Apple is *not* giving you a free Lightning-to-30-pin adapter with the iPhone 5 | Hacker News Reader

Apple is not giving you a free Lightning-to-30-pin adapter with the iPhone 5

thenextweb.com

26 pointsnightbrawler26 comments

I get the cord that connects it to my computer, and if you are in Europe you get the mini-usb adaptor. So, it is functional out of the box.

Like adestefan, I am a little more angry about stuff that is not functional out-of-the-box like printers and monitors that do not have the cables included. I can see if it is a wireless printer then ok.

Do you mean that in europe we get the mini-usb adaptor in the box for free? That's not what I understood.

My understanding is that the mini-usb adapter exists solely to appease an EU standard. Apple didn't want to make this adapter, they only make them so they can comply with regulations when selling their phone.

It looks like the initial it will be in the box has been replaced with buying it separately. That is a major bummer. I swear I saw the included free somewhere to comply with the law.

I would be more surprised if they did. Apple keeps running and doesn't look back: they didn't include an external floppy drive when they axed it. Adapters give the community an excuse not to change. If you're dropping a couple hundred on a phone and you have a library of old accessories, what's another couple bucks?

Is this surprising it anyone?

I'm more incensed about printers that don't come with cables and I'm amazed that monitors still ship with DVI cables.

Edit: now that I think about it I wouldn't even need one of the adapters even though I've had an iPhone since 2007. The only thing I ever use the 30-pin port for is to charge.

"Things it won't do: Utilize iPod Out, a relatively little used feature that allows transference of the iPod or iPhone’s music controls to an external screen or buttons, like the one in a car or on some home audio systems."

That is really disappointing. We recently bought a BMW X3 with the BMW Apps option, which allows us to control Pandora through the iDrive interface. That was a significant factor in paying for a rather expensive option package.

It's kind of disappointing that Apple wouldn't consider that when updating their devices. Hopefully BMW is able to provide an update that accommodates the change in connector, but I'm not terribly optimistic. Embedded hardware is usually pretty "static" in terms of interface capability.

We all get burned by Apple's complete disregard for interoperability in different ways.

Sometimes it's iTunes, sometimes it's the dock connector, or maybe it's AirPlay, or AAC, or the App Store, or their onerous EULAs, and so on.

I find it amusing that Apple gets away with as much as they do. People used to gnash their teeth and wail at Microsoft for nothing more than adding non-standard functionality to their web browser. Times have changed.

You don't have to upgrade to the iPhone 5. If you keep your existing phone, you won't have a problem. It sucks, but it's not like it will break your existing setup.

Why should they? It seems like a ridiculous thing to be angry about.

I think many people are angry because it appeared that Apple would include the adapter at first, but later retracted the statement on the website. Had they not mentioned the "free adapter" in the first place, there may have been less angst. Its like telling a kid he will get free candy, then saying "oh, it was a mistake. No free candy."

I'm not really surprised. What I really don't understand however, is why they decided to make a new proprietary format instead of using micro USB like everybody else.

So far I could excuse the 30 pin connector, back when they made it everybody used their own formats and they probably didn't want to break backward compatibility with all the existing iPod peripherals.

But now they decided to finally change it... for an other proprietary format? And the only advantage it has from what I've seen is that you can plug it both ways. Maybe it's apple way of saying "we're not the average smartphone, we're an iPhone!".

I also wonder what will happen with all the iPhone docks out there. The lightning port seems very small, can it really hold the weight of the phone without breaking easily?

> What I really don't understand however, is why they decided to make a new proprietary format instead of using micro USB like everybody else.

What I don't understand is why you think Apple should be forced to implement a crappy standard instead of creating something that is so obviously much better.

That said, I'm hoping that Apple will release a plate-shaped adapter for existing 30 pin dock devices.

What the EU did with the standardisation of connectors was a good thing for consumers. I'm not really sure why someone would side with Apple in this respect, other than if you own shares in the business, work for them, for a supplier etc.

I also side with them as a consumer who frequently connects cables to devices, and therefore knows that micro-usb sucks balls.

If I was an Apple shareholder I would have wanted them to stick with the 30 pin connector; as much as Lightning should greatly improve usability, Apple have so much marketplace inertia stored in the 30 pin accessory market, and they're going to lose all of it overnight.

See that awesome fancy speaker dock? Chances are it's got a 30 pin connector on it. That's not going to be the case in 18 months. And I bet less than half of the speaker dock market is Lightning by then; the rest will be neither.

That's correct. I enjoy getting rid of bunch of different cables. Now 1 plug and 1 micro-USB cable can charge all phones, tablets and e-readers in house.

Because it limits innovation. What if there was a law that was enacted in the 1970s that mandated every video interconnect must be a single RCA cable?

It's about being able to get accessory makers to pay licensing fees and sue the ones who don't for patent infringement.

Do you work for Samsung, by any chance?

Basically, micro-USB is non-reversible, non-elegant, not customizable enough and not powerful enough to charge an iPad.

> What I really don't understand however, is why they decided to make a new proprietary format instead of using micro USB like everybody else.

Is getting an extra couple billion dollars in profit really that hard to understand?

I enjoy Apple products a lot. The details of this new connector look great and I'm glad to be rid of the dock connector.

However I think the $30 price tag is out of line. They only charge $10 for the magsafe 2 adapter* which is more inline with my irrational sense of 'what is resonable' on pricing. In other words I don't resent $10 for an adapter, but do resent $30.

*I recognize that there may be more components for the dock adapter vs. magsafe 2.

napierzaza, your account was hellbanned 235 days ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3499098

How can they give up on $100M or so, who can justify that. I mean from a biz perspective they don't have any reason to give that money up, and it is not something new, they had a hard time giving bumpers to people when there was that whole fiasco with the death grip as well.

I am not surprised at all. Recession is hard for everyone, even for a $600bn company ;-) I am sure this adapter costs them around 50c to build.

Sorry for the lack of content here but I think the frustration of this got nailed:

http://www.b3tards.com/u/037e58b9e054b3c8dd7b/milksheep.jpg

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