Kuo: AirPods, MagSafe Battery Pack, and Other Apple Accessories Also to Switch to USB-C in Future

xpxp2002 said:
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I have two iPhones, iPad, Apple Pencil, AirPods, and a MBP; and only the MacBook Pro is USB-C -- the rest all have Lightning connectors. As a result, I've got numerous Lightning cables and USB-A chargers connected to them scattered around the house and in my travel bag, but only two USB-C/TB3 cables and one USB-C charger (the one that came with the MBP).
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You already have USB-C for your MBP, and most iPads already use USB-C. Use that cable to ease up the transition? Also iPhone fast chargers are also on USB-C. Whatever your situation, I believe it's still way easier to move from Lightning to C instead of the other way around.
 
iSayuSay said:
most iPads already use USB-C
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This is not true. Only the newest iPad Air and Pros have USB-C. My iPad Pro is Lightning, as are the base model and nearly all older Airs and Pros.

One cable to charge five devices isn't going to work well. I'll end up having to go out and buy new cables. And at the end of the day, that's just me. The reality is that while everyone can make excuses for why we should ignore all the waste that such a change will generate, despite Apple's environmentally-conscious PR, most people will simply throw away cables that they view as obsolete and no longer usable.

Most people who own an Apple product only have an iPhone. No iPad or MacBook. For them, the Lightning cable is just as useful and convenient as anything with USB-C. In fact, it's actually better because of the cable design -- it doesn't have a fragile internal connector tongue like USB-C that can easily break off.

Even if those Lightning cables have a limited life left in them with legacy devices, most people will throw them in the trash as soon as they get their first USB-C iPhone. Apple's change will have a significant real world impact on the artificial creation of e-waste that will largely be driven by consumer perception that their old cables have no value anymore, and they will end up in landfills. I guarantee it.
 
xpxp2002 said:
I don't see how one end already being USB-C makes a difference. If either end/port is different, you need a new cable.

Because MacBooks and (newer) iPads are such a proportionally small market compared to iPhones, I can't agree. The best way to avoid environmental impact is: reduce, reuse, recycle -- in that order. A switch to USB-C does not allow for reducing or reusing, and would in fact do the opposite: creating a surge in demand for new cables and chargers to perform the same function that Lightning hardware that people already possess today already does.

I have two iPhones, iPad, Apple Pencil, AirPods, and a MBP; and only the MacBook Pro is USB-C -- the rest all have Lightning connectors. As a result, I've got numerous Lightning cables and USB-A chargers connected to them scattered around the house and in my travel bag, but only two USB-C/TB3 cables and one USB-C charger (the one that came with the MBP).

As a result, switching from Lightning to USB-C in the iPhone, iPad, and AirPods would just leave me with a bunch of Lightning cables and USB-A chargers that are no longer usable to me and need to be replaced with functionally-identical USB-C cables and chargers. That's unnecessary cost for me and the creation of waste as those Lightning cables are still functional, but rendered artificially useless by Apple's choice to adopt a new port.

The point being that I'm certain many others are in the same situation because most Apple devices to date by quantities sold have a Lightning port, not USB-C. The result would be that millions of people would end up with a large amount of Lightning waste that they end up deciding to throw away because they had to go out and buy redundant USB-C replacements, and those Lightning cables aren't and won't be usable with any new devices going forward.
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Yeah, they already did this once going from the 30 pin to the lightning so... Also, apple could offer an exchange or turn in for those old lightning cables that you would no longer use. Again, it won't create anymore waste than already out there since the lightning cords/cables are some of the most cheaply made cables out there and don't last as it is.
 
xpxp2002 said:
This is not true. Only the newest iPad Air and Pros have USB-C. My iPad Pro is Lightning, as are the base model and nearly all older Airs and Pros.
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Are you talking about all iPads in the wild, or new iPads which are currently being offered by Apple?

If it’s the latter than sorry bud, only the cheapest 10.2” iPad has the Lightning. The newest Mini, Air and Pros all moved on with USB-C.
 
xpxp2002 said:
The Lightning cables are already manufactured and people own them thanks to all the iPhones and AirPods already out in the wild.

