Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

macrumors.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

671–680 of 1001 posts

Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

#671

Post by lelanthran »

tcmart14 wrote: post #632
lelanthran wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What just happened is, EU, a political organization enforcing the use of a technology on a company which operates on free market. Where are you living that your free market isn't regulated for the benefit of the consumer?

Can't speak for the person you are commenting to. But I live in the US and there are many industries that are not regulated for the benefit of the consumer. Telecom being a big one. Companies get away with a lot of anti-competitive practices here. Starbucks snuffing out ma and pa stores, eating loses just to become the only game in town.

> Can't speak for the person you are commenting to. But I live in the US and there are many industries that are not regulated for the benefit of the consumer. Telecom being a big one.

That's a poor example, telecoms are heavily regulated for the consumer. That's the reason why different operators are able to place consumer's calls to other operators - that is regulated.

Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

#672

Post by blue_light_man »

kaba0 wrote: post #653
blue_light_man wrote: post #577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't even know what else could have happened if there was no standardization. Maybe the industry must have progressed without the need of outlets in the first place.

Yeah, we would definitely use nuclear mini-reactors in our vacuum cleaners otherwise, if only it wasn’t for the damn EU! These are very well understood areas, there is only so many ways you can transport electricity. Also, there is nothing stopping innovation “after” the plug. It’s like saying that HTTP somehow stifles innovation.

HTTPS is a technology choosen by the free market. Bad example.

Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

#673

Post by mschuster91 »

pb7 wrote: post #561
mschuster91 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't see any win besides a minor convenience. A lightning cable weighs almost nothing and it's not a big deal to have one around. The standardization is good for a lot of purposes: - cutting down on the number of cables and especially chargers. Seriously, it's amazing to have one single Anker 65W power supply and a single cable on vacation and it can charge everything - tablet, work phone, laptop, power bank, dr…

>If there is one thing that drives EU legislation ideas, it is the convergence towards open and common, market-wide standards. This reduces the barriers to entry for small players and leads to more innovation as a result. Can you provide some examples of innovation that the EU has made in this industry in the last 20 years?

For sure:

- mobile phone and data roaming, the most notable user-facing innovation

- the single market itself with all the associated side legislation (GDPR, VAT OSS) that allows every tiny small business to serve the entire EU

- Schengen free-movement zone

- Euro currency

- SEPA instead of national schemes (ties in into the single market aspect as well) with everything from card payments over wire transfers to direct debit covered. Strong authentication required for opening bank accounts. No more paper cheques. (Directly compare all of this to the hot mess that the US is)

- EPD PS2 that forces banks to provide APIs to third parties, e.g. budget planners

- unified drone legislation that allows me without tons of paperwork and individual permits to fly my drone everywhere reasonable in Europe

Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

#674

Post by hackmiester »

tjoff wrote: post #394
slavoingilizov wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well... I agree with the spirit of the effort, but not the letter of it. >>> From spring 2026, the obligation will extend to laptops So this would force Apple to replace MagSafe with USB-C? How is that not killing innovation? Standardisation should be a goal, but I just feel this particular effort is too specific and brings very little value to consumers. Why don't we standardise payment protocols instead? Or biometr…

Surely apple will still have usb-c on its laptop. And you would be able to charge through either magsafe or usb-c. Just as you can with MS Surface.

And just as you can with the current MacBook lineup.

Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

#675

Post by dahfizz »

tempest-tost wrote: post #462
MichaelZuo wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There were no mandates to adopt micro-usb in the EU. As a sidetone it's astonishing how quickly a lie easily disprovable by publicly accessible information, in this case the EU's own website, can be spread around by people that otherwise seem like credible HN members.

Am I missing something here? https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.engadget.com/amp/2010-12-29...

The EU created a technical standard (which basically just says, "use USB Micro-B"). Phone manufacturers voluntarily signed a Memorandum of Understanding, stating that they all agreed to abide by the standard.

None of it was binding or involuntary. Which is why Apple never released a micro-B phone and all other manufacturers were able to upgrade to USB-C.

Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

#676

Post by timbit42 »

shpx wrote: post #86
NextHendrix wrote: post #7

This gives me some cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, having a common connector will reduce waste and be much more convenient (eg "Hey have you got an iPhone charger?") and make losing a charger a cheaper mistake. On the other hand I'm not sure I like the idea of government mandating electrical connectors on devices, which could stifle innovation, or be very shortsighted in the typical government-rules-on-tech wa…

And Lightning is physically a better connector.

A better connector would be round.

Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

#677

Post by lelanthran »

smithza wrote: post #627
lelanthran wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What just happened is, EU, a political organization enforcing the use of a technology on a company which operates on free market. Where are you living that your free market isn't regulated for the benefit of the consumer?

> benefit of the consumer Says who? USB type-XYZ will be even more beneficial to the consumer in 5 years and the EU governing body is going to what... ? update the books with that? Force all consumer electronics companies to switch? Will they be the new guiding light for all things tech deciding what is "good" for the consumer? This is a bad take and others who might find it convenient for Apple to forced to do this…

> Says who?

Who cares? Seriously, the OP made a claim that

> What just happened is, EU, a political organization enforcing the use of a technology on a company which operates on free market.

said claim being almost completely incorrect and devoid of fact. The reality is that in Free Markets, there is still heavy regulations.

I want to know, just what sort of Free Market you are living under that doesn't have regulations on consumer devices.

Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

#679

Post by smithza »

Kerrick wrote: post #593
krisoft wrote: post #552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's nothing wrong with the way iPhone charges. Well. I'm lugging around one cable which charges all my devices from bike lamps to powerbanks. And there is a totally different cable I'm also lugging around to charge my iphone. Why is that necessary? Also my iphone charging cable frays all time, while my "everything else charging cable" does not.

> Why is that necessary? Because you chose to buy a phone that uses Lightning, rather than choosing to buy a phone that uses USB-C.

Agreed. This is the better way to argue that we vote with our dollars. If iPhone had a monopoly (which they absolutely don't) intervention is welcome. There is no reason anyone is forced to use a Lightning cable and still enjoy the fair marketplace.

Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

#680

Post by dahfizz »

BadOakOx wrote: post #444
reaperducer wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the handwringing about stifling innovation is on its face ridiculous as mandates to use micro-usb didn't stop android phones from adopting the new and better standard as soon as it was viable. I'm not sure I understand your logic here. Android phones were able to quickly move to micro USB because they weren't restricted from doing so by a government regulation. If there was a government mandate requiring phones t…

> How does a company change to a new/better connector, if it's required by law to use an old connector? EU is pushing for "One charger for all" for a long time. Here is an article from 2011 [1], so this is nothing new. I don't think they enforced it at the time, but the manufacturers (and the EU?) agreed to use Micro USB. Now they are going for USB-C, so they definitely are not in the way of innovation. I think if th…

This is not correct.

Phone manufacturers signed a non-binding MoU, agreeing to use Micro USB. This was completely voluntary. That is why they were able to upgrade to USB-C without any issue.

This law is different. It would be illegal to upgrade to a better port. And the barrier to creating, testing, and having adoption for a new port just became way higher than it was before.

Post reply on HN