A really good thing for the planet would be to force manufacturers to only produce repairable phones with purely open source components. Sure it's not good for business neither for innovation but who cares? The climate is a mess and we have produced enough phones already. You have a computer in your picket that take photo and you can communicate with anybody. What else could you possibly need in the future ? I'll tell you what, a climate that is not trying to kill you.
EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
891–900 of 1001 posts
Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
#892Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The EU tried very hard, for very many years to signal to the industry "do this yourself so you don't have to legislate it, we don't want to legislate it, you don't want us to legislate it" but Apple (and only Apple) just refused to listen, so here we are. This doesn’t make the approach any less interventionist. “Either do what we want or we’ll pass an official regulation for you to do what we want” isn’t much of a c…
I don't think Apple believes Lighting is superior. They were heavily involved in the design of USB-C, and that was _after_ Lightning was already in use. They certainly applied learnings from Lightning into it. I believe the most likely reason they stuck with it this long is contracts with accessory makers. After they switched from 30 pin, there were probably concerns from third parties that they would soon switch aga…
It wouldn't suprise me if they had 10 yars contracts, as it was originally touted as "the connector for the next decade"
https://9to5mac.com/2022/02/28/lightning-launched-as-a-moder...
Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
#893Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Do you actually have data on that though? I see that kind of argument get thrown around but it is never substantiated. How will usbc lead to less waste? If you wanna make that argument, wouldn’t it be better to force companies to opt you out of getting chargers and cables unless you explicitly ask for them when you make the purchase?
Yes, that was part of the proposal: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_21_...
> Unbundling the sale of a charger from the sale of the electronic device
But without a universal charger that doesn't make sense: if I still need a specific charger for a device, I'm going to have to buy that with the device anyways.
Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
#894As an EU citizen, I am really happy with this decision. I am an iPhone user, but having an iPhone is not ubiquitous here, almost all of my friends/special other, use an Android phone with USB-C. Most of their laptops, Mac or not, use or allow USB-C for charging. This as been the case for a few years now, yet, if I go somewhere for more than a full day and forget my lighting cable, my phone will become a useless paper…
This is such a short sighted view. What just happened is, EU, a political organization enforcing the use of a technology on a company which operates on free market. It's Apples best interest to make technology that the consumers want so that they can sell more units of that. A political organization like EU has no say in this. EU citizens already make this decision for themselves by voting with money and choosing to…
EU is not trying to impose regulation or standardization on highly innovative areas of hardware or chipset design or software design or anything of that matter. They are imposing it for something that has largely been understood and comoditized (electric charging of phones via cable and data transfer using open communication protocol) where there is little room for getting any kind of competitive advantage or differentiation or some significant innovation. Speaking about hindrance of progress is largely far fetched and not based on reality. Things like this are really not blocking any meaningful progress but they indeed are largely abused by enterprises to push proprietary things to consumer so that it can be monetized and consumer locked in the vendor ecosystem.
Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
#895As an EU citizen, I am really happy with this decision. I am an iPhone user, but having an iPhone is not ubiquitous here, almost all of my friends/special other, use an Android phone with USB-C. Most of their laptops, Mac or not, use or allow USB-C for charging. This as been the case for a few years now, yet, if I go somewhere for more than a full day and forget my lighting cable, my phone will become a useless paper…
Technology is still changing fairly rapidly. Regulation is not. There will come a time when flashy new tech that everyone is drooling over will not be available in the EU due to this law.
This whole discussion is only a thing because Apple's tech isn't changing rapidly enough for regulation, the exact opposite of your scenario. Also good luck producing a functioning smartphone that's too thin for the USB-C connector before the EU can react (the new iPhone 14 has exactly 3 times the thickness, so it'll take a while).
The much more realistic reason for a new phone not being released here is the new proposal to enforce 5 years of replacement parts for all phones among other things.
Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
#896Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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…
What world are you living in?
Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
#897I didn't search _that_ hard, but I can't find the text of the EU directive; everything I did find does seem to mention USB-C explicitly. What is the procedure/convention for superseding this directive when something supersedes USB-C? That said, even if the upgrade path is not expressly defined, I think on balance this is still a good thing. In a "best time to plant a tree was yesterday; second best time is today" kin…
> What is the procedure/convention for superseding this directive when something supersedes USB-C?
From the amended text:
> The Commission shall review the application of this Directive in relation to new charging technologies and, report thereon to the European Parliament and to the Council by ... [three years after the date entry into force of this Directive], and every three years thereafter. That report shall be accompanied, if appropriate, by a proposal to amend this Directive to introduce mandatory unbundling.
If the USB Implementor’s Forum want’s to change from USB-C or USB-PD it can speak with the European Commission. It’s an organization with telephones and mail and an address and – I fear – fax machines. Not some weird angels in the sky.
Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
#898Earlier 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…
I think if you're going to accuse Apple of rent seeking here you also pretty much have to accuse anyone who develops their own standard or plugin or similar of rent seeking as well. When will the EU ban HDMI connections to monitors or force Apple to remove them from MacBooks? Why are dSLR cameras allowed to continue to use micro USB and SD cards when they could just use USB-C so we don't have to buy dongles and adapt…
> Why are dSLR cameras allowed to continue to use micro USB
Because DSLRs are dead. If you look at the new mirrorless cameras, they're either doing USB-C charging, or take batteries charged from a device that uses USB-C.
Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
#899does this mean Apple will finally have fast transfer speeds that Android phones have had for at least 5+ years? or will they still give you USB2 speeds over USB C?
Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
#900Earlier 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... Oh please, Apple has barely improved Lightning since its introduction a decade ago (2012!). Yes, back then, it was better than what was available, but the industry has moved on, and Apple has stagnated. > Hell, in all likelihood, Apple is likely to ditch a charging connection altogether in favor of wireless c…
> Oh please, Apple has barely improved Lightning since its introduction a decade ago (2012!). Yes, back then, it was better than what was available, but the industry has moved on, and Apple has stagnated.
You mean: in 20 years Apple has had only two connectors, and they worked and work extremely well. Meanwhile the industry "that moved on" invented 6 different incompatible connectors, didn't even specify a charging standard until 2010s (IIRC) and is now busy inventing USB 4 Gen 1x15 revision 16