(Presumably) Apple engineer comment on Lightning AV adapter design • Hacker News Board

Re: (Presumably) Apple engineer comment on Lightning AV adapter design

#171

Post by JimmaDaRustla » Mon, Mar 04, 2013, 3:19 PM UTC

Cushman wrote: post #166

rossjudson wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are easily baffled, then. Apple doesn't just change the connector design. It also performs authentication/identification/verification on the objects it is connecting to. If you're Apple and you want to make lots of money from your very popular products, one of the ways you can do that is to make them incompatible with the competitive markets for standardized accessories. You can come up with your own connectors,…

If I'm Apple, I don't need to come up with some kind of trick to make lots of money. I just need to keep releasing best-in-class hardware at competitive prices by leaving out expensive features 99% of my customers will never want. I love my iPhone 5, not because of patents or lawsuits, but because it's really, really well built. I definitely couldn't have gotten it cheaper from anyone else. How many overpriced access…

My GFs iPhone 5 bent like an aluminum pop can...and it is the most expensive phone on the market!? I'm confused...

Re: (Presumably) Apple engineer comment on Lightning AV adapter design

#172

Post by nitrogen » Mon, Mar 04, 2013, 8:15 PM UTC

zyb09 wrote: post #141

rossjudson wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're saying is true from an engineering standpoint (serial vs parallel), but has to be placed in the customer's context. In this specific case the quality is bad, operation is unreliable, and the price is high. Consumer devices accept HDMI as input. Serial to parallel video (Lightning to HDMI) is tough without some heavy-duty hardware -- hence the exorbitant cost of these adapters. The SoC design introduces a…

After thinking a little bit about it, I think this approach does make some sense and allows for more flexibility in the future. Keep in mind Lightning was likely designed to last well over a decade and will be used in many different devices. Now since the adapter is a SoC and it's OS is booted from the device, what that means is, every device has essentially full control over how it wants to output HDMI, without havi…

No amount of software can increase the bandwidth of a fixed-rate serial transceiver.

Re: (Presumably) Apple engineer comment on Lightning AV adapter design

#173

Post by woobar » Mon, Mar 04, 2013, 9:59 PM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #144

jws wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate reversibility once per day. In 2074 days of owning an iPhone and 1065 days of owning an iPad I have never used or wanted an HDMI output. I'd say they made the right tradeoff.

I agree. I don't even have a device with the connector (yet?), but it seems like a major advantage. Who are all these people popping out of the woodwork wanting a wired connection from their phone to their TV? I'm sure some people do this sometimes, but so many? Why would you even do that? Perhaps this is uncharitable, but it makes me think that most of the people complaining here have never done it, never will, prob…

I have dock to HDMI adapter. I use it in hotels to watch movies on big screen TV. Beats the crap on cable TV every time.

Re: (Presumably) Apple engineer comment on Lightning AV adapter design

#174

Post by mikeash » Mon, Mar 04, 2013, 11:43 PM UTC

woobar wrote: post #173

mikeash wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I don't even have a device with the connector (yet?), but it seems like a major advantage. Who are all these people popping out of the woodwork wanting a wired connection from their phone to their TV? I'm sure some people do this sometimes, but so many? Why would you even do that? Perhaps this is uncharitable, but it makes me think that most of the people complaining here have never done it, never will, prob…

I have dock to HDMI adapter. I use it in hotels to watch movies on big screen TV. Beats the crap on cable TV every time.

Thanks, that's the first use case that I could actually see using myself. Don't think it's quite enough to get me to go buy a cable, but I can see it being handy for that.

Re: (Presumably) Apple engineer comment on Lightning AV adapter design

#175

Post by teamonkey » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 2:33 AM UTC

Cushman wrote: post #136

teamonkey wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since when did Apple care about not having to replace your iPhone?

Apple still sells millions of iPhone 4(S)s every month. I'd say they care about it to the tune of a few billion dollars.

The 4S is what, 18 months old?