So basically if tomorrow I create a USB-D spec, this law will prevent adoption? What a stupid law! Why did not they instead create a law that prohibits non-standard connectors license-only connectors? That also creates roadblocks to innovation (of proprietary stuff), sure! But it does not kill innovation outright.
EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
881–890 of 1001 posts
Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
#882HN: a corporation with a monopoly dictating standards is bad
Also HN: government bureaucrats dictating standards in a monopolistic manner is good
Also HN: choice good
Also HN: the government must protect us from choice
Yeah, sure. This is just psychotic nanny state behavior. Millions of Europeans cried out in unison: protect me from myself, I can't make decisions on my own, I'm not well enough informed to know what to do!
Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
#883Earlier quoted context omitted.
> on a company which operates on free market. You probably shouldn't have based your argument on this statement, which is generally regarded as a myth. It is a myth in the sense that Apple exists in a free market: it is a near monopoly but is savvy enough not to wade into the area other companies did in the 90's and were penalized. Second, governments have the right to enforce environmental protection acts to protect…
How can Apple have a "near monopoly" when Samsung sells 50% more phones than them?
Oh? When did I become able to carry my Apple software, purchases, addresses, backups, pictures, etc. over to Android? When did I become able to buy a phone that functions in the Apple ecosystem that isn't made by Apple?
Oh, right, I can't.
A Pixel and a Galaxy are direct competitors. An iPhone and a Galaxy are not direct competitors because of lock-in effects.
Now, if you are saying that the EU should mandate that I be able to switch my purchases between those ecosystems, that would change. However, even as much of a fan as I am about anti-trust, I believe that would be a bridge too far.
Furthermore, from what we have seen in the past 36 months with respect to supplier consolidation, I would argue that ANY market with less than 5 real competitors should get broken up recursively until that gets fixed. That should apply to phones, food, toilet paper, disinfectants, etc.--everything.
Part of what is allowing all the economic price hikes to stick is that even in markets where there is "competition", there is some single upstream supplier that can't (mostly) or won't (rarely) increase production. This prevents any of the "competitors" from being able to gain significant market share since they can't increase their production since everybody is blocked.
A lot of businesses figured this out through Covid. So, they raised prices. What are you gonna do? Go to a competitor? He can't absorb your order and you'll be at the back of his queue. Good luck.
Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
#884Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's nothing wise or moral about this decision. Mandating a technology standard, purely for personal preference and convenience reasons -- not for reasons related to safety, or pollution, or security -- especially for things that change as fast as phones, is one of the most short-sighted and naive things any government could do. There's a long history of Apple using proprietary connectors to achieve performance sp…
> There's a long history of Apple using proprietary connectors to achieve performance specifications above what the currently available standardized connectors could provide. Lightning was good when it came out (compared to the various micro-USB options), but it's not held up. Even Apple knows this and they've moved away from it on their iPads.
Lightning was a design put forth by a company that wasn't Apple during the USB IF's design stage of USB-C. It was rejected because the pins were on the outside, not the inside, and would allow easy damage of both the cable and the connector. It was rejected purely on completely sane technical and mechanical reasons.
Apple shipped it anyways, and all Lightning cables have failed or will fail for exactly the reasons it was rejected. Apple chose the cable because of how easily it fails.
Lightning was never good, and Apple has a long history of fucking customers, period.
Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
#885This is painfully stupid. Nothing could illustrate why Europe lags behind in technology better than this.
Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
#886Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a phone charging port. It's not that serious. It's better for consumers if we all have the same one for everything, if possible. Unless you can tell me why not?
Imagine this happened a few years ago, and the EU had instead demanded micro-USB. Then we would still be flipping plugs twice, and I wouldn't be able to use my laptop charger to charge my phone. It's not clear to me that USB-C is good enough to be the "final" connector, especially with the mess around USB versions, Thunderbolt, Displayport, etc. Unlike e.g. power sockets, where I am pretty confident that the current…
I am pretty sure something similar hapenned a few years back, and they mandated USB-A on the brick/cable? My recollection is fuzzy.
Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
#887So basically if tomorrow I create a USB-D spec, this law will prevent adoption? What a stupid law! Why did not they instead create a law that prohibits non-standard connectors license-only connectors? That also creates roadblocks to innovation (of proprietary stuff), sure! But it does not kill innovation outright.
I'm feeling sulked so strongly right now.
California did something similarly stupid in 1990s. They mandated the selling of EVs. Car makers asked the courts to limit the law "in case no one wanted them." Then car makers tried to prove no one wanted EVs and then tried to convince everyone against buying the very EV they were making!
Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
#888LET'S GO EU! These headlines make me proud. Let's reach a global standard for charging stuff. I wish everything that had to be charged sometimes had a USB-C plug. But also I hope that the USB standard gets less messy in the future.
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Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
#889Earlier quoted context omitted.
>But in long sight it's a hinderence to progress by enforcing a technology on the market instead of letting the free market decide the technology. No, it's not in any way a hindrance to the market, merely one player who desires rent seeking. What it is doing is enforcing standards on manufacturers instead of the other way around.
Maybe we can have an internet standard for messaging apps next?
The EU is working on it... Unless that's what you meant?
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/04/eu-digital-markets-act...
Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
#890Earlier quoted context omitted.
USB-C has the springs in the plug while the receptacle is only fixed contacts. Lightning on the other hand has the springs inside the receptacle. This means that for USB-C you replace the cable when the springs wear out, but for Lightning you need to replace the port. Cleaning lint out of a USB-C receptacle with a toothpick is safe, but sticking anything into a Lightning port could damage the springs.
Interesting about the springs, I didn’t know that. In practice though, the opposite to everything you say seems to be true based on using many (many) of both connectors over the years. I’ve had a couple of disasters with USB-C ports breaking (on the device, not the cable), while I’ve never had anything go permanently wrong with Lightning sockets. Your point that it has delicate springs inside it sounds concerning but…
To be clear. I think that both connectors have their own problems.
Just because I've not had the center nub break in any of my USB-C devices that doesn't mean it's not a problem for someone else.
Similarly, I've had the springs in a Lightning port give out so that no cable worked and the port needed replacing.
I still think that having the springs in the cable connector is a more durable design but the USB-C center nub is probably too thin.
(edit) Here is the chief FireWire architect talking about the same design rationale for the FW400 connector http://www.johasteener.com/what-is-firewire.html#Why_the_4-p...