6 ms·
Apple gets a lot of (semi-rightful) flak for going their own way and developing their own tech, protocols, and connectors, but in many cases they were legitimat
by niftich 10y ago
Apple gets a lot of (semi-rightful) flak for going their own way and developing their own tech, protocols, and connectors, but in many cases they were legitimately first and the 'standard' option came later.
-- Lightning pre-dates USB type-C, which fulfill the same usability goal
-- AirPlay pre-dates Miracast
-- Metal pre-dates Vulkan
In some cases, Apple's product was later adopted as the standard:
-- The mini-DisplayPort was their custom connector but later adopted as an official standard
-- the MOV format was adopted for the ISO base container format (MPEG-4 Part 12), which forms the base of MPEG-4 Part 14, commonly known as the 'MP4 container'.
In some cases, they did develop custom tech where open ones existed:
-- ALAC is fairly close in implementation details to FLAC, which pre-dates it.
-- Apple's 'HTTP Live Streaming' came well-after MPEG standard ways of doing HTTP streaming, and is roughly contemporaneous with Adobe's and Microsoft's proprietary ways of adaptive streaming. Later, DASH was developed as a vendor-neutral alternative, and is now the preferred way of doing adaptive streaming via HTTP.
I don't believe that Apple is any more proprietary than a lot of other companies. It's just that they're a tempting target, because they dictate their ecosystem so strongly, and it certainly doesn't help that they ship a lot of locked-down, premium devices.
But blatantly user-hostile changes like removing the headphone jack won't earn them any goodwill.
- TazeTSchnitzel 10y agoI think that removing the headphone jack could be justified if they were moving to an open standard. But instead they're moving to Lightning.
- niftich 10y agoThere is an open standard; it's the analog headphone jack. </sarcasm> But there is no 'other' open standard yet, although Intel and other vendors are pondering it [1]. This doesn't mean that HDMI or DisplayPort can't be shoehorned to do it and you can't carry those over the USB type-C plug, but they're meant for other things. This type of 'let's invent one that meets our needs slightly better than the 5 others' is what leads to standards proliferating (and I'll avoid linking the xkcd). [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12305410 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12305410
- comex 10y agoUSB audio has existed for decades and can be used with type-C like any other USB class. Intel's thing may provide improvements but it's hardly necessary.
- niftich 10y agoThis is correct, it's called 'Audio Device Class', specs here [1][2]. It's said that the new enhancements that Intel is pondering add power-management features to this spec, but I can't find much documentation on it, other than rumours. [1] http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/devclass_docs/audio10.pdf http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/devclass_docs/audio10.pdf [2] http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/devclass_docs/frmts10.pdf http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/devclass_docs/frmts10.pdf
- karmelapple 10y agoWhat about Bluetooth audio? That is an open standard.
- eridius 10y agoIt's not a very good one. Audio quality sucks and bluetooth has a lot of issues. But if you want to use it, Apple's always supported Bluetooth headphones.
- niftich 10y agoI was limiting my comparison to wired audio interconnects. It may be that from many people's point of view, the user experience is comparable and/or better. But it's accomplished using a fundamentally different mechanism. I wanted better apples; even if some oranges are tasty too.
- jolux 10y agoThe open standard is Bluetooth...
- theshrike79 10y agoThe current 4-pole headphone jack used in mobile phones is hardly a standard. At least both iOS and Android use their own flavour when doing anything more complex than play/pause.
- egypturnash 10y agoThey are. They're moving to Bluetooth. If you don't want those then you can get a Lightning adaptor. Edit: no they're not, I was skimming the news too hard. Oops. Well I guess they're trying to fix the Bluetooth latency everyone is complaining about with their existing stuff then. In a few years I'm sure Apple will find a wireless charging solution they like, and then they'll drop the Lightning connector as well. I cannot even begin to imagine the hue and cry that one's gonna cause.
- jonknee 10y agoThey're not moving to Bluetooth. They're packaging Lightning headphones in the box and announced their own wireless earbuds that are not Bluetooth. Update: as noted below, they do use Bluetooth though that's not in the marketing pitch. They don't promise compatibility outside of Apple devices though so who knows if it's based on a standard profile.
- strange_quark 10y agoI guess there's no way to know for sure right now, but it seems like the Airpods probably do in fact run over Bluetooth since they'll work with existing iPhones and Macs. Maybe they're using Wifi and building on top of Airdrop, but that seems like excessive power consumption for tiny headphones. I'd bet they're using Bluetooth 4.x + some proprietary magic to get them to pair super easily.
