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Apple Now Shipping Lightning To 30-Pin Adapters
hcs_$reboot writes "Apple has started shipping the iPhone 5 Lightning connector to 30-pin adapters. Some iPhone 5 owners complained about its new connector being incompatible with the previously well known 30 pin connectors (iPhone 4S and before, iPod, iPad, and chargers). From the article: 'Apple's accessories page shows the adapter as available to ship in October, while one MacRumors reader said the e-mail notice pointed to a delivery day of October 9.'"
Well, that's one way to make money - gratuitous changes which you charge to fix.
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
Is there any real reason besides vendor lock in that the Apple connector does differently then Micro-USB?
Why they use their own connectors instead of the industry standard micro-usb?
There, fixed that for you.
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
How is this anything but a money grab??
Because Apple is too cool to use standard USB connectors.
Why is this news? The people who want the adapter have already ordered one, and they already received an email stating their adapter has been shipped. Is this just another excuse to rag on Apple for not going micro-USB (as if anyone anywhere thought they actually would)?
(Personally, I find the lack of standardized cables mildly annoying. However, I'm backward--I wish everyone would move to lightning cables, not micro-USB. Lightning is just nicer to use: it plugs in quicker without having to look, and you don't have to worry about orientation. Sadly, Apple will never work to make it a standard.)
If you can't convince them, convict them.
Just saw the length of the shortest adapter... Added to the increased iPhone 5 length, that will surely look nice on your speakers-dock! For a company partly insisting on neat designs, that's strange!
Elvis already did it !!
Heed my words !!
The Time of Apple has Come and PASSED !! What lies ahead, all down, is the only way !!
Or to say it another way, the End is Coming !! (for Apple).
I own a bunch of micro-USB devices and I think that connector blows, at least mechanically. It's keyed, so it requires a specific orientation, and it's small so it's hard to differentiate the orientation, especially once presbyopia sets in.
The lightning connector has no specific orientation and I find it much easier to connect, especially in the dark.
The jury's out on whether or not there's any technical advantage to lightning over micro-USB as a connector or connector protocol. I'm in the camp that says 30 pin had to go and lightning is a welcome change, but even as an iPhone fan I'm not convinced there isn't some profit motive behind all of this, especially all the restrictions and apparent secrecy surrounding the device and adapters.
I'm sure I read somewhere that lighning cables are active, i.e. they have circuitry, chips etc, rather than just being copper cable. Same here? (would explain the price a bit I guess)
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
I support the change to the lightning connector for the most part -- it's a mechanically superior connector to 30 pin and to micro-USB (which keyed and difficult to orient in low-light conditions due to its size).
But I think Apple really fucked up when it came to the lightning connector in terms of third party accessory availability, adapter availability and adapter functionality.
First of all, it should have been rolled out with the iPad 3 first. iPad physical connectivity and portability is less common and it would have given developers lead time to get all kinds of accessories ready for iPhone 5.
On the day that the phone was rolled out Apple should have had a 30 pin adapter available that replicated all thirty pin functionality outside of video. There's just no excuse for a delay of nearly a month for Apple-supplied adapters to an Apple-designed interface. They also should have had a lightning-HDMI adapter available (AFAIK, no HDMI interface is even announced let alone available).
My understanding is that the 30 pin adapter they are selling provides analog audio but not iPod control -- why is that? Either iPod control isn't available over lightning at all or there must be some other good reason the adapter couldn't provide it. The lack of iPod control breaks a huge amount of functionality in things that aren't easily swapped out (ie, cars).
Furthermore, Apple should have begun sharing Lightning technical info and approving designs with third parties so that they could have had devices ready for roll out. This whole "secret development" and the dog-and-pony introduction event has kind of run its course in many ways and keeping the interface a secret from partners really doesn't accomplish much except punish users.
It remains to be seen whether Apple will realize that a more restrictive adapter and strangleholds on the technology and licensing of it actually hurts them and the ecosystem more than it helps. Part of me wonders how much of this is pure profiteering on Apple's part (IMHO, that's too simple) but part of me also thinks that some of this is a desire to manage DRM and other types of control by restricting who can make a cable and what it can do.
If there aren't a lot of third party products, adapters, etc out before Christmas (ie, Thanksgiving...) this might be a kind of "Waterloo" for Apple.
Apple fans are the only crowd that think Monster brand cables are too cheap.
One of the few? Yes. The only? No. I was buying a component video cable for my Wii console a few years ago, and Monster's was $10 cheaper than Nintendo's.
that was obviously pushed on the Firehose by the haters so they could complain about it. Don't you have anything better to do?
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
I'm $ure there'$ a perfectly good rea$on for them not to u$e a $tandard U$B connector format, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it i$. Anybody?
