iPhone 15's USB-C Port Remains Limited to Lightning Speeds (www.macrumors.com)
from tst123@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 2023 19:57
https://lemmy.world/post/4939054

#technology

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circuscritic@lemmy.ca on 12 Sep 2023 20:27 next collapse

Is this because it’s a last minute design change of just the port, but they opted to also change out the USB controller on the pros?

Or is this their new “16gb vs 128gb” upsell strategy?

HurlingDurling@lemm.ee on 12 Sep 2023 20:32 next collapse

It’s their, use iCloud for data transfer instead of usb strategy

makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml on 12 Sep 2023 21:14 next collapse

All that sweet, sweet data

ripcord@kbin.social on 12 Sep 2023 22:38 collapse

Or, you know, wifi.

Telodzrum@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 2023 22:48 next collapse

WiFi is basically dialup compared to USB 3.1 speeds.

ripcord@kbin.social on 12 Sep 2023 23:42 collapse

But much faster than USB 2.0.

You're not going to transfer much at faster than wifi speeds for very long on a phone.

lud@lemm.ee on 12 Sep 2023 23:54 collapse

Yes, that’s why it’s bad that it’s 2.0.

ripcord@kbin.social on 13 Sep 2023 03:47 collapse

...but doesn't matter very much.

realitista@lemm.ee on 13 Sep 2023 00:03 collapse

Man I tried wifi syncing for quite a while and had nothing but problems with it. It was a disaster.

LazaroFilm@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 2023 20:33 next collapse

They may have had a contract for a certain number of chips for lightning and they’re using them in the lower iPhones instead of taking a loss.

gregorum@lemm.ee on 12 Sep 2023 20:56 next collapse

They also may simply not have had enough supply of chips for the newer iPhones

LazaroFilm@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 2023 22:33 collapse

That too. But likely just engineered premium.

TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 2023 22:57 collapse

The old chips are on a larger node and cheaper to make. They are reserving the expensive chips for the expensive phone to save margin.

lustrum@sh.itjust.works on 12 Sep 2023 20:37 next collapse

Based on the presentation it seems like the USB3 controller is on-die for the A17 pro bionic chip. So rather than re-engineer the chip for the A16 they’ve shipped it on the cheap, they could add an external controller or re-engineer the die.

I’d bet next year all iphone models are USB3.

krische@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 2023 21:29 next collapse

People will hate it, but it’s a very logical explanation

synthy@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 2023 22:13 collapse

Maybe I’m lost but why will people hate it?

krische@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 2023 22:58 collapse

Because people would probably rather believe it’s some conspiracy by Apple to purposely nerf the cheaper iPhone.

synthy@lemmy.world on 13 Sep 2023 00:29 collapse

Ah. Well if I’m not mistaken Lemmy is mostly Android / FOSS biased so I’m not surprised some people might have the “Apple bad” mindset. Honestly why do people care what products other people use? I read a comment the other day about an Android user despairing that some feature Google is implementing (don’t remember which) might make some Android users jump ship to Apple… Ok who cares? Why so much emotional investment in something so trivial? It sounds just as crazy when you flip it, “Oh no some of my Apple friends are switching to Android or PC” …. A phone is an everyday appliance. Do you care what brand your neighbor’s kitchen appliances are? That’s how you should feel about phones IMHO.

Kirca@lemmy.world on 13 Sep 2023 03:58 next collapse

It’s not quite that simple when you’re talking about a company with huge market share like that because the decisions they make go on to effect the market as a whole, look at headphone jacks, or screen notches for example. Not saying this is only apples fault, companies following their lead are just as bad or worse in some cases.

We can see it happening again with the removal of Sim cards, sure it won’t effect me, but if it becomes more industry standard, it will; and I like physical Sims (though that argument is not for here).

