Richard Gurman
8:00:45 AM CDT on October 9, 2022
Apple is set to shift from the Lightning charging port on the iPhone and other devices to USB-C to abide by a new European law, but the company is still planning on a wireless-first future. Additionally, Google releases its new Pixel smartphones and wristwatch, and iPadOS 16 developers continue to lament its condition.
The Apple Watch Ultra’s larger battery and superior screen make it worth the price, according to last week’s Power On.
The Beginning
A few years ago, Apple Inc. ought to have switched to USB-C charging for the iPhone and other mobile devices. After all, several laptops moved to USB-C in 2015, and the iPad Pro followed suit in 2018.
Instead, it has given its most devoted clients a bewildering array of choices.
If you’re an Apple fan entrenched in its ecosystem—with an iPhone, AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch and MacBook—you need at least three different chargers: Lightning for the iPhone and AirPods, USB-C for the iPad Pro and MacBook, and MagSafe for the Apple Watch. It’s helpful that the watch charger can also be used to charge headphones. Additionally, Apple has released a second MagSafe model for charging its laptops. But it differs greatly from Apple’s minimalistic philosophy of technology.
I get that this is a First World issue, so please don’t break out the tiniest violin just yet. Anyone who can afford all of those gadgets isn’t really hurting. Apple can and should make changes in this area, though.
Apple’s billing method would appear to be much simpler than I described more than a year ago. And it will very soon, in part because of the European Union. The EU has been pressuring device manufacturers to standardise on USB-C for the sake of interoperability and environmental advantages for the past five years or so. (Having fewer charger types would ideally result in less of them ending up in landfills.)
The EU made another step in that direction this past week when it passed a law requiring manufacturers of a wide range of devices—including phones, tablets, cameras, headphones and headsets, e-readers, keyboards, mice, mobile navigation systems, and portable game consoles and speakers—to switch to USB-C by the end of 2024 for new products. In the spring of 2026, laptops will also be included.
The European Parliament passed the EU legislation this past Tuesday, sealing the deal for the rule to go into effect in around two years despite legislators having approved it in June.
In the past, Apple has publicly resisted the change, arguing that “tight legislation mandating only one type of connector stifles innovation rather than fostering it, which in turn will affect consumers in Europe and around the world.”
Apple, however, has been planning for this regulation in the background. With its most noticeable products, I believe the corporation will even easily surpass the deadline. The iPhone 15 will almost certainly support USB-C in the fall of 2023, surpassing the deadline by a year. By the end of this year, the only iPad (the base model) still lacking a USB-C port should have one.
AirPods, Magic Mouse, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Trackpad are the only remaining devices that will eventually need to change.
The shift is applicable to new gadgets, according to the law. Let’s therefore assume that Apple releases an iPhone SE in March 2024 that uses Lightning rather than USB-C. Due to the fact that it was introduced before the end of 2024, the device would not be considered out of compliance in the EU. Simply put, the 2025 or 2026 model would demand the modification.
However, I don’t believe Apple will wait that long to provide USB-C support to all of its products. By 2024, all future iterations of the ordinary AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max should have switched over to USB-C.
Next year, I’m anticipating significant Mac improvements, such as a new iMac and Mac Pro. It’s probably safe to presume that the move corresponds with accessory changes. I believe it’s a reasonable bet that those accessories will switch to USB-C in their next iteration given how rarely Mac accessories change.
Why then would Apple publicly oppose the law while secretly preparing the change? The corporation is aware that the decision is best for customers and the larger Apple ecosystem. However, it cannot officially support the EU’s position since doing so would give the impression that a government is controlling its product development strategies, which would be a dangerous precedent: If you don’t like how an Apple product functions, try to modify it through legal means.
Apple wants to be able to claim that it made the decision to switch to USB-C on its own. Apple will no doubt defend it by claiming that it has a more streamlined approach to charging across all of its products, is faster at transferring data and initiating power-ups.
However, I believe that, at least for Apple’s mobile devices, the USB-C period will be far shorter-lived than the tenure of the 30-pin iPod connector or Lightning. For nearly the same amount of time as the iPod connector—11 years—Lightning has been a part of the iPhone. In my opinion, Apple’s future is wireless, and I still think that the 2017 AirPower project will finally materialize—certainly not in ten years.
Apple will likely start switching completely to inductive charging for the iPhone and iPad at some point in the upcoming few years to match the Apple Watch.
The EU claims that smartwatches and other devices that don’t charge via a cable connection are immune from its new law. Therefore, I’d wager that Apple’s wireless future and inductive charging are good workarounds.
That is presuming the business can eventually master the technology. It is evident that AirPower, which was announced in 2017 and abandoned in 2019, failed.
