You care when it stops working one day because Apple changed something (maybe intentionally). Out of a combination of spite and cheapness, I've only ever bought unlicensed cables for several years, and this is the price I've paid over time.
And USB C is not free of licensing requirements
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/450494/are-u...
A “good” USB C cable that supports all of the things I said - high speed data, video over USB, etc - costs around $15. The same price as an Anker Lightning cable.
A random USB C cable doesn’t support video over USB - something I need for my portable secondary display.
The iPads with USB C already support this. I have no reason to believe that the next iPhone won’t.
Re ewaste, that's a different topic. I'm just talking about licensing fees.
USB C also has licensing fees. The stated reason was to prevent “ewaste” and yes you can buy a $5 lightning cable.
Here is a 3 pack for $10
That 3-pack MFi Lightning for $10 is a new phenomenon. It was never like that before. I can believe it's not fake, just cheap cause it's old tech and on its way out.
But the Lightning cable won't support high speed data. And if you want video over Lightning you can't just use a cable, you need an adapter with an embedded computer to decompress the output.
A USB C cable that has the same capabilities as that Lightning cable is 2-3 dollars.
USB C cables that come with the iPad supports all of those standards. What are the chances that unsuspecting users in the EU dancing in the streets go in an buy a “standard USB C” and find out that it doesn’t work when they get ready to plug their phone to the TVs or when they find out the promise of “USB3 speeds” because it was the “standard” is a lie because the EU didn’t mandate that as part of the standard?
And I don't think this reduces ewaste. It's about the same.
Now answer a few questions just by looking at it:
- what wattage does is supper?
- what data speed does it support?
- will it support video over USB C?
Why didn’t the EU in all of its technical brilliance at least attempt to come up with a minimum “standard”?
EU wanted to break up Apple's proprietary control over the iPhone ports and create a charging standard, cause charging is the important part. Anyone can make a higher-spec USB-C cable without going to Apple, and chargers are uniform for all phones.
Worth repeating that I don't agree with the EU's law, just saying why they did it. Nobody in this thread has brought up the real con, which is that tech regulation hinders innovation, and the minor frustration with chargers wasn't a big enough problem to warrant that.
Maybe or maybe not. There are plenty of really low watt capable USB C cords that come with headphones for instance.
> What speed, don't really care but it's at least the same as Lightning
That’s not true either. There are plenty of “power only” USB C cables.
But this is a charging standard and for charging all cables are the same for the vast majority of devices.
All the stuff that might break because I don't have high speed data is no worse than lightning which never has high speed data*.
*Except for a single model of iPad.
Everything I mentioned has been part of the standard fir years.
> But this is a charging standard and for charging all cables are the same for the vast majority of devices
The purported goal is to “prevent ewaste”. How does it prevent ewaste if you still can’t depend on the cords working the way they should?
> All the stuff that might break because I don't have high speed data is no worse than lightning which never has high speed data*.
Is that the bar we set now? It’s no better than what came before?
For charging, it's fine.
> Is that the bar we set now? It’s no better than what came before?
A charging standard shouldn't care about data except to avoid getting in the way, and it probably shouldn't mandate more expensive cables for devices that don't have data.
Also USB C supports more power than lightning.
But to directly answer: That bar is just fine, because the point is the make everyone use the same thing. It doesn't need to be better, it needs to be good and everyone the same.
That’s kind of the point. Just because it has the same connector it’s not the “same thing”.
Citation needed? I think those are below the minimum.
> How well are they going to work when people pick up a “USB C” cable and wonder why they aren’t seeing video when they connect their phone to their TV?
They probably feel similar to people with lightning cables.
The law states nothing about data transfers or anything else.
Does the law not say the cables have to meet the USB C spec?
The maximum wattage of the little USB C cable that comes with headphones certainly don’t support a minimum wattage that will charge a large iPhone at any appreciable speed.
Which ones? The posts I can find say they do USB 2.0
> a lot of other USB C cables especially ones that come with headphones.
> The maximum wattage of the little USB C cable that comes with headphones certainly don’t support a minimum wattage that will charge a large iPhone at any appreciable speed.
Those cables don't meet the standard, then. The minimum is 3 amps and a single pair of data wires. And that doesn't require much, especially for a little 6 inch cable.
If the law mandates USB C, then it mandates 3 amps for cables.
Then you also have the opposite problem. If the USB cable supports higher wattage power delivery, some low wattage USB C devices like headphones won’t charge.
Then I don't know why you're spending so many posts purely about cables in complaint of this law. Cables have gone from unregulated to unregulated.
If your underlying argument is "this is in the right direction but they should have gone further", you are not coming across that way with all your other posts.
> Then you also have the opposite problem. If the USB cable supports higher wattage power delivery, some low wattage USB C devices like headphones won’t charge.
Do you mean like the thing with raspberry pis? That wasn't about wattage, their miswiring meant that any cable with a tag would fail.
Otherwise I don't see how that kind of failure is possible.
Don’t you just love the USB C “standard”?
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-my-headphones-only-charge-with-...
Just so you don’t think I’m choosing some no name headphones as an example
Your first link has one answer that starts with "likely because it’s not usbC"
Your second link just seems like ass covering? The only complaints I can find of those not charging seem to be unrelated to the cable used.
Lightning supports video. Or were you just making a joke about how unreliable it is? Cause man, I can't even charge my phone sometimes.
If you just pick up a generic lightning cable, you're not getting video.