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discordance

Oh, yes please. Having a custom connector when the world has standardized around USB-C is super user hostile.

Even their own product lineup is confused:

Mac: USB-C

iPad: USB-C

iPhone: lightning

AirPods: lightning

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Lightning was what Apple standardized on when the world was still using dock connectors with completely incompatible pinouts and wire protocols. The fact that Apple pushed a usb compatible wire protocol (instead of, say, firewire?) in the first place is the opposite of user-hostile.

If Apple had changed its connector in any way in the last decade, people would have similarly complained that they are changing in order to sell more chargers and cables. Neither one of these arguments is very compelling to me but seems to keep coming up.

The iPod was originally designed to be connected via FireWire only. It took an incredible amount of internal pressure to get Steve Jobs to relent and allow USB.

The iPod only went USB once USB 2.0 was widely deployed (the spec was ratified in 2001, the first USB iPod was 2003). USB 1.0/1.1 (1.5/12Mbps) were not fast enough for the 5GB-20GB drives of the day, especially compared to the prevailing FireWire standard (400Mbps).

> Lightning was what Apple standardized on when the world was still using dock connectors with completely incompatible pinouts and wire protocols.

What? Lighting is what Apple imposed (to themselves) when the world standardized on micro USB and Apple was still using dock connectors.

But the micro USB connector is trash, so it’s no surprise they didn’t use it.

So they should have been active in defining the successor USB standard.

... like how they had an active role in USB C?

Did they? As far as I can tell USB-C was mainly invented by Intel and TI.

Isn't USB-C basically Thunderbolt? Which was made by Apple

Wasn't Thunderbolt made by Intel?

Original Thunderbolt was by Intel, then Apple came up with how to use it with MiniDP connector. There definitely was more collaboration, but as a simple overview this works.

In 2019 Intel donated the spec royalty free to USB-IF

Didn't know that, thanks for the info!

Yes. Apple engineers played a significant role in developing USB-C.

Of the 79 engineers who worked on the original spec, 18 of them were from Apple. Intel had 24, JAE had 21, TI had 12 https://www.docdroid.net/uf3z/typec-pdf

They did. It's called Thunderbolt.

Then they were literally the first to go all in on USB-C in their laptops.

And the world (well, HN) loudly complained every single time.

Thunderbolt isn't an open standard.

Define "open".

Thunderbolt 3 spec was released to USB-IF in 2019 as a royalty-free standard.

I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you simply are unaware of the physical realities (re: limitations) of micro USB and not actively trying to mislead but here’s a real anecdote from someone who routinely repaired micro USB and lightning devices:

Micro USB ports failed considerably faster and more often than lightning. Easily by a margin of 100:1. the design of the “cage” that held the male connector would wear out, the thin center plastic would break, etc. Micro USB was and still is complete garbage.

Apple engineers knew this and thankfully put in the effort to make something better.

The rest of the industry was still trying to pull their head out of their ass and apple had this awesome durable new connector. That’s what really happened.

Now, years later people like you have either forgotten or I guess maybe never saw the comparison up close for prolonged periods but it tires me to see this careless and ignorant argument brought up time and time again.

Preach it. Even by the standards of the times, MicroUSB was hot garbage.

It’s the only connector I’ve had fail multiple times. I replaced the port on a friend’s camera as well. On the other hand, I have lightning ports and cables pushing 5 years of regular use.

For some reason it never occurred to me that these connectors were so awful until very recently when I had one fail on a brand new micro controller. Unfortunately it’s still a super common connector in that space.

USB-C isn't making me very enthusiastic either. Both of them suck. It would rock to get lightning on there lol.

I've been using magnetic ones to prevent my ports from wearing out and if anyone preaches about safety or standards I don't care. It's what I'm forced to do, and now my data rates are slow but at least my port will work next time.

Ever seen a frayed lighting cable? In my whole life, from all Apple people I know, I've seen only those, in various stages of decomposition. Do I see white cable breaking apart? No need to check connector, I know its apple's. For the price of 5-10 USB ones that keep working much much longer.

Since we are comparing personal anecdotes I never had a single USB port fail me in 20 years, be it mini, micro, usbc. But I don't treat my electronics like garbage, that usually helps a bit.

> Ever seen a frayed lighting cable?

This was due to a particular material they were using that was more environmentally friendly, if I recall correctly. It wasn't just lightning cables, pretty much all of Apple's cables from that time were susceptible. It's not an issue with whatever they're currently using, though.

