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World’s first USB-C iPhone sells on eBay for $86,001
- pcarolan 5y agoIt seems like apple is moving towards no port. Wireless charging + airpods are already here. It feels like USBC is a step backward. Having a fully sealed iphone makes it much simpler and impervious to water.
- yellow_postit 5y agoThat may be the spin but ultimately it’s about the peripheral licensing fees for Apple. The new MagSafe charging breaking comparability with existing items in practice due to making alignment harder is such a cynical moneygrab.
- djrogers 5y agoMagSafe doesn’t break compatibility with any qi chargers, and you have the difficulty of alignment issue backwards. MagSafe is easier to align - that doesn’t mean magnetless qi is made worse.
- yellow_postit 5y agoAlignment is easier with MagSafe 2 MagSafe but aligning on Qi chargers is significantly harder. As one example automotive qi chargers, often in the center console, are regularly cited on automotive forums (in my experience) as not working with newer Apple products due to the more challenging alignment.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- mysterydip 5y agoFully sealed is probably also desirable by Apple to kill off the screen/battery replacement market.
- Reason077 5y agoFully sealed? So no built-in microphone or speaker either?
- city41 5y agoOnly having bluetooth as your audio option would be really disappointing.
- galcerte 5y agoIsn't wired charging faster than wireless? And isn't wireless charging less efficient, too? You're bound to lose some energy unless you really focus the radiation that's emitted.
- Reason077 5y agoYes, yes, and yes.
- malobre 5y agoIn his 2020 article about wireless charging inefficiency [0], Eric Ravenscraft wrote: > In my tests, I found that wireless charging used, on average, around 47% more power than a cable. [0]: https://debugger.medium.com/wireless-charging-is-a-disaster-waiting-to-happen-48afdde70ed9 https://debugger.medium.com/wireless-charging-is-a-disaster-...
- sneak 5y agoIt is but the magnetic alignment of Apple's version makes it a bit more efficient than usual wireless charging.
- throwaway2077 5y agoI'm sure water is a grave concern for middle+ class cosmopolitans that are the target market for 1000+ $ apple products
- d3nj4l 5y agoI don't get it, are middle class cosmopolitans hydrophobic?
- Grustaf 5y agoIn the US at least, they tend to live on the coasts, so maybe water intrusion is a bigger concern ;)
- rightbyte 5y agoIt wouldn't suprise me if water damage is more common on water resistant phones, since they don't drain once intrusion has taken place. Imagine a car without draining holes underneath.
- amarshall 5y agoI sure hope not. Wireless charging is very inefficient compared to wired (slower charge time, bigger external battery packs, environmentally wasteful). Wireless headphones mean another thing to charge and of course connectivity issues that largely don’t exist with wired. Current iPhones are already rated for IP68 water resistance (6 meters depth for 30 minutes), and “fully sealed” would probably require removing the microphone and speakers, so I don’t really buy that argument.
- silisili 5y agoI read this often, but just can't see it. A lot of common use cases are all but impossible with no port. Think, charging on a red eye flight. Using a power bank for a long hike/camping. Quick charge in the morning when you forgot to charge the previous night, etc. Wireless just doesn't have the speed nor efficiency to compete. Even if speed is solved, I can't imagine how big a power bank would need to be to compete given the efficiency of wireless charging.
- nojito 5y agoWhy can’t you use MagSafe while flying?
- orev 5y agoFor frequent travelers, every gram of weight and size counts. A little charging wire with USBC or Lightning is far lighter and smaller than a (relatively) giant MagSafe disc.
- nojito 5y agoI have a magsafe charger in the same bag with my ipad mini and MBA. The idea that a magsafe charger is an end all for frequent travelers makes zero sense.
- Grustaf 5y agoIsn't the efficiency of MagSafe quite high? Out of curiosity, is it harder to charge on early morning flights?
- silisili 5y ago> Isn't the efficiency of MagSafe quite high? A quick search says 75%, which still seems quite wasteful. > Out of curiosity, is it harder to charge on early morning flights? Good point. I guess I just meant that everyone packed in tight using wireless chargers seemed more cumbersome than a simple lightning cable, but perhaps that view isn't reasonable. I've never tried it.
- iszomer 5y agoIt could also be argued as "more secure" if traditional wired data exfiltration is hindered by the lack of ports.
- ickelbawd 5y agoWhy do you believe that to be true? If there are no physical ports then all data transfer and access must happen wirelessly which means there must be means to connect, and extract data wirelessly. Sure, maybe there’s a temporary reprieve until the same level of exfiltration can be done wirelessly, but it will happen. And in this future wireless-only world your data will be exfiltrated without you ever knowing about it.
