Update — It sounds like the iPhone 5’s “Lightning” port may not be a true “Thunderbolt” interface. So far the info on Lightning has been extremely vague. Thunderbolt is a 20 pin interface, Lightning appears to be a 10 pin interface. No one really knows right now. Apple claims it is an adaptive interface. Perhaps it can support USB 2.0 signals and a subset of the Thunderbolt interface. The USB “adapter” may simply align the power and data lines to the Lightning interface. USB has 2 power lines and 2 data lines. Lightning has 8 data lines. Perhaps it can operate with a variable number (2-8) of data lines. I wonder if they can support I2C through Thunderbolt. If they can, that would make the design of accessories a lot more interesting and fun. Think about it — an interface that could support USB, I2C, and a subset of Thunderbolt. The world is going fixate on the fact the connector is different and won’t work with the zillion’s of USB chargers people have bought. Those chargers only use the 2 power lines. I strongly suspect two of those Lightning pins will accept the same 5V as USB carries.
I’ve been told the new faster-bigger-but-lighter-and-thinner iPhone 5 has a Thunderbolt interface. The press has correctly picked up on the fact the cables and connectors are different. They haven’t however figured out Thunderbolt is not USB. I guess we can expect the next round of iPads to use Thunderbolt too.
If it is Thunderbolt (I haven’t been able to confirm) you have to wonder why? In one sense this may just be Apple wagging the market because it can, but what if they really need a 10 gigabit-per-second interface for something? And what could that something be?
I’m a little confused by the ho-hum response in some quarters to this new phone, which appears to me to equal or exceed the specs of any phone currently on the market. That’s not good enough?
Yes, Android licenses are piling up at a rate of 1.3 million per day according to a friend of mine who sits on the Google board. And yes, Jelly Bean is a big improvement if you can find a phone that has it.
But it’s hard to compete with free.
It is always interesting to hear the what college kids think. What I am hearing is they are tired of the quirkiness and hassles with Android.
Is an older model of iPhone better than a modern Android phone? Does the bigger display on the S3 offset the new engineering and known quality of Apple’s products?
And where does this leave Microsoft? That last question may not matter.
First?
I still like my Galaxy S II. However I really miss the blackberry interface when calling and messaging.
Why thunderbolt when there are millions of pcs without thunderbolt adapters? Unless there is a new companion gadget coming out for video?
Hi,
Could you comment on the difference between the iPhone5 models? It seems to me, moderately non knowledgeable about this, that the CDMA version contains basically everything (a couple of LTE bands missing) that both GSM models contain.
So why are there 3 models, and should one buy a CDMA model whether one currently wants CDMA or not (I don’t go subscription here in Beijing). Is there a downside? won’t be upgrading anyway, but curious.
Thanks
The 3 models are for the 3 different memory sizes. There are really 6 models if you count the black and white options as models.
There are no more CDMA or GSM only models. Everything is in one. Every carrier get’s the same phone anywhere in the world. GSM/CDMA/LTE and all the other frequency radios are all in there. One model for the whole world.
Not quite so simple. There appear to be at least 3 regional models, two different GSM models plus the CDMA model: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_5 .
But that is many fewer than the Galaxy S3 which has 9: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_III#Model_variants .
Upon looking at the iPhone 5 chart more carefully, it looks like they use the same model number for CDMA aas they do for one of the GSM models. So it may be that there are only 2 models: A1428 and A1429. However to confuse matters further, the wiki text says: “Whilst not included in Apple’s press conference announcement on September 12, 2012, there are actually three separate models of the phone available: one supporting CDMA and two GSM versions that differ only by the LTE bands they support.”
there are at least 3 distinct iphone 5 models: 1 for USA, 1 for Cn, 1 for HK …
speaking of 10gbs, would that be needed to drive a large screen TV? don’t know that either.
You can do full uncompressed 1080p in 4:4:4 color space in about 1.5Gbit/sec. 10Gb is way overkill for that.
HDMI v1.4 does about 10Gb, but it can handle 4k video (4x the data of 1080p).
I agree that it’s extremely unlikely to be thunderbolt. If nothing else I bet it requires too much power.
Doesn’t the current iOS 5 AirPlay already support full 1080p transmission to the to the AppleTV or OSX Mountain Lion wirelessly. Isn’t thre already an HDMI connector too? Or is there compression that isn’t obvious?
