iPhone 5 Scorns Standards Promise To European Commission 543
WebMink writes "Back in 2009, Apple signed an agreement aimed at reducing electronic waste resulting from mobile phone accessories. But this week's launch of the iPhone 5 shows them reneging on that commitment. Instead of including a micro-USB connector on the iPhone, as they agreed to do along with the rest of the phone industry, they created yet another proprietary connector. At a stroke, they have junked earlier iPhone accessories, forced a new industry in Apple-only accessories to arise and broken their promise to the EC. It's a huge missed opportunity both for their customers and for the environment."
Fuck Apple. (Score:0, Insightful)
Someone should sue them for this shit.
They include an adaptor for the EU (Score:1, Insightful)
Apple ships a Micro-USB adaptor with every iPhone in the EU.
The new connector is not a missed opportunity. Micro-USB sucks, the cables suck, the connectors are weak and prone to failure - not to mention by any measure it's superior to have a directionless connector. How is it better for the environment to buy cables more often?
And what about the NUMBER of micro-USB connectors. There are at least three that look nearly alike, I'm sure one of them is the official Micro-USB connector but how can you tell when you have multiple cables each with slightly different tiny connectors?
I would say the EU has failed you all by locking the nation into a poor standard for all phones to have to use, instead of allowing companies to continue to iterate over better connector designs. Instead you wound up with the least common denominator of connectors, dooming yourself to poor power transfer abilities and as I said badly designed connectors prone to breaking.
Re:Fuck Apple. (Score:3, Insightful)
No, they shouldn't, but people should just stop buying anything made by Apple.
Thinness (Score:5, Insightful)
Meanwhile, the rest of the industry seems to be moving away from wires and toward wireless. Wireless payments, wireless charging, wireless audio, etc. with NFC and other related technologies. Apple is for some strange reason the last to adopt these innovations, and it will be a whole year before they come up with an answer. In the mean time, they're piling on connectors and dongles galore. It's very strange.
Re:Steve Jobs is happy... (Score:3, Insightful)
How happy will he be when the EU bans import?
The law wasn't a suggestion.
Re:Fuck Apple. (Score:4, Insightful)
Why?
I have iPhone and android and the proprietary connector means I can hook my phone into my car's USB port and stream music apps and play my playlists. Not just music off the storage in no order
lock in & license fees. (Score:5, Insightful)
If you invest in accessories for the new connector, you'll be less inclined to buy a non-Apple phone.
Perhaps their connector has additional pins for HDMI, but they could have placed a real HDMI connector beside the USB connector for easy docking. Alternately, they could sell a dongle to pipe HDMI video out from USB2 as other manufacturers already do.
But then they couldn't lock their customers in and charge exorbitant licensing fees for their connector.
Hyperbolie much? (Score:2, Insightful)
Geez, nice hyperbolic story.
First, Apple is keeping to the requirement by offering a micro-USB cable.
Second, the reason they didn't use micro-USB is because it doesn't have the requisite number of pins. As we saw with Thunderbolt, the USB folks will *not* allow you to add non-standard pins to their connector.
This connector must support at least 2 amps of charging for the iPad (in the future presumably). That puts micro-USB right out of the picture.
It must also support digitally sending all the data necessary to support the 30-pin compatibility, including the upcoming HDMI and VGA adapters. Building any sort of intelligence into the cable or other end would require an actual USB interface chip and would require extending the USB specification in non-standard ways... not that you could push enough data on the 2 data pins to run a 720p HD display anyway, unless you piggy-backed some custom protocol on top of USB, then had some sort of hand-shake mode to figure that out... assuming the USB people didn't sue you for abusing their standard to begin with.
The connector itself is far better designed than any USB connector ever; it is reversible and it has self-cleaning contacts, yet it is stronger than micro-usb.
It's OK though; I expect a barrage of anti-Apple FUD every time they release a new device. I'm used to it by now. If you want a legit complaint, the price of the 30-pin adapters is ridiculous.
Re:Is USB really better? (Score:5, Insightful)
USB is better because I have a bunch of USB cables right here. When my son loses his apple charging cable I have to go out and buy a new apple licensed cable.
Re:My pet peeve... (Score:4, Insightful)
My Galaxy Tab's cable looks similar to Apple's pre-Lightning cable.
