It has been announced the new iPhone 5 will have a smaller 19 pin connector on the bottom, replacing the 30 pin connector in all previous models.
http://www.awesome-robo.com/2012/06/apple-iphone-5-19-pin-scheme.html
Presumably it will come with its own charger, and as for legacy accessories, I’m assuming (unless there is some technical reason it cannot be done) some enterprising company will quickly begin selling 19-to-30-pin adapters.
I think an accessory would just add bulk to the bottom of it, preventing use in a speaker dock in which an iPhone already fits snugly enough.
Awesome-robo?
Only if by “announced” you mean “speculated on by an obscure website on a topic that is certain to get page-views”.
I tracked down the original source. And OK, it may still just be a rumor at this stage. But Tech Crunch said that they have independent confirmation from three different manufacturers. This seems credible to me.
Yeah, I did a little digging as well. Could be true. It’s so stupid - why not just go with micro-USB? Or hell, HDMI-mini!? Nope, they have to go with proprietary. Oh well - I always need to order stuff at monoprice.com at some point.
It’s entirely a rumor at this stage and will remain so until Apple makes an official announcement. There were lots of rumors about the 4S that didn’t come to pass.
That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were true. Some accessories will become obsolete but others will have cleverly designed adapters offered by Apple or third party vendors.
Exactly. Those cables that go from USB to iPhone that cost $20 at the Apple store are like $1.20 from Monoprice and ship from Southern California in the US Mail.
They could start by not making the insulation on the charger cables out of cheese (or at least use one of the harder cheeses, rather than Brie).
Monoprice rocks. Why can’t *they *design the iPhone?
They’re not designers. I would like to see their $60 version of an iPhone clone though.
Heh. Just looked at a clear polycarbonate case for the iPhone 4/4S on Monoprice, which sells for 86 cents. “iPhone not included!” it warns.
Sadly, that’s probably necessary.
There’s an article about the 19-pin connector on Mac Rumors as well, and they do pretty good at getting things right.
O.M.G!
Hasn’t this complaint been answered a million times?
The reason Apple doesn’t use MicroUSB is that MicroUSB doesn’t support Video, Audio, Serial and sense!
Look at the pinout of the iPhone connector:
This connector is one of the reasons the iPod/iPhone has been so successful - it can be plugged into a wide variety of A/V equipment. Try to do that with USB.
Considering that the docking jack I installed to hook my car stereo to my old iPhone 4 doesn’t work with my damned 4S (it charges it but won’t play through the speakers) I can’t work up too much hate about it.
Yet another of the many, many good reasons to avoid Apple like the plague.
One more reason to love love love Apple.
My last cell phone company used the uUSB connector for audio. I had a working prototype of a phone that used it for video out as well…and then my group was let go. I don’t recall if we muxed serial out, but there was no reason we couldn’t have.
I’m not sure what ‘sense’ means here, but I’d be shocked if I couldn’t architect it in as well.
-D/a
Doubtful.
The iPhone outputs real honest-to-god analog stereo and composite video out of it’s dock connector. Which means you can attach it to any A/V equipment in existence. I serious doubt that your µUSB connector was going to do that.