It appears that airplay is streaming the existing compressed video. You can’t get uncompressed HD video over wifi, just not enough bandwidth.
http://nto.github.com/AirPlay.html
This makes no sense at all. For Thunderbolt on an iPhone it would first have to be ubiquitous on the computers they sync to. USB 3 would be reasonable since its backward compatible and would help make the new connector future proof, and there were rumors to that effect, but if it’s there Apple hasn’t mentioned it.
USB 3 + MHL (through the same port) would’ve been a much more user-friendly and doable option… But then again, that doesn’t give them infinite cash from a proprietary connector licensing point of view (that is if the new connector doesn’t burn them because they’ve instantly killed one of the biggest advantages iDevices have, ubiquitous accesories!).
Yeah, I’m surprised to see Apple cutting this one huge advantage they have over android handsets. Having multiple iDevice connectors now makes the single micro-USB connector used on almost all android phones and mini-tablets that much more elegant and attractive.
Even a tech-averse newbie can easily understand, “If it has micro-USB, it will work withy your android phone. Apple’s iPhone? Well, that is more complicated . . .” That was an advantage Apple was stupid to lose.
It’s not Thunderbolt. It’s Lightning!
“Introducing the Lightning connector. It features an all-digital, eight-signal design that’s significantly more durable than the 30-pin connector.”
(i.e. Lightning to USB connector)
Thunderbolt and lightening, very very frightening
Galileo Galileo
This whole article is moot because the iPhone does not have Thunderbolt. It has “Lightning” which is a pared down iPhone Dock Connector without obsolete superfluous pins in an improved form factor.
“lightning” on the phone end and USB on the other.
Wasn’t that a film with Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges?
Thunderbolt and lightning very very frightening me
Gallileo, gallileo, gallileo, gallileo,
Gallileo figaro magnifico
— Freddie Mercury
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Rupe
Its been 18 hours since the announcement. I was hoping Apple would provide a little more information on Lightning. So far what is on their website is pretty much content free. This is what I THINK. There are 8 data lines which are “adaptive”, meaning they could support a variety of signals. I suspect this interface will be able to support:
1) USB 2.0 if you align the power and data signals correctly, hence the “adapter.”
2) I2C — if you wanted to make a rich market of accessory products, I2C is the way to go.
3) A subset of Thunderbolt.
Sometimes in engineering you really have to change things. While the world and press will squeal for a month or two over this change, in the long term we’ll realize it was the right thing to do.
Who knows, a brave design decision today could lead to another Apple inspired ecosystem of consumer products.
Kind of like MSFT changing to the Metro interface . . . 🙂
Microsoft isn’t making any existing hardware or software obsolete. Windows 8 adds metro but provides the functionality of Windows 7 for hardware drivers and running programs.
Thunderbolt has 20 pins of which 5 are ground. It is also a combination of DisplayPort and PCI-express. The DisplayPort side would obviously be useful since some video/audio out to modern displays is necessary. The daisy chaining and high speed connectivity would be useful too.
It should be possible to have something with the useful bits of DisplayPort and PCI-express, omitting legacy where possible (eg vga/dvi compatibility, power provision and cutting down on PCI-express lanes).
“a combination of DisplayPort and PCI-express.”
Sounds like Thunderbolt. Which Intel calls LightSpeed.
Ho-hum because it does not measure up to the Galaxy S3 or HTC One X which have been out for quite a while. Given Apple’s slow rate of bringing out new iPhones they cannot afford to be this far behind on release day and expect to continue to be crowned the best phone to buy. Apple is stagnating which may be OK to placate their current minions but losing out on both the hardware and software tables is not going to help them win back market share.
that should read: ‘hardware and software feature tables’
Doesn’t measure up in what ways?
Screen size, screen resolution, processing power, battery life, nfc, removable storage, etc. Pretty much take every feature/spec and compare them and Apple loses with the exception of where you think smaller is an advantage or or on the OS side, simpler is an advantage.
smaller is definitely an advantage. I have big hands and I would not buy a phone wider than the 4S
Apple’s carefully brought 4G while maintaining 8 hours or better battery life with fulltime 4G. Yes, they could have done it sooner with half the battery life, but that would have put a major dent in the phone’s performance lineage.