In my opinion it is important to know and criticize market leaders to try to avoid those changes becoming industry norm. To use your example, I would care about what whiteware my neighbours buy if the shitty decisions they make come back to effect me down the road. Look at the criticism of smart TVs and how hard it is to get a top featured “dumb Tvs” now.

timicin@lemmygrad.ml on 13 Sep 2023 04:18 collapse

Ah. Well if I’m not mistaken Lemmy is mostly Android / FOSS biased so I’m not surprised some people might have the “Apple bad” mindset. Honestly why do people care what products other people use? I read a comment the other day about an Android user despairing that some feature Google is implementing (don’t remember which) might make some Android users jump ship to Apple… Ok who cares? Why so much emotional investment in something so trivial? It sounds just as crazy when you flip it, “Oh no some of my Apple friends are switching to Android or PC” …. A phone is an everyday appliance. Do you care what brand your neighbor’s kitchen appliances are? That’s how you should feel about phones IMHO.

iphones are status symbols so they get to be ascribed w the same emotional irrationality that other status symbols get like cars and clothes.

GrayBoltWolf@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 2023 21:42 next collapse

Except several (non M1 iPads) have USB 3.1 already….

[deleted] on 12 Sep 2023 21:50 next collapse

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GrayBoltWolf@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 2023 22:05 collapse

Did you even read my comment?

Several NON-M1 iPads have USB 3.1. Even the iPad mini on the A15 supports usb 3.1.

lustrum@sh.itjust.works on 12 Sep 2023 22:37 collapse

Sorry I missed the “non” part. In that case either they’re using a different die which is definitely possible seeing as they’re clocked lower than the iphone counterparts or they’re utilising an external USB controller.

[deleted] on 13 Sep 2023 00:01 next collapse

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thejml@lemm.ee on 13 Sep 2023 00:53 collapse

I’d have to see a teardown, but I’d imagine with all the extra space in the iPads, they could stick a separate controller board in there. Phones are a bit harder to do that with, especially if it’s a last minute change.

stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca on 12 Sep 2023 22:58 collapse

Yeah it appears like they are differentiating the high end phones with the latest SoC and giving the core phones the previous year’s chip. You get whatever the old chip had and next year’s iPhone 16 will get the A17 and all the features that includes.

realitista@lemm.ee on 13 Sep 2023 00:02 collapse

It’s to force people to pay for iCloud storage rather than keep files locally on their PC. That, and nothing else. No other phone in this price range still has USB 2.0, and most haven’t for a very long time.

stevehobbes@lemmy.world on 13 Sep 2023 00:15 next collapse

I don’t know any Apple users who actually use the cable. iCloud is effortless.

I don’t think it’s so much to force people to pay for storage insomuch as only people shooting 4k 60 long videos or people with very poor internet actually plug in to transfer data.

I would hate plugging my phone into my computer even if it were instant.

HellAwaits@lemm.ee on 13 Sep 2023 01:08 collapse

I would hate plugging my phone into my computer even if it were instant.

Yeah, why would you love doing something that takes literally only two seconds to do? So stupid.

stevehobbes@lemmy.world on 13 Sep 2023 04:33 collapse

Because I have to think about it and remember to do it. And have enough storage in my laptop that it can store all my full res files and bring that with me everywhere.

And hope my laptop doesn’t get stolen again. Or have a plan to back that up.

I currently do literally nothing and all my photos and videos are seamlessly everywhere.

I’m not sure I understand how anyone could think syncing over a cable is a better solution.

iCloud backups and photo sync is amazing, especially while traveling. I can be almost anywhere and break or lose or hVe my phone stolen and lose virtually no data anywhere in the world.

My photos and videos are backed up as soon as I take them, not 12 hours later when I plug into a computer, if I remember to and no one steals it in the hotel room.

klyde@lemmy.world on 13 Sep 2023 02:17 collapse

Typical dumb iPhone user

rootusercyclone@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 2023 21:54 next collapse

I think there are logical explanations for this as commented by others. I’m genuinely curious who’s actually transferring data from the phone port these days… it’s been years since I synced anything to my computer. My port is used solely for charging. What’s the use case? Music?

ripcord@kbin.social on 12 Sep 2023 22:40 next collapse

Even when I sync to a computer, which is never these days, it'd typically just be over wifi.

thisisdee@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 2023 22:43 next collapse

Photos and videos for professionals. These days phone cameras are good enough for at least a backup device and they’ll transfer to laptop using cable. But I’d assume those people are on the iPhone pro models

TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 2023 22:58 next collapse

Anyone using the pro to take raw images or 4k video. The files are huge.

lud@lemm.ee on 12 Sep 2023 23:53 collapse

That one actually supports 3.0 10 GB/s though.

It’s funny how Apple said that 3.0 was really fast and exciting.

