Apple May Sell Optional iPhone 15 Pro USB-C Thunderbolt Cable

[balzmcfearson]

Yea thunderbolt 4 so the pro models can doc to a monitor, mouse, keyboard making the ultra the single apple device you need.

 

[IIGS User]

I'm looking forward to USB C so I can charge and sync all my devices with one cable.

I don't see a world where I need a $100+ phone charging cable. I just don't see it. I'm sure SOMEONE will have a use for it, but I'm not feeling it.

 

[verniesgarden]

There’s nothing in the article that implies the cables will be proprietary. But different cables support different wattages and different transfer speeds. You need to pick the right cable to fit the intended application. There isn’t just a single type of USB-C cable.

that's the biggest boondoggle of USBc, I have devices that wont work unless you have a certain type of USBc cable. it's madness.

 

[klasma]

that's the biggest boondoggle of USBc, I have devices that wont work unless you have a certain type of USBc cable. it's madness.

Yep. USB-C is just the physical connector, not the USB protocols. There are new logos that are intended to help with that:

(https://www.usb.org/sites/default/f...able_logo_usage_guidelines_final_20230818.pdf)

 

[TinyMito]

Here, I thought my Intel certified 3ft TB4 was expensive...

This is breakdown of USB cables: Source

 

[dumastudetto]

Surely the WHOLE POINT of implementing USB-C is to NOT need proprietry cables any more? Why can't we use a high quality third party USB-C cable to transfer data at reasonable speeds? I imagine the EU, who pushed for USB-C in the first place, will see this as yet more gatekeeping

The whole point is the universality of the USB-C connector system. You can use any cable to charge, but there’s nothing stopping Apple from innovating on top of that. As long as it’s not artificial innovation that drives more e-waste for profit.

 

[cyanite]

However, restricting USB-C to USB 2.0 speeds unless you buy a $130 cable, is the very definition of dumb (and greed.)

USB C cables come in many capacities. It's not a restriction that you need a more capable cable in order to use higher speeds and charging rates.

Thunderbolt ≠ USB. They’re two separate protocols and have different requirements in the cable to function, but just the same connector, USB-C.

Although USB 4 is a superset of Thunderbolt 3

In EU you will need one usbC cable that will be capable of charging every device

As long as the device charges at up to 100W. The legislation doesn't cover higher than that at this point.

However, Apple needs to include full speed USB-C cable or they will face worldwide wrath.

What is "full speed"? USB 3.1, 3.2, 4? Why include expensive overkill cables that most people won't use?

And if true a lawsuit waiting to happen.

The EU legislation only covers charging, and not data rate, so I don't think so.

 

[k1121j]

That's a beefy cable for an iPhone. Reminds me of those Honda Civic's with big tail pipes and racing tires.

 

[ArkSingularity]

Surely the WHOLE POINT of implementing USB-C is to NOT need proprietry cables any more? Why can't we use a high quality third party USB-C cable to transfer data at reasonable speeds? I imagine the EU, who pushed for USB-C in the first place, will see this as yet more gatekeeping

You would still be able to use any thunderbolt cable, not just the Apple branded ones.

The vast majority of USB-C cables are not thunderbolt capable. You typically have to buy separate USB4/Thunderbolt-capable cables to support this. This is because Thunderbolt 3/4 requires optical cables in order to support the full speeds for cables longer than about half a meter or so. These are fairly expensive to produce and are rarely packaged with products out of the box.

 

[smeagol]

Standardising ports and cables is not dumb, my phone is the only reason I still need to carry a Lightning cable, everything else already uses USB-C.

However, restricting USB-C to USB 2.0 speeds unless you buy a $130 cable, is the very definition of dumb (and greed.)

If there is a huge public backlash for this (which there won't because this is a nerd problem), they'll issue a firmware update and say it was a bug. Not a good look if this is true. Apple.

