

No, This Is Not the Best iPhone Ever - superchink
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/09/iphone_5_dock_connector_the_one_incredibly_irksome_feature_that_will_leave_you_cursing_apple_.single.html

======
mojowo11
> What’s more, this year Apple decided to go all out and aim for the “best
> iPhone we’ve ever made,” according to the parade of executives who took the
> stage Wednesday. Yes, the same executive said the same thing about last
> year’s iPhone 4S, 2010’s iPhone 4, and every other iPhone ever released.
> This time they said it quite passionately, though, so I think they really
> meant it.

Yes, I'm sure the creators of the product, which is faster, has a larger
screen, a more high-quality screen, a better camera, an updated operating
system, which is the thinnest iPhone yet, lighter than previous models...

Yes, I'm sure they were all lying to all of our faces about whether they
believe this is the best iteration of the iPhone.

And then to follow that up with this?

> In truth, the iPhone 5 is a very impressive device. If you’re in the market
> for a new phone, you should certainly consider this one. [...] Despite its
> bigger screen, the iPhone 5 is the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever made,
> and the difference is palpable. I played with the device for a few minutes
> after Apple’s press event, and I was floored by how svelte it was compared
> to older versions of the iPhone. I also love the back of the new phone,
> which is made out of aluminum rather than the glass found on the back of the
> 4S. The iPhone 5 feels more substantial than past versions, and it’s
> probably less fragile as well. This, maybe, is a phone that you might not
> need to stuff into a case in order to use—if that’s true, then thin and
> light might really mean thin and light. [...] I’ve got only one major
> problem with the new iPhone.

So yes, basically, your point is that the phone is better.

But apparently all of this is invalidated by the fucking plug. The plug makes
Apple executives liars. It makes iPhone enthusiasts chumps. It ruins the
entire device, and certainly undoes the innovation/not-innovation (?) the
author is so passionate about.

This whole article is, frankly, fucking garbage. The first few paragraphs are
basically trolling, and the rest of it is overdramatic. I'm an iPhone user,
and yes, if I decide to upgrade, the change in plugs is probably going to be
annoying. Then again, I mostly use one plug for my current phone. So maybe not
that annoying after all.

This is the best iPhone ever, with an annoying plug. That's essentially what
this article says, but it's awful, worthless linkbait, so that's not what the
article actually SAYS.

Truly terrible.

~~~
bunderbunder
_Truly terrible._

Naw, just truly obligatory. Remember when we were all reading a whole bunch of
similarly insipid diatribes about how yes admittedly this new iPhone has X, Y,
Z new things that are really pretty cool but it's still a total disappointment
and doomed to be a failure because they didn't _name it_ the right thing?

I think maybe there's just something in every tech columnist's contract
mandating them to go a bit silly for a week every time Apple releases a new
handset.

------
ecubed
The 30-pin connector is one of the longest-surviving connectors on the mobile
market, but its clearly past its prime. Apple didn't change the connector just
to get $30 extra out of its customers. It was an item on the phones that
seriously needed changing if the size and design of the item were to be
improved.

He also mentions that in the future Apple will change its dock connector
again, throwing accessory makers "under the bus." I highly doubt this will
happen. I highly doubt there will even be a "next" connector at all. Given the
rate at which technology has progressed, In 11 years (the lifespan of the
30-pin connector) inductive charging will be omnipresent, and AirPlay-esque
protocols will be the defacto way to send music between an iDevice and a dock.
AirPlay is a software standard and thus can be supported indefinitely, so I
imagine any phone that comes out in the future will be backwards compatible
with current AirPlay docks.

~~~
alexchamberlain
They should have gone with USB though.

I'm looking forward to the day wireless just works, but I'm not sure we're any
where near close yet. I still have a problem with my WiFi dropping because
next door is using theirs, and that's after I picked the least congested
channel.

~~~
ephelon
The old dock connector, and the new "lightning" connector do a lot more that
is supported by a USB connector. The dock can carry audio, video, act as a USB
slave, and connect other slave devices.

Arguably, Apple could have included both ports, but that increases cost and
complexity and flies in the face of the Apple aesthetic.

------
realize
That headline is serious linkbait. The main point is that the dock connector
changing will be a bit inconvenient for existing owners. How does that not
make it the best ever? There are so many improvements that it would be stupid
to argue that the 4S is better.

------
ollysb
There's a feature of the old connector that I suspect the new skinny model is
going to have trouble competing with; it was large enough to physically
support the iphone vertically. I'm looking at my logitech sound dock and the
only thing supporting the iphone is the connector. Maybe the thinner and
lighter iphone5 will require less support but designs relying on what was
probably an accidental feature will likely have to change to accommodate this.
If that is the case it's a bit of a shame as there was something rather
elegant about the way it could stand free. It allowed a minimalist appearance
which resonated with apple's design values.

~~~
vvhn
This is actually the first valid criticism of the new connector i've read all
day. That was indeed a useful feature of the ild one which the new one won't
likely have.

------
oofabz
USB is insufficient for a dock connector. It doesn't do audio or
play/volume/track buttons. You could use a USB audio device, but that would
add cost to every iPhone accessory made everywhere, and there's no need
because the iPhone has its own audio chip inches away.