Regardless, the material of the rubber they're using the wrap the cable has absolutely nothing to do with the lightning connector.

Apples cables are shitty, but that's not the connectors fault. Just don't buy Apple cables.

My experience with lightning cables has been that they frequently get scorched on one of the pins so that the cable becomes one-sided, the female side frequently fills with lint and slowly causes mismating, and they often claim to be waterlogged because, I guess, it's humid outside of California.

It's difficult to buy lightning-compatible devices because Apple incentivizes knockoffs instead of authentic parts. Even if you wanted to buy from a reputable brand like Apple, Anker or Belkin, they might not have the type of product you need.

On the other hand USB-C is designed to exclude water and is better at lint exclusion, never seems to arc, and is a real standard that has many suppliers of quality interfaces.

I've had a similar experience wrt. it getting scorched, but I've found that you can fix it my cleaning it thoroughly.

The cable sleeve is also notoriously fragile. I've gone through 5+ first-party lightning cables from frayed rubber sleeving alone.

AirPods do have a standard way of charging. You can put them on any Qi charger to charge them. No custom connector needed.

The cheaper AirPod cases don’t support wireless charging.

iPhones have an ecosystem around lighting, cables docks devices etc, to change that would cause users to be far more upset then having a different cable then other devices, see the outrage when they switched to lightning in the first place

There isn’t as much an ecosystem of lightning devices for macs as it was usb a. I assume iPads also had less. Dunno about AirPods thou

I assume they saw the writing on the wall and figured they would wait till the eu forced usb c so users will Blame them Not apple for the switch

> iPhones have an ecosystem around lighting, cables docks devices etc, to change that would cause users to be far more upset then having a different cable then other devices, see the outrage when they switched to lightning in the first place

Actually incredible to me that people can have this mindset. Have an adapter for your gaff proprietary cable with MFI chips to make sure third parties can't make long-lasting ones cheaply, not for the standardised USB-C one.

> see the outrage when they switched to lightning in the first place

Yeah, Apple have changed their preferred physical connector for phones and peripherals once in the last 16 years, from the 30 pin connector to Lightning. When they did that, there was outrage that they were obsoleting all the devices that used the 30 pin connector because of “planned obsolescence”.

Meanwhile, Android phones have gone from ExtUSB to mini-USB, to micro-USB, to USB-C in the same timeframe with all the accompanying adapter / cable / accessory churn. If Apple had changed to USB-C while Android vendors were still mostly using micro-USB, there would have been a repeat of the outrage about “planned obsolescence” again as evil Apple forced people to switch from using Lightning to USB-C.

No idea why you're being downvoted when it's true.

> Android phones have gone from ExtUSB to mini-USB, to micro-USB, to USB-C in the same timeframe

Except, so did all of the other devices that charge and connect to computers. Go-pros and gamepads and what-have-you required the same cables and went through the same churn, so buying a new cable wasn't another extra cable to carry around in addition to the ones you need for other things. Apple doesn't get to claim that. If I want to use my bluetooth headphones with my iphone on a trip I have to bring a USB-C cable and a lightning cable.

>users to be far more upset then having a different cable then other devices

I’m sure they already have a usbc charger for something else by now. Also we all know people would be cheering and praising Apple the day it happens.

Defending lightning in 2023 is ridiculous. USB-C is here and mature and used on their laptops and iPads. Even if you’re knee deep in Apples ecosystem your laptop or tablet already has a charger that would work.

I think you missed my point: users will be more upset bv the change to usb-c making their lightning devices/docks no longer work then they currently are having to have 2 types of cables. Its not as easy for apple as "just change it usb c and everyone get a new charging cable" as many people seem to think it is.

as i said the last time apple changed the connector type people were Very Upset.

Mac: USB-C

Magic Mouse: lightning

I have this work provided combo, and the mouse is the only device in the house that takes a lightning connector.

Cue frantically trying to find that cable every time it gets low..

USB-C and I could just plug the wall charger into it and be done with it.

If your mouse is the only device in your house that takes a lightning connector, why are you frantically trying to find the cable every time it gets low? Just keep the cable by your mouse. It’s not like you are using it for anything else. And why “frantically” anyway? The mouse gives you loads of warning before the battery goes, I routinely use it for hours after the warning. This is not an emergency.