Switching to USB-C will simply create a cable replacement super cycle where a bunch of completely functional Lightning cables end up in landfills.
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Counterpoint: The longer that Apple produces Lightning (by nearly all counts, an inferior port to USB-C), the more unnecessary, outdated Lightning cables are brought into the world. Apple can REDUCE waste by switching to USB-C as soon as possible. They longer they keep shipping this old tech, the more waste they eventually produce.

Furthermore, as with powered accessories that work with Android AND iOS, nearly every third party accessory comes with a micro USB or USB-C cable. If Apple switched to USB-C years ago, I’m confident that many accessory makers could ditch the included cable. I already have a bin full of unused bundled USB-C and micro USB cables, but for an iOS-only user who’s buying their first power bank, it could be their very first USB-C cable, so it needs to be included.

Also, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’ve ever thrown away a perfectly fine cable. Lightning cables will continue to be useful for the literal billions of existing devices and accessories out there.

You’re basically saying that the best way to reduce waste is to keep selling Lightning devices. I argue that the BEST way to reduce waste in the long run is to jump to USB-C as early as possible, and that Apple’s choice to stick with Lightning (despite there being a better standard) has created unnecessary tons of waste in the long run which could have been reduced if it wasn’t for Apple’s arrogance and greediness.
 
Even kuo is getting a lot wrong in the last 18 months. I reckon it’s probable we will get USB C this year.
 
I must be honest I’m glad for this change. All the different connector types are really annoying. Not just on apple products but in general. USB-a, USB-C, lightning, micro usb. Just pick one for the love of God.

USB-a in particular needs to die. It shouldn’t exist in 2022.
 
mrat93 said:
If Apple cared about reducing waste, why haven’t they created a Lightning cable that doesn’t fray?
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Fraying is more profitable. Sell more cables to consumers and/or collect more royalties from others who will sell the cables to consumers.

However, Apple does make a lot of effort in support of environment. This one just happens to collide with "maximize profits" more than others, so it remains an exception.

Brace yourself though: that kind of post should get you about 20 posts like "I'm still using my first lightning cable from 5 years ago and it is perfect in every way. Been through the wash 10 or 12 times, run over 5 times, my kids play tug of war or jump rope with it frequently, I just used it to tow my buddy's broken-down-truck, my dog has eaten it at least 10 times, etc." You know it's coming. ;)
 
Leon Ze Professional said:
And so it begins that Apple jump on the USB C bandwagon!
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You misspelled 'common standard'.

Begins??? Apple decided to adopt USB-C back in 2016 and its about time they move everything to it. The only advantage Lightning has for AirPod charging is letting you use your existing cables, but now the same thing is true for USB-C.
 
xpxp2002 said:
This is not true. Only the newest iPad Air and Pros have USB-C. My iPad Pro is Lightning, as are the base model and nearly all older Airs and Pros.

One cable to charge five devices isn't going to work well. I'll end up having to go out and buy new cables. And at the end of the day, that's just me. The reality is that while everyone can make excuses for why we should ignore all the waste that such a change will generate, despite Apple's environmentally-conscious PR, most people will simply throw away cables that they view as obsolete and no longer usable.

Most people who own an Apple product only have an iPhone. No iPad or MacBook. For them, the Lightning cable is just as useful and convenient as anything with USB-C. In fact, it's actually better because of the cable design -- it doesn't have a fragile internal connector tongue like USB-C that can easily break off.

Even if those Lightning cables have a limited life left in them with legacy devices, most people will throw them in the trash as soon as they get their first USB-C iPhone. Apple's change will have a significant real world impact on the artificial creation of e-waste that will largely be driven by consumer perception that their old cables have no value anymore, and they will end up in landfills. I guarantee it.
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Yah let’s not move forward at all!! ?
 
B4U said:
The argument of everyone has a 5W block means they are shipping a USB-A to USB-C cable, right?
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Only Apple seems to have this problem - third party USB-C devices costing much less than Apple products come with multiple cables or an adapter. Not very "green" but then the "green" solution is not to bundle any chargers or cables and instead to expect consumers to be smart enough to buy the appropriate extras (I won't need any more USB chargers for the foreseeable future).

