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Apple forced to ditch iPhone lightning charger
(www.bbc.com)
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this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2023
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Thank fuck, the lightning charger is hot dogshit, IMO. Th lack of compatibility of iphone is annoying, particularly around how 3rd party charging cords won't work with their products sometimes.
I had an iphone for over a decade, and finally switched to android. It suits me better. I spend a lot less time thinking 'i should be able to do this' and looking for a workaround
Base model 15 will still only have usb 2.0 speeds.
Reminder:
usb 2 is a 2001 standard
Apple sure is innovating
I'll say this. For how much shit Steve Jobs gets, regardless of his personal life, he would never allow this shit to happen. That crazy bastard is responsible for getting rid of the floppy drive and pushing the industry towards USB 1.0 because he believed enough in it. That we would benefit.
You can find old forum posts of the original iMac launch and see how surprised and somewhat upset people are at this revelation. Now look where we are.
Pushed the industry towards USB before inevitably abandoning it for their proprietary lightning charger.
You do realize lightning was conceptualized AFTER his death?
Not only that, but the industry standard at the time was Micro USB. So either a really good, reversible charger for the time, or a piece of shit cable that dies after 4 months. Take your pick.
ok now im really curious, what are you plugging into your CELL PHONE that requires 10 gigabit?
I had this question as well. I don’t think I’ve physically plugged my iPhone 11 in for data/photo/video syncing since I got it. Everything is super fast over wifi, there’s no reason for a cord. Only thing I use the port for is charging and sometimes audio. I’d probably have been fine if they dropped the port, but I’m happy they kept it for now.
Hey I'm with you, don't really need faster wired data speeds.
But I guess Apple has changed their goals if they are leaving out common functionality available in all other flagship devices simply because it's not strictly necessary 🤷
I think it should have had USB 3, but iPhone 15 isn’t Apple’s flagship device.
Fair, but most midrange phones have at least USB3 as well, no?
I don't actually know for certain, but I can't imagine why they wouldn't.
My uneducated guess is this: the iPhone 15 uses the same A16 chip as the 14 Pro did, to more easily produce it at scale and cost effectively. The 14 Pro had Lightning and therefore 2.0 speeds. The 15 kept the 2.0 speed because the A16 couldn’t (readily?) be reengineered to support a 3.0 connector.
Anything that requires more than 53 MB/s.
It's because apple hasn't released usb3.0 specs as a new invention yet.
The Pro version does have it.
Everything to push people into buying even more expensive shit, right?
The base 15 has the processor from the 14 pro, which does not have the USB 3.0 controller on it.
Just like the base 14 had the processor from the 13 pro ...and the base 13 had the processor from the 12 pro
you get the idea.
Only good thing about Lightning was the connector itself, but USB-C is a much needed improvement. The speed thing though, that gets me, especially when non-flagship devices aren’t limited to 2.x speeds.
Yeah the lightning charger in my experience immediately breaks when I put it in any position it just doesn't like.
Edit: should clarify I use an Android now
You'll feel right at home with usb-c then. I use both every day and, honestly, they both suck.
But with Usb-c you get Power Delivery which kicks the shit out of old 5v 2a nonsense
I find usb-c generally better. faster charging, as you've pointed out. I find the connections usually a lot more secure too. I have one cord in my car for android auto that's a finicky little bitch, though, and I'm about to yeet that thing, if I ever remember to replace it. All of my other cords have held up well, and it's really nice to have the ability to charge all of my devices with one cord.
Just curious why you think USB C sucks? I think it's gotten to a mature point now with PD 3.0 or 3.1. I have 1 cable next to my bed that will charge my phone, headphones, laptop, tablet etc. No worrying at all.
Part of the issue is exactly what you just mentioned: There are a lot of different standards with varying degrees of compatibility, and none of them are visibly different from one another. There isn’t a good way to immediately identify which cables are “good” and which will just outright refuse to charge your devices. So some of my USB-C cables will charge low power devices, but not bigger things like a laptop or iPad.
