The EU has finally won this one!
The EU has finally won this one!
Comments
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Not fair. It was a great cable. It came out when everyone else was using mini and mico usb which both sucked hard ass. They weren’t reversible, and they broke easily.
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It was a good cable when it came out, but as soon as USB-C became common it was obsolete. It was limited to USB2 speeds and did not support fast charging.
Which, seeing how Apple is still hellbent on continuing to only have USB2 speeds even with USB-C, plus lockout chips, their new connector is obsolete as well.
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I still don't understand the reason for the speed limit tbh. It just makes their product look like shit.
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USB-C is still not “common”. There are now all kinds of different cables with nothing in common except a form factor. Also, USB-C came out 2.5 years after lightning and didn’t match feature parity until the Thunderbolt spec and that was 5 years later. At that point, accessories and cables that used the Lightning port numbered in the millions, if not billions.
Also, what do you mean? The new phones support USB3…
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And technically the connector itself is way beter by clicking into place.
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Doesn't matter how great the cable is, when it is proprietary it stinks.
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It was a piece of shit, always. Doesn't matter if it was technically better, it was not standardized so fuck lightning cables forever. Good riddance to seriously awful bullshit rubbish
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As someone who has had 2 small fires started in their cup holder with that so called "technically better" cable I will never understand how apple was ever able to market an exposed contact charging cable in the first place.
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Doesn't matter if it was technically better
Do you approach your life with such black and white emotional reactions? Fuck nuance, details, and critical evaluations, amirite? Bad guy good guy hurrdurr.
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Yeah, I still think it's a great mechanical interface, if not the best. Would've been great if rather than killing it, regulatory bodies had forced USB to adopt the lightning design for the C type.
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Lightning doesn't have near the capabilities of USB C. Lightning had its time but it's pretty clear that USB C is superior.
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I don't think this design could have work for USB 3.1 and more, even apple put USB -c as PD on there MacBook because it can deliver more watt (I think)
but yeah it was much better design than micro usb
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Meanwhile in the Apple Store
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This was a crucial step in Apple's journey into becoming a trillion dollar company. Dongles.
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Holy fuck I thought this was a joke
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Who is this for? Looking at the Apple Store, they sell an official USB-C cable for less ($19, but you can obviously find good quality third-party cables for much less).
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This is 100% made for uninformed people in how that insurance will make money.
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People who have accessories with a lightning adapter probably. Speakers, docks, etc.
Alternatively the adapter might be a cheaper option for third party cables that aren’t usb-c or usb-a on the other side of the cable.
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People so engraved into the Apple Ecosystem, they only have lightning cables/devices and not a single usb-c cable
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It's probably for accessories
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I can get an usb c cable cheaper than that
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We all know about monoprice it’s cool
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Lightning was significantly ahead of the competition when it came out in 2012. Micro-USB is a terrible collection of ports. C came out two years later though, and quickly surpassed Lightning in almost every way.
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The amount of USB type ports I've seen where the 'tongue' has been absolutely mangled is mind boggling — an issue that Lightning completely bypassed.
For example, I'm repairing some kids PS5 and both back USB ports have had their pins twisted and the plastic snapped off. The HDMI port pins are lifting from the mainboard and the front of the unit is scratched to high hell. I see some of the worst treated tech at my job, and those plastic bits get damaged a lot. While Apple needed to move to USB-C six years ago with the iPhone X, I will respect Lightning for this one thing.
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All cables have issues. One thing I see often only with iPhone cables are they're always falling apart, especially the outer parts near the end.
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Little tip - it's usually because of pocket lint. Take a small piece of plastic or a toothpick and clean it out. 9 times out of 10, that's all you need.
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And yet I never have USBC problems, but had multiple I phones that started failing to charge via the wired port.
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C came out 4 years later. Not two. And C has tons of problems with it still.
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3? phones started using them in 2015
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Ahh i wasn’t certain, I must have used the developed date instead of the release date on the wiki when I double checked. Thanks for the correction. C isn’t perfect, but it’s a pretty damn versatile panda convenient port in my experience.
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The problems with type C cables have to do with overloading it to work with very high bandwidth applications like thunderbolt docks (which is mostly to do with the cable itself rather than the connector). Nobody has any issues with charging and basic data transfer on type-C (no more than any other cable).
