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

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251–260 of 525 posts

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

#251

I'm with Apple on this one. Apple has kept working on improving the charging experience for its phones over time. The original iPhone cable, then lightning, then wireless charging. This stifles innovation. Also: doesn't the government have more pressing concerns to worry about? I doubt Apple's lobbying against this for some nefarious reason, like locking users into their proprietary technology.

I think Apple genuinely believe that they can provide a better product, and I believe they can too. I just don't care. The inability to borrow cables or swap them between devices in the past was a not insignificant hassle. Keeping boxes of cables, not being able to borrow a friend's charger when visiting, not being able to replace cables except by ordering a new one from the manufacturer half a world away. Constant m…

Buy a different phone that has a common port.

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

#252
post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy high quality cables. I have Philips USB-C cables and I -cannot- move them in my MBP. Either horizontally or vertically. Not a wiggle. Nothing. Cheaper lesser quality cables are the issue. Buy a 99c gas station Lightning cable and see how well it works for you.

This work [0] or do you have a link to something you think will work? [0]: https://www.amazon.com/Philips-Charging-Compatible-DLC5206BA...

Looks good to me. I got the C-to-C:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WFHNFSD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...

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

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Apple genuinely believe that they can provide a better product, and I believe they can too. I just don't care. The inability to borrow cables or swap them between devices in the past was a not insignificant hassle. Keeping boxes of cables, not being able to borrow a friend's charger when visiting, not being able to replace cables except by ordering a new one from the manufacturer half a world away. Constant m…

Buy a different phone that has a common port.

I addressed why I don't think that's a sufficient solution in my comment.

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

#254

I'm with Apple on this one. Apple has kept working on improving the charging experience for its phones over time. The original iPhone cable, then lightning, then wireless charging. This stifles innovation. Also: doesn't the government have more pressing concerns to worry about? I doubt Apple's lobbying against this for some nefarious reason, like locking users into their proprietary technology.

Apple is probably the most behind in charging tech right now. Wireless charging has been a thing in phones for 5-6 years now. Today's android phones have much faster and better charging methods than iphone. Both wired and wireless.

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

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The standard can be changed, it's just that manufacturers have to agree between themselves on the new standard. No involvement from the government is required. They can make USB 4, 5,6, connector C, D,E,Z, whatever. That's fine. What's not cool, is creating proprietary connector and not letting anyone else use it. Mind you they only have to agree on charging, not data transfer. As to whether it's worth it: hard to te…

Wow so now every time that Apple gets ready to introduce a new connector they have to wait for the entire industry to agree to it? But guess what? Only the end connecting to the wall is standard, the end connecting to devices in the house are far from standard. How is this different than iPhones?

Usb type c is a connector type. Not a protocol, you are able to run different protocol through the same physical line as long as both side understands it. PD, HDMI, miniDP, PCIE, earphone, and probably other device run through the exact same line with different protocol. And vendor is also allowed to add their own one. Apple also don't need to accept all protocols above except charging. What is the point to introduce new connector type every single time you want to add new compatibility? To earn more money from selling gadget?

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

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Occam's razor would indicate that those too-good-to-be-true cables by a no-name Amazon seller are probably not genuine.

I’ve ordered them, they work.

I would debate that. They have 40% 1-star reviews like "BUYER BEWARE", "Doesn't work", "Absolute garbage", "Trash", "Stopped working after a week"

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

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USB-C ports wear out badly after a couple years of use and are loose. Lightning, as you are saying, still feels good after years of daily use. The duty cycle is higher for lightning and should be used for things which are often disconnected and reconnected like mobile devices.

I've used the same USB c charging port in my phone for 2 years without any noticeable wear. I did, however, need to scrape out accumulated pocket lint with a safety pin on two occasions. Are you sure there isn't lint in the port you're basing your assertions on?

Former IT person here who deployed fleets of MacBooks with those damn dreaded USB-C ports. If you have "normal use" of the ports then you might not notice the low duty cycle but in an office where people are constantly plugging into their docks, dongles for AV equipment, Ethernet adapters for VoIP, and traveling it became a major headache. More wear than typical maybe, but certainly not abnormal.

On average, over the life of the device, every device needed to be sent to Apple to replace worn ports. Some unlucky sales people managed 2 or 3 trips to Apple. The annoying bit is that the turnaround time isn't exactly fast so we ended up provisioning the affected people new machines and then throwing the refurbs back in the rotation.

We never heard a peep from the Dells we also deployed that had a USB-C port for the dock, HDMI ports for the AV, and a dedicated port for charging. I like the idea of one port for all but they're just not strong enough.

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

#258
post #218

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…

The thing that plugs into the wall is already regulated (for every electronic device, not just chargers). That is why you don't have to rewire your house when you buy a new phone. This directive is specifically for the bit that connects to your phone.

And every single Apple phone I've owned so far uses a cable that plugs into USB A. Which is a standard. I'm still using the wall warts I got for my original iPhone. Which have international wall plug kits. Solid, long-lived electronics.

Meanwhile, the burner phones I've bought for when I'm in the EU have these shitty all-in-one wall-to-micro-USB, and I ended up eventually throwing them out. So there's your e-waste.

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

#259
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Who could possibly criticize the EU for mandating something which has a history of being successfully used by some of the producers to fuck over the rest?

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

#260
Great, a phone charging semantic designed and mandated by a committee of EU bureaucrats. The jokes just write themselves here. Apple will no doubt bravely respond by removing the charging port completely. Wait until these folks hear about the Qi Standard!
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