Apple to Adopt Micro-USB Connectors for iPhone Charging in Europe

[dicklacara]

iPhones and 3rd-party connections.

I was surprised to hear that various iPhones & Touches don't work with 3rd-party implementations of the dock connector interface.

I bought a Griffin car battery charger (cigarette lighter adapter) for my daughter's day-1 iPhone. It worked fine with any 2G iPhone. I just checked a 3G for the first time and it doesn't work... boo, hiss!

I have several Apple devices that are quite old:

--iPod-HiFi
--iPod Video to Component TV/Universal dock (for the iPod Video)

iPhones (2G, 3G, 3GS) all display an error message when connected, saying "This Accessory not made to work with iPhone...."

But you can just dismiss the message and the iPhone works as desired-- iPhone Boom Box, and iPhone Videos on HDTV.

So, I suspect that Apple tried to implement the devices in such a way as to not arbitrarily limit future compatibility.

Apparently, 3rd-parties did not do (or know how to do) this.

...curiouser and curiouser... I just checked and the Griffin charger (above) and it does work when the iPhone 3G & 3GS are connected with a Mophie JuicePack Air (3G/3GS Case/Battery with buit-in adapter).

I assume this means that information is available to 3rd-parties (Mophie, in this case) for them to a range of legacy, current and future devices using the dock connector.

Dick

 

[SAN66]

I'm all for reducing waste, but standardization can more often than not stifle innovation.

The next major step in industrial design in these regards is pinless inductive power delivery. Imaging your iPhone or iPod with absolutely no ports, no pins to break, no cracks to accidentally get liquids into. You plug your device into its cradle and it gets charged through induction.

Will we have any evolution in this regards if the EU is pushing this "standard"? Not in the EU. But at least they can move forward with such technologies in the rest of the world.

 

[krobar2003]

I noticed this too and it pissed me off. My Alpine stereo charged my iphone 2g just fine through the dock connector, but now it doesn't work. I hate feeling like they are doing things to simply force me to buy something else.

I had the same problem on my 3g the Apline deck would charge my 2g but not the new one. I bought a charging adapter from the apple store and everything works great. It was my understanding that the original iphone would charge off of a 12v source and a 5v source. The 3g will only charge off of 5v source. That's how it was explained to me.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/TS696LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDA0MQ&mco=MjE1MDc5OQ

 

[RichardF]

Take a look at all the fanboys complaining that there will perhaps be another port on their iPhone. **** your love of design, this is about reducing waste. That comes before any pretentious "objet d'art".

I'll take the design over bending backwards to the "consensus" and the other OEMs.

History shows they have no clue and if anything, they should be adopting Apple's solutions.

What happens when the mini-USB is no longer a viable solution 3 years from now. Should we then do this all over again.

Let Apple handle it.

Exactly. Apple have a ridiculous history of using proprietary connections. To get them to change to something standard is like making a kid eat their vegetables. They'll sulk and complain even if it's in their best interests.

The Apple world is littered with stupid connections that nobody else uses meaning you have to pay a premium for the Apple version.

If the reactions of users in this forum is to be followed then we would still be using IDE drives, ADC, ADB, etc.

So does Sony and any other OEM who's worked hard to put something out there. So what's your point?

The difference is that Apple's solutions work well. They don't need input from Bruxelles or Samsung/ Sony/ Philips etc....

 

[johnqh]

Does the dock connector have "more features" than usb? Will data transfer rates suffer?

The docking connector has two interfaces, one is the standard USB, one is Apple's own.

Why did Apple do that?

Well, when a third party developer (or Apple itself) develop hardware accessory for the phone, if the protocol is USB, it is next to impossible to debug because the development tools communicate with the phone in USB.

So, Apple has its own protocol through the dock connector. Developers usually uses that protocol for the accessories, while still connected to XCode with USB for debugging.

I bet 99% of the "Made for iPhone/iPod" accessories are going through Apple's protocol.

USB is only used by the development tools and syncing.

 

[diamond.g]

I was surprised to hear that various iPhones & Touches don't work with 3rd-party implementations of the dock connector interface.

