I guess this is based on the idea that iPhones are expensive or exclusive? Or rather, some people think that iPhone owners think they’re elite for having what is actually the most common phone in the US? They haven’t been the most expensive phones on the market for at least 7 years.
Americans flex about the weirdest things.
The most common truck, the most common phone, food from the most ubiquitous fast food joint, having merch from the most popular artists and sports teams.
Those are their biggest flexs.
Yeah buddy, great flex with your Taylor swift hoodie, Starbucks frap, iPhone 12 in your Ford F-150.
Its especially confusing because for many, many years, and even still today, American’s are pushed to be UNIQUE and whenever anyone is UNIQUE then people criticize them for enjoying or doing things outside whatever is ubiquitous for whatever thing. Its ridiculous honestly.
Advertising. Blame Freud’s American nephew Edward Bernays.
The father of PR, pioneer of propaganda and advertising, and an epic cunt.
American’s are pushed to be UNIQUE
that has not been my experience
I used to find it extremely confusing. I think my mistake was, growing up I adopted the values our society says they care about… turns out, our values aren’t actually freedom, or a fair society, or inventing/creating things (unless a megacorp does it)
It’s all doublespeak - every time a politician expresses a value, their actions are probably about to show the opposite
For example, by loudly insisting we’re the land of the free we don’t consider the fact we have by far the largest slave population in the world. You can literally rent slave labor, bill the state to house them, and hand them a bill for their living costs when they get parole…
I could rant about this all day, it’s insanity when you start to look at this all up close
You should always be yourself*.
* as long as you are attractive and all of your quirks are endearing and socially acceptable.
For all its boasts about “independence” and “freedom”, the thing America values most is conformity.
If you think about it, it just proves the ‘genius’ behind these companies advertising strategies. They have managed to convince a large percentage of the population that their mass market products a rare, unique and something to be desired.
And also the most common death of children being shot.
/s
Is this the new Godwin’s law? That every thread will culminate in someone bringing up school shootings for no fucking reason?
As long as America will come up as a topic, which is likely yes.
I mean yeah, it’s a huge goddamn problem and our national shame, but that doesn’t mean it’s appropriate to derail every thread with it.
Conversely, this is also because of Android owners with a chip on their shoulder taking everything as if it’s some affront to them.
I’ve got a friend who always shows up with a phone at 5% and asks to borrow an iPhone charger. She’s not flexing, she’s just always on her phone and direct charge it.
Note to phone users of all makes, I really couldn’t give a fuck what colour your chat bubble is.
If you have a bit of technical know-how you can set up a BlueBubbles server to get iMessage on android.
Interesting. Never heard of that thanks. https://bluebubbles.app/
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I think that’s the real reason. It’s been 10 years since I saw anyone think they’re special because they have an iPhone but still run into this concept that iPhone users think they’re elite. Perhaps that’s true for some tiny percentage of apple fanatics, but for the average person, it’s just the phone they prefer or the phone they have.
I’ve been to bars and begged them humbly to help me charge my phone and never once have I thought “IPHONE, yeah! You heard me!”
Talking with younger family members, the iPhone elitism mentally is still alive and well in middle/high school. There’s a very good chance you simply aged out of of where people give a shit
I was already over 25 when the first iPhone was released, so maybe. I have heard about anti-“green bubble” discrimination. I guess I had a couple girlfriends in the past few years who thought it was lame that I had an Android phone at the time, but I don’t know what their reasons were. I mean, it was a Galaxy S9, pretty nice phone, so it’s not like I looked poor or something.
The elitism is also alive whenever someone refers to their phone as an iphone.
They are purposely spelling out the brand of their phone, as if that matters somehow.
You got the same with Samsung users. They refer to their phone as a Samsung.
It is a phone, or a smartphone. Giving free advertisement to a giant corporation will not grant you anything other than the contempt of those around you as it makes someone seem like a douche.
Same with ipads, call them tablets.
If someone asked me what kind of charger I need I’d say “iPhone” but other than that or specifically discussing phones I’m not sure how it would come up. But sure, Apple marketing has been extremely effective. It seems like the movement to hate Apple is stronger than the one to love it, though, in terms of the number and passion of people in both positions.
I could picture someone calling their Google phone a Pixel but other than that, I can’t think of anything else with significant name recognition. Maybe in niches, devices like the Fairphone. Anyway personally I call my IPHONE “my phone”. I can’t imagine asking my girlfriend “hey, did I leave my iPhone in the living room?” unless I had multiple phones and had to distinguish which one.
Never underestimate the power of Apple’s marketing department.
I believe the point was “I am specifically asking for an iphone cable so you know that I have an iphone and not an inferior android”, which is not actually a flex because nobody thinks iphone users are cool except iphone users.
Yeah, imagine being so dramatic that you assume someone asking for a damn phone charger is trying to flex on you instead of just trying to charge their phone.
Who the hell asks for a cable as a flex?
