Sumocat

Which days are “these days”? If it’s the past couple of years, the number is 13. That’s not most. Going back a decade, 74 out of 1,654 is also not most. Many? Sure. But most phones with USB-C are USB 2.0, and no one cares except people who don’t use iPhones but love to complain about them.

Most people are not going backwards to plug in their phones to backup data. Even those who do backup locally do so over Wi-Fi, which is now faster than USB 3. Fast, wired transfer is absolutely a necessity for professionals moving A/V data. The iPhone Pro is for them. For the rest of us, it’s not something I’d need, even if I was still doing regular local backup these days.

It’s not like it’s the flagship model. The Pro is the flagship with ProMotion and USB 3.2. The non-Pro and SE are lesser ships in the fleet with lesser features. Same situation as the iPad Pro vs. Air and other models. I am squarely mid-range with my iPhone 13 mini and iPad Air 4, and the only Pro feature tempting me is Face ID on iPad because work authentication through Touch ID feels tedious compared to Face ID on iPhone.

No, it is only data. USB 2.0, 3, 4 refer to data speed. USB A/B/C refer to connector shape. There are min/max wattages associated with both of those, but USB Power Delivery is yet another USB spec that supersedes those limits, and it only requires USB on the power supply. That’s why USB-PD works on iPhones with Lightning ports, and why 140W power on MacBooks works through MagSafe (and not USB-C). Apple associates USB-C with charging speed to differentiate their charging cables, but the spec is about the connector, not speed. Though it never caught on, even a USB-A charger could deliver up to 100W via USB-PD 1.0. The first few Galaxy Z Flip models only supported USB 2.0, didn’t affect fast charging, and no one noticed.

Nah. Everyone knew everyone back then, and my uncle loves sharing his stories. Basically all he did was tell that then-eight year old story, which still holds up.

My uncle was in that story. Decades ago, he told his boss a program would stop working in eight years (8-bit limitation, yeah, that long ago). His boss told him to ship it because they weren’t going to be there in eight years. Sure enough, they weren’t. Eight years later, their IT guy contacted my uncle because he couldn’t figure out why it stopped working, and my uncle showed him the math.

Do you really need CarPlay? I’ve been relying on phone mounts in my car for years. Now with MagSafe, I stick my iPhone on and stream audio over Bluetooth, no plug/unplug. Aside from that, viewing navigation on my iPhone allows me to move around the map so I can see what turns are coming up. The CarPlay decks I’ve seen don’t allow moving around the map on screen and only show text directions on iPhone. For me, stick-and-go is a better and seamless experience.

If you have any interest in this route, I highly recommend the Nite Ize Steelie system for mounting. Their MagSafe system works with Apple’s MagSafe charger (or without if you don’t need constant charging) with a variety of mounting options.