Apple Will Soon Let Hardware Developers Make MFi-Certified USB-C to Lightning Cables

[[AUT] Thomas]

Not really. I want USB-C on iPhones/iPads right now. It would make things so much easier.

Especially since the space argument is invalid on the tablets. They could just put in both on the iPad Pro. Then at least the "Pro" would make more sense...

Okay, I’ll play. What would be easier? I can think of one thing, and that’s being able to use one cord.

Exactly. The exact same one as for your Macbook. So, for all the wireless enthusiasts: that's one cable less you need to carry around.
A universal standard... what would be easier...
The reason why Apple is holding back on USB-C is that people will realize how limited iOS really is, just by the amount of the mostbasic equipment (like a keyboard) that won't work while it will with literally any Android device thanks to USB OTG.

 

[BiggAW]

USB-C is fine for things as thick as a MacBook. On devices that are handled constantly, where you charge while still using the device, where space is a commodity and every milliamp hour counts, I want the smallest, most durable connector there is. USB-C (once all the non-standard trash is cleared out) is great for personal computers. Otherwise, your argument isn't valid.

USB-C is perfectly fine for phones. Most Android phones are using it, and it's much better than the crappy Micro-USB port that was never made for phone charging, and breaks easily.

That being said, Apple has no reason to switch, as the users have all the Lightning accessories, dongles, chargers, etc, already out there, so it would be idiotic to switch at this point.

Entirely wireless charging is a nutty idea. Are you going to carry around a wireless charging pad when you travel? What about car charging? Most cars don't have Qi pads built in. I charge my Samsung phone entirely wirelessly day to day, but when traveling, or even when it gets low in the car, you bet I need a wired charging plug.

Lastly, the whole USB-C cable thing is overblown. The problem is, most people don't realize that the stock charger is a 5W charger, and you can charge at 12W with Anker PowerIQ or an iPad charger through USB-A, so the 15-18W USB-C PD charging isn't really that important for most people. Oh yeah, and the USB-A 12W charging works with the iPhone 7 lineup as well. There are a few applications where true fast charging is useful, but in most cases, PowerIQ is plenty.

 

[kmann1983]

And this is why the EU needs to regulate their use of Lightning and force them to go USB-C. The fact that you need "permission" to make a CABLE says "consumer hostile" to me.

 

[826317]

Yeah. Guess what? It never is. Until "someone" does it and tech companies are pushed to innovate and improve wireless charging.

I'm not sure how to interpret this post of yours.

 

[Botts85]

I’m looking forward to a better USB-C to Lightning cable, but that pales compared to my excitement for the day Apple enables USB 3 sync speeds.

 

[[AUT] Thomas]

I’m looking forward to a better USB-C to Lightning cable, but that pales compared to my excitement for the day Apple enables USB 3 sync speeds.

The irony here is that the cables lightning chip is the bottleneck. The iPad (at least the Pro) supports it and so do the MacBooks...

 

[MacBH928]

Why does Apple keep lightening around if they want to go all USB-C? They had the courage to make it the only port on Macbook and MacBook Pro , and to drop the headphone jack, and even their own FireWire, so why not lightening?

 

[BiggAW]

Why does Apple keep lightening around if they want to go all USB-C? They had the courage to make it the only port on Macbook and MacBook Pro , and to drop the headphone jack, and even their own FireWire, so why not lightening?

So much "courage" to get rid of the headphone jack LOL. And then Google copied their stupidity. Ugh!

 

[BvizioN]

I'm not sure how to interpret this post of yours.

Let’s break it into little bits for you so your brain can digest it.
“It never is the right time” means that is subjective. For me it is. Have not used the lighting port on my iPhone X for months. Can’t see that changing by much. But for you perhaps is not the right time.
“Going completely wireless charging” means that technology can be improved further, since it would be the only way to charge.
As I said it before, it doesn’t matter if you like it or not or whether you think is the right time or not . Apple will do it and they won’t be the last to do it. You can either adopt or stay still.
I sure hope you understand a bit better now.