Who the hell has such an inferiority complex that they think someone asking for an iphone cable is a flex?
There are people who based their entire personality on their Apple products, and I’m not even exaggerated.
On my social media’s feed the other day, someone posted “I’m literally crying during the apple event, I felt disrespected by apple and the new iphone”.
I was like “wtf does that even mean, dude.”
yeah that’s a cult lol
I once stubled across a girl on tinder who wouldn’t date anyone who doesn’t have an iphone.
I’m sure there’s plenty of stupid on tinder, an iphone is a lousy metric. Used ones can be had for far cheaper than the mistake of wasting money trying to date someone like that.
Me too, but it was because I couldn’t use FaceTime.
Thank apple for locking that down. There’s also Matrix as well that is actually cross platform and has video chats.
For me as an iPhone user, its more like an embarrassment to ask for a lightning cable.
I feel the same…because I feel dumb for having not thought to bring my own or adequately charge my phone. If anything else, I’m probably irritated too because of the proprietary cable means I can’t just use any old USB-C, or micro/mini usb that are so ubiquitous.
There are areas in the world where the overpriced iPhone costs more then a persons income for 2 - 3 months or even more. Owning such a device is a matter of status and overcoming low self esteem by association with a famous brand.
In short: a lot of people.
I remember when they switched from 30 pin to lightning when I was in highschool. It was the best time to be a little shit, whenever someone asked if you had an iphone charger you could ask what kind they need and then say you have neither.
I have always had an Android phone, while my wife has had iPhones. Whenever one of the kids got old enough to get their own phone, they inherited hers and gave her an excuse to get a new iPhone. (Meanwhile I just traded mine in.)
The unintentional result is that she can never find a charging cable or block for her phone because the kids keep taking them (and inevitably somehow breaking them), while I have a surplus of ways to charge my own. And also the kids’ batteries are always low, because they can’t figure out how to ration screen use with an old-ass worn out battery.
So everyone else in the house is always squabbling about who took the charger, while I rarely see my phone dip below 50%. They hate it SO MUCH when I point this out. I swear I try not to smirk when I do.
I mean, your kids didn’t choose to have an iphone, so it seems like kind of a dick move towards them specifically.
Well, we actually did give them the choice. They all chose iPhone, though I admit we encouraged that because it was simpler to lock those down and keep track of their location with them when they were younger.
My oldest had his for a few years and switched to an Android when he became more tech savvy and realized that an Apple didn’t afford him the customization he wanted and didn’t mesh as well with the PC he built with his summer job money.
I kind of like that we have an assortment of ecosystems in the house, because it exposes them to the advantages and drawbacks of each. Lord knows they hear me cussing out Windows often enough when I use the laptop, so maybe they’ll be motivated to learn to use another OS when they’re older.
Or they could take the route I did.
I looked at Zorin and went “Ooh, pretty!” and learned how to install it
And that’s why I use Linux
Good news! With the next generation iPhone, your cables are no longer safe.
D’oh!
I went to visit my in-laws one winter and my Samsung charging block turned up missing. I’m the only non-Apple phone in the family. I’d be mad, but I’m sure someone needed it more than me.
How is being a cableless beggar a flex?
Ever since this was introduced I’ve been seeing a lot of people naming the use case of using other people’s chargers. Does nobody take responsibility for their own stuff anymore?
anymore
They never did
I don’t take a charging cable with me to other people’s houses or cars.
Me neither but I charge my devices beforehand so
Great, excellent work thinking ahead.
Thanks
What other convenience or use case would there be? When I’m at home or in my car I have plenty of Lightning cables. It also hasn’t been a problem when I’ve asked at bars etc. considering that the iPhone has the largest market share. So I don’t really see what the advantage is other than what the EU was going for, which was unifying the market.
While the lightning cable was ahead of its time when it came out, mostly because the USB consortium couldn’t get its shit together, nowadays it’s woefully inferior.
Having said that, Apple has still managed to fuck their customers over by making so that only their overpriced “high speed” USB-C cables can work at anything better than USB 2.0 standard.
I doubt that 3rd parties won’t try to circumvent Apple’s BS, but goes to show even the EU couldn’t make Apple drop the act entirely.
Edit: And that’s not even talking about the wildly expensive lightning to USB-C converter they’re selling to anybody desperate enough to hold onto their lightning cables
The USB consortium still doesn’t have their shit together, USBC is a garbage standard.
Open a drawer of random USBC cables and tell me which ones support which features, or even which features exist. It’s one connector and a half dozen different standards that support different speeds, data types, power amounts, display support, etc. It’s a nightmare to debug and shop for, and every devices you buy has a different random cable.
The only USBC standard thats good is Thunderbolt because it is always clear what it supports, but Intel owns that standard.
I’m not against phones being USBC, I’m against the stupid standard. Is incredibly annoying and confusing when I ask you for a cable and you give me one that doesn’t support fast charging (USB PD), or one that has usb 2.0 transfer speeds, or doesn’t support “alt mode” to work with my computer monitor.
