Apple forced to ditch iPhone lightning charger

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 647 points – Apple forced to ditch lightning charger in new iPhone
bbc.com

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.

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Everyday just makes me love the EU more and more.

😏next will be replaceable batteries, alternative App Stores and messengers who have to use a open protocol for chat (open in a sense that different chat apps can Talk to each other, but the privacy is still protected. Like eMail but with end to end encryption)

The word you’re looking for is “federated”.

It's not, really. They're not being forced to interoperate or adopt a standard intermediary protocol, just to publish APIs. WhatsApp and iMessage will still be totally separate services if they want to be.

Interoperability is also a word you can use Crosscompatible Lots of cromulent words.

And a hefty backdoor for the government to put it's dirty little naily fingers in

I hope that the protocol is open source and approved by trusted privacy protection peoples everywhere in the world. But yea, better everyone would have their own matrix servers, I agree.

Which government? There isn't just one in the EU.

Or are you talking about the US government?

I live in the EU so yes I know

I was talking about an abstract entity government not any government in particular

The EU is quite awesome, eh? They are so nice! (/s)

So funny seeing Apple fans eat up their PR. Ooh it was Apple's plan all along? They did it because it's more environmentally friendly? Yeah right and it only coincides the very same year EU is enforcing every manufacturer to go USB-C route. No one ever stopped to think if Apple is so environmentally friendly why were they fighting right to repair act.

And don't give me that "iPad had USB-C" speech. If lightning port could handle higher currents, iPad would have gone that route as well. USB has been standard for many years now but they have pushed so many different ports instead of going USB route. They don't care about anything else other than milking a bit more money from their users.

In my opinion, Apple's choice to reduce the number and variety of ports on their devices in order to sell more dongles was where mobile device enshitification began in earnest. Now my phone just spys on me and vomits ads constantly and I can't even plug in my fucking headphones.

They take ages to adopt great features that have existed on Android devices for years, and yet are THE leader of what corners to cut in the industry.

We like to call it innovation here, innovative ideas to fuck everyone and get a bit of bonus for the ceo

For me, nothing could ever possibly top Apple's rejection of strain relievers on their cables. It's absolutely the perfect blend of their overrated design sense with their unerring corporate instinct for planned obsolescence.

Also let us not forget Apple is the only laptop manufacturer whose laptops have failing SATA cables. I am yet to run into any laptop with drive cables failing.

Sata cables? There aren’t sata cables in MacBooks and haven’t been for like a decade.

Indeed. And yet I have never mentioned anything about what age laptops I was talking about. Then again, Apple was also only manufacturer with unibody laptop whose two parts unglued when you used your laptop for anything more intensive because they designed air flow in such a way so that hot air blows on "unibody" glued part. It's just comedy all around.

Actually, Apple supports the right to repair law now: https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/23/23843506/apple-california-right-to-repair-sb-244

They saw the the writing on the wall, and turned colours as soon as they saw they were fighiting a loosing battle.

Like any populist leader, they have just seen which way the crowd is moving, ran to the front and pretended that's what they were going to do all along.

I want to say that people like you falling for this is mind blowing, but it actually just seems to be a rather depressing part of human nature. I'll never understand why people show such loyalty to a company that only cares about how much money they can extract from your pockets.

Only when they can find a way to make money from it.

Ye no, i will only say they support it the moment their devices isnt made to not be repaired and have dark patterns all over them

No, they were forced to.

If you actually look closer to their setup, it is extremely difficult and costs tons of money. Just to make their Genius bars seem reasonable.

2 more...

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.

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.

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.

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.

But with Usb-c you get Power Delivery

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.

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.

I find it odd that this is the only noteworthy feature in the new phone.

pretty much all smartphones past few years have been incremental upgrades. Sometimes theres some gimmick but it really feels like we’ve reached a peak

The Fold/Flip were pretty big jumps in tech.

Idk why you're being downvoted, its true. Folding screen technology has been pretty much the only major innovation in the phone space for a while now.

Folding is high on the “neato” scale but isn’t considered a major milestone because it’s really sort of a gimmick and in smartphone terms, is a small niche feature. Most people don’t want a thicker phone that can become a too-small tablet by slowly forming a damage crease down its screen.

