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posted by martyb on Thursday September 23 2021, @06:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the any-port-in-a-storm dept.

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.

Pulling the plug on consumer frustration and e-waste: Commission proposes a common charger for electronic devices

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


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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 27 2021, @05:32PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 27 2021, @05:32PM (#1181920) Journal

    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
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