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USB-C has less problems than Lightning
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Lighting was a good cable when apple made the switch from 30 pin connector and android was still trying to figure out whether they would use microUSB, miniUSB, and whatever the sam hell
is. And there was no interoperabilityOnce USB became the standard their was no real reason to hold onto lightning other than it being proprietary and them wanting to hand hold their users
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Lol what? Android used micro USB all across the board on flagships. They then went straight to usb-c.
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I had USB-3 for a bit on my my Note.
I kinda liked it since you could still use a regular micro USB cable in a pinch.
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That is straight up not true. I have multiple flagship devices with mini-USB and, within those, some have mini-A while others have mini-B. Google’s own Nexus devices had mini-USB connectors.
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I had multiple phones with mini USB-B.
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Removed by Moderator — Modlog
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Incorrect
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Well that and the made for iPhone program made them apparently 5 billion a year on the lightning cable alone. That’s not just first party. That’s also third party connectors.
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Once USB became the standard their was no real reason to hold onto lightning other than it being proprietary and them wanting to hand hold their users
Well if the lockout chip rumors are true, they've basically just made Lighting 2, Electric Boogaloo that just happens to be shaped like USB-C but is incompatible with all non-Apple approved connectors.
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And is now illegal lol
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That cable had one awesome feature.
You could just plug in a micro cable and get a charge, so old cables in the car or at the office worked fine (well...as fine as Micro-USB ever worked), just more slowly
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It was never a good cable. Only one reason is needed to prove it: it was not standardized.
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I believe that is USB 3.0 Micro B.
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Once USB became the standard their was no real reason to hold onto lightning other than it being proprietary and them wanting to hand hold their users
Other than the fact that they promised when they switched to lightning they wouldn’t change connectors again for a decade.
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Wow good guy EU, making them hold their word lmao. Lightning came out in 2012, so this would have been the 11th year.
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The reason to hold onto it after USB-C was the literally millions of devices that had been released at the time that used it. There’s a reason people made a stink about moving away from the 30-pin despite Lightning being objectively better. It’s the same situation here.
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At one point, after normal C came out, I gave up and threw out all the stuff I had that took the giant C connector. What an abomination.
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That is for external hard drives, the same ones that plug into Macs......
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That is micro-USB 3.0 and it’s an annoying connector that now is just as obsolete as micro-USB 2.0 and for some reason, around 2014, sone smartphone manufacturers thought it was a good idea adding it on their phones. Didn’t last long and got replaced by normal micro-USB again (which is much worse than lightning imo).
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Good. Apple's whole ecosystem can go.
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Wanna know how I know you’re cool
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Imagine feeling like your phone's brand defines if you're poor or not lol
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What’s the logic here?
Saving money doesn’t make you poor, it makes you smart.
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Wanna know how I know you're insufferable
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I dislike the Apple ecosystem a lot and the laptop I have on order is more expensive than a MacBook Pro 14 with M2 Pro
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Lol you fucking loser
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Yes, Lightning was better than MicroUSB but by now I hope we can all agree, that it has overstayed its welcome
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When apple changed to lightning it was in the middle of the accessory hype where there were loads of accessories using the 30-pin. People where outraged because they could no longer use any of their accessories. Apple then commited to lightning for 10 years in order to sooth the public image. This was 11 years ago, and they didn't switch last year to cut costs, but I'd argue it only overstayed it's welcome for a year.
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It was technically batter, but they limited it on the iPhone 5. Nobody wants to remember that, do they?
Maybe it got faster in later models, but within just two years usb-c had come out.
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Ok, I have to take issue with this. I will never be an apple user, but until USB-C came out I was honestly jealous of the lightning cable. It is reversible and consistent, two things other phone chargers never were. Sure, for data transfer it's outdated as hell now, but it is still good enough for most uses
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It is reversible and consistent
consistent in what?
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Consistent in frying pins and fraying cables.
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Consistent in that they used the same type of charger for almost all their devices after they established it. Mini-USB outdoes them in ubiquity, but the connector is usually a piece of shit.
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Consistent in connecting /charging on first try, compared to micro usb.
