Apple to Remove “Most Of” the Ports and Buttons on Future iPhones

Megalith

Megalith

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According to a Bloomberg story regarding the company’s delayed AirPower wireless charging system, Apple’s designers are trying to remove most of the external ports and buttons on the iPhone, including the charger. While the lack of wires could be convenient, critics say that the company just wants to sell more costly accessories. (Alternate coverage, sans paywall.)

During the development of the iPhone X, Apple weighed removing the wired charging system entirely. That wasn’t feasible at the time because wireless charging was still slower than traditional methods. Including a wireless charger with new iPhones would also significantly raise the price of the phones.
 
NeoNemesis said:
So it's going to be a complete bitch charging your phone anywhere other than at home.....

This just seems so counter intuitive.
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Apple gota sell them dongles and adapters. Why just sell someone a $1000 phone that costs $400 to make when you can also sell them $300 in accessories that cost $30 to make. I have to give it to Apple, they really know how to bleed their customers dry and keep them coming back for more in a year or 2.
 
NeoNemesis said:
So it's going to be a complete bitch charging your phone anywhere other than at home.....

This just seems so counter intuitive.
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Honestly it is a bitch with any kind of phone to charge if you don't have a charger with you. There are so many different and proprietary charging ports out there now. Even between iPhones since they like to change it with every new model.
 
I don't know about you guys but I am getting a tingle... feels almost magical!

NeoNemesis said:
So it's going to be a complete bitch charging your phone anywhere other than at home.....
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No, they'll have a wired-wireless charger for your iDevice.
 
DejaWiz said:
Not if they force their customers to buy a full matching set of wireless charging bases...

It's intuitive counter-intuivity
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It just boggles the fucking mind. You won't even be able to use your phone while it's charging, so when you're in the car or on a flight and your battery dies you're fucked.
 
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vegeta535 said:
Honestly it is a bitch with any kind of phone to charge if you don't have a charger with you. There are so many different and proprietary charging ports out there now. Even between iPhones since they like to change it with every new model.
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Every phone I've bought in the past decade used one of three charging ports: first it was mini-usb, then they all used micro-usb, the past three have used usb-c... Aside from apple I'm not aware of any "modern" smartphones with a proprietary charging / data interface.
 
vegeta535 said:
Honestly it is a bitch with any kind of phone to charge if you don't have a charger with you. There are so many different and proprietary charging ports out there now. Even between iPhones since they like to change it with every new model.
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capt_cope said:
Every phone I've bought in the past decade used one of three charging ports: first it was mini-usb, then they all used micro-usb, the past three have used usb-c... Aside from apple I'm not aware of any "modern" smartphones with a proprietary charging / data interface.
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As much as I hate apple, they have only ever had 2 "charging" port connections for their iphones, 30 pin and lightning.
And every android I've had since my first moto droid has had micro-usb...
I'm still on my Galaxy S7, I expect my next phone will be usb-c, and I was surprised that Samsung didn't go usb-c when the S7 was released.
My usb port quit working 3 months after I got it, so I've only been able to wirelessly charge it for about 2 years now. It's a little annoying, but not so much that I'm going to drop $700+ on a new phone until it completely dies.
 
Its funny that people poke fun at Apple for all their design changes...then most Android phones end up copying them very shortly after. The changes then are considered sensible and progressive. :LOL:

Happened with the headphone jack and the notch (although Essential technically came out with it first). Will probably continue happening.
 
I haven't used a cable to charge my phone since I got my S7. Wireless charging for the win. In the next few years all the new cars will have wireless charging stands in them. I looked at a new Jeep Cheroke and Dodge Ram both had them in the console. That feature can't add more than $4 to the cost of the vehicle. Probably less since you can buy a Qi charger at several stores for $5 - $10.
 
vegeta535 said:
Even between iPhones since they like to change it with every new model.
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Hate on Apple as much as you want, but at least be factual. They used their 30pin port from 03-2012 when they introduced their Lightning port. Annnnd, that’s it. But sure yeah, every model.
 
Apple uses Qi wireless charging folks. The one right thing they did recently..
 
