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A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

birchtree.me

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Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#311

Post by SifJar »

acqq wrote: post #226
ashtonkem wrote: post #143

I really hate arguments about how much electricity wireless phone charging wastes because it makes people feel like they’re doing something when in fact they aren’t. Charging a cell phone every day for a year consumes about 1-2 kWh per phone. The average American household consumes 10,399 kWh per year, meaning that a typical smart phone consumes one 5000th, (0.02%) of a typical home’s electricity (excl. natural gas)…

> With wireless charging being 60-75% efficient, the literal worst case scenario is that you go from 2kWh to 3kWh. Maybe the difference isn’t so low as you estimate it? Maybe the wired chargers use much less power when the phone is not being charged, compared to the wireless chargers? Then the difference could be approximately 0 (as your phone is charged only a few hours per day) to approximately N kWh (due to a cons…

In principle, wireless chargers can have very low power use when idle; I've seen figures quoted as 0.1mW i.e. over the course of a year 0.876Wh (so ~0.0009 kWh). Of course, this will likely vary based on the specific charger in use. I don't think this is substantially different to the idle draw of a wired charger.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#312

Post by sneak »

rushils wrote: post #242

If Apple was truly out to help the environment, they would kill the lightning port altogether. Simplifying their product line to USB-C and aligning with the cables that the rest of the industry uses would actually contribute to helping the environment.

I assume they intend to eventually, and have had to preserve it for this and the last 1-2 iPhone revs due to contractual obligations.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#313

Post by Schiendelman »

jen20 wrote: post #166
jbombadil wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My concern with them removing the port is what what would happen to everyone whose car's entertainment unit supports CarPlay but not wireless CarPlay?

Does anyone other than BMW have wireless CarPlay?

I think new Fords do. We’re right at the tipping point.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#315

Post by judge2020 »

joshl325 wrote: post #196
fastball wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The theory I've heard is that they're planning to remove the charge port entirely in the iPhone 13, and therefore it would be a massive engineering waste to make only a single generation of phones with USB-C. But yeah, I really wanted USB-C. Bought the phone anyway though.

I can see that happen. Which will suck if you use your phones for camping trips or vacation where you need to charge on the fly. Maybe in a few years wireless charging will be efficient enough that you don't have to bring a larger power bank to compensate for power loss.

If it weren’t for the issue of charging at 15w without Apple’s own usb-c base, I’d say that it already is sufficient for charging on the go.

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/jiul9p/magsafe_charg...

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#316

Post by alleskleber »

ashtonkem wrote: post #202
californical wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2-3kWh seemed impossibly low to me, so I checked, and yup, that’s amazing. A phone battery at 5V and 2500mAh (probably about the average) is approximately 12.5Wh of energy storage. Even if you used the entire battery every day, we’re talking 4kW per year, costing ~60¢ in the US. Your phone battery could only power a standard 60W incandescent lightbulb for 12 minutes, but powers your phone for hours. That’s amazing!

Incandescent light bulbs should really be understood as space heaters that happen to emit light.

I remember there was an attempt to get around the EU ban of incandescent bulbs by selling them as space heaters that conveniently happened fit into lamp sockets.

https://web.archive.org/web/20180326040930/http://heatball.d...

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#317

Post by Schiendelman »

alistairSH wrote: post #112
notJim wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you may be an outlier in owning only one lightning cable. I just looked in my desk drawer and counted 5, and I can think of 3 more in other areas of my house and car.

I own more than 1, but they all get used regularly. There's one on my nightstand, one in my car, and one in the office. I can swap them around, but that doesn't solve the problem - at the time I'm ready to buy a new phone, one of them is worn out.

Have you considered wireless charging? It seems like you’d save money over buying more cables, in the long run.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#318

Post by judge2020 »

rushils wrote: post #242

If Apple was truly out to help the environment, they would kill the lightning port altogether. Simplifying their product line to USB-C and aligning with the cables that the rest of the industry uses would actually contribute to helping the environment.

Don’t worry, 1-2 years and they’ll remove the port, meaning you (and the billion+ other people that will eventually get a new one) must use/buy a Qi charger (or MagSafe which really is Qi anyways).

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#319

Post by IkmoIkmo »

jbverschoor wrote: post #150
RandallBrown wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing a big part of it is the MASSIVE accessory ecosystem that's built around the iPhone. People have docks, cases, chargers, cables, etc. that all work with Lightning. I think also that USB-C is a more complicated protocol. Not all USB-C cables and ports are created equal and it could be a massive headache for them to deal with all the incompatibilities that might arise.

They dropped the 30pin connector, which had a lot more accessories. Same for the jack.

Plus they dropped it for the lightning which didn't have as many accessories back then, compared to the myriad of usb c accessories available today.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#320

Post by kalleboo »

Polylactic_acid wrote: post #264
josephg wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with this. I bought an iphone 12 this year because my iphone 6s+ is 5 years old at this point, and I wanted to spoil myself. My new phone feels basically identical to my old phone, and despite 5 years of innovation I think it was a waste of money. Most of the improvements in iphones in the last 5 years has been in software, and the 6s (for now) still gets all the updates anyway. There's some differences - low…

I think phones have largely become good enough for a while now. Apple is selling less phones every year because people are holding on to them for longer. The strategy now seems to be getting users to get all the accessories / ipad as well as a phone.

The strategy right now is quite explicitly to get people signed up for recurring subscriptions to services (apple music, TV+, arcade, etc. Even applecare is now a subscription)
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