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Lightning's data transfer and charging are subpar, although I'm not sure if Apple is implementing PD fast charging on the new iPhone either.
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They are not, unless you get the pro as far as I have seen/heard. The regular iPhone is artificially limited to USB 2.0 speeds.
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I didnt say it was great, I said it was good enough for a very long time. And in all honesty i think its data transfer speeds were always subpar.
My personal pet theory is that it was designed the way it was in order to make a cost-cutting measure look fancy and luxurious.
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Inb4 apple places a chip in the cable that only handshakes with apple devices?
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It's the ports, they force USB2.0 speeds (same as lightning) unless you get the Pro (this is unverified)
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The EU said they would ban Apple out of EU if they even attempt.
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Didn't some early 2000s Mac USB cables have a bit sticking out and a notch on the computer so they could only be used with Macs?
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Compliance reasons. USB spec at the time didn't really allow for extension cables because it added an unknown amount of resistance.
The notch was a workaround; they were within spec for the intended device both with and without that cable.
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incompatible monitor/printer cables... they all had 'standards'. whatever happened to ISA or parallel
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welcome to 2014 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C
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From 2012 to 2014. What a wild progress!
(Joke aside I believe the spec gets upgraded once in a while)
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Prefacing this question with the fact I'm an Android user and have never owned an iPhone. Saying this in the hopes people won't think I'm an Apple fanboi trying to make a point...
I haven't been that interested in the EU legislation around this until now; I'm curious what happens when something comes out that is better than USB-C? Are companies stuck until new legislation is passed or is there some sort of auto update to the standard written in?
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The same thing that is happening now. EU mandated micro USB on all phones and Apple pleaded exceptionalism. Industry has moved on to USB C and EU is updating mandate. Apple is not being allowed to plead exceptionalism again.
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The law is ready for that. If and when the USB association agrees on a new standard thats not USB-C, then the new standard will be required after a transitional period. Right now it doesnt seem likely that this will happen in the near future, but in 10 years? Maybe
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It's kinda been agreed that it's the best connector right now, with a lot of future-proofing built in (you can already see it f.e. with Thunderbolt, the same cable, massively different capabilities over ther years OR, from the power distribution side, it going all the way up to 200(ish?) watts lately
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It is expected that the industry will continue the work already carried out on the standardised interface under the auspices of the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) with a view to developing new interoperable, open and uncontroversial solutions.
Kinda how the web industry comes together in the W3C to set standards for the web, so websites work the same on all devices and browsers and there's been LOTS of improvements.
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The law is about standardised ports and cables, not usb-c specifically.
It is just that usb-c is about the only current standardised port, and for good reason.
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It WAS a good cable about 6 years ago when even flagship phones still used micro USB. I would have killed for lightning on my old android phone. However, usb c just takes the cake, every cake. It has its own problems but the tradeoffs are miniscule compared to lightning.
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I'm pro USB C all the way, but I definitely appreciated the lightning connector. It's smaller, fewer things to go wrong with it, less delicate... so to speak.... at least the female side seems to be from my experience. The male side isn't half bad either, but the cables apple used for their USB to lightning wires was basically trash. Every time I witnessed someone with a bad iPhone charging cable, the connector was generally fine and the wire was torn to shreds.
The biggest weakness of the standard was that it was stuck on USB 2.0. Beyond that it was pretty good.
I still like USB C more, both for speed and for how ubiquitous it is; but, being fair to lightning here, the center area were the pins are is a failure point, one wrong move and it's toast. Granted it's nestled in there pretty good and the chances of that actually happening is pretty small, but lightning doesn't have this issue.
Lightning is far from perfect, but they did a good job.... for the time. Right now the only benefit to lightning is twofold, it's everywhere, and the connectors basically never broke with normal use. At the time micro-B was horribly fragile. C is way better than micro-B was, but I still think that lightning has the crown for durability IMO.
With all that being said, USB C all the things. Lightning was a shining example of a better way, and hopefully we learned from that. I don't know what comes after USB C, but I hope the improvements are significant. It will be a while before C goes anywhere though.
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Possibly, but Apple's shitty version of the cable basically made it break more on the actual cable than the connector. It seems that this may be fixed with usb c because of the thicker cable though.