I"d have a major issue if they removed the lighting port. IT's bad enough that my next upgrade will require me to use an adapter for headphones, but no port means I've got to look elsewhere, because my IEMs are worth more than an iPhone X and I'm not tossing them simply because they think I should use Bluetooth.
 
exlink said:
Its funny that people poke fun at Apple for all their design changes...then most Android phones end up copying them very shortly after. The changes then are considered sensible and progressive. :LOL:
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It's not funny or welcome from either Apple or anyone else. I have an old phone BECAUSE of crap like this. I was looking at feature phones BECAUSE of crap like this. I'm tempted to stop buying phones BECAUSE of crap like this. If you're not overly abusive to your phone, it should last a LONG time. But since they glue phones together (no battery doors) and ignore security updates on older phones, you almost have to buy a whole new phone every other year.

I like the wireless charging though. I have it on my phone. USB ports wear out. I don't need to talk on my phone much, so I can set it down for far longer than it needs to charge. Nothing wrong with having ports or buttons or SD card slots though.
 
nilepez said:
I"d have a major issue if they removed the lighting port. IT's bad enough that my next upgrade will require me to use an adapter for headphones, but no port means I've got to look elsewhere, because my IEMs are worth more than an iPhone X and I'm not tossing them simply because they think I should use Bluetooth.
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I doubt they’ll remove the lightning port for at least the next two generations. Maybe more. This is a fairly baseless rumor.
 
I know this is a very remote issue but if you do not support wired charging, people may not be able to charge in their cars. People have solutions for their cars, holders and such. Now you can't use those anymore because they don't charge and you need navigation for a few hours or just need to get the battery over 10%. Pretty stupid if you ask me.

Oh also, a good many car mounts require a metal plate on the back of the phone to hold it to the mounted magnet. This really impedes wireless charging a lot; you CAN get around it somewhat but it's still annoying. How many users are going to trip over that?
 
Poseur said:
It's not funny or welcome from either Apple or anyone else. I have an old phone BECAUSE of crap like this. I was looking at feature phones BECAUSE of crap like this. I'm tempted to stop buying phones BECAUSE of crap like this. If you're not overly abusive to your phone, it should last a LONG time. But since they glue phones together (no battery doors) and ignore security updates on older phones, you almost have to buy a whole new phone every other year.

I like the wireless charging though. I have it on my phone. USB ports wear out. I don't need to talk on my phone much, so I can set it down for far longer than it needs to charge. Nothing wrong with having ports or buttons or SD card slots though.
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Not an issue on iPhones. The iPhone 5S from 2013 is still getting iOS 12 this fall, 5 years after its initial release.

I never cared for removable batteries, since I hardly ever drain a phone in a single day and never would carry a spare battery with me at all times. New batteries are nice for old phones, but as you said your [Android] phone will become unsupported due to a lack of system and security updates before it suffers from a badly worn down battery that you'd need to replace. I'd rather have wireless charging and water resistance for those oh shit moments that could cost me hundreds.

SD cards I don't care for either since I have yet to fill up my phone beyond its capacity (currently sitting at 100GB of 256GB used on my iPhone X) and full resolution photo/video cloud storage from Apple and Google makes it irrelevant for me.

The only change that I still don't completely agree with is headphone jack removal. But after having my AirPods for 6 months, I no longer care much about it. I'm pretty sure that almost all new vehicles for the past 4-5 years have had Bluetooth connectivity as a standard option and you can always buy adapters or head unit replacements for older vehicles.

I guess the best way (from a business perspective) to force people to adapt to new technologies/features faster is to remove the option to use older technologies/features. Sucks for the consumer that doesn't upgrade or buy new things often.
 
There is a port. There is no way to remove most of them, and there is definitely not "ports" as the article says.
 
DejaWiz said:
Why sell $10 corded headphones when you can force the customer to pay $150 for the proprietary wireless ones!

Baaaaaa. Baaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
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Not sure if they are 150 good, but they are good. I think they should have came with iPhoneX. or any other iPhone over 1000.
 
