This is already a solved problem. Of course, being an industry standard means there’s no chance in hell that Apple supports it.
Except this isn’t even close to the functionality of the dock connector - that has many other capabilities that this MHL (which I’ve never heard of, BTW) doesn’t.
As for industry standards, do you believe Apple invented Firewire? Or Thunderbolt? Or USB? Or…
I’m not sure it’s an industry standard so much as a couple of the (admittedly huge) companies agreed to use it.
There’s a lot of insight in that word. In this market, you could have 99 companies agree on all using the same port, and that 100th company not…and still have a majority by sales of devices not using the technology, if you catch my drift.
Well, Apple did invent FireWire…
I stand corrected.
Understood; I was just addressing the idea of packing video and USB into the same connector.
If it were up to me, I’d standardize on a set of connectors–perhaps two or three–that were individually standard (microUSB, microHDMI, Thunderbolt, etc.) but with a fixed spacing and flat mounting surface, so that they could be used individually with standard cabling, but were still in a format suitable for a dock connector or common cable format. Apple will never do this of course, for aesthetics if for no other reason.
To be fair, Apple has been better behaved in the desktop market, even if they do pull older connectors faster than I’d like. It’s mostly the phone and tablet market that I don’t think they have an excuse for.
It’s arguable, but to my mind broad cross-industry support implies a standard even if the ink on the standard document isn’t quite dry yet. I’m somewhat reminded of the “Draft N” devices that came out well before the 802.11n standard was complete.
Sure, but those aren’t no-name companies on the list. Android beats iPhone in total sales, even if no one company quite does. Samsung nearly beats Apple in handset sales, though; add HTC and LG to the mix and no one can argue that they don’t have some kind of consensus.
Speaking of which, I have an old 94 Honda Accord that is the most trouble-free car in the world - EXCEPT for the cassette deck, which will no longer work for the iPod adapter. Is there another type of adapter I can use?
There are devices you can plug your iPod/iPhone into and it’ll search for the clearest FM signal, display the station, then you just tune your radio to that. Some work surprisingly well.
Why do you think it won’t work? How does it work now?
Older cars (and their stock stereos) usually lack a mini-jack input or auxiliary input, especially anything pre-2000.
I got the first iPod in 2001 for an old Cougar I was driving at the time, and the headstock didn’t have any inputs. Just a tape cassette and a CD player combo.
But you can buy a tape cassette adapter gizmo that inserts into the deck and interfaces with the play head with a mini-jack cord hanging out, so you can jack into a portable CD player, and that’s what I used with the iPod for that car.
I’m assuming that’s how he’s been feeding the music into his system, if it’s still an old stereo.
Otherwise, your options are: an FM MP3 transmitter, a male/male mini-jack cable if your audio system has aux, and some more modern audio systems have Bluetooth syncing/streaming (and even several GB hard drives).
I had been using the cassette adapter, but for some reason, now whenever I push the cassette in, it constantly “flips sides”, which stops the iPod playback. I did get the FM transmitter, but apparently here in the Seattle area we have great reception, and the transmitter can’t find an empty station that’ll last for more than a few blocks. No other aux jack available - I think I might be stuck with getting a new stereo for the car. But thanks for the info - I appreciate the effort. I guess I was hoping there might be some sort of adapter that worked through the cigarette lighter. Somehow I have a vague memory of something that worked like that…
The Cigarette lighter adaptor is nothing more than power for an FM transmitter, so you’d be in the same boat. I’m not sure if it’s a solution for you (since cost seems to be paramount), but they make FM radio transmitters that sit inline with the Radio antenna itself. Quality is excellent, and you don’t have to worry about strong local stations drowning it out.