Apple marks Lightning-to-USB Camera Adapter as officially iPhone-compatible

AppleInsider

Apple on Tuesday updated its product page for the Lightning-to-USB Camera Adapter to officially include iPhone support, extending it beyond the iPad use the accessory was originally designed for.

Priced at $29, the adapter supports every iPhone from the iPhone 5 through to the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. iPad compatibility stretches from the first Retina iPad all the way to the iPad Pro.

iPhone support was actually added with the release of iOS 9.2 earlier this month, but until now Apple's online store didn't make mention of the change.

On the same day, Apple also released a Lightning-to-SD Card Camera Reader which included not just iPhone compatibility but also USB 3.0 speeds when connected to an iPad Pro. The Pro is the only iOS device with USB 3.0 technology, albeit still embedded in Apple's proprietary Lightning port.

Adding iPhone support to camera accessories may be an acknowledgment that larger screens and storage space have made iPhones more practical for storing photos, particularly when traveling.

Prof_Peabody

Unless they've changed something internally this has always been the case hasn't it?  I distinctly remember using these things with iPhones years ago.  

zroger73

I've been using this adapter since before iOS 9.2 on my iPhone and iPad in order use my digital piano with GarageBand.

lowededwookie

The emphasis word is "officially" people. This is quite good news actually because it means I should be able to use basic USB barcode readers on my iPhone. The imaging devices it won't work with because they require too much power but the standard laser barcode readers work fine.

Soli

Many interesting things are happening with their adapters—essentially they are putting more engineering focus on them, it seems—so I suspect we'll start seeng some radical changes in 2016. This would back up the rumour that the 3.5mm jack is going away, and USB 3.0 support will be coming for Lightning. 

Personally, I think the Lightning port will be the new connector for their headphones, but I am not sure if they will be the DAC in the phones or have a smart chip in, on, or near the Lighting-USB control to adjust pins from digital to audio within the iPhone itself. I would argue this comes down to complexity, quality, and cost (doesn't everything?), I just don't know how feasible that is at this point; nor have I seen a patent about an intelligent mechanism for this sort of pin exchange for this to work. From their PoV, they would still have a single DAC in each iPhone box, in either scenario.

Additionally, they do appear to have doubled down on their Lightning port. I personally wish they would have gone with USB-C because 1) I like the connector better, and 2) it would still allow the future of headphones to be universal, but I can't see that as a good business move. Even if the profit they make from their MFi program is minimal, by having every accessory being able to use any USB-C port would remove an excessive amount of lock-in for iDevices. You would likely get more accessories to choose from (not that iDevice users are wanting right now), but you would also likely even get 3rd-party manufacturers trying to make universal accessories that no longer perfectly fit just the iPhone or iPad as perfectly as they do now. That's simply not a viable option, IMO, despite my preference for USB-C.

mac_128

Soli said:

Many interesting things are happening with their adapters—essentially they are putting more engineering focus on them, it seems—so I suspect we'll start seeng some radical changes in 2016. This would back up the rumour that the 3.5mm jack is going away, and USB 3.0 support will be coming for Lightning. 

Personally, I think the Lightning port will be the new connector for their headphones, but I am not sure if they will be the DAC in the phones or have a smart chip in, on, or near the Lighting-USB control to adjust pins from digital to audio within the iPhone itself. I would argue this comes down to complexity, quality, and cost (doesn't everything?), I just don't know how feasible that is at this point; nor have I seen a patent about an intelligent mechanism for this sort of pin exchange for this to work. From their PoV, they would still have a single DAC in each iPhone box, in either scenario.

Additionally, they do appear to have doubled down on their Lightning port. I personally wish they would have gone with USB-C because 1) I like the connector better, and 2) it would still allow the future of headphones to be universal, but I can't see that as a good business move. Even if the profit they make from their MFi program is minimal, by having every accessory being able to use any USB-C port would remove an excessive amount of lock-in for iDevices. You would likely get more accessories to choose from (not that iDevice users are wanting right now), but you would also likely even get 3rd-party manufacturers trying to make universal accessories that no longer perfectly fit just the iPhone or iPad as perfectly as they do now. That's simply not a viable option, IMO, despite my preference for USB-C.

