duh!
Apple published years ago that they are not going to be using the firewire pin anymore for charging on future products. It's not Apple's fault that your products didnt read the spec doc.
"I've just fallen foul of the fact that the new iPhone 3G is no longer compatible with a countless number of my existing iPod accessories." "The problem is that, whilst it may work after a fashion in some, it won't take a charge. "The cause of this problem apparently lies in the fact that the iPhone 3G, unlike its predecessor …
Jobs really knows his market, a bunch of morons that will buy anything if you stick an Apple logo on it.
Tell me folks, if Apple launched a brand of teabags/cofee that was 3-5 times more expensive than your regular brand would you buy just on the basis that it carries your beloved logo? The answer would probably be yes.
This was just as much the case with the original iPhone - and is why for instance the PowerMonkey Xplorer needs a new iPod dock connector adapter for them. My car FM transmitter handles it fine, though.
Doesn't make it any less annoying. Just makes you slow.
Ta,
Mark.
The accessory manufacturers now get to make a trivial modification to their kit, and sell it at an inflated price, and ensure that all 3G iPhoners will have to buy that version and no other. Isn't this a win-win for them and Apple?
The only people likely to suffer from this are us poor loyal supporters and we've never been the main consideration up till now, so why should that change?
I can't stand it. Let's name all the things they 'control' over the devices we pay for
1- which dock accessories will work and won't (for no good reason as they could have connected the 12v connectors)
2- the old iphone docks no longer fit, nor did they include any with the current phone.
3- they dont let you add music from additional PCs. Only from that single authorized computer for non itunes store music additions...
4- you can't delete songs from playlist or player on the fly.. you need itunes.
I could go on. but I'm disgusted by Apple and can't wait to switch to Nokia when they bring their touch screen model to market.
Someone tells you not to make user of something that works and works well on an existing model, doens't mean people won't use it.
Jobs should have adapted his mind set and made it work so all those accessories worked on the new model. But he doesn't and has never thought of what the customer actually wants.
But apple like to be different and want to change the way things work, so coming out with one thing then scrapping it and coming out with something else that is new under "the emperors new clothes" idea that it was always like this and will never be the same again.
But given Apple have limited their own accessories shows you that Apple has indeed cocked up.
Come on Apple, you've missed sales opportunity here... (Now I never thought I'd say that!)
You should have connected the 12v pins to something critical inside so the iPhone exploded. You're in the clear because you did warn everyone not to use them a few years ago. For the fanboiz this will be akin to removing an alcoholics liver, and have them running for their nearest iPhone stockest for a new "fix".
Mine's the one with the Nokia in the pocket :o)
This isn't Apple's fault. It's the manufacturers of said accessories fault for building them to use an obsolete power source.
Apple announced their intention to stop using the 12V Firewire Pin a very long time ago.
The information has been there, and as registered "Made for iPod" accessory makers, they really should've read the specifications and made changes long before the current models of iPods and iPhones were released.
They charge $3 per item before they let you buy the connectors, plus you need to buy their encryption processor (another $3) to access anything off the screen, you were allowed to paste images to the screen on an ipod, now only one every 30 seconds. the encryption details are subject to change between generations of product. they are the worst company to deal with in the world, you get 3 "questions" before you start paying per hour for support. Backwards compatibility is never considered, but then it did nearly break microsoft, and despite them creeping with lawyers, the ipod UI is tons better than all the others.
Since it still works fine i still use my 3rd gen ipod, which came bundled with firewire cable, mains charger, inline remote, case, and dock. Now all of this is sold seperately, and the apple universal ipod charger is incapable of charging my beastie. If my charger breaks i will likely have to buy a whole new ipod, which MUST be lack of planning from Apple, they surely wouldn't have planned it that way?
Err...
The "trivial" modification to a production line that was designed to return a profit after so many hundreds of thousand units had been made and sold...
The minor issue of negotiating with suppliers for additional materials...
The minor issue of testing the modification to destruction via alpha, then beta before releasing into the public...
Then having to produce the hundreds of thousands of units again to recoup your investment and begin to make a profit...
I don't think you realise how pissed off the accessory guys are, it might drive some under as they won't be able to refinance...
"Tell me folks, if Apple launched a brand of teabags/cofee that was 3-5 times more expensive than your regular brand would you buy just on the basis that it carries your beloved logo?"
