It's a growth target for Tesla. They have the electricity! Just have to figure out how to sell $100,000 cars to a populace that averages under $7,000 per year in total income...
Sure, why use our own reserves (which are around 260-270 years worth of oil, at our current consumption rate) when we can use everyone else's - and then end up with the big reserves to be sold at much higher prices in the future? When you have an abundance of a resource, and your neighbors (Canada and Mexico, where we get a lot of our oil) are selling theirs without concern - why not buy from them? When they run out - you're in the driver's seat...
Lithium has a long history of increasing in price. Unless we happen to find some huge, new, easy-to-mine vein of lithium ore, those prices most likely won't come down as production is barely keeping up with demand.
Correct. But the dock cannot have a permanently attached cable. It must be a separate cable that connects the dock to your laptop. Unless it, itself, directly snaps into and mechanically attaches to the laptop.
You'll wait quite a while for that adapter. Per the Apple Accessory Interface Specifcation (R25) you cannot make splitter cables. Ever. One connection on each end of the cable, and only certain combinations at that. IF you find such a cable, it's using grey-market chips from some random Chinese vendor - and who knows how well or how long it will work. But as it exists today (and at least for the next 2 months), splitter cables are forbidden. So it's going to be cables and hub, not just a cable.
And who would that be? When I use a BLE Microchip processor, I'm not paying license fees. Likewise with most $2 Bluetooth modules - no licenses. But for Apple dongles - I have to buy an MFi chip even if I want nothing more than just pulling power from the phone.
Well, you do need some kind of hub so you can power your iPhone whilst listening to headphones... Something that you used to be able to do on all previous generations of iPhones! And that you can do with jackless Android phones (since Android has no issues with Y cables - which are specifically verboten by Apple per their Accessory Interface Spec).
That's about in line with what I'd expect. Essentially zero improvement - especially when you consider you now have to have a Bluetooth radio running all the time, pulling another 50-80 mW constantly. That will eat up the 12 minutes and more...
Not allowed per the Apple Accessory Interface Specification (R25). A cable can only have one and only one connector on each end, splitters are not allowed. At least for 3rd party vendors that is...
If only Apple's iOS would support a decent Bluetooth codec like AptX (note: I said decent, not excellent). AAC and SBC are pretty sub-par. And OSX and Macbooks support AptX. But iOS devices? Nope. Not there. You're stuck with old Bluetooth technology when it comes to data transmission... And high latency at that (not even the very good latency performance of AptX low latency) - but I guess if you like watching movies that all appear to be poorly dubbed kung-fu style movies (where the sound lags the picture by several hundred milliseconds), then you're set!
Nice idea, but it would never fly. Having a device that directly plugs into a Lightning Port and has more than one port on it is verboten per the Apple Accessory Interface Spec (R25 - current). It won't pass, you won't get your MFi chips - and thus it won't work with any iOS device.
That that is an absolute lie, total BS. A bulky 3.5mm jack is 0.5cc. Assuming the previous life of their 1715mA/3.7V battery was 14 hours, they are now adding another 245mA/3.7V worth of battery to it, to get those 2 additional hours. That translates to an energy density of around 6.4 MJ/L, about three times what the best LiPo batteries can give. Not a chance.
If it lasts longer, it's not from a bigger battery, it's from more efficient components elsewhere. They're feeding you a line and you're swallowing it.
They sell such a module for OEM use; it's call the Lightning Audio Module. It's about $5 for the module and the licenses needed. Add in connectors (Lightning and 3.5mm), case, and power supply regulation and you're looking at a minimum BOM cost around $8. Meaning sell prices for $20-$40, minimum. It's the same module used in Audeze Sine headphones, and other 3rd party makers...
Do you know any iPhone/iOS app doing that? While that might have been the original intent of the connector, Apple sells you a nice little Lightning Audio Module (about $5 in 1MM quantities, including licenses) to get analog out of your Lightning port. Meaning - in theory you may be correct, but in practice you're completely wrong.
