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No headphone jack. No SD slot. Soon no charging port (wireless). Now no sim car. How soon before there are no plugs whatsoever? Once everything is wireless

No headphone jack. No SD slot. Soon no charging port (wireless). Now no sim car. How soon before there are no plugs whatsoever? Once everything is wireless then apple, through software, can finally take absolute control over how and what is connected to their phones. Want to communicate with or even charge an iPhone? You better be running approved and licensed software. Then the phone can be physically locked like a seamless vault, defeating any potential for repair: the ideal consumer product.

wodenokoto 5y ago
It’s not like that kind of control isn’t possible with the ports installed today. The Bluetooth can ask what devices it’s connected to, the SIM card reader can read which SIM card is inserted and the lightning port can ask what’s at the other end of the cable.
- sandworm101 5y ago
  My android phone still has a USB port on it that comports with USB standards. Google cannot limit which devices can charge my phone, which USB cables I use to tether my devices.
  - nojito 5y ago
    Maybe they should because of how easy it is to brick phones with crappy USB cables/chargers these days.
    - Isthatablackgsd 5y ago
      IMO, this is on manufacturers. If they stop messing around with the USB standard and stop the hybrid approach with USB and propriety crap along with it, then we would have this issue minimized as possible. Nintendo did with their USB-C propriety thing and it blew up on their face. Because they changed the internal (which is not in compliance with USB standard) and ended up multiple consumers have their Switch bricked.
      - smileybarry 5y ago
        One of the reasons USB-PD has active power negotiation is because of all the terrible $1-to-make chargers that flood phone stores and degrade your battery capacity over time. The kind that either: (A) charges your battery in pulses, (B) tries to force-send more current than the phone can handle for "faster charging", or (C) improperly protects the connected device from power grid spikes. USB-PD then makes power negotiation a protocol rather than a dance of resistors, forces the device to have a dedicated charging circuit (regulate current), and allows for a device to say "please send less power now" or shut off charging if it overheats. Manufacturers change the ports and occasionally you have a Nintendo that wants to reuse a port with their own mini-spec, but most of the blame lies with those outright malicious chargers.
  - saltminer 5y ago
    Actually, they can, and do. The Pixel 6 will not charge with cables and chargers Google deems "low quality", which seems to be anything that doesn't meet the USB-C spec. https://9to5google.com/2021/11/29/pixel-6-reject-charging-cables/ https://9to5google.com/2021/11/29/pixel-6-reject-charging-ca...
    - sandworm101 5y ago
      The phone rejects non-spec cables, cables that might actually harm the phone. It doesnt reject cables based on manufacturer. Google doesnt own the spec.
      - curiousllama 5y ago
        Can't and don't are different. There's no reason google couldn't just change what they consider to be on-spec.
      - jackson1442 5y ago
        I'm curious how this is different from the terrible dystopia you described in your root comment. Google is telling you which cables you can and cannot use.
- avianlyric 5y ago
  Famously Apple used to prevent iPhones from being charged with “non-lienced” lighting cables. They seemed to have slackened of since then, but for a while there was a 50/50 odds of a cheap 3rd party cable causing iOS to throw up an error message and refuse to charge.
CharlesW 5y ago
> How soon before there are no plugs whatsoever? 2023. Apple's been telegraphing the move to portless non-"pro" devices for years now. > Want to communicate with or even charge an iPhone? You better be running approved and licensed software. In fact, charging options will finally be standard across their product line — Qi for non-pro devices, USB-C for pro devices. Communication will happen via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and UWB.
- dehrmann 5y ago
  This explains why Apple's been dragging its feet on switching from Lightning to USB-C. No sense switching if you're killing it in a few years, and it can only anger customers.

wodenokoto 5y ago

It’s not like that kind of control isn’t possible with the ports installed today. The Bluetooth can ask what devices it’s connected to, the SIM card reader can read which SIM card is inserted and the lightning port can ask what’s at the other end of the cable.

sandworm101 5y ago
My android phone still has a USB port on it that comports with USB standards. Google cannot limit which devices can charge my phone, which USB cables I use to tether my devices.
- nojito 5y ago
  Maybe they should because of how easy it is to brick phones with crappy USB cables/chargers these days.
  - Isthatablackgsd 5y ago
    IMO, this is on manufacturers. If they stop messing around with the USB standard and stop the hybrid approach with USB and propriety crap along with it, then we would have this issue minimized as possible. Nintendo did with their USB-C propriety thing and it blew up on their face. Because they changed the internal (which is not in compliance with USB standard) and ended up multiple consumers have their Switch bricked.
    - smileybarry 5y ago
      One of the reasons USB-PD has active power negotiation is because of all the terrible $1-to-make chargers that flood phone stores and degrade your battery capacity over time. The kind that either: (A) charges your battery in pulses, (B) tries to force-send more current than the phone can handle for "faster charging", or (C) improperly protects the connected device from power grid spikes. USB-PD then makes power negotiation a protocol rather than a dance of resistors, forces the device to have a dedicated charging circuit (regulate current), and allows for a device to say "please send less power now" or shut off charging if it overheats. Manufacturers change the ports and occasionally you have a Nintendo that wants to reuse a port with their own mini-spec, but most of the blame lies with those outright malicious chargers.
- saltminer 5y ago
  Actually, they can, and do. The Pixel 6 will not charge with cables and chargers Google deems "low quality", which seems to be anything that doesn't meet the USB-C spec. https://9to5google.com/2021/11/29/pixel-6-reject-charging-cables/ https://9to5google.com/2021/11/29/pixel-6-reject-charging-ca...
  - sandworm101 5y ago
    The phone rejects non-spec cables, cables that might actually harm the phone. It doesnt reject cables based on manufacturer. Google doesnt own the spec.
    - curiousllama 5y ago
      Can't and don't are different. There's no reason google couldn't just change what they consider to be on-spec.
    - jackson1442 5y ago
      I'm curious how this is different from the terrible dystopia you described in your root comment. Google is telling you which cables you can and cannot use.
avianlyric 5y ago
Famously Apple used to prevent iPhones from being charged with “non-lienced” lighting cables. They seemed to have slackened of since then, but for a while there was a 50/50 odds of a cheap 3rd party cable causing iOS to throw up an error message and refuse to charge.

CharlesW 5y ago

> How soon before there are no plugs whatsoever? 2023. Apple's been telegraphing the move to portless non-"pro" devices for years now. > Want to communicate with or even charge an iPhone? You better be running approved and licensed software. In fact, charging options will finally be standard across their product line — Qi for non-pro devices, USB-C for pro devices. Communication will happen via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and UWB.

dehrmann 5y ago
This explains why Apple's been dragging its feet on switching from Lightning to USB-C. No sense switching if you're killing it in a few years, and it can only anger customers.