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Apple's Lightning Connector Uses Adaptive Technology to Dynamically Assign Pin Functions
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It will be usb3 compatible before too long, I think. Probably when usb3 is right across the range of Macs, I would hazard to guess. Although whether it is any quicker is questionable, as it seems usb2 gets data out off the flash memory as fast as the flash memory will allow.
actually what is so amazing regarding this reversible plug,
i there is no such thing as adaptive bla bla bla, if you see on my drawing, apple just simply reverse the pinout on the bottom part, accordingly with the cable
this way, you can plug it in both way... its a 8 pin on top and reverse position 8pin on bottom, the body itself is a ground.
plug it either way, pin A will meet A, pin F will meet F, the chip is merely to made there will be no more cheap cable, so more money to apple, at least for some time. adaptive bullcr@p....
CMIIW, if not that the case, why not apple build it as drew above, it will be easier to implement, rather than jumping pins, but hey.. its apple...
i there is no such thing as adaptive bla bla bla, if you see on my drawing, apple just simply reverse the pinout on the bottom part, accordingly with the cable
this way, you can plug it in both way... its a 8 pin on top and reverse position 8pin on bottom, the body itself is a ground.
plug it either way, pin A will meet A, pin F will meet F, the chip is merely to made there will be no more cheap cable, so more money to apple, at least for some time. adaptive bullcr@p....
CMIIW, if not that the case, why not apple build it as drew above, it will be easier to implement, rather than jumping pins, but hey.. its apple...
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I'm just going by the OP - if the patent is on adaptive pin signals then it already existed. If the patent is on multi-orientation plugs with adaptive pins then it already existed. Basically after that point any "invention" is obvious and non-patentable. The USPTO is not functioning as it should - and this is widely recognised.
I disagree that Apple invented the modern smartphone. They made a nicely styled and very popular smartphone, but the smartphone already existed. Just like they didn't invent the mp3 player, touch screen tablet or phone, rounded edges, swipe gestures, etc. The list goes on. They just make the same thing as other people - but they make a much better implementation.
My iPhone is only 32GB and is mostly filled with music and apps, so I guess I never really noticed the difference in speed but it looks like you're right.
According to this article (http://lifehacker.com/5849981/ios-5-synchronization-speed-tests-is-wi+fi-syncing-worth-it) syncing over Wi-Fi takes about 10-20 times longer than USB.
Never really thought about it but it seems like if you're syncing a bunch of movies you'll definitely want to do that using a cable.
I guess it all really depends on your usage.
I guess that the way I use my iPhone I don't really need a faster wired connection, but if you're someone who likes to load up your iPhone with movies, then you'd probably wish for a USB 3 or Thunderbolt connection (although with the latter, Apple would alienate a whole bunch of people).If it were faster that would be a good reason.
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Makes sense.
For me, charging over USB is painfully slow and I always charge my iPhone with the wall charger. Since I mostly sync apps and music, it's always a lot faster for me to sync over Wi-Fi while I'm charging it to the wall.
Well, yeah.
USB 2's theoretical specification is 480Mbps; in real world usage, it's probably closer to 400Mbps peak.
A WiFi home router will have additional challenges in terms of the building topology, transmission rates, interference, etc. to the point where getting 20-30 Mbps sustained might be difficult.
WiFi syncing is great for smaller data, like address book entries, calendar events, e-mail, etc.
Heck, even something modestly larger like still pictures for Photo Stream syncing are a pain over WiFi.
But as you yourself said, syncing with WiFi is even slower....even more painful for me. I usually go drop my phone off in the radio/dock a few minutes before heading to bed. If there are some big podcasts or something to sync over, iTunes is sitting there still syncing while I'm ready to shut everything down. So I sync w/ the cable before that.
actually what is so amazing regarding this reversible plug,
i there is no such thing as adaptive bla bla bla, if you see on my drawing, apple just simply reverse the pinout on the bottom part, accordingly with the cable
this way, you can plug it in both way... its a 8 pin on top and reverse position 8pin on bottom, the body itself is a ground.
plug it either way, pin A will meet A, pin F will meet F, the chip is merely to made there will be no more cheap cable, so more money to apple, at least for some time. adaptive bullcr@p....
CMIIW, if not that the case, why not apple build it as drew above, it will be easier to implement, rather than jumping pins, but hey.. its apple...
I really hope that was a sarcastic post. If not, you really need to go read the article again and see if you can comprehend a bit more of what's going on. It's far more than what you just described.
