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iPad Serial-Port Adapter Previewed
swandives writes "Following on from the iPhone serial port hack, Chris Pollock shows how an iPad will look with a serial port adapter for those who need more screen space. The pictures show a basic prototype, but Pollock expects to have a more attractive alternative up and running in the coming months."
I personally would have designed it better. Maybe a USB port on the "serial" box so that it's not hanging off my iPad/iPhone.
It really needs an HDMI. The resolution is pretty low but at least I could play music through my big screen. I'd really like to see a laptop style port replicator made for an iPad or Touch with supporting software. You can adapt to USB devices but that and mini plug are your only options. The device is multipurpose but the output options are very limited. A proper port replicator seems simple enough and shouldn't threaten the closed nature of the device.
iPods/Phones/Pads have had serial ports for the longest time - why do you think there's such a thing as the iPod Accessory Serial Control protocol?
What's interesting about this is that an app has been able to steal the serial port from the system for its own purposes, i.e.: a tty.
That's nice, son. But we really could've waited until the thing was completely finished before you submitted it.
It's a neat feat of reverse engineering but I don't really see the practicality here. I deal with serial on a daily basis and using an iPad would be a nightmare. Typing is OK for short emails, but you really need a physical keyboard for these sort of things. A autocorrected word or mistyped letter can be frustrating to no end.
several older cell-phone serial cables could be adapted for this job. I did a 3.3v TTL(?) to RS232 hack a few years ago, someone should be able to do it again. I think it was a Nokia serial sync cable, used before USB became popular.
someone did something similar using a N810 and a ethernet to usb dongle.
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
3... 2... 1... how long until the company gets a C&D from Apple?
all those "I don't need that, it's useless... I need that instead" commenter would realize that they are not alone in this world and that other people may have different need.
I personally don't need it because, as most tech users, I now only have a few, if any, devices with serial interface... but I can see how something like that may be totally useful.
There are still a lot of people who work with specialized equipment, often having serial port interfaces. Having a serial port interface for iPhone or iPad can become very interesting, as those device can be used very easily while standing hand holding them in the hand. With a laptop other than a tablet PC type laptop, I've always found doing this clumsy.
All I need now - besides an iPad - is an external U.S. Robotics 2400 baud modem to access all those old school BBSes that are still around. :P
While people are decrying the pointlessness of a serial controller on the iPad/iPhone, instead imagine a tiny smd 8 to 1 or 16 to 1 multiplexer feeding this thing digital input from some connected switches.
Yes. I'm talking about a snap on joypad device. While people here are going to yell and scream about Apple's locked down nature, I'm going to yell about their short sightedness. Apple screwed the pooch with iPhone OS 3. When they announced compatibility with attaching devices to it's dock connector, they should've also written up a serial API for joypad like devices with a set number of buttons and released a joypad accessory.
Then again I thought the iPad could benefit greatly from a stylus, just because of it's sheer size and annotating pages with a pen is easier than typing, but, that's just my POV.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Please mod parent off-topic, and not troll. The lack of nuance (where are the or tags? I can't perceive nuance without tags!) makes it very difficult to discern earnest honesty from troll-ishness.
Want to take notes on an iPad? Here's your stylus
You should have bought an eo. That came with a stylus.
That's a lot of leverage hooked up to the iPad's dock connector.
They really ought to find a way to put a U-turn in there, and have most of the attached hardware sit close behind the iPad, perhaps built into a case.
September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
I don't think there's anything inherent in the iPad stopping a manufacturer from creating a joypad, although one would have to get developer support for such a device to work.
It's like putting a trailer hitch on a Bentley.
So why not just have a real terminal server (wired to each device's serial port), and just use a regular old AP to get IP connectivity to the terminal server?
Then any old terminal software on the ipad will work... as well as any other IP (wired or wireless) device.
As bonuses, you don't have to touch devices to move console connections and you can connect to as many devices simultaneously as your terminal server can handle.
Do we still have serial ports on nowadays computers ?
I think Steve Jobs was absolutely 100% correct when he said styluses suck as a primary input source.
However, I think Steve Jobs was wrong in not *offering* a stylus as an addon accessory first party. I know about the pogo stylus, i wish apple had put out a first party solution.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
This is the main issue with Apple: what the customer wants will always take a back seat to what Steve Jobs thinks the customer should have.
The reason why serial port access is the way it is on iOS (without jailbreaking) is so that when you have a external device, it speaks a known protocol with the iPhone, to help the user get it working.
Why is this a good thing?
1) Devices plugged in can be identified by the iPhone, so that as an app developer, you know where the device came from and what kind of features it might have (compared to previous revisions of the item)
2) Devices plugged in will automatically launch an app that knows how to use it
3) Devices plugged in without an app that knows how to use it will launch a search on the iTunes App Store.
If you sign up for the "made for iphone" program or whatever, you get the serial API specs as well as a list of vendors who already have dev kits ready to help build whatever you want.
Once you've made your device and started selling it, just make your custom protocol identifier and API public, and app developers can support your joypad or whatever you made.
the main issue with everyone else:
The customer always wants *something*, they want more, more and more.
Between the options of merely lacking a first party stylus and instead lacking something like say, multitouch or smooth UI effects, or a real app infrastructure, or...
Given the options of satisfying an angry mob or an angry madman, I'd say that the angry mad man is more correct. Developers and managers suck at telling me what a good UI is. This is how we get shit like Symbian, Windows Mobile 6.5 and the inconsistent madness of Android(Although Android is leaps and bounds beyond Symbian and Windows Mobile, it's still got massive UI problems; notably the UI API SUCKS).
I'll take missing a first party stylus.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
There's precedent for what I'm advocating though, and that's the dock port remote interface. I've got an iTrip that talks to both my iPod classic and my iPhone 3GS.
Having an official API would make it easier to adopt than releasing an API and spec sheet. as a gamer, I want consistency. I plug it in, and it works.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.