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EU Proposes New Legislation That Would Force Apple to Bring USB-C to iPhones, iPads, and AirPods
Apple has shifted nearly every portable device to tout a USB-C port, except for its iPhone lineup, its AirPods family, and low-cost iPad. Why the company does not shift to an all-USB-C affair might have to do with receiving royalty payments from partners that manufacture third-party accessories of the proprietary port, but that arrangement might come to an end, thanks to a legislation from the EU.
The proposed legislation would force all consumer electronics, not just Apple, which sell devices in Europe, to incorporate USB-C ports in a variety of products, ranging from smartphones, tablets, headphones, cameras, portable speakers, handheld consoles, and others. Calling it the 'common port,' the European Union claims that switching all products to USB-C would not just have benefits to the environment, but annual monetary savings for consumers that mount to $293 million.
Impact assessment study on common chargers of portable devices
Also at Reuters, NYT, BBC, AppleInsider, and Politico.
Previously: The Dream Of A Common Charger Is Alive, Despite Apple's Complaining
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Thursday September 23 2021, @07:27PM (13 children)
Please tell me they didn't specifically name USB-C in the legislation. I don't want to be stuck with that port for decades to come cause some muppets wrote a piece of legislation where they named a specific port by name. It is probably ok now but not in a decade. They already, previously made fun of here at SN, wrote EU legislation which talks about and mentions specific software and hardware solutions as modern and secure, while today being nothing of the sort.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday September 23 2021, @07:36PM (11 children)
Yeah, I would have preferred DB-25, looks more robust
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 23 2021, @07:55PM (9 children)
It has been a very long time, but from the specification, if I can rememberize from that long ago, doesn't the power on a DB-25 Serial allowed to be anything from 3 to 25 volts?
Thus to be compatible, if you're going to draw power, you need to work on as little as 3 volts, but tolerate up to 25 volts. But if you're going to provide power, you probably should provide 25 volts.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday September 23 2021, @08:08PM (4 children)
Yeah, and you will need a pretty big phone too
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 23 2021, @08:14PM (1 child)
Nope,... all you need is a separate adapter dongle.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 23 2021, @08:22PM
This forthcoming legislation has already been dongled!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 23 2021, @08:57PM (1 child)
Where did a phone come in to the picture?
The only DB-25 that I know is a 25 pin connector that was once widely used for serial communication (RS-232) between a central processing unit and a decwriter. (or crt terminal if you were lucky) This was back in the days when you had to turn the cpu's crank by hand.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday September 23 2021, @10:46PM
Oh, I don't know... the headline in the story maybe?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by Acabatag on Friday September 24 2021, @12:37AM (3 children)
The RS-232 voltage levels in a DB-25 connector are supposed to swing from a positive to a negative level, I think as high as 25 volts, with respect to ground.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 25 2021, @02:22AM (1 child)
Depends on which revision you are using. It is supposed to use -15 to -3 or +3 to +15 (with -3 to +3 undefined but usually considered to be latched to the old state). Below -15 volts or above +15 volts is not a valid RS-232 signal but must be tolerated to ±25 volts without failure to be compliant with the specification. However, a later revision (D) required DB-25 and raised the allowed signal levels to +25 volts but what you got was dependent on the actual hardware because not all DB-25s were RS-232s and not all "RS-232" devices were not actually compliant with the specification.
(Score: 2) by drussell on Saturday September 25 2021, @03:10PM
Exactly... DB-25 ≠ RS-232
The D-sub (D-subminiature) connectors themselves from decent manufacturers like Amphenol are rated for a maximum voltage of 1000 Vrms.
What voltages you're using depends entirely on the application. D-sub connectors have been used for many different things.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 27 2021, @05:32PM
Thank you. I was going from memory long, long ago.
Maybe you heard of Timbuktu Remote? During development, I had two stacks of modems on a work table. The two stacks were identical. It was really a single stack of pairs of modems. High speed (eg, 9600 bits per sec) modems back when these cost up to $3,000 each or $6 K for a pair. They were on permanent "loan" to us from the manufacturers. It seems our application (which I was developing) had them all excited about selling modems.
There was a problem with most of them. They were highly optimized for throughput, but NOT for latency!
In a GUI screen sharing app (think VNC, but in the late 1980s on Mac), latency is important. Screen sharing is highly interactive. If I move the mouse pointer and hover over some control, I need to see the control "highlight" (eg some pixels change) in a fairly short time.
In the process of working on this, I got an education on RS-232 and DB-25 connectors. I asked and the company bought me a nice break out box.
Hayes (remember them?) came out with a high speed modem (14.4 Kbps) that was optimized for latency as well as throughput. And it cost much less. Guess what customers mostly bought?
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 1) by Acabatag on Friday September 24 2021, @12:33AM
I like those Cinch-Jones [duckduckgo.com] plugs. Nice big metal surfaces. Apple should be forced to use one, say with 6 or 8 contacts, as the charging port on the iWatch.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday September 23 2021, @10:39PM
They probably referred to the relevant ISO standard number, whatever that is.