The Lightning plug itself is an order of a magnitude more than you pay for a 3.5mm jack. Even a waterproof one. And we're not even including the cost of the IAP2 subsystem required in the device, the PCB for that, the housing - and yet another 3.5mm jack. I don't see how moving a jack from inside the phone to outside - and adding another connector, housing, and PCBA in between, is a cost-saving move.
So it takes a ~7mm thick phone and makes it ~13mm thick. Why that's nearly the same! The reality is there are shipping phones that are much thinner than the current iPhones (6mm thick, not 7mm) that have a full 3.5mm jack on them. This is not about making a thinner phone - this is about forcing a change in earbuds/headphones to a new proprietary protocol (Bluetooth-like). It's the wireless version of Firewire or Thunderbolt, applied to iOS. And we know how those other two options ended up...
If they cared about thickness they could use a 3.5mm jack, so no adapter is needed.
FTFY. The Huawei Ascend P6 has a 3.5mm jack and is 6.18mm thick. The Vivo X3S has a 3.5mm jack and is 6mm thick. Apple could shave a mm off the current phones and keep the 3.5mm jack.
So - bad implementation of a 3.5mm jack then, not a failure of the jack. Spec a jack with a little clearance (like everyone else), one that is sealed (like most other companies) and you don't have this problem. And heck, you could also make the phone thinner as well - the Huawei Ascend P2 is 6.18mm thick - and has a 3.5mm jack. If that's not thin enough, the Vivo X3S is just 6mm thick and has a 3.5mm jack.
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It's a growth target for Tesla. They have the electricity! Just have to figure out how to sell $100,000 cars to a populace that averages under $7,000 per year in total income...
Sure, why use our own reserves (which are around 260-270 years worth of oil, at our current consumption rate) when we can use everyone else's - and then end up with the big reserves to be sold at much higher prices in the future? When you have an abundance of a resource, and your neighbors (Canada and Mexico, where we get a lot of our oil) are selling theirs without concern - why not buy from them? When they run out - you're in the driver's seat...
hey wait, don't they have volcanoes in Costa Rica? So that pesky cement production problem is solvable.
Better yet, why even use cement? Just ladle out some lava into your form, let it cool, and BAM - natural stone buildings!
I already recycle my electricity. For everything I plug into an outlet, I return every electron I receive back to the source.
Lithium has a long history of increasing in price. Unless we happen to find some huge, new, easy-to-mine vein of lithium ore, those prices most likely won't come down as production is barely keeping up with demand.
He's probably a blathering moron, but probably one who works for a Government agency. After all "in general, hydropower is not even considered a renewable energy in most states or, for the most part, by the federal government". Yes, liquid falling from the sky, collecting in valleys and lakes, and tumbling down rivers is not a renewable resource.
If you could put it into Libraries of Congress we'd be able to follow along...
Correct. But the dock cannot have a permanently attached cable. It must be a separate cable that connects the dock to your laptop. Unless it, itself, directly snaps into and mechanically attaches to the laptop.
You'll wait quite a while for that adapter. Per the Apple Accessory Interface Specifcation (R25) you cannot make splitter cables. Ever. One connection on each end of the cable, and only certain combinations at that. IF you find such a cable, it's using grey-market chips from some random Chinese vendor - and who knows how well or how long it will work. But as it exists today (and at least for the next 2 months), splitter cables are forbidden. So it's going to be cables and hub, not just a cable.
And who would that be? When I use a BLE Microchip processor, I'm not paying license fees. Likewise with most $2 Bluetooth modules - no licenses. But for Apple dongles - I have to buy an MFi chip even if I want nothing more than just pulling power from the phone.
Well, you do need some kind of hub so you can power your iPhone whilst listening to headphones... Something that you used to be able to do on all previous generations of iPhones! And that you can do with jackless Android phones (since Android has no issues with Y cables - which are specifically verboten by Apple per their Accessory Interface Spec).