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I did mention that in my previous ramble. The connector is good, the cables that Apple used were basically trash.
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It only took them 10 years or so!
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I may be stupid.
But I have no idea how people are comparing "better" or "worse" cables. I always just assumed they were just cables.
Edit: for people downvoting me, I'm not saying they are just cables, I'm just saying I don't know what the difference is, and asking for an explanation. Please calm down.
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There is physical connections between devices. The pins that make electrical contact. There are 24 on UsbC and 8 on lightning making a lot more things possible.
Also there are structural benifits. Lightning connectors are held in by the device which makes replacing the clamp a lot more difficult than just switching the cable like UsbC, where that mechanism is inside the cable.
And last but not least is Usb an open protocol while you would have to pay Apple if you wanted to implement Lightning.
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There are different dimensions for this, balance of importance differs between users and application:
- data transfer rate
- power transfer rate
- durability
- reusability with other products
- length
- price
- someone made it white and engraved a pictogram of an incomplete apple on it
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Don't worry, apple is still limiting data transfer to usb2 protocols except on the pro models
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Okay, so getting information and energy to and from the phone (what a cable does), how long it lasts, how many different types of cables you'd have to buy to work with similar devices you have, length and price are self explanatory, and whether or not apple is being apple.
I think I got it, thank you!
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Well, they aren't.
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Yeah, I'm learning that, which is exactly why I asked the question
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Usually it's about the time it takes to charge the phone or transfer files. I have never used the lightning cable so I can't personally compare but as USB C is compatible with USB 3.0 whereas lightning isn't, I assumed USB C is faster
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I'm also seeing things about not using the phone while it's charging which is a rule I'm currently breaking as we speak. Whoops!
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Lightning is more convenient to clean the port which I like. I fully admit usb c is better in every other way. I personally don't need it though - I don't want to kill my battery with uber fast charging and I never connect it to my computer these days. But I'm excited to see if this makes Apple Carplay faster.
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Yeah, I recently made the switch from apple to Android after my second apple device in a row had a major internal hardware malfunction out of nowhere and the people at the store just went "yeah no I can't fix this sorry, you need a new phone", so I'm still figuring out the complex world of not apple. I didn't even realize you had to clean the ports, but I guess it would make sense. I recently found out my android and my computer use the same port (usb-c) and I got really excited so that's the level of "tech savvy" I'm on haha
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No 🤣
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Yes! I hope they can force apple (and others) into more interoperability and repairability (the two things apple hates the most), ruining their disgusting business model by re-enabling competition and benefitting users and environment.
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I think the apple connector was a good one. Nothing wrong with it except that it was apple licensed. Whereas USB-C is a standard. Also, because of Power Delivery over USB-C I think that should make USB a standard connector on way more devices. It's a one-stop shop for data and power needs.
I can also see PD becoming the power system used for all small devices, especially once there's (if not already) some very low cost single chip (or very simple reference circuit) solutions for handling the negotiation. Also it will need more of the available PD chargers/supplies to support more voltages.
My work laptop already uses PD, and that was useful when I forgot to take the supply once. Just used my 45W PD charger that I DID pack, and it worked fine (it should have 65W, but it seemed not to discharge).
Who knows, maybe houses in the future will be built with some PD wiring too alongside the standard mains power.
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Wall outlets exist with USB C ports built into them. It's pretty neat, I've got one in my kitchen
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Yeah, I'm thinking more a whole wiring solution for power delivery. Although you'd probably still need a chip per outlet to do the negotiation. So still pretty expensive I'd bet.
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Lightning was a good cable. It’s just that Apple didn’t improve it any for a decade and never opened it up so it could have been a standard.
It’s smaller and more durable. It’s just slow and proprietary.
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USB 3.0 was released before the lightning cable and provided similar specs. Lightning cable didn't add anything
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USB 3 is not USB-C. USB-C was a few years after lightning. At the time devices were shipping with Micro USB which was genuinely terrible. Apple could have made Lightning support USB3 speeds out of the box. But they didn’t and never really improved it. I think a few of their tablets did support USB 3 speeds, but weirdly not their phones.