 

[kyleh22]

....if only both sides were USB C

 

[826317]

Let’s break it into little bits for you so your brain can digest it.
“It never is the right time” means that is subjective. For me it is. Have not used the lighting port on my iPhone X for months. Can’t see that changing by much. But for you perhaps is not the right time.
“Going completely wireless charging” means that technology can be improved further, since it would be the only way to charge.
As I said it before, it doesn’t matter if you like it or not or whether you think is the right time or not . Apple will do it and they won’t be the last to do it. You can either adopt or stay still.
I sure hope you understand a bit better now.

Lmao the condescension in this is strong. Your lack of reading comprehension skill is also evident. Me saying that "it's not the right time" means that there is no technology that allows me to use my phone and have it charge in a truly wireless fashion, as in, it does not need to be within a centimetre or 2 of a charging pad.

If you're suggesting that iPhones should lose the lightning jack and only use present day Qi standards, you'd be a terrible business strategist.

 

[lordofthereef]

Okay, I’ll play. What would be easier? I can think of one thing, and that’s being able to use one cord.

You mentioned peripherals in another post. Having various devices use the same type of peripheral would be pretty great, I think.

And while we wait for that to happen, Apple sorting out USB C Audio as a standard for example, iPhone users can have a worse experience. Great. Sign me up.

no need to be cynical and snarky man. Apple could run whatever standard they wanted over itneven if proprietary. They've done something similar with Bluetooth already.

But I'm a bit surprised people even care about plugging in their headphones. We had a perfectly good standard for this that Apple decided to remove and most folks were touting Bluetooth audio anyway and looking to the future. The way I see it my experience was worsened by dumping the 3.5mm jack because now I have to keep track of a dongle, and Apple's cables fray for me over a very short period of time.

To be clear I wouldn't have brought this up at all since I feel that horse has been beaten, but you mentioned usb c audio. I have 350% faith that if Apple put their mind to it they could come up with a bullet proof means of producing audio over usb c headphones that would be the envy of the android community lol.
[doublepost=1536250408][/doublepost]

Better than the alternative, when you could buy the wrong USB C cable and screw up your phone and laptop.

You can already do this with crappy (read: knockoff and unlicensed) iPhone cables. This has been a thing since, well, forever. If people are going to the 99 cent store for cables, they risk damaging their components, unfortunately.

 

[zla]

You are talking about habits here. They do change. People are usually good at adopting to changes. With the iPhone X i never found myself in a situation where I had to use it while charging. Never! And I am moderate to heavy user. By the end of the day I will still have around 20% battery. Place my phone on a wireless charger before bed time and pick it in the morning. The only time I have ever plugged this phone to charge via wire was when I was on vacation. Just didn't want to take the charging mat with me.

Point is, battery can be further improved. Wireless charging can be further improved for this to work. And let's just be real for a second. This is the way it is going, like it or not. Wires are NOT the future and life could be better without them. And it will happen sooner then you think.

Just wait until the phone is 2 years old and tell me how good the battery is. Oh, you'll have a new one? Well I'm not counting on that for everyone.

Not to mention I don't want to have a carry around a charging pad (just like you said) I want to just carry around a cable it's smaller and lighter. I don't know if you noticed... but how do those charging pads/mats get their power?
[doublepost=1536251660][/doublepost]

I get that, however I'm on the other end of that spectrum. Everything I have except for my Apple Watch charges over Lightning. I have an Anker charger with 4 USB-A Power IQ ports and 1 USB-C PD port, and that literally covers anything I'd need to charge at home. Travel, I bring the two Apple wallwarts.



USB-C is fine for things as thick as a MacBook. On devices that are handled constantly, where you charge while still using the device, where space is a commodity and every milliamp hour counts, I want the smallest, most durable connector there is. USB-C (once all the non-standard trash is cleared out) is great for personal computers. Otherwise, your argument isn't valid.

lightning is thick, it's the socket that is thick. If you look at how much internal space a usb c jack vs a lightning jack consume on the inside of a phone they are almost identical. There's a reason why the "apple pencil" has the plug end (same as the wall-charger) the socket wouldn't fit inside the pencil.

I hear the "it's smaller" argument a lot and it's not true. Yes the tip at the end of the charger is smaller but the contacts are on the outside (where they can touch a lot of contaminants) which means the socket needs to contact them from the outside. All of the connections on USB c are on the inside of the charging plug.