Only if you could see the logo at the top of the cup after you'd made it, otherwise how else would you be able to make sure your colleagues knew you were drinking it?
Hi,
Please read the notice carefully, Apple release a kb article years ago: iCoffee 3.0 will NOT be compatible with the old iMilk. Any attempt to use your old iMilk with the new iCoffee 3.0 will render it unusable. (You'll notice the "grainy aspect" taken by your old iMilk. The special iSour taste alert will be noticeable.
Traditional iSugar (the demerara 2.0) on the other hand is currently supported, as long as the new iSpoon adaptor is used. (use of any 3rd party spoon will void your warranty).
Of course those new accessories are not compatible with the iTea announced today; the iCup accessories line has been especially developed to reflect the new product unique abilities. The revised iMug line is perfectly adapted to the iCoffee.
Mine is the one with the coffee stain on it.
PS: As long as the iTunes/Starbucks agreement is still in place there is no risk to see iCoffee/iTea; Jesus phone owners can still enjoy being ripped of downloading £0.79 iTunes songs on their rip-off iPhone while drinking their £3.50 coffee....
I am most decidedly the kind of phanboy most readers love to hate, but I must admit to be extremely miffed by the fact that Apple's own (otherwise excellent) Radio/Remote control does not function with either of the iPhones and the iPod Touch. This is a real shame as it would be a welcome accessory to a phone which doesn't do radio (notwithstanding the streamed version) and has a perfunctory remote as part of the head-set which is far inferior to the one which I own. One would think that this could be enabled in a (dare I say) simple firmware update. If others have been irritated by this I urge you to use Apple's feedback pages to have a word in their corporate shell-like.
The Firewire charging issue is annoying too. Come on Apple - get a grip!
And in other late breaking news el Reg announces that a user has discovered that his old Nokia 3.5mm charger won't fit his new Nokia phone's 2mm socket.
I really don't know what pisses me off more. The poor standard of journalism, the pathetic attempts to try to find some, any, trivial fault with an Apple product, or the predictable bleating of the anti-Apple fanbios.
What is news, is that having invented Firewire, Apple are slowly but surely abandoning it. This is both sad, and worthy of comment and analysis. Not that I expect anything so insightful from the modern el Reg. A couple of years ago yes, but now, not much hope.
Get hold of the kensington 4-in-1 ipod charger. That has a passthrough connector that allows you to charge whilst listening. Works reasonably well if a bit ugly.
I don't see why apple removed this.. they must have known what was going to happen. 12v is easy to get in a car.. 5v much less so and it mean your in-car accessory now needs a power brick.
Purely conjecture this, but I buggered up a 1st gen iPhone using a non-Apple speaker dock. It got very hot. Now it doesn't charge properly.
Trawling the hackint0sh forums, it seems a fairly common fault.
The IC controlling the charging gets a little 'warm', ruining the logic board.
So, instead of redesigning the charging circuitry - maybe they've just pulled the 12v pins (with they've been saying they were gonna do for a while now)
But... I dunno.
My iPod Classic will not allow you to output to the TV unless you buy their own £30+ cable.
What is more insidious is the trick that some accessory companys are pulling: they sell a device like a docking station which "connects to a TV" and is "iPod Classic/Touch compatible" however, what they mean is you can connect an iPod Video to the TV but the docking station supports the Classic/Touch in audio mode only. They do not go out of their way to point this out - ask me how I know!!
What is worse is that I haven't seen ANY of the major Apple accessory sellers flogging a product that connects the iPod Classic/Touch to a TV. So I am stuck with Aplles own offering.
The great thing is that one of the accessories that no longer works is the Apple iPod HiFi. I have one - it works OK with the first gen iPhone, but not the 3G. Smooth.
I think the reasoning behind this is space - the 12V pins were for charging via FireWire, they dropped syncing over FW ages ago, so it looks like they saved a few mm on the 3G's innards by losing the circuitry that meant you could still charge over Firewire.
As used in their own iPod HiFi (last sold in September 2007). Bless.
I read about this weeks ago, and the register is just reporting it now? I see the nose for news isnt what it used to be.
Besides, its the accessories manufactuturers fault. Apple said "Don't use it", they ignored apple. Sure, it sucks, and its questionable as to why apple did it, but its not apples fault they were ignored.
Apple is greedy. Plain and simple. You go into their Apple store and you'll see accessories up the wazoo. You go into an electronics store and you'll see a few iPhones and a couple rows full of accessories from apple, Belkin and others. It's a multi-million dollar industry. Why would Apple be stupid enough to have older accessories work with new ones?
