Apple Reverses Course on 30-Pin and Lightning Connector Guidelines

[ThunderSkunk]

Why would anyone design a charger with fixed cables hard-wired in?
Makes no sense. Cable type, cable length, wear & tear, etc... this shouldn't have even been an issue, because the designers should have spec'd 6 USB ports for use with any cables the user desires.

 

[samcraig]

Sounds like a rule that had a genuine useful reason behind it. Now made better with an exception for charging. Did Apple think of every possible accessory idea when they wrote the rules? No. Do they have to jump instantly when some guy with an ideas says “jump”? No. But they did jump, and it doesn’t sound like it took all that long to happen. Good.

But Apple is Always Evil. Remember, boys and girls

On the flipside you have some people that will rationalize or believe everything Apple spits out of their PR machine as gospel. It goes both ways, doesn't it?

 

[theBB]

AKA "We didnt want to allow it as we wanted to make more money from accessory makers....but this is bad publicity, and we've had enough of that recently....so lets cave and come up with an excuse".

To make more money from accessory makers, they were planning reject licensing applications from the ones who would be the ones giving them a cut??? Sure, who says conspiracy theories need to be rational...

 

[phoenixsan]

Me, being a......

little bit cynical thinks this decission helps Apple to make an argument for the exigence, said, for the FRAND licesing in the smartphone arena. Indeed, a company no too greedy to allow innovation within the limits of intellectual property can make a compelling case when the same company demands fair licensing terms to another....just my five cents....

 

[ConCat]

Why would anyone design a charger with fixed cables hard-wired in?
Makes no sense. Cable type, cable length, wear & tear, etc... this shouldn't have even been an issue, because the designers should have spec'd 6 USB ports for use with any cables the user desires.

These built-in cables must use USB for charging internally anyway, seeing as that's how Apple does charging on all of their iProducts. It really is strange.

 

[Kludge420]

Reminds me of when Sony said it was "impossible" to make a controller that vibrated.

 

[macs4nw]

Nice that Apple can see the bigger picture on this one.....

Good to know that they're willing to 'bend', when they realize that maybe they've been a little too inflexible/un-accommodating.

While I don't tend to like many 3rd accessories I hate the Idea that apple has this much control over them.

Alas, the price to pay for the walled garden. Everything just works. (most of the time)

 

[numlock]

Reminds me of when Sony said it was "impossible" to make a controller that vibrated.

obviously i know about their later controllers but can you expand on the story?

apple and their recent behavior of doing something quite pathetic only to see the uproar and change their mind is quite concerning i must say.

 

[ZipZap]

I feel like Apple should not have been able to kill the project nor should they have so much control over charging connectors and approaches.

I await the day that Apple finally gets killed for these proprietary practices.

Imagine if IBM had succeeded back in the early 80's. We'd have super expensive virtually unexpandable computers and there would not have been a "PC" nor the PC evolution.

Its the reason I think thunderbolt and lightning should be free and open specifications.

 

[KnightWRX]

Why would anyone design a charger with fixed cables hard-wired in?
Makes no sense. Cable type, cable length, wear & tear, etc... this shouldn't have even been an issue, because the designers should have spec'd 6 USB ports for use with any cables the user desires.

The goal of the product is not to have to carry around cables with it. It's a portable phone charger that can connect to multiple phones without any external accessories.

Have just USB ports on there defeats the whole purpose of the design behind this thing.

 

[CWallace]

The goal of the product is not to have to carry around cables with it. It's a portable phone charger that can connect to multiple phones without any external accessories.

Have just USB ports on there defeats the whole purpose of the design behind this thing.

And even then, the device does have two USB ports on the underside that would allow any USB-to-whatever charging cable to work with it...


...including Apple's USB-to-Lightning cable.

 

[iChrist]

It is death to me.

I have an iPhone5 that cannot connect to anything for charging except the charger provided. When in my auto it is useless if the battery is dead.

I also bought the new iPad when they came out with iPhone5 so that is a third connector that serves no purpose for me other than to carry around a bunch of cables to charge the iPhone5, new iPad and old iPad.

I'm all for progress and I try to be patient but why couldn't they have come up with some type of adapters the day they intro new connectors?

Sadly this is all proof that Apple is now run by a bunch of dime-a-dozen MBAs.

Customer loyalty and good press are priceless. For a company with untold billions, I really do not understand why they just don't throw in an adapter with every iphone and ipad. I bet it would cost less than one of these nauseating ad campaigns they have been putting on TV lately. A free adapter would have had a better effect than these stupid ads.

 

[jkauff]

It is death to me.

I have an iPhone5 that cannot connect to anything for charging except the charger provided. When in my auto it is useless if the battery is dead.

I guess you don't have what they used to call a cigarette lighter socket in your car. I bought a dual USB port adapter at Radio Shack for about $15 that I use to charge my iPhone 5. Works great.

 

[Stella]

Nice back down and U turn by Apple.

Nice work. It will only benefit the consumer and offer more choice.

 

[TheMTtakeover]

It is death to me.

I have an iPhone5 that cannot connect to anything for charging except the charger provided. When in my auto it is useless if the battery is dead.

I also bought the new iPad when they came out with iPhone5 so that is a third connector that serves no purpose for me other than to carry around a bunch of cables to charge the iPhone5, new iPad and old iPad.

I'm all for progress and I try to be patient but why couldn't they have come up with some type of adapters the day they intro new connectors?

They do have adapters.