Trust me, apple isn't winning any thin wars because they have lightning instead of usb c.

EDIT: if you haven't compared the 2 side-by-side you should. (some people haven't physically held a usb c cable yet, you may be part of the crowd) They are surprisingly similar in size, pictures make usb c seem a lot bigger than it actually is.

 

[dannys1]

So, it's estimated to take ~9 months (till mid-2019) for 3rd parties to release these cables, even though they get the "golden" Lightning connector direct from Apple? Are these new cables each hand soldered or something? Gold plated? If you have the Apple Lightning connector in hand, all that's left is a USB-C connector and some wire, for crying out load!

Incorrect - the USB-C to Lightning cable basically includes a mini computer in the connector to handle the various charging speeds each Apple devices has - many of which don't meet USB-C standards so it has to do a bunch of conversion.

This is why the Apple cable is so expensive and why none of the 3rd party cables support fast charge for iOS devices.

 

[Michael Goff]

Especially since the space argument is invalid on the tablets. They could just put in both on the iPad Pro. Then at least the "Pro" would make more sense...

Exactly. The exact same one as for your Macbook. So, for all the wireless enthusiasts: that's one cable less you need to carry around.
A universal standard... what would be easier...
The reason why Apple is holding back on USB-C is that people will realize how limited iOS really is, just by the amount of the mostbasic equipment (like a keyboard) that won't work while it will with literally any Android device thanks to USB OTG.

Except you don’t need Apple to move to USB C to see how limited it is. And having one cable means people are going to eventually just bring lowest common denominator cord and have a bad experience.

You mentioned peripherals in another post. Having various devices use the same type of peripheral would be pretty great, I think.

no need to be cynical and snarky man. Apple could run whatever standard they wanted over itneven if proprietary. They've done something similar with Bluetooth already.

But I'm a bit surprised people even care about plugging in their headphones. We had a perfectly good standard for this that Apple decided to remove and most folks were touting Bluetooth audio anyway and looking to the future. The way I see it my experience was worsened by dumping the 3.5mm jack because now I have to keep track of a dongle, and Apple's cables fray for me over a very short period of time.

To be clear I wouldn't have brought this up at all since I feel that horse has been beaten, but you mentioned usb c audio. I have 350% faith that if Apple put their mind to it they could come up with a bullet proof means of producing audio over usb c headphones that would be the envy of the android community lol.
[doublepost=1536250408][/doublepost]
You can already do this with crappy (read: knockoff and unlicensed) iPhone cables. This has been a thing since, well, forever. If people are going to the 99 cent store for cables, they risk damaging their components, unfortunately.

A) The peripherals a phone needs are few and lightning ones exist.
B) I have full faith that Apple would create a great pair of headphones. Then somebody would buy a third party cheap pair and it wouldn’t work with their phone despite being USB C.

 

[VictorTango777]

Why does Apple keep lightening around if they want to go all USB-C? They had the courage to make it the only port on Macbook and MacBook Pro , and to drop the headphone jack, and even their own FireWire, so why not lightening?

Every time someone in a forum defends Apple's decision to include only USB-C ports on new laptops, we should ask that person for his position on replacing Lightning ports in iPhones and iPads with USB-C and see if we get a contradictory response.

 

[Matthew.H]

And this is why the EU needs to regulate their use of Lightning and force them to go USB-C. The fact that you need "permission" to make a CABLE says "consumer hostile" to me.

I can remember an article on this saying that that 51,000 tons of electrical waste was being produced yearly from old chargers and cables. Personally I 'd love to know how much of that was from the cheap and crappy chargers/cables that people insist on buying for their $700+ devices. Probably a fair bit of waste from pre-smartphone era devices as well in that number.

 

[BiggAW]

I can remember an article on this saying that that 51,000 tons of electrical waste was being produced yearly from old chargers and cables. Personally I 'd love to know how much of that was from the cheap and crappy chargers/cables that people insist on buying for their $700+ devices. Probably a fair bit of waste from pre-smartphone era devices as well in that number.

Or the crappy battery life and longevity that a lot of these devices have, requiring a charger here and there in at your office, in your car, by the couch, etc. If phones just lasted all day and had good battery longevity, we'd only need one cable for each phone, maybe two so you have one for travel.