Premium1 said:
As they should. If Apple truly cares about the environment, needing to have multiple different cords for different devices is stupid.
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If Apple truly cared for the environment they'd shut up shop and let people make do with their perfectly good 5-year-old equipment, and if we really cared about the environment we'd applaud that. Meanwhile, changing the connector will send a metric shedload of lightning cables to landfill.

fooobar said:
well for others it's the opposite - we have lightning cables pretty much everywhere, multiples in each location actually (bedrooms, living room, kitchen, cars, travel bags, etc.) since most of our devices all still use them (iphones, ipads, airpods, power banks, etc.) and comparatively have very few devices that use USB-C.
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Yup. Just switched to a Mac Studio and needing to plug USB-C-to-A adapters into its every orifice. I could replace the cables, but that would entail hunting down things like USB-A to B cables that are extra long, or have right-angle B-connectors that suit my cable routing needs, but then there are other reasons why I can't go all-USB-C...

First, there's also still no USB-C equivalent of the $40 USB 3 hub with 7 USB 3 ports and 3 charging ports which, yes, I sometimes need. Then I'm using a (new) MateView display which has 2 downstream USB A ports that are perfect for plugging in keyboards, mouse dongles, webcams and suchlike. Finally, the Studio itself has 4 TB4, 2 USB-C/3.2 and 2 USB-A/3 sockets + a HDMI that can free up a TB4 port from second monitor duties, which isn't half bad - better than my iMac, but still includes 2 USB-A ports. So I'm still stuck in a mixed USB-A/USB-C economy.

It might actually have been better if they'd gone all-USB-C on the Studio (but kept the HDMI). Unlike laptops, where carrying around extra adapters is a pain, having C-to-A dongles plugged in is not such a big deal (and the Studio USB-C sockets are vertical so unlike the MacBooks you can plug dongles into adjacent sockets).

(Wireless mouse dongles & USB drives are another example of why "worse is the new better" with USB-C: most of the circuitry fits within the shaft of the USB-A plug so they can be very low profile, great for leaving plugged into laptops, keyboards etc. Where USB-C alternatives do exist, they're bigger than the USB-A ones because the circuitry has to live in the 'handle').

JustinCymbal said:
Having everything using the same charger will be great
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Just to stickle: everything already does use the same charger, since nearly all Apple chargers now have either a USB-C or A socket on the charger - just carry two cables. Of course, being able to use the same cable would be even better, but carrying two cables is better than carrying two chargers. Also, I've got USB-A sockets in my car, they turn up in hotel rooms (yeah, at your own risk), planes etc. so it still makes sense to carry whatever-to-USB-A charge cables as a backup.

...which is the problem. USB A just isn't going away, even on Apple devices, and it's very hard to eliminate it from your life unless you exclusively use MacBooks and iDevices.
 
xpxp2002 said:
This is not true. Only the newest iPad Air and Pros have USB-C. My iPad Pro is Lightning, as are the base model and nearly all older Airs and Pros.

One cable to charge five devices isn't going to work well. I'll end up having to go out and buy new cables. And at the end of the day, that's just me. The reality is that while everyone can make excuses for why we should ignore all the waste that such a change will generate, despite Apple's environmentally-conscious PR, most people will simply throw away cables that they view as obsolete and no longer usable.

Most people who own an Apple product only have an iPhone. No iPad or MacBook. For them, the Lightning cable is just as useful and convenient as anything with USB-C. In fact, it's actually better because of the cable design -- it doesn't have a fragile internal connector tongue like USB-C that can easily break off.

Even if those Lightning cables have a limited life left in them with legacy devices, most people will throw them in the trash as soon as they get their first USB-C iPhone. Apple's change will have a significant real world impact on the artificial creation of e-waste that will largely be driven by consumer perception that their old cables have no value anymore, and they will end up in landfills. I guarantee it.
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If you actually feel this way, please add some comment about how WRONG Apple is for using USBc in just about every other major product they offer. Just about every reason you offer in that post seems to imply Apple's 'stupidity'(?) for putting 'fragile internal connector tongues' in every OTHER product instead of building Macs and new iPads with Lightning.

Else, if Apple is RIGHT in using USBc in everything else, they should be just as right in adopting it in iPhone and iPhone accessories too. OR, if Apple is WRONG about that, they apparently need to switch all of the rest of the mix to using the superior Lightning.

Apples own momentum of switching Lightning to USBc shows that they increasingly endorse using the jack. To argue against it here is arguing that Apple is making a WRONG decision in almost everything else. In all such posts, that doesn't happen. Apparently Apple is perfectly RIGHT for using USBc where they have chosen to use it and perfectly RIGHT for using lightning where they continue to use lightning.

