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EU sends Apple stark warning over USB-C charging on new iPhones

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Re: EU sends Apple stark warning over USB-C charging on new iPhones

#392

This is definitely not good news for iPhone users. The thing with lightning is that it is fucking robust. USB-C may not be as bad as the micro-USB but it is still more fragile than lightning. People should be able to choose, if you love One Connector To Rule’em all just get and Android phone.

> USB-C may not be as bad as the micro-USB but it is still more fragile than lightning

Is it though? Wouldn't we be hearing endless noise about how fragile android ports are if it was really that much worse? I've never heard any complaints about the USBC port from any android users in the news or anecdotally, even though most major phones are C now

Re: EU sends Apple stark warning over USB-C charging on new iPhones

#393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> instead of letting countries compete for the best policies. The way we have let manufacturers compete to create the best standard for power adaptors?

Depends if you believe in letting the market decide, or not.

there is no market without regulation.

in the old days, the government ensured that the physically strong people would not get the best deals because they could force you to give up your product.

This appears to be the modern day equivalent.

Re: EU sends Apple stark warning over USB-C charging on new iPhones

#394
post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The spying is still be illegal in EU without user consent no matter if it is technically possible or not.

But then for those of us not in the EU, Facebook et al suddenly have access to a plethora of data they didn’t have before via side loading thanks to a European law.

And so your concern is because of... the EU, and not your own politicians for failing to regulate a completely out of control corporation running psychological experiments on users without their consent ?

Interesting set of priorities.

Re: EU sends Apple stark warning over USB-C charging on new iPhones

#395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> instead of letting countries compete for the best policies. The way we have let manufacturers compete to create the best standard for power adaptors?

Do you mean the plug in the wall for adapters? Assuming so but please correct me if I’m wrong. :) Not the hill I’m going to die on, but doesn’t the lack of change kind of prove the point? Is what we have today the absolute best thing we could have? There’s probably room for innovation here. It’s a balance right? Not changing is good but also… it can’t get any better. With consumer electronic devices we’d still be usi…

Thunderbolt on new Apple machines is USB4, and not proprietary.

Re: EU sends Apple stark warning over USB-C charging on new iPhones

#396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if the whole world adopted this kind of regulatory stance, there would be much less incentive to invent that better cable because you now have huge regulatory bodies that may block its adoption and thus mean most of that work was money and time wasted. This kind of thing may tilt the risk / reward of research towards the riskier end of the spectrum. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing— just that it’s not without cons…

Come on, there can't be that much better of a cable in the future. You already have speeds that are instantaneous on one file and I bet the transfer time to transfer all your pictures an videos from your phone is under an hour, for an operation you are maybe doing once a year ? Time for a full charge is also probably under an hour, that's not unreasonable. Being standard is a better feature than speed. Event if they…

Connectors are dying anyways. I rarely plug my iPhone in to anything, since I’ve moved to wireless charging. I wouldn’t be surprised if an iPhone is released eventually with no port at all.

Re: EU sends Apple stark warning over USB-C charging on new iPhones

#397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check the companies involved in any standardised connector/protocol currently used. For example USB implementers forum includes HP, NEC, Microsoft, Intel and... Apple. HDMI forum includes... Apple. NVMe contributors includes... Apple. The times of one company doing their own proprietary thing are close to gone.

You're talking about the company that just re-introduced MagSafe, its widely praised proprietary power connector, and claiming the times of one company doing their own proprietary thing are close to gone? Apple is cleaning up in the PC market and has been for years by being as proprietary as possible.

They reintroduced it in addition to USB charging and only on the most recent MBP models. They're doing both standard and proprietary thing at the same time which is quite different from the connector battles we had in the past.

Re: EU sends Apple stark warning over USB-C charging on new iPhones

#398
post #324
post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It never crossed your mind that there may be a reason that Apple does not want to use the USB-C standard The reason is extremely obvious: cementing user lock-in to the Apple ecosystem.

Lightning is smaller than USB-C. That alone makes it more desirable for space-obsessed Apple. I think it is more robust and easier to clean too.

The thinnest smartphone ever sold was the Vivo X5 Max, which was 4.75 mm thick, and it still managed to squeeze a headphone jack into it, despite Apple's feeble protests that such things are impossible. USB-C (2.5 mm) is significantly thinner than a standard headphone jack (3.5 mm). Between the screen, the circuit board, the battery, and the back cover (including the camera lenses), you're never, ever going to see a smartphone so thin that it couldn't fit a 2.5 mm port. This is a non-excuse.

Re: EU sends Apple stark warning over USB-C charging on new iPhones

#399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check the companies involved in any standardised connector/protocol currently used. For example USB implementers forum includes HP, NEC, Microsoft, Intel and... Apple. HDMI forum includes... Apple. NVMe contributors includes... Apple. The times of one company doing their own proprietary thing are close to gone.

You're talking about the company that just re-introduced MagSafe, its widely praised proprietary power connector, and claiming the times of one company doing their own proprietary thing are close to gone? Apple is cleaning up in the PC market and has been for years by being as proprietary as possible.

Those laptop also support USB-C charging however, you don’t have to use MagSafe.

They brought back MagSafe because customers weren’t satisfied with USB-C charging.

Re: EU sends Apple stark warning over USB-C charging on new iPhones

#400
post #220
post #118

What happens when there is a better USB-C plug - isn't there a concern that locking into the current standard means in 50 years the EU is still stuck. I imagine we're in uncharted territory given in less then my lifetime USB was invented and has gone through at least 14 iterations e.g. it's been changing very fast. Unfortunately I fear even asking this question probably angers some, but I think it's an interesting qu…

The law explicitly states that it has to be reviewed every couple of years to determine whether USB-C it is still the best choice, or there has been sufficient technological progress to warrant a switch to a newer standard. The fear for a "lock-in" is completely unfounded, as the EU previously quasi-mandated Micro USB and switching to USB-C was no issue whatsoever. Besides, nothing is stopping manufacturers from incl…

But what if there is a German and a French vendor lobbying for their own standard making an agreement between German and French governments impossible? They will probably just stick to the status quo and ignore the issue leading all of us into a lock-in. We have seen those patterns in the past..
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