Great, but there is a 0% likelihood that I’ll ever buy a device with the long-outdated lightning port on it ever again.
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India May Exempt Certain Devices From Law That Would Force USB-C Port
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Does it? It’s always felt pretty sturdy with my Beats Studio Buds and M1 MacBook Air.
Agree all forms that are one direction should be ended promptly. I really don't care if it's L or C as long as it's one of those
Sure, but you increase the size/bulk, provide nooks for sweat to accumulate and corrode contacts, as well as preventing putting on the charger after a workout (wet contacts)
What drawback? One of the two supplied cables sits in my travel kit for when I'm out of town, the other stays at the spot where I charge most of my cycling and outdoor gadgets.
Just like the two apple watch pucks I have; one at my nightstand and the other in my travel kit.
Oh wait, you want USBC ports embedded in watches and airpods too.
This carve out doesn’t really make sense. Apple will probably transition everything.
Personally for me, I am not ready for a USB C Transition, I still have so many lightning wires.
I would have to recycle a lot of old iPhone cables when both AirPods and my phone are USB C.
Also, the claim that the average household has many USB C Wires lying around is completely false. All of them get used up in my house, and I am not looking forward to buy more USB C Wires when the transition is ready to happen for me. These claims come from big tech YouTubers that can get every new device when they come out.
And judging that the USB C port is not very durable...
My dad needed to buy a new Android phone just because his USB C port broke. 2 month old phone btw.
(How do I convince him to switch to iPhone lol, DM me please.)
I would have to recycle a lot of old iPhone cables when both AirPods and my phone are USB C.
Also, the claim that the average household has many USB C Wires lying around is completely false. All of them get used up in my house, and I am not looking forward to buy more USB C Wires when the transition is ready to happen for me. These claims come from big tech YouTubers that can get every new device when they come out.
And judging that the USB C port is not very durable...
My dad needed to buy a new Android phone just because his USB C port broke. 2 month old phone btw.
(How do I convince him to switch to iPhone lol, DM me please.)
Ur gonna feel really silly when u find out what year usbC came out
USB C will become the standard in the future. Exempting feature phones to reduce the cost might be ok.
Yeah the Lightning port was great. For a while, when no single better standard existed.
Then USB-C arrived, which Apple debuted on Macs eight years ago when there were barely any devices around to plug into it. And dongle-life began.
Frankly I don't give a toss which socket they use. I just want them to use the same socket across all their devices. And that socket isn't ever going to be Lightning. They just delayed the inevitable, because it will happen by law in 2024, if not sooner.
Technically Joz didn’t say they would switch to USB-C. He said they would “have to comply.” As obstinate as Apple has been with government regulations lately, there are other ways to interpret that sentence.
And they have already designed and shipped iPhones with a different set of ports. EMEA has SIM tray, US does not. A USB-C vs Lightning vs no port at all is a remarkably similar assembly line situation.
Have plenty of C here but would also be in the boat of Lightning being useless too. And your dad's case is why I like L over C. If the connector of L would break, which has never ever happened, the cord will fray first or it will stop working, unless it gets jammed in the port somehow, you just get a new cable. If it breaks on C, the phone is broken, and you can't charge wired anymore without a repair or new device.
These laws stop progress. USB-C seems like a good port now but will be hopelessly behind sooner than we imagine. If this EU law had been written 30 years ago we would have been stuck with RS-323 ports for a long time. 25 years ago and it would have been USB-A. 20 years ago it would have been ISB-mini, 10 years ago would have locked in future devices with micro-USB. All of those would have made some sense at the time. But mandating them by law would have frozen the development of better, faster and smaller standards. Who is going to invest in the development of the next-gen “USB-D or E” connector if they can’t be incorporated in upcoming devices? Due ti this silly law we may never know what future would have brought. Surely, it would have been something that would have made USB-C look clunky and impractical. Just like USB-C make the older ports look now in 2023.
