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I wonder if the 14 will even last that long. The SE is basically a souped up 14 for a lower price from what's rumored. The ultra wide camera is the only thing the 14 has over the SE. I'm not sure it will make sense to keep in the lineup especially with the SE having AI.
Yes agreed, I'd be willing to bet that the iPhone 14 will be discontinued when the 4th gen SE is introduced since the new SE will be based on it (and the same thing happened to both the 5S and the 8 when the 1st and 2nd gen iPhone SE was released).
 
Why does Apple love lightening so much that it kept it for such a long time?

I still dispise USB-C, basically the most fragile connector I’ve ever used, I’ve had to restart my iPad several times because the USB-C connector simply will never connect, no matter what type of device I connect to it it just simply will have stopped working. Once I restart the iPad USB-C comes back online.

The lightning connector I’ve used since it’s inception and basically have had zero issues with it on any device ever. Yes the cables wore out, yes sometimes I had to clean out the plug, but it was the most indestructible plug I’ve ever seen.
my AirPods Max and my AirPods Pro 2 all have lightning, my new USB-C AirPods Pro. I simply use my Apple Watch charger to charge. I do have USB-C and I use it to connect things all the time, but I see no advantage to charge a 1.5 W device with the USB-C where a lightning would work just as well.

I am in no rush upgrade devices simply because I have a need to only have one cable. Who uses just one cable, I’m currently charging three devices and I have three different cables. Imagine that.

could be a bad cable. Always buy those original and verified ones
 
I cannot believe Apple still has not created a black-keys magic keyboard version without the numpad. Insane.

View attachment 2443107
That would be my dream come true!


MK293 copy.jpeg
 
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I still dispise USB-C, basically the most fragile connector I’ve ever used, …
You never used the Micro-USB connector? That one was fragile and flakely.

USB-C is reliable for most people. Some people have had problems. Lightning was mostly reliable but some people had problems with it. There are no connectors that are 100% reliable.
 
The remote for Apple TV is also using the lightning connector and I don't see a USB-c for it
 
As I mentioned in another thread, Lightning in design is a far better connector than USC-C. Smaller footprint, more robust, positive locking. Apple really dropped the ball not getting it to become the standard connector over the abomination we have now.
Apple joined the USB-C group and contributed major portions of the design based on their learnings from Lightning. They each have their strengths and weaknesses but neither one is clearly more reliable than the other. They each fail in different ways.
 
I still dispise USB-C, basically the most fragile connector I’ve ever used
It's not as bad as micro-USB which sometimes would bend, but yeah it's second worst ( I don't recall Apple ever using micro USB tho so it could be Apple's worst connector).

I also dislike the insistence on using a USB-C connector for EVERYTHING: "let's use the same pinout for video, data, and charging, but make different cables for different uses." Kinda defeats the whole purpose of a "Universal" Serial Bus.

I like having a video cable that is obviously a video cable--makes it easy to figure out what you are plugging in when you are at the back of your computer. A Displayport cable obviously connects to your monitor. A fifth USB-C cable is just confusing. And what is the point in having a USB-C port that requires a special USB-C video cable that transfers the signal to the Displayport format to your monitor, when you could just use the standard DP cables like everyone does in the Windows world? DP is the video standard. DP over USB-C connector using a special USB-C video cable is not more simple.

Anyway, Apple's implementation of USB-C might as well be a totally proprietary port like its old 30 pin one, because the only charging cable that works with my ipad pro is the one provided by Apple. So I can only use my only Apple USB-C product with its provided proprietary Apple charger--might as well be a totally new format then (which would be fine by me).

Lightning was the best of all the connectors. People complained about its transfer speed (the USB-C transfer speeds are also gimped so that's a silly complaint), but who uses wired transfer these days anyway? With airdrop and wifi I haven't done it in years.

Overall though, it's not a huge deal. USB-C is not *significantly* worse than lightning.
It's annoying to see the USB-A ports going away completely though. I use a Windows desktop and have at least 6 USB-A products plugged in to it at any time. I'm not going to re-buy all 6 accessories to have a slightly smaller connector on them. Sillyness. But then again, they want you to pay the Apple tax and buy Apple accessories instead of third party OEM keyboards and such. I get it. But that's also why people Hackintosh.

