[LINK] iPhone 5 … Problematic

[Frank O'Connor]

On 13/09/2012, at 4:20 PM, Scott Howard <scott at doc.net.au> wrote:

> On Wed, Sep 12, 2012 at 10:26 PM, Frank O'Connor <francisoconnor3 at bigpond.com> wrote:
> Using the Nano-SIM means that I'd somehow have to find a major telco shop that had some to spare for prepaid customers like myself
> 
> As far as I'm aware none of the Australian telco's have different SIM cards for pre-paid v's post-paid customers (as opposed to some other parts of the world where they do).
> 
> Whilst they may not actually "sell" Nano-SIMs for prepaid, any official shop for the relevant telco should be able to give you a replacement SIM - in any form factor they have - as a replacement for a "non-working" existing SIM (and not fitting in your phone would certainly qualify as "non-working"!)  ie, as long as the telco in question is selling iPhone 5's they you should not have any trouble getting a Nano-SIM card from them for a pre-paid account.

Well, I rang around with Telstra, Optus and a couple of other telcos and according to them the ONLY Nano-SIM's they are likely to have for the next three months at least are the ones embedded in the locked iPhones they'll sell on their plan. Nobody knew when for definite nano-SIMs would be available for unlocked iPhones ... maybe Apple is selling them in their stores, but none of the telcos had any.

Your mileage may of course vary, and if you do know of an outlet that is supplying Nano-SIMs supported by major telcos I'd really appreciate knowing exactly where they are.

> 
> The Lightning Port means that my speaker dock, my recharge docks and yes the scarce USB ports on my 'puter, are either obsolete or have to be fitted with the adapter, that Apple makes available for $35, to work. And whilst that adapter is attached I can't use that device/dock for the 30 pin devices I have - an iPod and an iPad and an old iPhone. It makes what had been a pretty integrated seamless ecology fragmented and annoying.
> 
> You're claiming that them replacing a 10 year old form factor connector with one that is significantly smaller and thus saves space on the phone is a bad thing?

Yes ... if there is no technical advantage in doing so. From what I read the Lightning port offers the same data transmission speeds, the same power-up capabilities and the same powered operation capabilities as the current 30 pin connector. And if you look at the iPhone 5 the added room hasn't been used for anything connector wise on the body of the phone ... there's no added hardware functionality via added ports and the like  ... the differences are marginal at best.

If they had used the Lightning interface to provide an order of magnitude faster data transmission (USB3 capabilities for example), or faster power recharge, or higher power access facilities to Lightning enabled devices I could have seen a reason for it ... but for a small form factor they sacrificed utility and compatibility with a host of third party hardware docks and keyboards and other add-ons. In my book that's not a sufficiently good reason to throw all that away and force their clientele to invest in new hardware with the only added feature of the new hardware being 'Lightning' compatibility.

> 
> Yes, there will obviously be a pain period during the changeover, and I do agree that they are showing typical Apple arrogance by pricing the adapters at what is clearly a high profit margin, I can't see this as being a bad move in the long term.  During the life of the iPod connector the connector market has passed from USB to Mini-USB to Micro-USB, so it's not like this is a unique problem.
> 
> Personally I would have much preferred to see them move to *-USB, but this is Apple we're talking about...
> 

Ditto ... Apple proprietary standards over the years have a depressing record of staying in place way too long, being unsupported by the industry generally, and dying the death of obsolescence early because Apple doesn't have the expertise or motivation to keep developing same once they have introduced it.

> 
> The thing that really hurts is that i can't for the life of me see ANY technical advantage to the Nano-SIM or the Lightning port. Neither adds ANY user value at all.
> 
> 20% lighter.  18% thinner.  Nuff said?
> 

And 20% longer. That makes it a bit more of a squeeze in my pocket.

And lets not forget that the weight difference we're talking about here is 28 grams ... one ... count it ... one ounce. This is not exactly an insurmountable weight to lift, even for one of my advanced years.

And as to whether the Lightning Port and nano SIM are responsible for the thiness ... well, I'd put more money on the new case manufacturing process, the increase in length and improvements in I/O device design (cameras, microphones, screen) than those two items. (This puppy is not gonna be very serviceable as a result ... but solid state usually fails within the guarantee/indemnity period anyway ... otherwise it tends to be really reliable.)

Again ... just my 2 cents worth ...