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This article has an odd, simplified, and biased description of history. Apple pushed USB hard and early. The article carefully never made the claim Apple owned

by pfranz 6y ago

This article has an odd, simplified, and biased description of history. Apple pushed USB hard and early. The article carefully never made the claim Apple owned Firewire exclusively--it was a partnership with Sony and Panasonic that had certain benefits. I'm not sure what alternative to the 30-pin connector the author would have been pleased with. Personally, I'm very glad it wasn't micro or mini USB. The Lightning port was shipping years ahead of something like USB-C. Sure, it would be nice if they switched now. I'm sure even if they used a standard port they'd still have a certification program because Apple loves control. I'm confident the licensing money is just a perk. Look at the iPad Pro. They used USB-C instead of extending Lightning. Bluetooth headphones had been disappointing for decades. After being disappointed over and over I had settled on completely proprietary digital wireless headphones (much like wireless mice until BluetoothLE). Then Apple started making some great headphones that added a bit of "magic" around Bluetooth. I hear AirPods work great outside of Apple's ecosystem, too. They still have some of the "warts" of Bluetooth like having a battery-draining, low latency, low quality mono mode for phone/chat and a higher quality mode for music that sometimes get stuck in the wrong mode, but it's nice they're using a widely supported standard.

yourapostasy 6y ago
> The Lightning port was shipping years ahead of something like USB-C. Sure, it would be nice if they switched now. If Apple can fix their supply of USB-C ports so they uniformly, consistently last for more than just 6-12 months instead of some do and some don’t, I’d be onboard for switching. As it is, it is frustratingly common for Apple Lightning plugs to wear out the fingers and Apple USB-C ports to lose their “click” (even when just standing in a laptop cradle on a desk and otherwise covered with a port plug when carried around).
- pfranz 6y ago
  I haven't heard of or experienced those issues directly =/ The only issue I've hit myself is lint getting packed into the port which is fairly easily cleaned but annoying if you don't have a tool handy. I have heard lots of stories about the cable fatiguing. My suspicion is that's because of using the phone while charging; heating and bending the cable near the connector. I haven't experienced this (I tend not to charge while using it) but have friends that do. I haven't seen or heard of an issue with USB-C ports. My beefs are that there isn't enough, you can't get more with a hub, and generic power supplies and cables have only been available in the past couple years. The older devices I had with USB-C I got rid of when they fixed the keyboard. I definitely had them longer then 6-12 months.
- MrBuddyCasino 6y ago
  > it is frustratingly common for Apple Lightning plugs to wear out the fingers I have only experienced this with 3rd party cables, but never ones made by Apple.
  - Joker_vD 6y ago
    Another reason why Lighning is inferior to USB: the USB cables can be cheap and of good quality.
    - kalleboo 6y ago
      You're being heavily downvoted but this is my experience as well. Even Lightning cables from "alright" brands like Amazon Basics have lots of issues, whereas the only microUSB cables I've had issues with are the really bargain basement stuff that comes bundled with aliexpress junk. It seems the required tolerances for Lightning are way higher (=more expensive). I don't have enough experience with cheap USB-C cables to make generalizations there though.
- tatersolid 6y ago
  > it is frustratingly common for Apple Lightning plugs to wear out the fingers This is a feature. If the metal inside the port wore out instead repairs would be a lot more expensive. I’ve also only experienced lightning plug wear with cheap Amazon Basics or gas-station cables. The Apple lightning cables have much better made plugs, but they have a different flaw: the super-thin outer cover detaches from the connector housing over time, exposing the shielding wire.
  - mason55 6y ago
    It was also one of the major benefits in the (fast) transition from mini USB to micro USB! Mini usb had a bad habit of wearing out the port instead of the plug.
  - kalleboo 6y ago
    In Lightning, the moving/springy parts are in the port, not the cable (unlike USB-C where it's the cable that wears out)
- jdeibele 6y ago
  I have an iPhone and AirPods, both with the Lightning port. I charge them every night with $7-$10 Qi chargers from Amazon. I've read that doing wirelessly charges slower but that's supposed to be better for the battery. Rarely do I use a Lightning cable anymore. I bought an Apple Watch and there's nothing but an option to wirelessly charge it. Before that I would have been skeptical about the idea that Apple is not going to switch to USB-C but instead just use wireless charging. Now it seems reasonable. PS: I had used various Bluetooth headphones before. The killer features of the AirPods Pro are their small size (I can fit the case in my coin pocket) and the ability to skip 30 seconds ahead in podcasts. I had used various Garmin Vivofits and loved that they lasted a year on a coin battery or two. But I found that "completing my circles" on my Apple Watch was just enough gamification that I'm moving significantly more than I did before I got the watch. It does make me understand why some health care organizations give them out to members to try and get them to move more. I switched from the SE to the 6 because the SE takes 2 1/2 hours to charge instead of the 6's 1 1/2. It's still annoying to have something that requires such attention to keeping it charged and then charges so slowly. But the trade-off was worth it for me.
