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It's the endless struggle between:

"I've already got a bunch of Lightning cables everywhere"

and

"I just want to use the same cable to charge my iPhone and my Macbook"

Who will win? Stay tuned for the fight of the century!

?
Dude. Mac and iPad are already usb-c for many years now. The fight is over.
 
I said this in the last Thread about iPhone 15 but I expect AirPods Pro to come with usb-c while the keyboard and mouse should get the update this fall as well.

They need a bit of space after just releasing the new accessories with the Mac Studio.

The mouse needs a redesign anyway while the keyboard will just get a port change IMO.

I don’t see standard AirPods getting it until maybe next year or after the iPhone 15.

I only expect the iPhone 15 Pro to get usb-c first anyway due to 8K proRes while the standard lags behind another year.
 
Dude. Mac and iPad are already usb-c for many years now. The fight is over.

Everything is fine and dandy until iPhone comes in the equation. It's either Lightning or MagSafe.. oh and of course Apple Watch needs its own charging puck, and Pencil needs to sit on the iPad to charge it up. What a mess for a company that used to be proud and has a tight ecosystem.
 
But we're still waiting for a USB-C port on the iPhone and a few other things too.

The fight continues!

:p
You didn’t get it right? Ok try this. iPad used to have lightning but Apple decided to use usb-c instead. They already admitted defeat so why resist? The fight is already over. They gave in to the pressure to use usb-c.

Just how many paraphrasing do you need is the real question here.
 
Everything is fine and dandy until iPhone comes in the equation. It's either Lightning or MagSafe.. oh and of course Apple Watch needs its own charging puck, and Pencil needs to sit on the iPad to charge it up. What a mess for a company that used to be proud and has a tight ecosystem.
Good thing I don’t see the need of Apple watch. Otherwise I will have to carry yet another cable.
 
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Apple's the best when it comes to software transition, but the worst when it comes to connector transitions.
This one will be really messy. Lightning should have been ditched 2-3 years ago already.
 
I work on a television show that used iPhones exclusively in two episodes now. We shot 4K ProRes resulting in HUGE files.

There is simply no good way to transfer the footage from iPhone to Mac, as Lightning caps out at USB 2.0 speeds. I tried using AirDrop to see if there was a speed improvement, but not enough to warrant experimenting with wireless.

Image Capture/Photos is the only application to import the footage, which sometimes crashes and you have to start from the beginning - like I said, the files are massive. An ingest could take 30 mins to an hour for a 5 minute recording.

It is ridiculous to me that a "Pro" phone released in 2021 doesn't have USB-C, especially knowing the limitations of Lightning and touting this as a "professional camera replacement"
 
I definitely see the value in using a single cord, and I know these phase-outs have to start somewhere. USB-C is a no-brainer for a bunch of reasons.

At the same time, though, there are probably billions of Lightning cables and devices out there, and in reality it takes ages for a connector to truly be phased out.

Hell, I've still got plenty of older and still quite functional stuff that wants to charge with those god-awful unidirectional micro USB connectors. I'm not going to throw away a perfectly good Qi charger or external battery or eReader or Jabra earbuds because they use an annoying connector. I've got a very expensive mechanical keyboard sitting here that uses a crusty old mini USB connector.

Sure, eventually these things will die (though the keyboard is probably gonna last another decade or more and in the year of our lord 2032 I may well be using a mini-USB cable ?) Likewise I'm certainly not going to be rid of my Lightning port Touch ID Magic Keyboard until it actually breaks or a new one comes packed with a Mac I buy down the road. I imagine their replacements will be USB-C, which is great. But the "one cable for everything" can be pretty elusive.
 
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I definitely see the value in using a single cord, and I know these phase-outs have to start somewhere. USB-C is a no-brainer for a bunch of reasons.

At the same time, though, there are probably billions of Lightning cables and devices out there, and in reality it takes ages for a connector to truly be phased out.

Hell, I've still got plenty of older and still quite functional stuff that wants to charge with those god-awful unidirectional micro USB connectors. I'm not going to throw away a perfectly good Qi charger or external battery or Jabra earbuds because they use an annoying connector. I've got a very expensive mechanical keyboard sitting here that uses a crusty old mini USB connector.

Sure, eventually these things will die (though the keyboard is probably gonna last another decade or more and in the year of our lord 2032 I may well be using a mini-USB cable ?) Likewise I'm certainly not going to be rid of my Lightning port Touch ID Magic Keyboard until it actually breaks or a new one comes packed with a Mac I buy down the road. I imagine their replacements will be USB-C, which is great. But the "one cable for everything" can be pretty elusive.

Exactly this. I've been carrying a Lightning to USB-C and USB-C to C since upgrading to newest MacBook a few years back. The cable is perfectly acceptable and ubiquitous in our society enough to where if we start to switch ports on products, you'll still be able to find and use both. I still have a Kindle and gaming headset with Micro USB.

