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Apple says iPhones will switch to USB-C chargers to comply with new EU law

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Re: Apple says iPhones will switch to USB-C chargers to comply with new EU law

#161

Post by dev_tty01 »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #58
collegeburner wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no you're not. sturdier, clicks in better and doesn't wear down the same way. and im not even a apple fan/user.

You've never had a bad connection with Lightning? Every Lightning cable I've ever had has two pins that have become blackened due to frequent arcing. And the "click" is dependent on the quality of the cable. USB-C cables from Apple click in exactly the same as their Lightning cables, for example.

The click is good until pocket lint accumulates in the phone lightning receptacle. At that point it starts failing to charge occasionally. A couple of minutes with a toothpick and a flashlight and it is back to working great.

I saw the arc once with a cheap no-name cable. I'm guessing the cable tolerances on the conductor placements was off a little bit.

Re: Apple says iPhones will switch to USB-C chargers to comply with new EU law

#162

Post by ohbtvz »

shtopointo wrote: post #13

Well I'm glad the EU decided to tackle important subjects. Not like they have a monetary and energy crisis going on at the moment.

The law has been on the books for years and has been enacted for a while already. It's Apple who's making an announcement here -- that they are bravely deciding to follow the law.

And the EU has multiple employees. They can work on different things at the same time.

Re: Apple says iPhones will switch to USB-C chargers to comply with new EU law

#164

Post by pornel »

philliphaydon wrote: post #25

I must be the only person on HN who thinks the lightening port is better than USB-C.

It is. Apple could have licensed it freely to make it the standard before USB-C existed, but chose to keep it proprietary to milk accessory manufacturers instead.

Re: Apple says iPhones will switch to USB-C chargers to comply with new EU law

#165

Post by rideontime »

jefftk wrote: post #143
danpalmer wrote: post #19

It's sad that it took legislation to make this happen, but I can see why. I worked in a pseudo-Apple-store during the height of the 30-pin dock connector and I sold so many cases, speaker docks, charging cables, and all sorts of weird accessories that were built for the 30-pin connector. Then Apple switched to Lightning. It was better in every. single. way. And yet people got burnt. There was so much hardware that wa…

> Apple switched to Lightning. It was better in every. single. way. This is pedantic, but the 30-pin connector did have one minor feature Lightning didn't -- the interface supported a design where it needed to be squeezed to be released, like DisplayPort or RJ45, and a small number of products took advantage of this to build very secure mounts. When switching to Lightning it was no longer possible to build a 3rd-part…

You're not imagining things, the originals did indeed snap in. I can remember how the buttons felt on my grody old charger.

Re: Apple says iPhones will switch to USB-C chargers to comply with new EU law

#166

Post by gcapu »

rootusrootus wrote: post #51
brundolf wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two key differences vs last time: 1. As you mentioned, most accessories have moved to wireless. I still (usually) use a physical cable for charging, and I guess I have a 3.5mm dongle, but I think those are the only two things I've plugged into my iPhone in years. Docks with a physical port, in particular, were super popular 10+ years ago and don't really exist anymore. People won't be throwing away speakers. 2. They…

> I'm more cynical in my interpretation of Apple's motives: I think they just wanted those licensing dollars They've switched every other non-iPhone device to USB-C. The more plausible interpretation would be that they don't want to piss off a core constituency of customers who've built up 10 years of Lightning cables. The number of people who care about standardizing on USB-C are definitely less than the vocal folks…

I just want my Mac and my iPhone to use the same charger. It’s not necessarily about the spending.

Re: Apple says iPhones will switch to USB-C chargers to comply with new EU law

#168

Post by brundolf »

tokamak-teapot wrote: post #159
brundolf wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But even those non-tech people should have some USB-C cables lying around at this point Android phones have used USB-C cables for many years. The Nintendo switch and PS5 controllers use USB-C cables. Chromebooks use USB-C cables. The alarm clock I just bought uses a USB-C cable. My keyboard uses a USB-C cable. Every MacBook made in the last five years (and most iPads sold in the last couple years) uses a USB-C cable.…

I have about twelve Lightning cables (2 in car, 4 permanently installed at convenient locations, a few in my work bag, an couple in another bag and some currently missing) and one USB-C cable, which I use for charging my laptop. At some point soon, perhaps when I get a new iPhone, I am going to have to start buying more USB-C cables. I will then spend years looking at the end of cables to see what the connector looks…

> With USB-C on both ends of cables, I expect I’ll have to buy some new power adapters soon. I will then have to have two adapters everywhere

Recent lightning cables already have USB-C instead of USB-A at the other end; that's not a part of the EU mandate as far as I know. In fact I'd bet USB-A would be explicitly allowed, because it's a standard port.

Re: Apple says iPhones will switch to USB-C chargers to comply with new EU law

#169

Post by CameronBanga »

jefftk wrote: post #143
danpalmer wrote: post #19

It's sad that it took legislation to make this happen, but I can see why. I worked in a pseudo-Apple-store during the height of the 30-pin dock connector and I sold so many cases, speaker docks, charging cables, and all sorts of weird accessories that were built for the 30-pin connector. Then Apple switched to Lightning. It was better in every. single. way. And yet people got burnt. There was so much hardware that wa…

> Apple switched to Lightning. It was better in every. single. way. This is pedantic, but the 30-pin connector did have one minor feature Lightning didn't -- the interface supported a design where it needed to be squeezed to be released, like DisplayPort or RJ45, and a small number of products took advantage of this to build very secure mounts. When switching to Lightning it was no longer possible to build a 3rd-part…

There were two different models I believe, one that had the squeeze grip and another that didn't require it.

I believe the design was changed because the original squeeze cable had a tendency to cause damage to the iPod/iPhone/iPad when inserted and then yanked/pulled out without squeezing. At least, that's what I remember.

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