Thankfully, they recently introduced logo requirements for this exact reason.
In order to pass through the USB-IF Compliance Program, all USB-C® to USB-C cables categories must be labelled with either a power capability of 60W or 240W by using the appropriate power icon and/or logo. The USB-IF now requires that all cables must be labeled with the 60W or 240W logo prior to compliance testing so that testing can confirm the intended display of such icons/logos. The policy now extends to all USB-C to USB-C cables. These markings must be checked before compliance testing can begin.
In addition to the power markings, in order to pass through the USB-IF Compliance Program, all cables except for High-Speed USB (USB 2.0) USB-C to USB-C cables, are required to be marked with the appropriate data rate they can support. An example, a USB 20Gbps USB-C – USB-C cable that supports 20V at 3A must be marked with the Combined Performance and Power 20Gbps/60W logo.
Hopefully that improves things, and the logos are not weird and arcane like I half expected.
The logo is useful for data transfer, but for power delivery you can usually find the outputs on the adapter. For example, my 65W USB-C charging cable supports 3A at 5V/9V/15V and 3.25A at 20V. It’s not very consumer friendly, sure, but at least it’s simple (higher is “better”).
As if 99% of cables aren’t bought at dollar stores and gas stations to charge phones for 2 weeks before being lost or damaged. And none of them bother with USB logos.
All I really care about it the durability of the phone port, and usb c looks far more inherently fragile than lightning. 1/4 of the USB Cs on my MacBook Pro have issues, and my phone gets plugged and unplugged far more often, and only has one port.
I mean… That’s exactly why “unlabeled” is defaulted to USB 2 speeds and less than 60W. They’re already labeled correctly for this update.
Wait, you’re complaining that they’re standardizing logos so that the cables capabilities are clear?
I mean, what would your solution be other than bitching?
I feel the same way about durability but apparently usb-c is rated to 10,000 insertions. Idk though. The lightning port has been very solid in regular use but I can’t say the same about the usb-c ports I’ve known.
Eventually wireless charging will be the standard so it might not matter as much for phones.
I’d be curious to see how many of those cables without logos are actually USB certified as opposed to being compatible with the spec.
USB 3.2 Gen 2x2
A group of people thought that was a good name for the protocol. And as you were saying, with no marking to indicate the cable is compatible.
As if PCIe 4.0 x4 is much better. You’re looking at the technical documentation here.
Besides that, there are supposed to be markings on the cable. If there aren’t, you’ve bought a shit cable. You’re looking for these logoz on the cable:
Ignore the spec name, obviously, that’s not directed at consumers. You’re also looking for this logo on a charger:
If these logos aren’t present on the packaging or on the products themselves, look for something better.
As for device support: any Android device with Play Services must support the USB power delivery. iPhones and other Apple products with USB C support fast charging. You’re only really left guessing with laptops, and even those come with a little icon to indicate which ports support charging these days.
People choose to get hung up on the weird naming schemes USB comes up with, but unless you’re designing a device those protocol names mean nothing to you. Stick with the customer facing logos.
I usually flex my cables a bit to figure out their types, if it’s stiff enough, chance that it supports PD. The only way to be sure is to plug it in though and pray the cable is not shitty enough to ruin your device.
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Ah, so Apple definitely wouldn’t sell you a 60W USB-C Charge Cable while limiting other cables to 20W?
Nor would Apple ever dream of selling you a cable capable of delivering up to 240W for their phones?
I’m not suggesting that Apple is nerfing their USB-C cables. What I’m telling you is that they’re nerfing their competitor’s cables compatability in order to sell you a solution you wouldn’t need if they weren’t such dicks.
Also, I apologise. The USB 2.0 speed fuckery only applies to the pro series Iphones… the normal series ones are limited to USB 2.0 no matter what cable you use.
As for that lightning adaptor, even if you did need it I wouldn’t recommend buying that one, unless you’re desperate to give Apple even more profits. There are smaller form factor, significantly cheaper converters out there that will do the job just fine.
Bruh, those are for charging MACBOOKS. You can plug an iphone into that 240w charger all you want, it’s NOT going to use more than the 20w it’s allowed to. Period.
I hate Apple too, but you’re just ignorant.
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Hadn’t I been on Lemmy I wouldn’t have known there are people still using cables to transfer stuff from/to their phone.
Haven’t done that in 10 years, and deeply hope I’ll never have to start doing that again either.
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@ribboo I think most people nowadays use cables for charging to be fair, lol. I doubt anyone still bothers connecting a cable to a PC, browse a filesystem only to find their vacation photos or whatever. Most just hit share, select the app they want to share them all through and off they go.
I use the USB-C Port of my phone regularly to connect it to my PC and move images from my Phone to my PC and copy music files from my PC to my phone’s Micro-SD card. I wouldn’t consider myself a “pro” in either of these fields, yet I have moved hundreds of Gigabytes of data this way. I also use my phone’s 3.5 millimeter audio port with headphones, IEMs or speakers all the time.
