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Comment by nickysielicki | Hacker News Reader

Can we just take a moment and be happy about the fact that we're on the edge of an era where every smartphone charger will work with every phone?

Edit: Google is leading me to believe this might not actually be the case? Are they just rebranding USB-C as "Lightning", or is Apple seriously going with another proprietary standard?

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Lightning was Apple’s replacement for their Dock cable, and it was dramatically better than that as it was reversable and far less fragile. USB-C added reversibility to USB, but it came out well after Lightning.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_(connector)

It's been the standard connector for mobile Apple devices since the iPhone 5. Nothing new about it.

Disregard me, I just get confused with all the different proprietary Apple peripherals. Thunderbolt was the same port as with mini-displayport. Firewire was IEEE 1394. Now I guess I know about Lightning, too.

I look forward to the day when we can all use the same standards.

Thunderbolt isn't Apple proprietary either. Thats designed by intel, and Thunderbolt 3 even works with USB-C

Something Apple is actively working against?

RE your edit - Lightning is not USB-C, it's Apple's propertiary thing.

That's so incredibly disappointing. Why does Apple have to ruin standards? They already have their Marketplace locked down. If they don't like third party peripherals, they can accomplish it through other means.

I hope they die a harsh and painful death over the next decade. Cheap phones will only get better and better.

Frankly, I don't know how anyone who is tech-savvy can rationalize rewarding behavior like this.

USB-C wasn't ready when Apple needed it, to be fair, it wasn't just a lock in play.

Thunderbolt was a good idea (from Intel, not Apple) but most vendors were too (licensing) price sensitive to pick it up.

Well we have been in that era for a while, with the exception of, ahem, certain fruit-consumers...

If anything, this is a sign that they won't be going to USB-C on the iPhone anytime soon. They can't announce something like this, cause the headphone manufacturers to produce lightning headphones, and then remove the lightning port in a year or so.

Lightning has long been an Apple proprietary standard. It has been on the last 3-4 generations of iPhones iirc.

It has some advantages over USB Micro. Like being reversible.

Not that I'm a fan of USB Micro, but there are cables for sale that have a reversible USB Micro plug, as well as a reversible USB plug on the other end, however I have no experience with their durability.

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