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Apple to put USB-C connectors in iPhones to comply with EU rules
Apple will ditch the Lightning connector on its iPhones, the company has confirmed, after European regulators decided all smartphones should have USB charging as standard in two years' time.
New EU rules require all phones sold after autumn 2024 to use the USB-C connector for their charging ports. The oval-shaped plugs are already standard on other consumer electronics such as e-readers, games consoles, laptops and the vast majority of new Android phones.
[...] Now, Apple's head of marketing, Greg "Joz" Joswiak, says the company is conceding defeat. "Obviously we'll have to comply, we have no choice," he told a technology conference in California.
But, he argued, it "would have been better environmentally and better for our customers to not have a government be that prescriptive".
Related:
UK Will Not Copy EU Demand for Common Charging Cable
USB-C to be Mandatory for Phones Sold in the EU by Autumn 2024
Apple May Finally Fix its Flimsy iPhone Charger Cables
(Score: 4, Insightful) by helel on Friday October 28 2022, @01:41AM (13 children)
On the one hand it's really the right move to make everyone use the same standard. Imagine the insanity if your appliances used different electrical outlets and you needed adapters just to plug the toaster into the wall.
On the other hand it's a shame because the lightning port really is, imo, the superior design. Both standards feature a "tongue" that sticks into a slot. Lightning places the tongue on the cable and the slot in the device. USB, for some asinine reason, places the slot on the cable forcing the tongue to be on the device which then must be receded in or else it would stick out and be all kinds of awkward, thus making the physical size of the port and the electronics carrying it larger.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by khallow on Friday October 28 2022, @01:50AM (10 children)
But it wasn't a superior EU design. Remember the ulterior motive behind all this is protectionism.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 28 2022, @02:10AM (9 children)
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday October 28 2022, @02:34AM (8 children)
Point is that going to a USB C standard would be better for EU manufacturers than going to a Lightning Connector standard would be.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 28 2022, @02:44AM
(Score: 4, Touché) by helel on Friday October 28 2022, @02:52AM (6 children)
Apple's still going to manufacture their phones in China and India. This isn't about protectionism. This is about reducing electronic waste and protecting customers from vender lock in.
I know it's hard to imagine since we live in an oligarchy but some governments just do things that are good, at least once in a blue moon.
(Score: 2) by agr on Friday October 28 2022, @02:16PM (5 children)
How does a $15 charging cable (the only difference between Lightning and USB-C) lock any consumer in? And how does obsoleting hundreds of millions of Lightning cables reduce electronic waste?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 28 2022, @03:04PM (4 children)
Is that the only difference? I have a Macbook and I bought extra USB-C cables (because I thought the same and wanted to save the $15) and the laptop knows the difference. There seems to be a lot of black box magic with cables these days as chargers seem to know whether the USB cable you've plugged in can handle the "fast charge" currents or not.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday October 28 2022, @03:58PM (3 children)
You can still fry a device today by e.g. plugging a non-compliant 12V USB-C charger into it. So clearly not everything has the right "magic".
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 28 2022, @06:21PM (2 children)
Do you have any idea how the computer knows? The only thing I've found with a little searching is "look for the lightning bolt" printed on the end or "plug it in and try it," both of which are not very satisfying answers. If it's not the case that there are extra conductors in the Thunderbolt cable, then it must be doing something like data throughput or maybe current testing?
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday October 28 2022, @08:56PM (1 child)
Short story, the cables need to have microchips in them to negotiate with devices. Also, Thunderbolt has been merged into USB as of USB4.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C#USB_Power_Delivery [wikipedia.org]
https://www.anandtech.com/show/8539/usb-power-delivery-v20-and-billboard-device-class-v10-specifications-finalized [anandtech.com]
https://www.anandtech.com/show/16712/usbc-power-delivery-hits-240w-with-extended-power-range [anandtech.com]
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/18/usb-power-delivery-for-all-the-things/ [hackaday.com]
https://www.ti.com/interface/usb/type-c-and-power-delivery/overview.html [ti.com]
There are a variety of helpful logos meant to
confuseinform you about power capabilities:https://www.tomshardware.com/news/usb-if-reveals-new-usb-type-c-power-rating-logos [tomshardware.com]
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/2xNtvPTedv872deRFgkopb-970-80.png.webp [futurecdn.net]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 28 2022, @10:30PM
Thanks. I keep forgetting about microelectronics in those tiny backshells these days. I'm surprised there haven't been more security exploits that come from that.
(Score: 2) by drussell on Friday October 28 2022, @08:39PM (1 child)
There is absolutely no reason they couldn't put more than one damn port on a phone...
How much could it possibly cost for them a lightning connector AND a USB-C on their $1000 phone?!
GASP! You might be able to charge AND connect another separate accessory at the same time without an expensive adapter?!!
No, you're not allowed to have more than one port?!! No headphone jack for you!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday October 28 2022, @09:04PM
It's best to have a USB-C port centered on the bottom so it can be compatible with things like the Razer Kishi. But I'd like to see 2 USB-C ports and a headphone jack down there on phones. And tablets/2-in-1s should have more than one port, no excuses there.
Lightning + USB-C on the bottom is an inelegant solution for Apple so they wouldn't do it. Also, maybe they would need to do something special to keep people from frying the phones with that setup?
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