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EU Orders Google to Give Rival AI Apps the Same Android Access as Gemini
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Wrong, sorry.
I don’t expect my favorite German non-alcoholic beer to be available at every supermarket in Flagstaff, Arizona. It is always available at at least 2. Occasionally at another 1-2. I buy it where it has tbe best price, or occasionally at the one closest to me.
Doesn’t help you if you want to shop in a particular supermarket and it’s not available there. It means you have to go somewhere else to get it.
The only timeline that matters here is 2023.
It is no coincidence that the iPhone became compliant so late and being last. To distract from the importance of Apple’s well documented and prolonged efforts to resist USB-C implementation on its flagship device is indeed a revisionist view of the company’s USB-C adoption tactics but it is yours, not @ItsASpider’s. Let’s not ignore what really happened, as summarized in the excerpt from The Dawn of Universal Charging: Unraveling the USB-C Standard and Its Protracted Journey below.
A History of Charging Anarchy: The Pre-USB-C Era. - Before USB-C, the landscape of device charging was a Wild West of connectors. Early mobile phones often came with unique charging ports, meaning an upgrade to a new phone often rendered the old charger useless. As technology advanced, micro-USB became a somewhat ubiquitous standard for Android devices and many peripherals, offering a glimmer of hope for compatibility. However, Apple famously (and profitably) stuck to its proprietary Lightning connector, introduced in 2012, further fragmenting the market.
I would not laugh too loud.
The EU Parliament is elected. There are two types of bills which can be put forward to Parliament by the Commission: a directive or a regulation. The Parliament can send a regulation draft back to the Commission with as many amendments they think are necessary.
There is more where this comes from:
Once the Commission returns the draft to the MEPs in a way that pleases the majority, the elected members of the EU vote to adopt or reject the law. This backstop is designed to thwart any attempt by a single commissioner to introduce any laws by themselves.
That is what they have the Commission for, to propose laws. If the Parliament does not like a proposed law, they can mandate amendments until the proposal is acceptable. What’s wrong with that?
BaldiMac
macrumors G3
Or... Apple promised its customers that lightning would be the connector for the next decade. And then switched switched when that promise was fulfilled. Not everything is a conspiracy.
You can tell the propaganda on the topic by how they always say things like "an upgrade to a new phone often rendered the old charger useless." In reality, the charger was almost always USB-A or USB-C. You just might need a new cable... which most people needed every few years anyway.
Apple said lightning would last a decade, and it did.
USBC came in the iPhone both before it was legally required, and 10 years after lightning. It was implemented on apple’s timeline.
Let
They won’t for the very same reason they entered that market in the first place.
And what did consumers gain from Apple sticking to this arbitrary timeline? Nothing. It just means that hundreds of millions more electronic devices will need an obsolete proprietary cable to be charged.
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Samplasion
macrumors 6502a
Apple also said iPhone 16 would support Personal Context on iOS 18, but it releases this fall.
Besides, if it really were the "connector to last a decade", they wouldn't have rushed to replace it with USB-C on devices from which they made less profit through MFi.
surferfb
macrumors 68030
Disagree - they didn’t have to buy a bunch of new cables. My mother in law delayed buying a new phone because Apple switched to USB-C - she didn’t want to buy a bunch of new cables. I suspect she’s much closer to Apple’s typical user than you or I are.
Hell, shortly after Apple switched they started offering features on Pro phones that required USB-C’s bandwidth. But sure, Apple was going to stick with Lightening to make a few million on MiFi licensing that they probably more than made back by people buying overpriced USB-C cables in Apple Stores.
If MiFi was really making Apple so much money they would have left lightening for the rest of world. They also certainly wouldn’t have gone with Qi for wireless charging.
I honestly believe Apple was just more conservative about the switch than most here wanted them to be - which makes sense given how the 30-pin to Lightening transition went. iPhone is by far their biggest product, the needs for fast data transfer speeds weren’t there like they were for iPad - 99% of users just use the port to charge - so it wasn’t as important.
