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Apple's Lightning Connector Uses Adaptive Technology to Dynamically Assign Pin Functions

On the one hand, it's amazing and very complicated and smart, but on the other hand, what is there that you can't do with USB today? Why couldn't they just use normal USB?
 
Kaibelf said:
I recall Russians standing in line for 17 hours for a loaf of bread too. What's your point?
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Yet, now we, Americans, have no means to get to the orbit to use that $10 mln. pen (unless we buy a seat on that simple Russian spaceship).

The point?

In comparison to the micro-USB 3.0, the "lightning" cable is overly complicated, less reliable, very expensive and slow.
 
I think I would have been much more excited about this new connector if it had been done with thunderbolt out the gate. Or, at least usb 3.0 even though my macbook doesn't support it. I figure thunderbolt to lightning is inevitable, I just wish it was here now.

Glad I just went ahead and bought the official cable at the apple store last weekend instead of buying the cheapo's on eBay i was eyeing, though.
 
AppleFan115 said:
Amazing. When does the Samsung version come out?
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Mini-USB is the standard on all Samsung phones and in the EU.

wikipedia.org said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus#Mini_and_Micro_connectors

The cellular phone carrier group, Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) in 2007 endorsed Micro-USB as the standard connector for data and power on mobile devices and in January 2009 it was accepted by almost all cell phone manufacturers as the standard charging port for Europe. In addition, on 22 October 2009 the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has also announced that it had embraced micro-USB as the Universal Charger Solution its "energy-efficient one-charger-fits-all new mobile phone solution", and added: "Based on the Micro-USB interface, UCS chargers will also include a 4-star or higher efficiency rating—up to three times more energy-efficient than an unrated charger". The European Standardisation Bodies CEN-CENELEC and ETSI defined the new common External Power Supply (EPS) based on micro-USB. Despite being a signatory to this, Apple Inc. have chosen to continue to use their proprietary Dock connector and later Lightning connector - but simply making an adapter available for the latter in Europe.
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I do not need Apples non-solutions.

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SlyMac said:
I think I would have been much more excited about this new connector if it had been done with thunderbolt out the gate. Or, at least usb 3.0 even though my macbook doesn't support it. I figure thunderbolt to lightning is inevitable, I just wish it was here now.
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Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 make no difference, because the flash memory on the iDevices is very slow. USB 2.0 is enough in this case.
 
saturn88 said:
In comparison to the micro-USB 3.0, the "lightning" cable is overly complicated, less reliable, very expensive and slow.
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Circa 1903: In comparison to the [horse], the [automobile] is overly complicated, less reliable, very expensive and slow.

Give it some time. I predict Apple will make significant advances to this connector over the next 5-7 years. This is version 1.0 and it's designed from the start to be improved upon.
 
lifeinhd said:
I don't think you realize just how amazing this is. It's a lot harder than you might assume, and goes way beyond just "mapping it out." You also need to be able to detect what kind of device is detected, where power needs to go (don't want to be sending power over data lines), etc, and being able to do this on the fly is pretty remarkable.

This is NOT "basic evolution of the plug."
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Speaking as an electrical engineer, this is NOT amazing. Reversible connectors have existed for ages, and they merely fixed the flaws in their existing connector.

This is an evolutionary improvement of their connector.

Real innovation would be if they did some speed increase beyond what would be expected from Moore's law, or if they ended up getting MagSafe to work with this, or if they came up with another physical achievement.
 
baryon said:
On the one hand, it's amazing and very complicated and smart, but on the other hand, what is there that you can't do with USB today? Why couldn't they just use normal USB?
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They love adapters and incompatible cables.

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johncarync said:
Circa 1903: In comparison to the [horse], the [automobile] is overly complicated, less reliable, very expensive and slow.
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This comparison is not a comparison.
 
dguisinger said:
I would say its neither of them; because its a group of raw SerDes signals, nothing more. MHL and MyDP are function specific and have specific connectors.

You missed my point.

You could implement MHL and MyDP through chips in the cable I'm sure, because they are built upon standard protocols.

I'm referring to technologies that use SerDes links as their physical layer of communications. Most high speed protocols these days use it, therefore, depending on the guts of the phone or future phones/ipads, the cables should have access to many of those interfaces I listed.

For example, when you come from the FPGA world you can see the advantage. With FPGAs, you have the ability to connect to generic SerDes ports on the chip with custom logic, you can build your own SATA controller, PCIe bridge, ThunderBolt controller, etc and wire them up on the fly to a SerDes interface. Once you realize how powerful it is to have SerDes transceivers, the future opens up to a lot of possibilities - even if the current hardware doesn't let you use them all at this time.
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I think we can both agree that Lightning is a high-speed serial interface. Pretty much all high-speed serial interfaces make use of a SerDes.

Having spent a fair amount of time looking at teardown photos, the Lightning interface only appears to use 2 signaling pairs.

FPGA's are not practical in a high volume smartphone where every milliwatt counts.

I highly doubt Apple is using an entirely custom protocol and developed all the IP and silicon on their own. MyDP does not specify a connector, it's BYOC, and it's right up Apple's alley.
 
Thunderbolt

I really don't understand, why not a thunderbolt plug? Syncing would be much faster than this lame usb cable :mad:
 
markie said:
Mr. Retrofire said:
Mini-USB is the standard on all Samsung phones and in the EU.
[/COLOR]

Umm... no. I haven't seen a phone with mini USB since the original Motorola RAZRs.

Anyways, I agree, Apple should just use standard microUSB.
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How do you output HDMI over Micro USB?

Then there's the matter of the inevitable move to USB 3.0 and the doubling in size of the connector that will occur.
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Geckotek said:
Forgive the phrase but....DUH! :p Yeah, battery technology is definitely not keeping up with the rest of technology advancements.
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Battery Technology has been advanced quite a bit. Most batteries in apple devices can be recharged 1000 times. Longer lasting, in smaller sizes. I think thats quite advanced for what it is.
 
scootermafia said:
No they are not. Look at the picture I drew (I'm Peter from DHC). Some of the pins are continuous top to bottom, others (like USB V-) are mapped so that when you flip the connector, they are still going into the same contact on the jack. Top pin 1 goes to bottom pin 8, etc.
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I stand corrected. Thanks for the clarification and the good work investigating this.
 
Mr. Retrofire said:
Apple Incompatibility FTW!


Really, 30.00 US$ cables are “genius”. I understand.
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Price is irrelevant to the argument. But a blind person wouldn't be able to see past price, so I'll let you slide on this one.


Edit: And you got the price wrong. ;)
 
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From the story:

"In addition, the adaptive nature indicates that the same Lightning interface could evolve over time to support new technologies within existing hardware."

This will really be the proof over time. What can the lightning interface do in three or four years that the prior connector couldn't.
 
D.T. said:
Oh yeah? I thought the "iPod mode" that HUs used for controlling the device wasn't available via the adapter[?] I have an Alpine X100 HU that controls an iPod/iPhone and provides display of the music/playlist/art/etc., through the HU ... figured that wouldn't work with an adapter.
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The impression I got (though never looked into it in much depth) is that the head units that allow remote control of the iPhone and display track/playlist info provided by the iPhone are still going to work, it's devices that actually mirror the iPhone's display that will no longer function due to the lack of video out.
 
Send me your Iphone 5

I need to borrow someone's Iphone 5 and try out my ebay micro usb to lightning adapter. Actually, although I bought it on ebay, for shipment to the USA, it is an Apple product and will work!!
 
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