@glennf @castirony You might expect a bit of an uptick now that the iPhone has switched to USB-C... 😅
I checked, and all of the new iPhone 15 models come with a USB-C cable (USB 2.0 3A only). This means millions of more basic USB-C cables are going to hit the market bundled with new iPhones, and the average iPhone user might not read the fine print that a (sold separately) cable is needed for USB3 and DP Alt Mode function.
@castirony @glennf I've actually built features in an operating system that tell the user that the cable they're using isn't compatible with the mode their dock or monitor needs to operate.
Yeah, the standards have built a system that hides so much of the details from the user that confusion can and will happen, but software can and will be built to help the user figure this all out.
I'm honestly hopeful on that front too, because I understand the standards well enough to know that the devices' Operating Systems should have enough information to guide the user to the right cable and products to use.
If you plug in a cable to your phone, your phone should tell you what that cable can do based on its identifier information. The same if you plug into a docking station or some other USB device.
@ivanhoek @Gargron Not only did they make it easier for the true "Pro" workflow by supporting USB 3 for transfer to a computer, they also confirmed USB mass storage support for direct to external recording.
You're probably right that the average user won't benefit, but "Pro" is in the name, and this move fixes a lot of pain, and opens up new possibilities for people who actually use these things in a professional setting.
Pro creators in particular stand to gain the most, and I was glad to see that they called out (implicitly) the pain that it was to use iPhone Pro with high res video (ProRes) with lightning at 480Mbps being a bottleneck.
They put an insane camera array on all iPhones, especially the Pro ones, but if you generated lots of pictures or many gigabytes of video, getting them off of the iPhone would really SUCK over USB 2.0 & lightning.
Two big USB-C news stories today!
Intel has announced Thunderbolt 5, which is their high-end implementation of USB4 80Gbps and the advanced 120G/40G asymmetric mode.
Apple has finally made the jump to USB-C on iPhone, iPhone Pro, and many of their varied lightning accessories too.
Very positive news all around!
@glennf I think this will be the start of a new wired connectivity Golden Age, as we finally have all major consumer electronics on the same connector system.
I was lamenting not being able to get pictures I'd taken from my Sony mirrorless camera to my iPhone easily because the camera and the phone had different connectors, and I didn't have the right lightning to SD card dongle. Now, with USB-C on both sides, I can just directly connect.