The real advantages to mini and micro-USB is that they are pretty much ubiquitous and relatively cheap - which are some big advantages. However the various USB connectors are kind of a crappy connectors from a mechanical standpoint. It is keyed in such a way that it isn't immediately obvious which way is the correct way to insert it without looking carefully or by trial and error. Also the mini and micro USB connectors themselves tend to be rather poorly made and need lots of external structural support. I've broken several and I'm not hard on my gear. My company manufactures some products that use them and IMO they aren't well designed mechanically. I don't love the lightning connector but from a pure mechanical design standpoint the lightning connector is better. Electrically and financially and socially I see no advantage to the new connector to most of us.
Oddly enough, Micro-USB was specifically designed with the exact complaint you have in mind. While it is smaller than the Mini-USB it replaced, that was secondary to its main purpose, which was to improve durability
If that is true, they failed in my opinion. I'm looking at a broken female surface mount Micro-usb connector as I type this. Thin gauge metal, poor strain relief, finicky to insert and basically requires significant structural reinforcement for real world use. I say this as someone who manufactures electrical harnesses for a living. Furthermore I very much dislike the fact that it has a keyed insertion. They easily could have made it key-less with a few more terminals. It was designed to be cheap to manufacture rather than easy to use.
Is there any real reason besides vendor lock in that the Apple connector does differently then Micro-USB?/quote.
Only two reasons I can think of. One is that MicroUSB is kind of a crappy design mechanically. Electrically it is fine and it is cheap and ubiquitous, but mechanically it has numerous failings. Lightning is a better design mechanically. The other reason is that having more pins allows the cable to do more functions than a serial cable. There is *some* advantage to the user with the lightning connector but for many there are probably more drawbacks including cost, lock-in, availability and did I mention cost?
$30-$40 for a cable? Fuck Apple.
http://www.joyoftech.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/1752.html :-)
It remains to be seen whether Apple will realize that a more restrictive adapter and strangleholds on the technology and licensing of it actually hurts them and the ecosystem more than it helps
Apple seems to be doing rather well with this approach, and has been for years.
Sometimes you can be in a position to dictate change, and Apple certainly is. There are a lot of benefits to the new connector and Lightning in general, and Apple is thus pushing through a change it thinks is beneficial - not just for itself, but for the technology path it has chosen. Adding the connector to each device would have given you the PS/2 effect - with every mouse comes a bit of extra stuff that needs to go into the trashcan. Rather let those who need it buy it, or buy new kit when it's released. The "iPod" connector has had its day, and has been not the best connector they have ever come up with.
Of course, they can also get it wrong (see how widespread Firewire is), but only time will tell and without being 100% behind a change, Apple would look like it's not certain about this new direction - also not a good idea.
Let's see how it pans out. At least there is now another device that connects to Lightning :).
Insert
I want to know why we aren't using inductive charging (Apple, Android, everyone) ... Say what you will about the horrible mismanagement at Palm before and after HP, but the inductive charger is soooo nice! Just set the bloody thing down close to the right way, the magnets align it perfectly & it chirps to let you know it is charging. Doesn't work for data transfer, but how often do I really need to do that - besides, combine it with NFC & do we really need a plug? Genuine question.
"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
From what I've read, Apple has gotten really strict about lightning product licensing, product design and manufacturing, requiring only licensed factories to be able to make third party products.
To me this means that they are trying to limit what the connector can do by limiting who can make them, probably by trying to keep the interface chips locked down. This may be all "sane" business strategy when dealing with Chinese manufacturing (ie, keep quality high, minimize pirated products not paying licensing fees, etc) or it may all be designed to keep people from coming up with unique uses for the interface or producing functionality Apple doesn't "want" like external storage or some other feature.
IMHO, adoption of the new connector vs. legacy 30 pin use would happen pretty organically. An adapter is nice, but it's really very marginally useful in most circumstances (ie, not at all in stand-up dock type devices like boomboxes or clock radios) and ultimately device makers would simply stop making new 30 pin devices or come up with a *reverse* adapter that allowed 30 pins devices to work on lightning docks for all the legacy devices out there.
The people who have a real right to bitch are partners making expensive, high-end stuff who now have inventory "not designed for iPhone 5". How fun is it to be a Mercedes salesman pushing an $85,000 car that can't connect to an iPhone?
I tend to agree. I was slightly upset when the new connector was announced, but I never honestly expected them to go with a standard connector. After using Lightning for a few weeks now, I will say that it's a fantastic connector. It's sturdy, small, and reversible. There's not much more I could ask for.
That said, as you have above, there's no excuse for not having adapters available at launch. I also wonder how much of this was driven by Apple seeing 5 for $1 30-pin to USB cables online and thinking "we need to stop people from making cheap crap that works with our devices."