Just

So you wouldn't mind if you keyboard had its own cable as well and gave you plenty of warning before the battery dies? At what point is it ok to complain about an annoying inconvenience that doesn't have to exist?

I suspect the goal is to remove physical ports entirely from any device small enough to practically charge wirelessly, so they're just delaying until they can do that to replace Lightning.

New Apple TV Remote: USB-C

I guess Apple are getting there...

The easiest solution is to simply not buy Apple equipment since they're user-hostile.

Apple is a premium luxury brand, like Bentley or Coach or Rolex. If you buy Apple stuff, you should be happy to buy different chargers and cables for the different Apple devices.

> The easiest solution is to simply not buy Apple equipment since they're user-hostile.

Why do people spread this false doctrine?

because the word "simplest" has so many locally contextually defined meanings that communication is fraught.

I mean "honour your father and mother" -what does the word honour mean?? bestow them with a title? give them a gold Oscar statue?

Also you said spread. I didn't see a jar of butter and a knife. what spread is this? You said doctrine. Can I see some statements from the episcopacy on this please...

Not doing something is generally easier than doing something...

Right?

"Don't buy user-hostile Apple equipment. Use Windows instead!"

What world are these people even from?

I always love the delusional argument that Apple is a premium brand like Rolex.

Rolex sells watches that are incredible pieces of engineering but functionally can be found in a watch that is 10000x cheaper.

There is no laptop that I can buy today that is equivalent to an M2 MacBook Pro at any price point let alone significantly cheaper.

It's not delusional. You have a point with the M2, but most Apple owners don't have those, they just have iPhones and a few other associated gadgets. There's nothing special about iPhone hardware, in fact it's usually behind other manufacturer's hardware at similar or somewhat lower price points.

The individual components are (e.g camera and screen) but in terms of the SOC they're still several years ahead of the competition on performent to power consumption, arguably the most important part of a mobile device.

It hasn't been relevant for years. It mattered when it doubled the speed but I can use a 6S even today and not care to upgrade. I can use a Pixel 3a and not care to upgrade.

Nobody buys the new iPhone because the SOC uses 20mAh less and is 13% faster and 300% faster in some irrelevant benchmark.

Camera quality, and bad battery life from old phone seem to be why normal people upgrade, brand and design occasionally too.

The question is: why do people upgrade to another iPhone (or from Android->iPhone) instead of to an Android? I'd say the big reasons are 1) brand prestige, 2) familiarity if they're already an iPhone owner, 3) because they're locked into the Apple ecosystem, 4) (for converts) their friends bullied them into joining their club.

People also genuinely change for the better camera. I knew one girl that liked BTS so much she switched to Android with the Samsung phone with BTS headphones lol.

Nobody bullies someone into getting an iPhone lol because nobody calls or texts anymore they all use FB IG or snap so those group chat memes you heard of have not been a thing for over 5 years.

>People also genuinely change for the better camera. I knew one girl that liked BTS so much she switched to Android with the Samsung phone with BTS headphones lol.

Huh? I'm talking about people switching to iPhone from Android (or staying with iPhone through an upgrade). The iPhone camera is nothing really special, and never has been: Android phones have always had the cutting-edge camera tech.

>Nobody bullies someone into getting an iPhone lol because nobody calls or texts anymore they all use FB IG or snap so those group chat memes you heard of have not been a thing for over 5 years.

That's not what I see when I see American users talk about using SMS messages and iMessage. SMS seems to still be very popular there, for some strange reason. Plus, it's not just the iMessage thing; it's people in real life seeing their friend with a non-iPhone and asking them "why don't you have an iPhone like everyone else?"

So iPhone users are susceptible and ignorant who buy expensive items not based on whether it meets their needs but based on marketing and peer pressure.

Always a good approach to have in life. Thinking everyone is dumb except for you.

I think people value the better SOC, but less incrementally year-over-year and more on the kind of upgrade cycle they're on. An iPhone 6S is absolutely still useable, and if you upgrade to a 7 it'll feel mostly the same, but if you upgrade to a 10 (or a 12 or a 14) you'll notice workflows where you get a real increase in fluidity and the same is true on a Pixel. I agree that battery failure and camera is likely what _drives_ the upgrade, mind you, but the better SOC brings collateral benefits.

Obviously some aspects of a phone are very subjective. Like the Camera, everyone I know who has an iPhone 14 Pro Max think the photos produced are amazing. Yet you jump on the internet and people will tell you they are shit. Mainly because they hate Apple and even a 10yo Android is obviously better than the latest iPhone.