jeswin 6y ago
> Personally, I'm very glad it wasn't micro or mini USB. Why is the 30-pin connector better than a well-made micro USB connector? As a consumer, I can think of a number of advantages going with the standard USB port.
- dmitriid 6y ago
  > Why is the 30-pin connector better than a well-made micro USB connector? Apple's 30-pin connector was released in 2003. And was undoubtedly in development for at least a year or two before that. It served Apple for nine years until 2012. It carried audio, video, FireWire, USB, and also charged connected devices. In the span of those nine years, USB: - didn't have a batter charging specification until 2007 - didn't have a power delivery specification until 2012 - deprecated mini-A and mini-B in 2007 - introduced a new connector in 2007 USB has always been a mess. Apple's connectors are the stability that people should strive for, not deride.
  - sjg007 6y ago
    Except in the hands of kids who manage to destroy cables readily. The original iPad one and even lightning. USB-c is way better.
    - willyt 6y ago
      My kids have destroyed countless lightning cables and usb micro cables. They have also destroyed 3 amazon fire tablets and a nexus tablet by yanking on the cable but they’ve never destroyed any apple devices this way. Thats why the lightning connector is a better design.
      - sjg007 6y ago
        I thought the lighting adapter was a big improvement but my kids have managed to break the tip off multiple times in multiple ipads... fortunately I've been able to get the pieces out. The other issue is that for some reason after too much use, they fail to connect/charge which isn't always a cable issue but something intrinsic to the port. The other thing I found is my kids have plugged the lighting adapter into an electrical outlet on a surge protector... they did with with usb-c too so there's some confusion there too. USB-C seems more robust but it may have other issues I haven't discovered yet.
audunw 6y ago
> After being disappointed over and over I had settled on completely proprietary digital wireless headphones (much like wireless mice until BluetoothLE). Then Apple started making some great headphones that added a bit of "magic" around Bluetooth. I hear AirPods work great outside of Apple's ecosystem, too. It's funny that you mention Bluetooth LE for mice. Audio has been stuck on classic Bluetooth due to bandwidth requirements. But that's fixed with Bluetooth 5, which gives us audio over BLE. There are a bunch of functional improvements other than low power radio. Lower latency and better pairing for instance. I think BT 5.0 headphones will be a huge improvement. Given the timing of the release of AirPods and the development of the BT5.0 spec, I've had a theory that Apple borrowed features from BT5.0 in the case where you use AirPods with Apple products.
- m463 6y ago
  everyone I've talked to who's worked on bluetooth hates it. except ble - I think is a different and simpler protocol
  - catlifeonmars 6y ago
    I concur with this. I helped build a Bluetooth compatible health device for a hackathon. I was responsible for the Bluetooth integration. Coming into this knowing absolutely nothing about the Bluetooth spec and not knowing the difference between Bluetooth and BLE; I tried to use both and only successfully built a BLE integration (as it turns out, it was the right protocol for transmitting low dimensionality biometrics).
api 6y ago
Bose also makes great Bluetooth headphones, but only the high-end ones. Cheaper Bluetooth headphones (of any brand) are awful.
madeofpalk 6y ago
It's always worth nothing that Apple played a significant role in creating USB-C. There have been (unproven) "rumors" that Apple invented USB-C, but otherwise a quarter of the engineers listed on the (initial) USB-C spec working group were Apple engineers.
- DiabloD3 6y ago
  It's somewhat the reverse, in a way. Apple, and other companies, clearly would benefit from a once and always connector that far exceeds the demands of whatever USB will need in the future... ... except Lightning is the production version of an early rejected Type C prototype. It was rejected because external facing pins are a common and well known fault point in connector designs. Those external pins on Lightning plug tabs are the most common failure point of their cables.
  - AlphaSite 6y ago
    Do you know what the trade offs in terms of cable vs design reliability are for USBC vs Lightning out of interest?
  - inspector-g 6y ago
    > except Lightning is the production version of an early rejected Type C prototype Do you have a source for this? Curious to read more about it.
  - Solocomplex 6y ago
    It's better than a failure of the port on the device.
poidos 6y ago
> I hear AirPods work great outside of Apple's ecosystem, too. I worked as a "technical expert" at apple during school (recently), and I can say this is not exactly true. The biggest problems with airpods were invariably customers trying to use them with non-Apple devices. As far as I understand, airpods are unable to update their own firmware without being paired to an Apple device. Pairing was also much, much more difficult with airpods than standard bluetooth headsets.
EricE 6y ago
Apple not only pushed USB (a standard created by Intel and universally ignored by PC vendors until the candy colored iMacs created a sensation) but USB replaced the Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) - a proprietary serial connection. Doesn't fit the "Apple is a walled garden" narrative though :p
908B64B197 6y ago
> Sure, it would be nice if they switched now I don't know. It has a nice ecosystem around it. Everyone has a bunch of lightning cables everywhere now. Just like the 30-pin it's not perfect, but is so widely used there's one almost everywhere you need.