Considering that it has the latest Qualcomm mdm9615 chip, how does that put them behind? Is there another mysterious yet popular smartphone with this extremely new chip on the market already, much less poised for adoption by millions of users in the coming weeks? What’s it called and where is it?!
https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-apple-iphone-5-and-vs-samsung-galaxy-s3/
Battery life for the Galaxy looks great! At this point, I’d say the only factor would be in the software features (or lack of features): I guess simpler is an advantage; vetted is even better. The sales of Samsung will catch on, but I don’t know if they will catch up. Software wise, this has always been true from the Windows vs Apple camp. For years, I’ve always chosen the latest and greatest GPUs for Windows which Apple is always one or two steps behind. Or worse, Apple’s always chosen mediocre, less-then stellar GPU chipsets but then optimized the hell out of them for the best performance possible *and without memory leaks. In contrast, my love/hate relationship with a the most expensive, cutting edge, top-of the line GPU with the very beta crashing drivers has never panned out as productive. By the time the drivers and software for my new fangled rig stabilizes; I minus well have gone one or two generations back. These days, it seems like having the latest and greatest isn’t always the wisest. If QC suffers just a pinch or if one day you have to install third party anti-virus from the AppStore on your phone -it’ll be the end.
Bob, it seem pretty evident from post that you haven’t used a newer Android phone. I replaced my EVO with the Galaxy III two weeks ago and have been nothing but impressed. It also only cost $150 on contract through Amazon and I’ve heard that’s down to $99. I really expected Apple to come out with something special since the 4S was just an incremental upgrade but the 5 just seems like more of the same with a bigger screen like the Android competitors.
I think Mike and Bob are both right. Bob is right that the new price points, along with availability on most U.S. carriers, will help Apple get some market share back from Android. Mike is right that this is ho-hum because there is nothing qualitatively exciting about the phone–it is very good, very good specs (well, depending how you feel about screen size, 4″ may still be lacking), but nothing remotely “game-changing”. I think to a large extent that is a reflection of the fact that the phone and tablet market is rapidly reaching maturity, just like laptops did 10+ years ago. A Galaxy S2 is *still* a really good Android phone, and it is 18 months old.
These aren’t ‘new’ price points; they have simply replaced the 3GS with the 4, the 4 with the 4s, and the 4s with the 5. They are the exact same price points as when they rolled out the 4s last year, just upgraded one step at each. The $199 iPhone 5 is the 16GB version, They also annouced the $299 32GB and $399 64GB versions, exactly the same as the 4s.
It finally has a larger screen, and is thinner and lighter than the 4/4s. It has a faster processor and faster connectivity, which means they have finally caught up to the market. Otherwise, it was pretty ho-hum. It will be a mandatory upgrade for the iOS Fanbois, but not a compelling switch for Android or Windows Phone users. I’m still kind of surprised they didn’t announce new iPads, but perhaps they are wanting to keep on their February announcement schedule. Apple still has the edge in overall ecosystem, and probably will conitnue for quite some time, but they will be definitely under a lot more pressure in the coming 12-16 months.
I was disappointed in that I was hoping that all the leaks were from Apple and that they would unveil a product that no one saw coming. But it appears to be exactly what everyone said it would.
So I guess when Tim Cook says that Apple is “doubling down on security” it means that it’s business as usual. This was probably the most unsurprising event launch Apple has had in years.
I wonder if Samsung is even worried now? Is this a Galaxy S3 killer?
What I’d like to know is why Apple is cutting off the iPad 1 from IOS 6 and iPhone 4 from many of the upgrades. It seems the hardware can likely run it. Is Apple trying to force an upgrade every two generations or is there something in this OS (heretofore unnoticed) that necessitates that they cut off relatively recent customers.
Well, I’ve got a couple of 4th gen touches that can barely run IOS 5 without choking. Even when I turn off as many services as I can, since all I really want/need is the music player.
Needless to say, having the music fail annoys me greatly (gross understatment) particularly since that’s the only reason I’ve got the things. And as does Apple’s attitude towards it.
If IOS gets any fatter, they’d be useless and I’d be really **** annoyed. As such, I’m not going to even try IOS 6 just in case. Particulalry given Apple’s policy of not being able to back out “upgrades”.