I bought a Griffin car battery charger (cigarette lighter adapter) for my daughter's day-1 iPhone. It worked fine with any 2G iPhone. I just checked a 3G for the first time and it doesn't work... boo, hiss!

I have several Apple devices that are quite old:

--iPod-HiFi
--iPod Video to Component TV/Universal dock (for the iPod Video)

iPhones (2G, 3G, 3GS) all display an error message when connected, saying "This Accessory not made to work with iPhone...."

But you can just dismiss the message and the iPhone works as desired-- iPhone Boom Box, and iPhone Videos on HDTV.

So, I suspect that Apple tried to implement the devices in such a way as to not arbitrarily limit future compatibility.

Apparently, 3rd-parties did not do (or know how to do) this.

...curiouser and curiouser... I just checked and the Griffin charger (above) and it does work when the iPhone 3G & 3GS are connected with a Mophie JuicePack Air (3G/3GS Case/Battery with buit-in adapter).

I assume this means that information is available to 3rd-parties (Mophie, in this case) for them to a range of legacy, current and future devices using the dock connector.

Dick

I had the same problem on my 3g the Apline deck would charge my 2g but not the new one. I bought a charging adapter from the apple store and everything works great. It was my understanding that the original iphone would charge off of a 12v source and a 5v source. The 3g will only charge off of 5v source. That's how it was explained to me.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/TS696LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDA0MQ&mco=MjE1MDc5OQ

Yup that is the reason why. The Mophie (@dicklacara) must be able to charge via Firewire as well (12VDC).

 

[applecultvictim]

OMG!

I hope apple doesn't mess up the 10+ docks, sub docks, tivoli yiyis, alarm docks, stereo docks etc. I have pretty much everywhere from office to house to house in the country...that would suck...

Is there such a chance???!?!?!?

 

[johnqh]

By the way, the best implementation of mini-USB (charger and syncing) is Motorola MPX100 (maybe 110 too?) from four years ago.

It has the connector on the bottom, with a dock which is just an adapter. With the dock, you can slide the phone in the same way as ipod/iphone.

Unfortunately, that design has not been carried through.

 

[5855997]

Standards are actually a good thing.

I guess there will just be an adapter included. Maybe a second port. It would be pretty bad/stupid to abandon the 30 pin connector.

And why shouldn't that make it to the USA? They won't have seperate designs for Europe and America.
Another port (or even a button more on the side, or heck even an SD slot for quick data exchange [I would have said that's never going to happen..but finally they were able to give us SD in the new Macbook Pros, so why not if there's enough place in the future?]) wouldn't hurt.

 

[Mr Skills]

This is European MPs in suits who have no idea of the consequences of their actions forcing something on everyone.

...

Forcing manufacturers into a particular specification without any regard or thought for the limitations it might present is what I'm against.

As I understand it, this is a voluntary agreement that Apple have signed up to. No-one has been forced to do anything.

 

[brockm]

Actually, i think they are going to make a converter to the 30pin dock connector. Because of the many more features the dock connector has over the usb connector.

With that i think they will support trough the converter the following options:
charging and Headset(Stereo + Voice)

What features are those? There's nothing that can't be done over USB that can be done with the 30-pin dock connector.

Parallel-ATA Cables have more pins than SATA. Does that mean they have more features?

 

[whatever]

Have it all wrong

The dock end of the cable will remain, the other end will be mini-USB. Which will then be able to plug into another vendors charger. That's all. Similar to the way USB and Firewire cables for iPods and iPhones are today.

That's all.

 

[RichardF]

As I understand it, this is a voluntary agreement that Apple have signed up to. No-one has been forced to do anything.

Excellent point there. Which in turns means that Apple already has a solution for this so no worries.

The dock end of the cable will remain, the other end will be mini-USB. Which will then be able to plug into another vendors charger. That's all. Similar to the way USB and Firewire cables for iPods and iPhones are today.

That's all.

I think you are right.

And the mini-USB into a mini-USB - standard USB adaptor if needed.

 

[Colrath]

I don't think the issue is just with smartphones.