I remember when people thought a front facing camera was niche.

You can say that about literally every feature. But folding has been around 5 years and isn’t becoming integral to every device. Front facing cameras were within 5 years.

Disagree, the technology is improving and the shapes of the phone are becoming more usable.

Anecdotally, i know a good amount of people who switched/want to switch off iphone to android specifically for folding phones. The form factor of the zflip/razr is a lot more usable for people who have small pockets or people who just think it's plain cool.

The "damage crease" isnt a huge deal, and most people upgrade after 3ish years anyway so as long as it can make it that far it won't matter to them.

I’m excited about the Thread Network Protocol in the Pro version. I have no idea what will be implemented yet and Matter/Theead are rolling out way too slowly but it will be interesting to find out

NOOOOOOO! This goes against their narrative that they chose to do it! How dare you!

The only thing Apple chose themselves was placing an artificial limit on the port.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Apple has confirmed its new iPhone will not feature its proprietary lightning charging port, after the EU forced it into the change.

The tech giant said that the iPhone 15, unveiled at its annual event on Wednesday, would use a USB-C cable as the "universally accepted standard".

The EU had told the tech giant to ditch its proprietary charging ports to make life easier for consumers, save them money, and help reduce e-waste by encouraging re-use of chargers.

But some experts questioned whether consumers would be prepared to pay the high price tags given the devices are not hugely different to their predecessors.

"Convincing users to fork out for these new devices will not be easy during a cost-of-living crisis," said Paolo Pescatore, analyst and founder of PP Foresight.

"Some will see the new features as incremental, [although] collectively they enhance the overall experience which is priceless among Apple's core user base."

The original article contains 457 words, the summary contains 152 words. Saved 67%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Literally the only 'new' thing with the 15

But, but... it's .3% faster!!!1!!

Hey hey they said "10% faster" .... In certain cases... Sometimes.

Now, I'm waiting how they will use marketing and communication on ditching the magsafe and going back to only USB-C.

Magsafe it's pretty cool tho. Plus they open sourced it so next Qi standard is probably gonna have it. I don't know what I'm talking about btw.

We are not speaking about the same magsafe. EU requires in the near future USB-C for laptops too. Apple must include USB-C by default and ditching the magsafe.

Are they going to ditch it though? As I understand, they don't need to ditch it as long as USB-C charging remains an option.

For charging alone, Magsafe is objectively the better choice because it snaps in and out of place, so it's both easier to insert and won't pull your laptop off the living room table if your kid or dog runs into the cable. For docking in your dedicated workspace, you'll still use USB-C attached to your monitor of course, it's excellent for that and Magsafe doesn't do data.

Yeah, I think it says that you have to support USB-C charging. But you can add whatever else you want. And if I remember correctly, macbooks can be charged via C and magsafe already. So all up to snuff

The regulation is the same as for smartphones. In the EU, laptops must charge with USB-C by default. Apple can still include on the laptop a magsafe port which will be useless for the consumer in this area. The easiest to comply for Apple is to put a USB-C to USB-C cable instead of the USB-C to magsafe for Europe.

My laptop can already charge over USB-C from my docking station, or with a MagSafe cable. It’s an older M1 laptop but that ought to cover any such requirement

It's the single charger regulation. In the EU, Apple must use USB-C instead of magsafe for the laptops. It's the same as for smartphones.

It's cold in here.

Has hell frozen over?!?

They're just going to try to make one that's ever so slightly better, and then patent it again

Apple lightning cable it means. The charger still works fine

As long as it still refuses to charge because of fluff in the port - take my money!

Wireless charging is a thing, but I'd say it's less practical than just cleaning your port out every now and again.

Good. Fucking lightning with it's fucking USB 2.0-ass interface.

And they still managed to cripple it with only 10 Gbps. Not even the "Pro" has USB4.

what on earth are you doing on your phone…. hell… what is ANYONE doing on their phone that even comes close to using 10gbps?!

I commented on a similar sentiment in a different thread, but I think this (Apple being forced) is the wrong take.