NeoNemesis said:
It just boggles the fucking mind. You won't even be able to use your phone while it's charging, so when you're in the car or on a flight and your battery dies your fucked.
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Don't worry they will invent a wireless charger that has a strap to hold it on your phone.
 
nilepez said:
I"d have a major issue if they removed the lighting port. IT's bad enough that my next upgrade will require me to use an adapter for headphones, but no port means I've got to look elsewhere, because my IEMs are worth more than an iPhone X and I'm not tossing them simply because they think I should use Bluetooth.
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Don't worry they will make a wireless adapter for your wired headphones!
 
Doesn't bother me. I don't think I'd miss it much. I think it would be a good idea if Qi or some similar wireless charging standard actually caught on, and having a completely waterproof phone (without resorting to a bulky case or gambling on a glorified ziploc) wouldn't be a bad thing.

I'd have to buy some Qi chargers since I don't have anything wireless at the moment - but that's not any worse than needing to have Lightning cables laying around. The only thing I would miss would be the ability to get a quickie charge - like those 15-min before you board the next plane in the terminal or the like... but I suspect the ability to charge without plugging it into anything would probably offset my lament about that particular loss.
 
NeoNemesis said:
It just boggles the fucking mind. You won't even be able to use your phone while it's charging, so when you're in the car or on a flight and your battery dies your fucked.
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Many automakers have already implemented wireless charging pads into their new vehicles. I wouldn't be shocked if planes will start including it for all the seats that regularly have a power adapter now as well.
 
Which one of their crackpot engineers thought this was a good idea? I think they'll drive a lot of customers away.

We all know that iPhone popularity has dwindled in recent years. Its still popular, but not what it once was. People have very little reason to pay the apple price with some of the alternatives.

So instead of increasing their customer base, they're going to charge current customers more?

This isn't exactly a plan for growth here!

Now granted this is all rumours right now. We'll have to wait to see how this pans out.
 
Brian_B said:
Doesn't bother me. I don't think I'd miss it much. I think it would be a good idea if Qi or some similar wireless charging standard actually caught on, and having a completely waterproof phone (without resorting to a bulky case or gambling on a glorified ziploc) wouldn't be a bad thing.

I'd have to buy some Qi chargers since I don't have anything wireless at the moment - but that's not any worse than needing to have Lightning cables laying around. The only thing I would miss would be the ability to get a quickie charge - like those 15-min before you board the next plane in the terminal or the like... but I suspect the ability to charge without plugging it into anything would probably offset my lament about that particular loss.
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Samsung can make a phone water proof with a USB port, and microSD expansion. Actually they once made one water proof with a removable battery. Point is you don't need to remove anything to get water proofing.
 
DejaWiz said:
Why sell $10 corded headphones when you can force the customer to pay $150 for the proprietary wireless ones!

Baaaaaa. Baaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
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You do realize that any Bluetooth headphones work on Apple products. Why spread bullshit
 
mjcutri said:
As much as I hate apple, they have only ever had 2 "charging" port connections for their iphones, 30 pin and lightning.
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Ya but it is still proprietary bullshit for no reason. Their hypocrisy was revealed with USB-C. They claimed they needed to make their own port instead of use micro-USB because it had to be reversible, more durable, and such. Never mind they could have designed a port like that and submitted it to USB-IF for adoption. So they did that, but then comes USB C. Reversible, durable, capable of high current/voltage charging, capable of video, etc. A port Apple likes and puts on all their laptops. Do they change their phones though? Of course not.

It was never about technical superiority, it was about "We wanna have our own connector to make people buy our shit."
 
Sycraft said:
Ya but it is still proprietary bullshit for no reason. Their hypocrisy was revealed with USB-C. They claimed they needed to make their own port instead of use micro-USB because it had to be reversible, more durable, and such. Never mind they could have designed a port like that and submitted it to USB-IF for adoption. So they did that, but then comes USB C. Reversible, durable, capable of high current/voltage charging, capable of video, etc. A port Apple likes and puts on all their laptops. Do they change their phones though? Of course not.

It was never about technical superiority, it was about "We wanna have our own connector to make people buy our shit."
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I agree lightning should have been put out as an open spec.

That being said lightning is superior to USB-C connector IMO, and micro usb is complete garbage. That shit is impossible to plug in in the dark.
 
extremely functional black rectangles have saturated the market.

there must be something we can do!
 
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