The Foolproof Dock Connector | Hacker News Reader

The Foolproof Dock Connector

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36 pointsdwynings25 comments

The current dock connector does more than just make a power and data connection for an iDevice. It's about ergonomics, usability, and usefulness.

Ever try plugging in a USB connector, or god forbid, a micro-USB connector in the dark? In a moving car? In the pocket of a jacket? Matching up a small plug with a small hole, especially when you can't see what you're doing, is maddening. The 30-pin dock connector's size and shape, and the forgiving nature of its connection to a device, make it exceedingly easy to connect, even when you're fumbling with it out of sight.

Another benefit the current dock connector has is the locking mechanism. It's easy to squeeze the sides and unlock it, but when it's in place, it's strong enough to lift the weight of an iPhone or an iPod—something that's useful when your small device falls behind a table, or a desk, or the center console of a car.

It could do with being symmetrical, that's true. I'd like to see that improvement. I hope whatever new connector arrives to make all our existing accessories obsolete, at least it maintains the physical benefits of the current 30-pin.

> Another benefit the current dock connector has is the locking mechanism. It's easy to squeeze the sides and unlock it, but when it's in place, it's strong enough to lift the weight of an iPhone or an iPod—something that's useful when your small device falls behind a table, or a desk, or the center console of a car.

The locking mechanism is long-gone on recent Apple cables. It just "clicks" in, but not as strongly as the old style connector with the squeezy sides. I certainly wouldn't try to hold my phone up by it.

Just tested it with a 3G. I can shake the cord around a good bit without any loosening.

I've never had an issue plugging in micro-usb chargers in the dark at all, in fact I find it easier than doing the same for my iPad. I think it may be more subjective than objective.

I was always amazed that USB wasn't either dual sided or at least designed with a recognizable top and bottom (without having to look inside). Even micro-usb isn't easily recognizable which direction it is supposed to go in.

It's a small detail, but an important one. I completely disagree with everybody who raves about the importance of the mag-safe connector, I've never had a problem with the standard round port connector of my pc's, but this design is a huge improvement.

Actually they did, in USB 1.1 spec. 6.5.1: "The USB Icon is embossed, in a recessed area, on the topside of the USB plug. This provides easy user recognition and facilitates alignment during the mating process."

So... which side is the topside of the USB port?

That might be easy to figure out on a laptop but on an AC-charger? A workstation? A lot of ports are sideways.

And, the ports on my monitor are, by any conceivable scenario, rotated 180 degrees from what they should be (they are on the side and "up" in that scenario is facing away from me, towards the wall).

Stuff like this requires consistency so that you can trust your instinct, USB have failed miserably in this regard.

The microUSB ports on my Droids are USB-stamp away from the display. The ports on my Nook and Nexus are USB-stamp towards the display.

The "top" is the part with a gap on the A end, and the narrow side on the B end.

MiniUSB wasn't too bad; it's somewhat easy to figure out which end is up solely by touch. Not only is that nearly impossible with micro, OEM's can't seem to agree on "up". Samsung and Nokia goes with wide side down; HTC and Asus (on the N7, their other tablets use a custom dockplug) have wide side up. And just for fun, on the USB cable with my backup drive, WD decided to defy the spec and put their logo on the top side; and the USB logo on the bottom.

And the Apple dockplug is even worse IMHO; besides looking near-identical on both sides, the cable with my iPad 3 printed the logo so lightly it's quicker to guess vs. trying to find it.

> I completely disagree with everybody who raves about the importance of the mag-safe connector, I've never had a problem with the standard round port connector of my pc's

The advantage to the mag-safe connector is not evident at first. It only becomes evident when one day you are using your laptop while it is connected to the power cable, and someone else trips over/steps on/moves a chair in a way that eventually yanks on the far end of the power cable. Only once you see that happen in real life (to yourself or someone else) do you truly appreciate the advantage of the mag-safe connector.

In 2002, a coworker who was late to a meeting and running through the office caught his leg on the non-MagSafe power cable for my iBook resulting in it slamming against a filing cabinet so hard that it both cracked the case, and started breifly, but literally, smoking. That was the end of that laptop.

I firmly believe in MagSafe.

I've only ever had my magsafe pop off when I happen to pull it just a hair too far; but it's happily let me yank the laptop+cord off my desk a few times (thankfully, no damage)

Relevant SMBC: http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2388

Also, I don't understand why people always applaud the use of micro-usb. I have NEVER seen a single plug that didn't lose its ability to hold onto the slot after a month or so.

Long term, the main point of failure for me is always the outer rubberized cable layer starting to fray near the connector. It happens to my iPhone connectors, and annoyingly even on my more expensive power adapter cord.

Why do we need another connector? This is a FU to existing apple dock device owners and an FU to ETSI (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETSI).

It's like Sony with Memory Stick, minidisc, betamax, blueray (the exception) etc.

I don't know about Memory stick, i've never used one but Minidisc and betamax were a better design than the things they were competing against but they didn't catch on or where quickly superseded by newer generation technology.

This dock connector is a better design than microUSB and the existing dock connector. As to ETSI, MicroUSB is pretty flimsy, why not have a better design?

I've heard that the MicroUSB connector was designed to be flimsy so that if anything wore out it would be the cheap replaceable cable rather than the expensive device. From this blog article it would appear this new design does this backwards: "The solid parts are stronger because they’re solid. The flexible parts are weaker because they can move. Because the flexible parts are weaker, you want to make sure they are recessed so they can be protected."

It's probably several things:

- USB plugs are not double sided, leading to confusion when plugging them in, and often resulting in material fatigue because people force to plug them in the wrong way (iPhones are plugged in much more often than - say - a USB mouse that stays connected most of the time).

- USB plugs are either a host or slave, not both. On an iPhone, the dock connector needs be both: slave (when connected to a PC) or host (when a USB camera is connected through the camera connection kit).

- expected functionality through form factor: this plug will provide audio in + out, video in + out, playback controls etc. Normal USB plugs don't guarantee that functionality. Some cars have a generic USB plug to connect to generic USB storage devices to play MP3s from - now those owners might expect the next iPhone to be compatible with them - but these cars with the generic USB plugs might not understand audio over USB. Other cars in the future might contain your proposed next generation iPhone USB plug, leading people to expect that they can connect any USB device and transfer audio over it.

The second point is not true, USB OTG (on-the-go) supports both.

Why can't the circuit be smart enough to detect the orientation of how the plug is inserted without the need to double the number of pins? Manufacturers are looking to cut costs wherever they can and given the choice between whether to make these things easier to handle for consumer or making them buy a new cable that wears out faster, I'm sadly going with them leaning towards the latter.

If "we" are "people who buy Apple products", then "we" want Apple to design their own connectors because their tightly controlled accessory ecosystem has resulted in convenient and dependable third party products. Not unlike the situation with apps from their apps store. Not everyone gets to throw anything they want in there - and that does have its downsides. But it also has its benefits. Benefits that "we" have voted for, with our dollars, time and again.

Now, if "we" are "consumers in general", "we" can simply choose not to buy Apple products if we don't like them. "We" are free to find someone else who adheres to standards and see what an ecosystem of standards-based products looks like. And surely "we" know by now that Apple is going to make its own connectors whenever it likes. So this is no real surprise.

With new wireless technologies like NFC and Wi-Fi Direct, shouldn't we be moving away from proprietary connectors?

You need to charge it. Wireless inductive charging is less efficient due to the power lost through resistive heating. Heat dissipation is already a problem when charing batteries. Also, cables are still much faster than wifi for transferring lots of data.

#d7e8e0

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