The Seat
Google releases its Pixel 6S. By the Pixel 7, I mean. as well as its initial Pixel Watch. Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., finished the odd deployment of its newest devices on Thursday. The business unveiled the Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, and its first Pixel Watch back in May, showcasing their designs and describing some of their functions. Since then, it has added more product details to its website and already flooded social media with unboxing videos and first-hand accounts of using the gadgets.
However, the lengthy debutante ball was not yet over. Google once more displayed the new devices and provided specifics on features including camera upgrades, internal specifications, and pricing at a launch event in Brooklyn. The company’s decision to use a delayed release strategy is strange because it undoubtedly lowers sales of the company’s current products. Why spend money on a Pixel 6 when Google has been flaunting the Pixel 7 for a while? But from a media standpoint, it’s amusing.
The new Pixels don’t have anything going for them, unlike previous year. Google could have simply labelled its most recent phone the “Pixel 6S,” following the example set by Apple’s previous naming scheme for incremental improvements. Except for newly developed camera sensors on the rear, the new phones seem identical to the Pixel 6 range. However, the most recent models do include a number of camera improvements, a significantly improved low-power battery life, and a return of the face unlock feature.
Google also unveiled its first wearable device that competes with the Apple Watch, combining its Pixel design philosophy with the fitness-tracking capabilities it bought from Fitbit a few years ago. In order to compete with Apple’s customisation of bands and watch faces, Google is adopting a similar method. The regular Apple Watch Series 8 costs $399, while the Google Watch starts at $349 for devices without cellular capabilities.Google also unveiled its first wearable device that competes with the Apple Watch, combining its Pixel design philosophy with the fitness-tracking capabilities it bought from Fitbit a few years ago. In order to compete with Apple’s customisation of bands and watch faces, Google is adopting a similar method. The regular Apple Watch Series 8 costs $399, while the Google Watch starts at $349 for devices without cellular capabilities.
It turns out Stage Manager (duh) can function on iPads other than M1 models. But there are still many of bugs. I didn’t have a chance to speak with Stage Manager about a critical adjustment last week, but it is still important enough to handle right away. After claiming since the WWDC that the software needs the M1 chip and the increased memory bandwidth of the most recent devices, Apple made a rather significant mea culpa for the feature in September, announcing that it will bring it to iPads that don’t have the chip.
The function will now be available on iPad Pro models powered by the A12X and A12Z, allowing it to be used on devices sporting the 2018 design. Even while Apple claimed M1 was necessary, it always made sense to me that the software would at the very least function on iPad Pro devices equipped with the A12Z starting in 2020. Remember that this chip served as the original Apple Silicon test processor for the Mac.
However, there is a slight catch: Stage Manager cannot be expanded to an external display on older iPad Pro models. Since I estimate that fewer than 1% of iPad Pro users connect to a display, I don’t think this is a huge concern. Support for external displays has also been removed from the M1 iPad Pro in iPadOS 16.1, but it should return for the M2 iPad Pro in iPadOS 16.2.
Although this improvement is a wonderful acknowledgement and about-face, it still ignores the core issue: Stage Manager is still a mess and is not the best tool for professional users to multitask with. I firmly feel that the best course of action is an interface that emulates Mac multitasking.
I tested Stage Manager in the most recent iPadOS 16.1 beta, and it is still glitchy. It still occasionally crashes to the home screen, is sometimes laggy, and is frequently difficult to use.
Stage Manager being made available for earlier iPads is undoubtedly a nice thing, but that doesn’t change the reality that the programme is still a glaring failure in terms of engineering and design.
Roster alterations
Another important Apple Car manager departs and joins Rivian. If you’ve read this twelve times in the past two years, stop me. Another pretty senior manager from Apple’s development team for its upcoming electric vehicle has left. Jonathan Sive is the culprit this time; he joined Apple only a little over two years ago, following positions at BMW, Tesla, and Alphabet’s Waymo.
At the time, I wrote about Apple hiring Sive and mentioned that he would work on the hardware engineering and design of the car. Despite his departure, I think work on the automobile is still going on, and the business just hired important Ford and Lamborghini employees to aid in the effort.
Sive recently started working for Rivian, where he is now in charge of vehicle layout, ergonomics, and other duties, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The Timetable
Microsoft has an event on October 12 to introduce new Surface products. It is anticipated that the Surface Laptop and Surface Pro may receive updates with new Arm or Intel CPUs.
Apple releases its fiscal fourth-quarter results on October 27.
Given that the most recent numbers cover a period that includes a few weeks’ worth of sales for the new smartphone, investors should be able to gauge how the iPhone 14 is performing. Executives will also give an update on the company’s response to the uncertain economic climate and the general downturn in consumer technology expenditure.
