Apple has recently been granted a new patent entitled: “Power adapters for powering and/or charging peripheral devices.” The patent describes a smaller charging and sync port that has been rumored since February as a part of the iPhone 5’s design.
The patent was originally filed on July 16th, 2010, and finally approved by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on July 17th, 2012, under new patent patent No. 8222773.
Macworld points to the patent’s description and its intentions to reduce the size of a device:
It would be desirable to remove the total number of connections made to a peripheral device so as to reduce the number of connectors and cables needed to operate the peripheral device. By reducing the number of connectors and cables, the peripheral size and the cost of the product may be decreased as well as the ease of use of the peripheral device may be improved (less cables to tote around).
Is this all the proof we need? Rumors surrounding Apple abandoning the traditional 30-pin connector have been in full effect for a while now. I’m not sure how I feel about a smaller charging port yet. I’ve been completely reliant on the 30-pin standard Apple set years ago, and it’s going to be a hard transition to a new connector.
The main problem I foresee is the new responsibility to care for an extra cable. I personally own quite a few different iOS devices and knowing there’s a cable in almost any room is such a luxury. Of course no one will really know until the iPhone 5 is released this fall alongside iOS 6, though the evidence seems to be building up in favor of a new standard in charging ports.
How do you feel about a smaller charging port?
Source: USPTO via Macworld
