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The iPhones of the Future May Be Wireless, Portless and Buttonless (cnet.com)
The first iPhone to shed its headphone jack was the iPhone 7, which launched in late 2016. Now it seems like the Lightning port may be the next to go. CNET reports: Apple has considered removing the Lightning port on the iPhone X, according to Bloomberg, citing unnamed "people familiar with the company's work." While earlier rumors suggested that Apple would remove the Lightning port in favor of USB-C, Apple's goal may be to remove all ports entirely.
Bloomberg's report is about the challenges that Apple faces with its AirPower wireless charger, but it also shares some details about Apple's vision for a wireless future. The report says: "Apple designers eventually hope to remove most of the external ports and buttons on the iPhone, including the charger, according to people familiar with the company's work. During the development of the iPhone X, Apple weighed removing the wired charging system entirely. That wasn't feasible at the time because wireless charging was still slower than traditional methods. Including a wireless charger with new iPhones would also significantly raise the price of the phones."
Bloomberg's report is about the challenges that Apple faces with its AirPower wireless charger, but it also shares some details about Apple's vision for a wireless future. The report says: "Apple designers eventually hope to remove most of the external ports and buttons on the iPhone, including the charger, according to people familiar with the company's work. During the development of the iPhone X, Apple weighed removing the wired charging system entirely. That wasn't feasible at the time because wireless charging was still slower than traditional methods. Including a wireless charger with new iPhones would also significantly raise the price of the phones."
The most visited post on my website is instructions for rebooting a crashed iPod.
I can't imagine the iPhone is any better at not needing constant resets. Just today I had to force-reboot an iPad that had frozen on the home screen. I vaguely recall having to look up how to reboot someone's crashed iPhone X because they changed the method.
The point being that Apple's hardware is nowhere near stable enough not to have a method to force a reboot. I guess "wait for the battery to die" is going to become standard practice in the near future. I guess we finally learned why Apple refuses to put all-day batteries in their devices.
What about a microswitch next to the SIM slot which can be triggered by a straightened paper clip and PHYSICALLY shuts off power to the battery?
Apple's been telling people that to protect their smaller devices, they basically need to put *something* around it. (remember the sock? or that band to deal with antenna issues?)
But wireless charging uses induction, and the further apart the induction pads are, the worse the charging performance (which might be related to their overheating problems, as they need to use move power). So if Apple's really serious about this, they need to come up with a phone that doesn't need a case ... which might piss off other companies in the accessory ecosystem.
I'd love to use wireless charging again ... but I'm not giving up a headphone port for it. I went from a Palm Pre (with the replaced back for wireless charging) and Pre3 to an iphone SE ... because it had a headphone jack. But even as a 30+ year apple user, I doubt I'll be getting another iphone, as the OS just pisses me off too much.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.