 

[Matthew.H]

Or the crappy battery life and longevity that a lot of these devices have, requiring a charger here and there in at your office, in your car, by the couch, etc. If phones just lasted all day and had good battery longevity, we'd only need one cable for each phone, maybe two so you have one for travel.

Good point on the battery life especially if your a heavy user. Doesn't help though when people buy chargers from the dollar store that don't last when decent quality ones don't cost the earth. OEM chargers are expensive but you can get chargers from reputable manufacturers such as Anker that are reasonably priced and last just as long if not longer than the OEM ones.

 

[fairuz]

Ugh, just ditch Lightning instead, along with the MFi nonsense. First of all, USB-C is supposed to be THE connector now, especially in Apple's world where laptops ditched everything in favor of it, no overlap. The Android phonemakers already went to USB-C.

And Lightning always sucked. It was superior to micro-USB in terms of capabilities, but man did they screw up the charging. You choose between first-party cables that fray and third-party ones that randomly stop being "genuine." The connector itself isn't even designed to stay in the phone properly, slips out all the time.
[doublepost=1536276161][/doublepost]

Or the crappy battery life and longevity that a lot of these devices have, requiring a charger here and there in at your office, in your car, by the couch, etc. If phones just lasted all day and had good battery longevity, we'd only need one cable for each phone, maybe two so you have one for travel.

In my experience the only awful battery life and longevity was on the iPhone 6. All of them were defective out of the factory, as shown by the decision to throttle them. I still have my iPhone 6 that I'm getting ready to replace with a 5... that's how bad this phone is.
[doublepost=1536276247][/doublepost]

Incorrect - the USB-C to Lightning cable basically includes a mini computer in the connector to handle the various charging speeds each Apple devices has - many of which don't meet USB-C standards so it has to do a bunch of conversion.

This is why the Apple cable is so expensive and why none of the 3rd party cables support fast charge for iOS devices.

Why is this somehow never a problem for Android phones? Or is it?

 

[Abazigal]

Every time someone in a forum defends Apple's decision to include only USB-C ports on new laptops, we should ask that person for his position on replacing Lightning ports in iPhones and iPads with USB-C and see if we get a contradictory response.

There’s nothing contradictory about this. The things I use usb C with on a laptop is different from a smartphone.

I am not going to be hooking my iPhone 8+ up to a 5k display or e-GPU. Nor do I need thunderbolt 3 transfer speeds on a mobile device where most data transfers take place wireless anyways. And lightning is already reversible to begin with.

So far, it seems the only benefit is that I can use the same cable for all my devices, which while convenient, hardly feels like a significant deal-breaker.

Is it enough to warrant throwing away six years of lightning progress and accessories? The gains here seem quite minimal.

 

[SactoGuy18]

Given the ubiquity of the Lightning connector (it's been around since 2012!), Apple will not abandon it immediately for the iPhone and iPad. I do think Apple may improve the connector to support USB 3.0 speed on the iPhone, just like it has been done on the iPad Pro.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

USB-C is perfectly fine for phones. Most Android phones are using it, and it's much better than the crappy Micro-USB port that was never made for phone charging, and breaks easily.

And they're all thicker than the iPhone.

Entirely wireless charging is a nutty idea. Are you going to carry around a wireless charging pad when you travel? What about car charging? Most cars don't have Qi pads built in. I charge my Samsung phone entirely wirelessly day to day, but when traveling, or even when it gets low in the car, you bet I need a wired charging plug.

I did just fine bringing my Anker Powerwave with me on vacation last month. My car mount is a wireless charger. And since I have an iPhone, my battery generally lasts all day anyway, unlike an android phone.

Lastly, the whole USB-C cable thing is overblown. The problem is, most people don't realize that the stock charger is a 5W charger, and you can charge at 12W with Anker PowerIQ or an iPad charger through USB-A, so the 15-18W USB-C PD charging isn't really that important for most people. Oh yeah, and the USB-A 12W charging works with the iPhone 7 lineup as well. There are a few applications where true fast charging is useful, but in most cases, PowerIQ is plenty.

