Apple forced to ditch iPhone lightning charger::Apple confirms new iPhone 15 will have a common USB-C charging port after EU forces it into the change.
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
PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Regulations work. Suck it, predatory businesses. Literally, eat shit.
bob_wiley@lemmy.world 1 year ago
BetaDoggo_@lemmy.world 1 year ago
They first started using USB c on the macbooks in 2015. There’s no way that it took 8 years to get it ready for the iPhone. In that time they’ve also released several other devices and accessories which have used lightning.
To me this doesn’t point to a planned gradual shift over to USB c but one that was forced by neccesity on the macbook then by regulation on the iPhone.
Dum@reddthat.com 1 year ago
This law is more than a decade in the making, the only reason it was on Apples roadmap is because of this law.
The EU doesn’t have to mandate a new connector when something new comes up, it just has to be an open standard, ANY open standard. This is miles better for everyone. And the EU doesn’t force the whole world to adapt their standard, it’s just not economical to produce different versions for different markets, but they are very much allowed to sell whatever to their non EU customers.
If you really want the lightning adapter back, you can ask one of the many people who soldered a usb-c connector in an iphone 12/13/14. If one person can do it, I’m pretty sure Apple can, too.
Cheez@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yeah totally planned. That’s why it seems like they’ve just jury rigged a new connector onto the USB 2.0 internals.
lustrum@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Give over. They were passive aggressive as fuck in their statements after the EU mandated it.
GooseFinger@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Eh, I don’t know Apple’s intentions but this specific design change isn’t that complicated. The lightning port still uses the USB protocol so the firmware will be the same or very similar. The supporting electronics also wouldn’t change much, but at most they’d omit/add a few small passives and slightly reroute that part of the circuit to make things fit together. They’d also have to lock down a large production run of USB ports, but any manufacturer would accommodate a customer as large as Apple. They’d need to test fit it with the new phone chassis but that’s relatively simple as well. Regulatory certification would also be smooth sailing for a change this simple, since most of what’s changing is simply the form factor.
I figure it would take two years before customers would see this design change from the moment engineering was assigned it.
I’m an electrical engineer who works in production if that matters.
fushuan@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Oh man you have not followed all of this progress have you? the EU has been pushing for this for a long time now, if this was their planall along Apple could have stated that they planned to do this in the future but that they were waiting for closure of their original connector, but they didn’t, all their communications until this decission was made have been that lightning was not going away. Suddenly, it was their plan all along. It’s… so much like apple to do this and so in line for their fans to eat it up.
moitoi@feddit.de 1 year ago
Are people astroturfing here? Seriously? It may be one of the worst place for that, and it looks like a very bad troll.
Honytawk@lemmy.zip 1 year ago
If they were going to switch anyway, they wouldn’t have struggled until the EU had to make regulations around it.
Regulations means the market can’t regulate itself. The market in this case being Apple.
macrocephalic@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I think they wanted to go to usb-c (as that’s what all their other products use) but they didn’t want to face the backlash from customers when “all their cables and docks had to be changed again”. Luckily for apple the EU gave them a fall guy.
cousinofjah@twit.social 1 year ago
I'm sure the push for non proprietary standards before the latest EU rules had some part to play as well
lorez@lemm.ee 1 year ago
They had until the beginning of 2024, that is by 2024 USB C had to be the standard, leaving Apple no choice with Iphones introduced in 2023’s fall.