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i am happy the standard has won but tbh, i prefer the lightning type of connector (male). if only Apple standardized this instead of USB-C which is far more fragile.
but as I am not going to buy an iphone anytime soon , this is a non-news to me. :)
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USB C cables are more fragile, but it's designed that way so the ports are more durable. And I think having more durable ports is the right call.
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No, the USB-C ports are more fragile. I owned and operated a repair shop for multiple years. USB ports, all of them except for A, are among the most fragile ports in use on electronics. Lightning ports are significantly less prone to damage. The cables snap off in the port easily, but all you need is tweezers to pull the tip out. On USB C devices the central tongue breaks off rather frequently. C is miles ahead of Micro-B though, seriously probably the worst port in use today, including proprietary ones.
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Actually, I have more issues with the ports than the cable itself. that's why I prefer type male connector like the lightning. The lightning has issue though, one of the PIN could corrode.
anyway, hope the USB type C cable is there to stay and with the new intel progress on bandwidth , it might be the case.
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Not the cable but the port. Some are stiffer (better) than others. The USB-C port of my monitor is broken/loose, same for my thinkpad t490s. But my smartphones's USB-c port are good though, strange because they should get more mechanical stress than my monitor or thinkpad.
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It's good if you don't need speed.
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This is asinine. Apple has shown a strong commitment to supporting particular standards for extended periods. For example, the iPhone's 30-pin connector was maintained for over 10 years. Similarly, the Lightning port, its successor, has also been around for about a decade. (And, it should be noticed, started being used two years BEFORE USB-C existed.) Additionally, Apple has supported the Thunderbolt standard throughout its life cycle.
Apple has always been judicious about the ports it adopts. The company is not known for having a plethora of ports catering to multiple generations of connector technologies. Instead, when Apple picks a standard, it tends to go all in. Take the case of USB-A: Apple was one of the early adopters of this technology and supported it for approximately 20 years before making the switch to USB-C. To put this in perspective, the time between the USB Mini to Micro switch and the Micro to USB-C transition was shorter than the lifespan of Apple's 30-pin and Lightning connectors.
It's unreasonable to assume that Apple would restrict the cables that can be used in a standard USB-C port. The USB-C standard is built on the principle of universal compatibility. Restricting this would not only break with the standard but also limit the very advantages that have made USB-C popular among consumers and manufacturers alike.
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The company is not known for having a plethora of ports catering to multiple generations of connector technologies. Instead, when Apple picks a standard, it tends to go all in.```
Yet it offers USB-C for some of its products while not for others. iPad, MacBook has had USB-C for sometime now. It is not that Apple knew that it was a better option than whatever lightning was.
It's unreasonable to assume that Apple would restrict the cables that can be used in a standard USB-C port. The USB-C standard is built on the principle of universal compatibility. Restricting this would not only break with the standard but also limit the very advantages that have made USB-C popular among consumers and manufacturers alike.
Apple only provides usb 3.1 speeds on iPhone Pro and only if you buy a new cable from Apple. The supplied cable is only USB 2.0 . We just have to wait and see if Apple does or doesn't allow third party non Apple certified cable capable of supporting USB 3.1 to work on iPhone Pro. Whereas regular iPhone has been knee capped by keeping the same slower cable. Merely changing the connector to finally being modern.
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I preffered lightning too usb-c i have had several phones where the usb c connector failed but my iphone was the first phone in a long time that i replaced for reasons other than the charging port. I would have been very happy if lightning had become the standard.
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Lmao gtfo! Lightning COULD have been a standard if Apple wasn't so horny about stuffing their money up their walled-garden-arse. But nah you need a license to even connect to it, not to mention manufacture it. Well tough luck and good riddance to fucking Apple proprietary cables and 50.- recharging kits.
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Yeah, the lightning connector is really great for being a reliable connection for a long period of time. If Apple had just made it an open standard that everyone could use, it would likely be the dominant connector today. At least, so long as some improvements could be made to data transfer and charging rates.
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The connector sure, but the cable itself sucks donkey balls.
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Yeah i agree. Not that i particularly need high transfer speed on my phone its unfortunate that they wanted too wanted too keep it proprietary. But they are what they are like most companies. Anyway i hope i have better luck with my new phone than my previous experiences with the connector.
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Nah. The only thing usbc has over lightning is transfer rates and charging speed.