I also wonder if Apple had pushed up the date of the launch, perhaps to beat this Galaxy S III "Mini" we keep hearing rumored. There were stories of huge overtime mandates in China to make the launch, and it wouldn't be surprising if resources that could have been making cables and adapters were diverted to iPhone 5 assembly. Apple's stores here in the US don't have *any* accessories available for the iPhone 5s. That's a huge missed opportunity in terms of attached sales (adapters, cables, cases, etc.), and very uncharacteristic of Apple. To my mind, it has all the hallmarks of a product rushed to market.
The lack of iPod control breaks a huge amount of functionality in things that aren't easily swapped out (ie, cars).
It's simple! All you have to do is switch your car to a new Apple-approved Lightning-enabled one! It's a cheap one-off alteration that will only cost a substantial multiple of the iPhone 5 cost, so get to it! After all, you wouldn't want to be seen without your iPhone. (Meanwhile, the lack of compatibility with your car is a safety feature that prevents you from getting lost while following driving directions from the new mapping app. Apple: always thinking of you.)
"Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
It's really hard to know what Apple's motivation was or why the adapters weren't made available.
What I've been reading about Apple's much strict control over lightning devices form third parties leads me to believe they are trying to keep a genie in the bottle with regards to what can be done with the lightning port. Maybe it's about quality. Maybe it's about making money on everything and protecting their licensing.
I suspect it's all of it -- the good thing for Apple was that while the 30 pin connector did a lot, it could largely only do what the connector was wired for. Maybe the new connector has so much possible functionality that it opens up a can of worms for Apple and they don't want external file access or some other "missing" feature to turn up on Amazon for $5.99.
It'd be fun to be one of those stock analysts who gets to ask questions. "Have you estimated how much accessory revenue you lost the first two months of iPhone 5 sales when there were no accessories available?"
I'm pretty sure that if the $34,000 and $60,000 cars can use Bluetooth to connect to iPhone 5 and fully control it through the stereo, the $85,000 cars can do the same.
I rented a few midrange sedans and a friend of mine had a Mazda3, they all linked fully to the iPhones over Bluetooth and you could go between songs, etc, with the console controls.
Micro-USB is just for power. Digital audio and video should be transmitted wirelessly.
That is all
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
I think you just nailed it. That's where Apple is headed, and quickly.
Losing the ability to neatly charge the phone still sucks. iPhones are famous for a lot of things, but battery life isn't one of them.
STANDARD USB PORT!
Most of the other manufacturers can manage this ONE little design feature, WHY CAN'T YOU!?
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
AFAIK, no HDMI interface is even announced let alone available
http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/13/3329062/apple-lightning-hdmi-vga-cable-adapter-coming-months
'An Apple spokesperson told The Verge that Lightning to HDMI and Lightning to VGA cables "will be available in the coming months."'
My understanding is that the 30 pin adapter they are selling provides analog audio but not iPod control
http://www.macworld.com/article/1168555/what_apples_new_lightning_connector_means_for_you.html
'Apple has confirmed to Macworld that these adapters support analog and USB audio-out, as well as syncing and charging. However, the adapters don’t support video-out or iPod mode, the latter a special mode that lets particular accessories, such as car stereos and some whole-home-audio systems, display your iPod’s menus on the accessory’s own screen.'
And as a commenter in this article points out, the iPod will still play audio over these systems since that's handled by the analog interface.
some of this is a desire to manage DRM
What DRM? None of the music on my iPhone has any DRM on it! The "FairPlay" DRM was removed from iTunes store music in early 2009.
Playing audio is worthless without controls and only marginally more useful without dash display of artist/song/etc.
You can't use it while it's charging.
'An Apple spokesperson told The Verge that Lightning to HDMI and Lightning to VGA cables "will be available in the coming months."'
Never fear, in coming months Apple will release another bunch of $35 adapters that will allow you to do what it couldn't do out of the box.
And as a commenter in this article [tuaw.com] points out, the iPod will still play audio over these systems since that's handled by the analog interface.
But you get no control interface, usability is clearly taking a back seat to profiteering.
Absolutely shocked to discover that this adaptor (which should have been included FREE for all customers) has been made BACKWARDS.
While it works OK for a normal charge, it does NOT FIT correctly on any media devices that I own for my IPAD and previous iphone 4 and ipods.
You can only seat the stupid thing BACKWARDS onto the devices.
So my BOSE iPod speaker system and my Phillips system are worthless with the IPhone 5 and worthless adaptor which is the only reason I bought the dumb thing.
Way to go Apple!! I think Steve Jobs is turning over in his grave with all the lack of preparation for this phone.
Wish i had not upgraded and would strongly encourage people to WAIT!