 

[ivarh]

Surely the WHOLE POINT of implementing USB-C is to NOT need proprietry cables any more? Why can't we use a high quality third party USB-C cable to transfer data at reasonable speeds? I imagine the EU, who pushed for USB-C in the first place, will see this as yet more gatekeeping

You are getting a charging cable. It does not need to have support for high data speed. My 2019 macbook pro came with a usb-c charging cable that supported 100W charging. It did not however support usb speeds above usb2 speeds. The same with my note 10 charging cable. It also only supported usb2 data speeds. You can however get a usbc cable that does support faster speeds and it will support faster speeds.

An usbc cable is not a dumb cable. Inside the plug on both ends you will find a small circuit board. The interface chips on this board determine what speeds the cable will support (that and the quality if the cable itself). The reason lopnger quality thunderbolt cables cost so much is that the cables will have individual shielding of each sub cable and this bundle will again be shielded. This youtube video shows wht the longer usb4/thunderbolt cables are not cheap:

 

[Natas1000]

What do you mean...

A Thunderbolt cable is a Thunderbolt cable, it's not going to be designed specifically for an iPhone. Shorter yes, but that's about it.

100%. This is a High Power Thunderbolt 4 cable. There is no need to use this cable on an iPhone that can not take 150w. It's not an iPhone cable unless for some reason someone wants to use it as such.

 

[jmgregory1]

The only people who will want/need Thunderbolt for connecting their iPhone Pro to a MBP are going to be people who are making money from shooting videos and hi-res photos with their iPhone. For the VAST majority of consumers, who don’t download photos to a laptop or desktop computer, these new cables won’t even be noticed in the market, imho.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Hence why I said "high quality." If only the official Apple cable supports the highest transfer/charge speeds, that is a proprietry accessory.

No, it’s not proprietary because ANYONE can make one. The specifications are out there. If another company decides to make a high quality cable, then there will be more options. Unfortunately, many of them want to make a low quality cable and sell it for “cheap” knowing they’ll get a few million sales, fry a few million devices before they change their name and start selling anew.

 

[xxFoxtail]

The iPhone 15 USB-C cables either have that little rubber nub part connecting the wire to the plastic or they don’t. Which is it?

 

[jclardy]

So...in Apple's world you either get USB 2.0 speeds from 20 years ago, or the max Thunderbolt 4 speed. If only there was a modern USB-C cable that could handle 10Gbps and didn't cost $150...

 

[imtoretto]

And the sad part is that people fall for it and goes to buy it, i mean clear example was the $20 dollar piece of cloth.....
stupid people went to waste the time and money to go buy it, this will not be surprise if the cable is truth.
this is why me as an apple consumer i stopped buying apple products.

 

[citysnaps]

However, restricting USB-C to USB 2.0 speeds unless you buy a $130 cable, is the very definition of dumb (and greed.)

No it's not. Not everyone needs high-speed data transfer over a cable. WiFi 6 likely supports most peoples' needs.

It appears you want Apple to include an expensive cable with all iPhones. And pass that cost onto customers, the majority of which have absolutely no need for it.

 

[rjjacobson]

Standardising ports and cables is not dumb, my phone is the only reason I still need to carry a Lightning cable, everything else already uses USB-C.

However, restricting USB-C to USB 2.0 speeds unless you buy a $130 cable, is the very definition of dumb (and greed.)

And why Apple is a multi trillion dollar company at times. Sigh

 

[Mr. Dee]

I use cables all the time. Airdrop works like ass and so I transfer and backup all my photos/videos per cable to my MBP and backup on an external drive. I also sync music library on my phone and music/video libraries of my two kids iPads via cable. Wireless is slow and unrealiable. Unfortunately USB/Lightning is also slow, but still faster and stable. And no I don't want every photo i take going up into the (payed for) iCloud. I prefer my own storage.

So capping speeds for no other reason than greed is disgusting and it should be a big deal. Apple should be ashamed to castrate "the best iPhone ever" in such a basic thing like USB speed. I can understand restricting Thunderbolt to Pro iPhones but throwing the peasant iPhone 15 back to the stone age is just wrong.