Transfer rates don’t matter because how often do you dump 128gb over the wire and 500Mbps isn’t good enough?
Charging speed kinda matters but not really because the charge controllers on the phones are throttling down the lightning chargers anyway.
Remember: the eu is forcing usbc, a port designed for general purpose use that has a bunch of delicate pins and a plastic tongue, to replace lightning, a much simpler port designed to go in pockets.
This will ultimately make you unhappy.
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Yes who would care about transfer rates and charging speeds on a phone cable as compared to umm....
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The phones all use heuristics to charge as slow as possible anyway in order to save the battery. A faster changing standard clearly isnt the solution.
Idk what you’re doing with your phone that 500Mbps isnt good enough. If it’s about system backups the first one takes fifteen minutes and everything afterwards is a diff.
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The only way that USB-C is better than lightning is all the things that a cable does
Begone Apple shill!
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USB-C has higher transfer rates if the device supports USB 3 standard. Since it will have multiple serial connections as compared to a single in USB 2. Since lightning had only 4 pins it couldn't go beyond USB 2.
Same is the matter along with USB-C PD chip. It has to support and negotiate faster charging with the charger. This can be and as far as I know Apple will be restricted to Apple certified crap.
a port designed for general purpose use that has a bunch of delicate pins and a plastic tongue, to replace lightning, a much simpler port designed to go in pockets.
This will ultimately make you unhappy.
Android phones have been using it I think for the last 8 years. We do have pockets and keep our phone without covering the port. I still have a cable bought 4 years back that still works across multiple phones.
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Oh you don’t have to tell me that usb phones have been in pockets. i know.
I fix electronics and people bring in phones all the time. Even though I’m not a phone shop and don’t even have a bench set up for phones. I get way, way more usb phones in for ports than lightning ones.
Now it’s not just usbc (although nowadays it almost always is), but I keep a big ol bin of different usb ports to replace with. I have done four lightning ports in comparison.
If people are lucky they just didn’t have a small enough pin to clean out the crud from around the tongue. Some will have one of the pins on the tongue bent back and shorting something out and confusing the controller, they might be able to get by without it or it may work for a little while once it’s straightened back out but I know that one’s coming back soon. Most have damage to the tongue from cleaning too vigorously using a field expedient tool or the port component itself is ripped off the board due to how well the very strong annular connection between a usbc port and cable transfer torque.
I like usbc for a bunch of stuff, but phones ain’t it.
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I’m all for the switch to USB C but Lightning as a connector is objectively better. It’s smaller, more durable, feels better to use and even looks better.
If it hadn’t been proprietary, it would have pretty much been the perfect connector.
Edit: hey guys instead of mindlessly downvoting without saying anything, I’d love to hear your point of view, I’m always open to changing my mind.
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Removed by Moderator — Modlog
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The biggest issue with it, was its data transfer limitations compared to usb c standards. Though, if it weren’t proprietary, then it could have been made better in that area.
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Downvoted because standards are more important than slight technical advantage locked away from other companies' usage.
Also you're not being "mindlessly" downvoted. There are good reasons to be annoyed by this same shit argument we've heard for..a decade?
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If it hadn't been proprietary
It is. Case closed.
Edit: Also it would not have been the perfect connector since the supported bandwidth is absolutely pathetic.
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Good thing I’m only talking about the connector then, not its performance.
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We learned a while ago there is no point to discuss with appletards.
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Android wins again.
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Open protocol wins.
Closed, narrowinded protocol lost.
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Remember when Apple was on the design committee for usb c and was the first to put it in all its MacBooks and everyone removeded and whined about dongles? How the turntables.
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USB-C that basically Apple created and started pushing hard since 2016 (only ports on MacBooks at the time) ✨ damn I love Apple
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Lmao. Typical Apple user.
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🌚
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"Basically Apple created" is a bit reductionist. The USB-IF also includes Microsoft, HP, Intel and Texas Instruments amongst a couple of others (can't recall them off the top of my head).
Also Thunderbolt was created by both Intel and Apple in collaboration...