I usually charge my iPhone when the battery's below 40-50% and only sync a couple of apps and tracks, i.e. charging takes priority over syncing for me.
Now if I were to sync a bunch of movies, I'll probably go with wired syncing.
So you are saying that the "Lightning" connector as expensive and slow now, as Circa in 1903. Agreed.
But I can't wait 7 years for cheap, fast and reliable cable. I need it now. Besides, in 7 years there will be USB 7.0.
Great, just great.
Leave it Apple to make something...a cable...more complex than it has to be.
I thought it was all about making things SIMPLER.
Guess what? Now we have a CABLE that can break. It's got a chip in it, right? So:
- Can't leave it in the sun?
- Can't get it wet?
- Can't subject it to shock?
- Worry about static electricity?
All for a charging and data cable.
It depends on a momentary short of all the pins to start the process of "dynamic signal assignment"? Do we really need this?
I predict this cable and its connections are going to be the cause of so many problems:
"My cable no longer charges the phone"
"Data transfer is not working reliably"
"I got the cable wet and now my phone doesn't work"
This is a wonky idea that's bound to be flaky as the pins wear and get oxidized...a bad cable could damage your phone...this looks a really, really fragile solution...
Leave it Apple to make something...a cable...more complex than it has to be.
I thought it was all about making things SIMPLER.
Guess what? Now we have a CABLE that can break. It's got a chip in it, right? So:
- Can't leave it in the sun?
- Can't get it wet?
- Can't subject it to shock?
- Worry about static electricity?
All for a charging and data cable.
It depends on a momentary short of all the pins to start the process of "dynamic signal assignment"? Do we really need this?
I predict this cable and its connections are going to be the cause of so many problems:
"My cable no longer charges the phone"
"Data transfer is not working reliably"
"I got the cable wet and now my phone doesn't work"
This is a wonky idea that's bound to be flaky as the pins wear and get oxidized...a bad cable could damage your phone...this looks a really, really fragile solution...
Which ones?
Not saying these are inevitable. Just that this idea opens the door to more kinds of problems.
Many folks would say that putting the antennas on the outside of the iPhone 4 wasn't a real concern. Look what happened...
I'm a hardware engineer. We have to think of all kinds of potential problems and things that could go wrong.
So, when you plug it into a charger, it charges faster than USB, and when you plug it into a USB port on a computer, it has faster data transfer than USB2?
If it also had the potential to do USB3 in the future, especially with multiple parallel lines, that would be outstanding.
I guess we'll have to see what the benchmarks show about data transfer rates, and how quickly it seems to charge the iPhone 5.
If it also had the potential to do USB3 in the future, especially with multiple parallel lines, that would be outstanding.
I guess we'll have to see what the benchmarks show about data transfer rates, and how quickly it seems to charge the iPhone 5.
I've had a poor experience with cheap 3rd party accessories in the past. If this chip prevents that kind of junk from being produced, I'm all for it.
Notably, the Soviet space program had significant problems with the loose graphite shorting out switches and other circuits while in orbit.
You have the patent number? Love to see their claims. Reassignable pins on connection have been going on since the 70's in studio and concert equipment (never underestimate how a roadie can screw up equipment!) that even had real time adjustable impedance to match a connected set of speakers and switch polarities! Perhaps they limit their claims to mobile systems.
Actually, you're being way too generous. The raw bit rate of 480 Mbps aside, real world throughput for USB 2.0 tops out at 30-35 MB/s (240-280 Mbps), unless you use special drivers to increase the maximum transaction size for Bulk Only Transport mode, in which case you can eke out up to 40 MB/s (320 Mbps).
Anandtech managed to clock 36.7 Mbps over WiFi with the iPhone 4S, and in theory the iPhone 5 should be able to do better since it can support 150 Mbps link rates on the 5 GHz band, but initial reports have shown some users having pretty poor WiFi throughput with the 5. But in general you're right, it's still nearly an order of magnitude difference between WiFi and USB sync.
Yes. There are tons of MHL to HDMI cales like this one from Monoprice ($10):
That adapter is great if you want to hook your smartphone to your TV.
But where are all the MHL speaker docks? Or other accessories?
With a million Android phones being sold every day... you'd think the speaker manufacturers would be all over that!
I can barely find any Android-compatible speaker docks with a MicroUSB connection... and the ones that do exist rely on Bluetooth or a plain ol' AUX cable for audio.
An AUX cable!
.
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