No, because micro-USB would not work with the old docks, and it would be worse in general. I've never seen a dock that accepts micro-USB as the source.
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Apple's Lightning to 30-Pin Adapter Torn Apart, Reveals Several Chips and Copious Glue
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No, because micro-USB would not work with the old docks, and it would be worse in general. I've never seen a dock that accepts micro-USB as the source.
I think iPods have always had the headphone jack on the bottom. Apple has been building them like that for year and years.
Losing the 30-pin dock connector and switching to nano-SIMs is largely how Apple added LTE and kept battery life roughly the same. The thinner came mostly from the aluminum back and in-cell touch.
1. Made the iPhone slimmer --> a complex proprietary chipset is not required to achieve this
2. Faster (good, of course) --> a complex proprietary chipset is not required to achieve this
3. It looks like it supports digital audio, which would increase audio quality! --> you won't notice a difference with the compressed crap on iTunes anyways, or any of the supported formats you can import to iTunes
4. Made some old docks not work anymore without an adaptor or sometimes not at all (bad, of course) --> we agree on this
5. Made it easier to plug your iPhone in (good, of course) --> a complex proprietary chipset is not required to achieve this
A few observations:
1) Mico USB would never work. Can you imagine how hard a micro-usb dock would be to use?
2) there is already a very simple "reversible" connector. The coaxial power conector is one example. the headphone jack is another. Round connectors work well. Look at the iPod "shuffle" it uses the round headphone connector as the ONLY connector. the data moves through it just fine.
Next you ask how can you get a "ton" of data through only a few wires in the headphone jack. Look at the four wires in your gigabit ethernet cable. All of the internet including streaming HD video and even "power over Ethernet" comes over that wire.
As an engineer, I say Apple failed. When I think of something I keep cost in mind. A nifty idea is not workable if the cost is way out of line from what the customer wants. Everything you design can be designed to a price
One thing in Apple's favor. Perhaps this connector will be used in other ways and in devices we have yet to see. Maybe Lightening will appear on disk drives and monitors and the next macbook. After all what is the point is "asignable pins" if you have only one device? I assume the pins get reassigned when this is used for a disk drive.
1) Mico USB would never work. Can you imagine how hard a micro-usb dock would be to use?
2) there is already a very simple "reversible" connector. The coaxial power conector is one example. the headphone jack is another. Round connectors work well. Look at the iPod "shuffle" it uses the round headphone connector as the ONLY connector. the data moves through it just fine.
Next you ask how can you get a "ton" of data through only a few wires in the headphone jack. Look at the four wires in your gigabit ethernet cable. All of the internet including streaming HD video and even "power over Ethernet" comes over that wire.
As an engineer, I say Apple failed. When I think of something I keep cost in mind. A nifty idea is not workable if the cost is way out of line from what the customer wants. Everything you design can be designed to a price
One thing in Apple's favor. Perhaps this connector will be used in other ways and in devices we have yet to see. Maybe Lightening will appear on disk drives and monitors and the next macbook. After all what is the point is "asignable pins" if you have only one device? I assume the pins get reassigned when this is used for a disk drive.
Agreed. MicroUSB is also flimsy and can't carry large amounts (i.e. iPad amounts) of current.
Round connectors are good when there are a small amount of pins. I can't imagine eight pins on a headphone plug. Plus you need a lot of depth inside the device to accept it.
Gigabit ethernet uses all 8 wires. 10 and 100 use four. Apple wants a connector to use for years to come, and that could mean higher speeds, analog, or video signalling.
Exactly.
no. the whole point of it is the mere 8 pins have dynamic functionality -- and the only way to control that is with controller chips and a handshake between devices.
so, no. you're completely mistaken.
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really? where's your electrical engineering degree from? can we see your product portfolio? at least you can link us to a $1 tear down report?
Ipod 1st gen top
Ipod 3rd gen top
Ipod 5th gen top
Ipod touch 1st gen bottom. Last one I bought.
