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It is nice to see more iPads move to USB-C. iPad Pro already did, now the Air has too, just leaves the "iPad" and iPad Mini. This also moves their Apple Pen su

It is nice to see more iPads move to USB-C. iPad Pro already did, now the Air has too, just leaves the "iPad" and iPad Mini. This also moves their Apple Pen support to 2nd gen from 1st gen.

EricE 6y ago
Hopefully this is also foreshadowing the iPhone moving to USB-C. Lightning is OK, but the thought of being able to standardize on one cable for everything is very, very appealing.
- Zippogriff 6y ago
  Not doing so at least shortly after switching over their MacBooks has been really annoying. We're back to playing "which adapter and which charger this time?" USB-A + other-ports macbooks and lightning for iOS devices was better than the current mess, and they've gone years without fixing it. Oh and then if you find the right cable there's the matter of which port the charger itself has (A or C). Ugh. "One port, except for this other one, and then also you'll almost never need either of those ports directly so you'll have two adapters for everything".
- walterbell 6y ago
  Sadly iPhone seems to be moving to zero cables, which means relying on perennially insecure basebands for Bluetooth & WiFi. EU tried to force Apple to move iPhone to USB-C and their response was to drop all cables. Hopefully the market rejects zero-port iPhones and Apple finally provides local USB-C for sync, audio, wired ethernet, keyboard, external displays, etc.
  - oblio 6y ago
    > Hopefully the market rejects zero-port iPhones and Apple finally provides local USB-C for sync, audio, wired ethernet, keyboard, external displays, etc. Highly unlikely. I'm not an Apple fan but they'll probably have a slick solution at about $60-$140 and people will just buy that instead. It's going to be a classic upsell move ("would you like $60 worth of shoe miscellany together with your $80 shoes?") and people will just see the nice ads, the nice design, but it and move on :-)
  - EricE 6y ago
    I don't see Apple ever moving to a cable less iPhone (at least on all models). Wireless charging is no where near efficient enough to charge todays larger phone battery packs with anything resembling decent speed. In a car I doubt my phone would charge at all with the increased heat from sun and heat from inductive charging - heck the phone might shut down; it sometimes does on hot summer days already if I'm not really careful with positioning it. I do admit that the majority of time I rarely plug it in, but when I do in order to get it topped off as much as I can as quickly as I can, it's really useful. External battery packs? Also very impractical and way more cumbersome. It's a persistent rumor but I just don't see it.
    - ycombinete 6y ago
      I use a wireless charger/mount in the car, but it mounts in front of the aircon vent, so it charges perfectly.
  - ziml77 6y ago
    I don't see this happening. Wireless charging is slower and is awkward if you want to use the phone while it's charging. With something like the Apple Watch it doesn't matter since it's unlikely you would even want to have it on your wrist while connected to the wall. I get that people also thought removing the headphone jack was crazy too, but Bluetooth audio is as good as wired for the majority of people. In many cases it's even nicer than having a wire going from your device to your head (something that I hated about listening to music on the go for decades). Plus it didn't fully disappear. You can still do wired audio with a dongle.
  - ksec 6y ago
    There will be zero port, but doesn't mean it is without cabling. I think Apple will support something like the iPad Smart Connector on iPhone. Where cable could be used when needed. But the whole iPhone is essentially sealed.
    - walterbell 6y ago
      Can that support high-speed data? On iPad, it's been limited so far to keyboard and charging.
      - ksec 6y ago
        Definitely not High Speed Data. Any Data Transfer will likely go through Wireless. The Wireless iPhone Data Migration was a step towards that goal.
        walterbell 6y ago
        WiFi and Bluetooth basebands are regularly compromised by attackers, through no fault of Apple. There are use cases for offline pocket computers, which never use WiFi/BT, have wired headphones and intermittently sync data via wired ethernet. Would love a kill switch for all radios & microphones & cameras, plus the return of touch ID. Google Project Ara used UniPro (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UniPro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UniPro ) as an interconnect for modular components.

