Leaker: Apple to Stick With Lightning Over USB-C for 'iPhone 12' Before Going Port-Less Next Year

[lockhartt]

This is a slippery slope fallacy. Nobody is suggesting to have high power devices to go wireless. There is no benefit in having a wireless washing machine or tumble drier, and they absorb several, several times more energy than an iPhone. In fact, the energy absorbed by an iPhone is negligible, so a 10% loss is even more negligible.

Not sure why you think nobody is talking about it for high power devices. It’s already in development for some kitchen appliances and being discussed for EV applications. And wasteful is wasteful, regardless of localized scale. Multiply that “negligible” loss per phone by the number of smartphones in use globally and tell me how negligible that number remains.

 

[john123]

Port-less is not coming anytime soon. Wireless charging might be the most useless technology of recent times.

Not to mention that it doesn't even work today if you use a case that's even medium bulky.

 

[MrGuder]

I can see it now...if you want an iPhone with no connectors you must pay top tier $1200.00 all other models get usual connectors. Lol

 

[now i see it]

as the iPhone continues is swirling path down the toilet

 

[oldmacs]

In a way, it’s like how Apple feels confident enough to drop MagSafe with the 2016 MacBooks because they now sport longer battery life, and users no longer need to keep themselves tethered to a power socket 24/7.

And I also still see that as a massive backwards step. MacBooks didn't increase *that much* in battery to justify dropping MagSafe, in fact the last MacBook Air with MagSafe had better battery life than the first MacBook Air with USB-C only. The MacBook Pros only gained 1 or so hours of battery life. Hardly enough that people had completely changed the way they interacted with Laptops.

Do I make sense?

I understand your reasoning, but I think that it sucks being a consumer because the end result is a lesser experience. I would far prefer Apple to make wireless interfacing with the iPhone a pleasant experience, that is actually better than the best wired experience they could offer, and let people naturally migrate over. And the best wired experience I still believe would be if they moved to USB-C. But they're desperate not to do that, because they can't make money off USB-C like they can off lightning.

 

[Mac Rules]

On other phones that are not iPhones. What I’m saying is that when the iPhone goes portless the technology is there to do very fast wireless charging.

OnePlus’ 30W Warp Charge wireless charger promises ultra-fast speeds

A first look at OnePlus’ new 30W Warp Charge wireless charger

www.theverge.com

New Huawei P40 Pro phone: fast charging, smooth feel

Huawei’s P40 Pro phone, one of three in its new flagship range, has a world-beating lowlight camera, an infrared face scanner and 40W wireless charging. With all four edges of the display rounded, the phone feels nice in the hand.

www.scmp.com

Right, so not only do you need a larger plug to output the power (not the biggest deal), you need a stand that costs $80 with its own cooling fan to enable the charge. That is not a step forward.

You know what would be simpler? A cable.

 

[blackcrayon]

For me it’s all a joke anyways. Apple should get rid of that absurd notch before they even consider thinking they have the technology down to do a wireless charging system like we all want for the future. It definitely would ensure privacy by locking out so many law enforcement and hacker type individuals who need physical access to a device.

I care mostly about the user view/interface. To me the screen needs no notch before Apple tackles other problems. Apple’s marketing department should feel ashamed of themselves calling the iPhone a bezel-less or all-screen/all-display iPhone.

Yes, the ability to shrink the TrueDepth camera so it fits invisibly into the bezel is the exact same as implementing wireless charging. I'm sure there's one engineer in a room working on both problems at the same time

 

[ggibson913]

It will be interesting to see how wireless charging works in a car when you have a dashmount.

The other problem is for those of us who have Car Play. My Car Play only works if my phone has a wired connection to my vehicle. While Android Auto/ Car Play is pretty much becoming standard equipment in many of today's vehicles, wireless charging/ connection is not.

 

[oldmacs]

The other problem is for those of us who have Car Play. My Car Play only works if my phone has a wired connection to my vehicle. While Android Auto/ Car Play is pretty much becoming standard equipment in many of today's vehicles, wireless charging/ connection is not.

The Apple 'Green' approach would be that we all buy new cars -_-

 

[KPOM]

Wireless CarPlay needs to become more prevalent. I suspect Apple will introduce some sort of adapter for the iPhone or the CarPlay unit to enable it to work in the interim.

 

[ghostface147]

Most cars don’t have wireless charging and wireless sync with my Mac (where I manage my photo library and music library) is A LOT slower than a wired connection. Crazy!

 

[KPOM]

The other problem is for those of us who have Car Play. My Car Play only works if my phone has a wired connection to my vehicle. While Android Auto/ Car Play is pretty much becoming standard equipment in many of today's vehicles, wireless charging/ connection is not.

Yes, wireless adoption has been slow. My aftermarket unit has it, but most cars I’ve rented have had only wired units. Apple could create an adapter for the iPhone or a wireless module to plug into a wired CarPlay unit.