- awj 10y ago> They're packaging Lightning headphones in the box and announced their own wireless earbuds that are not Bluetooth. Have a source for that? That they claim it works with existing Macs kind of implies that it uses Bluetooth.
- theli0nheart 10y agoThis is not true. They are Bluetooth. See http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEF2AM/A/airpods http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEF2AM/A/airpods, then scroll down to "Tech Specs". Connections AirPods: Bluetooth
- 10y ago
- josu 10y ago>But instead they're moving to Lightning. Are they? Because none of their computer nor laptops have a lightning connector.
- FireBeyond 10y ago"-- Lightning pre-dates USB type-C, which fulfill the same usability goal" Lightning only operates at USB 2 speeds. Well, except for the large iPad Pro. Oh, and it requires an authentication chip so has to be approved by Apple (not overly 'usable', but definitely proprietary).
- niftich 10y agoFor clarity, 'usability goal' I was referring to is plug-into-slot-blindly-with-your-eyes-closed. I used the word 'usability' to attempt to imply UX, and I was deliberately avoiding commenting on speed, features, DRM, and the like, because those aren't delivered by USB type-C, which is only the plug. As you imply, those points are addressed by the jump from USB 2 to USB 3.0 or the type-C-compatible USB 3.1.
- pritambaral 10y ago> Metal pre-dates Vulkan Vulkan was announced first. Apple was even a part of the effort. Then they went off and did their own thing and withdrew from Vulkan and announced Metal. As I see it, Apple took Vulkan ideas. Of course it was faster for them to create Metal because they didn't have to care about cross-platform and multi-party support.
- niftich 10y ago> Vulkan was announced first No it wasn't. Khronos' own slides on Vulkan disprove this (slide 6) [1], saying they began the effort in June 2014. Apple announced Mantle to the public that month. [1] https://www.khronos.org/assets/uploads/developers/library/2015-gdc/Khronos-Vulkan-GDC_Mar15.pdf https://www.khronos.org/assets/uploads/developers/library/20...
- pritambaral 10y ago> Apple announced Mantle(sic) Announced, didn't release. In the same presentation as you linked, on slide 9, you can see Apple was a part of the Vulkan effort. The subsequently withdrew from Vulkan, before releasing Metal.
- niftich 10y agoWWDC 2014 in June had the 'Zen Garden' demo running Unreal 4 on the Metal API [1], and it was released to the app store in September [2]. In a different session, CryEngine was shown running Metal on an iPad [3]. That's two high-profile game engines already using the API. A limited release perhaps, but I count that as a significant head-start, all the while Khronos was just organizing glNext. [1] http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/183567-apple-unveils-metal-api-for-ios-8-will-shave-off-opengl-overhead-just-like-mantle-dx12 http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/183567-apple-unveils-metal... [2] http://appadvice.com/appnn/2014/09/unveiled-at-wwdc-2014-for-demo-of-apples-metal-epic-zen-garden-out-now-on-ios-8 http://appadvice.com/appnn/2014/09/unveiled-at-wwdc-2014-for... [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thb2841jCQ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thb2841jCQ4
- busterarm 10y agoWhat about HFS then? And HFS on OSX as the primary option? I think that's the one that's probably caused me the most grief. Apple's NIH syndrome is exceedingly strong...and I say this being an Apple product guy. The shit-show that has been owning a 6 Plus, the rapidly declining quality of OSX & its applications and now this has me quickly looking for the door. Edit: And they're pushing iCloud hard now...to the point that I don't sign into it on my devices anymore. iOS nags me to create an iCloud Backup _every day_ and when the setting was (accidentally) automatic, a single backup filled all of my free iCloud storage space...which caused iOS to nag me into paying for more iCloud storage. I simply cannot stop it from sending push notifications.
- developer2 10y ago>> Later, DASH was developed as a vendor-neutral alternative, and is now the preferred way of doing adaptive streaming via HTTP. Source? The entire industry as far as I can tell still uses HLS as the only mobile streaming tech, whether within or beyond the Apple ecosystem. HLS won. If DASH is going to take over, I haven't seen any evidence of that yet, and don't expect to in the near future.
- kartickv 10y agoThere may have been a reason to create Lightning, but no reason to continue using it now that USB-C exists. Getting rid of the headphone port would have been better if the alternative port was USB-C rather than Lightning.