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If they supported USB 3 speeds back in 2015, what could the possible technical limitation be or cost increase to support it in a $1,000 phone at this point?
 
From what I understand the way they enabled 3.0 speeds on the iPad Pro was using a hack of sorts, using both sides of the Lightning connector at once. Not sure if was fully reliable or wouldn’t work as a regular long time solution, but that adds some context as to why it was never available on iPhones
Why would the iPhone be limited here from supporting it as well if the connector is the same? Thanks.
 
Apple is so stubborn. Make the change already!! You've had more than enough time to figure it out at this point.
Apple:
We have removed USB-A from all MacBooks because it is old, outdated tech. But we are keeping the jack.
We have removed the jack from iPhones because is is old, outdated tech. But we are keeping the USB 2.0 speed Lightning connector.
Can't innovate, my ass.
 
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I am honestly surprised that they have remained so stubborn about moving on from Lightning. I find it disappointing that the iPhone did not move during the revision when the iPad moved to USB C.
Royalties.

Once you realise that all Tim Cook cares about is profits, you start to understand how many things are deliberately compromised on iPhones and Macs, and their OS's. And you start to understand why specific things are compromised on some devices and not others.

The most blatant being:
1. Lightning - royalties
2. Removing the jack - extensive sales of hugely overpriced, non-repairable, disposable wireless earphones
3. Poor repairability - your choice is expensive repair charges or buy a new device
4. Non-upgradeable RAM/SSD - have to pre-upgrade at 4x retail price, and if you misjudge, you have to buy a new device
(NB: the Intel Mac Pro allows self upgrading, simply because that niche high end market NEEDS the flexibility to upgrade, and wouldn't buy them otherwise)
5. No sideloading on iOS/iPadOS - massive percentage charge slapped on all 3rd party software
(NB: there is sideloading on macOS, due to it pre-existing the app store idea, and it's too late for Apple to back it out)
6. No access to the underlying *nix terminal on iOS/iPadOS - same reason as 5.

If there was actually any competitor products that were just as holistically nice to use as iPhones/Macs, then would Apple wouldn't be able to make these decisions.

Sadly, and quite frankly, incomprehensibly, there isn't a company on the planet who are capable of the vision to create something as amazing as what Jobs and Woz created.

Every electronics company that attempts to build the hardware seems to be led by some number cruncher who is a colour blind, tasteless, nerd, who couldn't recognise a beautiful industrial design if it slapped them in the face. And anyone who tries to build a beautiful, user friendly, layer on top of Linux, has the same problem, plus is a terminal/Vi loving nerd on top of that, and can't understand the need to be able to use the OS without a user ever ever ever having to touch the terminal.
 
Why is Apple this way?

Also: AirDrop is horribly unreliable. I needed to use it between my new iPhone and my girlfriend’s up-to-date Mac OS year-old MacBook Pro to exchange photos we took on our vacation, and it just wouldn’t work at all until devices were rebooted. Not user error.
 
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You do realize not everyone in the world ONLY moves photos, right? You do realize some of us deal with files on our devices that are 10+ GB, right? Some of us have 256GB or more devices that can handle the files... AirDrop is absolutely not reliable for transferring anything larger than 10GB. It fails 9/10 times, in which case I have to use a cloud service. That means waiting for it to upload and then download again to my device, which takes even longer.
And I’ve found Mac OS networking to be entirely unreliable overall. It’s maddening. It’s like “we are in the tech future, yet printers and networking still both suck like it’s 1993”.
 
I have an iPhone 11 Pro and have no interest upgrading until they add a USB-C port
Same with me, unless I get a used 13. I have the same phone. And I came from Android. I can always go back. Apple used to offer many great OS features over Android, but I was surprised to find the difference so close.
 
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It’s a mystery why they didn’t upgrade to USB 3 speeds like the iPad Pro on the iPhones (at least the Pros) a long time ago.
Not a mystery. They are running out of upgrade features to push. Phones are becoming appliances.
 
Guess I’ll be sticking with my new phone SE3 at least until the next phone has USB-C. I’m not expecting Apple to fix software (networking), and the only reason I’ve considered an iPhone Pro is the ProRaw output for the camera. I’ve no end of issues with networking between every and any Mac ever. All Apple hardware. Same OS on both sides, and I’ll still have endless erratic nonsense. Failed transfers, slow, lost connection, shares invisible… etc. It’s only mildly less problematic when all on Ethernet.
 
I’m keeping my iPhone XS for another year. I haves loved the lightning connector but I refuse to buy another Apple product unless it has USB-C. My AirPods Pro are great and will last another 2-3 years.
 
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It's not too surprising they're not bothering to update Lightning, knowing that it's going away soon (hopefully).
Knowing what exactly?

Yes, EU regulators are making something happen with USB-C.

But there’s nothing actual set in motion as of today that stops anyone from doing non-USB-C ports in consumer electronics now or a year from now.

Seeing how blatantly Apple stays 100% stagnant on their 10+ year MFi money maker, I’ll have to see the USB-C iPhone before I believe it.

And to play the devil’s advocate for a second, why would you change the port willingly if consumers seem to cope with it and still buy your $999+ USB 2.0 smartphones anyway?

Apple makes too much money with the MFi program and sales of its own Lightning accessories.

USB could have happened with iPhones 14 or earlier if iPhone buyers had voted with their dollars.

But they don’t.

The shift to USB-C only happens when the EU actually follows through.

Apple will not do it on its own, no way!

iPhone X and 12 were complete redesigns and perfect opportunities to upgrade Lighting to 3.0 or do USB-C. Why exactly are we so sure iPhone 15 will get a different port?
 
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USB 2 speeds for a device like this in 2022 is a bit nuts. There’s something rotten about Lightning and Apple knows it but is holding out as long as possible, mainly because not a lot of people bother to tether for file transfers anymore, and Apple wants to push paid iCloud plans for backups too. But there’s no reason to expect tethering to be unbearably slow after buying such an expensive device, and plenty of us don’t like being expected to pay for iCloud on top of it.

As much as I like using my existing Lightning dock and cables, if USB 2 is the cap then I’d rather see it go in favor of something modern.
 
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I just got one our new iPhone 14 pro's today.

I took a few raw pictures and even while I'm doing a big restore, I saw my big photo pop up on my MacBook Pro.

Linksys mesh is 6E and fast

1TB storage on iPhone too - what is the issue really?
 
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From what I understand the way they enabled 3.0 speeds on the iPad Pro was using a hack of sorts, using both sides of the Lightning connector at once. Not sure if was fully reliable or wouldn’t work as a regular long time solution, but that adds some context as to why it was never available on iPhones
Not sure what you’re referring to specifically but the latest iPad Pro uses USB-C and has a full fledged thunderbolt connector.

It’s capable of more than USB 3.0.
 
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View attachment 2068373A lot of fixation on transfer speeds over a cable when you can easily use wireless. Not sure I get it. 🤷

Wireless is always slower and less reliable than cable.

And last time I tested it, it didn't work.
I was trying itunes sync back in the end of 2020. It couldn't find the phone, despite it being in the same network (layer 2 + 3). No way to specify mac or ip addresses and apple's autodiscovery protocol failed.
Didn't debug it further since I have USB 3.0 on my workstation and couldn't be bothered. Doing WfH it runs anyway and the phone just syncs in the background. Apple's support also sucks when it comes to network issues, they don't even bother collecting data or sending the ticket to Level 2.

Next iphone I buy will of course have USB-C. Lightning is just too slow.
 
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