A Guy Walks into an Apple Store • Hacker News Board

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#351

Post by ksec » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 3:00 PM UTC

kenny11 wrote: post #238

dbspin wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USB-C depending on implementation has enormously greater throughput (USB 3.1 gen 2 is 10Gbps) than lightning (480Mbps/60MBps). This might not be relevant for your needs, but increasingly Apple are marketing the iPhone as a 'pro' device, specifically for media creation. And it is finding a home in videography and event photography and streaming for example (I work in this area). Given this, the speed available through…

The lightning port does support USB 3 speeds, the old iPad Pro (pre-USB C) models supported USB 3 over the lightning connector and Apple even released some adapters that took advantage of the speed: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MK0W2AM/A/lightning-to-us... But for some reason Apple has never brought this support to the iPhone's lightning port.

The Controller, both in power consumption and size requires for those USB 3 Speed never quite fit into iPhone requirement. ( You can check out the size of USB 3 Speed lightning controller on that iPad, if my memory serves me correct it was 4x the size of similar controller for iPhone ) In 2020 this may no longer be the case, but then there is the BOM cost issue. Why pay more for this feature when you can do it wirelessly? WiFi 6, and in the future 802.11ay using mmWave provide 1Gbps to 10Gbps real world wireless transfer speed.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#352

Post by LeonenTheDK » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 3:02 PM UTC

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.

If they killed the port entirely, wouldn't everyone then be buying wireless chargers? Or is a "one time" purchase of a wireless charger for everyone better in the long term than one type of cable everywhere constantly being produced?

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#353

Post by ogre_codes » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 3:06 PM UTC

naosouumapessoa wrote: post #174

ogre_codes wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can plug the new iPhone cable into the MacBook Pro charger as well. Or into any of the ports in your MacBook for that matter.

You missed the point. He only need to take one cable with him to charge his pixel and MacBook (not at the same time) you’re suggesting him to take two cables. I will take the first option as I hate having to remember of multiple cables.

Battery life is good enough now I almost never carry cables around with me. I know not long ago this wasn't the case, but I haven't run out of power on my phone in several years.

I'm really not seeing it, maybe you travel more than I do? Definitely not an issue many will have in COVID times.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#354

Post by radimm » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 3:23 PM UTC

mynameisvlad wrote: post #105

paxys wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While people do have a million chargers lying around from over the years, almost none of them will work with the new iPhone. The average Apple enthusiast will still end up buying one or more separately.

What? Any charger outputting to a Lightning cable still works. It's just not the optimal/fastest experience.

Sure. They are just fine. We just have too many of them. Everybody uses either RAVPower adapter or iPad chargers.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

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Post by tarsinge » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 3:36 PM UTC

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!

Maybe add some mass for inertia with a cast iron case so that it’ll continue to heat even after being turned off.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#356

Post by luma » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 4:06 PM UTC

Hamuko wrote: post #308

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.

> The same is true of watches Sure, it requires special tools, but isn't a battery change on a quartz watch pretty easy? I think the going price for a battery change is like 10€. There can't be that much hard work involved with pricing like that.

I would respond that replacing a battery on a modern iPhone is similarly easy. The tools are plastic, cheap, and as others have noted, are often bundled with the battery. The only price delta here is the cost of the battery itself.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#357

Post by mrexroad » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 4:14 PM UTC

nicbou wrote: post #277

pfranz wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know people have ragged on non-removable batteries for a decade now--and I'm not saying there shouldn't be any phones with that option--but it was terrible in practice. I've tried juggling batteries and it was super annoying. Sure, on a plane you could swap your dead battery for a new one (after turning off your phone). At the end of the day you have two dead batteries and have to charge one, then swap. Most phones…

The goal is not to swap them out during the day (that's why we have power banks I'd say), but to replace a battery when it can't hold a charge. Think of it like buying shoelaces for old boots, instead of replacing them. My phone is fine, but the battery is slowly becoming too weak for my needs. I don't want a new phone, just a new battery.

Getting old boots resoled is probably a more apt analogy here. Soles wear down, take them to a cobbler—good as new. I’ve got dress shoes older than my teenager and they still look fantastic. My current daily wear boots are 5+ years old and have had new soles a few times. Sadly there’s too few good cobblers left.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#358

Post by chrisseaton » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 4:18 PM UTC

fiblye wrote: post #336

chrisseaton wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's expected that everyone has a charger these days. If you do not, you can buy one for a few dollars. It's more like selling a kettle without water. It's expected most reasonable people will have their own water supply.

It's more like selling an electric kettle without a charger. People are already expecting to pay for water to fill a kettle, just like they pay for electricity to fill the battery. First time buyers of iPhones aren't unreasonable. Being unreasonable is saying a trillion dollar company is fine to charge more for less.

If you're genuinely a first-time buyer and have no other electronics... then just buy a charger. They cost a few dollars. What's the problem? We need to reduce waste.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#359

Post by bigbubba » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 4:36 PM UTC

Talanes wrote: post #251

bigbubba wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you can just get a sweatter and let the house get cold. So long as the pipes don't freeze, a furnace can easily be run less without a substantial reduction in comfort. On the other hand when it's hot, there is only so nude you can get.

Humans evolved to handle heat, we created tools to handle cold.

Unfortunately our secret weapon for handling heat has a weakness: humidity.

Sweating just not good enough for me, even when it's dry. I can cope with it, it's not like being hot would kill me (within reason and if I stay hydrated), but it has a serious impact on my performance. When it's hot my brain gets foggy and my thoughts slow. Maybe I could still operate at a caveman level of performance in that sort of weather, but I couldn't do my job.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#360

Post by Naracion » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 4:42 PM UTC

hyperdimension wrote: post #301

cable2600 wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No more EZBake ovens or Toy popcorn makers that use inky bulbs.

>EZBake ovens Yeah, 'kids these days' just get nichrome wire instead of a good old light bulb. :) There was an article I read a while back (can't find it at the moment) that involved someone modifying a 'modern' EZ-Bake oven to be powered off a USB-C PD charger. The future we live in!

It's from Reclaimer Labs: https://www.reclaimerlabs.com/blog/2017/3/14/usb-c-easy-bake...