Apple switching to USB-C: Yay or Nay?

[Sandy Bridge]

Apple has announced that the new iPhone 15 and 15 Pro will switch from the Lightning connector to USB-C.

 

The regular 15 will operate at USB 2.0 speeds, and the Pro will operate at USB 3.0 speeds.

 

The SE, as far as I can tell, isn't being refreshed and will continue to use Lightning for the time being.

 

Thoughts?  Feelings?  Will you miss Apple's proprietary ports, or have you already adopted USB-C for everything else?

 

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I have a small collection of Lightning cables for my SE, but never bought any Lightning-based accessories, so I'm not heavily invested in Lightning.  On the other hand, I don't have any USB-C accessories either.  So overall I guess I'm pretty neutral on this one.

 

But I do wish they'd have the courage to add a headphone jack to one of their future models.

[Aaron44126]

As an iPhone user, I think this is absolutely the right move, and it's sad that the EU had to drag them into doing it.  (Though I think they would have done before too long, anyway; they've already been transitioning the iPad from Lightning to USB-C.)  iPhone will join the rest of the world with being able to plug in any old USB-C thing and have it mostly just work.

 

The worst thing about it will be the transition period.  In my house, my wife and I both have iPhones, and my kids both have iPads, and they are all still Lightning devices.  We have charging cords scattered around and it is nice that you can just plug one in to charge whatever device.  My wife will be getting an iPhone 15 Pro in a few weeks, so we'll start the period of having both USB-C and Lightning cables hanging around until we get all of the devices transitioned (which I am in no particular hurry to do just because of the connector change).

 

And it's not just chargers.  We plug the phone into the car to enable CarPlay, and now I will have to have both a USB-C and Lightning cable in the car which will need to be swapped around depending on whose phone needs to be connected, until I also get a phone with USB-C.  I have a collection of Lightning accessories (HDMI out, USB in, 3.5mm hookup for speakers, SD card reader) that will eventually need to be replaced as well.

[Reciever]

Im sure there will be some scorn for the USB 2.0 bit and the 15 but from what I understand that is due to the chipset?

[Aaron44126]

54 minutes ago, Reciever said:

Im sure there will be some scorn for the USB 2.0 bit and the 15 but from what I understand that is due to the chipset?

 

iPhone 15 (non-Pro) uses the A16 SOC from last year, so that would make sense...

[Reciever]

1 hour ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

iPhone 15 (non-Pro) uses the A16 SOC from last year, so that would make sense...

 

I'd imagine that it will be a net positive, but may be a bit bumpy due to that one detail. Its not as if Apple is going to redesign their product to account for that.

[Sandy Bridge]

It will be nice that when iOS and Android friends visit each other, they'll be able to charge their phones even if they forgot to bring their USB-C/Lightning cable.  I've had to bring my car's Lightning connector in for charging at Android houses, and haven't been able to help friends with USC-C Androids charge if they're visiting as I only have Lightning and whatever type of USB phones used prior to USB-C.

 

Theoretically, this transition might happen more quickly than the USB-A to USB-C transition as well, since theoretically no more Lightning-specific devices will be released.

[Aaron44126]

14 hours ago, Reciever said:

I'd imagine that it will be a net positive, but may be a bit bumpy due to that one detail. Its not as if Apple is going to redesign their product to account for that.

 

Eh.  I think the number of people who actually use their phone charging port for data transfer is pretty low.  I'm in an iPhone family and I know of no one who uses it for this except for me.  The vast majority of people won't notice the "low data rate", and anyone who really cares about it will hopefully be aware enough to just get an iPhone 15 Pro.

[Reciever]

5 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

Eh.  I think the number of people who actually use their phone charging port for data transfer is pretty low.  I'm in an iPhone family and I know of no one who uses it for this except for me.  The vast majority of people won't notice the "low data rate", and anyone who really cares about it will hopefully be aware enough to just get an iPhone 15 Pro.

You are probably right, it's due to iTunes that I avoided iphones in favor of android "back in the day" because I could just slap music and books on my device directly in an era where cellular data was much more limited than it is these days. Couple that with dealing with unstable internet connections probably colored my reluctance to embrace things that needed credentials 

[serpro69]

13 hours ago, Reciever said:

You are probably right, it's due to iTunes that I avoided iphones in favor of android "back in the day" because I could just slap music and books on my device directly in an era where cellular data was much more limited than it is these days. Couple that with dealing with unstable internet connections probably colored my reluctance to embrace things that needed credentials 

 

I still do that. Is there any other (better) way even with unlimited cellular data and 5G speeds? I don't think so (IMO) 

My wife , brother and sister all have iphones. The hoops they have to jump through to move a file to/from laptop from/to an iphone is astonishing. So yeah, I could definitely see why very few people use charging port to transfer data to/from an iphone lol 

 

When it comes to usb on iphones - I definitely see it as a good thing, simply because now (well, not really "now" - we still have an older iphone, but you know, some day...  ) I don't need to look for expensive cables and chargers for my wife's iphone and she can simply reuse the abundance of USB-C that I have already

[Aaron44126]

5 hours ago, serpro69 said:

My wife , brother and sister all have iphones. The hoops they have to jump through to move a file to/from laptop from/to an iphone is astonishing. So yeah, I could definitely see why very few people use charging port to transfer data to/from an iphone lol 

 

Does no one know about the "Files" app ...?

 

These days, you can use the "Files" app on the iPhone, connect to a file share on your laptop via SMB, and copy/paste files from the file share to the local file system.  This is what I usually do if I want to move a bunch of video files to the phone for offline viewing with an app like nPlayer.  (The "Files" app can also be used to deal with files on external storage like a USB drive or an SD card, if you have the appropriate adapter hooked up to your phone.)  It's still a little clunky because of the small screen and touch UI for dealing with files, but I'd consider it a step up from having to use the file transfer mechanism in iTunes.

[Reciever]

54 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

Does no one know about the "Files" app ...?

 

These days, you can use the "Files" app on the iPhone, connect to a file share on your laptop via SMB, and copy/paste files from the file share to the local file system.  This is what I usually do if I want to move a bunch of video files to the phone for offline viewing with an app like nPlayer.  (The "Files" app can also be used to deal with files on external storage like a USB drive or an SD card, if you have the appropriate adapter hooked up to your phone.)  It's still a little clunky because of the small screen and touch UI for dealing with files, but I'd consider it a step up from having to use the file transfer mechanism in iTunes.

I hadnt heard about it, but its good to know! 

 

This was just what kept me from iPhone in the past, around iphone 3/4 era, so I am sure there are a large number of improvements surrounding the topic since then :) 

[serpro69]

4 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

Does no one know about the "Files" app ...?

 

These days, you can use the "Files" app on the iPhone, connect to a file share on your laptop via SMB, and copy/paste files from the file share to the local file system.  This is what I usually do if I want to move a bunch of video files to the phone for offline viewing with an app like nPlayer.  (The "Files" app can also be used to deal with files on external storage like a USB drive or an SD card, if you have the appropriate adapter hooked up to your phone.)  It's still a little clunky because of the small screen and touch UI for dealing with files, but I'd consider it a step up from having to use the file transfer mechanism in iTunes.

 

Haven't heard about it, but then again, having an android phone I can't be bothered to search for "iphone hacks" :D
It's good to know there are alternatives to itunes these days at least. Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely relay the info :)

[jaybee83]

welp "excited" would be a strong word, since im not an apple user. but i always applaud any steps taken (even when forced by EU legislation lulz) to ensure compatibility and reuseability of other devices 🙂