Just like buying toner. Why do you think each manufacturer has what it seems like one toner cartiridge model per printer model. They could stardardize but they can make more money (and kill off any cheapo versions) by making each model just slightly different.
One of many reasons why I wouldn't by anything from Apple. Proprietary.
"And in other late breaking news el Reg announces that a user has discovered that his old Nokia 3.5mm charger won't fit his new Nokia phone's 2mm socket."
Yes, but at least Nokia included an adapter in the box that lets me plug my old 3.5mm charger in...
One day I might remember where I put it.
Steve.
no just trying to save money for a voltage regulator, and the space to heatsink it.
Dropping 12v to 3v or whatever it charges at is a lot more trouble than 5v. and will make a lot more heat. getting rid of that heat takes up space that could be used for something else, like say... a 3G chip.
"your in-car accessory now needs a power brick"
I don't think you understand the issues involved in converting 12v to 5v, particularly at the astouding current limits imposed by the USB standard (which the 5v pins are).
I mean, seriously, I've done a similar job with a 78l05 surface mount chip, with appropriate capacitors (free-wired, no pcb) in an area of about 10x5x3mm - not exactly 'a power brick'... it'd be trivial to build it into a dock connector (which I assume is what the linked product is, although I can't be bothered to click it).
Just because 12v is common in a car (which it isn't - it may be a 12v battery, but will be about 14.5v while chargin ie engine running), doesn't mean you need to panic about trying to get 5v.
Still, no reason apple couldn't build in such a small chip!
I was also annoyed that they had changed the the video on the touch so it wouldn't work with older docks. Thankfully, I had not purchased the dock for my Yamaha Receiver before I found out.
Yamaha has since released a new version of their dock (the YDS-11) which will display saved videos and YouTube ones, charge the touch and allow for some remote control functions through the receiver.
I spent many hundreds of pounds on an ipod compatible Kenwood stereo for the car as I needed something to integrate my portable and car music. Once installed it turned out not to be compatible (despite licenced generic ipod/apple branding) with my (or any other) 4G ipod, only the 5G. I thought about buying the 5G but it had just been discontinued and Kenwood couldn't confirm if it would work with Apple's 5G's replacment the "Classic". The Kenwood has a USB port, but it's useless for anything other than a very small flash drive... Utter joke (both Apple and Kenwood).
Tux, 'cos the Kenwood's supposed to run Linux, even though there appears to be no way to SSH in ad give it decent USB support.
' "And in other late breaking news el Reg announces that a user has discovered that his old Nokia 3.5mm charger won't fit his new Nokia phone's 2mm socket."
Yes, but at least Nokia included an adapter in the box that lets me plug my old 3.5mm charger in...
One day I might remember where I put it.
Steve.'
Yes, but after going down to 2mm jack I now have a micro USB Nokia charger on my 6500 classic. There was no adapter in that box.
Note... I totally disagree with what Apple are doing here either.
I've had a Kenwood IP500 installed for quite a while.. works great.. but it never charged my iPod touch... nor now my iPhone...
its a pain, but things change..... old hardware working with new devices is never a perfect science
This looks like the fix to me...
http://home.swipnet.se/ridax/connector.htm
Will have to wait and see in a couple of months.. if it works they could make a packet!
Bought my 3d party FM transmitter for my 3G iPhone because it had a car charger and the local O2 store was all sold out of car chargers after the 3G launch - and for £7 more it gave me an FM transmitter.
Wasn't labled to work with an iPhone of ANY sort, and the salesman wouldn't vouch for it, but listed every other iPod or iTouch...so I shelled out the £25 for it.
Works like a charm, and charges my iPhone perfectly whilst it plays. Guess SOMEONE read the notice Apple sent out!
Would give the name, but of course it's out in the bloody car...
Ok, I have an 16Gb iPod Touch - which works fine in my _Apple_ HiFi.
Am I now being told the 3G version of the iPhone (which i've waited patiently for since the release of the 'first gen' release) will not support charging in either the Apple HiFi, or my 'RoadTrip' car dock?
Say it ain't so? This sort of thing would make me want to wait for the next h/w release - albeit hopefully backwards compatible. What the 'f' do Apple have to gain from this? (Again, what do they have to gain from tie-in with a single UK 3g distributor also?).
