I can't believe this legislation is actually being seriously considered, why would you want the government forcing you to have a certain port on your phone. By all means have regulations for things like electrical outlets and radio frequencies and other protocols that interfere with each other, but when it comes to individual devices it is just going to completely stall any innovation. I don't want a manufacturer to have to lobby the government every time they want to start using some improved charging cable, or when they want to make a device where USB-C doesn't make sense, that's how we end up stuck on old standards for forever. Doesn't seem like the government's business anyways, you are really going to make it illegal for me to produce and purchase devices without USB-C? Seems insane to me, if people don't want a device because it doesn't have USB, they don't have to buy it.
Apple may have to abandon Lightning connector cable
71–80 of 156 posts
Re: Apple may have to abandon Lightning connector cable
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
My point was Apple had been developing a connector at the same time. They could have worked with the USB working group and improved the standard rather than adding yet another cable type.
Yes, that's what the USB working group needed. A larger committee, with a new entrant telling them they're all wrong, dragging them through the gravel until they submit. Better to crush them in the market.
If their goal was to crush them in the market they seem to have failed.
Re: Apple may have to abandon Lightning connector cable
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a rather pointless stat though. None of the cables currently available are rated for 9 years and most have a ridiculously short lifespan of 1-2 years anyway. In fact it probably works against Apple as it demonstrates that the churn of innovation doesn't really exist if new advances only occur every 9 years.
How is it pointless? The article talks about trying to cut down on electronic waste: > The regulator is determined to cut down on electronic waste being created by obsolete cables, which it estimates generate more than 51,000 tonnes of waste per year. It's surely much less wasteful to extend the life of the cable standard than to ensure longer cable lifespans. Even if you had a cable that lasted 7 years, chances are…
It's pointless because , the chance of a cable lasting 7 years doesn't happen. Even the phone isn't typically designed to last that long.
The cases where people end up replacing their cable because of a new standard is way less frequent than the cable breaking, this has been my experience at least considering the shifting standards which you talk about.
It sounds a bit like optimizing some process but ignoring what is actually the bottleneck. The problem in this case is not the standard on top, but the lifetime of the cable.
If the goal is to reduce e-waste then surely it makes sense to tackle the approach from a reduce, reuse, recycle perspective in that order and focussing on the EOL for the cable.
By shifting to one cable standard, you can reduce/reuse as at least other products can have better utilization as that old cable is still usable with other products. I have been less incentivised to buy new usb C cable for my phone because my switch and headphone cables still work just fine.
I can't do anything with a lightning cable if my iphone dies other than to use it for apple products. Just like I can't do anything with my old ipod connectors. That is just straight e-waste.
By shifting to one cable standard, we can more easily recycle the cable as there would be more manufacturers who would have the supply-chain/capabilities of recycling these chargers. Contrast that to the lightning cable which only apple and other companies with a lightning connector can handle effectively.
Re: Apple may have to abandon Lightning connector cable
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, that's what the USB working group needed. A larger committee, with a new entrant telling them they're all wrong, dragging them through the gravel until they submit. Better to crush them in the market.
If their goal was to crush them in the market they seem to have failed.
While on the face of it that's true, it's no accident that USB-C basically looks like a Lightning connector turned inside-out. The design of Lightning definitely influenced the design of the USB-C connector.
Re: Apple may have to abandon Lightning connector cable
#75To everyone that thinks no ports, Qi only iPhones are the future. What if you want to use your phone while it chargers? Charge your phone in the car? I think we are another 10 years at least from having a device that could last long enough off a single charge to warrant occasionally leaving it on a pad over night as the main charging method.
My car has an option for a built in Qi charger. It’s in the spot you normally put your phone anyway. That being said, how would you service a portless phone? There would be no more DFU mode.
And how would you activate CarPlay? At the moment it's wired-only, and I'm skeptical as to whether it could be made to work over Bluetooth in existing cars. If you bought a new car today with wired CarPlay, you might still be driving it in 5 or even 10 years, and you really wouldn't want to lose the ability to actually use CarPlay in just a year or two.
Re: Apple may have to abandon Lightning connector cable
#76While I'm fraustrated with the connector diversity in my home, I'm not at all keen to have technology design mandated. Would this forbid a certain type of product from using something better, and force new design to be via committees? I mean, it's not like Europe uses all the same mains power plugs. Well, I guess UK leaving will help there.
I have lived with both the UK and the "Euro" "standardish" 2 pin with earth on the outside plug for my formative years. I'm a UK army brat. I'll take the UK plug any day. It is bigger by far in two unimportant dimensions but thinner by far in the important one. The chord runs downwards on all UK plugs not at 90 degrees to the wall by default but I will accept that many Euro plugs also run downwards. A UK plug is a bi…
Related video from YouTuber Tom Scott on the design of the UK plug.
Re: Apple may have to abandon Lightning connector cable
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
My car has an option for a built in Qi charger. It’s in the spot you normally put your phone anyway. That being said, how would you service a portless phone? There would be no more DFU mode.
And how would you activate CarPlay? At the moment it's wired-only, and I'm skeptical as to whether it could be made to work over Bluetooth in existing cars. If you bought a new car today with wired CarPlay, you might still be driving it in 5 or even 10 years, and you really wouldn't want to lose the ability to actually use CarPlay in just a year or two.
There’s wireless Carplay today.
Re: Apple may have to abandon Lightning connector cable
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
And how would you activate CarPlay? At the moment it's wired-only, and I'm skeptical as to whether it could be made to work over Bluetooth in existing cars. If you bought a new car today with wired CarPlay, you might still be driving it in 5 or even 10 years, and you really wouldn't want to lose the ability to actually use CarPlay in just a year or two.
There’s wireless Carplay today.
Really? Neat, I hadn't heard about that. I will have to look it up. I wonder if my car supports it.
Re: Apple may have to abandon Lightning connector cable
#79Good. Wireless Qi charging is too slow, and Apple is still being a dongle diva by constantly inventing its own special connectors.
Constantly? Like, twice in twenty years?
I stand by my comment.
Re: Apple may have to abandon Lightning connector cable
#80Good. Wireless Qi charging is too slow, and Apple is still being a dongle diva by constantly inventing its own special connectors.
Then stop buying Apple products.
Oh I have. And I had been buying them in large quantities since 1984. But the astonishingly low quality of Apple's hardware and software over the last 5 years has made me stop.