- iszomer 5y ago> Why do you believe that to be true? I don't but I think it has the potential to be framed that way. If your phone was seized by law enforcement looking to extract your personal data, I imagine "plugging it in" will be the first thing they try.
- Hamuko 5y ago>It feels like USBC is a step backward. Not if you want to transfer a lot of data. Say for example, 4K ProRes video.
- seventhtiger 5y agoIt'll be awful when Android phones copy Apple with the horrible Android Bluetooth peripheral market. I've had really bad experiences with Samsung buds and a Samsung phone.
- hacker_homie 5y agoApple brought their own phone back to learn how to add a usb c port.
- agumonkey 5y agooutsourcing r&d to youtubers
- flenserboy 5y agoCheaper, really. And documented.
- agumonkey 5y agoI'm thinking it's a new marketing strategy. Throw something flawed, let youtubers whine, let one fix the most important and community supported issue, patch your device and enjoy the sales.
- peterkelly 5y agoSee Apple? This is where the money is. Not that Rose Gold shit or adding yet another camera lens to the back. And if you want people using USB-C, use it in your phones!
- rudian 5y agoYeah right. As if this affected their sales at all. USB-C would only reduce accessory licensing fees.
- perth 5y agoI guess that's kind of subjective. Personally I'm anti USB-C from a durability standpoint. USB-C is designed to fail on the device-side, whereas lighting and microUSB are designed to fail on the cable side. So I see all devices using USB-C as throwaways because the port will fail. If Apple gets rid of lightning they lose their durability advantage vs competitors by using a poorly designed connector.
- rock_artist 5y agoIs there any actual data to makes this more valid? Especially when currently Apple uses USB-C for their entire lineup with exception of iPhones and iPad 9th gen.
- perth 5y agoThis blog post describes a design choice that would make the USB-C port far more likely to fail than the lightning port: https://www.appledystopia.com/reviews/usb-c-vs-lightning-page-1/ https://www.appledystopia.com/reviews/usb-c-vs-lightning-pag... "With Lightning, the connecting tabs are on the cable itself. USB-C has connecting tabs on the port." This reddit comment thread describes a flaw where the USB-C device-end becomes clogged with dust, sometimes possible to clean out with a toothpick: https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/9wdylm/usb_c_port_worn_out/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/9wdylm/usb_c_p... This is a reddit post where people are complaining about lightning cables failing: https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/5cjvlf/durability_of_lightning_connectors/ https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/5cjvlf/durability_o... If you were buying a device, would you rather the port on your device wear out, or the cable that connects to it?
- sydthrowaway 5y agoDoes this rely on a jailbreak?
- Nextgrid 5y agoNo - it basically embeds the USB-C to Lightning's cable circuitry on a custom flexible PCB inside the phone. As far as the phone is concerned it's seeing a USB-C to Lightning cable always connected.
- sydthrowaway 5y agoHaha, what an absolute hustle
- hmrr 5y agoNo it got bid up that high. Until sometime gets that cash it didn’t sell. My sister reached a higher value when I tried to sell her as a prank back in 2005 and I didn’t get paid. As for USB-C I’ve got lightning everything still which was around before USB-C when mini USB was crap. Suppose I’ll have to throw all that in the WEEE bin…
- YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo 5y agoNo offense to your sister but the "first USB-C iPhone" might have a bit more novelty to it than her and tech collectors do like their novelty products.
- BugWatch 5y agoBut, but.. but his sister is literally one-of-a-kind (unless she has a twin), and (probably) there shall never be another one (human) as her!
- kingcharles 5y agoWhat's her Buy It Now price?
- beyondcompute 5y agoI hope that after they’ll be forced to use USB-C port there will be people who convert them back to lightning.
- beyondcompute 5y agoThat got downvoted fast! A price one pays in modern society for having an opinion different from that of a crowd.
- sturza 5y agoGeneralising is also expensive.
- mattowen_uk 5y agoHacker News group-think is strong these days. Instead of bothering to stop and post a counter-reply, many just downvote like it's Reddit, and move on. I've been a few times recently, whereas in the past my counter opinions would have kicked off interesting debate.
- MonaroVXR 5y ago>I've been a few times recently, whereas in the past my counter opinions would have kicked off interesting debate. Fully agree to this.
- mrd3v0 5y agoYou can't seriously expect people not to downvote any support of expensive locked down standards, can you?
- sschueller 5y agoIt's still USB 2 speed! "Lightning operates at the USB 2.0 speed of 480mbps, whilst USB-C works at 5gbps. Not only this, but USB-C is now used by a wide variety of devices, making charging much easier and more convenient."
- betwixthewires 5y agoIf this shows anything, it is that apple products are jewelry.
- m12k 5y ago$86,001 for a world first - he should have minted an NFT instead