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Comment by bluefirex | Hacker News Reader

USB-C is now a requirement for me to upgrade my iPhone. I'm holding onto my XS until they switch to that.

I had to clean the lightning socket on my iPhone XS as it had some pocket fluff inside that prevented the cable from filling clicking in. Cleaning it was trivial, just some cardboard and a well positioned light source.

On the flip side, cleaning out USB-C sockets from the same types of fluff is a pain because the data pins are in an island in the middle of the socket. Which gives you both less room (is requiring you to use a thinner implement) but also a greater risk of damaging the socket.

USB micro had the same problems as well.

I really with USB would address this because, with the best will in the world, devices sometimes get dirty.

> Which gives you both less room (is requiring you to use a thinner implement) but also a greater risk of damaging the socket.

A flattened wood toothpick works great for this. Take a regular round pointy toothpick and flatten the end 5mm or so by squeezing it in a pair of pliers or some such.

I was ready to replace my phone until I learned this trick. I had already tried cleaning the port out, but obviously not well enough.

I think we’re more likely to see a port-less (read MagSafe only) iPhone sooner than a USB-C version. I will say the iPad Pro with USB-C was a revelation for usability though. Not to mention companies like Flir being able to create one product line.

I don’t know about that. The physical port is still useful for hard resets and management of a “bricked” device (granted I’ve only needed that on an older device, and never on the model I currently have).

Does Apple still get a cut in lightning licensing? If so I think they will move engineering heaven and earth to avoid losing that revenue stream so also agree with the above poster that I’d put money on moving to the wireless.

That's absurd.

There is zero possibility that third-party licensing income for the Lightning port standard is a consideration in any engineering decisions at Apple.

Apple could keep around a hidden diagnostic port, like they do on Apple Watch and HomePod.

The future of iPhone charging is wireless. The current iPhone12 with MagSafe is the first of the new system. I predict future iPhones will have no physical ports at all, 100% wireless.

The lack of USB-C is the reason I didn't replace my Airpods with more Airpods when their battery died.

(Still looking for a decent replacement -- I unfortunately cannot use the kind that has those rubber seal plug things, I must have the hard plastic style like the non-pro Airpods)

Just got the Soundpeats Trueair 2, they're very very similar design to airpods. Case is slightly smaller even, much lighter/cheaper feeling but are well built enough, work reliably and have usb-c.

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