 

[KPOM]

My bigger concern, with no port, is CarPlay. Not many vehicles have wireless CarPlay, including mine. Maybe I'm missing something but how is that going to work without a port? Now you have to buy a new vehicle when a new phone comes out? 😂

There are aftermarket wireless modules to plug into wired CarPlay units. They don’t always work, but if Apple made one, that would surely be different.

 

[I7guy]

At the face of it, this isn't the same thing as getting rid of the headphone jack. With the headphone jack one can still use wired headphones. How the heck is the phone supposed to be charged in many situations that we all seem to find ourselves in? New type of smartconnector with a lightning connector at the end.

This strategy will make it easy to be within the new EU guidelines.

 

[BroTim52]

Very interesting move...

I prefer the Lightning headphones for listening to music so I guess I'm going to have to use my AirPods all the time once Apple discontinues the ports...

I wonder if they will continue to make Smart Battery cases

I wonder what their plans are for the vast majority of CarPlay-enabled vehicles that don’t support wireless CarPlay.

The only positive that I can see coming from this is that we finally get a first-party USB-to-wireless adapter for CarPlay vehicles.

First thing that came to my mind was my car play. Your right would need an adapter to wireless.

 

[sintra1]

The whackers of Apple that innovates with an more Apple tax cable. Still anti-social behavior (in EU illegal the non-USB connectors/cables) that bring more money to the "most innovator" company.

The Lightning port is NOT illegal in the EU/UE - It is USB A on one end and WILL fit any USB socket or computer/ordinateur portible for charging and data transfer.

The recommendation “ not a directive in law” recommends USB to be used and its just as compliant as USB A- Micro USB still used in many Android powered phones. Still differing plugs at each end !

 

[Ubuntu]

I'm skeptical because they'd have to include some form of charging option out of the box, surely, and I can't see them shipping it with a wireless charger.

Also, as an iOS developer I need the lightning port to actually debug builds on the iPhone. Yes, there's wireless debugging but it does not work reliably in my experience.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Wireless charging as fast as wired? Who makes this magical tech I’ve been missing?

One plus and Huawei. One plus can do 30 W wirelesss charging and Huawei does 40 Watts.

OnePlus’ 30W Warp Charge wireless charger promises ultra-fast speeds

A first look at OnePlus’ new 30W Warp Charge wireless charger

www.theverge.com

New Huawei P40 Pro phone: fast charging, smooth feel

Huawei’s P40 Pro phone, one of three in its new flagship range, has a world-beating lowlight camera, an infrared face scanner and 40W wireless charging. With all four edges of the display rounded, the phone feels nice in the hand.

www.scmp.com

 

[PowerMacBook]

what about Lightning 2.0?
faster than USB-C, but compatible with USB-C.

Lightning 2.0 could be wireless like the Apple Watch, but easy to have it implemented in dash mounts (they will me "Made for Lightning 2.0)

 

[bviktor]

How do you wirelessly charge a phone when it's, say, in your car being used for navigation (something I do every day to get to work). I like to take a lightning cable with me everywhere I go, and leave one in my car, and leave one at home, because otherwise I'd eventually not have one when I need it. I doubt wireless chargers would be cheap enough to just buy 3 of. They are also much more bulky than a simple cable.

I don't understand how a car is any different. Wireless CarPlay is a thing. Cars now also come with Qi charging. I have both on my 2019 3 series. But it's not something exclusive to premium models, Volkswagen even said they'll add these to the entry levels too, exactly to address your concerns.

Yes, it'll take a couple of years to have a decent market penetration with such cars, but we'll get there.

Until then, you have a gazillion car Qi chargers to choose from, and they're dirt cheap. For wireless CarPlay, you can also get a 2 DIN head unit, but of course that's more pricey...

 

[Cydoniaworld]

How would i use an audio interface with my iPhone if it has no ports?

 

[oldmacs]

Until then, you have a gazillion car Qi chargers to choose from, and they're dirt cheap. For wireless CarPlay, you can also get a 2 DIN head unit, but of course that's more pricey...

Plenty of new cars now have proprietary head units, and majority of cars now do not have wireless CarPlay. Even with head units its only offered on the more expensive ones.

 

[MacLawyer]

How do you wirelessly charge a phone when it's, say, in your car being used for navigation (something I do every day to get to work). I like to take a lightning cable with me everywhere I go, and leave one in my car, and leave one at home, because otherwise I'd eventually not have one when I need it. I doubt wireless chargers would be cheap enough to just buy 3 of. They are also much more bulky than a simple cable.

Some third party manufacturer is already working on it.

 

[incoherent_1]

This is BS. They wouldn’t go all wireless with the current wireless charging tech, which is extremely limited. And they won’t release a new tech and force it down people’s throats in the same year. People aren’t going to buy new cars and multiple charging mats with no notice.

 

[citysnaps]

Makes a ton of sense. I can see it.