What if someone invents a better connector next year? Or: who would be motivated to think of something better?
It is deeply inappropriate for governments to get this granularly invasive in industrial product design. Moronic is the better way to describe it.
While I fundamentally believe that the government should absolutely get involved when things go south, I share your concern about what happens three years from now when a better connector shows up.
It does give me pause that last year alone, chargers obsoleted by new phones apparently accounted for ELEVEN TONS of garbage in the EU.
I am trying to discern wether the ruling applies to the side of the cable that attaches to the phone, the charger, or both. If it is the side that attaches to the charger, I don’t see it being much of a problem since most apple cables have usb-c on one side at least. Of course, my car uses USB-A to charge and connect to CarPlay so a USB-A cable is and will definitely be needed. If it is the side that connects to the phone, then I find it disturbing that they can mandate what type of port is required to be present on a device. So if USB-D is released and is smaller, better and faster than USB-C, will companies not be allowed to deploy it until a new law is passed which permits them to use it? Idiots.
It's amazing how McCarthyism can still raise its perverse stink, seven decades and more than two generations later.
Do you see USA telling BMW to make cars like GM?
Maybe you like communism?
Um. I hate to break this to you, but the US does tell BMW how to make cars. U.S. standards for things like fuel efficiency, engine design, safety (airbags, backup cameras, etc.) are different here than in much of the world. In some ways, the U.S. standards are more strict, in some ways they are more relaxed. But in order for a company like BMW (or Toyota, or for that matter Ford) to sell cars in this country, they are required to conform to those standards.
In some cases, this causes those standards to percolate around the world and cars become consistent regardless where they are sold. In other situations, standards cause cars to diverge—there are lot more diesel-fueled cars in Europe, for example, due to differing fuel/emission regulations.
Let’s not forget this will help finally kill off USB-A and the ports-from-hell duo: mini and micro USB. It’s not just about Lightning. if it takes killing Lightning to get rid of those other two in particular it’s worth it. I can’t believe how many products are still made with those god-awful connectors.
Apple shouldn’t need to be dragged kicking and screaming to implementing USB-C on iPhones. They just can’t seem to get past Lightning because of the revenue it brings in, regardless of how inferior it is.
I’d prefer an upgraded Lightning port to USB-C. As has been noted in AI (either in an reticle or in comments) USB-C easily “wears out” so that you don’t get a positive connection. I don’t remember the proper term but I’ve seen that in other USB-C devices I have. You start to get a loose connection that is intermittent. This is because of the male part being in the main body and not the cable.
Apple should have ditched the idiotic Lightning connector years ago. It's sad that it's taking the EU forcing them to finally take care of the problem.
It is not a step forward. Lightning 2 would have been better.
Ask the EU what are customers gonna do with all the lightning cables they current own now?
You mean things like the standards that supply your water, heat, electricity, waste removal, construction, roads, air travel, and other safety standards, (where they’re not watered down by corporate bribery, that is)? I think you’re mistaking the holes driven into regulations by greedy companies (or corrupt local gov’t cheaping out) for the intent of the regulations. What makes these things fail is people circumventing them and attempting to game the system.
Remember that ozone problem? Solved by regulation, not “corporate innovation”.
Anyway, it’s a friggin’ connector (with a confusing corporate “standard”, sure). Just get over it. Topics like these should not be the ones with the longest threads or poisoned by anyone’s person political indoctrination. Bring something to the table ya’ll, or quit posting.
Apple should have ditched the idiotic Lightning connector years ago. It's sad that it's taking the EU forcing them to finally take care of the problem.
It is not a step forward. Lightning 2 would have been better.
Maybe, but Apple were too late and didn’t make it before USB-C became dominant, and more specifically, they didn’t make Lightning open and free to use. They were too addicted to MFi royalties.
Lightning was great and has maybe one advantage in being easier to insert. I’m sure Apple could’ve made a USB-C competitor, but that ship has sailed. USB-C is considered good enough, even for Apple to use on their laptops and iPads.
Apple shouldn’t need to be dragged kicking and screaming to implementing USB-C on iPhones. They just can’t seem to get past Lightning because of the revenue it brings in, regardless of how inferior it is.
I’d prefer an upgraded Lightning port to USB-C. As has been noted in AI (either in an reticle or in comments) USB-C easily “wears out” so that you don’t get a positive connection. I don’t remember the proper term but I’ve seen that in other USB-C devices I have. You start to get a loose connection that is intermittent. This is because of the male part being in the main body and not the cable.
I’ve heard mention of this but not experienced it personally, unlike micro USB which couldn’t keep a connection when the cable moved at all and would even fall out easily.
Apple are good at making things. I think USB Consortium don’t have the same meticulously high standards as Apple, but that USB-C is still “good enough”. It’s been fine on my MacBook for the past 2.5 years, and that sees the charging ports used almost as much as my iPhone of a similar age.