So are we ready to sharpen our pitchforks and light our torches at Samsung?
Re:Fuck Apple. (Score:5, Insightful)
So... unless you have some magical idea that will remove all of this, it will harm the environment.
Re:Fuck Apple. (Score:4, Insightful)
And really...? Having a new adapter is going to somehow harm the enviornment?!?!
[rolls eyes]...Really......?
Really.
The idea is not to have a drawerful of one-off adapters and connectors, which is where we were before the mini- and micro-usb connectors became common currency. You save the environment by not having to manufacture and supply new cables with each new device, you save it again by only needing as many adapters and cables as you actively use, and finally, you save it by being able to retain and re-use these cables and adapters long after the original device has been retired/broken.
Small steps, agreed, but every little bit helps. And even if they didn't, I'd be for it just because I've got enough cables and adapters stuffed in my equipment drawers as it is.
Re:Fuck Apple. (Score:4, Insightful)
So yeah, Fuck Apple.
Re:They include an adaptor for the EU (Score:3, Insightful)
If the EU had standardized on a free (no royalties) Lightning connector, everyone would be crying foul over government mandates and how it stifles innovation.
The goal was to get rid of large power bricks attached to proprietary connectors. Apple has for MANY years supplied a power plug with a standard USB connector and used the same cable/connector for 10 years. THAT has reduced waste. What other phone manufacturer has stuck with their plugs that long? How many phones will charge from a 10 year old cable?
What about all those phones that include a micro-USB port for charging, but then have ANOTHER port or a ANOTHER special proprietary cable to get audio/video out?
Re:Fuck Apple. (Score:5, Insightful)
What? Are you seriously confused? I can only hope this I've misunderstood your sarcasm. There are so many problems with your comment I'm not sure where to start. If the car has a USB port, it's not proprietary. Being able to stream music and control playlists has zero to do with the connector. Just imagine if iPhone had used USB from the start, then everyone would be able to use any phone in "device enabled" car. Thanks for fucking over everyone that doesn't buy your products Apple. The proprietary connector is only there to lock you into Apple products. Apple's new proprietary connector is only there to continue to lock you into new products and to force 3rd party device creators to have to licence the new connector and create a whole new wave of for-iPhone-only devices. Every time you see any proprietary connector, think of it as someone poking you in the eye with a dick. That's really what it is. They are fucking you. In the eye. With a dick.
So yeah, fuck Apple.
Re:RTFA (Score:4, Insightful)
No, that is not what they want. That is what _you_ want them to want.
If that is what they had wanted, they would have said so. How hard would it have been to say, "everyone phone should include a micro-usb port that you can use for charging and syncing"?
Re:Is USB really better? (Score:4, Insightful)
The idea is that if you forgot your charger cable, you could still charge your phone without buying a high priced proprietary charger.
No, the idea is to get rid of the proprietary charger. The wall wart. Apple have always charged off USB, and Apple USB chargers can be used to charge any device with a USB cable.
Re:Is USB really better? (Score:5, Insightful)
Who cares if it's not really microUSB (besides the USB forum)? It works with anything designed for microUSB, and adds a couple of useful features. Sounds like win/win to me.
Re:Fuck Apple. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Technically, Apple IS compliant. (Score:5, Insightful)
Switching to just a micro-USB would have been stupid as you can't get analog audio or HD video through USB 2.0. Still I feel for all the people who've invested in accessories that use the standar Apple 30-pin. Expensive accessories like docks, iHome clocks, etc.
Actually, the new dock connector is said to eliminate analog audio anyway, so that's BS. Second, for USB speed, nothing says it can't be USB 3.0. Third, that's all a moot point to video, MHL devices do HDMI out out of a physical port that is micro usb compatible. In most cases, using the same pins as USB, but in the case of Galaxy S 3, through 6 additional pins that are accomodated without breaking micro usb mechanical compatibility.
Apple's use of a proprietary connector is exactly because of one reason: because they can get away with it. It's part of their business plan, plain and simple. When they sell an iDevice, they don't take a loss, but they also endeavor to maximize ongoing revenue potential. One mechanism is by using a proprietary connector and forcing third party accessories to pay a license fee for the privilege of supporting iDevices. Bonus: vendors largely end up ignoring Android compatibility since they have to pick *either* Apple or other devices if they can only afford one device.