But the Processor is SO far ahead of the competition its crazy. FaceID is still superior to the competition.

Well according to blind test, with 20 million votes iPhone 14 Pro camera is solid, but really nothing special in flagship tier. And in fact did loose to budget Android brand Realme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQdjmGimh04

I always enjoy these sort of tests. I have the iPhone 13 Pro Max. There are times I take photos and I'm like "wow the camera is amazing" and other times I'm like "gah, wtf is this".

Then when I saw side-by-side comparisons of Pixel 7 Pro and 14 Pro Max, half the time I pick the 7 and the other half the 14.

What's interesting to me tho is how low the Huawei phone is compared to the Pixel, because when every there's arguments on Facebook about iPhone or something, there's countless comments about the Huawei being the best camera hands down, no competition. But it looks like it doesn't come close to top 3 in any category?

Ultimately the best camera is the one you have with you.

That's exactly what it comes to - most of modern flagships are the same. Best is one you have with you. You can pick traits that are important to you.

What's really weird are iPhone owners that begin conversations with "of course iPhone is objectively better", which I have met on HN a few times. They seem to live in a different reality, where it's justified to spit out couple hundred of dollars to not think for a five minutes.

I agree with the results in the video (and the inference the author made that most of what's going on here is software processing being over-tuned rather than hardware), but I don't really think this is dispositive to the overall conversation, which is basically:

Side A: Apple makes ludicrously expensive ultra-luxe products that only the conspicuously rich buy, like Rolex or Bentley.

Side B: Apple is definitely on the premium end of the market, but generally justify their presence there due to elements of product quality, and their price positioning isn't anything like Rolex or Bentley.

I think pointing out individual instances where products exist that beat Apple products in some respect and are cheaper doesn't really weigh in on the debate. In broad terms, Apple's high end phones are at or near price comparability with other high end phones, and at or near performance/specs/value with other high end phones. Maybe a smidge above or below in some respects at different times, but basically that's where they are.

To me, Apple is closer to Volvo, or maybe in a pinch BMW, in terms of their market positioning than it is to Bentley. That's not to say you can't prefer a Kia (better value / cheaper price) or a Genesis (premium brand spun off from a traditionally cheaper competitor) or a Lexus or an Audi (in the same price tier), but more or less it makes very little sense to pretend BMW and Bentley are the same thing.

Personally I think Apple is exactly like volvo. Nothing really special, but appealing to some part of the audience. For some unknown reason they think that they can be overpriced, when they really are pretty mediocre overall. Saying that as a volvo owner :-)

I think it's hard to compare smartphones to cars. Buying a Volvo isn't that different from buying a BMW or a Toyota or a Ford: they all work on the same roads. Buying a Volvo doesn't lock you into only driving on Volvo roads, buying Volvo gasoline, and listening to Volvo music, and only getting the best experience if you have a Volvo house.

Honestly, the recent iPhones' camera is shit. Half the images I see on twitter/reddit now look absolutely stunning as a thumbnail, but the moment you zoom in to take a closer look at something, the photos just look like a 90's webcam photo upscaled with Topaz AI, like a painting drawn by DALL-E.

> There is no laptop that I can buy today that is equivalent to an M2 MacBook Pro at any price point let alone significantly cheaper.

Why are you comparing with an imaginary equivalent? Different things matter to different people - dimensions, weight, battery life, raw power, extendability, screen. There are a bunch of options that beat M2 Macs on all those bar battery life - e.g. my personal Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is better for the things that matter to me than my work-issued M1 MBP and it's not even close - a screen that doesn't cause eyestrain within tens of minutes, choice in the OS, similar dimensions, much more raw power, extendability, repairability. The only thing in which it's worse is battery life. An LG Gram is lighter than an MBA/MBP, and goes to 17'' for the screen size.

Don't get me wrong, MBP hardware is pretty good. The problems are lack of choice (like screen type), highway robbery when buying extra RAM/storage, and a nearly total lack of repairability and fully total lack of extendability. Oh and a pretty subpar OS.

Apple is the only (the one, the only) phone manufacturer that sells a human-hand-sized phone in the US, the iPhone Mini. I'd love to go back to Android, I find iOS to be pretty terrible, but I'm afraid my hands are not 15 inches wide, so it's just not an option for me.