There still has to be a DAC in the phone to drive the internal speaker.  It just doesn't have to be as high a quality, essentially only enough to meet the reproduction specs of the speaker. 

But i I agree this is further proof that Apple is doubling down on adapters, and that the 3.5mm headphone Jack is going to start going away soon.

I dont agree greed with you about USB-C. I seriously doubt that the micro-USB connector is going away anytime soon. In other words, there will always be a "mini" connector for the optimally-sized "standard" connector, until the same functionality can be included in the smallest of data connectors. I personally prefer lightning to USB-C for size, durability, and functionality. USB-C seems fragile to me, and poorly designed. Leave it on the desktop where potential damage is minimized. 

tonester

Finally. Yes there are people who still use real cameras and need an easy way to get photos from camera to phone. 

a3dstorm

Soli said:

Many interesting things are happening with their adapters—essentially they are putting more engineering focus on them, it seems—so I suspect we'll start seeng some radical changes in 2016. This would back up the rumour that the 3.5mm jack is going away, and USB 3.0 support will be coming for Lightning. 

Personally, I think the Lightning port will be the new connector for their headphones, but I am not sure if they will be the DAC in the phones or have a smart chip in, on, or near the Lighting-USB control to adjust pins from digital to audio within the iPhone itself. I would argue this comes down to complexity, quality, and cost (doesn't everything?), I just don't know how feasible that is at this point; nor have I seen a patent about an intelligent mechanism for this sort of pin exchange for this to work. From their PoV, they would still have a single DAC in each iPhone box, in either scenario.

Additionally, they do appear to have doubled down on their Lightning port. I personally wish they would have gone with USB-C because 1) I like the connector better, and 2) it would still allow the future of headphones to be universal, but I can't see that as a good business move. Even if the profit they make from their MFi program is minimal, by having every accessory being able to use any USB-C port would remove an excessive amount of lock-in for iDevices. You would likely get more accessories to choose from (not that iDevice users are wanting right now), but you would also likely even get 3rd-party manufacturers trying to make universal accessories that no longer perfectly fit just the iPhone or iPad as perfectly as they do now. That's simply not a viable option, IMO, despite my preference for USB-C.

I don't fully understand your technical comment.  I mean, I have an iphone 5 and I have to physically connect it to my Pioneer AppRadio 4 (CarPlay enabled) in my car. Music from the phone plays through the car's speakers. Isn't that exactly what  headphones with a lightning connector would do ?

jony0

AppleInsider said:

 iPad compatibility stretches from the first Retina iPad all the way to the iPad Pro.

That can't be right, my iPad 3rd gen, the first Retina iPad, doesn't have Lightning, it has the older 30 pin connector. The Lightning connector debuted only the next fall with the 4th gen & my iPad mini.
Missed it by … that much ! — ( Old Get Smart ref )

Edit (add) : Hopefully there will be more power available, as the 30 pin to USB adapter that I bought along with the original iPad and tried many times with the 3rd gen always says there's not enough power for most USB sticks I tried.

Soli

a3dstorm said:

I don't fully understand your technical comment.  I mean, I have an iphone 5 and I have to physically connect it to my Pioneer AppRadio 4 (CarPlay enabled) in my car. Music from the phone plays through the car's speakers. Isn't that exactly what  headphones with a lightning connector would do ?

The DAC for the audio would be in the Pioneer system.

LoneStar88

tonester said:

Finally. Yes there are people who still use real cameras and need an easy way to get photos from camera to phone. 

BOTH my iPhone 6S+ camera and my Canon 6D are real cameras, and I have the iPhone with me almost all the time.

I'm interested to see if the iOS Canon EOS Utility app will work with this adapter, as the WiFi connection is slow and flaky.

pixel19

LoneStar88 said:

tonester said:

Finally. Yes there are people who still use real cameras and need an easy way to get photos from camera to phone. 

BOTH my iPhone 6S+ camera and my Canon 6D are real cameras, and I have the iPhone with me almost all the time.

I'm interested to see if the iOS Canon EOS Utility app will work with this adapter, as the WiFi connection is slow and flaky.

