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A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

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Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#291

Post by jlengrand »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #205
jlengrand wrote: post #126

It's funny, because I bought my first apple watch last month. The website mentioned -> sustainability efforts, no cable. Ok, I bought a cable and a watch. Sat with my useless cable home for 4 days. Cable delivered after 3 days, watch after 5 weeks. Watch came with a cable. No matter how happy I am with my watch, I really feel like they were making fun of me. . .

I was puzzling over how you could have been misled — I am really, really positive they’ve never advertised "no cable" with the watches — and realized that you probably read "no charger." Is the puck a cable, dongle, or charger? I suppose all those labels make sense. But anyway — yeah, power bricks are common and Apple doesn't ship them by default anymore; Watch pucks are niche and it would be pretty dumb for Apple to…

Hey, thanks for your comment.

Thanks to you I now understand where the confusion comes from, and that's exactly what you wrote.

From their website "As part of our efforts to reach our environmental goals, Apple Watch does not include a power adapter. Please use your existing Apple power adapter or add a new one before you check out."

Being French, I read that as "does not include a charger" indeed. Reading you I now realize that means only the power adapter, and not the cable.

I think it mostly comes down to me not being a Native English speaker I guess.

Oh well, I'll know it for next time.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#292

Post by errantspark »

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.

At the end of the day all electronics are just space heaters with interesting side effects. It's getting cold and I'm using my GPU to heat my living space, it just happens to emit computation as well. Gotta keep gaming to capture the excess value!

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#293

Post by sambe »

908B64B197 wrote: post #7

Had they not recently changed the charging options (shipping USB-C cables and MagSafe) and stuck with the classical Lightning to USB-A scheme I would have been fine with Apple not bundling the cables and chargers in the box. Because most folks have them in excess and these don't ever die. But since they changed the charging options, it really feels like a cost cutting measure they are trying really hard to spin as an…

The cables die all the time! (depending on how much exposed innards you are comfortable with). They last longer when other family members are not using them but even my exclusive, careful use of one that only sits by my bed has pulled itself apart.

The article is a bit of a strawman but I think it's inexcusable to be charging nearly twice the price of the charger for a 2m cable that disintegrates after a year or two. Especially when - as you say - they've changed the one in the box backwards-incompatibly (and it's 1m too).

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#294

Post by apetrovic »

Can we just say that the new iPhone 12 is $850, $830 if you don't want the charger, and finish with this nonsense?

The amount of drama around $20 charger from people able & willing to pay premium product is astounding.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#295

Post by funnybeam »

jiggawatts wrote: post #289
funnybeam wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because the waste is small doesn’t mean it is insignificant when you consider how many phones there are. A quick search indicates there are 3.5 billion smart phones in the world, assuming these are all wirelessly charged and wasting 1kWh per year that gets you 3.5TWh which is more than the annual consumption of many countries I had a similar discussion with a friend recently about all the cars driving around wit…

Those lights are on for a reason . They're called Daytime Running Lights, and are mandated by law in most countries because they reduce accident rates by as much as 20% for a negligible cost. If you think running some LEDs are expensive, you don't want to know what a serious accident costs society. The type that totals two cars and puts multiple people in hospital. I have a car that pre-dates DRLs, and I always drive…

Thanks for educating me - I was unaware of that and have changed my opinion.

For anyone else thinking like I was, this is the evidence from the UK government site [1]:

Research has shown that DRLs are likely to reduce multiple vehicle daytime accidents and fatalities by up to 6% once all vehicles are equipped. DRL are likely to result in a small increase in fuel consumption and CO² emissions of around 0.5% but this is expected to be lower when LEDs are used in place of filament light sources.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/daytime-running-l...

Doesn't apply to wireless phone charging though, so I'm standing by that comment until someone disabuses me of that too..

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#296

Post by JumpCrisscross »

ashtonkem wrote: post #285
luma wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same is true of watches and nobody is calling for an act of congress about it. If you want something to be waterproof and small and lightweight, you are probably going to trade off some service accessibility. They haven't gone out of their way to make replacing batteries difficult, but it is more difficult than it used to be before phones were waterproof and tightly packaged.

Watches are a luxury product, and their environmental impact is effectively 0. The same can’t be said of smart phones anymore.

> The same can’t be said of smart phones anymore

It can be said about iPhones. I like having a thin, light and watertight phone. If the cost of that is limited avenues for servicing, that’s a tradeoff I am fine with.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#297

Post by 4ggr0 »

errantspark wrote: post #292
ashtonkem wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

At the end of the day all electronics are just space heaters with interesting side effects. It's getting cold and I'm using my GPU to heat my living space, it just happens to emit computation as well. Gotta keep gaming to capture the excess value!

The new solution to every problem on our planet: GAMING!

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#298

Post by PeterStuer »

croddin wrote: post #224
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)…

I think there is a good chance MagSafe chargers will last significantly longer. Lightning cables seem to eventually get damaged on the connector or with the cable bending if it is being used while charging. If wireless MagSafe uses more electricity it will be worth it if offsets enough need to replace broken cables and the energy used in producing those.

They get damaged by design. The weakness is there on purpose.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#299

Post by petre »

blackguardx wrote: post #214
petre wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USB-C is great but the Lightning connector is still better designed. Oh and you can downvote me all you want, I'm an electrical engineer, not an Apple fanboy. Don't like the phone. Anyway, they should at least include a cable.

I disagree and think the USB-C connector is better designed. Exposing electrical contacts to the environment like on the Lightning connector is bad for several reasons, including increased risk of static electricity damage and wear on the exposed electrical contacts. Apple has gone to great lengths to reduce or eliminate the static electricity risk by integrating a special IC into the cable. The contact wear issue ha…

The lightning connector shield pin 9 also surronds the rest of the contacts in a horizontal plane and is connected to the USB type A connector ground. It's not a signal ground but rather interconnects both devices cases through the shield. Regarding the contact wear issue, I'd much rather have my cable connector contacts wear off than the female connector contacts on the device. The cable is a less expensive replaceable part. So the mechanical and electrical design of the connector is sound.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#300

Post by capzulu »

Nbox9 wrote: post #265
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.

Lightning port is there for legacy reasons. It use to be much better than the USB options. Now USB-C is good enough, and when they kill the lightning port a billions of cables will become useless in just a handful of years. I’d honestly prefer to see the wired charging port go away completely. Wireless charging is cheap and good.

They did the same with the wired headphones. Removing the jack instantly killed thousands of wired headphones.
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