In general, I trust cables way more than I trust any wireless solutions.
I have a Micro-SD-Card slot, a 3.5 mil connector and a USB-C-Connector and I find all of those essential (would never buy a phone without one of these).
My phone is a Motorola Moto G31. Costs 170€. Served me well for over a year now, I’m hoping it will for some more years. It’s not particularly “fancy”, but it’s a good product that does everything I need it to. It even has a quite nice battery life :)
Now, to I-Phones. I think it would be fair for a 1000! Dollar Device to include USB3 Speeds. If the pro can do it, why can’t the non-pro?
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Thanks for the response, I understand your points better now. I still think that 699$ is a lot of money for a device that doesn’t support USB3 speeds, but then again, that’s just “apple tax”. Which doesn’t mean I’m against the “feature-funneling” method you described, that definetely has a lot of advantages.
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I don’t really know much about hardware and never bothered looking at transfer speeds and such, but why is lightning inferior? I like it because it’s reversible and the prong doesn’t seem like it could snap or get damaged that easily.
Not that matters much because in the three years I’ve had the phone I’ve plugged it in like five times.
USB-C has for years now supported higher wattage power delivery, and higher data transfer speeds than lightning.
I can’t speak to your experience, but from mine, the build of quality of Apple’s own lightning cables was terrible. I owned two IPod Touch’s over the course of about 6 years, and I basically went through one cable a year because they’d just disintegrate towards the ends of the cable or internally decapitate themselves. Didn’t even need to break them, they’d break themselves.
Whereas in the 6+ years I’ve used phones with USB-C, only two of them have broken. One was because the cable got snagged under a chair and I pulled the USB-C end off not realising it was stuck, and the other one was my Mum breaking the USB-A end shoving it into a plug the wrong way. Both things that had nothing to do with the build quality of the cables. I still have every other one of my USB-C cables.
Yeah I’ve seen so many broken Apple cables. At my old work I had a MacBook for testing things, and the MagSafe charger (a MBP ca 2014) was bare by the connector. I mended it because it terrified me.
My mother also had an iPad and went through like four cables. Absolutely nuts.
I myself don’t really use cables though. My roomie is excited for USBC support because the Android based PDAs he uses for work are USBC, so of he ever forgets a cable he can still charge his phone.
I had constant issues with cables when I was still an apple user.
Loads of plastic rot and scarily browning cables.
I honestly don’t get it, given the cables on my commodore 64 are still good as new 40 years later.
Yeah. They’re not cheap either.
To be fair I had a fair few cables break in the six years I had my OnePlus One, but they just stopped working, they didn’t literally fall apart.
I have a similar issue with headphone cables failing, often far too soon, but I get that too. It’s wear and tear from being yanked and moved. They’re also often cheap headphones. But I’ve had apple cables disintigrate when stored in a cupboard and not moved at all. It’s like they’re biodegradeable.
I suspect they’re using a softner which degrades the plastic over time. Their cables are softer/more bendy than cheaper/stiffer plastic cables.
But for the price they charge, I don’t see why they couldn’t make them fabric covered. You can buy fabric covered cables for really cheap online, and they ship them half away across the world and still make a profit. Why can’t apple do the same?
Yeah. I mean it’s Apple, they definitely have the means so it’s on purpose. With Apple you’ll always get a generous helping of bullshit.
I think Apple has learned their lesson. MacBooks charging cables seems to be braided with fabric-like material these days.
The plastic on the cord for the charger for my 2010 MacBook completely peeled off on both sides for 2-3 feet when it was about a year and a half old. Just bare twisted metal coating… it seemed dangerous or something. I took it to an Apple Store hoping for any sort of discount on a new one, and some snotty guy with a septum piercing angrily insisted that I must have habitually rolled over it with a chair. He said my only option was to buy a new one for full price (around $150). I didn’t even own a chair with wheels. All I had ever done was coil it up 3-4 times a day going between my house and coffee shops.
I ended up calling and complaining and a manager said I could get a 50% discount. Great! So I went there 2 weeks later and some guy angrily insisted HE was the manager on duty and HE didn’t approve that. So they looked at my charger and angrily insisted that I’d rolled over it with a chair and my only option was to buy a new one for full price.
Anyway, Apple was trying a lot of different coverings back then to avoid BPA or something. They ended up paying a class action settlement for some of their charging cables.
They ended up losing me as a customer forever.
They use the excuse of it having a “sleak design” to not make the cables more shielded and rigid. Since they would sell less overpriced cables if the cables lasted longer.
You also throw away the supposed superior connector when the cable frays.
Apple makes self-obsoleting trash. That’s the detail you’re not getting.
Apple maintains their phones with OS and security updates for much longer than any Android manufacturers I’m aware of.