In my experience, USBc is no more 'fragile' than lightning. I've never had a tongue 'easily break off' for either nor even read about that happening with just about anyone else. I would guess that is probably as frequent as those occasional stories of an iPhone spontaneously combusting. Yes, it CAN/DOES happen but it is likely much rarer than all of the "a few users may be experiencing this issue" Apple shares when something seems wrong with anything.

I agree that once iPhone and related accessories switch, Lightning cables will likely be retired soon afterwards... and ultimately end up in landfills. Same when 30-pin was retired. Same with Firewire. Same with whatever was before that. In countless threads where we want to embrace Apple embracing "the future" we consistently sling ridicule examples of SCSI, floppy disks, etc in support. Where did all that SCSI stuff and all those floppy disks and drives end up? Apparently that Apple-driven waste creation is fine though... because those arguments attempt to rationalize Apple making some change. That's how this will go too... as soon as rumor of it becomes reality.

If Apple cares about this particular kind of waste, they can offer a robust reward for recycling all things Lightning. Maybe "swap your lightning cables and dongles for USBc cables & dongles for free and we will then recycle them to minimize environmental waste." Yes, I know that would likely NEVER happen but that would resolve most of this concern if Apple actually cared enough about it.

Very simply: Apple making the change eventually lightens our load of accessory stuff we have to carry, complies with growing GOV momentum to perhaps preserve the opportunity to keep selling iPhone in a gigantic EU market and similar, very likely adds significant improvement in transfer speeds which will be even more important for 48-megapixel photo transfers and perhaps 8K video transfers, etc. If anything, maybe we should hope for Thunderbolt 4/USBc hybrid to comply with EU demands AND maximize transfer speeds far beyond what Lightning can do.

The consumers with Lightning-only accessories- especially third-party expensive stuff- will need to deal with buying an adapter eventually... much as we did with 30-pin accessories when Lightning took over. Yes, that is a hassle ONCE but then works fine until those products eventually conk.
 
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darngooddesign said:
Begins??? Apple decided to adopt USB-C back in 2016 and its about time they move everything to it.
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2015 actually - it debuted with the 12" MacBook.

Trouble is, Apple had it a bit back-to-front. USB-C is a great improvement over microUSB for phones, tablets and small peripherals - and phones/tablets always needed dongles for anything other than charge/sync. Instead, they started with all-USB-C laptops, which were large enough to support multiple ports, where carrying dongles around is a pain and where people often use them on mains power, so you 'waste' an IO/Display port connecting the power brick. Which is a problem when you've only got 1 (12" MacBook) or 2 (Air and low-end MB Pro) ports in total.

...then they keep USB-A on Desktops where it would be much less trouble to use dongles/adapter cables, and the charging issue doesn't exist. Not so bad on the ~2017-2018 models, but even I'd concede that the USB-A ports on Studio seem kinda pointless when there's plenty of space to leave dongles plugged in.

(Of course, behind this is the problem that a full-featured TB4 port, or even a USB-C with 3.1g2 and DisplayPort support requires significantly more resources to implement than a plain old USB A/3.0)
 
xpxp2002 said:
This is not true. Only the newest iPad Air and Pros have USB-C. My iPad Pro is Lightning, as are the base model and nearly all older Airs and Pros.

One cable to charge five devices isn't going to work well. I'll end up having to go out and buy new cables. And at the end of the day, that's just me. The reality is that while everyone can make excuses for why we should ignore all the waste that such a change will generate, despite Apple's environmentally-conscious PR, most people will simply throw away cables that they view as obsolete and no longer usable.

Most people who own an Apple product only have an iPhone. No iPad or MacBook. For them, the Lightning cable is just as useful and convenient as anything with USB-C. In fact, it's actually better because of the cable design -- it doesn't have a fragile internal connector tongue like USB-C that can easily break off.

Even if those Lightning cables have a limited life left in them with legacy devices, most people will throw them in the trash as soon as they get their first USB-C iPhone. Apple's change will have a significant real world impact on the artificial creation of e-waste that will largely be driven by consumer perception that their old cables have no value anymore, and they will end up in landfills. I guarantee it.
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That’s not true there’s two generations of iPad Air that support usb-c not just the newest one (4th and 5th gen)
 
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