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08-14-2012, 11:18 AM | |
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Apple overhauling its 30 pin connector
Only Apple..... http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/14/app...8TechCrunch%29 What happens when you change one port? Quite a lot, actually. Apple introduced the 30-pin iPod port on April 28, 2003. That makes the technology – a fairly streamlined solution for 2003 – nine years old and, thanks to the iPhone’s popularity, essentially ubiquitous. Now, however, as news leaks about either a 19- or 9-pin overhaul of the technology, there’s something important to consider: the install base of 30-pin devices is wild and deep and a simple change could create an e-waste problem if not properly handled. To be clear: this new pin layout is coming and it’s coming soon. Whether it arrives in this generation or the next still remains to be seen, the sources I reached out to agreed that the switch was imminent. Apple has sold over approximately 610 million devices with a 30-pin dock connector. There are no hard numbers on iPod dock sales available, but analysts estimate $2 to $3 billion in sales on iPod accessories per year. These are back of the envelope calculations, but assume a fourth of those are $100 docks – some are less, some are much more. That gives us about 5 million docks a year over nine years. That’s 45 million devices in essentially perfect working order that will be partially obsoleted by this move. “Just imagine how many hotel rooms are fitted with alarm clocks that have a 30-pin dock connector,” said Arman Sadeghi, CEO of AllGreenRecycling, an e-waste handler. “Doing away with the 30-pin dock connector without developing any kind of backwards compatibility option would cause millions of pieces of accessories to become obsolete prematurely. Currently, there are tens of thousands of different devices such as chargers, alarm clocks, docking stations and other devices that work with the 30-pin connector. If this connector was replaced, it would cause a slow but very steady flow of those items coming out of use and into the ewaste stream.” In short, Apple would relegate a great number of iPod docks to the scrap heap. Arguably, the vast majority of users, especially users using more expensive docks that connect to home entertainment systems and speakers, would invest in a small adapter that will convert a 30-pin jack to the smaller model, but a fraction of those will relegate those old docks to the junk pile. Once the 30-pin is phased out, however, there’s the secondary problem of obsolete iPods. “The obvious problem will be with people throwing out old accessories but there is another issue as well,” said Sadeghi. “The value of Apple devices with the old connector will drop as well which will cause a large wave of those items entering the eWaste steam as well. iPods and other small devices that people have had for many years will start becoming less desirable in favor of newer versions that will have the same connector as their new iPhone. This effect may, in fact, prove to be a bigger generator of eWaste than the obsolete accessories.” This sort of move isn’t new, but I suspect that this might be the first major mass exodus from one port architecture to another since serial connections gave way to USB and even that move took years to complete. Apple is notorious for railroading users into technologies although they usually pick the tech that eventually proves to be the winner (there’s a reason there weren’t Compact Flash card readers on earlier MacBooks before the addition of the SD card slot.) Where Apple is at fault is in the speed with which they’re going to push this through. They will sell millions of iPhones and millions of adapters, and the new port will also revitalize the stagnant accessories market. But it will also encourage long-time users to “upgrade” their docks to support the new standard (or at least spend $10 on a compatible adapter). It’s also not Apple’s fault that accessory makers hitched their wagon to the Apple star. There was and is a lot of money to be made. But this change will change things considerably and the trash and recycling it will generate is has the potential to be more than impressive. The real impact can be seen as negligible. Docks are made of plastic and a few magnets. In a perfect world those docks would end up at an ewaste location where they will be recycled into new products or they will end up in the garage sale and secondary market, used by millions who just don’t want to or can’t upgrade. But in a world of increasingly scarce resources, it’s an interesting thought exercise to see what a minor change in on port on a popular phone can do to an entire ecosystem of accessories. Apple is lucky that an industry made hardware solely for their devices. Now we’re about to see what happens when that industry – and the consumers who bought into that constellation of accessories – suddenly has to shift direction. |
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08-14-2012, 08:53 PM | #76 |
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08-14-2012, 09:02 PM | #77 | |
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I bought my first one on pre-order, so it was in the first batch of shipments that came in. It also had great battery life, but I accidentally dropped it in a glass of Kool-Aid and killed it. Thank god I purchased AppleCare plus and got a new one. But the battery life on it is the same as the old one. My wife's doesn't have any battery issues, either, and she's on it all day long for work. Have you tried calibrating the battery with the Battery Doctor app? |
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08-14-2012, 09:03 PM | #78 | |
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I only use Siri when I'm driving, so that I don't have to look down at the screen to type and take my eyes off the road. It works very well for that. |
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08-14-2012, 09:06 PM | #79 |
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Also interesting relating Apple...