If you are doing incremental backups or syncs though, only changes would be moving from iPad/iPhone to your Mac. Unless you are capturing thousands of photos and videos everyday.

 

[rjjacobson]

In all honesty I upgraded from the 11 pro to the 14 pro last feb.
I originally was waiting for the 15 because of the USB C, but in hind sight I question myself, why?

I wanted all my devices to use the same charger, but with MagSafe being a way better charging solution for my use case.
All my data transfers goes either by airdrop or by internet. More than fast enough for me.

don't really care about the lightningport or the USB C port.

Now hope the ports will vanish in the coming years. Even on my iPad.

Yeah pretty much the same wireless charging. I use wired for backup to Mac but not often and rest of time like your practice. One of many reasons I am likely waiting until the 16 ProMax

 

[robreki]

FYI - also posted this on another site

What Apple could do and could tout as an iPhone security/safety feature (full disclosure: something similar to this may have been posted on another site but now I can't find it):

In software, give the user the option to control the usb-c port to, via checkbox:
1) allow port to receive power for charging
2) allow port to tx/rx data
3) require the use of some new MFi usb-c cable

This would allow the user to only have the port be used for charging, data delivery, both or neither. By turning these on or off one can prevent the likes of NSO/etc wired hacks/attacks as well as juice jacking (if indeed that is a thing). Or only be able to be charged via magsafe/wireless charging. Or make the port entirely useless. New MFi option is there to make it easy to determine just what a usb-c cable is good for as right now usb-c cables are a mess in terms of functionality.

As an added bonus, each checkbox could have a separate password.

I personally use wireless charging and wifi for data xfer so the usb-c port I don't really care about, but would love to be able to turn it off to prevent possible breeches.

 

[HackMacDaddy]

If you are doing incremental backups or syncs though, only changes would be moving from iPad/iPhone to your Mac. Unless you are capturing thousands of photos and videos everyday.

If you are using the phone as a camera often (vacation, job, fun, whatever) and record 4K60 video, or take RAW photos just check how many GB that amounts to.

Also not everyone is making incremental backups regularly. I need to force my parents to do a backup once a year. Can you imagine how long it takes for 256GB to sync over wifi? hahah

Following some of the fantastic logic posted in this thread one could argue not to improve the camera system at all since no one is gonna use that and USB 2.0 is enough for transfer speed anyways.

If you engineer a device capable of creating large amounts of data - make sure you offer the best I/O to move that data. I don't see how this is even controversial.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." don't be that guy guys

 

[TigerNike23]

This is Tim Cook’s Apple. Don’t expect anything free. Lol.

I kinda have this weird respect to Apple for not giving anything above USB 2 speeds. It’s a middle finger to the EU.

 

[citysnaps]

You are getting a charging cable. It does not need to have support for high data speed. My 2019 macbook pro came with a usb-c charging cable that supported 100W charging. It did not however support usb speeds above usb2 speeds. The same with my note 10 charging cable. It also only supported usb2 data speeds. You can however get a usbc cable that does support faster speeds and it will support faster speeds.

An usbc cable is not a dumb cable. Inside the plug on both ends you will find a small circuit board. The interface chips on this board determine what speeds the cable will support (that and the quality if the cable itself). The reason lopnger quality thunderbolt cables cost so much is that the cables will have individual shielding of each sub cable and this bundle will again be shielded. This youtube video shows wht the longer usb4/thunderbolt cables are not cheap:

Spot-on assessment. And for most people WiFi 6 (and likely 6E for one of the upcoming iPhone 15 models) works great for data transfer.

The fact that many reflexively choose to go the "Apple is ripping us off route" speaks volumes.

Apparently most here want Apple to include an expensive high-rate USB-C cable with every phone, and pass that cost onto users (and then whine about a price increase). The majority of which will have absolutely no need for it.