I used to have this on all Apple cables but I haven’t had in a while now.
Whatever Apple did to make those cables was trash. But between the braided ones and the plastic ones it’s been 2 or 3 years since I’ve had one go brown.
I just swapped out the one that came with the phone I got in 2016. I’ve used it to charge every night since then and it just failed like 2 weeks ago. That’s the only one I’ve ever had fail and it was absolutely beat to hell.
I have Lightning cables that are five years old and still as good as they were in the first day.
For one, USB-C can (if implemented) transfer data at 40Gbps vs lightning’s 0.5Gbps. USB-C also charges a lot faster.
USB-C is also reversable like lightning, and the connectors are internal.
Android phones used to use USB-B micro, which wasn’t reversable, but a long time go exeryone switched to USB-C which feels like at was invented to be a better version of lightning and has had many advances while being backwards compatible with early USB-C hardware.
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Literally it’s just wealth peacocking and classism, that’s it… people who are proud of owning an iphone are gross
There is more expensive and nicer built iPhones if you really care about blowing money, it’s all so stupid.
Also… Who cares? It’s 2023 all phones pretty much do the same shit.
My chat is shown in a different color on their device
With worse contrast
Sounds like an iPhone problem to me, im sure the average iPhone owner will agree (lol)
On android you can change not only the bubble color, but the bubble color for each contact individually, and you can even change the entire messaging app itself to a new one. Takes care of that problem right quick.
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They seem to have gone out of fashion, but back when I was rocking a HTC Desire I remember seeing people with iphone cases that had a hole in the back so you could see the logo when they were talking on them…
My ignorant understanding was that iphone made that a requirement for their cases
Like even for 3rd party cases? I guess I’d believe that, but hadn’t heard that before.
Those cases are still around.
Just as gross as people who are proud of not owning an iPhone. It’s a fucking phone, if it’s part of your identity you’re a dork.
Agree, but I see this kind of behavior out of Apple users way more than I see it from Android users.
Not in this thread
honestly, what with all the additional anti privacy and DRM shit google have been adding to phones lately, I’ve been getting less and less enamoured with Android phones. Sure I can sideload, but I can’t install root level apps without jumpling over a number of hoops just to stop other apps from failing Safety net.
I miss the time where all you had to do is install the su binary, then you can do what you want without fear of borking shit.
My current phone has some weird instability issues with Magisk - I can’t install AdAway and systemless hosts or LSPosed in zygisk because for some reason, the moment I try it, it causes the phone to randomly freeze up, which to fix requires a reboot. I missed many alarms due to that happening in the middle of the night while I was asleep. (Which while those modules were installed, would happen almost every night) it’s a pixel 3a, with stock ROM. The only module I have currently installed is Universal Safetynet Fix, which for some reason, only half works (passes basic attestation, but not the CTS profile matching)
other apps from failing Safety net.
Be sure to leave those apps negative reviews.
Wait all the time iPhone users have been flexing?
Flexing their cables 'til they fray and tear, yes
Oh yeah I remember those bits at the end of every charger lol
That ended about 8 years ago. Sure was bullshit at the time, though.
They will also soon be forced to allow app sideloading. This might be huge and the only way I’d consider an iPhone
YouTube ReVanced and Gecko Firefox UBlockO would be the only way I consider an iPhone. And emulator support. This isn’t negotiable.
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iOS had uYou+ which has more features than vanced. Notably, I can disable the god awful pinch to zoom feature and the snap to time stamp feature. I cant find those features on ReVanced.
It’s irritating to refresh the apps manually every week and the other way would be to get an Apple Developer ID!
I was so lucky to get an iPad on the very last (at the time) somewhat jailbreakable version, 15.4.1, I never had to refresh apps at all. Never updated it.
Unfortunately after I got an older MacBook Pro for cheap, I didn’t have a use for the iPad and it didn’t fit into my life anymore, so I sold it to my sister, who immediately updated it to iOS 16.x. I nearly died inside when I saw it updating.
That’s good to know.
iPhones are great for one reason and one reason only: they have a great app ecosystem. Most Android apps are really shit. I know there are great exceptions out there, but it’s rare.
It’s weird how the EU is forcing Apple to make better products, since tbh the combination of better apps on the app store, and being able to sideload your own from anywhere kind of makes the iphone a no brainer.
Mobile developer here. Somewhat. I’ve written mobile apps for my internship and I have some several hundred hours of experience.
This is because Apple provides a much better SDK and, most importantly, the fact that all the iOS devices actually get updated means you are not stuck needing to support ancient SDK versions and you can freely rely on newer methods more easily
Though my personal phone is Android. I see the difference in polish between most iOS and most Android apps, but I think that’s an objective difference but a subjective trait. For now I still prefer Android: while everything is still a little more rough around the edges the gap has been slowly closing for s few years now, Material You is finally really good, and gone are the days of the fiddly Android phones that never worked quite right or needed the occasional trip to recovery mode to wipe /cache to stay fast or the occasional factory reset: modern Android is much different, it’s basically fully immutable in a way where every action is completely reversible, and it does a much better job at maintaining itself than it used to in the past.
