For Apollo 13, Ron Howard shot four hours of footage in free-fall, 25 seconds at a time, for the space sequences. That was on a budget of only $52 million. It can be done.
The whole idea of the Lightning interface is that you move as many expensive components as possible - video output converters, different data buses - out of the device and into the cable.
The punchline is that iOS devices aren't getting any cheaper, of course.
Maybe they're not idiots, but being scientists rather than Slashdot commenters they were unwilling to jump to specific conclusions on the basis of "look at teh youtubes, morans" and block caps?
It is low-quality: on a Lightning device the video is put through lossy compression, streamed to the "adaptor", which is actually a small computer, and then output by that device as an HDMI signal. MHL and Slimport are just novel interfaces for an ordinary, lossless HDMI signal.
Clearly you're not someone who's ever actually used the Firewire ports on his cameras, because you'd know it's used to dump the digital video stream from the tape onto a computer for editing and doesn't actually transmit a video signal. It's no more of an audio/video connector than a parallel port is.
That's actually the standard USB-micro-A connector, which is the correct connector for USB-OTG. Google are the standards-breakers here: they didn't use the right kind of connector on the Nexus 7 and all the Nexus 7 USB-OTG adaptors out there are a crude, standards-breaking fudge around that.
You see, USB connectors are supposed to enforce the USB topology: if the device is attached to another through an "A" connector, it's the host, and if it's attached through a "B" connector, it's the peripheral. The rectangular end of an ordinary USB cable is an "A" connector, and the square end is the "B" connector. The "A" end goes in your PC, making it the host and the "B" end goes into your printer, making it the peripheral.
Very important: adaptors which turn an "A" plug into a "B" plug are strictly nonstandard because they screw up this topology.
For devices like tablets which can be both hosts and peripherals, you have an "AB" port. When a "B" plug is connected, the tablet is supposed to act as a peripheral, for example as a mass storage device attached to your computer. When an "A" plug is connected, the tablet is supposed to act as a host, for example to read from a digital camera.
Nokia included AB ports on its devices, and shipped standards-compliant USB-OTG adaptors which turn a USB-A plug into a USB-micro-A plug.
Google only included a "B" port and therefore it had to create a profoundly nonstandard USB-OTG adaptor that turns a USB-A plug into a USB-micro-B plug.
If Lightning was a set of wires and a connector that might be a valid argument, but the Lightning cable has enough computing hardware in it that I dare say it's more of a waste burden than the charger it plugs into.
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.
It does meet the goals of the standard: the adaptor means that the iPhone 5 and later can accept any microUSB charger, and the Lightning charger can charge any microUSB phone. Functionally it's equivalent (once you buy two of them...) to just having a microUSB port on there.
I can't see Apple making a different batch of iPhone housings and logic boards just to make a token effort at supporting a European law. Their whole infrastructure - which Tim Cook masterminded - depends on having very few products with only small variations between them. There are iPhone 5 variants with different radio chips, but they all use the same motherboard, housing and antennas, for example.
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No true TeaPartier would...
For Apollo 13, Ron Howard shot four hours of footage in free-fall, 25 seconds at a time, for the space sequences. That was on a budget of only $52 million. It can be done.
The whole idea of the Lightning interface is that you move as many expensive components as possible - video output converters, different data buses - out of the device and into the cable.
The punchline is that iOS devices aren't getting any cheaper, of course.
How does this interfere with the argument at hand, "it is possible to mandate USB chargers without sacrificing video output"?
Probably a satellite flare.
Maybe they're not idiots, but being scientists rather than Slashdot commenters they were unwilling to jump to specific conclusions on the basis of "look at teh youtubes, morans" and block caps?
I don't think I've ever met someone who used one of those, but point taken.
Oh, right, it's basically its own adaptor.
Full-size USB, micro USB, and USB 3.0 versions of the same. (Mini-USB is deprecated; they stopped letting people make those years ago.)
I guess if you count both ends of the cable that's a lot of varieties...
As long as it accepts the standard charger, isn't it completely acceptable in the context of this discussion?
It is low-quality: on a Lightning device the video is put through lossy compression, streamed to the "adaptor", which is actually a small computer, and then output by that device as an HDMI signal. MHL and Slimport are just novel interfaces for an ordinary, lossless HDMI signal.
Apple have their reasons for this of course:
https://www.panic.com/blog/2013/03/the-lightning-digital-av-adapter-surprise/
$6.
http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/analyst-iphone-5-lightning-connector-here-to-stay-1099003
All MHL devices are compatible with microUSB chargers, you nut. That's the point.
Clearly you're not someone who's ever actually used the Firewire ports on his cameras, because you'd know it's used to dump the digital video stream from the tape onto a computer for editing and doesn't actually transmit a video signal. It's no more of an audio/video connector than a parallel port is.
That's actually the standard USB-micro-A connector, which is the correct connector for USB-OTG. Google are the standards-breakers here: they didn't use the right kind of connector on the Nexus 7 and all the Nexus 7 USB-OTG adaptors out there are a crude, standards-breaking fudge around that.
You see, USB connectors are supposed to enforce the USB topology: if the device is attached to another through an "A" connector, it's the host, and if it's attached through a "B" connector, it's the peripheral. The rectangular end of an ordinary USB cable is an "A" connector, and the square end is the "B" connector. The "A" end goes in your PC, making it the host and the "B" end goes into your printer, making it the peripheral.
Very important: adaptors which turn an "A" plug into a "B" plug are strictly nonstandard because they screw up this topology.
For devices like tablets which can be both hosts and peripherals, you have an "AB" port. When a "B" plug is connected, the tablet is supposed to act as a peripheral, for example as a mass storage device attached to your computer. When an "A" plug is connected, the tablet is supposed to act as a host, for example to read from a digital camera.
Nokia included AB ports on its devices, and shipped standards-compliant USB-OTG adaptors which turn a USB-A plug into a USB-micro-A plug.
Google only included a "B" port and therefore it had to create a profoundly nonstandard USB-OTG adaptor that turns a USB-A plug into a USB-micro-B plug.
One gram of semiconductor components has a significantly greater environmental impact in manufacture than one gram of copper wire.
USB over TRRS, for example. Apple did it on some of the iPod Shuffles and it was very, very cute.
You're fine with communicating over the plain old internet, but won't use an encrypted wireless connection?
If Lightning was a set of wires and a connector that might be a valid argument, but the Lightning cable has enough computing hardware in it that I dare say it's more of a waste burden than the charger it plugs into.
Nokia's "own connectors" were just ordinary - fully standards-compliant - barrel plugs.
...and be replaced by another, superior high-speed USB interface and connector.
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.
Wait, scratch that, I forgot they don't do an adaptor the other way.
It does meet the goals of the standard: the adaptor means that the iPhone 5 and later can accept any microUSB charger, and the Lightning charger can charge any microUSB phone. Functionally it's equivalent (once you buy two of them...) to just having a microUSB port on there.
Aesthetically...
I can't see Apple making a different batch of iPhone housings and logic boards just to make a token effort at supporting a European law. Their whole infrastructure - which Tim Cook masterminded - depends on having very few products with only small variations between them. There are iPhone 5 variants with different radio chips, but they all use the same motherboard, housing and antennas, for example.