I traded-in my iOS 17 infected 13 Pro Max for a 14 just to get back on iOS 16, which the 14's ship with. Thankfully AT&T had a promotion and it didn't cost me anything. Regardless, I was so close to moving on from Apple entirely. First we had the iOS 16.5 debacle, which killed all USB powered devices, including their own Lightning to USB 3 Adapter, but they eventually fixed it (and took their sweet time doing so). iOS 17 undid all the progress and many of my powered usb devices (not just E1DA goodness) will refuse to work with my OTG lightning cables and will only function with Apple's Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter, but with an added caveat: you need to be plugged in to the passthrough lightning charge port. But that's just for a select few devices, the majority of them will not play nice with iOS 17. It's a power-draw issue, so pretty much all my active amps are toast. Either way, best case scenario: I'm tethered to an outlet when I want to listen to music on the phone. Don't you just love progress? I think Apple has single-handedly redefined the meaning of the word, "update/upgrade" in its latest iterations of iOS.
I just can't get over how out of touch a company must be, which simultaneously gives us LOSSLESS STREAMING via Apple Music and removes, arguably, the best method for appreciating that higher bitrate goodness: wired, powered audio interfaces and power hungry headphones.
I won't even get started on the response I received from engineering after my tech support case was escalated, following several weeks of phone calls with "support", providing necessary photos, detailed explanations, etc. Their way of seeing it - it was all just "expected behavior"; addressing my inability to interface with any of my audio gear on iOS 17. Literally those two words were what the support gal scheduled a 7pm phone call around. That's all the Engineering Team could manage to provide her with. For context: I knew my E1DA PDV2.1 & 9038 issues were not going to get much traction with some third party OTG lightning cable so I went the route of using their own Apple Lightning to USB3 adapter to prove the point. Weeks later they inform me that this was all "expected behavior" as I was using a Camera Adapter to interface with devices other than a camera. That "explanation" came from the best minds at Apple. Incompetence or indifference are the only two options in this case. I'm guessing it's the latter.
From Apple's own adapter product page: "Add even greater capability and versatility to your iOS device by powering the Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter with a USB Power Adapter. Then you can connect USB peripherals like hubs, Ethernet adapters, audio/MIDI interfaces, and card readers for CompactFlash, SD, microSD, and more."
Having written this out, I actually kind of regret staying in the Apple Ecosystem with the iPhone 14 Pro trade. I should have cut and ran and made the switch to Android. USB-C! What a novel idea!
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