Come on apple, it’s just 3.0. The first android phone with 3.0 (I assume 5 GB/s) came out a decade ago.

keeb420@kbin.social on 12 Sep 2023 23:14 next collapse

I do it all the time to pull pictures off my camera to my phone. I can picture other photographers doing the same.

HidingCat@kbin.social on 12 Sep 2023 23:23 next collapse

Music and photos really. But they're not common and you can do that on USB 2 speeds. For me I just take it as an opportunity to slow charge my phone. And I do it so rarely anyway, usually when I'm changing to a new phone.

LucasWaffyWaf@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 2023 23:47 next collapse

Moving large FLAC files onto my phone, and sending music data through USB into an audiophile DAC/amp. The higher the transfer speeds the better when you’re moving gigabytes of data from my computer to my phone.

[deleted] on 13 Sep 2023 00:00 next collapse

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realitista@lemm.ee on 13 Sep 2023 00:01 next collapse

I don’t want to pay for 300gb of overpriced iCloud storage. That’s the use case.

GregoryTheGreat@programming.dev on 13 Sep 2023 03:25 collapse

Are you syncing all of your data off of the phone via the cable and not wifi?

obinice@lemmy.world on 13 Sep 2023 04:08 collapse

Setting up a network file share or FTP server or whatever and the app to access it is muuuch more effort than just plugging my phone in and using it like any other flash storage device, plus USB3 transfer speeds are better.

For me it’s just simpler and less prone to error is all.

FrameXX@discuss.tchncs.de on 13 Sep 2023 04:17 next collapse

For easy fast sharing over local LAN there are services like pairdrop.net which are far from hard to use. It may not be as fast as USB, but in most cases it works well. I just wanted to point out that sharing things over LAN is not that hard.

Even better service is LocalSend.

GregoryTheGreat@programming.dev on 13 Sep 2023 04:36 next collapse

If you are dealing with large amounts of data I get it. I’d go hardwired too. Most people’s use case is “I took some video today and I want to mirror it to my computer”. That doesn’t sound like the case.

How much data are you moving around?

Petter1@lemm.ee on 13 Sep 2023 05:59 next collapse

Lol, you can literally have a simple program running on PC which syncs the phone automatically via WiFi while charging overnight.

realitista@lemm.ee on 13 Sep 2023 08:51 collapse

I struggled with iOS’ Wi-Fi syncing for almost a year before giving up on it. It was garbage (probably also by design to try to force me to pay for overpriced iCloud storage). My use case is to sync photos to the desktop photos app and music to the desktop music app.

Petter1@lemm.ee on 13 Sep 2023 09:29 collapse

Oh, I see typical apple anti trust: make stuff apple don’t like to offer, but kinda have to, very bad to use. Well then, have you tried this? imazing.com

realitista@lemm.ee on 13 Sep 2023 10:25 collapse

Looks very nice. Maybe I will have to try it sometime.

Fortunately my use case doesn’t require frequent syncing, so once every 2-3 months just plugging my phone in when I know I’ll be at my desk at home for a while is enough. It’s shitty but it gets the job done that I need. I always prefer to stick to the native tools where possible just to stay compliant with whatever changes may come in the future.

[deleted] on 13 Sep 2023 15:41 collapse

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[deleted] on 13 Sep 2023 12:13 collapse

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HellAwaits@lemm.ee on 13 Sep 2023 01:07 next collapse

What’s the use case?

Not paying for overpriced cloud storage for one.

drislands@lemmy.world on 13 Sep 2023 02:18 next collapse

I don’t know that there’s a lot of overlap between apple users and people that mind overpaying.

Petter1@lemm.ee on 13 Sep 2023 05:57 collapse

But paying for overpriced device storage then?

sevenapples@lemmygrad.ml on 13 Sep 2023 14:09 collapse

You’re equating monthly cloud storage payments to paying 40$ per TB of external HDD storage?

For reference, 200GB of iCloud storage are 3$/month, so 36$ per year.

Check prices before you make comments like this.

Petter1@lemm.ee on 13 Sep 2023 15:22 collapse

Ah, was more talking about the 100 $ to 200 $ price tag for next storage segment on device, since you’ll have to store all pics in hi-res on device vs only “tiny” thumbnails and getting the full pic on demand.

drdalek13@lemmy.ml on 13 Sep 2023 01:11 next collapse

I work in IT and will often plug in devices to a PC for a variety of reasons (I work with alot of older folks, so “cloud storage” is scary).