The law wasn't enacted to halt progress. It was enacted to discourage people like Apple solely equipping their devices with a proprietary port that they were neither willing to licence to other OEMs (except for peripherals designed to wholly interact with Apple devices) nor abandon without legal force. It's a bit ridiculous to believe that we're now stuck with USB-C for the next thousand years just because of an EU law. That just won't happen.
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If you lose or break your aftershockz cable, you can’t just go into any store to replace it. At least the Apple Watch charging puck is fairly ubiquitous and easy to find (but pricey). Smartwatches should still have one charging standard though.
It’s great that you’ve developed a system so you always have the necessary cable present, but as soon as we argue that devices with a “better” connection should use that connection, there’s nothing stopping every manufacturer from saying they need their proprietary connection that’s “better” and the number of required cables quickly goes up while availability of said cables goes down.
I understand there are use cases where USB-C does not not work, and sometimes exceptions may be necessary, but sweat isn’t that hard to handle, and a wraparound design has room for a port. Just stick a rubber plug in it or offer a hatch and you can charge right after the sweatiest workout. Amazon even demonstrates that there are solutions for converting a USB-C port to magnetic without losing usb-c functionality.
Even if you want to maintain that the magnetic connection is necessary, it should be standardized. I have snap spectacles with their own magnetic connection. Ideally the case would be USB-C, but barring that the magnetic connection on the spectacles should be interchangeable with the device in your example as they are being employed for the same reasons. One must be careful to avoid a proliferation of standards though, or else we’re back to square one.
PS: the AirPods case should absolutely have USB C once the iPhone switches over.
Perhaps, though it does ensure that no company has any real incentive to independently develop a new/innovative port design in the future. Granted that doesn't necessarily preclude the market leaders from collaborating on something new, but that will far more likely be an evolutionary compromise rather than something truly innovative.
Yet oddly you can buy a Lightning charging cable at any gas station, grocery store, dollar store, flea market, etc. Even where I am in a rural county (pop ~22k).
If that were to somehow happen - which is improbable - I can have any of the the myriad OEM and clone Shokz charging cables here from Amazon in two days. Same for an Apple Watch charging puck.
So that's just not an issue. At least not for me.
Plus a replacement cable - as low as US$8 - is far less expensive than an Apple Watch puck. (which I similarly haven't had any issues with losing or breaking...
)Sure there is - per the article the government would have to exempt items, and thus there'd need to be some sort of review process. Perhaps with lobbying and palms greased.
Even absent that, there's the thing called consumer preference - aka people voting with their wallet. You don't need to buy devices with ports you don't wish to support. Don't want a proprietary magnetic charging connection as used by Shokz, go buy one of the various others.
So you do agree that sometimes exceptions may be necessary. That was the point of my reply to Eorlas's claim of "there's 0% reason for these exclusions to exist" - though strictly speaking I was refuting the general concept of no exclusions for "hearables" rather than airpod cases specifically.
You must not do much summertime outdoor running or cycling in the southeast US. I've killed numerous supposedly sweatproof earbuds and headphones over the years before switching to Shokz (formerly AfterShokz) three years ago.
There's a reason you'll find that running/sports watches - such as those from Garmin or others - tend not to use ports but instead have a magnetic or clip type mechanism for charging.
Yet there's still the proprietary magnetic connection to charge the earbuds within the case, and to leverage your first sentence: If you lose or break your
(I don't care about whether airpod case is USBC or Lightning, just don't to back to mini-B or micro-B. Again, the point of my post was refuting the concept of zero reason for any exclusions)
Yeah, and in order to wear the 'Made for iPhone' logo they have to pay Apple a licencing fee of approximately one kidney and a leg, just to make a cable which, like I said, fits only Apple devices, so in my country where Apple products don't dominate, the incentive to do that is shrinking fast.
Here in the US, kidneys and legs must be pretty cheap since the cables I see in various shops are generally about the same $8 to $10 as the micro-B cables.
Ya know what doesn't have that sort of availability? USBC cables. Much less common, and typically 1.5-2x the price.
You're right though - market penetration will drive accessory availability and pricing. Given the broad popularity of iphones here, lightning cables are ubiquitous. I acknowledge that may not be the case in your country, and thus your perception would be different than mine.