False, MicroUSB can carry upto 2 amps, plenty to charge the most power hungry smartphone/tablets.
Where is your's???
Apple has manipulated your thinking into the exact corner they want you in. They have led you believe that you have 2 options. Your first option as they say is an old, outdated, 30-pin connector. Your second option is the newer "all digital" ..."adaptive"..."reversible"...connector with 8 pins.
So it's 30-pin legacy, or 8-pin Lightening right now. You think that's all that Apple could come up with, with all of their cash and brilliant hardware engineers? You are fooling yourself and blindly defending Apple if you think that Apple couldn't have come up with a lower cost (for them and for the consumer) connector that would reduce the number of pins to adequately fit in the new thinner iPhone 5 and still provide a more rugged end piece. they are thrilled that their Lightening connector has a proprietary chipset that prevents other's from fairly producing products for their business and forces you and all of us here, the consumer, to purchase an inflated priced cable, a $29 adapter, and and pay an inflated price for all early developed accessories utilizing the Lightening connector because these 3rd party companies were forced to pay a royalty and they passed that onto the consumer.
Regarding the touted "adaptive" feature - there is nothing to be adaptive right now. So touting a future feature which isn't beneficial right now and may never be for all we know, is a moot point. look at the Thunderbolt...thank gosh Apple didn't abandon USB for a series of Thunderbolt ports
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This relatively complicated connector is just another example of Apples determination to remain proprietary, passing on the cost to the consumer.
How ironic that the company that brags about simplicity, would go to such lengths to prevent the consumer from having choices.
Why reinvent the wheel? There's already a nice selection of inexpensive, reliable USB cables available. Yet I do understand why Apple chose this approach, it's what Apple does.
How ironic that the company that brags about simplicity, would go to such lengths to prevent the consumer from having choices.
Why reinvent the wheel? There's already a nice selection of inexpensive, reliable USB cables available. Yet I do understand why Apple chose this approach, it's what Apple does.
Apple lying about the "thin" thing...
My iPod nano (4th Gen) is thinner than my iPhone 5. 0.24" vs. 0.30".
The nano uses the dock connector Apple claims is too bulky.
Just thought I'd point this out...
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And BTW, I find the 5 too thin. I've added a rubber case that makes it as thick as a 4/4S and it is MUCH more comfortable to hold.
My iPod nano (4th Gen) is thinner than my iPhone 5. 0.24" vs. 0.30".
The nano uses the dock connector Apple claims is too bulky.
Just thought I'd point this out...
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And BTW, I find the 5 too thin. I've added a rubber case that makes it as thick as a 4/4S and it is MUCH more comfortable to hold.
I think I'll wait for the iFixit review
As someone said at Gizmodo, the guy who tore this apart isn't very good at tearing things apart. Dispite the name, there should be no "tearing."
Do you not get that this thing was crimped and epoxied in a way that laptops and iPods are not? You try disassembling it. It requires cutting and force to get the metal cages off of it. And they're fused with it like the face of the freaking Terminator.
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Guess what I found when I opened it? A lightning connector, a dock connector, a lot of silicone goop, a bunch of resistors, and a bunch of nameless shiny chips of the same variety that are in the Lightning USB cable. Want me to use my telepathic robot powers to hack into the brains of Apple's engineers to divine their exact purpose? When you do a teardown and see chips that have never been seen before, where they are not using off the rack parts - if I saw a Wolfson 8741 DAC chip in there then that would be something to write home about - what are you going to say about their function? I tell no lies, I just present what I found, which is as clean of a view of the circuit board as anyone else has provided - and let you be the judge as to how the adapter works.