 

[somethingelsefl]

Apple needs to do some serious work on Thunderbolt adoption, as the low quantity devices using it and their extreme cost are simply ridiculous. And, this is exactly one place Apple shouldn't be trying to hold their profit margins. Heck, sacrifice if you need to in order to get this connector in the mainstream. The way it is currently headed, it's going to turn out like FW 800 or worse.

Exactly. Apple is hung up on this Lightning adapter, when they need to be focused on Thunderbolt!

 

[SteveW928]

Thunderbolt != Lightning. Discussion of Thunderbolt has no relevance here.

(And if Apple could make Thunderbolt cheaper, they would. It's really up to Intel, and AFAICT products are expensive because, simply put, the chips and cables needed for Thunderbolt are still expensive to manufacture.)

Good catch... sorry about that! I've got Thunderbolt on the mind, as I've been dealing with that lately.

Possibly there is some licensing issue, but I'm pretty sure the parts aren't making it that expensive. But even if that is the case, LOSE money until you get some market penetration if you're trying to establish something like this. It isn't just the 3rd parties (assuming some controller chip is expensive), but Apple is still charging $50 for a cable. Is that chip really $45?

----------

Exactly. Apple is hung up on this Lightning adapter, when they need to be focused on Thunderbolt!

Yes, this was an accidental off-topic slip-up (see above)... but I still stand by what I said.

 

[tbrinkma]

"A technical issue" stopped them from allowing them on the same accessory?

Oh, so they fixed that "technical issue" overnight, then?

Please at least read the whole article before getting your panties in a wad.

"Our technical specifications provide clear guidelines for developing accessories and they are available to MFi licensees for free," Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr told CNET. "We support accessories that integrate USB and Lightning connectors, but there were technical issues that prevented accessories from integrating 30-pin and Lightning connectors so our guidelines did not allow this."

The company added that the guidelines have since been updated to allow accessories to work with both types of connectors to charge devices.

See the bolded portion of the statement. In all likelyhood the technical specification was written to disallow both connectors because of technical issues involving allowing devices to *communicate* over either/both connectors. Charging doesn't have to do that, so when this reached the attention of someone in a position to tweak the MFi licensing terms, it was tweaked to allow *charging* devices with both connectors.

tl;dr: Apple does the right thing, people blast them for it anyway.

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Why would anyone design a charger with fixed cables hard-wired in?
Makes no sense. Cable type, cable length, wear & tear, etc... this shouldn't have even been an issue, because the designers should have spec'd 6 USB ports for use with any cables the user desires.

I'm with you on that. It simply doesn't make any sense to permanently attach charging cables to the charger. (It made *some* sense back in the day when not everything was 5W/500-1000mA at the wall-wart, but not these days).

 

[Westacular]

It isn't just the 3rd parties (assuming some controller chip is expensive), but Apple is still charging $50 for a cable. Is that chip really $45?

Well, there's 3rd party Thunderbolt cables available now ... and they start at $50. If a 3rd party could profitably undercut Apple on the cable price, I think they would -- as it stands, why not just buy the Apple cable? -- which says to me that it really is a damn expensive cable to license and manufacture.

 

[JAT]

The goal of the product is not to have to carry around cables with it. It's a portable phone charger that can connect to multiple phones without any external accessories.

Have just USB ports on there defeats the whole purpose of the design behind this thing.

Sure. But at the same time, there are many people who think it is a stupid product and would never buy it.

 

[akatsuki]

I'd rather get a 30 pin Airplay adapter.

 

[KnightWRX]

Sure. But at the same time, there are many people who think it is a stupid product and would never buy it.

That's your perogative. I personally think the iPod Shuffle is a stupid product and wouldn't buy it, I don't actively go into threads about it and say "Good riddance to this garbage" though, because that's frankly just trolling.

If you aren't interested in the product, don't comment. Obviously, from the money they raised on Kickstarter, quite a few folk are interested.

 

[JAT]

That's your perogative. I personally think the iPod Shuffle is a stupid product and wouldn't buy it, I don't actively go into threads about it and say "Good riddance to this garbage" though, because that's frankly just trolling.

If you aren't interested in the product, don't comment. Obviously, from the money they raised on Kickstarter, quite a few folk are interested.

Thought you didn't like strawman arguments? Nobody said that. Except you.

It damn well is on topic to discuss the efficacies of a product. Hardwiring the cords is not a good plan. I hope these people go back to the drawing board and make themselves a useful product.

 

[razmal]

Lightning is a mess

Just like the tittle, lightning is a mess. We couldn't use the standard connector from a previous iDevices again.

http://www.razmaldjamal.com
http://razmal.blogspot.com

 

[dfs]

YEs indeed

"Just like the tittle, lightning is a mess. We couldn't use the standard connector from a previous iDevices again." Now just suppose you were the manufacturer of something to which an iOS device docks (could be anything ranging from a charging station to high-end medical equipment) and you woke up one day to read in the newspaper that by Apple's fiat your product was now obsolescent, even if you might happen to have three warehouses full of the damn things, and that to stay in business you needed to redesign your product and retool your assembly line. If you think the sudden switch to Lightning is bad news for individual consumers like us, consider how awful it is for developers! Yeah, I know about adapters, but I also know of a lot of products where an adapter just flat won't work, and anyway that thirty-five bucks you have to pay to get one could be called a special "pay Apple to be able to keep on using your stuff" tax. It would have taken a bit of the edge off for us end users if Apple included a free adapter with every new iOS device sold, but I guess all those billions being held in corporate reserve aren't enough for them.