I recently watched an iPhone 13 conversion video where someone essentially tucked in the lightning to C chip from the stock Apple charging cable inside of the phone and used a Samsung type C port to maintain the waterproof rating.

It was pretty neat and eye opening.

I’m considering the project when I retire my current phone so I can continue to use the old phone as a video camera in my rig where everything else is type C.

https://youtu.be/1yudWXta6dM

It's a bit funny to see "the world has standardised around USB-C" and recall the discussions when Apple first dropped USB-A from their laptops :)

Fingers crossed the iPhone 15 will ship with usb-c, at least in Europe. I’m hoping everywhere but maybe I can grab a euro model if not.

That said, my 12 pro is still going strong and I’m not feeling any particular desire to upgrade yet.

They should ship the 15 with USB c on one end and lightning in the other.

It made sense before USB-C.

Now it's made to inconvenience the previous iphone users so they are given one more reason not to buy an android phone.

Nah I think it’s because apple didn’t want to be the “evil company forcing them to buy new cables and devices” and getting backlash like when the introduced lightning in the first place.

This way they waited it out and now the eu “is to blame”

Yes because USB C is so user friendly:

Grab a random USB C cable, now answer a few questions

- how much power can it deliver?

- how much data can it deliver?

- can it deliver video over USB?

Somehow I don’t think any of these are an issue for AirPods

What’s the use of a “universal cable” that doesn’t work everywhere even though it should?

The way I had it explained to me is that “Type C” is the form factor, and that’s what is meant by universal. Which actual USB standard is implemented by the client/host varies widely.

This leads to an immense amount of confusion because people are used to different form factors indicating compatibility.

And the corollary is: What is the advantage of a universal form factor if the wire protocols are different?

If the wire protocols are different, then an identical form factor is a hindrance, not an advantage.

I'd much rather have it this way than how it was before. Sure, there are headaches, but not more than in the thirty-adapter-bag before times, and now if you get a nice cable that supports thunderbolt/usb3.14159/etc. it really can do everything.

Of course. Simple solution to all people yelling and complaining their 2$ amazon usb cable is not top notch compared to 50$ apple one is - don't buy cheap crap.

There are good usb cables that handle it all, still cost fraction of apple ones due to simple effect of competition, and are more durable. But quality comes at a cost, just you don't need to pay apple profit margins.

I find the USB-C headaches worse. With a bag of cables if the cable fits[1] it works to the full capability of the device. If I'm traveling and forgot something I can expect that the cheapest gas station cable or a borrowed cable will work.

With USB-C I have to spend good money for every every cable in order to ensure that any cable I grab from my bag works. And these cables are going to be so thick that they are annoying to use with a mouse or keyboard.

I can rearrange my office and use a cheap 5 meter usb-A to B cable to get to where the printer is now (true story). If I want a 5 meter usb-C to C cable for data I need to spend over $300.

[1] excluding all the possibilities of chargers with incompatible DC barrel plugs, which is generally true of the time frames we're talking about

If you use a lot of wired devices I guess I can see that being a headache. I use wireless peripherals and make sure they're all usb-c, so when I travel I only need to remember one cable, maybe another as backup. These problems also improve as USB-C becomes more mass-manufactured. Case in point: now there's a 5 meter USB-IF certified usb-c power/ data cable at the top of the Amazon results for $19.

It’s worse than that though because what’s implemented by the host and client can be the same but the cable can be incompatible too.

usb-c is basically a standardized oval.

> The way I had it explained to me is that “Type C” is the form factor, and that’s what is meant by universal. Which actual USB standard is implemented by the client/host varies widely.

There's also a couple of universal USB standards: every client/host is supposed to implement USB 2.0, unless they're charging-only; and every client/host is supposed to implement simple power delivery (negotiated through resistor values) at 5V and at least 500mA (for a USB-A 2.0 to USB-C cable, other combinations are supposed to deliver more current).

My favorite is USB-C devices that only charge with A to C cables, not C to C cables.

I forgot to mention those. Some devices don’t support USB PD and you have to use USB A to USB cables.

That's why my stupid flashlight won't charge on some chargers! Thank you, you've solved a mystery for me.

> won't charge on some chargers

To add more detail, USB-PD (power delivery) is a complex negotiated protocol. The charger is supposed to output some meager 5v power supply like a traditional USB A supply, and the device asks for some specific voltage, and the charger tells the device if it can do that, and then does it (up to 24v, iirc). PD Chargers are supposed to support any of the supported voltages, but many (eg. Apple MacBook Chargers) only support a subset of the voltages.