Apple should have ditched the idiotic Lightning connector years ago. It's sad that it's taking the EU forcing them to finally take care of the problem.
It is not a step forward. Lightning 2 would have been better.
Maybe, but Apple were too late and didn’t make it before USB-C became dominant, and more specifically, they didn’t make Lightning open and free to use. They were too addicted to MFi royalties.
Lightning was great and has maybe one advantage in being easier to insert. I’m sure Apple could’ve made a USB-C competitor, but that ship has sailed. USB-C is considered good enough, even for Apple to use on their laptops and iPads.
The USB-C connectors are the single most flaky aspect of my 2016 MacBook Pro. They are kind of flimsy and prone to dirt and brief disconnections due to vibration onstage.
The Lightning connector can fill up with pocket lint, but that's a toothpick away from working again. Not so easy with USB-C.
Un-elected bureaucracy EU telling a private company what is a better charger is over the line.
environment or safety regulations go both ways as some of the posters with communist tendencies are using that to defend the EU.
Maybe my car example was not the best but talk to me when the USA tells Nespresso , to change the shape of their coffee pods in order to sell them in USA
Really hoping Apple adds USB-C to the iPhone. But they’re probably going to try to go portless before that even happens.
Portless is no longer possible. Since the EU burocrats enforce the USB-C for charging. So portless is not an option.
I don't believe this is true. The EU is mandating USB-C connector when a cable is used, but not forbidding a strictly portless design in the future. While there's nothing barring Apple from producing a strictly portless iPhone 15 next year, they won't do it because there are still too many problems/incoveniences that a user would encounter if a cable connection wasn't possible. And what's the current max for MagSafe? 15W? Yeah, that's not going to cut it.
I can’t suppress the feeling that EU law makers just do not understand this matter: they consistently talk about chargers which is a good thing. But forcing device connections to use USB C is effectively just about the cables.
In the case of Apple, all chargers are already USB C, so what’s the problem this law is solving?? To force al cables to USB C? That’s stupid and hardly contributes to reducing ewaste.
It’s worse than that. The EU is attempting to engineer a technical solution to multiple problems at once, the foremost in the opinion of their legislators being e-waste. If that is the objective, why not legislate that goal, and allow the manufacturers, who are demonstrably better than politicians at innovative engineering solutions, do whatever it takes to implement that laudable goal?
From this side of the Atlantic, at least, the whole business smacks of legislators who want to prove they can stand up to big corporations, rather than wait ting to achieve an environmental goal.
I don't mind USB-C for anything other than iPads or iPhones. Newer iPads already use USB-C, but I'd like to see Apple keep it off the iPhone for as long as possible. I'm good with Lightning.
It wouldn't and couldn't happen, but I'd like to see Apple say FU to the EU — "USB-C?? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' USB-C!" Not gonna happen though. The EU is too big of a market, so if Apple can't get around them, say "hi" to in on the phone.
Why? not trying to start a flame war here but, you have iPads and presumably already have usb-c chargers and cables. You are really so eager to carry one more cable?. I get the point about distaste for bureaucracies dictating terms to private companies. But why would you be opposed to it personally?
Comments
Maybe you like communism?
Fuckin' Commies, those Americans.
Ask the EU what are customers gonna do with all the lightning cables they current own now?
In some cases, this causes those standards to percolate around the world and cars become consistent regardless where they are sold. In other situations, standards cause cars to diverge—there are lot more diesel-fueled cars in Europe, for example, due to differing fuel/emission regulations.
This is true across most industries.
This is about looking forward.
Remember that ozone problem? Solved by regulation, not “corporate innovation”.
Anyway, it’s a friggin’ connector (with a confusing corporate “standard”, sure). Just get over it. Topics like these should not be the ones with the longest threads or poisoned by anyone’s person political indoctrination. Bring something to the table ya’ll, or quit posting.
Lightning was great and has maybe one advantage in being easier to insert. I’m sure Apple could’ve made a USB-C competitor, but that ship has sailed. USB-C is considered good enough, even for Apple to use on their laptops and iPads.
Apple are good at making things. I think USB Consortium don’t have the same meticulously high standards as Apple, but that USB-C is still “good enough”. It’s been fine on my MacBook for the past 2.5 years, and that sees the charging ports used almost as much as my iPhone of a similar age.
environment or safety regulations go both ways as some of the posters with communist tendencies are using that to defend the EU.
The transfer speeds on it are really slow now.
Why? not trying to start a flame war here but, you have iPads and presumably already have usb-c chargers and cables. You are really so eager to carry one more cable?. I get the point about distaste for bureaucracies dictating terms to private companies. But why would you be opposed to it personally?