Earlier quoted context omitted.
I imagine there's also some option where you can charge your iPhone with any USB-C charger, but the special Apple charger will charge it up faster.
They provide a USB-C charger already, and it's not magically faster than good quality third-party chargers. It's top-end, for sure, but not proprietary.
EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices
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Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices
#402We need to stop allowing stupid but loudly screaming minority to make bad decisions.
First this idiotic cookie warning on each goddamn page, now this. Another small step to totalitarianism.
Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices
#403It's just really not clear to me that regulators need to be mandating product design. I have no expectation, for example, that these same regulators will stay on top of this and revise it when USB-C stops being the preferred or best choice. Twenty years ago, we really DID have a snarl of competing and proprietary phone ports. It was a mess -- Blackberry chargers didn't work with Palm; most WinMo devices had their own…
This isn't about solving an existing problem. As you pointed out, pretty much everyone standardized around micro-usb almost a decade ago. That's mostly because Apple launched the iPhone with a proprietary but standard connector (the original iPod connector). So while all other phone makers had a special adapter and cable for every model, you could plug an iPhone on anything that worked with an iPod. Even the original firewire cable from 2003 would work with it.
What this is about is getting reelected and justifying to voters the usefulness of paying huge amounts of taxes to fund an EU-wide parliament. So they manufactured an (easy) problem to "fix". And it's going to be extremely popular since they'll be attacking and regulating "evil foreign tech giants".
Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices
#404Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices
#405Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not new to USB-C though, there was already a wide range of charging speeds on USB-A
Yeah, but now there are the bonus points for a "fastish" USB-A charger (QC something, that puts out ~20W) which won't do anything to a laptop that requires "PD", even though the 20W would be enough to at least slowly charge the battery while off.
https://www.androidauthority.com/fast-charging-explained-2-8...
Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices
#406Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They are welcome to change it going forward, they just have to agree and consolidate. That's not how innovation works. What motivation would they have to change it if all your competitors will change it step? This only hurts consumers.
> That's not how innovation works Yes, exactly, this is how standardization works. Who cares about innovation in charging plugs form factor? Innovations should be innovative enough to get around the plug. Light bulbs have been the same for at least 80 years and it didn't stop innovation. Why do people are so scared about things that are only hypothetical, while this solves a real issue?
Do we believe given the track record of a new connector being introduced more frequently than once every 5 years just within the USB standardization process, that we've somehow reached the end of that road in practical terms? If we've reached the end of the road, by all means we could standardize and say "you have to use the pinnacle of USB connector type".
Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices
#407Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well they asked everyone to agree on a standard 10 years ago, but that didn't happen (just because of Apple). So now they forcefully decided.
This is the truth of the matter. Apple has been dragging their feet on switching away from lightning. Why? No idea. It's a much slower standard, and puts the wearing parts in the port instead of the cable. USB-C is designed by committee, sure, but the port itself is better than lightning in nearly every consumer metric there is.
USB-C exists because Apple was in the process of creating Lightning. Also, in my experience, you seem to have the fragility point backward: the nub on lightning cables may break, but the port is fine, while the reverse is true for USB-C, where the fragile bit is in the port.
Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices
#408What's interesting is that nearly all of my recent electronics purchases have used USB-C. Headphones, thermal printer, neck-cooler, rechargable screwdriver - all USB-C. What's weird are the few things which don't. Amazon Alexa use a barrel charger. Brand new HP printer has the old square style USB plug. Pulse Oximeter user micro-USB. So C is certainly getting there. Appearing in cheap and expensive products. And, I'm…
Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices
#409The problem with USB-C is that you can't just pick up a device cable and power brick and expect them to work together. As an example, my Apple 96W USB-C charger doesn't charge my nintendo switch. The cable that came with my phone doesn't charge said fully Mac when used with the 96w charger. There is no indication of incompatibility between these devices until you realise they don't work. This is going back to the dc…
I never understood this sentiment. That would be even more true if USB-C wasn't the standard so I don't really understand the complaint. Obviously "same shape" isn't an indicator that it will "just work" for USB-C, so why would we expect that to be the case for anything else with modern complexity?
It would be nice if fits == works but that's just not a world we live in, USB-C or not.
Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices
#410As a European, I'm very happy. USB-A has been with us for over 20 years. It's only disappearing because of USB-C, and USB-C seems to have room to grow. I wouldn't be surprised if it will still be the most popular connector in 2035, and not just because "legislation stops innovation". Making sure there are no weird exceptions to a very good port is reasonable and good.
It does stop innovation in things like lightning and MagSafe. And it doesn’t fix the multiple charger issue either, because so many manufacturers don’t adhere to the USB-C standard that any combination of charger + cable + device has an unreasonably non-zero chance of not working or even damaging the device. So in the end we still have to have multiple chargers, but now we can roll the dice on which one works with or…
Doesn't really matter. Just charge with any charger that's USB-C compatible. If it breaks the machine just RMA it. It didn't adhere to the spec so file a complain to the EU commission in charge of these charging standards as well.
Wait what was the point again? Ohh E-Waste reduction.