Still yes, for people who value the slightly higher polish on native iOS apps, being able to sideload as well is big. It would make me at least consider the iPhone. A lot of the apps I use every day come from F-Droid, and F-Droid is where I look for my apps first when I need something to fulfill a certain purpose. I’m pretty big on FOSS, but I’ve never been able to truly commit on my phone yet as it’s not really ready for my use case yet (mostly, weird bugs and missing features in MicroG). So it’s not FOSS Vs Apple - it’s Google vs Apple in my case, so neither is an ethical choice.
Even better when your mental idea of an iphone charger is a conector hanging from a wire with the insulation peeled.
Apple introduced the Lightning connector with the iPhone 5 back in 2012. At the time, it was reversible and superior to the existing Micro-USB connectors. Having been manufactured of a single piece of metal, it was also more durable than the more complex USB connectors.
The first USB-C phone was released in 2015. Samsung released their first USB-C phone, the infamous Galaxy Note 7 in 2016. Their flagship model didn’t use USB-C until 2017.
I find the whole Lighting-hate thing slightly puzzling. Imagine that you come up with a technological solution that solves a problem. Years later, other people finally find a way to solve the same problem. Then they accuse you of being backward. Finally the use of your solution is declared illegal.
Still, now that iPhone indeed has switched to USB-C, Apple’s keyboards, headphones and touchpads should follow suit as soon as possible. It makes no sense for them to use Lightning anymore as the ecosystem around it is obsolete.
Edit: another thing that I have found puzzling is how Apple is getting all the hate for proprietary standards, yet at the same time multiple other manufacturers have developed their own proprietary fast charging protocols which means you need both a proprietary cable and a proprietary charger to charge your phones to get charging speeds anywhere close to what is advertised. This was tested by for example Android Authority a few years back. To provide a more up-to-date example, OnePlus 10 Pro supports fast charging at 65 watts but only with its own ”SuperVooc” charger. If you try to charge through USB-PD, you are limited to 18 watts even though PD would theoretically support up to 240 watts. The SuperVooc chargers also refuse to charge any other device at a power higher than 10 watts. It’s interesting how this phenomenon has slipped under most people’s radar.
A lot of the hate comes from apple having been a big supporter of the usb-c standard when it was developed, yet they still chose to go the anti-consumer route and stick with lightning for years after they already had a better cable. Now there’s landfills of useless lightning cables, while we can still use micro-usb for a lot of other old devices.
after they already had a better cable
Better how? There is nothing in the iPhone 15 that was improved after changing the port. For the iPhone 15 Pro, faster transfer speeds are now supported but if we are honest, how many iPhone owners will ever transfer anything to or from their phones using a cable? I remember doing so once in the past 5 years. Using the cloud or AirDrop is significantly more convenient. On a device as small as the phone fast charging at higher wattage than what Lightning already provided is most likely going to murder your battery.
Now there’s landfills of useless lightning cables, while we can still use micro-usb for a lot of other old devices.
I don’t see why we couldn’t still use Lightning cables for old devices the same way as we can use micro-usb cables for old devices? Apple and other manufacturers have sold billions of devices and accessories utilizing Lightning. It’s not going to disappear any time soon.
Are lightning cables proprietary or universal? If Apple wanted to make it the standard, they should have opened it up beyond the walls of Apple, sort of like how Tesla has done with their chargers.
Any manufacturer can make Lightning devices, as long as they license it.
proprietary
prə-prī′ĭ-tĕr″ē
adjective
Owned by a private individual or corporation under a trademark or patent.
That’s what I said, wasn’t it?
That’s the point
I don’t see why we couldn’t still use Lightning cables for old devices the same way as we can use micro-usb cables
Because Lightning is proprietary. There are no old devices outside of Apple’s ecosystem that use Lightning.
Fucking everything uses/used micro usb. Flashlights, controllers, vapes, Rokus, etc… basically any consumer electronic you can think of had a version using micro usb on it for something at some point.
But Apple has alone sold a billion devices using Lightning. Many of those devices will likely remain usable for years.
Sure, but all of them will assuredly have a direct official USB-C replacement, that is also better in other ways(i.e over the base iphone 14, besides usb-c, the base 15 also gains the A16 SoC and dynamic island), in the near future. Nobody is saying get rid of those older devices just to be on the new standard, but eventually people WILL upgrade. Whether that be for new features,faster performance, better audio quality, or just plain wanting to be done with Lightning, something will cause them to upgrade.
