Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard

appleinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 525 posts

Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard

#111

Post by monocasa »

eanzenberg wrote: post #96
SiempreViernes wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean you miss the good old innovative days when every phone model had its own charger? The days where you needed special proprietary software to access any part of your phone if you connected it with to a computer using its special cable? I remember losing plenty of sms history and contacts when changing phones because the dedicated phone software was too old to run on my windows, and the dodgy program I found on…

Seems like the free market solved all the probs you mentioned, so yeah.

No, most manufacturers switched to a standard so they wouldn't have a separate SKU for the EU market. Apple is fighting this because the rent seek hard on patents for their proprietary connectors.

Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard

#112

Post by monocasa »

jariel wrote: post #108
sschueller wrote: post #5

The only reason this happened is because one company refusees to play ball. Everyone else already figured out that it's better for consumers and them. Apple would sell you a non standard power socket for your house if they could.

"The only reason this happened is that one company refuses to play ball" No, not at all. It happened because legislators in the EU don't understand tech, don't understand re-cycling, don't understand the industry, but they all use iPhones+Androids and wonder why 'there are so many goddam cables'. It's a very specific problem that just happens to be visceral and immediate with the people in charge: they can all relate…

They understand it just fine, and are the main reason that every phone model doesn't have it's own proprietary connectors like in the feature phone days.

Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard

#113

Post by joezydeco »

pwinnski wrote: post #50
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #34

The joint motion points to adopting Directive 2014/53/EU which requires common _chargers_ but says nothing about the port that the phone uses. As far as I can tell this is only for the back half of the charger / brick that connects to the wall. Yet the Apple statement, and most of the articles about this (including the linked one), are talking about the phone's connector and talks about lightning and usb-c. Most of t…

Apple is already using USB-C on the bit that plugs into the wall, so if that's all this is, it's nothing. Apple has protested this, so it seems like it must be more.

What is Apple is heading toward completely sealed phones with only wireless charging / data xfer and they’re nervous that the EU is going to force them to keep the physical port on the device?

Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard

#114

Post by martin8412 »

lukifer wrote: post #40
nemothekid wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I remember, this piece of legislation has been floating around since USB mini. We have now gone through 2 revisions to a connector that is now reversible and can carry video. Locking onto USB-C now could be a very "640k ought to be enough for everybody" moment. And if Apple was going to switch to USB C anyways, whats the point of this legislation?

> Locking onto USB-C now could be a very "640k ought to be enough for everybody" moment. I agree in general; but at some point don't we hit diminishing returns? If I were to say, "18.4 exabytes of RAM ought to be enough for everybody", that'd be basically correct, even future-proofing for the craziest sci-fi holodeck use cases we can imagine, right?

Just like 32 bits for IP addresses should be sufficient for all use cases?

Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard

#115

Post by qwerty456127 »

Although I'm more of an Android guy and and would certainly prefer the world to use just 1 standard, I am to admit the Lightning connector feels like the best I've ever seen. I would love if it could replace all the micro-USB and USB-C.

Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard

#116

Post by boudin »

GeekyBear wrote: post #75

We had the 30 pin dock connector on iPods and iPhones for eleven years and now lightning for eight. Forcing people to throw away most of a decade's worth of already purchased cables and accessories does seem like an odd way to cut down on ewaste given the fact that Apple already switched the chargers themselves to USB-C. I guess my lightning compatible alarm clock/docking station can go live on a nice farm with my lo…

This is a bit of the chicken and egg problem. People will have to throw away accessories because those aren't standards in the first place. Does it still make sense to allow this when there's no technical reason? I think it was a mistake that the 2009 directive was not mandatory, it would have avoided device like the one you mention being vendor locked in the first place.

Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard

#117

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

OK, I'm totally confused.

There's 3 parts that I can see to a wired charging situation:

1. the device to be charged 2. something that takes "house" power and does whatever is necessary to convert it for charging purposes 3. a cable between them

It seems to me (who doesn't even own a phone, hah, what an idiot) that (2) already exists in the form of things that plugin to a wall socket and offer 1 or more USB A sockets.

The does leave room for cable waste, as it only pins down 1 end of the cable.

What are we really discussing here?

Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard

#118

Post by iSnow »

akvadrako wrote: post #100
pwinnski wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is already using USB-C on the bit that plugs into the wall, so if that's all this is, it's nothing. Apple has protested this, so it seems like it must be more.

It seems pretty clear at the current stage it’s completely vague. Probably Apple has no idea what actionable laws will result. Will they mandate all phones have usb-c ports? That’s absurd because who knows what’ll be the standard port in 5 years.

The only thing the EU mandates is producers come up with a common standard. Whether that's USB-C or Lightning is of no interest to the EU.

Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard

#119

Post by eanzenberg »

monocasa wrote: post #109
GeekyBear wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need anything but the cable that came with your phone.

Whereas the entire point of the regulation is to not need the cord that came with your phone, but to use anyone's. They got tired of all the proprietary connectors back in the feature phone days.

So they missed the boat by 15 years?

Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard

#120

Post by iSnow »

PowerfulWizard wrote: post #57
theslurmmustflo wrote: post #36

I'll miss lightning when it's gone if only because it was the most satisfying and secure feeling cable connection I've ever used. USB-C has some slack built into it by design but it just makes it feel lower quality.

The USB flavors and so many others have a little plastic tongue on the female side which I think is the source of the alignment sensitivity and fragility issues. Lightning, headphone jacks, and RJ45 have a purely concave port which I much prefer. edit: and if there has to be a weak point it should be on the cable side, not on the port side.

For USB-C, the weak point is on the cable side. For Lightning, it's on the device side (little golden contact springs). The lightning plug feels like it's made for eternity, I must say though.
Post reply on HN