World’s first USB-C iPhone sells on eBay for $86,001(theverge.com) |
World’s first USB-C iPhone sells on eBay for $86,001(theverge.com) |
I've been a few times recently, whereas in the past my counter opinions would have kicked off interesting debate.
As for USB-C I’ve got lightning everything still which was around before USB-C when mini USB was crap. Suppose I’ll have to throw all that in the WEEE bin…
A lot of common use cases are all but impossible with no port. Think, charging on a red eye flight. Using a power bank for a long hike/camping. Quick charge in the morning when you forgot to charge the previous night, etc.
Wireless just doesn't have the speed nor efficiency to compete. Even if speed is solved, I can't imagine how big a power bank would need to be to compete given the efficiency of wireless charging.
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/jetblue-mint-suite-business...
https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-qatar-airways-busines...
https://www.astronics.com/aircraft-in-seat-power/wireless-ch...
A matter of time before this becomes super common. It's a low-cost perk that provides a service previously not available: a free charger while on the plane. And in the meanwhile, see below.
> Using a power bank for a long hike/camping.
Plenty of power banks with wireless chargers. I use Anker's own myself, works well. Also can be used as a regular charging pod when simultaneously connected to a power source.
> Quick charge in the morning when you forgot to charge the previous night, etc.
Fast wireless charging is already a thing. Besides, if you drive, you can charge it while driving, too.
The minute public space, business offices, car and regular furniture with wireless chargers built-in become common, it will be a non-issue all of the sudden.
However, I reckon it's still a matter of 5 more years, and doubt Apple can hold-off having to switch iPhone to USB-C until then.
Wireless data rates (eg- Wifi6) currently exceed wired by a good margin. The only barriers to fully utilizing that are vendor-manufactured and can be solved with both custom firmware and more open app stores.
Out of curiosity, is it harder to charge on early morning flights?
> In my tests, I found that wireless charging used, on average, around 47% more power than a cable.
[0]: https://debugger.medium.com/wireless-charging-is-a-disaster-...
Current iPhones are already rated for IP68 water resistance (6 meters depth for 30 minutes), and “fully sealed” would probably require removing the microphone and speakers, so I don’t really buy that argument.
Not if you want to transfer a lot of data. Say for example, 4K ProRes video.
The new MagSafe charging breaking comparability with existing items in practice due to making alignment harder is such a cynical moneygrab.
"Lightning operates at the USB 2.0 speed of 480mbps, whilst USB-C works at 5gbps. Not only this, but USB-C is now used by a wide variety of devices, making charging much easier and more convenient."
If Apple gets rid of lightning they lose their durability advantage vs competitors by using a poorly designed connector.
Especially when currently Apple uses USB-C for their entire lineup with exception of iPhones and iPad 9th gen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqtNleXhTRE
This isn't the first time I've heard someone suggest Lightning is more durable than USB-C, but I've not seen evidence of it.
My device have a pretty hard life. I carry them around a lot, do a fair amount of travel, and am fairly clumsy, so pretty much everything ends up falling once in a while. Sometimes considerably more than that.
I'm typing this on a laptop I bought 3 years ago. The bottom cover is bent, the fans are making a grinding noise, and both upper corners of the screen have been dented to the point of damaging the LCD on both corners. It's just had a few too many awkard falls and is about at the point where I think fixing it isn't going to be worthwhile.
All USB C ports are still in perfect working order, though, despite a few falls from a desk with cables plugged in.
I've not had issues with any other USB C devices either. Yeah, I'm sure it can be broken if you try really hard, but it does seem to take a far amount of effort. The port seems very solidly built and I think damaging the cable is more likely.
This is a Hackernews meme until some solid real-world evidence is provided. Not edge cases.
Fully agree to this.
I don't but I think it has the potential to be framed that way. If your phone was seized by law enforcement looking to extract your personal data, I imagine "plugging it in" will be the first thing they try.
In contrast, I've got years-old Lightning devices and the cables still hold strongly in the connector.
A quick search says 75%, which still seems quite wasteful.
> Out of curiosity, is it harder to charge on early morning flights?
Good point. I guess I just meant that everyone packed in tight using wireless chargers seemed more cumbersome than a simple lightning cable, but perhaps that view isn't reasonable. I've never tried it.
https://www.appledystopia.com/reviews/usb-c-vs-lightning-pag...
"With Lightning, the connecting tabs are on the cable itself. USB-C has connecting tabs on the port."
This reddit comment thread describes a flaw where the USB-C device-end becomes clogged with dust, sometimes possible to clean out with a toothpick:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/9wdylm/usb_c_p...
This is a reddit post where people are complaining about lightning cables failing:
https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/5cjvlf/durability_o...
If you were buying a device, would you rather the port on your device wear out, or the cable that connects to it?
Maybe in lab tests and based on theoretical data rates from datasheets. In practice they don't; most people are in a noisy environment and use shitty consumer-grade equipment. Even if you wanted to pay to make it work, finding good equipment is not easy and often involves trial and error until you find a product that's good enough.
In contrast, even the cheapest Ethernet cable will pretty much always work, and when it doesn't it's very obvious where as Wi-Fi has so much potential for "kinda working" where it looks like it works on most speedtests (because TCP corrects for packet loss) but completely craps out on a real-time application such as a video call (where you can't conceal packet loss).
And you may be right for certain contexts, but ubiquity counts for a lot.
"Gosh this bus is making a lot of stops, let me just whip out this USB-C/Lightning to Ethernet adapter and plug into my battery powered switch to access this content on my Raspi file sever" is something I've only said a few times, followed by "why didn't I make this thing ad hoc?" or "why'd I make this service internal only again?".
I do however have Wifi6 APs at home and get better than USB HiSpeed data rates from my 10GbE network. The whole network cost around $500, which is probably near what people spend on replacing crappier all-in-one consumer gear over a similar lifecycle. It seems unrealistic that anyone would be required to spend remotely close to that much to make a reliable video call, though.
The idea that a magsafe charger is an end all for frequent travelers makes zero sense.
Imagine a car without draining holes underneath.
> and they have bad efficiency (which effects fuel usage).
Compared to the amount of energy jet engine consumes each second, a loss on wirelessly charging ~100 phones is really just a joke in comparison: 2500mAh * 3.7 volt * 100 = 925Wh. With, conservatively, 60% efficiency of wireless Qi chargers, that's a 370Wh loss. Not even half a kilowatt-hour.
A 787 plane uses 7000 liters of jet fuel, for a total of 490,000 KWh during a 7 hour flight. (https://www.quora.com/How-many-kilowatt-hours-of-energy-does...)
So charging those phones wirelessly increases the amount of fuel consumed by 0.37/490.000 = 0.00007551020408%
If 1 liter of jet fuel currently costs $0.611, that's $0.61170000.000075551=$0.32 cents.
32 US cents. That's the cost of the increased fuel usage.
Given that some planes already have inverters to provide power for many types of devices, including phones, it does not make sense, from a weight perspective, to add another type of charging that can only be used by phones. It would be redundant. The power loss from wireless charging itself is just an aside.