this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2023
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I feel like this is almost where Apple is ahead of the game. Despite the EU hating it, they've been using the same lightning cable design for a long old time because it works well enough, it doesn't suffer USB-A's put it in 3 times to figure out which direction is right, and people have a billion of them laying around at this point.
EDIT: Too many people to respond to individually but I do realize from a technical perspective it’s an inferior cable. Just saying the user experience was better for a long time before USB-C arrived and the fact they never changed it makes it easy to find a cable to use if you forgot yours etc. Yes it’s slow but I am not transferring stuff off and my iPhone regularly, no I’ve never had one die from the pins burning out (although I do know people that’s happened to).
As for USB-C, I agree it’s better on paper and was excited when I got a laptop with USB-C but my personal experience trying to buy a PD cable that would actually deliver the rated 100w it was supposed to was abysmal. Went through multiple cables from Amazon that didn’t work for some reason, including Anker, and finally gave up and bought a cable from Apple that did work. But the fact some of them don’t do what they say they will and the fact you can end up with multiple black cables that all do different things but are completely unmarked as to what they do has made me very irritated with USB-C at this point, even while I do enjoy the higher speeds and power they can deliver once you figure out which cable is which.
Well, I have no apple cables laying around, but plenty USB C. USB C has been used for many years as well.
USB C is the way to go. It works with most devices from most manufacturers. The only people left out are Apple users and cheap devices still using USB mini/micro
Well, y’all are in luck because they’re switching to USB C for iPhone 15
Only because they had to.
No it’s because they promised to support lightning for 15 years, that’s the level of trust partners can put into apple which can’t be done for any other oem, especially shitty lagdroids
Thanks for transporting me back to 2013 for a second. I didn't realize anyone was still doing the iPhone vs Android flamewar nonsense lmao
Citation needed - couldn’t find a single source corroborating that
And honestly who gives a fuck about iPhone vs Android in 2023? It’s just a phone…
Link to 9-5 Mac
They specified 10 years (and I believe they said this because of the huge backlash of switching from the 30 pin connector) but I don't know if they were truly saying it was going to last 10 years. Either way I'm glad they're switching and I'll probably turn in my 12 Pro for USB-C even though this phone is fine as is. Just hate carrying extra cables when I go on vacation and such.
Also don't get the iPhone vs Android "war". When I tell people I've gone from Android to Apple to Android and settled on Apple people think I'm crazy.
Lmao that definitely sounds like a completely binding agreement and definitely not equivalent to one that companies routinely walk back
“Don’t be evil” “Netflix: love is sharing your password” etc.
Exactly, but I do wonder if the huge backlash from before was maybe a thought in the back of their mind. But I would bet it's mostly getting licensing fees from MFi.
USB-C has its own issues with standardization though. Good luck telling if a random USB-C cable supports fast charging (or what level of fast charging). Some don’t even support data transfer, others are lightning quick.
Don’t get me wrong, I love USB-C and have a ton of high quality cables around my apartment despite being an iPhone user. But it still suffers from the same issue described in this comic. The one thing it solves is unifying the port, everything else is still chaos.
https://www.androidauthority.com/state-of-usb-c-870996/
Xiaomi and Motorola are still out there making new phones that have usbc and use usb2.0 inside them
That comes to the issue of USB as a protocol. That information should be branded on the connector at each end.
I do miss the days too when the connectors were colour-coded.
I just only buy the best 240W USB4 USB-C cables. They have the correct markings on them – "40Gbps" and "240W". No issues identifying them.
I only buy nice (not just 3A 2.0) cables that have proper labeling on the cable. And then i can just assume that all unlabeled cables are simple 3A 2.0 cables.
If you're buying good cables, they shouldn't be unlabelled.
It's also a closed system that no one else is allowed to use. Apple is far from everyone.
And it’s based on USB 2.
They did tweak it for USB 3 support at one point, since the lighting USB adaptor that they offer has that, but I would not be at all surprised if that was pushing the limits of the actual connector itself.
I mean, sure, it works... But USBC would also just work. They already use it on their laptops (with them being huge proponents of thunderbolt and USBC), and iPads.