So, from one point of view, it makes sense for Apple to disable older devices in order not to further annoy their customers when they “fail”. A shortsighted solution that annoys us in other ways instead. Both which could easily be fixed by allowing backouts (Yes, yes, I know, I should have known to jail break it in advance and downloaded this and uploaded that and blah blah blah – which is too much effort for an appliance that ‘just works’).
The Windows 8 ‘phone is looking better all the time.
Apple has traditionally tried to support3 full generations of the current iPhone. From what I saw of the iOS 6 support, they are still supporting the 3GS. The fact is that when you are doing software development, in this case OS development, you always have to make a trade off. If you want to improve things and add new features you have to make the software more complex and in an OSes case use new hardware features that aren’t in older devices. So you have to make a decision, limit yourself to support the legacy hardware, or go forward with what can do with the current hardware and the legacy hardware is left behind. I feel that by supporting 3 generations of hardware, Apple is take making a good compromise and being good to its customers. If you think you can buy a devices and think it will continue to be massively updateable after 3 years, you are not aware of the tech world you live in. Beside, your old device will continue to perform with it’s purchased functionality (at least until the battery goes). Be realistic.
One older son (a lawyer now) love his iPhone, iPad, and macbook.
Another son, 20 and a physics/math major at Baylor, strongly dislikes Apple (iPhone and mac book specifically) and loves his Android phone. He just recently upgraded to the S III.
My youngest daughter, in high school, still like her now fairly old Android phone and does not want an iPhone. Ever.
My wife hates the iPhone (she has to help her father try to use it) and is generally happy with her Android phone, though updates tend to irritate her.
My father has been an apple aficionado since the days of the Apple II and through all the Macs. He recently got an iPhone and likes it.
Me? Android. But then, I’m a programmer and network engineer.
So my family is all over the map on this one. I think both android and ios phones will be with us indefinitely. Is there room for a new entrant like Windows 8 phones? I’m not so sure.
What?!? People can have different tastes and preferences?!? Sacrilege! You should be forcing them to chose X! 😎
I hope Windows 8 does stick around for a while longer. I think there is definitely room (or rather definitely a need) for another top quality OS. I would have preferred webOS to be that OS – I think there is something highly desirable about doing this with pure web tech but 3 is still better than 2.
It’s also good if it lasts a while longer as it will further show the world (including potential future partners, the sharemarket, governments, etc.) that in spite of MS pouring huge sums of money into something, they just “don’t get it” any more (and I think here it’s market rather than product) and partnering with them can mean a spectacular dive into oblivion…
No way it is Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt is PCI-Express. The other end of the cable is USB. Unless the cable has active silicon in it, and I doubt it does, then there is no way this can be Thunderbolt. None.
It probably is USB3, though, and electrically capable of running at even higher speeds.
Up until a few weeks ago, I would have agreed with you (or your college student poll) about the “quirkiness and hassles” of Android. However, this has been the summer of Ice Cream Sandwich for all my devices. My SGS 2 that needed a reboot every other day runs just fine for weeks, and battery life is nearly double what it was with Gingerbread. The original Galaxy tab 10.1 that I quit using because of the weirdness of Honeycomb got an upgrade too, just after I lost it and bought an Asus Transformer Infinity (DOH!). I think Google is really getting its act together and the manufacturers are figuring out that they can’t abandon buyers after the sale and expect them to buy a new phone every 2 months just to get the latest software patch. In fact the only major problem I’ve had with any Android device this summer is my dad’s junk $88 tablet… And that was just trying to get the Play store installed.
ICS is Google’s Windows 3.1.
Point of clarification: “Lost it” meaning “Lost my mind” or “Lost control.” I didn’t lose my tablet!
My best guess for a thunderbolt connection would be for video. I am post college, 30 something, but I find myself using my cable TV less more every year. I have found myself in the situation of buying an on-demand a movie through my cable provider (Charter), and being upset with the quality, glitches, poor sound quality. Then pulling out my IPad and buying the same movie through iTunes. I recently got the iTV to try to use my TV like a TV again. If I’m Apple and I really want to make a new TV distribution model that isn’t just a new cable box, I want device independence. WiFi syncing is nice if I want to wait 10 minutes for my Podcasts to sync, 5 if I want to plug in the USB cable, but if I’m syncing a movie or TV show, I make dinner or take a shower to wait for the data to transfer. Don’t you guys remember all the YouTube videos showing off blazing data transfer rates with Thunderbolt? What was the theoretical scenario? Video editing.