That's about in line with what I'd expect. Essentially zero improvement - especially when you consider you now have to have a Bluetooth radio running all the time, pulling another 50-80 mW constantly. That will eat up the 12 minutes and more...
Don't look at it so much as the need to spend more money but the opportunity to carry another large piece of plastic and another cable!
Not allowed per the Apple Accessory Interface Specification (R25). A cable can only have one and only one connector on each end, splitters are not allowed. At least for 3rd party vendors that is...
Too bad you can't charge your phone whilst listening to your headphones...
If only Apple's iOS would support a decent Bluetooth codec like AptX (note: I said decent, not excellent). AAC and SBC are pretty sub-par. And OSX and Macbooks support AptX. But iOS devices? Nope. Not there. You're stuck with old Bluetooth technology when it comes to data transmission... And high latency at that (not even the very good latency performance of AptX low latency) - but I guess if you like watching movies that all appear to be poorly dubbed kung-fu style movies (where the sound lags the picture by several hundred milliseconds), then you're set!
Nice idea, but it would never fly. Having a device that directly plugs into a Lightning Port and has more than one port on it is verboten per the Apple Accessory Interface Spec (R25 - current). It won't pass, you won't get your MFi chips - and thus it won't work with any iOS device.
That that is an absolute lie, total BS. A bulky 3.5mm jack is 0.5cc. Assuming the previous life of their 1715mA/3.7V battery was 14 hours, they are now adding another 245mA/3.7V worth of battery to it, to get those 2 additional hours. That translates to an energy density of around 6.4 MJ/L, about three times what the best LiPo batteries can give. Not a chance.
If it lasts longer, it's not from a bigger battery, it's from more efficient components elsewhere. They're feeding you a line and you're swallowing it.
If only there were waterproof phones on the market that had a 3.5mm jack... Oh wait!
They sell such a module for OEM use; it's call the Lightning Audio Module. It's about $5 for the module and the licenses needed. Add in connectors (Lightning and 3.5mm), case, and power supply regulation and you're looking at a minimum BOM cost around $8. Meaning sell prices for $20-$40, minimum. It's the same module used in Audeze Sine headphones, and other 3rd party makers...
Do you know any iPhone/iOS app doing that? While that might have been the original intent of the connector, Apple sells you a nice little Lightning Audio Module (about $5 in 1MM quantities, including licenses) to get analog out of your Lightning port. Meaning - in theory you may be correct, but in practice you're completely wrong.
The Lightning plug itself is an order of a magnitude more than you pay for a 3.5mm jack. Even a waterproof one. And we're not even including the cost of the IAP2 subsystem required in the device, the PCB for that, the housing - and yet another 3.5mm jack. I don't see how moving a jack from inside the phone to outside - and adding another connector, housing, and PCBA in between, is a cost-saving move.
So it takes a ~7mm thick phone and makes it ~13mm thick. Why that's nearly the same! The reality is there are shipping phones that are much thinner than the current iPhones (6mm thick, not 7mm) that have a full 3.5mm jack on them. This is not about making a thinner phone - this is about forcing a change in earbuds/headphones to a new proprietary protocol (Bluetooth-like). It's the wireless version of Firewire or Thunderbolt, applied to iOS. And we know how those other two options ended up...
If they cared about thickness they could use a 3.5mm jack, so no adapter is needed.
FTFY. The Huawei Ascend P6 has a 3.5mm jack and is 6.18mm thick. The Vivo X3S has a 3.5mm jack and is 6mm thick. Apple could shave a mm off the current phones and keep the 3.5mm jack.
So - bad implementation of a 3.5mm jack then, not a failure of the jack. Spec a jack with a little clearance (like everyone else), one that is sealed (like most other companies) and you don't have this problem. And heck, you could also make the phone thinner as well - the Huawei Ascend P2 is 6.18mm thick - and has a 3.5mm jack. If that's not thin enough, the Vivo X3S is just 6mm thick and has a 3.5mm jack.