Meanwhile, the lightning charger was really really good at enforcing uniformity across different cables. Because you knew you could plug any lighting cable into any lightning port, and it would charge just fine. Yes, this inevitably caused issues with speed as tech progressed and Apple refused to upgrade to new standards. But that refusal also helped them maintain uniformity. Apple also shifted away from hardline data transfers years ago; 99.9% of iPhone users will have iCloud backups happen automatically via wifi, and iCloud means you’re not doing full phone backups every time. You only do the initial backup, then it simply pushes daily changes as you go whenever you connect to wifi. So the actual amount of data that gets transferred is relatively low with day-to-day usage, and it doesn’t eat into your limited call phone data plan. The regular user rarely (if ever) needs to transfer anything via the lightning port, because wireless sync takes care of things as long as they’re on wifi.
The rapid development of USB-C has been great for the tech. But it also means that (as someone who has an iPhone and has very little need for USB-C cables) I’ve bought more USB-C cables in the past two or three years than I have lightning cables. Because my five year old lightning cables are still working fine, while all of my USB-C cables from before the pandemic had to be replaced; Not because they were broken, but simply because newer devices would refuse to charge with them.
Yeah I get that there are some teething issues but for an iphone geezer now it should be pretty ubiquitous. USB C to USB C cables will do 60w. Then if they have the special chip they can do 100W + (5A).
It's even less of an issue for an iphone 15 that will likely top out at 25w.
A gorilla wrote this post
iPhones have supported the PD spec since 2017 (iPhone 8 and iPhone X), assuming the cable supports it (requiring USB-C to Lightning). Their big mistake was not shipping a PD-compatible charger and cable in the box, so very few users actually got one.
You can charge faster than 10W using Lightning to USB-C
I always feel like usbc could just flip out at any moment. I like the lightning connector better in that regard at least. Usbc just seems looser.
Use a product with less shit USB-C ports then?
Literally never had a C port that wasn't as tight as a classic USB
Nowhere near the loosening issues micro and mini had in their times
In that reasoning they made confuses me.
I've also never had a usb-c just fallout/ feel non-secure. You'd think with the increased surface area with the usb-c ring fitting between the port wall and the center peg of the port would increases gripyness logically. Vs The single peg insert of a lightning cable.
But eh, im no physics doctor.
Lightning has the divots in the sides of the cable and then two idk spring loaded bits that press in there on the phone side. It's insanely secure, one could argue possibly too much, but I can hang my phone from the cord and it won't fall out.
Now that's not to say USB-C is bad like it falls out or anything, just that it takes more force to disconnect a lightning cable than USB-C.
Ah yes the clips! I stand corrected haha.
I haven't owned an Apple product since the ipod nano, so the only lightning cables im used too, are user owned devices, which are normally chewed up without the little side clips functioning.
Ty, for the reminder!
It might actually be the port is jammed up with dust on the devices you have used so it couldn't fully insert and lock in. Being that lightning is a decent sized hole lint gets in there and then when you plug the cable in you compact it all down and it eventually keeps you from fully inserting the cable but it can often still charge though sometimes it is a bit finicky. I clean my out about once a year due to this, haven't noticed in 3 years of owning a device wearing out the clippy/spring dodads.
Nah, lightning connectors have spring clips that hold the connector secure inside the port. Apple does a lot of things wrong, but the lightning port was at least very secure. It has a good solid snap into place, and is more than strong enough to hang the phone from the cord.
Plus the actual lightning connector is damned near indestructible because it’s basically solid metal. I’ve had cables fail before, but always because of the actual cable. The jacket will come unbraided, or the copper wires will fray. But that’s up to the individual manufacturer, not Apple specifically; Any USB cable will be prone to those same issues, because they’re using the exact same cable. The connector has never been broken or deformed. Hell, the one I’m using on my bedside table has literally been run over by a car, and it still works just fine.
I’ve only ever had one lightning charger break. Been using iPhones for a decade.
…I do electrical tape and heat shrink the ends, though. So they probably helps a little.
Charger compatibility is a big thing. Back in the ancient days, sales men used to tell me to buy a Nokia phone because everyone had a Nokia charger at home. If you bought an Ericsson or Siemens, nobody could help you if you ran out of battery.
Well that didn’t last forever, since Nokia eventually decided to switch to a slim connection, but before that the compatibility was really good.