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Comment by chrismorgan | Hacker News Reader

> Apple says that using a single charger would hurt innovation and create a mountain of electronic waste as consumers who own whatever cable they choose to force won’t be able to use them with future devices.

Is there some error in this sentence? It seems to say precisely the opposite of what would seem to make sense.

(Suppose they choose Cable Q, the sentence says that whoever owns Cable Q won’t be able to use it with future devices. I presume they meant anyone who owns anything other than whatever cable they choose to force.)

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I guess gaslighting is what they do now.

> We, who consider ourselves absolutely leading on privacy, see what we are doing here as an advancement of the state of the art in privacy, as enabling a more private world.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/08/apple-defends-ip...

Indeed. Yes I would need to abandon my current lightning cable, but then I could reuse my USB-C cable in perpetuity.

Hoisted by your own petard, Apple!

USB-C would be ok if they can get the size down, but micro USB would have sucked.

They did mandate micro USB. In 2009. It didn't suck - for the past decade every single phone on the market charged with the same cable, except Apple's. I was never sure how they got away with that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_external_power_supply

By providing a micro USB to Lightning adapter, I think. I’ve got one. It is easily the most expensive gadget, per weight or volume, that I own.

Micro USB is just so much harder to use than lightning. It’s one reason I’ve avoided Android phones, plugging in micro USB cables is much more tedious than lightning cables.

Thankfully they got away with it. USB-C is much better, still not as easy to plug-in as lightning, but at least you don’t have to think carefully about what the orientation is anymore. Wireless charging is even better, which is what I’m using right now. Cables kind of suck in general (though micro USB is probably the worse one in the last two decades).

I just don't really understand this argument.

I charge my phone every... 2 days? And Micro USB takes... 3 seconds to plug in? Type C maybe 1/2 seconds?

Is saving 2 or 3 minutes a year worth the environmental (and actual monetary!) cost of duplicate cables?

If you dislike having to plug things in then just buy one of those magnetic adaptors so it takes... 1 second.

In my experience, Micro-USB cables have a far shorter lifespan than any other common, comparable cable. Wish they'd gone straight from Mini-USB to USB-C.

Maybe you are younger or have more dexterity in your fingers? I really have problems with them, and my thumbs remember the pain of plugging those micro USB things in even now as I’m typing this.

But yes, I think magnetic adapters or wireless charging is the way forward. I’m pretty careful when I buy things now (eg the Bluetooth speakers I just bought has a wireless charging dock, and that’s why I bought them over the others).

I bought a magnetic USB-C adapter for my MacBook Pro charger but haven’t had a chance to use it yet (pandemic means I don’t move my laptop very much).

>Is saving 2 or 3 minutes a year worth the environmental (and actual monetary!) cost of duplicate cables?

What's the most you'd be willing to pay per minute if you could just add more minutes to your life?

Which of the 9+ possible variations of usb c is your cable?

It's for charging a phone, so the minimum of 60 watts is fine.

It's for charging a phone, so data rate doesn't matter.

And that's about it for variations.

Just add some color code to the cables and I'm sold

Personally, all my usb-c chargers can charge/power any of my usb-c devices, which include Google Wifi, Pixel, Samsung buds, MacBook Pro, Nintendo Switch, Oculus Quest...

There apparently is no one cable with a majority market share in the EU, so the majority of people will wind up having obsolete cables if one cable becomes standard. Of course Apple’s argument is specious since standards change and people buy different types of phones anyways.

The EU standard recently changed from micro usb to usb type C. The only other charging cable in the EU market is Apple’s lightning. Forcing Apple to go to USB wouldn’t cause major damage.

All my devices are USB-C, micro USB, or some sort of barrel connector. Now I only pack USB-C to C cables, one USB-C power brick, and a micro USB adapter for my shaver.

...and a cable just for my airpods.

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