It's a very anti-consumer move, plain and simple.
Re:Fuck Apple. (Score:3, Insightful)
Please show me how to airplay a power point to the projector from wifi, and do the same with an android tablet and an android phone all to the same hardware. Apple owns the board room for wireless and easy presentation control. I have installed more apple TV units in board rooms and had IT departments whine at me in the past 3 months than I have installed android based anything in the past 5 years.
you guys that are on a hell bent apple hate rage have no clue. the rich guys all use apple, they all like apple and that is who apple cares most about. And you will see more and more of it showing up in corporate use because it "just works"(tm) and works very well.
you should be pissed at microsoft and google for not even offering anything to compete.
Re:Is USB really better? (Score:2, Insightful)
Standby Time Up to 500 hours
iphone 5:
Talk time: Up to 8 hours on 3G
Standby time: Up to 225 hours
Re:Fuck Apple. (Score:5, Insightful)
The great part about standards, there are thousands to choose from.
Samsung can get HDMI video out that usb port, yet LG doesnt, they put that craptastic second connector on there. Then Motorola does something completely different. Show me ANYONE that follows a standard.
Re:Fuck Apple. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Fuck Apple. (Score:5, Insightful)
I can over DLNA.
NO wires needed. Get with the program grandpa. Wires are so OVER.
Re:Technically, Apple IS compliant. (Score:4, Insightful)
Switching to just a micro-USB would have been stupid as you can't get analog audio or HD video through USB 2.0.
Indeed this is a shortfall of USB. I propose we create a new technology one which is pin for pin compatible with USB devices and yet allows vendors to plug digital devices into the phones and tablets which then have the ability to convert to analogue. I imagine a device like this may cost all of $0.45 in bulk and can probably be purchased in a TSSOP package so the devices would not need to be any bigger since we fit these components in the same space as the old dock connector.
I envision a kind of Universial Serial Bus which allows pretty much any functionality on the other end of the cable. We could attach better GPS receiver, better wireless devices, media converters, camera, card readers, laptops, mice, keyboard, video cards, TV tuners.
I've even thought of a fancy name for this. We can call it USB-Host mode.
Re:Fuck Apple. (Score:4, Insightful)
To be fair we're not really sure what speeds it provides; all we know is the only cable they're shipping now is a lightning to USB 2.0 cable. It looks like there's enough pins for USB 3.0 if the equivalent of the shield is conductive (it's not clear to me that GND and GND_DRAIN really have to be connected to separate pins anyhow), and it's entirely possible they plan to use active cables to get higher speed outputs in the future anyhow (who knows what the native signaling format is).
Re:Fuck Apple. (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes they are. The pins are programmable on both ends. You can write low level interfaces which are smart on both sides. The old adapter couldn't do that.
Re:Fuck Apple. (Score:4, Insightful)
The fact is, though that Apple AGREED to include a micro-usb connector on the iPhone, at least for charging and now they have reneged on that agreement.
If they ACTUALLY needed more, they could have placed the additional connection next to the micro USB and kept their word.
Re:RTFA (Score:3, Insightful)
No, you're missing a small but important detail. In regions where the agreement applies, Apple ships the phone with the required adaptor.
Re:Fuck Apple. (Score:4, Insightful)
No, but microUSB being a terrible and dead-end obsolete connector is a better excuse. Locking yourself down to USB 2.0 speeds for years to come would be idiotic.
Re:Fuck Apple. (Score:3, Insightful)
Are you REALLY stupid enough to BELIEVE that seriously?
Re:Jimmy Kimmel's take on the "new" iPhone 5 (Score:4, Insightful)
So most people is the street don't currently have even an iPhone 4S, but when they're given the chance to play with it they realise t's better in some ways that the phone they do have.
The very last guy on the tape says he does currently have an iPhone 4S. But hey, you video people all day long and you're bound to find saying something that isn't true. Either because they are trying to impress, or because they just don't actually know the right answer.
You want me to show you a YouTube video showing that Americans don't know where Australia is?
Re:Fuck Apple. (Score:1, Insightful)
USB 2.0 allows for 400mbits data rate.
Please tell me what supplier Apple will be getting flash memory from that can be written to at even one fifth of this speed.