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Apple may have to abandon Lightning connector cable

bbc.com

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Re: Apple may have to abandon Lightning connector cable

#151

Post by GordonS »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #38
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU seems to be making an environmental argument, which seems credible?

Not really. As someone pointed out above, cables wear out fast. It's not like you're going to save the planet by buying one cable that will last the rest of your life. Most people go through several cables over the lifespan of a device anyway. What it does sound like a good way to get stuck with an obsolete and substandard cable format forever, because once the One True Cable Design is mandated by government fiat, ch…

I think most of the comments I've seen here about cables wearing out fast have been specifically about Apple lightning cables.

In my experience, USB cables do not wear out quickly, especially if you buy braided ones. In the past 15 years or so, I think I've had a single cable fail (a cheap, crappy one that came free with something).

As a consumer, it benefits me greatly to only need one connector and charger, and the environmental argument makes a lot of sense to me too.

Re: Apple may have to abandon Lightning connector cable

#152

Post by LyndsySimon »

mvanbaak wrote: post #107
LyndsySimon wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I picked up a pair of AirPods Pro a bit ago, and was surprised to see a Lightning connector. Not only that, but the included cable was USB-C to Lightning. I don’t know why they bothered at all, honestly.

Because most of the people who buy the airpods, have an iphone. So, they can use the cable they use to charge their iphone to charge their airpods and vc versa. The fact that it's an usb-c to lightning is because all their macbooks are usb-c ;-P

I have an iPhone X, which is the only other device I own with a Lightning port. I use a Qi charger for it.

I also have an iPad Pro and a laptop that uses USB-C for power.

In fact, I had to look it up and was surprised to see that the iPhone 11 has a Lightning port. Odd.

Re: Apple may have to abandon Lightning connector cable

#153

Post by NicoJuicy »

pwinnski wrote: post #137
NicoJuicy wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, because there aren't enough iPhone users to begin with. 87% vs 13%

If there aren't enough iPhone users to worry about, then why force us to replace all of our cables, chargers, docks, etc? You can't have it both ways! One year ago, there were 1.4 billion[0] of us, each with one or more (many more, in my case) cables, docks, cradles, etc. That's a lot of waste to churn up for "not enough iPhone users." [0] https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/29/18202736/apple-devices-io...

If you say "x billion of us", you probably didn't get the joke ( joke was facts based though) ;)

I was putting the op in another perspective, because he was being arrogant to Android users ;)

Re: Apple may have to abandon Lightning connector cable

#154

Post by beatgammit »

screye wrote: post #120
brandur wrote: post #19

Does anyone know if there's any merit to Apple's claim that USB-C isn't compatible with the iPhone's slim dimensions? (From the article: "Apple insisted that its slimmer devices would be unable to fit the then-new USB-C technology ...") Just looking at the tech specs for the iPhone 11 (lightning) [1] versus iPad Pro (USB-C) [2], the former is actually thicker at 8.3 mm compared to 5.9 mm, and yet the iPad Pro can hav…

It is pure bullshit. Same way that the reason they removed the 3.5mm jack was "space" or "courage". That was shown to be demonstrably not true, as thinner devices kept being released with the port.

Precisely. They removed the 3.5mm jack to sell AirPods, and they ended up selling a ton. They want you to buy into their whole ecosystem, and something like a cable is a foot in the door (more eyeballs on their website or in their stores when you inevitably need a new one).

Their PR makes less sense than the cynical reasoning, so I believe the cynical reasoning.

Re: Apple may have to abandon Lightning connector cable

#155

Post by beatgammit »

pwinnski wrote: post #138
kovacs_x wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why do you think it's a bad idea that all small appliances with power requirements What is you benefit as a consumer to have each appliance have it's own unique cable, generally providing same functionality?

I think it's a bad idea because if this legislation had been in place in, say, 2001, we'd all be stuck with terrible USB-mini connectors, not even terrible USB-micro connectors. If 2007, we'd be stuck with terrible USB-micro connectors instead. Now, post-2014, USB-C seems like a winner (too bad they didn't do this in 2012, when it could have been Lightning with a forced-free license!). So now it's USB-C, and... that'…

> how do I tell the difference?

Ideally you won't need to in most cases. That being said, USB used colors to match cables to sockets, with black being the old cable and blue being the newer, faster interface. You could use the old cable on new devices, but you're stuck with slower transfer.

For something like a lamp, it likely wouldn't matter what cable you use, so just use whatever is laying around. If it's for something high speed, just keep the cable separate.

Being able to use a device with a backup cable at degraded performance is better than not being able to use a device. I had a lamp that used a bespoke cable and connector, and when we lost one part, we threw the lamp away. We later found the part, but nothing else used the connector, so we threw that away as well. If it used a USB-C cable, I could just use one of the several I have laying around.

Re: Apple may have to abandon Lightning connector cable

#156

Post by mcphage »

hughw wrote: post #128
timw4mail wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has not been my experience that cables break often at all. Does the average user really mistreat their cables that badly?

Apple cables are notorious for wearing badly. I suspect it's because they favor very thin casing and for greater flexibility -- a lightning cable winds tighter than typical charging cables for other phones. MacBook Pro chargers also suffer from the syndrome.

> Apple cables are notorious for wearing badly.

Apple phones also last longer than other phones, and because their connections remain so standard, you can use the same cable for multiple phones. I've definitely destroyed some Apple cables, but generally they've been on their second or third device.

> I suspect it's because they favor very thin casing and for greater flexibility -- a lightning cable winds tighter than typical charging cables for other phones.

I'm not so sure about this explanation—the cables usually fail at the very ends, where the connector meets the cable itself.

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