Steve Jobs: Resurrection (iPhone 5 Parody)

[T-Bag]

Would have been a good time to go for a micro USB port. Then people would have been able to use any charger or cable with it...oh wait that's exactly why they didn't.

Now would be the perfect time for phone manufacturers to get pushing standards for accessories. With a lot of phones supporting NFC and wireless charging I hope that before too long there will be stereos in cars and homes which you swipe your phone past and can play your songs. If you place it on a mat it will charge too (very useful for in a car). The beauty of Apple products around when the iPhone first launched was its dock connector, the mentality of phone users was that a phone has to regularly be plugged into a computer so people were treating the phone like a smart iPod their phone was "compatible" with their car. "Look what I can plug this into" is becoming a thing of the past.

My photos sync with dropbox and google+ and I can play things on my TV with my phone over wifi, I sync my contacts on google so I don't need to do a PC backup of my phone. I imagine if I looked into it I could transfer songs to my phone without plugging it in too. When I plug in my phone it's only really to charge it. If I had an infinite battery I don't think my phone and PC would ever need to meet, the cable connector is irrelevant. Having said that micro usb is great because everyone has one and they cost about £1 from China to get replacements so I have one permanently packed for when I go away, but if I didn't I'm sure I'd be able to charge my phone anyway.

A phone has become a standalone, cloud dependent device, the concept of manual syncing is archaic (in phone terms) all that is needed is a couple of universal devices (stereos/TVs and chargers) and the days of wires are over. Can't say I'll miss them. The problem is Apple have always tended to cripple its bluetooth and wifi to prevent the sort of tethering needed to ditch wires. As long as there is no consensus with android phones about standards for accessories, and apple remains popular whilst it cripples it's wireless these accessories aren't going to have and easy time getting to market except for uber nerds (think Nexus Q).

[TeaLeaf]

keep driving the industry forward.

...that's the bit I like.    As long as we see improvement, we keep happy, whoever makes the phone.

[Penfold]

Is it cold on that soapbox y'all?

OK keep calm you Apple haters, let's put a bit of perspective into it. Apple have done more to drive the industry forward than anyone else. It may well cease to be the case but I think everyone who loves a bit of technology would be churlish not to give credit to Apple for starting it.

I'm sure others will take over the mantle but bashing Apple, and their users, for the hell of it is pretty puerile.

[Tutonic]

Is it cold on that soapbox y'all?

OK keep calm you Apple haters, let's put a bit of perspective into it. Apple have done more to drive the industry forward than anyone else. It may well cease to be the case but I think everyone who loves a bit of technology would be churlish not to give credit to Apple for starting it.

I'm sure others will take over the mantle but bashing Apple, and their users, for the hell of it is pretty puerile.

I was bashing Apple for cynically fleecing their customer base. Having proprietary connectors on the iPhone is bad for everyone, not just Apple fans.

[Penfold]

Wasn't actually directed at you in particular mate.

Anyway, I agree. Changing the dock connector is just plain wrong. I'm sure someone will come up with a inter-connector to let the new phone accept old style docking stations but things like Bose Soundocks are £100's of pounds. It's the main deal-breaker for me. We just have too much in the way of external docks, chargers, car kits etc etc to start again.

Personally I think there should be a universal standard on these things whether it's Apple or Android or whatever.

[TE_owner]

As part of our school our Year (year 10) get Ipad 2's next month... Yeah I can see how it all pans out, X pushes Y Y falls over and has to pay £500 to replace the Ipad in their bag...

Good idea but in my eyes the Ipad is a bit of a toy tbh

It's a bit like giving a child a priceless ming vase and telling them not to drop it

[Tutonic]

Personally I think there should be a universal standard on these things whether it's Apple or Android or whatever.

The agreed standard is micro-usb, and has been for some time now: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/eu-adopts-microusb-cell-phone-charger-standard/

Guess who doesn't use it?

[T-Bag]

The agreed standard is micro-usb, and has been for some time now: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/eu-adopts-microusb-cell-phone-charger-standard/

Guess who doesn't use it?

Is it just me who finds it funny that the picture on that website is of mini-USB rather than micro?

By law when sold in Europe all phone have to be compatible with the micro-USB charging standard. That is why Apple supplies a Mirco-USB to iPhone connector with their phones, I think all others just use a micro-USB port on the device itself

But as I said with my previous post, as great as it is having a standard connector which just like the old Nokia days you could charge anywhere, although I doubt there is much like left in it for mobile phones with a couple of big players starting pushing wireless charging. I just hope they all use the same standard, otherwise they'll be expensive slow to take off and a backwards step over a unified cable.

As for your existing products Penfold Apple are releasing an adapter between the old dock and new lightning connector. It's either £25 or £35 depending on the model (I'd imagine one will be included with the phone). It will work for SOME products, my understanding is anything like a car or expensive which reads the iPhone itself (letting you browse the songs on the device) will work, but some cheaper stereos which just output the audio the iPhone is playing (ones where you control the song directly on the iPhone or iPod) will not work. Some of the pins on the old connector were dedicated to outputting audio and they're not present in the new connector.