EU Lawmakers Vote Overwhelmingly in Favor of Common Charging Standard, Despite Apple's Protestations [Updated]

[pierino84]

I see a real advantage of lightning with respect to USB-C for its mechanical design: lightning is a male connector and, if forced, the damage will be mostly done on the male connector plug, not the female socket housed in the iPhone, which is engineered to be quite stiff. USB-C connector is a female plug that surrounds the male part housed in the phone. If that part is damaged, repairs would be more expensive than just buying a new cable as with the lightning situation. It is important to note however that lightning sockets, since they do not have anything that precludes FOB from entering the socket, while the usb-c has at least the inner part that makes it more difficult for the socket to be filled with dust.

 

[Digital Skunk]

Is that a pixel 3 issue? My iphone has been completely dead and shut off a few times and I've just placed it on my Qi wireless charger and it has charged just fine.

Same here and even with other devices, the batter is never completely dead. It'll have enough of a charge to power on, realize it doesn't have enough power, tell the user to charge the device, then shut down.

Oof, I’m sure the SCSI standards group said the same thing. Some crazy myopic commenting going on here.

GREAT reference, and one that not many people will remember.

They said the same thing about 192kb of RAM if I recall correctly.

The environmental argument seems like a red herring. More likely it is a way for the EU et al. to try to exert some control over the tech companies. (see GDPR etc.)

Agreed. Total trash and it seems instead of handling REAL environmental issues they'll just use it as an excuse to get more tax revenue and pass more useless laws.

The healthcare industry pollutes FAR more than tech.

Additionally, Apple tends to adopt a standard that works for them and keep it for 10 years. We all moaned when we heard Lightning didn't have USB3 spec, but at least they haven't made cables obsolete in the past half-decade.

 

[zachlegomaniac]

I wish they would have made it standard for all devices when they adopted it for the iPad Pro. I’m tired of rifling through my bag For the right cable between iPhone 11, iPad Pro, MacBook Air for work. I just don’t get why they went through the trouble of switching to USB C to lightning for the phone instead of just streamlining usb c to usb c.

Having said that I want the government as far out of my business as possible. Can’t have it all, I suppose.

 

[VulchR]

What can lightning do that USB-C can’t?

Lightning is easier to attach than the fiddly USB-C. Honestly, this seems like political micromanagement by the EU.

 

[I7guy]

- more ewaste 1
- consumers 0
- regulations 1

 

[Bearxor]

I am ready to completely switch to USB C. Still don’t get why Apple is fighting this.

USB C is coming to the iPhone this year or next.
But Apple would like to continue selling the iPhone 8, XR, 11, and whatever the SE2 looks like without redesigning them with USB C ports.

 

[theluggage]

I am ready to completely switch to USB C. Still don’t get why Apple is fighting this.

They could be 'briar patching' so that they when they do what they were going to do anyway they can blame the EU for forcing people to buy new cables/docks/headphones... (because Apple would never do that...)

What happens if someone wants to release a phone with only wireless charging?

Presumably the wireless charging mat would need to have a USB-C connection to its wall-wart. AFAIK the full regulations haven't been written yet, but wireless is on the list of considerations.

I do wonder about whether its really necessary to enforce the type of connector on the device rather than simply requiring the PSU to have a standard output socket with a detachable cable - but thinking about it, that might be the simplest way to ensure that the device really can work with competing power supplies and peripherals rather than using non-standard fast charging protocols, video out etc. The USB-C specs may be a bit of a dumpster fire, but at least they exist and the components are available to all.

 

[Kabeyun]

Too late for iphones IF apple this year will start selling Qi charging
From 2021 probably will remove the port

??

Current iPhones are already Qi compatible. And I believe there’s no chance next year’s iPhones ditch a physical port. Wireless charging is still relatively slow, and a zillion accessories, car chargers in particular, would be rendered useless. Yes, Apple does have a history of pushing the curve (SCSI, floppy, optical, headphone jack) but they won’t do this, at least not yet.

 

[Mick-Mac]

Just came here to say that I completely agree with the European ruling - I'm so sick of having zillions of different cables and the ecological damage all that causes. In the perfect world we'd have no cables.

 

[return2sendai]

Don’t forget, um, Planet Earth. Less waste, once we’ve thrown all the old cables into the ocean.

 

[Jim Lahey]

I have no problem with Europe making such choices. I just wish we could stop hearing people in Europe complain when products cost more there than they do elsewhere. Recognize that your choices result in additional cost, and accept it.

Interesting. Whilst I’m not normally one to complain or compare prices across markets, I wonder if you, as a consumer, would be so blasė if you had to pay ~$1,700US for a 256GB iPhone 11 Pro Max. I suspect not

 

[Stevez67]

USB-C is becoming more common "now" but would surely be replaced by something faster, more secure, and more compatible with specific classes of devices were it not for this kind of short-sighted and inappropriate regulation.

 

[Der Keyser]

I don't see a problem having both USB-C PD and Lightening at home. What annoys me is that toothbrush, Karcher window vac, Hoover cordless vac, Dyson humidifier all have their own power adapters. A solution could be to force appliance manufacturers to sell devices without power adapters so that consumer could buy power adapter independently or reuse an existing one.

