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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

#711

Post by Panoramix »

urgentmessage wrote: post #451
Hamcha wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's going down to a pettiness war, I don't think the legislators will give up that easily. Apple reacting in a petty way not only shows that the legislators were right on the money (while adapting shows they were forced, whether for good or bad) but gives them even more reason to push the buttons further. Digital Markets Act is definitely getting more fuel and attention after Apple's petty response to ACM's compl…

you seem to think that annoying Apple creates welfare for EU citizens But it doesn't. Regulators may "win" a battle. But consumers lose big time. And I don't think bureaucrats should take precedence versus consumers.

Nobody is losing anything over a proprietary crappy overpriced Apple solution

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#713

Post by least »

marssaxman wrote: post #386
mrtksn wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to be. "We can't do anything about anything because the system is run by the billionaires and unless you are one, you have no power" narrative is not only false but also harmful.

Please pardon my inadvertent US-centrism! If you live in a country with a functioning democracy, of course it would make sense to participate. Here in the US, average citizens have little to no influence on policy: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-poli...

This isn't the case in the US, either. How much influence do you think one person in the US, one of hundreds of millions of people, should normally have? Your power to influence policy is obviously going to dilute the further up the chain of government you go. You could involve yourself in local politics where the population of people is much smaller (and consequentially, your influence is much larger), or you could try to become a representative yourself.

National politics in the US is certainly perverse, though it's probably just your US-centrism at work again if you think it's exceptional in this regard.

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#714

Post by colonwqbang »

Zababa wrote: post #440
cmckn wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As others have pointed out, even if all these devices have a USB-C hole on them, the likelihood that you could actually use their charger with another device (especially of a different class) is at best a coin toss. The devices still have to ship with chargers, you still have to find the “right” charger, but now you can’t tell them apart? My main thought is just that the problem of different chargers is not one I thi…

> the likelihood that you could actually use their charger with another device (especially of a different class) is at best a coin toss. I've been able to use all my USB-C chargers for all my USB-C devices. That's 4 chargers and 4 devices.

That's at best twelve coin tosses!

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#715

Post by kennywinker »

phkahler wrote: post #702
enkid wrote: post #677

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it comes with being able to buy a $5 cable to act as a charge, I don't see how people could complain. (But I know they will.)

>> If it comes with being able to buy a $5 cable to act as a charge, I don't see how people could complain. Even better, just use the old cable from your old device since they won't be designing a new one every other year.

As far as a I know, in the history of smartphones - which I'd say starts in 2007 with the launch of the iPhone - there have only really been 4 (or maybe 5) connectors used on widely sold phones:

1. Apple 30pin "iPod" connector

2. Apple Lightning connector

3. Mini USB (I don't think this ever appeared on anything but blackberries and cheapo flip phones?)

4. Micro USB

5. USB-C

So, while I agree that cable changes are annoying, and I support standardization efforts, "a new one every other year" is just not how it's ever been. 5 connectors in 15 years. The 30pin connector reigned from 2007 to 2012, and on the android side, micro USB was dominant until around 2015-2016 when USB-C started showing up on phones. Realistically, it's been a new connector every ~7 years.

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#716

Post by dreamcompiler »

_ea1k wrote: post #392
mcv wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can imagine that car charging is still too new and fast-moving to enforce a single standard, unlike phone charging, where it's just ridiculous to have 3 separate standards. On the other hand, you're absolutely right that it doesn't help anyone if your car is incompatible with half of the chargers out there. Are adapter cables an option, perhaps?

Yes. Tesla has a simple passthrough adapter for CCS1. Other adapters are also possible.

I presume you're talking about the J1772/CCS1 adapter that comes for free with every Tesla. This adapter is occasionally handy but it does not allow fast ("super") DC charging. It's strictly a Level 2 AC adapter, which means it takes a few hours to charge your car fully.

The CCS adapter that allows you to supercharge a Tesla at non-Tesla DC superchargers is not (yet) available in the US [0]. Tesla does make them and you can buy them in South Korea, but not in the US.

[0] Except for a dodgy Chinese gizmo which I won't link to because it's reputed not to work reliably.

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#717

Post by sitzkrieg »

mlok wrote: post #675
nocoolnametom wrote: post #633

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In order to talk to my friends, family, and coworkers I need to have the following apps installed and running: Slack, Teams, Telegram, Signal, WhatsApp, Google Chat/Hangouts/Allo/Whatever, FB Messenger, Discord, Twitter, etc. It'd take a pretty strong argument to convince me that this is so much more productive and allows for more innovation than the old days when the spec for things like Email, HTTP, IRC, XMPP allow…

I really hope Matrix bridges will help bring back some sanity on this front.

the performance is too bad

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#718

Post by krzyk »

ubermonkey wrote: post #130

It'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…

> Now, pretty much everything is either USB or Lightning. This is good! What problem is the EU solving here?

It makes charging more user friendly. e.g. just an hour ago my wife asked if she can charge her iPhone with the charger that I use for my laptop and Pixel 4. I had to say "no" - and that's the case even when Apple has USB-C in their laptops, why the odd iPhone (and airpods)?

It is quite pleasing to be able to charge laptop and mobile (and wireless headphones or ebooks) with the same charger.

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#720

Post by layer8 »

bushbaba wrote: post #609
leadingthenet wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Let's say the USB consortium releases USB-D with input from Apple, Google, and many other stakeholders [...] If you have to make such an argument, you've already lost. Innovation, particularly disruptive and / or breakthrough innovation, does not happen by committee, no matter how many times over history people tried deluding themselves into thinking that it does. So no, it's not fine.

Well, innovation does shift to circumventing the regulation. Such-as removal of the charging port all together, and moving to magsafe-qi charging https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MHXH3AM/A/magsafe-charger

…which wastes energy and reduces battery life. Great innovation.
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