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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

#271

Post by ShorsHammer »

veeralpatel979 wrote: post #175
markdown wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also: doesn't the government have more pressing concerns to worry about? Sounds like "why spend money on NASA when we have poverty here on earth?". Governments have a lot of people and a lot of resources and can work on more than one thing at a time. > Apple has kept working on improving the charging experience for its phones over time And it will continue to do so. Except it now has to convince others to adopt its…

Yes but why is it so bad to let companies choose what charging cables they provide? You get a free charging cable usually when you purchase a new phone and charging cables are cheap. I get the environment argument but I don't see how this moves the needle on protecting the environment. If anything it could scare off tech companies from developing charging cables that are better for the environment.

> You get a free charging cable usually when you purchase a new phone

"Free". It's amazing how many consumers see it this way. When everyone has the same charger phone companies can actually start putting it in as an optional paid add-on, which virtually no consumer will take. The hypothetical environment argument is spurious at best.

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

#272

Post by djannzjkzxn »

samatman wrote: post #243
joezydeco wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Well, not that it's relevant to the topic at hand, but if they do so, I'm leaving the ecosystem. Not being able to charge from a backpack or a car is a non-starter for me. I go weeks without plugging my phone into the wall, but when I need it, I really need it.

Apple has worked on wireless proximity charging where the device merely needs to be within a few feet of the charger. I hear there are serious engineering challenges that make this hard to achieve but I don’t think they will remove the port with the current QI charging experience. Maybe there will be a charging battery you can just throw in the same bag as the phone and the phone will charge.

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

#273

Post by nojvek »

ashildr wrote: post #130
monocasa wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 what specific kind of USB-C cable will be allowed to be packed with my next shiny for the decades to come? What kind of USB-PD will the phone be allowed to support and - if the phone supports a higher voltage/amperage combination than the EU fixed in 2020 - will I have to buy an additional cable to support this? How did we ever switch from SCART to HDMI after the EU forced the TV manufacturers to only support SCAR…

Macs come with usb-c. Why can’t iPhones be also usb-c? I’m not sure I fully understand why everything in the world can’t be usb-c?

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

#274

Post by culturestate »

samatman wrote: post #243
joezydeco wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Well, not that it's relevant to the topic at hand, but if they do so, I'm leaving the ecosystem. Not being able to charge from a backpack or a car is a non-starter for me. I go weeks without plugging my phone into the wall, but when I need it, I really need it.

> Not being able to charge from a backpack or a car is a non-starter for me.

In this hypothetical future you'd have to replace the power bank and charging cables that you currently own, but you'll be able to achieve both of those goals just fine. You can already buy power banks[1] with built-in charging coils, and I imagine some enterprising company will be along with a svelte USB-to-Qi-coil cable that suctions onto your phone any day now.

1. https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-qi-wireless-charging-...

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

#275

Post by kmlx »

mianos wrote: post #267
_bxg1 wrote: post #125

I'm not someone who's shy about regulation, but even I think this is totally unnecessary. As an Apple user, I should be the first to complain about their own internal (inexplicable) lack of a standard (Lightning for phones, USB-C for everything else). It's annoying, sure, but it's far from a material burden on my quality of life. Is this really the problem we need to be spending our regulatory energies on in 2020?

The EU regulatory bodies are full time fully funded bodies whose job is to keep developing regulations. It is not like you and I who are trying solve each problem as it comes up and move on. Their job is to find problems to solve first. If they get harder and harder to find they look harder and harder or lower the bar.

what a sad state of affairs

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

#276

Post by riffraff »

djannzjkzxn wrote: post #268
DangitBobby wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't these cables notorious for fraying and breaking? https://frayedlightningcables.tumblr.com/ Anecdotally, my friends' cables always seem to be frayed. I personally have not owned an apple phone in many years, but I recently bought an apple brand usb-c to 3.5mm adapter at an airport because that's all they had and I forgot mine at home... It stopped working after about a month of very gentle use. It's in perfect…

Is this any better than the cables that come with non-Apple devices? I’m skeptical.

I don't have a clue on how bad apple cables are, but I own a few micro USB cables for phones and Kindles that never frayed, so I don't think so.

The only cable that stopped working was one for a power bank I got as some marketing swag, and that's only because I bent the plug.

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

#277

Post by pfranz »

RHSeeger wrote: post #212
veeralpatel979 wrote: post #127

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.

> The original iPhone cable, then lightning, then wireless charging I was under the impression that Apple was behind the curve on wireless. My wife and I bought our phones at around the same time, her iPhone doesn't have wireless, my Android does. Bear in mind, not all Android do; that was one reason I didn't buy the Pixel when I bought my phone; no wireless charging was a deal breaker.

Apple was a bit "late," iPhone 8 (2017) started it, but they still sold (and maybe still sell?) plenty of phones that don't support it. Earlier on things kind of coalesced around 2 separate charging standards; Qi and PMA. Starbucks went all-in on PMA. I don't think I've seen a Starbucks with any wireless charing in years. So there were some big investments in the "wrong" tech.

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

#278

Post by riffraff »

scarface74 wrote: post #225
markdown wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Because it would be better for the environment.

Seeing that Apple is always bragging about their 90%+ retention rate, not many people are switching from iOS devices and throwing away cables. But is “think about the environment” the new “think about the children” and “terrorism” war cry for more regulation and big government?

But if I switch to apple I have to throw out my cables, too.

Maybe try to look at this differently: is your life better for the fact that when you travel you need to bring power plug adapters? If cars had different gas plugs that required different gas stations, would that be nice?

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

#279

Post by jonplackett »

I thought all these EU tech regulations might do some good

But now when I arrive at any website I have to accept cookie policy, then I have to accept that they will invade my privacy and log my data (or waste half an hour un-checking boxes) and only then can I get down to the business of not signing up to their newsletter and not downloading their app.

Maybe this is simpler but tech companies seem to find loopholes faster than they can be closed and we just get stuck in the middle with a crap version of what we had before.

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

#280

Post by fastbeef »

nojvek wrote: post #273
ashildr wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what specific kind of USB-C cable will be allowed to be packed with my next shiny for the decades to come? What kind of USB-PD will the phone be allowed to support and - if the phone supports a higher voltage/amperage combination than the EU fixed in 2020 - will I have to buy an additional cable to support this? How did we ever switch from SCART to HDMI after the EU forced the TV manufacturers to only support SCAR…

Macs come with usb-c. Why can’t iPhones be also usb-c? I’m not sure I fully understand why everything in the world can’t be usb-c?

The iPad pros are USB-C only, so I think it’s just a matter of time
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