Nokia Design Guru Urges Apple To End Cable Chaos 791
An anonymous reader writes "Nokia's former head designer has called on Apple to work with the broader technology industry and end its policy of having proprietary connectors for its device chargers and accessories. Other experts say Apple cannot continue to go it alone with Lightning Connectors and ignore Micro USB."
Re:Oh, I totally agree... (Score:5, Informative)
I know this won't happen, especially since the EU mandates Micro-USB.
And even more especially because Apple has patented aspects of the Lightning connector, and have no intentions of sharing.
Re:I'm left to wonder, why not? (Score:5, Informative)
5-pin MHL adds video.
11-pin MHL (samsung only atm unfortunately) adds OTG capabilities.
The connector is awful though, no other usb cable type breaks as easily for me.
Re:What's their problem? (Score:5, Informative)
If you're asking for the rationale behind the EU charger harmonisation, it's waste. If every device uses the same charger then fewer chargers have to be manufactured and ultimately recycled. For example you never have to go out and buy a "spare" charger for your smartphone to keep at the office, or a replacement for the one you left behind on holiday, if you already have four mutually intercompatible chargers that originally came with different products.
Of course whether that rationale makes any sense is up for debate but that's the logic.
Re: Oh, I totally agree... (Score:5, Informative)
they're friendly to ACCESSORY manufacturers.
that's quite different from 3rd party hw manufacturers...
Re: Oh, I totally agree... (Score:5, Informative)
No, "some company" does not own "the patent" on microUSB. USB was developed by an industry consortium to be a shared standard and, by design, no one company controls it.
Re:Oh, I totally agree... (Score:5, Informative)
I'm puzzled by complaints about fragility and having to be plugged in the right way. My last two phones and the one I have now had and have micro-USB. The cables outlasted the phones. OTOH, I've had a lot of those 1/8 inch audio jacks break. U wish they'd use RCA jacks on computers (it wouldn't work on a phone).
I would guess that most problems with any plugs stem from users pulling them out holding the wire rather than the plug.
USB itself will only plug in one way, polarized wall plugs only plug in one way, and I don't remember anyone bitching when they went from non-polarized to polarized wall plugs.
Re: Oh, I totally agree... (Score:1, Informative)
This argument does not hold up to the fact that Apple itself abandoned its previous 66-pin design and effectively destroyed any "lock-in" that it commanded.
Re:Oh, I totally agree... (Score:4, Informative)
Is it technically superior? The low quality of video output over it compared with Micro USB suggests that it isn't universally "better".
Re:Oh, I totally agree... (Score:5, Informative)
The plug itself incorporates a processor [wikipedia.org] which detects the plug's orientation and routes the electrical signals to the correct pins. Official Lightning connectors contain an authentication chip that makes it difficult for third-party manufacturers to produce compatible accessories without being approved by Apple.
Re:Oh, I totally agree... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Oh, I totally agree... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Oh, I totally agree... (Score:5, Informative)
Fixed that for you.
You didn't fix it very well.
There are at least 2 data protocols which will output video from micro-USB. MHL and Slimport (aka MyDP, mobile DisplayPort). Both can do 1080p60 output (i.e. FullHD and 3D), and aside from how they draw power, they work in a similar way to the end user - plug dongle into phone, plug HDMI cable into dongle, plug power (if applicable) into dongle, and play. Dongles start from $20 up.
Re:Orientation (Score:2, Informative)
I don't like how my modern 1/2 ton pickup truck with a V8 only gets 15MPG, while my moped gets 100+ MPG. I'm sure having different capabilities might factor in to why one vehicle gets such vastly different mileage than the other even though at their most basic level, they both are means of motorized transportation.
Similarly, your dumbphone doesn't have nearly the same capability as your smartphone. They both can make calls and text, their basic purpose, but that's about where the similarities end.
Re: Oh, I totally agree... (Score:4, Informative)
It was developed to be the fragile single point of failure for all manufacturers.
Actually micro-usb is designed to be more durable [wikipedia.org] than previous USB designs by putting all moving parts on the cable instead of the socket, putting more wear on the cable instead of the socket.
Micro-usb socket break off the board? You can blame manufacturer cost-cutting for that, the same thing would happen if they attached a lightning connector weakly too.
Re:Oh, I totally agree... (Score:5, Informative)
- plug dongle into phone, plug HDMI cable into dongle, plug power (if applicable) into dongle, and play
In no fucking way is that MicroUSB.
It's MicroUSB+Dongle+HDMI cable+Power Cable.
Where Lightning will do it all in just one cable. No dongles needed.
Re:Oh, I totally agree... (Score:4, Informative)
Oh please. It isn't *that* hard to make. Imagine a connector with 4 pins, doubled, viewed from above:
1 2 3 4
4 3 2 1
You run a wire up, split it, then join the two 1s. Another wire goes up, splits, and joins the 2s. Etc.
"Twice as many failure points" -- LOLOL. We're creating REDUNDANCY here. That's a GOOD thing. If one of the 4 pins in your USB connector breaks, you're fucked. If one of the 4 wires in a connector like I describe breaks, you put a dot with a marker on that side and remember that this connector only works one way now.
The difference in PCB printing and other costs are marginal. You can buy a variety of more complicated cables from monoprice for $3 each -- these things literally cost pennies, or a dollar or so, in quantity. And the OEM only cares about shipping a cable with a $300 device, or selling individually for $20. Let the commodity cable companies go after the low-end.
I'm not saying Apple's Lightning design is perfect but there's no reason not to make cables reversible. You're talking about something that gets used literally daily by hundreds of millions of people around the world. If automakers can afford to make keys that go both ways, electronics companies can make reversible cables. Design is all about compromise, but making a two-way connector isn't *that* big of a deal.
Re:Oh, I totally agree... (Score:5, Informative)
You run a wire up, split it, then join the two 1s. Another wire goes up, splits, and joins the 2s. Etc.
Hi. I see you have never done any mechanical connector design so I'll explain how it works for you. The connectors need to be mountable on a PCB by flow/wave soldering. No wires, so that plan is out I'm afraid. I suppose you could add some to the connector itself, but that costs money. Ideally you want the connector to be made entirely out of stamped metal parts, like the Micro USB connector is.
"Twice as many failure points" -- LOLOL. We're creating REDUNDANCY here.
Redundancy as in "one side now shorts so, so both sides are broken". Pins bent out of shape and shorting is the most common failure mode of small pitch connectors like this. Again, this is well understood by people who design mechanical connectors.
You can buy a variety of more complicated cables from monoprice for $3 each
Micro USB connectors (PCB mount, the part that takes the strain) cost about 40c (Euro) for quality ones. Of course we have no idea how much lightning connectors cost, but I guarantee it's more. Might not sound like a lot but if a phone sells for 40 Euro retail then wholesale price will be about 20 Euro and BOM cost will be about 10 Euro, so that connector is maybe 4% of the total cost.