Can’t say I’ve got the broad experience of a reviewer from CNET, but I’ve got a Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.1 which I think is pretty slick device. I’m talking to the this device all the time – I’m basically only typing anymore on it when there is noise in the back ground. Plus, I’m not shelling out $20 bucks every time I lose my charger – a nice feature over Apple’s proprietary connectors when the standard mini USB is only costing me $5 at my local belowfive store.
The Lightning connector, as announced, does not connect into Thunderbolt ports. Apple said some cryptic voodoo about future “adaptability” but that’s pretty vague. Right now Lightning is just a smaller, reversible USB port. Not really news unless you’re an OEM of iOS accessories.
Re: iOS v Android. According to ComScore, smartphone adaptation in the US just passed 50%, which means it’s probably less worldwide (higher in countries like Korea or Finland). The more profitable fight is over new users, not upgraders. There’s plenty of room for both players, plus Windows 8, plus BB10 even.
It’s a mistake to think of mobile OS as being similar to desktop OS, where monolithism seems unavoidable. Mobile OS doesn’t have the same enterprise mass-purchasing, and app porting is much cheaper and swifter than writing variants of desktop software. Mobile OS is like choosing a browser. I’m looking forward to having four or more strong choices in the coming years.
The REAL conversation around the new dock should be that even with the adapters it’s not compatible with radios, receivers, speakers and the like that are out there. I’m stuck in the position of having to replace many things (including a car radio and a home A/V receiver ) if I move from an iPhone 4 to an iPhone 5; just to keep my current usage models. This is going to be a big negative for many people.
I think I read that there would be an adapter to allow use of 30pin accessories. Of course, I imagine this will look odd or not really work on hard mounts like docks but should work ok on stuff using a cable mount (my car stereo, job site radio).
Ahh, new cables, new connectors. New chargers, new (read no) compatibility. Great, just what the world needed.
Biggest, most important question, will the battery life be any better? If I have to still charge it every day I’m not even going to think about it.
We sleep once a day and eat several times a day to recharge ourselves. Why not recharge the phone while sleeping?
“And where does this leave Microsoft? That last question may not matter.”
Could you please unfold this comment? From where I stand what I can see is that this matters more than the Android-impact. The blogs are just flooded with comments “then a Lumia 920 for me please” and as an iPhone user I am also one of the ‘if not this then a windows phone’ camp. Android is not even considered by most iPhone owners.
Microsoft is famous for astroturfing. If all those positive reactions to Windows Phones were a true representation of the demand, the Windows Phone marketshare would have been far, far greater.
Check into how many of those bloggers are either phonies (e.g. Microsoft employees impersonating being a non-Microsoft employee, botnet generated, etc.) or paid bloggers by Microsoft.
I bought a Google Nexus tablet and it is truly awesome. I use it more than my PC now. The new Jelly Bean version of Android on the Nexus is extremely user-friendly compared to my Gingerbread-based DroidX cellphone. My cellphone contract expires in two months and I am holding out for a phone with Jelly Bean.
I was an iOS fan until I got burned in the Apple accessory racket. Years ago I had an iPod Touch and I was using a video-out cable I’d bought on Amazon for about $5. During a minor iOS upgrade, the cable stopped working. After much research I discovered that the minor iOS upgrade implemented a feature that checked the cable for a unique Apple ID chip. So to get the same capability that I’d had the day before, I had to buy the Apple brand cable which was $50. That was the end of my pro-Apple days. Nobody abuses their own customers like Apple does; and the Apple fanatics say, “Thank you, sir, may I have another.” It’s a little disturbing to see people so happy to be taken advantage of.
I’m kind of surprised by your comment “…that nobody abuses their customers like Apple…” Have you used Microsoft products? Service packs, and $300-$400 OS’s…
First all, if you picked up a $5.00 Video out cable, it was definitely on “off brand”, and we all know you take a risk buying non-Apple certified “stuff”. Apple’s not the only one who does that. I bought an “off brand” lens for my Canon 50D… Granted I save A LOT… but it doesn’t auto focus and I consistently get errors… I finally stopped using it. Is that Canon’s fault? No. It’s mine and I took the risk.