But for every freaking phone on the market all have their own proprietary chargers/connectors. You walk into a verizon store and they have entire walls dedicated to charge 3 tables worth of phones.

Pretty stupid really.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

While I can see some sense in this idea, I really wish they came up with a more sturdy connector. The Micro-USB connector is so damned flimsy and can't withstand being plugged in and out every day. The micro-usb connector on our TomTom failed after about six months and I've had several micro-usb connectors fail over the years too.

 

[ArcaneDevice]

So does Sony and any other OEM who's worked hard to put something out there. So what's your point?

The difference is that Apple's solutions work well. They don't need input from Bruxelles or Samsung/ Sony/ Philips etc....

Someone isn't speaking from history.

Apple is one of the only companies in mass market consumer electronics that still forces users to an Apple-only hardware solution. How many PC manufacturers forced you to use their hard drives, or video cards, or monitor cables etc.

If you were using Macs 10 years ago you would know what it was like being forced to by Apple only products when the equivalent PC version was dirt cheap. It still happens now. If you want to live in the past I've got a 120GB Mac IDE drive to sell you for $300.

If you don't mind spending up to three times as much because Apple added a connection that nobody else uses or adjusted the hardware then go ahead. I've got more sense than that.

There's nothing that an Apple interface adds to anything apart from cost and limited options. Work well? They work. That's it. And that doesn't make it any better than the jack that everyone else is happy to use.

 

[nerdish]

Urgh, i dont want this, 100% happy with the connection thats already on the iPhone, and i don't seem them totally wiping the 30 Pin off the phone completely, which means the USB will be ADDITIONAL to the original connection...

Thats going to look crap....

Bad move!

 

[Colrath]

While I can see some sense in this idea, I really wish they came up with a more sturdy connector. The Micro-USB connector is so damned flimsy and can't withstand being plugged in and out every day. The micro-usb connector on our TomTom failed after about six months and I've had several micro-usb connectors fail over the years too.

This is also my qualms about micro-usb. I just wouldn't feel safe with that small connector and how I manhandle my iPhone.

 

[aleksandra.]

Someone isn't speaking from history.

Apple is one of the only companies in mass market consumer electronics that still forces users to an Apple-only hardware solution. How many PC manufacturers forced you to use their hard drives, or video cards, or monitor cables etc.

If you were using Macs 10 years ago you would know what it was like being forced to by Apple only products when the equivalent PC version was dirt cheap. It still happens now. If you want to live in the past I've got a 120GB Mac IDE drive to sell you for $300.

No need to go 10 years back, they're using SATA-LIF for MacBook Air drives now... but then it's a part of SATA 6 Gb/s standard, so there's hope still.

 

[NT1440]

I really like the dock connector, micro usb has always felt cheap to me

 

[ArcaneDevice]

Urgh, i dont want this, 100% happy with the connection thats already on the iPhone, and i don't seem them totally wiping the 30 Pin off the phone completely, which means the USB will be ADDITIONAL to the original connection...

Thats going to look crap....

Bad move!

Ditch the 30-pin completely. There's no reason for it. If you're buying a new product I'm sure you can afford a $10 adapter for older devices using the 30-pin. Just like when Apple changed the spec and broke compatibility with iPod 1G products.

Apple change the dock connector and the next day a million dirt cheap adapters will be available in a variety of shades and materials. Obviously the Apple product will be twice as shiny and twice as expensive if you really need something that melds with your old stuff.

 

[ArcaneDevice]

No need to go 10 years back, they're using SATA-LIF for MacBook Air drives now... but then it's a part of SATA 6 Gb/s standard, so there's hope still.

and they're still using mini-DVI in the white Macbook.

It's stupid. So stupid that xlr8yourmac have spent over 10 years trying to figure out what non-Apple devices work on Macs. Their database is full of people trying to get what should be standard components to work in Macs.

 

[X38]

Terrible move if this is anything other than an adapter. I have too much invested in the current dock connector. I couldn't care less about mini USB.
This is NOT helpful for consumers.

 

[NT1440]

Arent there advantages with the dock over usb?

 

[Eidorian]

Better late than never.