other gray arrow.
 
Mascots said:
Touché
I guess this is where we will see those millions of dollars of R&D in Apple variance.
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Seems like money wasted if the new USB type-c reversible cable takes off.

Not sure why the makers can't all get together to decide on a single reversible standard.

Now we will have the (probably Apple only if no one else licences it) reversible lightning connector and reversible USB Type-c. I wonder which is better.
 
dilbert99 said:
Why publish this drivel, for something to be reversible, it needs to be symmetrical.

You plug this in one way and it will fit, reverse it and it won't, hence its not reversible.
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Sorry how do you know this? Looks symmetrical to me.

Also as the other guy pointed out there are already reversible ones...

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SandboxGeneral said:
Since 2008? What happened to the EarPods introduced in 2012?
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Perhaps click the link why don't you...
 
MH01 said:
Actually his explanation is credible, cause rechargeable batteries do deteriorate over time.

Have you noticed that you have less charge left at nights before you recharge? I would find it extremely difficult to believe that your battery has the same charge after 4 years :cool:
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The problem is battery deterioration happens over time, not all at once. So people may notice but it may not necessarily have a big impact. On the other hand, being able to market to the world that they have a phone that lasts for two days without a charge might create much more revenue in an age where smartphones have pretty horrible battery life.

Besides, there are other ways to make a product obsolete that are more effective.
 
dilbert99 said:
Seems like money wasted if the new USB type-c reversible cable takes off.

Not sure why the makers can't all get together to decide on a single reversible standard.

Now we will have the (probably Apple only if no one else licences it) reversible lightning connector and reversible USB Type-c. I wonder which is better.
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Well, Apple knows no expense when it comes to user experience, both in software and with the actual hardware (when it must be interacted with), so it's fairly obvious that Apple didn't fancy the one-sided connector, especially with the replacement of the Dock Connector standard with Lightning. They made a big deal about it being reversible in its introduction, because it is freaking annoying to plug in a symmetrical cable only to do it the wrong way, every damn time, somehow.

The USB groups slow progression of standards (which I admit must be hard as hell, so no hatred over it) are probably what prompted Apple to invest in an alternate cable now. If an official no-orientation cable is released in the wild by USB, then neither will hurt each other and Apple can transition away from their proprietary design. Hell, Apple's investments might even benefit USB's future, but time will only tell and I doubt that's their intention. Just to fix an age old problem since it's not being fixed soon enough.
 
boechat said:
Will it even fit in my usb port?
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This is a misleading photo. The usual USB connector is level but the new reversible one is tilted making it appear thicker. If you measure them with a screen measuring tool like the calipers in xScope these two USB connectors are exactly the same size.
 
MacRumors said:
[url=http://cdn.macrumors.com/im/macrumorsthreadlogodarkd.png]Image[/url]
The structure of the newer cable was also spotted in previous photos, and likely indicates that this is a reversible USB connector. It is also therefore possible that the new Lightning cable could utilize USB 3.0 technology, as current Lightning cables support only USB 2.0.
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No, it isn't. In a display of utter incompetence, the USB forum has decided that for reversible connections, a completely new connector must be used that looks a bit like a symmetric version of micro-usb and is just as incompetently designed as such.

This is simply a reversible version of the current USB 2.0 A connector, which is possible because the tongue in a USB-A receptacle is specced to be just above the mid-point of the connector. (Look at the drawings and you'll see). At the same time, the contacts on USB connector tongues are slightly raised, leaving room between the two tongues. So if you make a tongue in the connector part that's thin enough to leave enough room for the receptacle-tongue, you have a reversible connector. You can then utilise the room between the two parts that would normally be there to slightly thicken (and thus strengthen) the tongue on the connector while using completely flat pads instead.

For instance, see this drawing of a USB receptacle: http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1784554.pdf
 
I don't care so much about reversible, but I've long wished for USB 3.0 speeds on iOS devices. Especially since all their Macs now support it and it would work with USB 2.0.
 
dannys1 said:
Really? Battery life degradation has never once come into my thoughts about changing phone. Ever.
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I agree. My thoughts would be, "people only keep their phone for two years before upgrading, so why waste efforts on a battery that will last longer than two years?"
 
dcorban said:
I agree. My thoughts would be, "people only keep their phone for two years before upgrading, so why waste efforts on a battery that will last longer than two years?"
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Since I keep my phones for 3+ years, I would hope to find a battery that will last that long. Short of that, then I want (and buy) a phone that has a replaceable battery. That's NOT an Apple / iPhone product.

The battery should be robust enough to last for one day (12 hours) before having to be recharged.
 
prowlmedia said:
Sorry how do you know this? Looks symmetrical to me.

Also as the other guy pointed out there are already reversible ones...

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Perhaps click the link why don't you...
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I did and they look symmetrical to me in those links.

The news article here, and I've zoomed in on the pic has a smaller gap on top and a larger one on the bottom thats why I don't think its symmetrical.

Perhaps its just the angle the pic was taken at that I don't see it.

Just so i'm sure what your are meaning...in this article when you look at the usb plug to the the right of the picture, the gap at the top (above the pins) looks the same as the gap on the bottom (below the pins)?
 
AndyUnderscoreR said:
Well I would have used shorter words to make it clearer if I could, but I'm already using single syllable words. The problem is that I can't dumb it down to the level of someone who, after having this product explained to them several times, seeing a picture of it in the first post and being given two links on the first page to site where you can buy other reversible USB cables that work the same way still somehow stubbornly refuses to believe it exists.
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Thank you for saving us from all that. We are also salute your attempt to keep yourself relevant.
 
Mascots said:
Hahaha I'm happy that I'm not the only one who thought this.

An adaptor to plug into USB to plug in a USB to plug in an iPhone.
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No, it won't need an adapter. I think you've been mislead with the angle of the photo, and MR's article making it seem like a brand new connector.

It is merely a standard USB type A connector with two sets of pins set on a central tongue. They've been around for years - I'm not really sure why they haven't been more widely adopted.

Here's a better photo of one:

UR030001-FRONT-M.jpg


Hope that helps.
 
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