To save costs, gadget manufacturers would just use the headphone port instead,
and then you'd have to plug TWO things into your iPhone to hook it up. And it
wouldn't have pause or volume controls because they don't want to spend the $1
on the USB chip for that functionality.

~~~
baddox
As they said in the Apple announcement, audio and video are generally
transferred wirelessly now (via AirPlay or Bluetooth). However, if the
Lightning to 30-pin adapter is fully functional, and Lightning is truly all
digital, that little adapter must be doing the DAC, which might explain the
high cost.

------
yen223
One thing I really liked about the original 30-pin connector is that you can
dangle the phone upside down, without the phone coming out of the connector.

This is the thing that turned me off of micro-USB chargers, and it's a shame
if Apple abandoned this feature.

~~~
lmm
You can dangle my HTC phone perfectly well from its microUSB cable. It's
something I instinctively wouldn't do, but it doesn't feel like there's any
chance of it falling out.

~~~
alexchamberlain
It's the only way I can find my phone when I'm half asleep in the morning;
grab the wire and prod the hanging thing.

------
glenra
> No, This Is Not the Best iPhone Ever

Yes, it is.

Apple generally doesn't bother to release a new version of a product until
they've managed to make it significantly better than the last version, hence
nearly _every_ Apple product is "the best ever" version of that product. That
earlier iPhones were "the best ever" when they were released in no way
suggests that this one isn't _also_ "the best ever".

And the fact that they finally replaced the dock connector is one of the
things that makes it better. They've removed that constant tiny annoyance of
putting it in the wrong way, they've made a key part slightly more reliable
than it was, and they've freed up more room to make products smaller or fit
more stuff (including battery) in the existing space.

------
jpxxx
Boo, you clickwhore.

USB-PTP is already implemented on iOS. What's the win for going to Micro-USB
beyond letting you reuse your Blackberry charger?

USB-MTP is a user experience disaster. USB-MSC is a user experience disaster
in the context of a sealed filesystem. And moving to Micro-USB means you can't
dynamically reprogram pins to support any of your old 30-pin shit via an
adapter.

So we can either have no old shit at all, or have all the old shit via a $30
adapter, or put two ports on a phone, or stick with the old shitty port that's
approaching the size of the products it's used in.

~~~
ernesth
> What's the win for going to Micro-USB beyond letting you reuse your
> Blackberry charger?

Complying with european regulations.

~~~
jpxxx
True. But they already ship an adapter in every box and all regulators agree
this is acceptable.

------
baddox
This author awkwardly combines two distinct and incompatible arguments (that
requiring a $30 adapter to use old accessories is unreasonable, and that the
iPhone should use Micro-USB) and seems to think there was a synthesis of the
arguments. I don't understand why the two arguments were concatenated together
with the pretense that the latter somehow related to the former. Switching to
Micro-USB would cause all the same incompatibilities with old accessories, and
wouldn't solve any problems other than letting you borrow your friend's
Android charge cable if you're caught with a low battery.

------
codex
Every time I see a super-cranky tech. article from Slate, it is written by
Farhad Manjoo. I'm all for the contrarian viewpoint, but after a while, it
just seems like trolling--or an advertisement for antidepressants.

------
diminish
The change in screen size reminds me of some blogs and discussions here on HN,
where people claimed that 3.5" was an ergonomic display limit for one-handed
use of a smartphone for an average adult; so it was a perfect size after a lot
of research made by Apple.

Does anybody who played with the 5 know whether Apple took any measures for
one hand use to encounter the display growth to 4" in the OS or bezel,
thickness or elsewhere?

~~~
calciphus
I think you'll figure out what 100% of people with larger screen phones
already have:

If you hold it slightly differently in your palm, your thumb can reach all of
a 4" screen just as well as a 3.5" screen, and with less strain.

------
gojomo
There is a mild bit of self-negation in these iPhone5 gripes: on the one hand,
it's knocked for not having enough that's truly new rather than incremental;
on the other the one completely novel break-with-the-past, the 'lightning'
connector, gets singled out as a negative.

When you go with Apple, you're along for the ride on their obsolescence
decisions. There is never a great time for such discontinuities: you have to
take the hit sometime, and putting it off would just mean an even larger
ecosystem on the original connector.

Yes, Apple has gone their own way here... but matching the commodity/common-
denominator practice has _never_ been Apple's emphasis. I know that
controlling/taxing the aftermarket is one part of their choice... but the
size, durability, and reversibility of the connector will be offsetting
benefits. (And an off-brand micro-USB-to-lightning adapter will probably be
even smaller and cheaper than the 30-pin-to-lightning adapter.)

~~~
lucian1900
It's still not USB, when it really should have been.

There's no excuse for having a proprietary connector, now not even for Apple.

~~~
gojomo
Could it have been as thin with USB? Could it have never required fumbling
with mismatched-side-rotation in the dark?

You might not like the excuses but they exist beyond "no excuse". And the
required micro-USB adapter will likely be tiny and cheap: just affix it to the
end of your micro-USB cord.

~~~
bunderbunder
USB is my least favorite connector, aside from the old iPhone connector. In
all its form factors it's universally difficult to get hooked up without
physically looking at the plug and the socket, and it seems to break too
often. Worse yet, most people I know can barely even tell the different
versions apart, and often figure out if a USB cord is compatible with a device
by just trying to jam it in and see if it fits.

The new lightning connector looks like it offers much better ergonomics and
better durability than any of the existing USB plugs. So I'm happy to see
connectors going in this direction. Let's see the USB standard copy the idea.

------
ilanco
But a perfect opportunity to make some cash off 30pin to 8pin connector
converters ...

