EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024 • Hacker News Board

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

#271

Post by amelius » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 1:27 PM UTC

riffraff wrote: post #195

kypro wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consumers still don't have a say. Now instead of companies choosing what hardware & features are best for their product, and you then choosing products based on your preferences, EU regulators are now forcing companies (and therefore you) to use whatever they think is best. I think in the case of USB-C it's not too bad just because USB-C is widely agreed to be a good connector that's already widely adopted, but there…

The EU consulted with phone producers before standardizing on micro-USB, then again before standardizing on USB-C, and it will do again when something better comes up. They have explicitly called out not regulating wireless charging for this reason. Yours is a valid concern, but it's not grounded in reality.

> They have explicitly called out not regulating wireless charging for this reason.

Doesn't wireless charging present even more problems, given the meager efficiency compared to using wires?

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

#272

Post by whywhywhywhy » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 1:27 PM UTC

I'd rather it hadn't come to this because I don't believe in regulation to this extent. But there honestly hasnt been any excuse for a long time for them not to do it. Especially when some other iOS products have it, same with the AirPods case. It's purely to make more money from cables and you can tell this from the lengths they go to that make sure non-legit cables are so unreliable and have DRM.

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

#273

Post by jaywalk » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 1:27 PM UTC

dom96 wrote: post #219

_trackno5 wrote: post #49

Why do people think it is a good thing to have this enforced by law is beyond me. I don't see any win besides a minor convenience. A lightning cable weighs almost nothing and it's not a big deal to have one around. As to lightning port limitations, I question whether usb-c will give average iPhone users any other advantage other than charging their phone. What are people gonna do with it other than charge their phone…

> What are people gonna do with it other than charge their phones or transfer files? It would at least save me from carrying one power brick + usb cable. Steam Deck (USB C), Switch (USB C), MacBook Pro (USB C) and iPhone is the only odd one out. This does make a significant difference to what I can take with me on holiday.

Ignoring the fact that USB-C to Lightning cables exist, how in the world does a little power brick and cable make a "significant difference" to what you can take with you?

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

#274

Post by moffkalast » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 1:28 PM UTC

donatj wrote: post #253

Hamcha wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why do people think it is a good thing to have this enforced by law is beyond me. It's not, we're glad SOMEONE is forcing them to take this direction, but it's really sad (and potentially damaging) it had to come to this. > As to lightning port limitations, I question whether usb-c will give average iPhone users any other advantage other than charging their phone. What are people gonna do with it other than charge…

Transfer speed seems like a non-issue. Wi-Fi 6 is faster than the the internal SSDs read speed. There's no reason to even plug it in for data.

Plugging the phone into a laptop seems far easier than connecting both to a shared network and then trying to find the right IPs to connect to.

Worse case you even have to make an access point which isn't a gui operation on most laptops.

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

#275

Post by mschuster91 » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 1:28 PM UTC

inferiorhuman wrote: post #248

mschuster91 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't see any win besides a minor convenience. A lightning cable weighs almost nothing and it's not a big deal to have one around. The standardization is good for a lot of purposes: - cutting down on the number of cables and especially chargers. Seriously, it's amazing to have one single Anker 65W power supply and a single cable on vacation and it can charge everything - tablet, work phone, laptop, power bank, dr…

and especially chargers Eh? The iPhone charges over a USB-Lightning cable. There are USB-C and USB-A versions of the cable available. The charger was never the issue. In fact Apple stopped including (USB) chargers with the iPhone a while back.

I was talking about all the device markets that have switched over to USB-C. It's not just iPhones.

And for what it's worth, even the iPhone could benefit from not having to include an USB-A-to-Lightning cable any more.

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

#276

Post by Bud » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 1:28 PM UTC

EugeneOZ wrote: post #147

_trackno5 wrote: post #49

Why do people think it is a good thing to have this enforced by law is beyond me. I don't see any win besides a minor convenience. A lightning cable weighs almost nothing and it's not a big deal to have one around. As to lightning port limitations, I question whether usb-c will give average iPhone users any other advantage other than charging their phone. What are people gonna do with it other than charge their phone…

Data transfer speed is an important reason. iPhone 14 Pro can create huge videos and photos, and transferring them using Lightning is too slow.

This isn't an important reason. There's no technical reason that Lightning could not have been updated to support higher speeds, and there's also nothing in this legislation that forces USB-C to magically use a high data rate.

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

#277

Post by pimterry » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 1:28 PM UTC

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?

I'm not sure the mechanism, but it's certainly _intended_ to support future standards.

Quoting from the press release (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20220930IP...):

> This future-proof law allows for the development of innovative charging solutions in the future

Also says they're already looking at how to support interoperability during a future migration to wireless charging too.

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

#278

Post by staringback » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 1:29 PM UTC

donatj wrote: post #253

Hamcha wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why do people think it is a good thing to have this enforced by law is beyond me. It's not, we're glad SOMEONE is forcing them to take this direction, but it's really sad (and potentially damaging) it had to come to this. > As to lightning port limitations, I question whether usb-c will give average iPhone users any other advantage other than charging their phone. What are people gonna do with it other than charge…

Transfer speed seems like a non-issue. Wi-Fi 6 is faster than the the internal SSDs read speed. There's no reason to even plug it in for data.

Wi-Fi 6 is faster than the internal SSDs read speed when there is direct line of sight and absolutely no cross channel interference*

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

#279

Post by Night_Thastus » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 1:29 PM UTC

I have no sympathy or love for Apple, but this seems wrong.

Technology comes and goes, standards evolve and fall away as new ones arrive.

I don't think the law has any place in deciding who uses what connector in this fashion. They can make an e-waste argument all they want, but it's nonsense. All it does is stifle future work on connectors and devices in general.

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

#280

Post by norman784 » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 1:29 PM UTC

jld89 wrote: post #71

_trackno5 wrote: post #49

Why do people think it is a good thing to have this enforced by law is beyond me. I don't see any win besides a minor convenience. A lightning cable weighs almost nothing and it's not a big deal to have one around. As to lightning port limitations, I question whether usb-c will give average iPhone users any other advantage other than charging their phone. What are people gonna do with it other than charge their phone…

A LOT of less waste maybe ? It is very inconvenient and a hassle to have 5 different cables for 5 different devices. It is a waste of space, materials... The economic gains by volume continent wide should not be underestimated.

The plug will be universal with usb-c, but not the cable specs, I read someone of someone that have a usb-c-jack dongle that came with the phone and worked, then when it broke he bought a new one but it didn't work, the dongle itself was not using a standard, also I read a lot that fast charging is kinda property with each manufacturer, so a cable that can fast charge one device might not be able to fast charge another, and the blame is on USB itself, it's like HDMI, everything is optional, so you can't be sure if you bought the correct usb-c cable.

At least with lightning you know what you are buying, and maybe the overpriced cables that Apple sells will work better than the most cheap ones, which brand give you the warranties for the cable specs? does belkin and co sell also cables?