The transfer times with iPhone can be pretty appalling.

pup_atlas@pawb.social on 13 Sep 2023 10:44 next collapse

It’s worth noting that wireless transfer does not mean “cloud storage”. It can, and often does, but it is also easy to wirelessly back up things like photos entirely locally. With most prebuilt NAS units, all you have to do is buy something like a synology, some of them even come prefilled with hard drives, and go through the wizard in the app. That’s it, and the app will wirelessly, automatically back up things like pictures to your own locally controlled storage. I’m pretty sure you can do it natively with Time Machine too if you really wanted.

p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 13 Sep 2023 13:41 collapse

(I work with alot of older folks, so “cloud storage” is scary).

Yeah, well, Jennifer Lawrence has a lot to say about Apple’s cloud storage.

Psythik@lemm.ee on 13 Sep 2023 01:37 next collapse

For me it’s because I use my old phones as webcams.

Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works on 13 Sep 2023 02:26 collapse

Only using the cable to sync with my Windows virtual machine with iTunes.

Wouldn’t have it any other way as iCloud isn’t for me.

Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works on 13 Sep 2023 04:50 next collapse

Progression for we (Android), not for thee (iOS).

Petter1@lemm.ee on 13 Sep 2023 05:56 next collapse

You just have to pay a little bit extra to get the speeds (that no one really uses on phones)

amenotef@lemmy.world on 13 Sep 2023 08:23 next collapse

Well I don’t have an original quality cloud backup. So eventually I move the DCIM folder back to my PC.

That being said. I haven’t tried “Nearby” to move a 30GB folder with hundreds of items to the PC. Maybe that works fine already. (For a few items it’s very fast as long as you have a fast WiFi network).

Petter1@lemm.ee on 13 Sep 2023 09:25 next collapse

You can set up backup on PC(or Mac of course) over WiFi. It will then backup your phone overnight where speed is irrelevant.

narendiran@lemmy.world on 13 Sep 2023 14:30 collapse

I have syncthing setup to sync DCIM folder to PC over WiFi

Afiefh@lemmy.world on 13 Sep 2023 17:49 collapse

I’ll transfer a bunch of audio books to and from my phone every once in a while. Since they are FLAC files I certainly do appreciate the additional speed from having a protocol that’s not yet old enough to drink.

And in case someone missed the reference: USB 2.0 was released in the year 2000.

Petter1@lemm.ee on 15 Sep 2023 07:00 collapse

😄do you really believe that there are more than 1 percent of iPhone users who sync stuff like you do? (Which don’t use a iPhone pro anyway)

Afiefh@lemmy.world on 16 Sep 2023 06:09 collapse

Probably. Especially with phone cameras becoming so good that we now need to transfer multi GB video files.

nathris@lemmy.ca on 13 Sep 2023 12:48 collapse

The first USB-C Android phones were also only USB 2.0.

Although that was 8 years ago, when USB 3 was only just starting to become commonplace.

FlyingSquid@lemmy.world on 13 Sep 2023 09:46 next collapse

I just upgraded to a 13 from my XR with a dying battery, and while I’m glad overall that Apple has adopted USB-C, I’m glad it started at the 15 so I don’t have to buy a bunch of new cables and bricks. I have 5 cables- 1 in the house as a data cable, 2 in the house as charge cables, 1 in the car and 1 at work. Some of them are longer than others. I don’t want to have to repurchase all of that.

But if you already are part of the USB-C ecosystem, absolutely. That said- this speed limiting thing is bullshit.

Aatube@kbin.social on 13 Sep 2023 14:47 collapse

Just in case anyone has the wrong idea: it’s not artificial limiting, it’s the max 2.0 speed

Afiefh@lemmy.world on 13 Sep 2023 17:51 collapse

To be fair, usb3 has been around since 2008. Surely apple could have afforded to pay 3 more cents per phone to support that.

Aatube@kbin.social on 13 Sep 2023 18:11 collapse

Yes, I’m just saying that it’s not really an artificial limitation just corporate greed

Rooki@lemmy.world on 13 Sep 2023 10:37 collapse

It was just announced so, in the background its up to normal speed.