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Comment by RKearney | Hacker News Reader

My problem is Apple doesn't even sell an iOS device that comes with a USB C to Lightning cable. How the hell am I supposed to use Safari's web inspector, or record the screen, or profile my app?

Sure, I can buy another cable, but I feel like Apple should be swapping out Lighting<->USB A cables with the USB C equivilient for free.

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They probably won't do that for a couple of years until USB-C is firmly entrenched. Most iPhone customers aren't using Macbooks.

Am I unusual in never plugging my iPhone into my computer to begin with? Contacts/Calendar/Notes/Email/Backups all sync via iCloud, and even if you're still using iTunes to manage your music library (instead of one of the streaming services), that syncs over wifi.

I've got a phone charger in my bedroom and one in my bag and those are the only things it ever gets connected to.

Who cares what the other end of the cable is shaped like as long as it's the same kind as your charger?

Adding on to this, the one scenario where it matters is if you buy a new USB-C to Lightning cable, that lets you travel with just the MBP's USB-C power brick. To charge the computer you plug it in. To charge the phone you plug it in. To charge both you plug the computer in and then plug the phone into the computer, since it's all the same port.

If you still had USB-A on the computer, you could potentially have traveled with only a laptop power supply, and then charged the phone via the laptop ports with the original cable. But I don't know anyone who travels without a phone charger thinking "eh, I'll just plug this into my computer to charge instead."

Never thought of that, that's actually very cool.

I was thinking the same thing, I can't even remember the last time I plugged a phone into a computer. Even if you need to charge it, you're better off plugging it into the wall unless you have a lot of time to kill.

Not true. If you plug an iPhone into a recent Mac that is powered on, the Mac will often deliver more current than the iPhone wall charger will output. As a test, with my phone plugged into the computer, the Mac is delivering 2.1A over USB to the phone.

Source: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204377

Thanks, I stand corrected.

Nope. I'm sure the vast majority of iPhone customers never plug in their iPhones into a computer, which probably explains why they haven't bothered.

Isn't it a hallmark of Apple that all of their stuff usually works together though?

Or shipping iOS devices w/ USB A-C adapter.

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