My wired charger is an Anker 30w USB-PD charger. Which has a USB-C port on the block which brings me to...

lightning is thick, it's the socket that is thick. If you look at how much internal space a usb c jack vs a lightning jack consume on the inside of a phone they are almost identical. There's a reason why the "apple pencil" has the plug end (same as the wall-charger) the socket wouldn't fit inside the pencil.

I hear the "it's smaller" argument a lot and it's not true. Yes the tip at the end of the charger is smaller but the contacts are on the outside (where they can touch a lot of contaminants) which means the socket needs to contact them from the outside. All of the connections on USB c are on the inside of the charging plug.

Trust me, apple isn't winning any thin wars because they have lightning instead of usb c.

EDIT: if you haven't compared the 2 side-by-side you should. (some people haven't physically held a usb c cable yet, you may be part of the crowd) They are surprisingly similar in size, pictures make usb c seem a lot bigger than it actually is.

As I've stated numerous times, I have Lightning, USB-C, USB-A, and MicroUSB cables and ports available for comparison. ALL of my wireless chargers user MicroUSB for some inane reason. Mine and my gf's Essential PH-1s are USB-C PD, my HTC U12 Plus was USB-C PD. I know how large the plugs are and I know how large the ports are.

Lightning is smaller. Here's a pretty drawing.

 

[zla]

As I've stated numerous times, I have Lightning, USB-C, USB-A, and MicroUSB cables and ports available for comparison. ALL of my wireless chargers user MicroUSB for some inane reason. Mine and my gf's Essential PH-1s are USB-C PD, my HTC U12 Plus was USB-C PD. I know how large the plugs are and I know how large the ports are.

Lightning is smaller. Here's a pretty drawing.

[/QUOTE]

I know how big the hole is for each port. The lightning port takes up more INTERNAL space on the phone. This causes adding each port to the phone to be the same volume INTERNALLY. The contacts for lighting plug on the end of the cable are on the ouside of the nib. There needs to be features pressing in on the nib from either side of a lighting port. Yes it LOOKS smaller, but if you look inside you're not saving THAT much space.

Notice how the USB C connector has that rectangular feature in the center of the port on the phone? Yeah that's on the outside of the opening on the iphone. I don't know how else to drive my point home.

I've added a handy little picture for you pointing out the areas I'm talking about where the electrical contacts must be placed so that they press inward on the nib.

There are also features coming in from the sides (pentalobe screw direction) to hold the lighting cable in place, making the port wider (internally) than it seems.

 

[lordofthereef]

Except you don’t need Apple to move to USB C to see how limited it is. And having one cable means people are going to eventually just bring lowest common denominator cord and have a bad experience.



A) The peripherals a phone needs are few and lightning ones exist.
B) I have full faith that Apple would create a great pair of headphones. Then somebody would buy a third party cheap pair and it wouldn’t work with their phone despite being USB C.

I am saying that all of this already happens. There already are lowest common demoniator cheap lightning cables all over the internet that people are buying today. Nothing Apple has done with lightning has stopped this.

As far as peripherals go, my point is that it's better for the consumer who uses multiple devices and brands. For those who only use Apple products (specifically applicable only to iOS devices, really), yes, lightning only doesn't effect them. They won't see a benefit.

I was simply saying what benefits, overall, there would potentially be, since you asked a few posts earlier. The fact that you don't acknowledge peripherals matter is certainly your opinion to reserve. I wasn't thinking up ways it would benefit you personally. I don't know you. It certainly would benefit me, as I use android and iPhone daily. My guess is I'm far from alone here, and it's even nice to think that friends and family could potentially utilize various peripherals and charging cables.

To me this entire argument is similar to wireless charging. Soo, so, so sooooo many people were against it. And then apple rolled in a standard that already existed (which I really appreciate, by the way. Kudos!) and now we have one less proprietary thing to juggle, should we choose to use it.

This is my long winded way of saying that standards are nice because they don't limit the use of a device to a brand. You're absolutely free to disagree. If you love lightning, great. You know what? I wouldn't even be having this convo if Apple just allowed lightning everywhere. Let it replace usb c for all I care. It works absolutely well enough for me. I'm just wishing for a standard we can all follow so we don't continue in this path of device specific proprietary cables and peripherals.