Despite being obsolete in every single possible way, this isn’t the case for micro-usb. Unlike with Apple devices where there’s always a tangible, if maybe not worthwhile, upgrade on the newer model, there are SO many things micro-usb is used on that NEVER need to be replaced unless it physically breaks. Until they literally break, my micro-usb charged flashlight is just as good as my usb-c flashlight, my decade old alarm clock powered by micro-usb is just as good as a brand new usb-c alarm clock, etc…
Your comment just made me think about all the devices I still use that use micro-USB: Bluetooth speakers (most of which I bought some long time ago and still work), rechargeable keyboard with trackpad (used for our streaming PC), headsets, gaming controllers, power packs (even one that has an additional Apple charger as an option LOL), AA batteries, bicycle headlights/taillights, so many flashlights and lanterns for camping, the mobile hotspot they gave me for work, action cams…
We’ll be using micro-USB for a long time to come, it seems.
I used to use an iPhone X to move photos from my camera’s sd card to my ssd while traveling. The transfers took a long time and would definitely have benefited from faster transfer speeds.
They only accuse Apple of being backwards in this case because for anyone else to use it they have to pay a licensing fee to Apple. The new standard (USB-C) is free to add to your device.
Did they did improvements on it or it has been always the same identically connector?
At least one improvement has been made to the spec over the years: the iPhone X / iPhone 8 introduced support for fast charging through the USB-PD standard which meant something had to be upgraded. I’m fairly sure that change did not result in physical changes to the connector though. It has always remained backwards-compatible.
One of the iPad Pros supported USB 3 speeds over lightning, before they transitioned the iPads to USB C. https://www.zdnet.com/article/ipad-pro-lighting-port-works-with-usb-3-0-but-theres-a-catch/
Wrong. OnePlus One, released in April, (as invite only) 2014 had USB-C.I was wrong, sorry. It was not until OnePlus two.
What? I’m not the one you’re correcting, but I’ll be correcting you. I was invited through their forums, and bought the OnePlus One (EU version), which definitely had micro-USB. Have you really had/seen the OnePlus One with USB-C? I’m confused, but I think you’re the one being wrong.
Holy shit sorry. You are right, I was sure it was USB -C.
It must have been the OnePlus two then. I distinctly remember being the only one having USB-C anywhere I went.
It doesn’t have to be a OnePlus charger, it can be any charger that actually has that output.
The flex is “i own an expensive phone” not the cable itself. Not that I think that is cool in any way, just explaining.
I mean the most expensive phones are Androids nowadays, like the Galaxy Z Fold5 that starts at $1799 for the one with the smallest storage…
iPhones are just more consistent pricing wise, though they also released budget versions by now, right?
You’re exactly right. I think the most expensive iPhones are maybe $1k USD and the cheapest are around $400 USD. Android phones range from basically free to nearly $2k. iPhone fans look at it as fragmentation (because it is) and Android fans look at it as freedom of choice (because it is).
Christ that’s a lot of money, I genuinely had no idea iPhones have gotten so expensive.
🌎📱🧑🚀🔫🧑🚀
The baseline is $999. You can also throw a bunch of premium features into those Android numbers.
Funny how the only reason my dad has an iPhone is it’s the only one they didn’t charge him extra for in his phone plan
I don’t believe this. That’s got to be a weird phone plan if that’s true. Not one of the major carriers. It might be the only “premium” phone that wasn’t extra though. I’d believe that.
He has Verizon
Not sure why you find it hard to believe. They have various phones on display that are either “free” (everyone knows you actually pay for it and then some, but it doesn’t have an additional cost) or cost extra per month with your contract. When my dad had to switch to a smartphone, one of the iPhones was the only one he could get at no additional charge. If you have more questions, you’ll have to talk to Verizon and ask them why they don’t stock their shops better in bumfuck, South Dakota. I’m telling the truth, but it’s not worth arguing with some rando over a shitty phone just because you doubt me for no reason.
“premium” phone
I don’t even know what this means. You’re not making sense.
Go argue with someone else about something that matters instead of directing your unhinged rudeness at me.
Dude, why are you so angry? I was just pointing out to people that it likely isn’t the case. Maybe it was the only one they told him about or had in stock, but Verizon has a ton of “at no extra cost” options I’m pretty confident at all times. They may have needed to order one to the store if it’s really that isolated, but unless something strange happened they had other free phones.
Premium phone means iPhones/Samsungs/whatever else. There are tons of other brands that are cheaper but a better value. They aren’t premium though, and aren’t the ones ever mentioned.
Why am I so angry? Oh, I don’t know – maybe it had something to do with the fact that I shared a simple anecdote from my life, which was met with “I don’t believe this.” by some prick online. I’m so burnt out with pricks like that online. I don’t meet as many of you here as I did on reddit, but I’ve just started giving people the “fuck you” attitude they deserve when they respond to me by being unnecessarily hostile and argumentative.
And obviously my dad couldn’t wait for them to order one in, or whatever you’re imagining. Maybe you have a pampered and privileged life where you have the luxury of being able to be without a phone while you wait for one to be delivered, but most people in my circles cannot.
Now please don’t talk to me again.
