Apple’s new USB-C iPhone cables and dongles are predictably expensive

stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to Technology@lemmy.world – 134 points – Apple’s new USB-C iPhone cables and dongles are predictably expensive
theverge.com

The switch to USB-C is good! Except for all the dongles you’ll need to get there.

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Article proceeds to show pricing for a thunderbolt cable instead of USB 3.

I love a lot of Apple’s products, but their wires are easily the worst of the worst. They’re expensive and made to fall apart after like 6 months.

I’m still using the cable that came with the 5s. What are you doing with the cables?

The main predictor of cable wear is whether people are using the phone while the cable is attached.

If you just leave it to charge they will last for u years. If you continue to use them while they are charging, life span of the cable is measured in weeks.

Why would that make a difference?

The material on the cable gets bent and twisted more while you’re using the phone. The wire is warmer while current is running through it (even if not immediately perceptible) and the material Apple uses (which they switched to for environmental reasons) is more brittle as it warms up. Combine the flexing and twisting with the heated state and the cable is more prone to breaking.

But even if you're not using it, the power adapter will still push the same wattage, no? I mean, why wouldn't it?

Correct, but using it, or not, the cable heats up. It’s only when using it that the cable is put under additional strains and stresses. Often times people rest the cable on their palm, bending it at odd angles, not intentionally but absentmindedly. These are stresses on the cable that wouldn’t exist if it were simply sitting and charging. The usage doesn’t draw more power, it just increases the likelihood of miss handling the cable. Now, if a cable is built out of materials that are less biodegradable, or contains certain chemicals that are bad for the environment, they are less likely to break down under similar circumstances. It’s kind of a catch 22. You can make cables that do not contain harmful chemicals, but breakdown easily, or you can make cables that don’t break down easily, but potentially contain harmful chemicals. The real issue is, no matter what, e-waste is being created with disposable cables.

I don’t use my phone while plugged in (mostly because my battery life and usage habits don’t require it), and actually don’t typically plug in at all because I charge wirelessly overnight. But I do have an every pack-in lightning cable I’ve received with an iPhone since they started using lightning, and none of them are broken.

Have you ever bent a paperclip back and forth until it broke? Same concept.

I've had several fall apart from usual wear and tear. If you roll them up, pack them, run them on things, pull them in and out of bags/pockets etc they wear down pretty quickly compared to even mid range aftermarket cables. I have some nice baided cables Ive had for 10+ years. I can't imagine and apple one lasting that. Unless it just sits plugged into an outlet all the time, any cable last forever like that.

Gotta love the Macbook charger cables that wear down to exposed wires after a few years of normal use. Some will even give you a small sparky lightshow reminding you it's time to be a consumer again!

When I had a MacBook Pro with the 1st generation Magsafe, I went through 2 legit Apple chargers and 3 off brand ones in the 9 years I had the laptop. One of the off brand chargers even exploded! Well, a capacitor inside it exploded, but it was designed well enough that it didn't damage anything else or catch fire.

I've only ever had that one laptop, and I was using it in college so I was constantly plugging and unplugging it, so I have no idea how abnormal that cable use is.

Magsafe is super cool, and it definitely saved my computer from certain death several times, but damn it sucked buying those expensive chargers. It would've been nice just to buy the cable, not the whole damn charger.

I now use a USB-C to magsafe 1 adapter on my Mid 2012 MBP, free to replace the cable and charger at any time. Currently using a 65W PD brick and a nice long 10ft/3m cable 😁

The magsafe connector has saved my ass a bunch of times too LOL, my previous barrel jack laptop was yanked off tables more than a few times. Uni lectures were the worst as multiple people wouldn't see the charger on the floor and trip on it 🥲

I currently have an iPhone cable that is frayed at the neck of the iPhone connection end. It’s from repeated bending from completely normal use. I had to stop using it because it was actually making my iPhone hot and was having sluggish connection issues. This is now the 3rd cable to do this and that includes MacBook cables too.

Apple intentionally makes them cheap because they’re such an easy moneymaker for them. I have tons of old cables from other devices that have never had this issue, so I know this isn’t some isolated thing and I’m somehow the stupid one in the scenario. Their cables are terrible.

My 14” MacBook Pro has a braided MagSafe cable. It took way too long but they did finally fix that problem.

My 2011 MacBook Pro is on her original charger… I don’t know how you all take such poor care of your stuff.

Same. I’m still using my original lightning cable (USB-A and all) and it looks almost new other than some staining from use.

Same! I DO tape and heat-shrink the ends of my lightning cables now, though… after one of my cats decided my extra long one looked absolutely delicious.

It's the people who tightly wind their cords up every time they put it in the bag. I always just loosely put the charger in my bag to minimize stress on the ends of the cords.

and yet people will still buy them.

I mean, yeah. I use Android because I hate Apple's walled garden and smug attitude, but when I was shopping for a phone recently it kinda became clear how Apple has gotten their market share in North America.

Android manufacturers simply refuse to use sensible naming schemes and many of the best Android phones aren't available in the US at all. Not to mention a constant push to follow Apple up whatever blind alley they happen to be going in at the time. I'm still salty about headphones jacks.

Apple fanboys are the definition of sheep

The problem is that they have the money, we have just mouths

But if you want to really get all the juice in and out of your new iPhone, especially if you’re buying a 15 Pro or Pro Max, you’ll need the $69 Thunderbolt 4 Pro Cable

I mean, that is an outright lie. There is nothing a TB4 cable would add over a USB 3.2 cable here.

Hell it's talking about juice, a £5 amazon basic USB PD cable with 2.0 speeds will support up to 65w (25w on iphone due to their own limits)

The premise of the article is you buying an adapter from Apple to make your old stuff work with the new phone and highlighting how ridiculously priced they are. It's not a lie, as this is the actual price of the adapter. Sure, you can buy third-party stuff just like you can buy a phone from a different manufacturer and avoid the issue altogether, but that's obvious, no?