Now does it make sense for Apple to sell computer accessories with a port that is not available on any of their computers? When USB-C is right there? Not particularly and it's really something they should've done a few months ago when releasing the Black line of their accessories. It literally does not make any sense to have a keyboard with lightning when it cannot be used on anything with a lightning port, but that's Apple for you :)

USB-C will certainly simplify things in the long run but for now, there is no issue.
 
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I think people will soon realize that having one cable for everything doesn't actually solve the problem as you need multiples to charge and use things at the same time.

And then there's the higher wattage cables and higher speed cables. USB-C is a mess, no doubt, but in terms of an iPhone (especially the Pro line) it's a no brainer.
 
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Alternate translation: you might be able to get a nice discount on "old" Lightning-port accessories and headphones soon.
Well that’s what I thought too when Apple ditched the 30pin for iPhone 5. There were plenty of discounted docks and accessories, but is it worth a few save for outdated tech?

Apple would provide the newest USB-C with better features i.e: a faster charging, or improved design, IP rating, up to the point which the old acc may look less and less enticing, even with discounts.
 
Makes a lot of sense. Once the iPhone will switch to USB-C all the accessories will have the same connector. Speaking of which, why the Mouse and the Keyboard you attach to Macs still have Lighting? Those are not iPhone accessories, they should have switched to USB-C a while ago
 
I still don’t understand to this day why the mouse, keyboard and trackpad have lightning.
All of these other products having lightning makes sense because they’re mainly meant for iOS devices, so them using the exact same port is expected.
But the mouse, keyboard and trackpad all come with the Mac, are all accessories for the Mac. They should have the same port as the Mac.
Even the iPad Magic Keyboard has USB-C, it makes no sense

The mouse, at a minimum, should have had some kind of wireless charging available, and if needed the charging port NOT BE ON THE BOTTOM! (I get the whole idea to 'not look like a Windows PC mouse', but the Apple mice don't look (much) like PC mice!) Arg...
 
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Like I said earlier, you now wonder did Apple implement USB Type C with Thunderbolt 3/USB 3.2 2x1 support on the iPhone 14 Pro models. (Sorry, no Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 support due to heat-related issues with supporting these faster speeds.)
 
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.

i acknowledge that eventually we'll all be forced to switch over as devices evolve and we eventually upgrade, but for now to most people who don't actually need to do a lot of data transfer, USB-C doesn't really offer any real world advantage over lightning (the cable's just used for charging anyway).

it just means that our existing lightning cables will become useless & we'll have to spend extra money buying a whole bunch of extra USB-C cables to place everywhere instead...
With Apple finally moving over to USB-C, they will be everywhere and I assume virtually everything will become USB-C. Not just phones, laptops and computers but literally everything. I already have a USB-C beard trimmer and USB-C lights, I am hoping everything left will shift to USB-C (hairdryers, TVs, PS, Xbox) and then, with a little luck, they stop shipping USB-C cables with products and we can save loads going to landfill. I have so many cables, I just don't need anymore
 
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.
I don’t think you can buy an iPad with a lightning connector any more. Certainly the majority are USB C. The latest beats came with USB C. The apple watches come with a usb c cable.

Obviously lots of people have lots of cables. But if USB C is the future then switching everything to it as soon as possible reduces the number of lightning cables that go in to waste. (Because if I buy a keyboard today and it comes with lightning that cable has a shorter life than a usb c cable)

And if Apple were to provide a lightning to usb c adapter then nothing need go to landfill.
 
The single cable thing never really seemed that important. I have a single multi-port usb-c charger I travel with. I bring a usb-c to usb-c, usb-c to lightening and usb-c to Apple Watch. After this change I'll still carry 3 cables, but it'll be 2x usb-c to usb-c. Reality is not much changes /shrug.

Where usb-c on the phone will really shine is data transfer for people using phones to shoot long form video.
 
I still don’t understand to this day why the mouse, keyboard and trackpad have lightning.
All of these other products having lightning makes sense because they’re mainly meant for iOS devices, so them using the exact same port is expected.
But the mouse, keyboard and trackpad all come with the Mac, are all accessories for the Mac. They should have the same port as the Mac.
Even the iPad Magic Keyboard has USB-C, it makes no sense
What, you don't plug EarPods into your trackpad?
 
I hope Apple designs things so that replacing the USB-C port is easily done. It’s much more fragile than Lightning and given that folks keep iPhones longer than other phones it’ll be nice if the port doesn’t die frequently. Even my Apple devices with USB-C get loose really quickly.
 
Well that’s what I thought too when Apple ditched the 30pin for iPhone 5. There were plenty of discounted docks and accessories, but is it worth a few save for outdated tech?

Apple would provide the newest USB-C with better features i.e: a faster charging, or improved design, IP rating, up to the point which the old acc may look less and less enticing, even with discounts.
Not sure I can see how charging a pair of AirPods or a keyboard with a Lightning cable would drag me down much aside from carrying an additional cable I already have a dozen of lying around.

Besides, the 30-pin to Lightning change was a LOT more dramatic in day-to-day functionality than this. The 30-pin was fragile and uni-directional, and Lightning is the same size and general shape as USB-C, and is also bi-directional.
 
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