One of the biggest surprises of the new MacBook was its ports — or rather, its lack of them. The new laptop from Apple has only two ports: one 3.5mm headphone jack and one USB Type-C port. This single USB-C port is responsible for pretty much everything: adding peripherals, connecting to monitors, and even charging.
Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) was first introduced in 2010, allowing phones to output high resolution (720p) video and audio to displays like TVs and monitors while being charged at the same time. Despite updates that have kept it relevant, bringing faster charging speeds and higher resolutions, its successor is already waiting in the wings.
It’s called SuperMHL, and it was first announced at CES in January this year. This week, two semiconductor companies, Lattice and MediaTek, announced the latest chapter in the continuing saga: a collaborative effort to produce reference smartphones capable of 4K video output using the recent USB-C connector.
iPads have always taken a long time to charge, thanks to their capacious internal batteries. The original iPad Pro, with its 38.8Wh battery, takes a monstrous 4.5 hours to charge fully using the 12W adapter in the box. That’s fine overnight but it’s certainly not ideal if you’re looking for a quick recharge at an airport or the like. It’s the same story with the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro, which also has a sizeable 27.5Wh internal battery.
You’d hardly think that car chargers are the most exciting, quickly advancing sector of the mobile phone industry, and you’d be right. But every once in a while a car charger comes along with some pretty impressive capabilities, and that’s exactly the situation we find ourself in today.
Analogix, the creator of SlimPort video cables, today announced its latest product: a mobile chip that can handle desktop-class video output over USB-C.