The lightning connector I’ve used since it’s inception and basically have had zero issues with it on any device ever. Yes the cables wore out, yes sometimes I had to clean out the plug
Never even cleaned mine and am using the original plug from my iPhone 6. Still use the IPhone 6 as a podcasting device (lasts a week on a single charge with the battery case if you turn off wifi!). Also has a HEADPHONE jack! Always thought it was hilarious that people would cheer the removal of ports.. that cracks me up to this day. I never once used a Firewire port but I was glad it was there.
 
That seems more of a legacy product. The Lightning pencils are not being actively marketed
I'm pretty sure the Lightning pencil is the only one that works with the current iPad.
At least that was my recollection when I looked into it a few weeks back--it's a cluster and I had to read a long article describing the different pencil products that can work with different devices--absolutely crazy to have 3 different pencil products! And I would never, ever, ever use one other than the wireless one that has a magnet and charges inductively. A wired pencil, USB-C or A or lightning is a very odd product for Apple to offer in 2024 IMHO.

(I have an ipad pro and it takes the wireless pencil --probably the best feature about the pro for me)
 
Wonder why the magic keyboard with num pad and without touch ID did not get an update. Not expecting an update now. As for iPhone SE, it should change by April 2025.
 
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I still dispise USB-C, basically the most fragile connector I’ve ever used, I’ve had to restart my iPad several times because the USB-C connector simply will never connect, no matter what type of device I connect to it it just simply will have stopped working. Once I restart the iPad USB-C comes back online.

The lightning connector I’ve used since it’s inception and basically have had zero issues with it on any device ever. Yes the cables wore out, yes sometimes I had to clean out the plug, but it was the most indestructible plug I’ve ever seen.
my AirPods Max and my AirPods Pro 2 all have lightning, my new USB-C AirPods Pro. I simply use my Apple Watch charger to charge. I do have USB-C and I use it to connect things all the time, but I see no advantage to charge a 1.5 W device with the USB-C where a lightning would work just as well.

I am in no rush upgrade devices simply because I have a need to only have one cable. Who uses just one cable, I’m currently charging three devices and I have three different cables. Imagine that.
I'm guessing you don't travel. One plug to rule them all... COUNT me in!!!
 
I'm pretty sure the Lightning pencil is the only one that works with the current iPad.
At least that was my recollection when I looked into it a few weeks back--it's a cluster and I had to read a long article describing the different pencil products that can work with different devices--absolutely crazy to have 3 different pencil products! And I would never, ever, ever use one other than the wireless one that has a magnet and charges inductively. A wired pencil, USB-C or A or lightning is a very odd product for Apple to offer in 2024 IMHO.

(I have an ipad pro and it takes the wireless pencil --probably the best feature about the pro for me)

The regular Pencil works on the base iPad, and works on all iPads. It’s more affordable and you charge via USB C.

Or if you’ve got an iPad with inductive charging (Air, mini, Pro) then you can get a Pencil Pro, more expensive and feature rich.

I’m not seeing what’s complicated about this.

As I said Apple sells some legacy Pencils for compatibility with older iPads but it only markets two Pencils for new iPads.
 
I was hoping for a redesign of the magic mouse...
I'm still using it, but I'm itching to get a replacement.
 
I still dispise USB-C, basically the most fragile connector I’ve ever used, I’ve had to restart my iPad several times because the USB-C connector simply will never connect, no matter what type of device I connect to it it just simply will have stopped working. Once I restart the iPad USB-C comes back online.

The lightning connector I’ve used since it’s inception and basically have had zero issues with it on any device ever. Yes the cables wore out, yes sometimes I had to clean out the plug, but it was the most indestructible plug I’ve ever seen.
my AirPods Max and my AirPods Pro 2 all have lightning, my new USB-C AirPods Pro. I simply use my Apple Watch charger to charge. I do have USB-C and I use it to connect things all the time, but I see no advantage to charge a 1.5 W device with the USB-C where a lightning would work just as well.

I am in no rush upgrade devices simply because I have a need to only have one cable. Who uses just one cable, I’m currently charging three devices and I have three different cables. Imagine that.
That sounds more like a software problem. But this is not at all uncommon on usb-A, it’s just that it has become less common in recent years because the more finicky connections have moved away from usb-A.
 
