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The iPhones of the Future May Be Wireless, Portless and Buttonless (cnet.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the wireless-future dept.

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."

33 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. So people find their phones still usable... by Kenja · · Score: 4, Insightful

    and they want to fix that?

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    1. Re:So people find their phones still usable... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      It gets even worse. People want to be able to repair their phones so they last more than 2 years.

      And Fairphone has arisen to meet that need.

      I realize this looks like a shameless plug, what with me being an AC and all. I thought about proving my legitimacy by insulting the intelligence of the OP, but he didn't give me enough material to work with. So I will just have to hope you believe me when I say I am a satisfied customer.

      I guess I do have an agenda in that I don't want them to go out of business, since I need them around to sell me the replacement parts, when the time comes....

    2. Re:So people find their phones still usable... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The Fairphone 2 doesn't seem like a good deal I'm afraid.

      The price is â530, which is a lot more than flagships from companies like OnePlus and Xaomi. You get Android 6.0 and no sign of regular updates, a mediocre camera and a removable battery. So really the only major benefit is the removable battery, and in practice it's not difficult to replace the battery in a OnePlus or even most of the non-Apple flagships.

      Replacement parts are a nice idea, but you have to compare that to buying a phone that costs half as much and replacing it twice as often. Even with replacement parts this thing won't last forever.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  2. They would be more waterproof by bobstreo · · Score: 4, Funny

    I guess after all ports are removed, the next idea would be to remove the leading cause of repairs, if there is no screen, it won't crack... /s

    1. Re: They would be more waterproof by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 5, Funny

      Screenless but fuck it, we're doing five cameras!

    2. Re:They would be more waterproof by user32.ExitWindowsEx · · Score: 3, Insightful

      A voice operated phone.....operators will make a comeback.
      Then hipsters will demand actual human operators connect their calls.

      --
      "Evil will always triumph because good is dumb." -- Dark Helmet
    3. Re:They would be more waterproof by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 5, Funny

      Voice is so 2000. Pushbuttons are so 70s. REAL phones, for quality POTS use, need a rotary dial. Unless you hear the clicks and feel the spin, you're really not experiencing real phone calls...

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    4. Re:They would be more waterproof by arth1 · · Score: 4, Informative

      The phone we had when I grew up did not have a dial, just a small crank where the dial would normally go. Cranking it produced a current that lit up a lamp at the operator's board, and she would ask where to connect us, and tell us how many arms and legs it would cost per minute. For long distance, she would also intercept every now and then during the call to say "four minutes" or similar.
      At my father's work was a small plaque above The phone saying "Express yourself in brevity".

      A more civilized phone for a more civilized time.

    5. Re:They would be more waterproof by tehcyder · · Score: 2

      The phone we had when I grew up did not have a dial, just a small crank where the dial would normally go.

      A crank? You were lucky...

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  3. Fantastic! by TiberiusKirk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Until a bug is introduced in firmware and a factory reset is required.
    Or you get nailed by malware that takes over your phone, and there is literally no way to reset the fucking thing!

    1. Re: Fantastic! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

    2. Re:Fantastic! by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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?

    3. Re: Fantastic! by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 3, Funny

      With a nuke. From orbit.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    4. Re:Fantastic! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 2

      When my phone or PMP had problems, USUALLY, the screen wasn't working. Eventually, I learned that by using actual buttons to RESET the thing, If I was lucky, I could get the screen working again.
      Later on, when I was checking out some older electronics I kept that had stopped working, I found that...even when it wasn't documented, I could quite often do a hard RESET by playing with a combination of buttons while powering it on and it would start working perfectly!
      Try as I might, I can't see how this can be done when all your controls are *on the screen*! The only other possibility is to remove the battery for awhile and let the unit/phone completely discharge and HOPE that it fixes it because if the screen is defective, there is no 'combination' of buttons to try as a last-ditch effort to save it.
      But, maybe that's what they are striving for so you have to send it in and pay a lot of money to get it working again?

      Just because YOU can't think of a way, doesn't mean it isn't possible.

      As an embedded Dev., a few possible methods come immediately to mind:

      1. A "system monitor" ("Watchdog"), with a long-enough timeout to not false-trigger under heavy CPU load. If the main OS or an App goes off in the weeds for too long, (say, 10 secs.), the WatchDog would trigger a hardware Reset. This method requires no user intervention whatsoever, and is SOP in a lot of embedded designs. In fact, I would be VERY surprised if Apple's SoCs don't have this already.

      2. A Hall-Effect sensor, similar to the "sleep" sensor that puts iPads to sleep when a magnet is brought in proximity to a certain location on the iPhone. This could be incorporated in the Charger. Kind of too kludgy for Apple; but there it is.

      3. A small, fixed-code microcontroller, or a section of the main SoC, that would be responsible for interpreting a single, predetermined "gesture". This gesture would the. Trigger a hardware reset of the main SoC. This nicely fits in with Apple's design-language, in that it is triggered by a "swipe" of some kind. A hard coded confirmation dialog could be used to keep accidental triggering due to random swipes. Yes, this would only work if the screen and digitizer were reasonably intact; but let's face it, if the screen and digitizer are that scrogged, likely NO Reset-method would restore the unit to usability until that was fixed.

