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@peter: most of these arguments are also addressed in my follow-up post, which you may not have seen yet. If you, or any other commenter, wish to continue the topic there, please feel free to do so; I have closed further comments here to allow for a more orderly discussion.
]]>Secondly, USB 2.0 is fast enough to handle all the use cases needed whether it be transferring data or communicating with an accessory.
Thirdly, if Apple did this because they want to reduce the intelligence required in an accessory device they could have simply used resistors between D+/D- to denote different accessories, button presses, etc.
Finally, if Apple had gone with micro USB then they could also have gone with the standard USB OTG hosting method which would allow the phone to power accessories such as mice, keyboards, etc.
Bottom line is that micro USB is very flexible and could handle the entire use case that Apple would like to provide.
]]>@someone: thanks for the catch on the 1.8A standard. Confusingly, many manufacturers (here’s one datasheet I actually had on file) specify only 1A.
“one might argue that even the 2A of the current charger is too low”
Indeed, upcoming battery technology will allow even faster charging. And Apple’s old 30pin-to-micro USB adapter doesn’t list the iPad among compatible devices.
Actually, the micro-USB connector standard specifies 1.8A [1] (minimum) (for pins 1&5). So many commenters will actually be using 1.8A spec cables no matter what they want.
(Also, in sleep mode even the new Ipad charges from USB1 port. And USB2 connected to computer (0.5A) can generally at least keep the battery level steady. So it is not exactly ‘the 2A iPad’, although one might argue that even the 2A of the current charger is too low.)
[1] Micro-USB Cables and Connectors Specification Revision 1.01 as of April 4, 2007
]]>@someone: true, some connectors now allow 1.8A (still not quite enough for the 2A iPad). But this has to be valid on both the cable and the plug side. So many commenters are using (or want to use) cheap cables that certainly wouldn’t support that.
iOS currently has very limited support for USB devices, in fact a wired keyboard and connecting a camera (or its SD card) are the only ones I can think of, offhand, outside “charging and syncing”.
“if you look at current plug manufacturer’s specifications the usual limit is 0.9A per pin” Well yes… Since that is enough for most things. If you were to create a popular device that requires more power you probably could perhaps order some more robust ones? (And a quick search finds at least 1.8A connectors… for example MUE44-5G7700)
“so most of the dock connector functions wouldn’t work – only charging and syncing would”
I still find this statement a curious one. I mean, you can connect for example a mouse to a Symbian phone, why would iOS limit the connector to only syncing?
]]>@someone: “Products expected towards the end of 2012” – a little late, perhaps. At this moment I couldn’t find more technical details, but if you look at current plug manufacturer’s specifications the usual limit is 0.9A per pin. Some even less. Switching pins to work in parallel is the obvious solution, one which I’m sure Lightning will also use.
Two pins (or even one!) can in theory transfer anything, true. Having several pins avoids negotiation and interference – Thunderbolt, for instance, has two 4-pin high-speed channels and one 2-pin low-speed channel.
http://www.usb.org/developers/powerdelivery/PD_1.0_Introduction.pdf
I’m also curious: What exactly is it that can’t be negotiated and transferred with 2 pins of data?
]]>Don’t think I’ll be buying any more devices from Apple.
]]>The “it’s too big, and allows more stuff to be packed in the phone” is a smokescreen, and was never really substantiated anywhere.
Also, I don’t like the idea of a new iPhone or iPod touch wobbling around on a speaker dock connector adapter 2-3 cm up in the air – not very stable – meaning your speaker dock is effectively junk and needs replaced.
]]>@Brad Strickland: I didn’t quite get how Lightning would be related to Thunderbolt and syncing with PCs…
]]>http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MD820ZM/A/lightning-to-micro-usb-adapter?fnode=48
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