If you don’t like Apple products, fine, that is certainly your choice. But, their accessories from certified venders have worked and worked for me. I’ve got cables, cases and stereo’s that were certified by Apple and have worked brilliantly with my iPods and iPhones for going on 7 years.
yeah he bought a cheap off brand cable, that later stopped working, and you brought a cheap uncertified lens, that later fell into disuse because of poor quality — but that was *your* choice, it wasn’t forced on you. In the first story, it wasn’t the poor quality of the accessory which stopped the work.
It was however, a not certified Apply product. Just as my lens was a non certified Canon product that was supposed to work with my Canon… It’s not Canons’ fault it didn’t. Nor is it Apple’s fault that his cable stopped working.
“It’s not Canons’ fault it didn’t. Nor is it Apple’s fault that his cable stopped working.”
I think you’re still missing the point. It is ‘Apple’s fault’ that his cable stopped working. The hardware was fine, but Apple chose to disable it.
Canon did nothing to disable the lens you bought. The hardware was faulty. Would be similar if Canon pushed a firmware update that prevented you from using a fully functional 3rd party lens.
Is it just my impression, or have Apple’s new products gone from being revolutionary to simply evolutionary?
most of the people i polled said the main reason they will keep and use their apple 4s is they have to pay off the plan. Most of my friends say they are sick of apple doing everything its own way and that siri sux bigtime. A lot have mentioned they felt sucked in to buying the apple and it didn’t live up to expectations. The mood in this corner of the world is avoid apple. Still i assume there is a sucker born every minute and apple will sell plenty…
So… If people are happy with Apple experience they’re suckers. If people are unhappy with Android experience, they just haven’t found the right model phone that works with the right OS release?
Having used both Apple and Android, I’d have to vote for Android every single time – admittedly I stumped up the $$ to buy an unlocked Nexus S and therefore I’m running the latest Jelly Bean release. For me, a phone is a tool and as a craftsmen, I like/want good tools.
For me, the biggest plus is not having the carrier dictate which features I can and can’t use, which applications have to be used etc etc – and the fact that unlimited voice, data and text costs me only $50/month!
I have friends paying $140/month with an iPhone – but of course, the phone was “free” – sadly they have no clue what TANSTAAFL means.
I, too, have no idea what TANSTAAFL means.
There are no such things as a free lunch – TANSTAAFL.
See also Robert Heinlein’s “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress”.
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/09/12/want-new-lightning-30-pin-adapter-thatll-cost-least-29/
Lightning!
If you were using IE, you could do what I did…highlight it and choose “search with Google”.
$50/mo sounds great unless you don’t need unlimited. I’m using a gophone smartphone plan that renews at a total cost of $30/mo in order to roll over all data purchased beyond the 50 MB included. Of course when I need more data I can add it at the economical rate of 1 GB for $25 which could last from 6 mos to a year.
Are the people complaining abut Apple changing their hardware interface the same ones who complain about MS being stogy in maintaining all those legacy features? It seems likely that Apple is looking ahead to other products that will interface with the phone (and future tablets) that need a higher speed wired connection. That could be the bar that Bob is talking about.
I am disappointed that I haven’t yet seen a smart phone that is sealed up against water, using inductive coupling for power and audio output, and wi-fi for all else. When I traded in my broken screen I-phone, the ‘genius’ guy inspected it very carefully for the indicators of water damage. And, yeah, I’d like stronger glass too, even if it weighed an ounce more. My contracts’s up in just two months, so vendors, have at it!
I for one applaud the effort by Apple to make an already existing product much better in an evolutionary sense. The “5” is a worthy refinement.
B.J.
blanejackson.com
Oops!
“already existing product”
Meant to say: “already great product much better”
As for the “Thunderbolt” cable, is this the beginning of the confluence between phone and laptop? With a thunderbolt port connecting your iPhone to a full size monitor, and then using an Apple Bluetooth keyboard, couldn’t most people use their phone for their computer?
I see an awful lot of people discarding their $299 laptops and consolidating around their beloved iPhone.
The Thunderbolt is a natural for the new iPads ( and mini) as well, think about that one! Cheap PC and cheap laptop manufacturers are in big trouble. Start selling your stock short.
B.J.
BlaneJackson.com
Is it thunderbolt? A deceptive no (unless there is a hybrid usb technology it it).