Exactly!!

until they Outlaw Selling chargers with the devices the new law has NO effect.
They need to standardize on USB-C AND make it illegal to supply a charger with a device in the same price/package

 

[theluggage]

Well, we got rid of the UK from today,

...so the EU is now free to agree on a standard mains plug without being forced to consider the technically superior (individually fused plugs, non-reversible neutral and live, shuttered sockets opened by the ground pin, insulated pins...) UK design...?

 

[IIGS User]

What can lightning do that USB-C can’t?

Help Apple make money

This thread was done on the first page.

Why the different cables and standards? USB-C is far better than Lightning. There's no advantage to sticking to lighting except that Cook has a crap load of them in a warehouse someplace, and wants to sell more cables and chargers.

If Apple goes wireless all way around, fine. I bet that effort is all set up and ready to go. But not until they make enough coin off what they've got in the pipe all ready.

It used to be it kinda felt like Apple was interested in being a decent company that provided value and genuine solutions to the customer. Sure, you paid more. But you knew what you were getting.

I guess you still do.

Hosed. You're getting hosed....

 

[minimo3]

If they were really serious about reducing e-waste as opposed to targeting specific companies they would mandate a standard cable for electrical devices that are far more widely used than phones: I.e. all microwaves, fans, lamps, toasters, kettles, DVD players, cable modems, wireless routers, alarms, doorbells, food processors, mixers, shredders, coffee machines, speakers, amplifiers, radios, alarm clocks, lawn mowers, hedge trimmers, and why not electric cars? Each of them uses its own proprietary cord and sometimes it’s own charger brick.

 

[960design]

Apple removes headphone jack... Apple removes charging port.
Wireless charging only.

Charging port now called communications port and it may be used for charging as well.

 

[GermanSuplex]

Makes sense to me. Having tons of devices each offering their own cable/adapter for basic functions like syncing/charging is a giant waste of resources from beginning to end. With a standard, companies could stop packing chargers/cables in with each device at it would be assumed most people have them anyways, sort of like a lot of USB-charging devices only sync with a cable (and sometimes not even that) because they assume everyone has them.

 

[mat3141]

And that's because instead of adopting USB-C like the rest of the industry, Apple insisted on creating it's own proprietary charging ports. So this is entirely their own fault.

Apple developed Lightning long before USB-C was available. A fair comparison would be Lightning vs. micro-USB. Lightning is better.

 

[L-Viz]

I applaud the European Union for this decision and sincerely hope, that the US, China and other leading countries of Asia will follow suit.

USB-C outperforms Lightning by far and currently is the best option for any mobile device, this fact is undisputed. But this regulation won't mean that we will stick witch USB-C for decades to come.

No, it will mean that politics takes control of the current chaos with multiple standards. In 10 years, this standard will be considered old and a new standard (maybe USB-D) will be presented to the EU by a whole consortium of leading tech companies to replace the old standard. The EU will comply with a transition phase and will introduce the new standard.

What matters is, that no individual company will come up with their own proprietary plug. They will have to share their innovation with other companies. They all will be together in creating future standards in order to avoid overproduction of chargers and cables, avoid millions of those things to be sent to trash each month!

I would like to see the G20 get involved in this kind of work, why do we all have to get used to all kinds of different power plugs? There should be one global standard too! Will we have to deal with regional plugs for the next 1000 years? If all leading countries could agree on one plug and one voltage, we could have every appliance and every building transitioned within 20 years. We need to act NOW!

 

[elfxmilhouse]

Another issue with going Qi charging only. If the battery is completely drained, it can no longer charge with Qi. I've just had a Pixel 3 (dev device) sitting on a Qi charger for 3 hours, and it hasn't charged at all. It's a dev device for when I do Android development and it hasn't been used in a while so it was completely dead. Had to plug it into a cable for it start charging again.

This legislation will likely backfire. One of it's stated goals is to reduce waste, but the easiest answer for Apple will be to just include a USB-C to Lightning dongle. Most people won't use or need it, so it'll just be extra waste.

I don't think thats a Qi limitation, maybe something weird with the pixel 3 or your particular unit. I also have a few android devices (v30, pixel 3, and moto z) that i leave in a drawer until they are completely dead and they all have been able to be charged via Qi. I have also been able to charge my completely dead iphone 8 wirelessly.

 

[CollinH]

100% in favor of a USB-C standard for all mobile devices.
80% in favor of going entirely wireless.
0% in favor of bureaucrats anywhere having any say in the matter.

 

[theluggage]

Next step is to mandate not including a cable and charger in the box of a new phone.

Exactly. However, a pre-requisite for that is to have a standard charger - otherwise its a license for manufacturers to gouge customers for the hidden extra of a proprietary charger and blame the EU (something virtually all manufacturers would happily do)

 

[Useless Touchbar]

I recently moved to the USB-C era Macbooks and had to get used to the single-port lifestyle so don't you dare telling me that this goddamn port isn't now the way to go in all Apple devices

 

[Valkyre]

Tell by guy from the land of Fahrenheit

And dont forget the genius of the imperial system!