There really hasn’t been a question of whether or not they were moving to USB-C for at least 6 months. The only question was whether it would be thunderbolt or not, and it isn’t. The narrative was always that they’d keep lightning for 10 years and then move to something new, Schiller even called it “a modern connector for the next decade” when it was announced, and at the time it was better than anything else on the market.

Now USB-C is the standard and superior, and it’s cheaper to bring the iPhone in line with that standard than to keep lightning or develop a new port/connector. As soon as the iPads went USB-C (5 years ago and well before EU regs) it was a foregone conclusion that the iPhone would follow suit, and anyone who was paying attention should have known it would happen this year, 10 years after lightning was introduced as a 10 year plan.

Regulations didn’t make Apple change. A viable standard that met their requirements did. And, Apple doesn’t need to develop this which saves them money, and they’ll still sell cables at a premium just like they do now. Apple doesn’t need a proprietary cable, they only need their brand which has massive loyalty.

Regulations didn’t make Apple change. A viable standard that met their requirements did.

I call bullshit.

USB-C has been around and better than Lightning for a long time, they didn't switch the iPhone to it until they were under pressure by regulators to do so.

If your theory were valid they would have switched many years ago.

If you’re right, why did they switch iPad to USBC 5 years ago?

If they were SO invested in lighting and against USBC, they would have kept iPad on lighting as well.

Apple had no choice with the ipad. USB-C connectors can push out more power than standard A-B busses. It, as a default, has a fast charging option that can handle 3.0A of current. The USB A/B spec, maxes at 2.4A.

If you're right then why did they wait 5 generations of phones before switching them to USB-C (also after EU created regulations specifically targeting them) if they already knew it was superior and used it on the iPad? A "10 year plan" is a bit of a joke when it comes to tech and the pace of development.

They decided on 10 years for lightning and stayed with 10 years.

That’s my whole argument and I thought I made that clear.

That's "Monday morning quarterbacking" though where you're finding evidence after the fact using the benefit of hindsight to support your argument. Something they said 10 years ago has absolutely zero bearing on their current product lineup. They surely didn't wait 10 years to swap ports on any of their other products.

I wish I could go back to find my comments on Reddit from a few years ago talking about this, but it’s been on my mind for at least 5 years when iPad switched.

No company holds themselves back from viable improvement because of a timeline thrown out at the beginning. What a weird take.

What is more likely "nope wecan't make a change yet, this better product is out on every other peice of tech we and our competitors used, but someone said 10 years 2 years ago so we're gonna wait another 6 to begin development"

Or

"This product is so serviceable enough for charging a phone and as long as we keep it we can continue to make significant money off of proprietary connectors"

They upgraded the iPad because the lightening was no longer a viable charging cable, the tech couldn't keep up. And the EU has been threatening to establish a standard since the 30pin was in service, because it locked out competition back then. It became a serious issue to deal with after dongles became standard.

Edit: Oh God it's you. 4 days later and another hot shit take. Apparently I need to block you to improve my lemmy experience.

If chodes aren’t blocking me, I’m doing something wrong.

Block away papi.

Apple absolutely changed because of regulation. Just like how they were forced to provide 2 year warranty in EU because of consumer protection laws, a decision they tried to fight until the very end because then they couldn't sell you extended warranty easily. Apple will always do the absolute minimum of effort for the maximum of income. ALWAYS!

Just like how they instead of fixing the issue with nVidia GPUs back in the day and using a correct solder compound, they instead glued a piece of rubber on top of the chip so laptop case pushes on the chip to make the contact. Far cheaper than reworking the board.

Or how they removed a single drop of adhesive from the touchscreen chip on one of their iPhone Max series to save money which resulted in chip getting torn off of board because of cheaper aluminum as well. Pennies worth of saving money at the cost of quality user's got for their money.

I mean I could go on pretty much year by year. Oh and also iPad went USB-C route because of USB PD which can push more than 3A current while charging, something lightning can't do but is needed for bigger battery, same reason laptops have it. It's just with lightning port they can up-sell overly expensive cables and you don't have a choice. With Apple it's all about money. ALWAYS!

If Apple was going to change on their own, the regulation wouldn't have been made in the first place.