I'm a pro photog and I've been searching for an efficient way to transfer photos from my cameras to my phone. I've been using Wifi cards to transfer pics but they slow down the camera buffering too much to make them a viable option for sports photography and the connection can be rather clunky as well. The problem I have with the Lightning/USB to my phone is that you can't see the photos enlarged to inspect fine details before you download them so if I have a sequence of 5 or 6 photos I have to download them all in order to see the fine details and make a final selection.

shamino

AppleInsider said:

...
On the same day, Apple also released a Lightning-to-SD Card Camera Reader which included not just iPhone compatibility but also USB 3.0 speeds when connected to an iPad Pro. The Pro is the only iOS device with USB 3.0 technology, albeit still embedded in Apple's proprietary Lightning port.

Thank you!  I've been saying for years that Lightening should be able to support USB 3.0, even though Apple hasn't yet shipped an adapter.  This proves that there is sufficient bandwidth, so there's no technical reason why an adapter couldn't be made.

Soli said:

a3dstorm said:

I don't fully understand your technical comment.  I mean, I have an iphone 5 and I have to physically connect it to my Pioneer AppRadio 4 (CarPlay enabled) in my car. Music from the phone plays through the car's speakers. Isn't that exactly what  headphones with a lightning connector would do ?

The DAC for the audio would be in the Pioneer system.

Depends on the car.

Some cars (like my Honda Civic) use USB audio.  My iTHings attach via a Lightening (or Dock, depending on device) USB cable.

Some cars, however (like my wife's Kia Sedona) use analog audio.  The Kia iPod adapter uses a Dock connector, and it separates out USB and audio to two separate connectors.  (The car side of the cable has a proprietary connector that connects to both the USB port and the line-in jack.)  When using phones with Lightening, we use Apple's Lightening-to-Dock adapter cable.  That adapter is providing analog audio on the 30-pin Dock connector.  Whether the iPhone is providing analog audio on the Lightening connector (2 pins for power and ground, 2 for audio, 2 for USB data) or if the adapter is USB-only (including its own DAC) is an interesting question that I don't know the answer to.  Either is technically possible.

In other words, there is precedent for a Lightening connector to drive either USB-audio or analog audio, through use of appropriate adapters/cables.  A set of Lightening headphones might use either approach.

shamino

AppleInsider said:

...
On the same day, Apple also released a Lightning-to-SD Card Camera Reader which included not just iPhone compatibility but also USB 3.0 speeds when connected to an iPad Pro. The Pro is the only iOS device with USB 3.0 technology, albeit still embedded in Apple's proprietary Lightning port.

Thank you!  I've been saying for years that Lightening should be able to support USB 3.0, even though Apple hasn't yet shipped an adapter.  This proves that there is sufficient bandwidth, so there's no technical reason why an adapter couldn't be made.

Soli said:

a3dstorm said:

I don't fully understand your technical comment.  I mean, I have an iphone 5 and I have to physically connect it to my Pioneer AppRadio 4 (CarPlay enabled) in my car. Music from the phone plays through the car's speakers. Isn't that exactly what  headphones with a lightning connector would do ?

The DAC for the audio would be in the Pioneer system.

Depends on the car.

Some cars (like my Honda Civic) use USB audio.  My iTHings attach via a Lightening (or Dock, depending on device) USB cable.

Some cars, however (like my wife's Kia Sedona) use analog audio.  The Kia iPod adapter uses a Dock connector, and it separates out USB and audio to two separate connectors.  (The car side of the cable has a proprietary connector that connects to both the USB port and the line-in jack.)  When using phones with Lightening, we use Apple's Lightening-to-Dock adapter cable.  That adapter is providing analog audio on the 30-pin Dock connector.  Whether the iPhone is providing analog audio on the Lightening connector (2 pins for power and ground, 2 for audio, 2 for USB data) or if the adapter is USB-only (including its own DAC) is an interesting question that I don't know the answer to.  Either is technically possible.

In other words, there is precedent for a Lightening connector to drive either USB-audio or analog audio, through use of appropriate adapters/cables.  A set of Lightening headphones might use either approach.