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Apple Debuts New USB-C Magnetic Apple Watch Charger
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Yep just have a little puck with a Lightning port would be great.
you really start to notice the nickel and diming apple has been doing I'm hope...
[doublepost=1540048284][/doublepost]I dont know why people in here think the iPad would usb in the iPad end. This just makes sense as the new Macs have usb nothing more. Doesnt make it seem like the iPads would have usb c besides the end you plug into the computer...
I have no problem with iPad going USBC but I strongly oppose iPhone going that way. Lightning is vastly superior and there is no need of USBC on iPhone.
Did you get the sport edition of the S4? Originally the metal charging pucks were only included in the higher end watches.
Copper is not cheap, you know. :/
Just how many times I looked at my iPod Nano original cable, then looked at new Lightning cable and wondered "WTF happened in the meantime"?
Well, I can answer this at least partially. The lighting connector:
- is a smaller plug and allows for smaller devices
- is more easily waterproofed
- as something Apple certifies, can have quality standards
- is already deployed; no complaining about people having to upgrade all their cables or confusion when people shop for iPhone accessories
Two other issues:
You can't have an official USB-C female to USB-A male adapter, e.g. connect a new USB-C cable into a USB-A device. It is not allowed by the USB-IF for device safety reasons - pre USB-C, there weren't protections against devices being plugged in incorrectly, which was why they had different-shaped plugs. With a USB-C adapter, you now can plug devices together in ways that were not allowed, and which the devices are not designed to handle.
This is IMHO why a lot of companies have been slow to adopt USB-C cabling in the packaging - the end-user can always use an adapter (heck they probably have one) if they want to connect to their USB-C computer, but the vast majority of users with older computers would need a different cable.
Second, which is more of a conceptual issue - USB-C is far closer to the 30-pin connector in terms of design rather than lightning. Do you remember the tables for things like the video adapters, e.g. which models had the hardware support to make which video adapters work?
Apple solved this in lightning but having a common serial protocol from the device out, e.g. H.264 video data. The adapter was now a piece of complex hardware itself, responsible for taking that data and converting it to VGA/composite video/HDMI - whatever it supported.
Say they later want to support 4k? They can make both the iOS device and the new adapter backward compatible, so the story stays pretty simple - hook a 4k HDMI adapter up to a 4k-capable iOS device and you're golden. If either doesn't support 4k, it will fall back to 1080p (but still work).
USB-C has at least FOUR different methods used for HDMI out; some of which require extra hardware, and the cheapest of which requires a proprietary software driver. There are no markings to say which adapter(s) work with which hardware device(s). To give an acceptable user experience, Apple would have to either:
- Tell people to only use the Apple HDMI adapter, any other version (may not) be supported
- Make the iOS device substantially more complicated, and hope nobody launches a fifth method for HDMI out.
Just a few thoughts, to retort:
- Lightning is not that much smaller, at all
- if Lightning can be waterproofed, then the slightly-larger USB-C can also
- at the very least, Apple manufactures quality-assured USB-C cables, as do many manufacturers such as Anker, etc.
- Apple has a history of throwing old/stale technologies out the door and adopting new cables/etc., they couldn't care less about users having to buy new cables - we just went through this in 2012
No, stainless steel both times. It also came in a nice box last time.
The price went up $50, and the materials got cheaper. :/
HDCP is supported on Displayport protocol, and USB-C alternate mode sends a Displayport signal to a device, so it is supported, but like a lot of things it's up to the GPU maker to support HDCP and the client end to support it.
They actually do, they just support USB 2.0 data and not 3.0. Also Apple does sell a Thunderbolt 3 cable that can support USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 and PD charging (but since it's a passive cable, it is only .8 m long).
