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  • iPhone gets USB-C thanks to creative robotics engineer

    flydog said:
    Wireless charging is never going to be as efficient as wired charging,
    Never?

    That comment won’t age well. 
    Makes sense to me.  It's a matter of physics.  Every time you convert energy from one form to another, there are losses.  Converting electricity to magnetism and back to electricity is going to have to transfer less power than simply sending that electricity directly to the device with a cable.
    omasou said:
    ... Apple stopped including the USB A 5W charger, which Apple stopped shipping b/c it was insufficient to charge the iPhone...
    Who says it is insufficient to charge the iPhone?  I'm using one of those 5W chargers on a brand new iPhone 13 and it works just fine.  Sure a 20W charger would go faster, but not everybody needs fast charging.  For me, a charge lasts all day, and 5W is more than enough to bring it up to 100% overnight while I'm asleep.
    watto_cobra
  • iPhone gets USB-C thanks to creative robotics engineer

    I don't think it's so much a matter of want to as one of see a clear benefit.

    USB-C is very trendy right now, and the new EU law is definitely going to have an impact on Apple's business logic, but there are other things that they need to consider in addition, including:
    • Cost to add higher speed communication to the iPhone.  If a USB-C iPhone continues to use USB 2.0 data rates, that eliminates much of the technical advantage.
    • Other Lightening capabilities.  Lightening was originally designed to replace the 30-pin Dock connector, which had several things like analog A/V, that Lightening later incorporated.  I don't know how many of these features are still used, but they will be important to any transition plan.  For instance, a Lightening headphone adapter only has to (as far as I know) identify itself as such (via the ID chip) and then connect the analog I/O pins to the connector - so it can be a cheap and simple adapter.  But a USB-C adapter needs to include a full USB audio interface into that adapter.
    • Ticking off existing customers.  People over the years have bought a lot of Lightening-based devices.  When Apple dropped the 30-pin connector, there was a lot of complaining from people who had to toss out peripherals or buy adapters.  The Lightening-based ecosystem is even bigger and will probably generate an even bigger wave of complaints.
    Ultimately, it is (as you wrote) a business decision, but there are a lot of factors involved.  It's not just a matter of whether Apple management "wants to".
    williamlondonapplguybaconstangFileMakerFellerFidonet127watto_cobra
  • iOS developer turns vintage iMac G4 into an M1 Mac

    rob53 said:
    After reading one of the referenced links, I'm assuming I would need a legitimate monitor and connection that supports HDCP so videos will play properly. 
    Ow.  I forgot about HDCP.  It's unlikely that the internal panel has support, so you'd be OK putting your desktop on that display, but copy protected content might not play via Apple's software.  (Maybe VLC would work?)
    mattinoz said:
    Remember there is a 3.5inch Drive sitting above to the optical. The MacBoorAir M1 and maybe the iMac24 Board would fit in there, doesn't look like the MacBook Pro would. 
    Both of those have all the ports on sub boards so could be cabled down in to the space used for the old G4 motherboard to fudge together a USB-c "hub" and Power supply to make all the old ports work or convert them to newer versions.

    Problem is still monitor support, sure could treat it as an external but I think both those boards would still want an internal connected to the socket which seems to carry the webcam as well on both.
    The space used by the hard drive could obviously be used for an ATA-USB adapter, but I think you'd need an ATA extension cable of some kind.  Most of the adapters i've seen have a pretty large plastic box that connects directly to the drive that that definitely wouldn't fit.

    Trying to put a laptop or iMac M1 board in there may be more difficult.  And as you point out, it's unlikely that the internal display could be driven from those boards' internal display connector.  That's a good reason to start from a Mac mini board (as described in the article) - so you can tap its HDMI connector and still have a Thunderbolt connector for an external display.

    If you're willing and able to swap the iMac's display panel then i suppose you could, in theory, use a laptop's display panel with a laptop motherboard.  But I don't know if the display would physically fit in the mounting, since the iMac's display has a different aspect from modern laptop panels.  That would, I suspect, be really difficult to do in a way that looks good afterward.
    watto_cobra
  • iOS developer turns vintage iMac G4 into an M1 Mac

    I love it!

    I wonder what model iMac he started with.  The early generation models only have a 1024x768 display, which is really uncomfortable for today's macOS.  But the last model supports 1680x1050.

    According to one article I found, it appears that the built-in display is actually DVI, using a custom connector.  Which means it should be possible to replace the connector (or make an adapter) so it can connect to the M1's HDMI port.  I assume this is what he actually did.

    What would be really cool (no idea if he's done it yet) would be to get the optical drive working.  If I remember correctly, it is a parallel ATA drive.  Lots of companies make adapters that will connect it to a USB port.  The only real potential problem seems like it will be making the adapter fit in the case.
    entropysdewmewatto_cobra
  • Intel attempts to convert Apple fans in 'social experiment'

    Nothing they said is technically wrong, but it's incredibly misleading.

    • There are plenty of PCs, including very popular ones from mainstream brands, that are similarly not expandable.  Especially if you are shopping for one that is thin and light.  My work PC (an HP ZBook Fury 17 G7) is very expandable, but it also weighs a lot (base weight is 6 lb and can get heavier with some options) and is 1" thick - a lot of people would find that unacceptable.
    • Intel mentions a lot of features, but you can't get them all in a single computer, even though they would like to imply otherwise.
    • You can get all of these in PCs featuring AMD processors as well.
    • All the big PC makers are now dipping their toes into the ARM processor market as well.  It may take a while to become popular, but when they do, you can expect the gaming market and cool hardware designed to follow right along.  Because ultimately, nothing presented in that ad has anything to do with Intel.
    • Nobody but nobody buys a Mac because it's a good deal on the hardware.  They buy it because they want to run macOS or want to run macOS applications.  Once you've made that decision, it really doesn't matter what features you can buy on an incompatible computer.
    • Nothing here is new to anybody who cares.  Just walk through your local Best Buy (or Micro Center or Target or WalMart) and you can see all of this.  And if you're OK running Windows (or Linux, I suppose), I don't think any serious Mac user (not counting fanboys - who exist for all products) would tell you not to.
    • Yes, all those computers are sold today.  How many people are flocking to buy them?  Like that really cool dual-screen laptop (Asus Zenbook Pro Duo)?  I saw it reviewed in 2019 (Linus Tech Tips), but kudos to you if you've ever seen one used in the real world.  People see gee-whiz features and think they would like it, but when they see the cost (starting at $1500-3000 depending on model), size and weight, they quickly change their minds.
    • Could Apple design computers with these features?  Only a fool would say they couldn't.  But would they be able to sell enough units for them to be as profitable as the Macs they're selling today?  That's a much much more difficult question that nobody here (or at Intel) knows enough to answer.

    command_fwilliamlondonmuthuk_vanalingam