Any thoughts on what else the smart connector can be used for? Perhaps a smart case with an external display to show notifications? A battery case that doesn't use the lightning port?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Smart Connector accessories (besides keyboards)?
- Thread starter DTphonehome
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Some kind of dock with USB connectors in it, like the pic below...
Of course, there's still no decent file organization system on the vanilla iPad (iFile on Cydia has an ok but not great interface), and USB accessory support is basically nonexistent, so it's not worth that much for now.
That was the thing I was thinking while listening to the recent Apple announcement... where they said that people would totally buy iPad Pro to replace their old PCs... like, you can't even plug a thumb drive into it, let alone a CD drive or something, yet you seriously expect to break into the PC market?!
Of course, there's still no decent file organization system on the vanilla iPad (iFile on Cydia has an ok but not great interface), and USB accessory support is basically nonexistent, so it's not worth that much for now.
That was the thing I was thinking while listening to the recent Apple announcement... where they said that people would totally buy iPad Pro to replace their old PCs... like, you can't even plug a thumb drive into it, let alone a CD drive or something, yet you seriously expect to break into the PC market?!
Interesting, but I doubt it would be able to handle that much data. Has anyone actually explored the smart connector's capabilities?
I have no idea haha... honestly I think just having the capacity to attach USB accessories would be worth it (if you could get it to work with iOS, that is) even if the speed is really slow/it's really buggy.
You WILL NOT see smart connector products until after the fall debut of the iPhone 7 aka iPhone PRO. Those will include smart connector features.
Other than the keyboards there is no real good use for a smart connector. An external case that has a battery in it to charge the iPad? Nope. A docking station? Ludicrous! Right now it's meant solely for the keyboards.
Other than the keyboards there is no real good use for a smart connector. An external case that has a battery in it to charge the iPad? Nope. A docking station? Ludicrous! Right now it's meant solely for the keyboards.
Eh, you joke, but if you REALLY REALLY need to get data from a floppy disk to a PC/MacBook? It might take a while and cost a lot, but you CAN get accessories to make it happen. And that's true of basically any media you can think of. Slide reader? Sure. Record player? Yeah, you can find one with USB.
With an iPad your option is... finding a PC. It's just straight-up never gonna happen without one. I'm not saying that you need to have 100% backwards compatibility- for what it's worth I think the single USBC port on recent MacBooks is fine- but you need something. It's not that you need the ability to access any one media in particular but that with USB there's enough interconnection and backwards compatibility that you can access anything when you need to.
Honestly, people who say they don't need USB* are like people who say you don't need a car in LA- either they don't actually ever do anything important enough to need be anywhere at any particular time, or what they're actually saying is that they're using someone else's car. Being that person might be fine if you're just working on personal stuff, but it becomes unprofessional and childish pretty quickly when you're working in the real world.
*or some other kind of standardized connector
The smart connector is only three pins. This leaves Vplus, Vminus, and serial data. That means data is one directional. Can't send and receive at the same time. It's probably very low power, meaning perfect for a keyboard or perhaps a mouse but nothing storage wise.