Per their patent activity... Kinda cool... Why Apple Will Turn to Holograms Look around your office hallway or college campus and you’ll see people holding interactive panes of glass. Smartphones and tablets, so revolutionary a few years ago, are quickly becoming commodities. Apple (AAPL) is now locked in a fierce patent battle with Samsung over tablet designs—a sure sign that, whoever is right, touchscreens are converging into gadgets that look like everything else. So as Apple prepares to launch its next iPhone in September, with a slightly bigger screen, here is a prediction—Apple devices will soon project holograms like you’ve never seen. This is not mere speculation, but insight based on Apple’s patents, recent acquisitions, and the business imperative to do something to break free of the tablet clutter. In November 2010, Apple patented a three-dimensional display system that would “mimic a hologram” without requiring special glasses. The patent narrative is fascinating, noting that one current market gap in screen technology is the ability of a device to project stereoscopic 3D images to multiple viewers at the same time. Apple proposed an elegant solution: match a forward-facing camera/sensor that tracks the location of different viewers’ eyes, similar to how Microsoft’s (MSFT) Kinect monitors body movements or new digital cameras recognize human faces, with a screen that can send out beams of light at different angles. Voilà! Each eye of each viewer receives a different angle of the image, and suddenly Princess Leia would appear to beam out of R2-D2 and float in the air. I know what you’re thinking—3D screens have been around for a while, but consumers have not flocked to them. Overall, television sales are in a slump (LCD sales were down 3 percent worldwide in the first quarter after years of 20 percent growth), and consumers who recently upgraded to flat panels did not rush out to buy the 3D versions manufacturers dreamed would goose the market. Even 3D tech that doesn’t require glasses has not sold well; Nintendo (NTDOY) sales of its 3DS gaming device, which floats images without glasses, were so anemic in 2011 that it dropped the price from $250 to $170 just five months after launch. If 3D has been such a yawn, why would Apple get involved? There are three main reasons. Apple is the second-mover that makes failed first-mover ideas work. Apple lifted the idea for the mouse from Xerox, streamlined it, coated the rotating ball in rubber so it would be quiet on a desktop, and dropped the price. Apple launched its touchscreen iPhone and iPad years after Microsoft tried to go to market in 2002 with a pen-based Tablet PC. Apple redesigns technology to remove the rough edges, and consumerså respond in droves. Toshiba is now selling a 55-inch 3D television in Asia that doesn’t require glasses for viewing the effect. Do you think Apple will let such advances in screen technology pass it by? Second, Apple’s hologram technology will be different—and completely realistic. The Apple patent states, “Each viewer could be presented … with complete freedom of movement … without the need for special viewing goggles or headgear.” Read that as the hologram will remain realistic even if you and your friends move around the room, and you won’t look like a doofus watching it. The Apple patent also explains how the monitoring sensor would pick up and replicate ambient lighting in the room—creating, say, a projection of a business colleague floating at your conference table with light from the window gleaming in her hair. Finally, in perhaps its most unique trick, the Apple hologram system would detect who is watching, and be able to display different images to different people. The patent says “individual observers … can be uniquely identified based upon distinctive personal characteristics (e.g., height, shoulder width, distinctive outline, etc.),” allowing outbound beamed projections to be changed for each observer. This would enable everything from private holograms to personalized advertising. In business video calls, you could project yourself in a suit for the upper executives in the room and a more relaxed view of yourself in jeans for the younger tech hipsters. Apple must forge a new direction, because not only will its patent lawyers have difficulty claiming rights to all tablet designs, the touchscreen may soon be obsolete. Walt Disney (DIS), not known for being a gadget leader, recently announced its R&D division has developed “swept frequency capacitive sensing” that turns virtually any material into a touchscreen. Called Touché, the system would allow couches, doorknobs, clothing, and even water to sense your movement or finger swipes, making touchscreens irrelevant. If you can type on a tabletop, the need for a tablet may disappear. Beyond its 3D patent, Apple has acquired 3D modeling businesses such as C3 Technologies and Poly9, both known for building photorealistic images of the world. C3 Technologies, for instance, used declassified military technology and aerial photography to