Not talking about an adapter, but a simple usb-c to usb-c cable with usb 3.2 standard, They are basically wothless. I have a about 30 of them sitting in a box at the office.

There is simply no reason why you would need an expensive thunderbolt 4 cable to charge a phone or transfere data at 10Gbps. Either these "journalists" are lying or they don't understand USB.

A) you obviously glossed over (or intentionally omitted) the very next paragraph when you quoted the article in your original comment.

(I should remind you here that the beauty of USB-C is that Apple’s not the only company in charge of it. There are tons of cables out there, and for most people, there’s no reason you should need the mega-fast ones anyway. Just get the charger that matches your charging speed and your wall plug, and you’re golden.)

B) if this product had no use, Apple wouldn't have spent money manufacturing it.

C) if this cable is useless, what cheaper alternative does Apple offer that is capable of giving you both fast charging speed and fast data transfer speed?

This cable is for stuff like docking stations for laptops with multiple 4K displays

That's true but Apple doesn't offer any alternative cable apart from "charging cables."

A. I'm not ommitting it. It still suggests that there would a benefit of using a TB4 cable. There isn't.

B. The product is very useful if you want to connect something with actual thunderbolt 4 capabilites. Like laptop to a docking station. It's just that in the case using the higher-standard cable doesn't add anything overusing a cheaper one.

C. If you just care about charging, you can get a offical apple cable for $20. They don't sell USB 3.2 cables from what I can see in their shop. So bascially if you want to use the new IPhones max transfer speed (which is just double what what you can do with the cheap one) they force you to buy a cable that is 10x more capable and costs 4x as much.

But you can could get a cable that can utilise the full capacity for around $10 bucks from Samsung or other major brands.

It still suggests that there would a benefit of using a TB4 cable. There isn't.

They don't sell USB 3.2 cables from what I can see in their shop. So bascially if you want to use the new IPhones max transfer speed (which is just double what what you can do with the cheap one) they force you to buy a cable that is 10x more capable and costs 4x as much.

Please refer back to my original comment stating the premise of the article. You just described the exact reason why they included this cable in the article (including your phrasing of 'forced to buy'). It's because Apple doesn't offer you any alternative.

So why not properly mention alternatives? What's your point here? Because this basically just confirms this is thinly veiled apple ad.

Strange ad considering they're mocking Apple's high prices and telling you there are cheaper alternatives out there but okay.

Yeah "mockingly" suggesting you all the expensive apple products you don't actually need.

I don't need any of these, I already have the USB-C cables for my laptop, that was the whole point of switching to USB-C. Also in the cover photo is that a USB-C to USB-C dongle? What use is that??

Nah it's a $29 USB-C to Lightning dongle

That's kinda dumb but also incredibly niche, prob low volume

I'm sure they're hoping people will buy them to connect to existing Lightning cables for charging, but the main use would be connecting to a handful of lightning-based peripherals.

Yes, niche use.

In other news: Water is wet

Though it should be pointed out, this article is a little wonky. No iPhone needs a thunderbolt 4 charging cable.

What’s wrong with something like this?

It isn't made by Apple, therefore it must be bad and probably will break your phone /s

There's really nothing wrong with it, it's just that Apple knows they can charge anything for the silliest things and a wave of mindless consumers will buy without thinking

You probably won’t get full charging speed. An actual type-c cable gives higher watts than lightning.

I have a $2 USB C cable I got off of Ali that I use to charge my laptop at 65W. It's rated for 100W but I have no way of testing it.

It's actually higher quality than any official apple cable I've used, although that's a pretty low bar.

That sounds a bit too good to be true.

You probably won’t get full charging speed.

Then why not just use a USB C cable?

I simply can not fathom the obsession people have with Apple products when they so egregiously price gouge their customers.

I'm not a fan of their MacOS based products, but I prefer iOS for the fact that I can rely on getting timely updates. For a good long while. That is not something that is generally true with Android. I'm fine with paying for that level of support.

Last time I looked, no Android vendors provided close to the same level of support.

That said, if I was a business and needed to field in house apps to mobile devices, everyone would be getting an Android device. Custom apps for iOS are a pain in the ass.

Mac minis are $600.

And yet, people buy iPhones instead of 3 Mac minis.

People buy expensive Android phones too. What’s your point?

My point is that Apple is price gouging.

Neither one counter example nor whataboutism change the fact that Apple products are overpriced in general (and always have been). Or how do you explain their unparalleled profit margins?

What a ridiculous argument. They make as much money as the market will bear. Anything else would be a disservice to their shareholders.

Consumers should buy the cheapest quality product the market will bear. Anything else would be a disservice to their peers.

Yeah. Well, the whole point since the top level comment has been that people are willing to pay too much for their hardware...

I give up. Stay happy with your overpriced devices.

I’m glad you give up. I’ll continue to pay for devices that provide me with an appropriate level of quality for their cost. Feel free to use whatever Android device you can afford.

Feel free to use whatever Android device you can afford.

I say this as an Apple user: Really, dude? Really?

A physically smaller Minisforum UM480XT with 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD is $249.

The Mac Mini is a significantly better value.

No it isn't. Do you need help understanding the numbers you're reading?

Not at all. The Minisforum is overpriced garbage compared to the Mac Mini. They’re not even remotely comparable.

All this arguing aside, good job EU. Good legislation at work right there. Whether people claim it's better or not everyone in the end wins. Single adapter used with all devices, single cable provided for charging and data transfers. Simplicity and eco friendly. Everybody wins, especially iPhone users since now they don't have to deal with shitty cables costing 40$ which fall apart 3 months after purchase.