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I know, but there are rumors that Apple was the biggest contributor but didn’t want this to be know. Of course we’ll never know the truth
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It was the only port in MacBooks since 2016, what is it if not pushing hard 😂
Or you think that they should have changed port in 2016 in phones, upsetting all the people with already a lot of lightning cables and accessories since Lightning was ahead of competition when it came out. Yeah, that would have been a dumb idea. Glad they waited myself
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Somewhat unpopular opinion: Lightning was by far the better connector.
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So why does Apple use USB-C on iPad Pro and MacBooks?
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Phones go in pockets. Pockets have lint. Lightning ports are way easier to clean than USB-C.
iPads and Macbooks mostly stay in the house or get carried in a bag rather than a pocket. Way less lint, so the benefits of USB-C far outweigh the benefits of Lightning here.
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Because they co-developed it and it is the better connector if you want to do anything other than charging.
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Because ports work better in some instances than others? Why don’t we just use rj45 for all our data transfer instead of USB? This has got to be one of the weirdest arguments I’ve seen around usb c v lightning.
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Compared to what? Parallel? Maybe, if you don't need the structural rigidity. Banana plugs? Definitely. USB-C? Fuck no! But it is also older than USB-C, so that's fair.
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Banana plugs? Definitely
Banana plugs are damn good for lab equipment.
As a speaker connector? Fuck banana plugs. Speakon is the only way.
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What are you doing with your cables that “structural rigidity” is a major concern?
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Lightning is rounded and thus easier to insert. It doesn’t scratch the surface of whatever you‘re trying to plug it in to and on top of that it slightly clicks into place. Just by itself, the plug is superior yes.
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It was the better connector of its time.
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If sucking ass is a marker of excellence, sure.
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The fact that only Apple was allowed to use it means it is a worse cable than any standardised cable
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Lightning is/was actually pretty great. Also remember that it was introduced before USB-C even existed.
Yeah alternative was MicroUSB which is dogshit.
I’m using my wife’s old android for YouTube. It has a microusb port and I really hate it.
Lighting was leaps better than that, but usb-c is really the king of ports at the moment.
Fun fact: Apple was part of the group that designed USB-C
That was really weird, actually. Apple was frustrated that the USB consortium wasn’t making progress. So they developed Lightning. Then sent people there to help develop USB-C, when they already had a competing connector…
They should’ve been more patient, and sent people there directly, before developing a competitor, and adopted USB-C from the start.
With that move, they isolated themselves and their customers. It’s this arrogant “we’re smarter than anybody else” attitude they show sometimes, that irks a lot of people and end up being detrimental for their image. (And I say this as a long time Apple customer).
Also why is it awesome on iPad Pros since years but no good on iPhones? The marketing was always contradicting itself.
Connection technology was good, but materials used in cable and design of strain release was horrible. Never seen a cable disintegrate without any reason after couple of years.
It cost tens of millions of dollars to engineer a product that disintegrates on their own
So… every Apple first party cable?
Funnily enough my first ever Lightning cable that came with my iPod Touch 5G is so worn out you can see the 4 wires in it. Insulation and shield are completely gone at one end but it still works fine.
I think the problem is that between lightning cables and USB-C, one is made by an asshole company who wants you to use it for your phone and literally nothing else, and one is useful for your phone and literally everything else.
Funnily enough, Apple co-developed USB, introduced it in their laptops and everyone complained.
lightning suffered the same fate as FireWire before it: excellent protocol that would have benefited the users with mass adoption, hampered by Apple and their co-developers (in lightning's case, Intel) charging too steep of licensing fees, rendering them niche
USB-C wasn’t really useful for anything when Lightning was introduced, on account of it not even existing as a spec, let alone actual hardware, until 2 years later.
At the time it came out, definitely, considering its main competitors for a standardised connector were Mini USB and Micro USB, which were serviceable but not that great...
Could be worse though, you could've been stuck with "superspeed" Micro USB like some folks were, those were just plain awful to use.
pretty sure my samsung Note had that
The problem with mini and micro was that they were asymmetrical and very small, imo. at least you could tell which side the indent was on without looking with superspeed. Good luck getting it in the hole without looking, though.
No
You can always tell the Apple fans, can't you? This cable was hated by everyone when it came out because it broke everyones docks.
It also wasnt much faster, in fact, I'm almost positive the first phones were throttled, not unlike the new iPhone's with type c.
Appledrone