EU to force Apple to switch to USB-C standard
politico.eu
politico.eu
Back in the days every phone had a proprietary charging port. Not every phone manufacturer, no. Every phone model. The only one to have a standard charger was... Apple, with the old Dock connector [0]. It was the same charger as the iPods and spoke the same protocol. It just worked.
Then Apple got a lot of flak for not adopting Micro USB and instead going out with lightning. In retrospect, it was the correct decision: lightning is reversible and support higher current than Micro USB. Re-created the same ecosystem around Lightning for all third party accessories, again, just works.
Now they are getting flak for not switching to USB-C, but just looking at some devices (Nintendo Switch comes to mind) maybe it's not the best user experience.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dock_connector#30-pin_dock_con...
Lightning was a way to lock down who can make 3rd party devices. Apple doesn't care if you can connect something both ways. Look at what they did with mag safe, every one loved it, yet they canned it.
Nine years? Is that not a "long time" to you, or am I misunderstanding the point you're driving at?
Maybe I’ll finally get an iPod.
Can you expand on the Nintendo Switch, I don't understand why the NS doesn't provide the best user experience due to USB-C? If you're talking about the bricking from using third party chargers/docks I always thought that was due to Nintendo implementation of it, not the standard itself.
It was. But here's a simple question:
If I plug my USB-C device in a charger with a cable I found, can I fast charge? Answer is, it depends on the power brick and the cable.
Same question, can I simply get video out with USB-C? Answer is it depends how much of the spec was implemented by both ends and if my cable supports it.
Lightning was introduced nine years ago, so speak for yourself. Of the Apple devices at our house, only the phones and AirPod/PowerBeats cases still take Lightning. The rest are either proprietary (Apple Watch) or USB-C. I'd say it's well past time for Apple to move on to USB-C for the rest of their stuff, but here we are with a recently-announced iPhone, and we'll still have to carry that Lightning cable around for a few more years.
Plus all of our apple wireless keyboards and touchpads use lightning as well.
Can you imagine the amount of e-waste that would potentially be generated if Apple was forced to switch? I know this is weak argument bc lightning will eventually be EOLed anyways, but I just don't see the value in forcing their hand.
As I seem to be bringing up on weekly basis, if their goal is to reduce e-waste, they should turn their attention to the Android ecosystem. The amount of e-waste I've generated over the years of using Android is almost criminal.
Or to put it another way, the amount of e-waste I HAVEN'T generated while being in the Apple ecosystem is impressive.
At the very least Apple have already switched to USB-C at the other end of the lightning cable and excluded the charging block on new iPhones.
Oh, yeah, forgot about that one. Imagine my disappointment when my new-at-the-time 2019 iMac shows up with its new-to-me shiny USB-C ports, and I...have to use a USB-C -> Lightning cable to charge the HIDs? I mean, I get it, but I was really hoping that items that merely need charging (no data) could move to USB-C along with the ports on my new machine.
Beside that, Apple might just work around the rule and no longer include a physical charging connector in their devices and go all in on wireless charging for example.
I've also had usb-c cables break at the stem of the device while this has never happened with lightning. I'm not certain if this is the nature of the design of usb-c or if it was simply a cheap cable that had no strain relief for the physical connector, but in either case I've never experienced a snapped lightning connector.
The problem with these government mandates is that eventually there will come a new and better connector that phone manufacturers will be blocked from implementing on their phones until after a lengthy legislative process.
I had an iPhone 5S for 5 years before this phone and never had any issues, other than dust getting in, which was easily cleaned.
Ironically, as I understand it, Apple was a major contributor to, and advocate for, USB C in the first place! If USB C (especially USB C + Thunderbolt) had existed at the time then Lightning probably wouldn't exist.
I wouldn't be surprised if Apple already had plans to migrate its entire product line to USB C by 2024.
Be that as it may, I have a lot of lightning cables and I like being able to charge my AirPods/trackpad/keyboard/iPhone with them. The automatic bluetooth pairing, which I assume is a software feature (PS5 and Switch also have it with USB C) is also something that every device should have.
I'd probably write something regulating the charging port on the device and the charging protocol
So what Apple (and others) can (and probably will) do is continue with the port(s) they have now, just dont have that port be a charging port, and charge wireless.
USB on the other hand is a complete mess.
Naively, the lightning connector seems better designed. The cable is just a flat wedge that goes into a socket. The usb has an internal wedge/pin in the socket and then has to have something wrap around it. I feel that internal wedge is more susceptible to damage, and then the entire port on the device is cooked, vs a relatively inexpensive cable.
Every connector pair has a side on which there are just flat pads, and one which uses some spring-like mechanism to build up pressure in order to make a secure contact to the side with the flat pads. These springs wear out over time and lose their "springiness", it's just a result of material fatigue, and having them on the easier-replaceable side (the cable) makes sense.
Thus, USB-C just made a different trade-off: they chose the design that would not mandate very tight quality control with regard to the material used for the springs, while Apple chose an overall mechanically more robust design, but with this particular weakness that it requires more quality control for the connector parts going into devices. They probably did that because they're the only ones manufacturing that part, hence they are able to ensure quality, which is of course nothing you can expect with an open standard like USB-C.
Except that in practice I've never seen a lightning device that stops holding cables, and I've seen a lot of broken USB-C cables and ports. Don't forget also that USB-C ports have a fragile tongue inside.