It is nice to see more iPads move to USB-C. iPad Pro already did, now the Air has too, just leaves the "iPad" and iPad Mini. This also moves their Apple Pen support to 2nd gen from 1st gen.

EricE 6y ago

Hopefully this is also foreshadowing the iPhone moving to USB-C. Lightning is OK, but the thought of being able to standardize on one cable for everything is very, very appealing.

Zippogriff 6y ago
Not doing so at least shortly after switching over their MacBooks has been really annoying. We're back to playing "which adapter and which charger this time?" USB-A + other-ports macbooks and lightning for iOS devices was better than the current mess, and they've gone years without fixing it. Oh and then if you find the right cable there's the matter of which port the charger itself has (A or C). Ugh. "One port, except for this other one, and then also you'll almost never need either of those ports directly so you'll have two adapters for everything".
walterbell 6y ago
Sadly iPhone seems to be moving to zero cables, which means relying on perennially insecure basebands for Bluetooth & WiFi. EU tried to force Apple to move iPhone to USB-C and their response was to drop all cables. Hopefully the market rejects zero-port iPhones and Apple finally provides local USB-C for sync, audio, wired ethernet, keyboard, external displays, etc.
- oblio 6y ago
  > Hopefully the market rejects zero-port iPhones and Apple finally provides local USB-C for sync, audio, wired ethernet, keyboard, external displays, etc. Highly unlikely. I'm not an Apple fan but they'll probably have a slick solution at about $60-$140 and people will just buy that instead. It's going to be a classic upsell move ("would you like $60 worth of shoe miscellany together with your $80 shoes?") and people will just see the nice ads, the nice design, but it and move on :-)
- EricE 6y ago
  I don't see Apple ever moving to a cable less iPhone (at least on all models). Wireless charging is no where near efficient enough to charge todays larger phone battery packs with anything resembling decent speed. In a car I doubt my phone would charge at all with the increased heat from sun and heat from inductive charging - heck the phone might shut down; it sometimes does on hot summer days already if I'm not really careful with positioning it. I do admit that the majority of time I rarely plug it in, but when I do in order to get it topped off as much as I can as quickly as I can, it's really useful. External battery packs? Also very impractical and way more cumbersome. It's a persistent rumor but I just don't see it.
  - ycombinete 6y ago
    I use a wireless charger/mount in the car, but it mounts in front of the aircon vent, so it charges perfectly.
- ziml77 6y ago
  I don't see this happening. Wireless charging is slower and is awkward if you want to use the phone while it's charging. With something like the Apple Watch it doesn't matter since it's unlikely you would even want to have it on your wrist while connected to the wall. I get that people also thought removing the headphone jack was crazy too, but Bluetooth audio is as good as wired for the majority of people. In many cases it's even nicer than having a wire going from your device to your head (something that I hated about listening to music on the go for decades). Plus it didn't fully disappear. You can still do wired audio with a dongle.
- ksec 6y ago
  There will be zero port, but doesn't mean it is without cabling. I think Apple will support something like the iPad Smart Connector on iPhone. Where cable could be used when needed. But the whole iPhone is essentially sealed.
  - walterbell 6y ago
    Can that support high-speed data? On iPad, it's been limited so far to keyboard and charging.
    - ksec 6y ago
      Definitely not High Speed Data. Any Data Transfer will likely go through Wireless. The Wireless iPhone Data Migration was a step towards that goal.
      - walterbell 6y ago
        WiFi and Bluetooth basebands are regularly compromised by attackers, through no fault of Apple. There are use cases for offline pocket computers, which never use WiFi/BT, have wired headphones and intermittently sync data via wired ethernet. Would love a kill switch for all radios & microphones & cameras, plus the return of touch ID. Google Project Ara used UniPro (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UniPro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UniPro ) as an interconnect for modular components.