51–60 of 128 posts
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It is a good innovation indeed. That being said, I'd rather deal with the minor annoyance of having to figure out which way to plug my USB cable than having to carry two sets of cables/adapters to accommodate all my devices.
On proper USB cables, it's always logo-side up, isn't it?
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To me, the biggest failing of micro-USB isn't the up/down thing, but its inability to back-power the same port that is being used as a host. That is, if I have a device with one port, I can't plug that device into a hub where it hosts devices and gets recharged at the same time. This is becoming an obvious flaw in the day of tablets-as-laptops - you can't make a "docking station" using a single USB port. Meanwhile, t…
Sure you can. USB has a dedicated pin for sending power down and it's been an integral part of the design since the start (USB 1.0). How do you think USB pen drives (et al) work when they have chips which need powering? Or USB "soundcards", wireless dongles, USB keyboards and mice? They all need powering and they all need powering while in operation. You might not be able to send higher charges while using data - I'v…
I believe there's a hack in the apple products that can be used to send more current through USB but it's not standard. I might be wrong though, it's been a while since I looked into that.
Also, it's the reason why certain devices (notably external hard drives alimented through USB) come with two USB connectors in a Y configuration to be able to leech enough current from the host. At least that's how I think it works.
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Exactly the same experience here, except that I never had a mini-USB failure. After roughly 6 months of use, the USB receptacle of my LG smartphone was just not holding on to any cable anymore. I sent it back to LG, and they replaced the part containing the mirco-USB port. On an unrelated note: LG noticed that I was running a custom ROM but didn't make any problem of it, while technically they can claim that such an…
Actually, if you're in the US the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act covers you in the case of customizations [1]. Under this law, manufacturers are only able to claim your warranty as void if the modifications are what caused your warranty claim. I doubt they would be able to claim that your custom ROM caused your hardware failure on the USB port, so legally they had to fix it. More info on this FTC law [2]. [1] http://www.…
Take a look at Apple's warranty: they claim to provide only 1 year of warranty, while European law requires them to provide two years. They will repair your device in the second year (it's the law!). However, I bet their confusing labeling etc. will cause a lot of people to believe their warranty has expired. Those people will either not ask for a free repair or pay their shop to repair the device.
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USB 3.0's highest speed (termed "SuperSpeed" to easily separate it from the previous, equally clearly labelled, speed grades "LowSpeed", "FullSpeed" and "HighSpeed") requires more pins than USB 2.0 speeds, so the connectors are different. Here's a link, picture of USB 3.0 micro plug on the right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#Cable_plugs_.28USB_3.0.29 .
If USB 4.0 doesn't come labeled as "LudicrousSpeed" I will be severely disappointed. EDIT: For those who don't get the reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygE01sOhzz0
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Lightning has one specific feature that allows it to easily be bidirectional. The pinout can be changed via software, to adapt to any occasion, and essentially manufacture a new plug with a firmware update. This means orientation doesn't matter (without duplicating pins). This is a bit harder with USB, which has specific purposes for each pin.
It's not that hard to simply swap all the pins in hardware if the connector is reversed. You don't need to able to reassign every single pin to make that possible. Lightning is overdesigned which makes it expensive.
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But it's yet another proprietary connector. We've really had enough of those.
Yes, let's just limit ourselves to standardized connectors, innovations sucks and we are tired of change. Now please get off my lawn. /sarcasm Just let the free market decide things like this, it is extremely efficient at that. Right now, Apple still sells loads of iPhones without using a standard connector. And frankly, I think my wife's iPhone 5 plugs in a much better way than my more standard Nokia 925 does.
For example, consider the 51,000 tonnes of redundant chargers that were estimated by the GSMA to have been distributed in 2008 prior to the common charger initiative[1]. One can argue that the costs of landfill, carbon impact (est 13-22 million tonnes/yr), pollution effects etc. should be priced into the product, but the reality is that they are not.
I have no view on the iPhone connector vs uUSB, but standardization has enormous benefits for consumers and society as a whole, and typically it takes an external agency to "encourage" it.
[1] GSMA analysis from UNEP, Gartner, European Commission Integrated Product Policy Pilot on Mobile Phones, University of Southern Queensland data.
I only ever had one mini USB cord go bad, and that was a minor pain. But I have had the micro USB port on a cell phone become unreliable, which is insanely frustrating. The post holding the contacts no longer wants to push them against the cord, so it frequently loses the connection. I can solve the problem temporarily by pushing the post back with a small screw driver, but "temporarily" here is measured in minutes o…
All my phones since have had Micro-USB and I haven't had any issues.
Though it really feels like Micro-USB is flimsier, it doesn't seem to be that way in practice.
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Apple's port, which doesn't have an up/down direction, is much easier to plug in than the micro USB port, which does. It is an innovation, like it or not, that USB doesn't have.
It is a good innovation indeed. That being said, I'd rather deal with the minor annoyance of having to figure out which way to plug my USB cable than having to carry two sets of cables/adapters to accommodate all my devices.
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You could say that the previous iPod dock connector was over-designed. But it wasn't, because it survived many years and many devices, with only a handful in between (like some iPod nanos) not being amenable to it years after its creation. We do not yet know what fate awaits Lightning. The odds are certainly tilted against it. Not only is Android popular and universally using Micro-USB (unlike when the first iPhone c…
The iPod dock connector is actually an industry standard that Apple happened to use. They didn't create it.
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The iPod dock connector is actually an industry standard that Apple happened to use. They didn't create it.
Really? Could you provide a source for this? I was under the impression that the 30-pin connector was (yet another) proprietary Apple hardware standard.