The top gear "cockometer" is now in force for Iffyone users.
Sorry so many cocks have this phone it's now in the "seriously uncool" category.
As JC* said, show your phone to Kristin Scott Thomas, would she think you are cool.
You just spent £400 making yourself an uncool cock.
Mines the one without the cock on the back
*could
Just pay more money to Apple and re-buy all your accessories!
I mean, you pay for totally new shirt/pants/glasses/shoes/manbags/blingy watches/expensive haircuts/aftershave/hybrid cars every single time fashion changes, or whenever The Almighty Steve changes his, so why should your Precious have to languish in LAST SEASON'S iAccessories? Tres gauche!
If you aren't wealthy enough to afford new iAccessories, you don't deserve Apple. Seriously, you don't even deserve to be able to vote.
In fact, you're untermenschen! Homo sapiens malus are the superior species!
Wow, there's a lot of bile spewing going on here. Let's look at it from Apple's point of view, shall we:
1) we've got this nifty product that we want to improve with 3G capability, but this takes up extra space on the PCB. Therefore, we either need to increase the size of the phone (undesirable) or eliminate a function from the original design.
2) we've got 12 volt lines and circuitry to convert it down to a usable voltage. There are 5 volt lines that can be used instead to power the iPhone and charge it. We've also told accessory producers a couple of years ago that we were going to stop using the 12 volt lines and that they should stop relying on them to deliver power to ipods.
Hmmm, what would you do in this case? I know that I would probably do exactly as Apple did -- Remove a feature that they warned would be obsolete to make room for a feature that is not.
Considering the pricing model on the 3G iPhone, which is basically FREE for the 8G model with any kind of plan that anyone with a job would want, or £69 for the 16G model, your £400 quote is obviously reflecting...er, well, bad information. At best. As it is free, it is hardly a phone for people trying to prove their socio-economic status - but it might be a phone for those that simply want something that works well as a phone and is slim in pocket. And in terms of who owns it, well, let's repeat: "it's free", so it will get all types...kind of like complaining about the undesirables you meet on a 90p bus ride...
What's the fuss about?
I have several Apple universal docks and all charge my iPhone 16GB 3g. I had to take a knife to the one which also charges the Bluetooth earpiece as the new curvy back on the iPhone wouldn't fit ... it does now! It's the first time I have felt the need for one of those hand-blender type DIY thingies* with 58,000,000 accessories which would have been better than the craft knife and less dangerous to my fingers.
*It was a Dremel!
Apple are proprietary?
Where are all these open source, open design and standards based mobile phones then?
Even OpenMoko has closed parts (GSM firmware).
Most things are proprietary on the market. So don't talk wet and say Apple are any different.
Sony remove things from products too, USB ports, iSync, PS2 emulation etc....
PS it is not the only problem with Ifoney 3G , the latest hot topic in the Cupertino Pirates Roasting Forum is a number of white case new phones complete with pictures of the very flawed external casings after less then one months work in the wild are now sporting numerous hairline fractures as well ! Undoubtedly the other hued Ifoney 3G's will be reporting similar faults shortly !
This cracks me up of the form the silly users of generation one rubbish being bitten in the rump yet again , oh how sweet it is indeed !
Talk about throwaway preplanned obsolete technology being sold to the one in ten thousand flash mob wankers twice in a row in under two years , the Pirates at Cupertino have truly excelled themselves at fleecing their fans yet again !
Or as Ralph Muntz would say to these silly punters "Ha! Ha!" !
Choices with buying Cupertino Pirate technology being bought for it looks superficially cool or good , just turned a mite fatal as a certain socialite would say !
Dammit I left my 3G iPhone charger and USB cable in the office and headed off on holiday taking the charger and cable which the robbers didn't want to take when they pinched my old 40 Gb iPod photo.
After talking about how great Apple are by using standard connectors I found that my cunning plan had been foiled and I had no way of getting any juice into the phone.
I decided to leave my fruity goodness at home and redirected my calls to my Blackberry Curve which at least has a standard mini USB power connector (nice one RIM). It's just a shame that phones don't offer an option to redirect text messages as well.
I was looking for a car charger for my new 3G iphone and found these sites useful:
http://trevinchow.com/blog/2008/07/31/iphone-3g-compatible-accessories/
http://carljonard.com/2008/07/how-to-charge-your-iphone-3g-in-the-car/
http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t=231828