Quick, look at your phone and find the port you plug your charger into. If it was made after June 2009, and it almost certainly was, you’re looking at a micro-USB port.
Unless you own an Apple product. Then you’re staring at a thirty-pin proprietary connector.
The upcoming iPhone 5 and the surround rumors have been showing a huge case of Stockholm Syndrome on the part of people who stubbornly refuse to believe what’s increasingly becoming obvious: Apple is out of touch.
And that has wider implications for the direction of mobile computing.
Apple is already forcing people to buy a new Mag-Safe charger for their shiny new laptops or spend $10 for an adapter for their old one. Now comes the news that Apple, after five years of that thirty pin connector, is going to change it to a nineteen pin one. But don’t worry! All the iPhone crap you’ve bought will still work with the new iPhone! You’ll just need to buy an adapter!
Good Lord, what is this? 1998? There is literally not another company in mobile computing that makes people buy a proprietary connector at this point. The fact that people are even making this argument instead of storming One Infinite Loop with torches and pitchforks illustrates just how insane some gadget fans really are.
Apple’s arguments are twofold: one, that they need the connector to stop app piracy and two, that they need the connector to stay slim and stylish.
Ask anybody in the jailbreaking community how well that first one has worked out. Also, we’re mildly skeptical of the second one for the fairly simple reason of, oh yeah, there are dozens of sleek smartphones with a micro-USB port. Unless the iPhone 5 will disappear when you turn it sideways it’s probably not going to be appreciably different from other phones on the market.
It’s baffling to me that I’m calling on Apple to join us in the twenty-first century but at this point, it has to be done. Get with the times, guys. I promise, it won’t hurt much.
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There was a great article recently about what a forward thinking piece of technology the dock adapter is and none of it was related to App piracy, so I’m guessing you pulled that reason out of your ass to fit the all controlling Apple narrative that brings in page views.
The Dock Adapter basically allows accessory makers to create driverless accessories. In fact it is so awesome Samsung copied it for the Galaxy Tab line, [www.samsung.com]
[www.cultofmac.com] there’s the article, link got munched by how I segregated it.
Thanks for the link but bluntly I’m a bit skeptical this is entirely the case.
Entirely the case for what? The Dock connector has been around for nearly a decade, introduced 4 years before the iPhone was released. A similar design was used on the Zune which you can see here [www.jakeludington.com]
Your App piracy argument makes close to zero sense since the cable doesn’t restrict anything about that. The downloaded application package is stored as a ZIP file on your computer and stored on the user accessible partition on your iPhone in an uncompressed form.
The simplest explanation is that the Dock connector style allows a more robust ecosystem of third party accessories which ultimately makes the user experience better.
Because Apple is known for supporting 3rd parties.
Mr Flopalopalus for the win!
Dear Dan Seitz.
This article is based on pure speculation and opinion. Must be a slow news day! “Apple is out of touch.” Wow, bold statement…you’re basically saying your reader base is out of touch. Guess that’s a whole lot of people that line up on launch day to be out of touch, huh. I’m still waiting on any other lines for any other cell phones/tablets. First of all please show me a cell phone that has had the benefit of having the SAME charger for over 5 years. Don’t worry, i’ll wait. The micro sim standard JUST started being used, so please pretend like it’s always been that way. 2009 was only 3 years ago. Their connection has been consistent throughout product life cycles BEFORE 2009. Have you ever owned an iPhone or iPod? It comes with the correct charger and wires, so this is absolutely a non issue. Unless you have broken the bank on iPod/iPhone cables and are mad that they’re no longer needed?
SLEEK cellphones. HAHA please stop. The iPhone 5 is slated to blow all the “sleek,” fragmented, and cheaply made bullsh*t out of the water as it has time and time again. This isn’t fanboyism or opinion. These are facts based on cold hard numbers. Clearly numbers you must have missed.
Also, because your comment is pretty ignorant, let me explain: proprietary is Apple’s middle name, this is old news. They’re updating the technology to be able to fit the connector to what works for them, did you think it would stay the same forever? It probably will be a high speed connection than the shitty micro usb. The only thing that’s baffling is how your head managed to get so far up in there.
Facts would help your argument, please bring them. Otherwise you just seem to be stating your opinion of how great Apple makes products and then you are just fanboying.
My 3Gs is dues for an upgrade so I’ll likley be buying an iPhone 5, regardless of what connector they use.
As for “adapters”, they work for many things but not everything. I have two speaker/charger units (one at work and one at home) that I”m pretty sure will have a tough time supporting the phone and the adapter because of the way they’re shaped. But that said… I don’t care. Progress eliminates outmoded forms of tech. I didn’t cry when CDs started to fade regardless of how many CD players I have. It’s all for the better.
This is Apple, they know better than you and have the billions of dollars to back it up. So what I’m saying is MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY. It’s all Steve’s legacy.
I’m just dodging the Iphone all together and going with a droid on my next upgrade.
Blackberry 10