Is it a prelude to thunderbolt? Most likely yes- a convenience for us, a profit for apple and a necessity for the technology.
Think how fast i would take to back up and restore your phone at 64gb or more. Usb3 is good for that, but i’d want thunderbolt to be in my future and apple does too. thunderbolt is in its infancy and needs every bit of help it can get.
Although the phone is an improvement, if you look at the whole apple product mix as a whole, there’s been mostly nominal updates. With all their cash, must it be the fate of big successful companies to loose their force majeure? Is this the beginning of the end?
As the say copyright is about preventing you from doing to Disney as they did to Brothers Grim – should Apple be allowed to import the iPhone5 into the USA?
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/10/apple_htc_patent/
Esp in view of the Samsung judgement…
It’s interesting, I’m a High School teacher and I do see a proliferation of the Android phones amongst my students, however the ‘Droid phones are just considered “phones”. The iPhones are passed around, have a joie de vie about them.
Often I over hear “I wish I had a…iPhone, iPad etc…” The biggest thing the Droid has going for it as far as my anecdotal evidence is simply cost. Wait a month or two for the next generation, and you’re likely to get a Great phone for significantly less than an iPhone or even free… Can’t beat Free… So, maybe, as Bob pointed out, with the iPhone 4 going to free, that might help. But as has also been pointed out, the 4, as nice of a phone as it is, is now 2+ generations behind.
Robert misses the point, talking about the initial cost of the phone. So do many other people. I pay Verizon about $200 per month for 2 smartphones, and with a 2 year contract, that is 24 months times $200 a month = $4,800. Yes, that’s right, Four Thousand, Eight Hundred Dollars. Whether the initial price paid is free versus $99 versus $199 is completely irrelevant in my book.
Thunderbolt was developed by Intel, not Apple. It’s not Apple exclusive; other notebooks will have it as well.
Apple wants exclusive connectors on their phones so third-party accessories are iPhone-only. So it’s not an Intel connector. Lightning has nothing to do with Thunderbolt.
Most people I know are very happy with their phones. Be it iOS, Android or Windows Phone. There are expensive, cheap and free models for all three.
iOS isn’t optimized well for large screens. A lot of things sit on top of the screen, which can’t be easily reached when using the phone with one hand.
Bob taught us in an earlier post that Apple can only win by innovating. Where’s the innovation here? Thinner, taller and faster is a game Samsung can play just as well.
Today Bob wonders why better specs aren’t good enough. Read your own posts Bob. The answer is right there.
The $199 price requires a plan, which is where the real costs are. The thrifty using plans like T-Mobile’s Monthly4G are mostly using lower-end Android phones. No one doubts that the iPhone is nice, but it isn’t clear to me how their market share is going to keep growing — they are always the most expensive option.
Thuoc giam can, an toan, slimfit usa, slimfit…
[…]Thunderbolt, on an iPhone 5? ~ I, Cringely[…]…
My guess:
Lightening essentially future-proofs the wire connection by:
– Making it configurable and private
– Putting smart modules on either end
It can be one speed and set of protocols now, and something else in the future. Both ends negotiate the protocol and wire assignments. You could even switch a pair of wires to be cheap analog, while the rest do serial, or USB data, or Thunderbolt in the future. It will be innately backward compatible.
After 10 years of 30-pin, with fixed assignments, this really makes sense, when silicon is cheap, but space is precious, and the technology stays a moving target.
The question isn’t why did they get rid of 30 pins, it’s why they did not simply go with usb.
USB does not support the range of current functionality required, and does not future proof the wire system for new protocols.
For example, the 30-pin supports two data protocols in addition to the deprecated firewire – USB and serial. Both are used in the most expensive iPhone accessories – cars like Mercedes and BMW. The Lightening approach makes it possible to swap the connector cable, and stay compatible with the head unit.
With another module, you can directly support VGA and HDMI. You cannot do that with the USB 2 protocol.
I forgot about current functionality. People would be even more upset if there were no way to adapt the USB to 30-pin accessories as they can do with the new connector. Yet it may still be possible to do it with an active (powered) adapter that expanded the usb to 30-pins.