The fact of the matter is the EU froze port innovation to get Apple to do something they were going to do anyway. And oh does the EU love to pat themselves on the back about that great accomplishment; completely missing it is regulations like this one that have led to the EU’s complete inability to innovate and compete. It’d be funny if it weren’t such a negative for consumers.
Samplasion
macrumors 6502a
Do y'all seriously think connectors spawn on phones in random shapes or forms? They obviously take time to engineer and test. And it's not like the EC sits atop a gold throne refusing to speak to anybody. Just like Apple asked them for an exoneration from the DMA, someone could very well make a case for a hypothetical USB-D connector, data in hand. And if that happened, I bet it wouldn't be long before a transition period and eventually a new standard connector.
Your MIL waited so much because Apple insisted on selling iPhones with a nonstandard connector. If the iPhone X had USB-C, there wouldn't have been so many Lightning cables lying around.
Ain't that exactly why it was convenient for them to use a proprietary port on their most popular product.
In what world is the in-laws focus group a good benchmark for determining technological progress? 😂.
A (equally silly) counterexample. I refused to buy AirPods for years because I did not like that the charging case had a Lightning connector.
Everyone involved in tech knew for years that the world would be converging on USB-C for charging and data, long before the EU mandate. Apple only postponed the inevitable. The fact is, Lightning is legacy now and USB-C is the future.
I7guy
macrumors Westmere
Why is the above silly? I see it as perfectly valid for someone’s opinion.
It’s true lightning, the legacy connector will probably be around longer than usb-c, the future.
eddie_ducking
macrumors regular
and that's kind of the scary/depressing part ... we'll be stuck with USB-C for years longer than we should be due to what will inevitably be a long drawn out EU process to enable USB-D, USB-E etc etc to be legal
Say what you will about Lightning, but as a connector (remember, USB-C is simply a connector, it's got nothing to do (really) with the protocols flowing through it) it was far superior to USB-C ... it was easier to insert, especially when unsighted and done by feel (and doesn't scratch the device in the process), it locked in place and thus was less likely to be dislodged (unlike USB-C frequently does) and when devices are dropped while connected, it failed at the cable level and didn't damage the port on the device (again, unlike USB-C).
Lightning was simply let down by lack of development/modernisation ... USB3 speeds were implemented over it (on the 1st and 2nd gen iPad Pro's) it's just a shame that it was never improved further to support PCI Express, DisplayPort and meaningful PD
Who knows ... now that Apple have shown they're willing to donate connection tech to the public domain (as demonstrated by MagSafe/Qi2), maybe we could see the return of a blade type connector as USB-D /P
The time to "donate" Lightning or influence USB-C was 10 years ago. Apple is a very important member of the organization that governs the standard, so it's not like the USB-C was designed without their input. They were in fact one of the earliest adopters.
one more
macrumors 603
The Verge have just given their verdict that Google’s bolder strategy with launching Gemini in the EU anyway was probably a good thing:
www.theverge.com
Google is better than Apple at playing the AI regulations game
Google scored a grace period to bring Android in line with EU rules, while Apple must make Siri AI compliant before launch.
www.theverge.com
turbineseaplane
macrumors Penryn
The Verge have just given their verdict that Google’s bolder strategy with launching Gemini in the EU anyway was probably a good thing:
Google is better than Apple at playing the AI regulations game
Google scored a grace period to bring Android in line with EU rules, while Apple must make Siri AI compliant before launch.
A good summary right up top:
Google scored a grace period to bring Android in line with EU rules, while Apple must make Siri AI compliant before launch.
As "gaming" has shown us, among many other examples, Apple is pretty terrible when it comes to working with any other entity in any role other than a dictatorial one (where Apple is the dictator of terms).
eddie_ducking
macrumors regular
I know, but they're a bit more open and willing to help set global standards now than they were 10-15 years ago (aka MagSafe/Qi2)
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