iPhone 15 Models Have 'Completely Standard' USB-C Port Without Restrictions on Accessories

3 years ago by L4sBot to c/technology

iPhone 15 Models Have 'Completely Standard' USB-C Port Without Restrictions on Accessories::Apple's new iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max are equipped with a "completely standard" USB-C port without...

Metal_Zealot 43 points 3 years ago

"W00T, THE BARE MINIMUM, TAKE THAT GOOGLE" *Apple fans, still stuck, like, in 2017

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Rootiest 28 points 3 years ago

What really blows my mind is not that the lower-end models have USB2.0 speeds, but that all iPhones always have in the past.

Lighting truly was ancient.

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narc0tic_bird 13 points 3 years ago

Apple actually upgraded Lightning to USB 3.0 speeds for the first (and second?) generation iPad Pro. There's a official USB 3 "camera adapter" (essentially a Lightning to USB-A + Lightning passthrough for charging dongle) that works with these iPads at 3.0 speeds.

That was a very short run though, I don't even think Apple ever released a Lightning to USB-A/C cable with 3.0 speeds.

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Rootiest 3 points 3 years ago

Neat I didn't know that

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narc0tic_bird 14 points 3 years ago

Of course the top comment is some "Apple vs. Google" garbage.

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Metal_Zealot -22 points 3 years ago

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lando55 7 points 3 years ago

I don't think having a desire to elevate the level of discussion beyond, "Haha fuck you Apple!" and rather focus on the technology and its ramifications qualifies as bitter fanboy-ism.

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Metal_Zealot -3 points 3 years ago

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evident5051 9 points 3 years ago

I can't say that I've seen any comment like this where the user wasn't being sarcastic.

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SpaceNoodle 7 points 3 years ago

Are you a robot?

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evident5051 13 points 3 years ago

I hope not, otherwise I have been charging myself the wrong way for decades!

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orca 7 points 3 years ago

It says “bot” next to your username for me in the Lemmy app. I think that’s why they asked lol. Beep boop

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red 2 points 3 years ago

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abcd 27 points 3 years ago

For now…

Also the article states the lower price models will get 480Mbits, the more expensive ones will get 10Gbits. There is your artificial limitation. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the same hardware inside

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alphapuggle 66 points 3 years ago

Older chip doesn't have a 3.0 controller. While disappointing, not really an artificial limit

(Android fan btw)

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lustrum -9 points 3 years ago

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gila -9 points 3 years ago

The cost difference to a 3.2 controller is trivial. It's an arbitrary limitation to differentiate it from the Pro model. They are capitalising on the work done by USB-IF to improve the spec in a way no other member would dream of

Edit: Thanks for telling me about how a $1000+ flagship phone shipping with industry subpar connectivity is OK because they used the SoC from last gen. Truly a revelation.

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KairuByte 41 points 3 years ago

The difference isn’t just upgrading to a 3.2 controller, it’s literally a different chip. The A16 vs the A17. Unless you’re suggesting they add a secondary controller to the board? Which doesn’t actually work, since the A16 wouldn’t be able to support the speed difference, so you’d have a 3.2 controller locked down to 2.0 specs anyway.

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nbafantest 24 points 3 years ago

You ever see a comment that is so clearly ignorant. It just makes you shake your head.... congrats my friend

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SirEDCaLot 10 points 3 years ago

Crack open an iPhone sometime. The mainboard is a tiny little thing with only a couple of chips on it. In general- CPU, storage, RAM, baseband (cellular radio). Sure they could add a USB 3.2 controller, but that's another chip sucking power and taking board space, increasing BoM cost, and since most iPhone users never plug their phone into a computer it'd be wasted.

So they use the USB controller built into the SoC (system on chip), and with the old chip that's 2.0 only.
Guess they must have a surplus of A16 chips and/or the A17 is proving expensive to make.

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LifeInOregon 6 points 3 years ago

The controller is a part of the SoC. It would be a completely different SoC, not just an additional controller. The SoC in the 15 is essentially the 14 Pro SoC. Possibly binned from last year’s production line.

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gila 1 point 3 years ago

It's like you're making all these connections and then still coming to the conclusion that my premise is false. Yeah, the 2.0 controller is bad, because the choices Apple made to design the iPhone 15 SoC weren't about bringing new features to users. They are about posturing features in a particular way for business reasons. Churning through models means each year they need new features to sell. They need to introduce compelling new features at a faster rate than they are being developed, so they drip-feed them instead. And if you actually care about getting the baseline i/o upgrades on new models you'd get from literally any other manufacturer, you have to buy a Pro.

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tristan 2 points 3 years ago

Not just that, lightning was a similar speed to usb2. It's in their interest to make the pro look like an upgrade rather than highlight just how bad the lightning was really for the consumer

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SirEDCaLot 7 points 3 years ago

Lightning WAS usb2. Like, USB 2.0 signalling was present on some of the pins on the Lightning port. Since USB 2.0 only needed two data wires that was easy to do.

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TheMadnessKing 7 points 3 years ago

Well, they decided to stick to USB 2 instead of USB 3.2 for their base model, despite the high cost of the phone.

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NeoNachtwaechter 14 points 3 years ago

Why do all iphone articles currently have this picture of a toilet seat?

:-)

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IDew 8 points 3 years ago

I cannot unsee this now lmfao

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steven 13 points 3 years ago

But how many people actually use this port for data transfer in uses cases where speed is vital? I haven’t transferred anything to my iPhone by cable since 2015 or something.

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eee 10 points 3 years ago

Actually that's one of the frustrations I had with my old iphone. I don't want to install itunes and sync stuff, I just want to connect my phone and transfer that one file from my friend's computer.

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Natanael 8 points 3 years ago

With Android you can transfer data to a new phone over a direct USB C to C cable connection

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Madeyro 7 points 3 years ago

I for example loathe every time I need to do some kind of file transfer for my wifes iPhone, and I have a macbook from work.

Just let me open the phone and do my thing. No, you have to have everything in sync everywhere.

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anlumo 11 points 3 years ago

The bigger question is, will developers be able to talk to their USB-C equipment without an MFi chip?

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Natanael 12 points 3 years ago

Yup, the ability to connect stuff and power it means very little if Apple doesn't let you interact with it, they still have full control over drivers and APIs

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echoplex21 5 points 3 years ago

So no more MFI badges on accessories?

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SulaymanF 7 points 3 years ago

As the report notes, it is still possible that Apple will launch a "Made for iPhone" certification program for iPhone accessories with a USB-C port, but it appears that uncertified accessories will work just fine with the devices.

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Cookie1990 5 points 3 years ago

Linus from LTT had a good idea where this comes from, the Apple Silicon in this generation of iPhone doesnt have a better usb controler. That could explain it, the time from defining a cpu to the first device are 4-5 years.

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Player2 4 points 3 years ago

Surely with all the space they saved by removing the headphone port, they could get a controller in there

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Natanael 2 points 3 years ago

It's not just the controller, it's the bandwidth to the CPU too. The old controller was limited to USB 2 speeds and Apple probably wasn't planning to expose more on that port.

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InvertedParallax 2 points 3 years ago

They're using an apb node of the main axi bus, they need to promote usb to a full axi node or put it on a faster clocked apb node.

Power Islanding, but also the IP isn't drop in, if they're using synopsys there's a few changes they have to make, it's a much bigger block.

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possiblylinux127 2 points 3 years ago

Still no thunderbolt

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