model any potential mountain, building, or home in three dimensions—reportedly accurate to within 6 inches. Apple’s upcoming map apps could be more interesting than you expect. Apple also has a monetary incentive to chase 3D: True screen differentiation would boost sales of all Apple products. Apple could finally break into the television market and own the living room; holography could unlock revenue streams from business communications, with Apple “reality projection” videoconferencing making Skype look like a telegraph. Apple has been rumored for years to be developing real TV sets, but needs a way to break into the saturated big-screen market. If its holography were to top Toshiba’s design, there surely would be interest. As tablets become commodities, it’s not hard to predict the design battle will move from hardware to the virtual visual realm. Even Sir Jonathan Ive can take glass panes only so far. I don’t know if an iPhone 5 will hold holograms, but eventually Apple will serve us 3D images—because while anyone can copy a glass tablet, not everyone can make the world float in your hand.
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08-14-2012, 10:12 PM | #80 | |
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should never have been replaced! btw.. no one is talking about USB as the actual BUS just using the USB connector (like MHL does) so your argument which was ridiculously wrong technically also fails on the fact that it simply doesn't apply. Oh and your USB info is woefully out of date.. the CURRENT standard is the 11-pin USB 3 micro.. as used by the Samsung Galaxy sIII and any newer phones. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...cro_B_plug.svg |
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08-14-2012, 10:24 PM | #81 | |
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USB3 micro is only 11 pins. That won't work.
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08-14-2012, 10:26 PM | #82 |
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Hey, who gives a shit, really? If you get a new device, you'll get the new connector. If you don't, you won't have to worry about it.
What's the big deal? Every phone is going out of date eventually. |
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08-14-2012, 10:31 PM | #83 | |
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micro USB 3 (as a connector) can do everything you need to get done... |
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08-14-2012, 10:38 PM | #84 |
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Apple is a shitty greedy company for using the same adapter for every single one of their mobile devices over a 9 year period of technology change. Providing nearly seamless driver free connectivity to an entire host of media interfaces throughout those 9 years. This is a terrible thing.
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08-14-2012, 10:47 PM | #85 | |
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I don't get reception through Sprint in my home, so it's rarely on here because it's worthless. I always connect to a wireless connection when available, although Wireless Detection is turned off. My wife has the same exact issue with her phone, as do most people I know that have the iPhone 4s. Any insight or advice would be welcome. |
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08-14-2012, 10:58 PM | #86 |
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08-14-2012, 11:00 PM | #87 | |
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If you have an Exchange account set up, it will try Push notification. If you don't have a consistent connection to your provider, that would probably be bad. You could test some things with turning off Data, or Push notification for e-mail, etc. But I'd bet it's the fact that your provider is spotty where you spend the most time out of the day. Also, do you overcharge the battery? Leaving it plugged in overnight, past the point that the battery is 100%? That can be really bad for the battery as well to leave it plugged in past full charge.
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08-14-2012, 11:06 PM | #88 | |
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I never complained about the original connector... one can argue that it was necessary because there wasn't anything else at the time .. one would be an idiot and wrong.. but that's not the topic. The topic is the CURRENT switch from a shitty proprietary connector to ANOTHER shitty proprietary connector... when they could just as easily adopt a standard. |
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08-14-2012, 11:07 PM | #89 | |
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The reason we have Sprint is because of the Family Discount Plan. Saving more than a $100 dollars a month over T-mobile sounded good in theory, until we actually used their service. Thanks for the input! |
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08-14-2012, 11:16 PM | #90 | |
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