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My cats like to hang out in my photo area when I'm not around
I was in a bit of a hurry to get this posted first.
it's to prevent misquoting
there are people in this thread (won't name names) who are selectively quoting and creating false statements and then spatting off
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no one is crying here, kid. it's called criticism. if you don't like that freedom then perhaps you should move to a country that better suits your needs - such as China. since you love everything that Apple does even when it's not justified, then you probably would have no problem making $2/hr over there making my next iPhone. it better not have a scratch in the anodized aluminum though. oh, and don't even think about striking either...
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I suck at teardowns? Because 10 other people have published better ones already.
Of course I have a heatgun (the top Milwaukee one) and my macro lens is a Canon L 100mm. Heat guns aren't going to do diddly squat to this thing, other than warp the plastic on the outside, so I cut the plastic part off. There's a detailed photo here:
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/181udw2lc7l90jpg/original.jpg
Where you can read most of the markings. I invite you to do a better teardown, I admit I was in a hurry, but I got the job done - the important chips are visible and there's not a lot that you can figure out from them. Again, if you haven't had this thing in your hands, don't act like it's so easy. I can take a full 12 hour shift dremeling apart every edge of the steel cage with my kevlar cutting wheel, then hand sand every molecule of epoxy off of it, but it isn't going to provide a wealth of information to us that I haven't already provided. The point is, the board is covered in chips that nobody has been able to identify yet, just like nobody is 100% sure how the Lightning cable works.
The difference between tearing down one of these adapters vs. an iPhone is that these are not intended to be disassembled or serviced. They're built to not break, they aren't designed to have parts replaced.
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For number 5, it actually is required. Anyway, I was just listing what Lightning does for us, whether or not it requires a complicated chipset. I don't know enough about this to say anything specific about it, but I'd assume that the idea of switching which pins do what at a certain point in time on the Lightning connector gives Apple more flexibility in the future.
As for the iTunes thing, haven't you heard of ALAC and AIF? iTunes supports these. You can have all the high quality music you want. I don't use the iTunes Store because it's overpriced and low-quality, but iTunes/iPod can deal with CDs just fine.
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Ethernet actually has 8 pins. There's obviously no point of reassignable pins right now, but it must provide flexibility. Otherwise, there's no reason why Apple would go to the extra cost and trouble of doing this. It's not even like they make more profit from making the adaptors expensive.
What I always marvel at is how coax (ONLY 2 PINS!!) provides all of those HD TV channels. And it also carries network data, the gigabit speeds you see in ethernet, as it's frequently used to connect routers to modems. And it's perfectly round.
yeah touche, i totally forgot about ALAC.
in defense of my statement though, if the Lightening port does provide for better sound quality, i see 99% of users not converting their music selection to take advantage of the available higher sound quality. most systems that people play their iPods from are crap anyways. the sound quality wouldn't even be noticeable on those popular Bose SoundStation docks
the point that i was trying to make, was that going with a locked down proprietary complex chipset was not necessary to achieve the intent of the cable...even if they still wanted to go this same route (reversible, digital, etc). perhaps it would still need to be complex, but the approach that apple took to this cable regarding 3rd party developer licensing, fees, availability, etc...is ridiculous. however we, as the consumer, are to blame also. no matter what Apple makes we buy it. so as long as that exchange of commerce occurs, Apple will continue on the same way as before. we have the freedom to vote with our dollars, but fewer and fewer of us have the willpower to do so lol (hence the increasing market share of iPhones among young adults)
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I think I'll wait for the iFixit review
As someone said at Gizmodo, the guy who tore this apart isn't very good at tearing things apart. Dispite the name, there should be no "tearing."
Let's say iFixit did do a teardown. What will theirs do better? There will still be the same connector, same chips, same board, same pins, same plastic covers, same metal cage, same ****ing everything.
OH! Maybe they won't have the cat hair in the picture!!!!! This... changes..... EVERYTHING.
"An inkling of what you're looking for, and the resources to find out what's before you?" What does that even MEAN? This was a random teardown of a new connector that no one had seen before, not a ****ing CIA analysis report of an unknown foreign weapons technology that is going to be read by the President's war cabinet. FFS.
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