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EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

xda-developers.com

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Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#131

Post by hungryforcodes »

IvanK_net wrote: post #94
mrsuprawsm wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lightning connector is a more physically robust one than USB-C. The male lightning connector is a single flat piece; the female connector is a hole with the contacts on the top + bottom of the port. Compare to USB-C, which has an exposed "tab" in the middle of the female connector, and the male connector has a matching "hole" in the middle. This makes USB-C more vulnerable to e.g. dust collecting, and damage of t…

This is not about what connector is better. It is about everyone using the same connector. I believe if Apple allowed others to use their connector for free, they could "beat" USBs and become the only existing standard.

If we're only allowed to use one connector, it had better be the "better one".

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#132

Post by mrsuprawsm »

tim333 wrote: post #99
mrsuprawsm wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lightning connector is a more physically robust one than USB-C. The male lightning connector is a single flat piece; the female connector is a hole with the contacts on the top + bottom of the port. Compare to USB-C, which has an exposed "tab" in the middle of the female connector, and the male connector has a matching "hole" in the middle. This makes USB-C more vulnerable to e.g. dust collecting, and damage of t…

>USB-C more vulnerable to e.g. dust A trouble with lightning is the dust etc. gets stuck in the phone socket - I've had to replace two at like £50 a go. Getting a new cable is often easier.

I have had similar issues in the past, but instead of having to have a port repaired, when I brought my iPhone to the Apple Store, they simply cleaned out the dust from the port with a SIM removal tool and sent me on my way.

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#133

Post by stared »

mrsuprawsm wrote: post #71
sph wrote: post #4

Good, though in practice it's not the charger the problem, I use the same USB plug everywhere, it's Apple and their cable. Right now I always need with me a micro USB cable, an USB-C one, and Lightning, because Apple thinks different™. What's Apple reasoning for not abandoning Lightning for USB-C on their phones?

The lightning connector is a more physically robust one than USB-C. The male lightning connector is a single flat piece; the female connector is a hole with the contacts on the top + bottom of the port. Compare to USB-C, which has an exposed "tab" in the middle of the female connector, and the male connector has a matching "hole" in the middle. This makes USB-C more vulnerable to e.g. dust collecting, and damage of t…

It does not match my experience. My lightning connectors wear off - it is only a matter of time. It has never ever happened to any on my USB-C cables.

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#134

Post by kergonath »

b112 wrote: post #57
maeln wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's Apple reasoning for not abandoning Lightning for USB-C on their phones? I can think of 3 reasons: 1. A lightning port is slightly smaller than USB-c, so it enable Apple to keep their phone slimmer than the competition in theory. 2. Apple loves to be in control of everything. With lightning, they could make a switch to a "lightning 2.O" cable / port whenever they so pleased. With USB-C they would be restricte…

Apple is a little bit like Oracle, in that, they think the world thinks as they do. EG, employees are a bit zealous. So I suggest 4. They think lightning may become a real standard, everyone will adopt it, with licensing fees.

This argument does not make any sense , it's not even standard across all the iPads. They haven't done anything to make it a standard.

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#135

Post by ksec »

sph wrote: post #4

Good, though in practice it's not the charger the problem, I use the same USB plug everywhere, it's Apple and their cable. Right now I always need with me a micro USB cable, an USB-C one, and Lightning, because Apple thinks different™. What's Apple reasoning for not abandoning Lightning for USB-C on their phones?

>What's Apple reasoning for not abandoning Lightning for USB-C on their phones?

There are currently more than 1 Billion active iPhone worldwide, even at one lightning cable per iPhone that equates to 1 billion lightning cable in use. And you have iPad and other accessories. I would not be surprise if there are more than 2 Billion Lightning cable currently in use.

Seems wasteful to abandon 2 billion cables? Although I suppose Apple could stop shipping cables as well. And only include a Lightning to USB-C adopter.

Not to mention lightning is a better design and higher quality cable than USB-C. Apple could mandate MFi for iPhone USB-C charging as well, but that sort of defeat the purpose of USB-C?

Or even better if EU could mandate USB-C quality and standards. Say not to crappy USB-C cables. Which would be even better than forcing USB-C on devices.

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#136

Post by shrikant »

kozlowsqi wrote: post #73
sph wrote: post #4

Good, though in practice it's not the charger the problem, I use the same USB plug everywhere, it's Apple and their cable. Right now I always need with me a micro USB cable, an USB-C one, and Lightning, because Apple thinks different™. What's Apple reasoning for not abandoning Lightning for USB-C on their phones?

I have like 3 lightning cables, apple deprecating lightning would account to me throwing these cables away and buying usb-c. I suppose other apple users would have to do the same. Not to mention other lightning accessories, headphones and such. Lightning is still included on airpods (pro and max). Furthermore, usb-c is younger than lightning. And lightning was arguably superior to previous usbs (more durable). So whi…

Keep the cables, and buy Lightning-to-USB-C dongles that will inevitably show up in the market?

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#137

Post by Aissen »

avianlyric wrote: post #48
Aaargh20318 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s a horrible idea. It means moving to a future, better standard (let’s say, USB-D) is neigh impossible as it would require a change to an EU directive (that is: 27 countries need to agree on it). Just getting this into law has already been in the works for years and years, if the EU had worked a bit faster we would have been stuck with micro USB-B, which would have been unfortunate.

We don't know the language to the legislation yet, so I think it's worth withhold judgment for now. Based on other recent legislation from the EU that I've had to work closely with, I would say the EU legislators are very aware of the pitfalls that come with writing a specific technology into law. They seem to deal with this by writing an initial recommendation, or providing a few concrete examples of how to conform…

The comment now says "micro USB-B", which is in fact the previous de-facto standard before the type C family.

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#138

Post by amelius »

harvie wrote: post #129
amelius wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't we have protocol-agnostic cables? I mean, we use hundreds of different protocols over-the-air, so why can't we do the same with cables?

3.5mm headphone jack with hole drilled in midle carrying optical fiber would handle all use cases i can imagine. From delivering power, charging phones to connecting several 8K monitors. multiple protocols can use separate wavelengths of light, all at once in single fiber. Hundreds of gigabits are possible, maybe more, depending on the length. While still being able to connect wired headphones.

Yes, and superimpose signals on the power connection, I suppose.

The only problem I see with this is that fiber optic cables are physically less robust (you can't bend them as much).

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#139

Post by jsudi »

cute_boi wrote: post #97
jsudi wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think it's fine to be stuck on a "good enough" standard, if this results in less e-waste and less need to upgrade all accessories simply because the dominant connection port changed. That’s your opinion. I disagree and I certainly don’t want to see it written into law.

but without writing in law apple will never care about environment right? They are getting money from each connector so why would they? Is it possible to solve such issue without law? What solution do you propose? If you have solution let us know?

If citizens care about the environment they will stop buying Apple products. They don’t, hence they don’t care about the environment. Why make laws that go against the citizen wishes?

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#140

Post by foepys »

ben_w wrote: post #127
cute_boi wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but without writing in law apple will never care about environment right? They are getting money from each connector so why would they? Is it possible to solve such issue without law? What solution do you propose? If you have solution let us know?

I don’t think that’s entirely fair to Apple: they are trying to not include a charger at all in the first place (just the cable), which does a lot more for the environment than including a charger which you can use with anything as well as forcing the cable to be useful for more than one device.

The law introduced by the EU commission also addresses this. They don't want chargers to be included by default anymore exactly because of this.
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