What does this mean in practice? Are Android phone makers going to have to license the Lightning port from Apple? Or is the EU going to declare that USB-C is the be all end all of phone plugs? It sounds like they're trying to standardize the actual chargers, I wonder how that will work USB-PDs many different modes? What about proprietary fast charging schemes? (maybe those already died out after the move to USB-c?).…
About a year ago someone posted a "Look at the cool stuff I bought/saw on my trip to Shenzen" blog post and one of the items featured was a bastardized Chinese USB-C and Lightening cable that technically met neither spec but worked with either. I think you'll see a lot of those for sale.
EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
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Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
#22Standardizing (controlling) by fiat tech they didn't make, with no real need or justification. Just for the sake of the flex, being busybodies, and pretending they're important and "the boss of you". Sooner that rabble gets overthrown the better. One domino has fallen now, hope the rest follow in short order.
We see lots of this mouth-frothing, hate-fulled rhetoric on reddit, and IMHO I don't want it to spread.
Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
#23Standardizing (controlling) by fiat tech they didn't make, with no real need or justification. Just for the sake of the flex, being busybodies, and pretending they're important and "the boss of you". Sooner that rabble gets overthrown the better. One domino has fallen now, hope the rest follow in short order.
We see lots of this mouth-frothing, hate-fulled rhetoric on reddit, and IMHO I don't want it to spread.
Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
What about mandating Qi wireless charging as well? Think of it as mandating Bluetooth; you don’t care about the hardware, just meeting the wireless interface spec. If I could ubiquitously charge my mobile devices anywhere with gear built into my surroundings, I’d likely never need future charging cables or hardware. You lose some electrical efficiency but gain a reduction in physical hardware churn.
Mandating wireless charging is still a bit of a stretch (it's not popular yet, so would be a short-term cost and manufacturing increase), but wireless charging is mentioned in the linked article as something they should look into ensuring is broadly-compatible (which should help prevent incompatibility waste when it does become ubiquitous). Also, presently anyway, wireless charging generally has power limits on the o…
I would like to see clean solutions in coffee shops and on trains for Qi charging to enable the most common use cases of course.
Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
About a year ago someone posted a "Look at the cool stuff I bought/saw on my trip to Shenzen" blog post and one of the items featured was a bastardized Chinese USB-C and Lightening cable that technically met neither spec but worked with either. I think you'll see a lot of those for sale.
How would that work? USB C is female, lightning is male.
Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
#26What does this mean in practice? Are Android phone makers going to have to license the Lightning port from Apple? Or is the EU going to declare that USB-C is the be all end all of phone plugs? It sounds like they're trying to standardize the actual chargers, I wonder how that will work USB-PDs many different modes? What about proprietary fast charging schemes? (maybe those already died out after the move to USB-c?).…
Looking at what happened with RoHS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restriction_of_Hazardous_Subst...; the EU forbid the use of lead-based solder, and the world mostly followed because, if they didn’t, the logistics and lower economies of scale would cost more than using the cheaper processes), it will have to be a lot better to make it worthwhile to manufacturers to completely replace their charging connector by something newer.
I think it’s more likely ‘USB’ will remain the sticker on whatever comes next, with enough backwards compatibility to satisfy EU regulations.
(‘USB’ is a marketing term, anyways. Current USB looks nothing like the first version)
Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
#27What does this mean in practice? Are Android phone makers going to have to license the Lightning port from Apple? Or is the EU going to declare that USB-C is the be all end all of phone plugs? It sounds like they're trying to standardize the actual chargers, I wonder how that will work USB-PDs many different modes? What about proprietary fast charging schemes? (maybe those already died out after the move to USB-c?).…
”I'm guessing that whatever comes after USB-C will exist in the US and Asia for years before its allowed in the EU” Looking at what happened with RoHS ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restriction_of_Hazardous_Subst... ; the EU forbid the use of lead-based solder, and the world mostly followed because, if they didn’t, the logistics and lower economies of scale would cost more than using the cheaper processes), it will…
How so? You can plug a first gen, USB 1.0 mouse into an Android phone's USB-C port with no more than a passive adapter, and it'll work. That's way more commonality than "just a marketing term" - it's functionally backwards compatible at the electrical, protocol, and driver level.
Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
#28Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
#29With USB-C there's no real reason to have other standards for charging a cell phone.
And with that out of the way, manufacturers can focus on developing a universal wireless charging protocol.