It’s a story as old as time: each and every year, the existing year’s new iPhone crop is still months away from reveal and launch, yet the rumor mill’s insatiable appetite for news is biting. feverishly what’s happening with next year’s new iPhones. . Technology is about futurism.
Apple hasn’t announced the iPhone 14 yet, the iPhone 15 fuss is there.
Venerable source chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in a note earlier this month that the 2023 iPhone will be transferred from Lightning to USB-C, according to 9to5 Mac. Kuo’s claim was corroborated by Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, himself a Mac 9to5 alumnus, who reported that Apple is “testing long-lasting iPhone models” with a USB-C connector instead of Lightning. The aforementioned iPhone 14 will continue with Lightning, he added. And it’s not just the iPhone that’s replacing: Kuo followed up on his iPhone 15 scoop and said accessories like airPods and MagSafe battery will also transition to USB-C.
All the nerds have been clamoring for some time now for the iPhone to adopt USB-C, so this news seems to have been sent from the sky. Their preference for replacement is obvious: with iPads and MacBooks equipped with USB-C ports. , the move of the iPhone and satellite devices like AirPods means Apple’s product lines will have a unified strength history. A thin cable can qualify a litany of devices. It’s great and convenient, nerds say.
It’s certainly convenient, but they’re all rainbows and sunshine.
The prolonged preference for one cable to govern them all has one significant but underestimated disadvantage: accessibility. However, a moderate preference for convenience (and knowledge transfer), USB-C is a relatively bad solution if you’re a nerd (like me) who has suboptimal fine motor skills. For someone like me, whose cerebral palsy and low vision make a bad combination for making sensitive paintings like plugging things in, the probably mundane task of charging my iPhone is anything yet. Essentially, the challenge is hand-eye coordination. Think of it as what special educational circles call task analysis: you have to use your eyes and hands to plug the USB-C connector into the port and push it. Visually locate the port on the theoretical iPhone while using your hands to look at the cable through it. On the other hand, pulling out a USB-C (or Lightning) cable demands a motor point and muscle tone that not everyone has. And even if they do, that doesn’t necessarily mean plugging in or unplugging things is easy.
That is precisely the point with the total argument of “iPhone wants USB-C”: the truth is that it is far from trivial for a disabled (or multi-disabled) user to competently carry out this type of task. Your phone’s battery has only a limited amount of power, after all. If it dies and you want your device, you pass the proverbial current without a paddle.
And yes, Lightning has precisely the same thing in terms of engine.
In the case of the iPhone, charging Qi doesn’t solve the challenge; he avoids it. Yes, you can rate your phone at the time, but challenges persist that employ nerds’ beloved USB-C port. The challenge will have to be solved, not just tolerated for reasons of convenience or modernity. Genuine innovation wouldn’t be if Apple put a USB-C port on the iPhone and call it one day. The company likes to show off its mechanical engineering prowess and, to paraphrase Tim Cook, likes to solve those kinds of challenges. It’s what they do best, he says.
In what is a modest proposal, my suggestion on how Apple can solve the inaccessibility of USB-C is to turn to MagSafe. Specifically, MagSafe on the MacBook Pro. La real innovation would be to miniaturize the laptop’s charging formula to make it work. On the iPhone. Merging MagSafe with USB-C would be an instant game changer; the magnets would do the big task of aligning, as is the case when you hold the MagSafe charger close to the edge of the computer. Harnessing magnetic force in this way accomplishes two things: it provides nerds with their coveted USB-C iPhone and makes it available to the less gifted among us. Disabled nerds can have our cake and eat it too.
I’m not a commercial designer or engineer, but while USB-C magnetic ports are possible even remotely, Apple is the only company with the experience and resources to perceive it. When it comes to standardization, whether Apple is magnetized or not. The USB-C solution works with the broader industrial ecosystem, no matter here. If you are an avid iPhone user, and millions of other people are, then being forced to use a proprietary cable to qualify your device(s) is a valid option. compromise if the choice is an inaccessible adventure full of friction. Their technological libertarian ideologies do not want to be applied in this context.
The ethic of this story is, like beauty, to crave USB-C for undeniable convenience that is only coming to the surface. Lightning, like the 30-pin iPod connector of yesteryear, has been with us for up to a decade with the Same Challenges for Other People with Disabilities. Philosophically, there’s nothing with Apple that moves away from Lightning to USB-C. The challenge lies in the fact that most tech illuminati don’t recognize how USB-C can advance significantly. and more adoptable than crying over consolidation. Not everyone who uses USB-C has impeccable fine motor skills. As I have said many times in this space, the privilege of other people with disabilities is real.
I hope Kuo’s report is more than just a regular USB-C.