By spec USB-C chargers don't even provide 5V without a pulldown resistor on the CC lines. It's safe to connect two compliant USB-C charges together.

How does USB A deliver power differently such that it works with devices which don’t support USB PD?

With USB C, is the power delivery on a pin these devices don’t have? Then the pin USB A would use to send power isn’t present with USB C (either physically or on purpose)?

USB-C allows a certain pin to be used for PD negotiation. USB-A doesn't have this pin. USB-A to USB-C cables have a fixed resistor pulling this pin to signal which power requirements they support.

Badly designed devices do not negotiate power requirements and just start drawing power, which doesn't work with proper USB-C cables (which expect to negotiate first) but obviously works with USB-A to USB-C cables (which always support the same power requirements)

Thanks for the explanation. This explains all the weird behaviour of devices I have which don’t charge (or charge poorly) over USB C. This was so confusing because I assumed that they should work fine given that they have USB C ports, but no… I’ll have to keep some USB A to C cords around for years still.

I just bought a CalDigit element hub and had some hesitation because I thought “how long will I really need the USB A ports?” Evidently they will be handy for quite a while.

> How does USB A deliver power differently such that it works with devices which don’t support USB PD?

USB A devices (and by extension, USB A to USB C cables) always delivers power. USB C devices only deliver power once they see a specific resistor to ground on a control pin. If the device is missing that resistor (actually a pair of resistors, one for each side of the cable), a USB C device on the end of a USB C to USB C cable won't provide power.

(Preemptive nitpicking: actually, USB C devices provide a bit of power in that control pin, which is how they detect that resistor to ground; but that's separate from the main power pins.)

That is a design defect. The USB-C spec requires C-C charging so if it has a USB-C port and won't charge with a C-C cable it is defective. Return it and tell them why. I have done this a few times.

- when was the last time I had to scrape pocket lint out of the gaps?

- am I due for another?

For any usb-c cable in my house, the answer to all those questions is, in order:

- enough to charge my airpods

So you have AirPods and no other Apple devices?

And people hoping that Apple’s move to USB C will mean USB3 speeds need to look no further than the latest low end iPad that has USB C. But transfers data at USB 2 speeds. The same happened on many low end to midrange Android phones.

On a low end iPad very few people have a need for any devices to connect to it via usb, even fewer than would benefit from usb3 speeds.

You mean an A14 iPad? That’s not exactly slow by any means and the newest A15s that come in the phones are not appreciably faster.

I didn't say it was slow. I said on low end iPads people dont typically have a need to connect things to its USB, certainly nothing that would have any benefit from USB 3.

A low end iPad with an A14 is hardware wise more capable and definitely more responsive than many low end consumer PCs that are sold today. For instance it is more than capable of editing music and video that you may want to transfer to or from a computer or an external hard drive.

> And people hoping that Apple’s move to USB C will mean USB3 speeds... than the latest low end iPad

Who is expecting anything out of the low end iPad for anything other than taking notes or watching videos? The new high-end iPads are thunderbolt and USB4.

But more importantly... so? What does this have to do with charging AirPods?

Basically no cables that are USB-C and more than 0.5 meters support charging AND video/high-speed. Unfortunately, I think people just have to accept that there's "data cables" and "PD cables" and "junk short cheap cables that don't do anything". You can spend like $150 buying multi-meter thunderbolt/USB-IF cables that support PD + full data and full video, or just buy two cables.

I have these

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B093YVRHMB?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_shar...

The low end iPads come with an A14. That’s not exactly a slouch and has the keyboard accessories

No, I've also got a MacBook. And in my life, this supposed flaw in USB-C just doesn't exist. I have yet to experience a USB-C cable that doesn't do what I expect it to. But perhaps that is because I don't have unreasonable expectations, like the shape of the hole I plug a wire into making data transfer speeds faster

Video over USB C is a standard and supported by Macs and high end iPads.

I've got two types of USB-C cables at home:

2m long 100W PD 5Gbit/s cables 40cm long TB3 cables

Super easy to find, super easy to remember. And all of them already have the new wattage/data rate labels.

Keyboards are lightning too; they come with a lightning -> USB-C cable in the box. I imagine all of their lineup will eventually move to it, shame it wasn't in one swoop though.

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