Except it's a proprietary piece of junk stuck on USB 3.1 (and I love my thunderbolt connectors too much to let it slide), that can't offer proper power delivery because of power pin literally burning out.
The only thing they did good is fixing the need to check cable orientation before inserting it (yes, you don't have to try three times, you can just actually use your eyes, USB-A connector's orientations can easily be told apart just by two square thingies on each of it's sides).
But as USB-C came out two years later, it wiped the floor with lightning. Anyone saying otherwise is either insane, didn't read the specs or purposefully misleading you. And only now Apple is switching over. Freaking 7 years later. Though, not because they realize how inferior their connector is, but because they were made to.
Speaking as an Apple user - I am heavily invested in their ecosystem - I am extremely happy that Lightning is on death’s door. I fully agree with the EU and I am very grateful to them for forcing Apple’s hand.
That being said, your point about USB-A falls apart when you consider any situation where your vision is even partially obstructed. Such as; back of the computer, back of your monitors, a dock unless you’re holding it, etc etc.
What I’m hoping will happen:
A lad can dream…
You don't need to check female port orientation, it's always the same, pins inside the port are looking at the board the connector is soldered to. Of course, unless manufacturer decided to do something funny, but no standard is protected from that.
Except for USB-C, which doesn’t care about orientation.
Sure.
I’m not sure I understand your point. You can make a USB stick that fries your hardware too, that doesn’t mean Kingston is going to make all of their pen drives fry your hardware.
Is this some kind of “acshully I’m technically correct because it’s theoretically possible” thing?
The point is that manufacturers can screw up standards and being a symmetrical connector does not cure idiocy in the heads if some people. Yes, the standard explicitly says you have to short opposing data lines for 2.0, but that does not mean everybody will comply with it. (The author of the video is not an idiot, they just demonstrated that it's possible)
The most common example of this I can think of right away is male-male connectors with type A USB. They are explicitly prohibited, yet many manufacturers create them and use in their products.
That's why I said that no standard can protect you, you're just relying on people not being dumb and actually reading the paper you published.
Right, I see your point, thank you for clarifying :)
That being said, unlike the male-to-male example, where I personally don’t understand why the spec prohibits it, I think it’s pretty obvious why consumers want USB-C. The Internet is awash with memes about inserting USB three times, etc.
I think there’s a vast difference between “why is male-male banned? Heck it, I’ll create one as it serves our use case” and “I’m going to negate the only consumer-facing advantage USB-C has for no real reason”. Yes I know C has many other benefits but the common denominator doesn’t care about any of that.
If you have two devices with female USB A ports that both provide power via said ports, connecting them with male-male cable ~~will create a short circut. Best case scenario: a current protecting fuse breaks the circuit. Worst case: both processors on both motherboards are dead.~~ Better not think you can connect two computers with that evil thing. That's why type B connector exists, it's about the same size, but it never connects to a port that provides power.
Aha I see, thank you for explaining :)
A slight word of correction, looked at the pinning again, it won't short circuit them, but one will try to charge the other. It will still be a fire hazard, just not as violent.
Yeah, but I'm fucking stupid and can never remember that shit. Bet ya didn't think of that huh???
You can't fix stupid.
Except they could, by making USB-C standard. Now even though I'm dumb as fuck I never have to remember plug orientation!
Don't worry, I'm quite sure your kind will find something to trip over eventually. No thing can be fully dumb-proof.
There’s an argument to be made that by maintaining the Lightning connector, Apple can control and profit from the ecosystem of accessories that support their devices. This includes licensing fees from the Made for iPhone (MFi) program, which manufacturers must join to produce Lightning-compatible accessories. While user experience may be a consideration, Apple’s decision also likely has financial incentives.
If its so great then why don't they make it available for everyone to use? They don't care about standards in the slightest.
Even Apple is gradually changing to USB C which also works on all directions, plus sometimes my lightning cables only work in a certain direction
They don't even have same cables on their laptop
Yeah, but it’s also limited to usb 2 speeds and it’s brutal to have to move any amount of data to/from and iphone.