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

781–790 of 1001 posts

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

#781

Post by Fiahil »

nickpp wrote: post #715
Fiahil wrote: post #641

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> by voting with money "voting with money" or "voting with your wallet" is a complete non-sense. There is no -absolutely no- way for anyone in the industry to attribute a lost sale to a "missing" feature. I think this also a symptoms on how Americans view the world through means of consumption. Everything HAS TO be consumed one way or another.

There are countless examples of companies that made a product people didn't want and subsequently went out of business.

So what ?

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

#782

Post by Bud »

meibo wrote: post #497
Bud wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of spite? What about it feeling out of spite to make this change for the tens of millions of users who have one or two or four sets of AirPods, and several wireless Apple keyboards and mice and trackpads, and various other gear, all of which uses Lightning? Some people need to remember that it's not all about them. And your USB-C chargers and power banks were and are perfectly capable of charging Lightning device…

How are my USB-C chargers capable of charging lightning devices if they are USB-C? Can I buy a dongle for $90?

The constant dongle arguments are so funny, especially in this case.

1) You buy a USB-C to Lightning cable. Obviously. 2) Everyone bitches about Apple supposedly requiring all kinds of dongles, but of course, what caused that? Apple's insistence on putting only Thunderbolt ports on the Mac. Which of course use what connector? USB-C.

People need to figure out what they are bitching about before just mouthing words about dongles all the time.

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

#783

Post by hedgehog »

themitigating wrote: post #733
hedgehog wrote: post #656

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lightning is a better connector for small devices and it's more durable in my experience. USB-C is way better than micro as a connector but you end up with the issue of many kinds of cables that look similar but are not interchangeable. What speed? PD support? Power only? Who knows! Maybe switching to a less durable connector or no connector is fine given that Qi support has gotten pretty good. Most of the Lightning…

They are interchangeable but may not charge as fast or transfer data as fast. So they are still useful.

They're not interchangeable, of the C cables I have now some will drive my monitor and some won't, and some don't even carry data. The type C connector is a big step up vs the older micro and A+B connectors, it just doesn't really make using USB simpler or easier to figure out.

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

#784

Post by Bud »

shawnz wrote: post #282
Bud wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just you, of course. For hundreds of millions of others, this cuts the other way: over a decade's worth of Lightning accessories and cables and docks are out there. Which is why the EU is just being dumb, here. They think they are accomplishing some amazing user-friendly enviro-friendly feat, but all they are really doing is making a lot of Lightning gear out there less useful. And all this to switch to a port…

How much time has to pass before the one-time cost of deprecating lightning is overtaken by the ongoing savings of having a single standard? Also consider that lightning would surely have eventually been deprecated one day even without this initiative.

No post body was provided.

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

#786

Post by crote »

mgraczyk wrote: post #774
crote wrote: post #771

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that it is a lot of tiny cables, and a lot of chargers with them. Additionally, it also protects the consumer by preventing companies from locking consumers into buying device-specific chargers at greatly inflated prices. It might even become common for devices to come without chargers: why have 10 chargers lying around when all your devices use the same charging connector?

But no, this is not true. The iphone charger is already USB. I use them with my Android phone all the time, and iphone users charge with my pixel charger. Those already interoperate. I understand the e-waste and consumer protection argument for the charger (power converter), but why the cable?

This isn't really the case in practice, though.

Up until recently everyone used USB-A on the charger end, with a dozen different competing fast charge protocols. Chargers had the same connector, but they weren't fully interoperable. USB-C is slowly trying to fix this.

I completely agree that the cables aren't a massive deal. But on the other hand, if you are already standardizing chargers, why not do the cables too? Personally, I see no overwhelmingly good reason not to do it.

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

#787

Post by jacobr1 »

minimaul wrote: post #770
TheYumasi wrote: post #555

As an EU citizen, I am really happy with this decision. I am an iPhone user, but having an iPhone is not ubiquitous here, almost all of my friends/special other, use an Android phone with USB-C. Most of their laptops, Mac or not, use or allow USB-C for charging. This as been the case for a few years now, yet, if I go somewhere for more than a full day and forget my lighting cable, my phone will become a useless paper…

> "the regular charging cable" This is the problem I have with this choice. USB-C isn't one cable. It's a big variety of poorly-labelled possible cables, complying with a ton of different standards. USB-C can be just USB2.0 capable, 3.1 Gen1, 3.1 Gen2, Thunderbolt 3 capable, etc. Some cables can carry 3A. Some 5A. When your 'universal' charging cable doesn't provide fast charging, is it because your charger doesn't p…

USB-A had a similar problem (but on a much smaller scale). There also was heterogeneity in build quality. But over time features and quality converged. I think we should expect something similar here.

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

#788

Post by hu3 »

coffeeblack wrote: post #246
tommoor wrote: post #224

This is great in the short term, but does the law covers what happens when a superior format is invented in a few years. Are we stuck legislated to the old plug?

No superior format will be invented, because it would be illegal to use it anyway. This is how progress is destroyed. It’s not the first time.

If you read the law you'll see that your concern was taken into consideration and they planned for innovation. More info in this comment:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33080042

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

#790

Post by chroma »

sbf501 wrote: post #650
blue_light_man wrote: post #607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is such a short sighted view. What just happened is, EU, a political organization enforcing the use of a technology on a company which operates on free market. It's Apples best interest to make technology that the consumers want so that they can sell more units of that. A political organization like EU has no say in this. EU citizens already make this decision for themselves by voting with money and choosing to…

> on a company which operates on free market. You probably shouldn't have based your argument on this statement, which is generally regarded as a myth. It is a myth in the sense that Apple exists in a free market: it is a near monopoly but is savvy enough not to wade into the area other companies did in the 90's and were penalized. Second, governments have the right to enforce environmental protection acts to protect…

How can Apple have a "near monopoly" when Samsung sells 50% more phones than them?
Post reply on HN