You posted in a public social media site…
You’re very perceptive. Have you ever considered working as an investigator?
Yeah, this for sure. Every major carrier has super cheapo smart phone options.
Why don’t you accompany my 80+ year old father to the Verizon store next time you’re in South Dakota? Then you can argue with the minimum wage-paid clerk instead of embarrassing yourself by being wrong on a message board
The Internet: Serious Business ™️
With USBC the cable is now the expensive thing
My Sony Xperia Android phone costs more than an iPhone.
Lightning might’ve been somewhat better by itself for the years before USB C became ubiquitous (because it was doing some of what USB C is doing) - but even then it was Lightning (Apple only) versus Micro USB (practically any other phone). The EU forcing Apple to adopt USB C is a good thing for everyone (except Apple themselves probably - because they’ll sell fewer special cables).
The EU forcing Apple to adopt USB C is a good thing for everyone
Apple adopting USB-C is good for everyone. But I’m skeptical that the “EU forcing them” aspect is. It basically means we’ll never see a new interconnect standard for phones evolve beyond USB-C. If someone found a way to improve the durability of hybrid fiber+copper cabling, it would face immense artificial barriers to adoption.
Imagine if this decision had been made a decade ago, and micro-USB became the EU standard. Would we even have USB-C today?
Always think this argument is weird. The bill has a line about replacing the USB-C standered with a new one in the future, and the port can handle at least 80Gbps.
Well sure. But what u r saying is under the assumption that laws cannot be changed. Right now, the best and most widely adopted standard (by a very large margin) is USB-C.
There r two possibilities for this standard to be replaced:
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A new, wired standard: While this possibility exists, the probability of this happening is extremely low. USB-C solves all problems that a port can solve. The chances of new wired tech evolving beyond this are close to none.
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A wireless standard: This could be the most probable replacement in the future. However, looking at the state of this tech right now, it still has a very long time to become usable in consumer tech. When this happens, the laws would be changed to keep up with the times.
But what u r saying is under the assumption that laws cannot be changed.
Tend not to change. The parliament will move on and forget about the issue. It’s not gonna revisit this decision every 6 months.
This is why the whole medical field in the US still uses fax machines on a regular basis. It was encoded in legislation and then never removed.
USB-C solves all problems that a port can solve.
Tell me you’re under 25 without telling me you’re under 25. This has been said many times before. USB-C is frankly a bit of a mess (I mean, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.2 Gen 2…)
There were ideas about using USB-C for power & networking in houses, replacing most of your wiring with USB cabling. That didn’t pan out. You can only use USB-C to drive a 4k display over relatively short distances. It’s often flaky. There are things that could be fixed with USB-D or whatever. This adds an obstacle to that goal.
Your complaints don’t seem to be about the connector, but instead the USB 3 specification. USB 4 seems to address your concerns and mandates the type-c connector.
the assumption laws cannot be changed
Laws can be changed but it’s extremely challenging to do so. Any new competing standard is going to inevitably be driven by one company that stands to gain the most from it. And no lawmaker is going to expand the law to allow USB-C or this new interconnect without a huge amount of “lobbying” by that company.
Laws like this are why you can’t buy a plane ticket with your real name if your first name is “Mran” (FAA mandated protocols interpret it as “Mr. An”) and why digital check images are still sent using one of the most inefficient image formats in existence (some idiotic lawmaker decided it would be a good idea to make sure the images could be “digitally shred”). When technical standards are enshrined in law, they tend to stay that way forever.
USB-C solves all problems that a port can solve
I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic or are really just that naive. I’ve heard people say the same thing about USB-A, mini-USB, micro-USB, firewire, DVI, mDP, and HDMI. And look where we are now.
A wireless standard
The law doesn’t impede wireless advancements. It just says that if it has a port, it must be USB-C.
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Laws and regulations being slow to change is a problem, true. However, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t make laws and regulations. Your criticisms should be directed at the slowness of the system and propose ways on how to improve its speed. Scrapping the entire system “cuz it is slow” is kinda dumb.
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About USB C being the best wired standard out there, I was not sarcastic. People have said many things. I did not say that USB A/HDMI blah blah blah are the best standards. I said the USB-C is the best wired standard that we’ve got. If u believe that there is a better standard in picture, could you please point it out?
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I was not aware that the EU regulations do not involve wireless standards. Which proves my point even further. This law is the EU recognising that the best wired standard of today and the next decade at least is USB-C. Again, if u believe that there is an emerging standard better than USB-C, please drop a link to it. The EU recognizes that we haven’t hit a limit in the wireless standard innovation. Hence, they haven’t imposed these laws on them.
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That’s not really how it works. If someone can evolve the standard he’s totally free to do it and nobody would object. Standards are by definition collaborative, they can be evolved.
I think the matter was around forcing a proprietary cable, which was also worse and expensive
Sadly, boomers are now referring to USB-C cables as “iPhone chargers”