      So, there are some methods that came to mind with about 30 seconds of thought. Think that Apple engineers can't come up with a dozen or more methods to accomplish this after a couple of weeks' working on it?

    5. Re: Fantastic! by Provocateur · · Score: 2

      Well, he even posts as the fake Tim Cook. This is a no-brainer.

      --
      WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
    6. Re: Fantastic! by Teckla · · Score: 2

      I have an iPhone and an iPad, and even I ignore every post by TheFakeTimCook. His tireless defense of everything Apple got really old a long time ago.

    7. Re: Fantastic! by Carewolf · · Score: 3, Funny

      With a nuke. From orbit.

      It is the only way to be sure.

    8. Re:Fantastic! by RoccamOccam · · Score: 2

      This reminds me of the joy (not!) we had when USB replaced RS232.

      ...

      You remember RS232 a LOT more fondly than MOST people.

      ...

      Yeah, I was having a hard time deciding whether he was being sarcastic or not.

  4. Re: HaHa... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wireless, Portless and Buttonless or in a word ... very Useless

  5. That's nothing by Patent+Lover · · Score: 4, Funny

    They're also going to be screenless. It's going to be a huge breakthrough.

    1. Re:That's nothing by H3lldr0p · · Score: 2

      Not only that but it's been discovered that there's a slight current in normal, everyday phone lines. Utilizing this, Apple engineers have come up with a phone you never have to charge again! In fact, it's completely immobile allowing you to never lose. It will be packed with a handy, easy to use interface. It doesn't even have one. All it has is a "receiving unit" that's directly connected to the immobile part which is a single purpose unit. All it does is listen to your voice and recreates the voice of the person you are talking with. The only interface to speak of is a set of standard numbers from zero to nine. You enter someone's phone number and it will take care of everything else!

    2. Re:That's nothing by user32.ExitWindowsEx · · Score: 2

      And since it's completely immobile you have to buy one for each location you want to use it in!
      More money for Apple!

      --
      "Evil will always triumph because good is dumb." -- Dark Helmet
  6. What about charging away from home/office? by mfearby · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It might be good to have wireless charging ability at home but what about when you're "on the go" and just need to connect to a cable somewhere to charge your phone, and there's no special Apple wireless charger?

    Sorry, Apple, but my Samsung Galaxy S8 (which I bought to replace an iPhone last year) is far superior to your feature-stripped strait jackets.

  7. Re:Wasteful by arth1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    The only Apple product I own is the White Album.

  8. Re:wireless? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

    I mean, there were probably wired mobile phones in the trenches during WWII, Korean war and Viet Nam war, but since the 90s at least, I think most mobile phones have been wireless.

    I don't know about you but I still have to give my mobile phone a couple of good cranks before making a call. I suppose I should upgrade.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  9. Re: HaHa... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wireless, Portless and Buttonless or in a word ... very Useless

    Watching tens of millions of people line up to buy this hardware, or in a word from the CFO....very Priceless.

  10. More money by Venona2018 · · Score: 2

    I will love spending the extra money for a wireless charger at home, at work and in the car. Assuming I can find a place to put the wireless charger in the car.

    1. Re:More money by BronsCon · · Score: 2

      To be fair, you can get Qi chargers for less than the typical Lightning cable, so this might be a net win for iPhone users.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    2. Re:More money by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 2

      You'll need to buy a new car, with the wireless charging dashboard. Which will be obsolete in two years when Apple comes out with a new wireless charging protocol and the screen on your gadget reads 'unsupported device'.

  11. Re:Wasteful by Yaztromo · · Score: 3, Funny

    The only Apple product I own is the White Album.

    Whoa -- talk about being way behind the times there grandpa!

    You should totally check out Abbey Road. Best. B Side. Ever.

    Yaz

  12. What about forgetting your charger? by Tomahawk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How many times have you gone on holiday, opened your case, and found you didn't pack your charger? If you were lucky, you packed a spare cable, so all you needed was something with a USB connection and you could charge your phone. At worst, a trip to a shop that sold cables.

    Remove cable charging, and now you're needed to buy a full wireless charger. Or visit Starbucks every morning for 2 hours while you slowly sip away at a long-gone-cold coffee.

    And then what about those people who still use wired headphones using the adapter that comes in the box... oh yeah, sorry, I forgot that you sell expensive wireless headphones that you want to force people to have to buy also. Silly me.

    Copying data to your PC? Or another phone? Getting a charge boost from another phone (like you can [seemingly] on USB-C devices)? In-car adapters? Peripherals?

    My last few phones all had wireless charging. I rarely used it. Lately I was even thinking about why this tech is added to phones as it just increases the cost and provides, at least to me, no benefit. I'm not sure I'd like being forced to have to only use wireless charging. Plus you know that they'll change the wireless charging technology in 2 iterations time, making those 2 spare charges you bought when on holidays useless.

    At least you can buy another one on your next trip away...

  13. Wireless, portless, buttonless.... by Locke2005 · · Score: 2

    ...and pointless!

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  14. I just got the latest iPhone by Harvey+Manfrenjenson · · Score: 3, Funny

    "It's so advanced... you don't even need it." -Stephen Wright