Other than a hugely better camera/s, is there anything Apple that has acutally really improved since the iPhone 4S???
Yes, my sweet spot is the SE line. I still have a 4S as my backup phone but the SE has better battery life and better battery longevity, connectivity – I get way better call reception and of course, wifi and especially mobile net is massively faster.

But if your 4S works for you, there is no reason to let it go. Your choice is the one everyone should make, less e-waste, less pollution and less hassle from chasing new features that pretty much never work quite as advertised.

The 4S’s battery is easy to change yourself, which is something none of the new phones can boast about and it has very few actual problems if you keep it in a case. One of my favorites ❤️
 
Lightning in design is a far better connector than USC-C. Smaller footprint, more robust, positive locking. Apple really dropped the ball not getting it to become the standard connector over the abomination we have now.

Apple joined the USB-C group and contributed major portions of the design based on their learnings from Lightning.
Apple also designed the USB-C connector. It's the reversible power connector from Apple's older Cinema displays. It had two rows of five pins as opposed to USB-C having two rows of eight/twelve pins.

It was smaller than USB-A, but bigger than USB-C.

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Apple Cinema Display 23-Inch A-1082 (Aluminum) - computer parts - by ...
 
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Apple also designed the USB-C connector. It's the reversible power connector from Apple's older Cinema displays. It had two rows of five pins as opposed to USB-C having two rows of eight pins.

It was smaller than USB-A, but bigger than USB-C.

Still using my 30" ACD.
And still loving it.
 
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Apple also designed the USB-C connector. It's the reversible power connector from Apple's older Cinema displays. It had two rows of five pins as opposed to USB-C having two rows of eight pins.

It was smaller than USB-A, but bigger than USB-C.

View attachment 2443708View attachment 2443721
Apple Cinema Display 23-Inch A-1082 (Aluminum) - computer parts - by ...

Did not know that. Shame they didn't use their own better design. 😉 Guess some bean counter did the math and figured they could sell "X" more units per year of each new device to people who would otherwise have an expensive USB-C repair. 😄
 
The only Apple products that I need to eventually replace that still use lightning will be the Apple TV 4K with the newer style remote and the Powerbeats Pro, the remote I could do today if I want as that has USB-C now, but I will have to wait and hope that the Powerbeats Pro 2 will be out next year.

After that lightning will be a distant memory at last, it's a connector that should have died out a few years ago by now as it outlived its usefulness by a good amount.

I'm guessing you don't travel. One plug to rule them all... COUNT me in!!!

And this is what I absolutely love about USB-C, I can use it to run a display, transfer data at high speeds or simply use it for charging and with most things going USB-C these days I can use the same cable for all of it. I use it to charge and run a TV at 4K 60hz from my Steam Deck, charge my electric screwdriver, charge a battery powered torch, charge security cameras or just charge my iPhone along with many other devices.

A lot may hate USB-C but one cable to rule them all is the best thing that's ever happened, I'm so glad the days of a proprietary connector for every device are long gone.
 
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The regular Pencil works on the base iPad, and works on all iPads. It’s more affordable and you charge via USB C.
It appears the 10th gen Ipad can use the USB-C pencil.
The 9th gen Ipad needs the Lightning pencil (maybe that's technically legacy but it's the most recent model).
Neither can take the wireless / magnetic pencil.

I had to pull up Macrumors Buyers Guides to even find these details. If it's confusing to me, there's no way your average consumer is going to understand which of 3 pencil types he needs to buy for his tablet. And I just don't get the point of anything but the wireless model. And I'm a guy who prefers wired headphones!
 
Apple also designed the USB-C connector. It's the reversible power connector from Apple's older Cinema displays. It had two rows of five pins as opposed to USB-C having two rows of eight/twelve pins.

It was smaller than USB-A, but bigger than USB-C.

View attachment 2443708View attachment 2443721
Apple Cinema Display 23-Inch A-1082 (Aluminum) - computer parts - by ...

Except, that's not USB-C. It doesn't fit into the ACD (plug is too wide). And that port is only for service; the power comes bundled with USB-A and FW from a fixed cable out of the ACD.
 
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