by pfranz 6y ago

yourapostasy 6y ago

> The Lightning port was shipping years ahead of something like USB-C. Sure, it would be nice if they switched now. If Apple can fix their supply of USB-C ports so they uniformly, consistently last for more than just 6-12 months instead of some do and some don’t, I’d be onboard for switching. As it is, it is frustratingly common for Apple Lightning plugs to wear out the fingers and Apple USB-C ports to lose their “click” (even when just standing in a laptop cradle on a desk and otherwise covered with a port plug when carried around).

pfranz 6y ago
I haven't heard of or experienced those issues directly =/ The only issue I've hit myself is lint getting packed into the port which is fairly easily cleaned but annoying if you don't have a tool handy. I have heard lots of stories about the cable fatiguing. My suspicion is that's because of using the phone while charging; heating and bending the cable near the connector. I haven't experienced this (I tend not to charge while using it) but have friends that do. I haven't seen or heard of an issue with USB-C ports. My beefs are that there isn't enough, you can't get more with a hub, and generic power supplies and cables have only been available in the past couple years. The older devices I had with USB-C I got rid of when they fixed the keyboard. I definitely had them longer then 6-12 months.
MrBuddyCasino 6y ago
> it is frustratingly common for Apple Lightning plugs to wear out the fingers I have only experienced this with 3rd party cables, but never ones made by Apple.
- Joker_vD 6y ago
  Another reason why Lighning is inferior to USB: the USB cables can be cheap and of good quality.
  - kalleboo 6y ago
    You're being heavily downvoted but this is my experience as well. Even Lightning cables from "alright" brands like Amazon Basics have lots of issues, whereas the only microUSB cables I've had issues with are the really bargain basement stuff that comes bundled with aliexpress junk. It seems the required tolerances for Lightning are way higher (=more expensive). I don't have enough experience with cheap USB-C cables to make generalizations there though.
tatersolid 6y ago
> it is frustratingly common for Apple Lightning plugs to wear out the fingers This is a feature. If the metal inside the port wore out instead repairs would be a lot more expensive. I’ve also only experienced lightning plug wear with cheap Amazon Basics or gas-station cables. The Apple lightning cables have much better made plugs, but they have a different flaw: the super-thin outer cover detaches from the connector housing over time, exposing the shielding wire.
- mason55 6y ago
  It was also one of the major benefits in the (fast) transition from mini USB to micro USB! Mini usb had a bad habit of wearing out the port instead of the plug.
- kalleboo 6y ago
  In Lightning, the moving/springy parts are in the port, not the cable (unlike USB-C where it's the cable that wears out)
jdeibele 6y ago
I have an iPhone and AirPods, both with the Lightning port. I charge them every night with $7-$10 Qi chargers from Amazon. I've read that doing wirelessly charges slower but that's supposed to be better for the battery. Rarely do I use a Lightning cable anymore. I bought an Apple Watch and there's nothing but an option to wirelessly charge it. Before that I would have been skeptical about the idea that Apple is not going to switch to USB-C but instead just use wireless charging. Now it seems reasonable. PS: I had used various Bluetooth headphones before. The killer features of the AirPods Pro are their small size (I can fit the case in my coin pocket) and the ability to skip 30 seconds ahead in podcasts. I had used various Garmin Vivofits and loved that they lasted a year on a coin battery or two. But I found that "completing my circles" on my Apple Watch was just enough gamification that I'm moving significantly more than I did before I got the watch. It does make me understand why some health care organizations give them out to members to try and get them to move more. I switched from the SE to the 6 because the SE takes 2 1/2 hours to charge instead of the 6's 1 1/2. It's still annoying to have something that requires such attention to keeping it charged and then charges so slowly. But the trade-off was worth it for me.

jeswin 6y ago

> Personally, I'm very glad it wasn't micro or mini USB. Why is the 30-pin connector better than a well-made micro USB connector? As a consumer, I can think of a number of advantages going with the standard USB port.

