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The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

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Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#171

Post by tpmoney »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #162
anamax wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is very weak a priori arguing. I could just as well argue that USB-C has the center blade shielded instead of exposed and so is more durable. The unshielded Lightning center blade is on a $5 connector. If it breaks, I'm out $5 and it's reasonable to have spares. The shielded USB-C center blade is part of an expensive device. If it breaks....

Have you ever seen either kind of port break on the inside? This speculation is just as weak without any evidence.

I did wind up replacing the USB C ports on a 4 year old computer recently because it was dodgy as hell. When i got it under the microscope it the longer bus power pin contacts (and one or two of the others) had been badly worn/squished/stretched in a way that I guess was causing them to bridge to other pins. I assume some USB-C cable had some gunk in the connector which was hard enough to damage the contacts on the center blade, and the user didn't notice (because how often do you look into the end of your USB-C cable?). It probably presented as a cable that wasn't seating right or didn't go all the way in and whatever was inside probably fell out when it was removed and they tried again.

And for what it's worth, damage to the center blade does seem to be a common failure mode for USB-C and mini-usb connectors. Less frequent for something like HDMI but it does seem to happen from time to time. Lightning never felt like it locked in as securely as USB connectors do, but at the same time, every time I saw a damaged lightning connector it was always on the male (and therefore usually cheaper accessory) side.

Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#172

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

notepad0x90 wrote: post #169
raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes it does. Give me back my lightning charger. Now I have USB-C where male port is on the phone and the connector is exposed to wear and tear. Apple I have one of every Apple device category except the HomePod. But this is a horrible take. I can now use my same USB C cables everywhere. But more importantly, I can use standard USB C peripherals from network adapters USB C external monitors, standard USB C to HDMI c…

No, I get there are a lot of people like you, but you did have the choice of just using android didn't you? Governments are not ways to enforce your personal preference or force it on others. Apple felt their lightning tech was better, isn't having better tech and an environment where different ideas can be explored better? EU is already anti-innovation, you don't succeed with startups easily there, it's precisely be…

The lightning tech wasn’t better, it could only do USB 2 speeds - yes I know there was one iPad that could do USB 3 with one special dongle - and it couldn’t even do video out well with the dongle. The video adapter had hardware to decompress a compressed video stream and convert it.

Even before the EU mandate lightning was showing its age and they started replacing it with USB C on the iPads.

You’ve had cheap Android phones if you had that problem. Have you heard reports of that being a problem with iPhones?

As far as compatibility, I carry around an external USB C powered external monitor for my laptop. It gets power and video from one cord on a computer.

I can take that same monitor and that same USB C cord and plug it up to my iPhone.

This is me sitting at a Delta lounge watching either Breaking Bad or Better Caul Saul with my phone connected to my second monitor

https://imgur.com/a/SC6WDri

The iPhone by itself can only power it to 50% brightness. But there you see if I plug in a battery to the second USB C port, it can power the monitor at full brightness and charge my phone.

USB C is better in every way.

Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#173

Post by throw10920 »

echelon wrote: post #121
ralph84 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU mindset in a nutshell. It doesn’t matter how shitty and expensive the solution is, as long as they get to say they owned big tech.

Okay, so you're a hyper capitalist. Good, I dig that. Me too. Big tech is literally a machine putting a ceiling on your ability to build. They tax and control everything, lock down distribution, prevent you from operating without rules. If you get big enough, they self-fund an internal team to compete with you. Or they offer to buy you for less than you're worth. If you don't accept, they buy your competitor. Capital…

> Okay, so you're a hyper capitalist. Good, I dig that. Me too.

Nothing in GP's comment gave any indication that they were a "hyper capitalist". You're just being emotionally manipulative, disingenuous, and acting in bad faith. This is categorically inappropriate for HN.

Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#174

Post by morshu9001 »

JimDabell wrote: post #136
morshu9001 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They had Macs on USB-C for like 7 years before the iPhone. It was going to stay like that. Mac on USB-C meant more dongles to sell, iPhone on Lightning meant cable fees and control.

You think Apple is going to make the user experience on iPhones – a product that makes them hundreds of billions of dollars a year – to sell more cables ‽ How much profit do you think they can possibly make with those cables? Apple came under fire when they moved from 30-pin connectors to Lightning because people wanted to keep their 30-pin connectors. At the time, Apple said that they wouldn’t make people switch for…

Yes. They did it with the headphone jack too. Nobody will switch to Android for either of those, in fact the more Apple-specific stuff the more lockin.

Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#176

Post by klausa »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #162
anamax wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is very weak a priori arguing. I could just as well argue that USB-C has the center blade shielded instead of exposed and so is more durable. The unshielded Lightning center blade is on a $5 connector. If it breaks, I'm out $5 and it's reasonable to have spares. The shielded USB-C center blade is part of an expensive device. If it breaks....

Have you ever seen either kind of port break on the inside? This speculation is just as weak without any evidence.

I've had multiple USB-C chargers broken like this.

Now, admittedly, "being yanked by a robot vacuum and falling on the ground" is outside the design parameters for a port; but I absolutely had USB-C ports fail in a way that Lightning would have not.

(Not the person you're replying to, but also a "Lightning was a better physical connector than USB-C" weirdo.)

Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#177

Post by klausa »

llm_nerd wrote: post #45
ricw wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple probably wouldn’t have changed to usbc for their phones. Lightning was a mobile phone / other development, whilst usbc and its contributions came from their Mac department. They did not like each others standards. I know Apple engineers working on the phone who dislike the change even up to this day…

"I know Apple engineers working on the phone" Groan. Come on. Cite one. A single "Apple engineer" to support this ridiculous claim of insider knowledge. What year do you think it is? You understand that the SoC and I/O blocks are largely shared between the Mac and the iPad / iPhone now, right? This invention of some big bifurcation is not reality based. The A14 SoC (which became the foundation for the Mac's M1) had I…

The I/O blocks are similar, but very much not the same between the different Axy/Mz chips.

They're different even between A19 Pro in an iPhone Air and the one in 17 Pros! The Air one doesn't support 10Gbps USB-C.

Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#178

Post by tristanj »

stouset wrote: post #167
tristanj wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that Apple didn't add USB-C to iPhones because they planned to remove all ports from the iPhone entirely. They envisioned it as a wireless only device. EU regulation stopped this from happening, and now once they added USB-C it's difficult to take this feature away. I predict we'll be stuck with the USB-C port and form factor on most phones for the next decade.

This was a common trope on Reddit but makes literally zero sense. There are a ton of wired accessories that this would make completely useless overnight, including things like CarPlay. And for what?

You probably viewed this as a common trope because you were not aware of the actual source of the rumors. No, these are not claims are not from reddit, they're from Mark Gurman in 2018.

> Apple designers eventually hope to remove most of the external ports and buttons on the iPhone, including the charger, according to people familiar with the company’s work. During the development of the iPhone X, Apple weighed removing the wired charging system entirely. That wasn’t feasible at the time because wireless charging was still slower than traditional methods. [0]

Actual rumors include a prototype of said phone making rounds around the office.

And again, Mark Gurman from 2025:

> "But all of these changes were supposed to be just the tip of the iceberg: Apple had originally hoped to get ever more ambitious with this model... An even bigger idea was to make the Air device Apple’s first completely port-free iPhone. That would mean losing the USB-C connector and going all-in on wireless charging and syncing data with the cloud."

> "But Apple ultimately decided not to adopt a port-free design with the new iPhone, which will still have a USB-C connector. One major reason: There were concerns that removing USB-C would upset European Union regulators, who mandated the iPhone switch to USB-C and are scrutinizing the company’s business practices." [1]

[0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-21/why-apple...

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-03-16/apple-...

Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#179

Post by dialup_sounds »

stephen_g wrote: post #153
usrnm wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple also helped develop USB C more than a decade ago, they still had to be forced to actually use it in their phones. There is no contradiction here

That did turn a huge number of chargers and accessories into e-waste though...

Lightning is just the snowcap on a mountain of Mini- and Micro-USB.

Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#180

Post by tristanj »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #148
tristanj wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that Apple didn't add USB-C to iPhones because they planned to remove all ports from the iPhone entirely. They envisioned it as a wireless only device. EU regulation stopped this from happening, and now once they added USB-C it's difficult to take this feature away. I predict we'll be stuck with the USB-C port and form factor on most phones for the next decade.

This is completely illogical. There is no world that wireless charging or data transfer was going to be as good as wired. Was the iPhone all the sudden not going to work in the millions of cars that had wired CarPlay?

My statements are substantiated by sources going back almost a decade. See my other comment for details.

And when you view what Apple is doing from their long-term vision of the iPhone becoming a transparent piece of glass, it starts making sense.

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