[…] Thunderbolt, on an iPhone 5? ~ I, Cringely […]
How do I take my iPhone 4 and upgrade it to an iPhone 5? Oh, I can’t? You mean that’s the whole idea, to just replace one throw-away device with a new throw-away device? Hmmm, how’s the stock of those coltan processing companies doing?
lam dep da…
[…]Thunderbolt, on an iPhone 5? ~ I, Cringely[…]…
I strongly suspect the the lightning interface has more up its sleeve than USB2.
Current hearsay is the lightning to USB cable has been difficult to duplicate, because there’s an interface IC integrated into the cable. There’s also a fair number of units on the new hand-designed ARM processor that are so-far unidentifiable. An Ars article today stated that the cable itself is setup to dynamically assigns pins.
Does this mean there might be a USB3 enabled cable possible? Probably, even though there’s little reason as on-board flash isnt likely to saturate even the USB2 interface. But knowing apple: displayport is probable, HDMI is possible, and limited capability displayport+data over thunderbolt isn’t unreasonable.
Not quite. It’s the lightning to 30-pin that’s expensive due to the A to D conversion. Both usb and lightning are digital.
That connector is an intriguing twist. My guess would be for tethering the iPhone 5 to devices with a Thunderbolt port – which basically would allow you to tether and stream from the fat-pipe LTE 4G networks the phone supports.
As for the iPhone vs. Android debate, I have both iPhone and Android phones (one for me – one for work). From my own experience (48 year old geek of computer science here – not a youngster by any means), both interfaces have areas where they shine, and areas I find painful. Some examples:
IOS process management and task switching on the iPhone/iPad is effortless and easy – quickly accessible by double-clicking the home key. Android in comparison separates the two – task switching is done through the ‘history’ menu (the right most menu in stock Jelly Bean – or through the settings menu in other versions), and process management is done through the settings menu (luckily there is a widget that allows you to create an icon to go straight to that menu in stock Jelly Bean). Because of the unique way Android applications define resources – supporting services can be launched without you knowing it – simply because an application was compiled with that service defined as a resource – and if those services are too active they can cause things like battery drain, or seemingly slowing down your other active applications as they run. This detail is hidden on the iPhone – and further more tightly controlled via built-in services that are better behaved (because they have to be since they are also servicing the OS). If there isn’t a control for a given feature – you aren’t going to be able to turn it off through the interface – but for that sacrifice you do get a very stable platform.
On the other hand, I like the development environment and control that even stock android (not jail-breaked) provides. You can not only build and deploy your own native Android apps for free wherever you like to as many people as you like – you can also do development on the device itself via ‘AIDE’. A bluetooth keyboard and a Android table – and you don’t need a laptop anymore. IOS, on the other hand, makes development of native apps a very strict affair – although I have seen a few sand-boxed languages that look interesting (python, basic), but am wondering to what extent you can access the underlying file system and other system resources with these? Need more research into this, but I’m leaning towards Android as a better native development platform; the key here to avoiding quirkiness is in the hands of the application developers – and all developers are not alike.
On a related note – I see more free apps for Android that are more than robust enough for my own use; I can’t say the same for IOS (basically I had to pay for more apps on IOS than I did on Android to get equivalent functionality). On the flip side, applications for pay on the Apple App Store seem of better quality than commercial applications on Google Play. For me – this one is a draw.
Finally – ease of accessing files: Android is more like a personal computer in that your have access to your own files to move, copy, and transfer as desired. This is more complicated under IOS – iTunes is required to go between a PC and your device, and I have found over the years this mediated access is clunky. Android, on the other hand, looks like a USB drive – and you can easily move files around the file system as needed in a way that is consistent with interaction methods that have been around for many years.
I would personally like to see the best parts of both Android and IOS put together to form the perfect mobile operating system. But it won’t happen. While it won’t make me ecstatic with joy – there are benefits to Apple’s design philosophy: it just works and for the most part doesn’t do something unexpected. Android, for it’s part, is a playground for developers and techno-geeks – and the interface and systems are catching up quickly with Apple; the right selection of applications with consistent ‘safe’ and/or ‘minimalistic’ service calls and great interface functionality could make it a contender even against Apple. Ultimately, I think there will be room for both in the marketplace as a result of these different design approaches.
Cave.
“stream from the fat-pipe LTE 4G” USB’s theoretical max of 480 mb/s is more than enough to carry the 100 mb/s theoretical max of LTE.
I’ll consider an iPhone when the iTunes “application” for PCs no longer exists.