dmitriid 6y ago
> Why is the 30-pin connector better than a well-made micro USB connector? Apple's 30-pin connector was released in 2003. And was undoubtedly in development for at least a year or two before that. It served Apple for nine years until 2012. It carried audio, video, FireWire, USB, and also charged connected devices. In the span of those nine years, USB: - didn't have a batter charging specification until 2007 - didn't have a power delivery specification until 2012 - deprecated mini-A and mini-B in 2007 - introduced a new connector in 2007 USB has always been a mess. Apple's connectors are the stability that people should strive for, not deride.
- sjg007 6y ago
  Except in the hands of kids who manage to destroy cables readily. The original iPad one and even lightning. USB-c is way better.
  - willyt 6y ago
    My kids have destroyed countless lightning cables and usb micro cables. They have also destroyed 3 amazon fire tablets and a nexus tablet by yanking on the cable but they’ve never destroyed any apple devices this way. Thats why the lightning connector is a better design.
    - sjg007 6y ago
      I thought the lighting adapter was a big improvement but my kids have managed to break the tip off multiple times in multiple ipads... fortunately I've been able to get the pieces out. The other issue is that for some reason after too much use, they fail to connect/charge which isn't always a cable issue but something intrinsic to the port. The other thing I found is my kids have plugged the lighting adapter into an electrical outlet on a surge protector... they did with with usb-c too so there's some confusion there too. USB-C seems more robust but it may have other issues I haven't discovered yet.

audunw 6y ago

> After being disappointed over and over I had settled on completely proprietary digital wireless headphones (much like wireless mice until BluetoothLE). Then Apple started making some great headphones that added a bit of "magic" around Bluetooth. I hear AirPods work great outside of Apple's ecosystem, too. It's funny that you mention Bluetooth LE for mice. Audio has been stuck on classic Bluetooth due to bandwidth requirements. But that's fixed with Bluetooth 5, which gives us audio over BLE. There are a bunch of functional improvements other than low power radio. Lower latency and better pairing for instance. I think BT 5.0 headphones will be a huge improvement. Given the timing of the release of AirPods and the development of the BT5.0 spec, I've had a theory that Apple borrowed features from BT5.0 in the case where you use AirPods with Apple products.

m463 6y ago
everyone I've talked to who's worked on bluetooth hates it. except ble - I think is a different and simpler protocol
- catlifeonmars 6y ago
  I concur with this. I helped build a Bluetooth compatible health device for a hackathon. I was responsible for the Bluetooth integration. Coming into this knowing absolutely nothing about the Bluetooth spec and not knowing the difference between Bluetooth and BLE; I tried to use both and only successfully built a BLE integration (as it turns out, it was the right protocol for transmitting low dimensionality biometrics).

api 6y ago

Bose also makes great Bluetooth headphones, but only the high-end ones. Cheaper Bluetooth headphones (of any brand) are awful.

madeofpalk 6y ago

It's always worth nothing that Apple played a significant role in creating USB-C. There have been (unproven) "rumors" that Apple invented USB-C, but otherwise a quarter of the engineers listed on the (initial) USB-C spec working group were Apple engineers.

DiabloD3 6y ago
It's somewhat the reverse, in a way. Apple, and other companies, clearly would benefit from a once and always connector that far exceeds the demands of whatever USB will need in the future... ... except Lightning is the production version of an early rejected Type C prototype. It was rejected because external facing pins are a common and well known fault point in connector designs. Those external pins on Lightning plug tabs are the most common failure point of their cables.
- AlphaSite 6y ago
  Do you know what the trade offs in terms of cable vs design reliability are for USBC vs Lightning out of interest?
- inspector-g 6y ago
  > except Lightning is the production version of an early rejected Type C prototype Do you have a source for this? Curious to read more about it.
- Solocomplex 6y ago
  It's better than a failure of the port on the device.

poidos 6y ago

> I hear AirPods work great outside of Apple's ecosystem, too. I worked as a "technical expert" at apple during school (recently), and I can say this is not exactly true. The biggest problems with airpods were invariably customers trying to use them with non-Apple devices. As far as I understand, airpods are unable to update their own firmware without being paired to an Apple device. Pairing was also much, much more difficult with airpods than standard bluetooth headsets.

EricE 6y ago

Apple not only pushed USB (a standard created by Intel and universally ignored by PC vendors until the candy colored iMacs created a sensation) but USB replaced the Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) - a proprietary serial connection. Doesn't fit the "Apple is a walled garden" narrative though :p

908B64B197 6y ago

> Sure, it would be nice if they switched now I don't know. It has a nice ecosystem around it. Everyone has a bunch of lightning cables everywhere now. Just like the 30-pin it's not perfect, but is so widely used there's one almost everywhere you need.