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Comment by star-glider | Hacker News Reader

I'm libertarian, but I have to say watching the EU torment Apple has been delightful and one of the stronger arguments for muscular regulatory action.

The USB-C thing just made everything better. It cost Apple basically nothing---maybe a few million/year of profit, which for a company that's worth $3 trillion is nothing, and it made my and many other people's lives quite a bit more convenient.

Same with this Airdrop thing, and same with RCS (although there's some reporting that RCS had more to do with China than the EU).

Eventually, someone is going to break open iMessage, and poor Apple will actually have to compete again for customers. Maybe they'll innovate something more interesting than Airpods Ultra Mega Pro Max or a thinner phone.

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Apple made major contributions to USB-C and adopted it a decade ago in their MacBooks. They were committed to lightning for 10 years starting in 2012-ish, so usb-c was likely inevitable in iOS devices.

However I would preferred a backwards compatibility lightning 2.0 upgrade. Cleaning a usb-c port is a huge pain and they are more prone to pocket lint clogging than lightning.

Plastic dental picks work great for cleaning USB-C ports.

just don’t apply too much pressure or the center segment can bend over time, becoming weak and prone to potentially snapping off.

It happened to me at least.

Haven't encountered that yet. But I always try to be extra careful and also look for the thinnest ones I can find. Seems like a product niche right there. Rigid, thin, non-conductive picks.

Yeah you want to focus on the outside corners of the port and be gentle with the inside contacts.

I've never had an issue with this with Samsung. Hell, I don't think I've even cleaned out lint once on my current S24U over a couple years. Idk how you other people are brutalising your phones tho.

If you put your phone in your pocket, little bits of lint get in the port. Just tiny little bits. Then, when you use a USB-C plug, those tiny bits get compacted. Over time this results in a thin layer of compacted lint in the bottom of the port. Eventually this layer is thick enough that the USB-C cable won't positively lock onto the port. It'll still work, but it'll disconnect if you move it sometimes and just start to feel finicky.

I have to clean my port maybe once a year or so. I wait until the cables aren't locking and then I clean it out. The dental pick makes it easy and you are just dislodging that compacted mat of lint and removing it. Conversely, my wife never has the problem. Her phone never goes into a pocket, just her purse.

While I really like the convenience of not having multiple different cables to charge my devices when travelling, I agree with you on cleaning the usb-c port. In that respect, the lightning design was a lot more elegant and made more sense for a pocketable device.

Careful on what you wish for. The same regulatory action can be (is) being used for Chat Control (that dropped off the main page for some reason). Ultimately neither power center acts for the general interest.

> The USB-C thing just made everything better. It cost Apple basically nothing

It made all the iPhone docks/speakers/etc. obsolete. The last time that happened, when Apple swapped the old 30 pin connector for lightning, it pissed off a fair number of customers.

This time they could blame the EU which was likely a huge plus.

iPhone docks and speakers were already obsolete. They had a moment during the 30-pin era, but its been long since Bluetooth, Carplay took over in any mainstream use.

iMessage escaped DMA because it has marginal market share anywhere outside the US. WhatsApp is the dominant messaging platform and is opening up:

https://developers.facebook.com/m/messaging-interoperability...

The usb C to hdmi adapter is 100x less reliable than the lightning to hdmi adapter (having talked to many that used both).

Not sure why that is, but something to ponder.

The iPad Pro got USB-C in 2018, well before the EU legislation. It seems inevitable the iPhone would have got it even without the EU getting involved.

From reading this comment it doesn’t sound like you’re a libertarian at all.

You're a libertarian but regulatory intervention made everything about the market better and a better world for everyone involved with a relatively small change that was being stubbornly refused by a company for a small marginal benefit to themselves?

We call them "LINO"s.

Left libertarianism is compatible with such views.

Basically, libertarian on social issues paired with a preference for a decentralized economy, as opposed to a "tankie" (Stalinist) style centrally planned economy.

What is “left libertarianism” supposed to look like? I find this concept baffling. The end result of libertarianism is nothing like what the left is supposed to support.

>What is “left libertarianism” supposed to look like? I find this concept baffling

Here you go:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-libertarianism

Or... You know... We also like watching one giant corporation that benefits from distinctly authoritarian policies get wrecked by another authoritarian entity to the benefit of better competition in the market.

But apparently unless you're a suckup to the authoritarian entity that you like is now a LINO.

Bingo.

Sure, because I think that, ultimately excessive regulation stifles innovation. I mean, heck, the EU is looking to effectively dismantle GDPR because they're worried that it's going to cause them to miss out on the AI boom.

My point was just that Apple is such an outrageously bad actor (and the USB-C and Airdrop rules so beneficial) that these rules were getting even a very pro-market person like me to at least be open to the idea of regulating some of these out-of-control giants.

Your last paragraph doesn't really make you come off as a libertarian at all. If Apple is truly a bad actor, then the libertarian response isn't to have the EU force them to use USB-C on iPhones, it's for people to move away from iPhones to other choices, which means Androids.

Libertarian ideals only work if there is more freedom of choice than we have here.

> EU is looking to effectively dismantle GDPR

The reason is lobby, not innovations.

“Excessive regulation stifles innovation” is pretty much a tautology. The point of argument is what constitutes “excessive.” Libertarians generally consider almost any amount to be excessive. What you’re describing just sounds like being aware of tradeoffs, which should be true of anyone paying attention.

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