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

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261–270 of 482 posts

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

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Maybe? The USB specifications calls for USB Micro-B to have the same 10,000 connect/disconnect cycles as USB-C: ----------------------------------- Table 3-1 USB Electrical, Mechanical and Environmental Compliance Standards Performance Requirement 1500 cycles 5000 cycles for Mini “B” 10,000 cycles for Micro series 10,000 cycles for ruggedized Standard “A” Cycle rate of 500 cycles per hour if done automatically and 20…

> Maybe? The USB specifications calls for USB Micro-B to have the same 10,000 connect/disconnect cycles as USB-C

Micro USB was such a dumpster fire. I never got within two orders of magnitude of that spec, I'm pretty sure. It's a terrible connector, easily broken.

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

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this meme started due to Nintendo (very inadvisedly) adopting a non-standard USB-C implementation for the Switch. It wouldn't have been nearly as bad if they'd used a proprietary connector on top of their modified implementation, but they left the connector unchanged and simply added a "use only official Nintendo chargers" warning which of course no one was going to follow. This did then, in fact, predictably…

is it still a problem?? recently bought a switch and only plugged to the official adapter that came with it, but my first thought was “too bulky” so was wondering if I can use my M1 air USB C charger on the go instead.

I've certainly charged my Switch with the charger and cable that came with my 2018 MacBook Pro, and it never caused an issue. Nor is the Switch in question of particularly new vintage (it's closing in on three years old now).

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

#263

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

Of the 7 lightening cables I own, two of them have stopped working, and one of them only charges in only one orientation (flip it, and it doesn't work). I'm hoping that usb-c on Apple devices will be more reliable.

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

#264
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something I found interesting when discussing this with my wife.. All my friends are tech heads and champing at the bit to have usb-c in their iPhones. But when she asked me why people were mad about the switch to usb-c it took me by surprise. Then she showed me a lot of online responses from non technical people who see the change of port as annoying and wasteful because now all their stuff won’t work without adapte…

Absolutely. USB-C appeals to techies, people with an engineering mindset, because it's an elegant solution. It's one connector, with graceful handling of different use-cases from charging, through peripherals, to high-speed high throughput data transfer. But practically speaking, I've bought several HDMI adapters, had a hard time choosing a mouse that had USB-C a few years ago, have bought a new charger, lost MagSafe…

I have had Android phones where the USB-C port has failed bricking the device (can’t charge). Micro-USB was far worse, but USB-C still fails to often.

Lightning appears to be much more robust (anecdotally watching friends devices, I have had few Apple iDevices). Mechanically and electrically, I like the lightning connector (although I loath proprietary shit generally).

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

#265
post #253

What happens if I plug my USB-C iPhone into my 100W USB-C charging cord for my laptop? Does the phone charge? Does it get hot? Does the brick get hot?

case 1: an cable without chip, conforming to the usb3 spec both devices transfer the highest amount below the cap that is supported case 2 wirth chip: the maximum power transfered is now the minimum between charger, phone and cable.

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

#266
post #33

I often wonder how much money Apple makes from the fact that lightning cables all seem to die after a few months. I have usb cables that are decades old that still work, but lightning…

And I just threw two Anker USB-C charging cables away in the last four weeks as both broke internally.

Anker has been great about replacing in my experience.

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

#267
post #204

I never had a device with lightning. My only Apple device, an Ipad Pro, has USB-C. But I found USB-C very delicate and prone to fail with time. I'm not a fan of this connector type.

I only had cables that failed and cheap usb powerbanks that had bad ports but usb-c ports are the most robust i have seen.

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

#268

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…

> "they're always changing their cables". It's obviously not true,

Last year Apple switched from USB-C charging to a new MagSafe charger on M1 Macbooks. USB-C was first introduced in 2018, moving away from the old MagSafe design. These are a very recent changes, so I'd say this still applies.

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

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. And even worse they probably would have had to switch from Micro USB to USB-C again when they upgraded.

And I can still connect my iPhone 12 to my old car that supports the “iPod USB protocol” from before the first iPhone came out.

Yep. Thirty pin adapters STILL WORK.

Apple supports it and sells the dongle.

Can’t realistically ask for more than that.

For us old Apple enthusiasts there were many many upsides to apples success and mainstreaming, some of the downsides include the hysterical reaction to anything they do.

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

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> Nothing can fix the stupidity of USB-C cables, though What is the stupidity of USB-C cables? Honestly don't know, simply not up on USB or cable technology

Mostly it's a mess of unknowns as to weather the cable you buy will actually do perform well. With USB-C cables it's all fine print and advertising. This article is from 4 years ago and gets updated each year. https://www.androidauthority.com/state-of-usb-c-870996/
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