Yeah it’s a really weird reputation Apple’s gotten, but it’s completely unfair. In the time I’ve been using Android smartphones they’ve switched from micro-USB to USB-C.
Over that same time period, Apple has always used Lightning.
Go back a bit further and Apple’s older 30-pin connector comes into play, but that’s still just 2 cables in the entire history of smartphones so far. Compare that to the proprietary cables that could often vary by model on the various devices that existed prior to Apple and Android taking over the market and it’s a pretty good situation.
iPads have been a little worse, going from 30-pin to lightning and starting to use USB-C in 2018. But still, even that’s been very stable since then.
There’s plenty of legitimate things to criticise Apple for. Like their opposition to the right to repair. We don’t need to be making shit up.
That’s fair. I do know that miniB phones were few and far between, since the microB was popularized shortly after the smartphone was starting to go ubiquitous. I know about HTC phones, since those were where my experience was with early smartphones (specifically the HTC Dream and HTC Hero, which both had miniB).
Also, it’s frustrating that everyone acts like lightning has no redeeming qualities. Lightning is a postless port, meaning that the failure mode is outside the device. If you accidentally trip over your cable, the cable will break but the port will be fine. That’s why your grandma can be using a 10 year old iPhone and treat it like shit
I think a serious argument could be made that more e-waste could be made by having a device that has a higher chance of breaking.
I’ll be happy to have a single cable for everything but that device will have a short life overall once it hits the point where the cost of any repair on the port outweighs the value of the device.
I’ll also have a lot of lightning cables that will become obsolete but that’s how it goes. There will be a ton of old people giving a lot of retail works a lot of shit that Apple changed ports just to make money. It happened when they went from 30-pin to lightning over decade ago and will happen again
If you accidentally trip over your cable, the cable will break but the port will be fine.
Tbh this is thing I’m not excited about the USB-C future on. On paper, I would expect that Lightning be more problematic since the springy bits are on device rather than the connector. In practice, I’ve never seen a Lightning port fail since it’s come out. Micro-USB, which is much closer to USB-C in design (obviously with improvement) for me has basically come with an expiration date. I don’t have enough USB-C stuff yet to say if that’s going to continue, but it’s a concern for sure.
USB C didn’t exist, but it was being developed, and apple was on the USB-IF forum which developed it. So literally part of apple was developing USB-C while another part decided “nah, we will make our own” and of course it takes less time to make your own than to make something everyone agrees on.
It was weird how you’d go to plug it in in the darkness of night, and it wouldn’t fit, so you’d rotate it, but inexplicably it still wouldn’t fit, so you rotate it again….and now it fits?!?
No thank you, I don’t like cables that break the fabric of space and time and betray reality itself.
Micro-usb is just about the most garbage connector in the last 30 years. I’d damn near rather Apple have actually sent me a breadboard and some leads than have that connector.
That reputation is definitely unfair for their mobile devices but extremely fair for their laptops. 3 different magsafe connecters, switched to thunderbolt, switched to a new magsafe connector all over again, all in 10 or so years.
That’s a fair point. Though I’d point out that two of the three pre-Thunderbolt (which—and I assume you know this, but I’m adding it in for the casual reader who might not know—uses the USB-C connector) Magsafe cables actually used the same connector, so you could use them interchangeably. They just improved the way the cable itself worked to come out at an angle instead of 90º. And that the new post-Thunderbolt Magsafe laptops can also be charged using the Thunderbolt/USB-C ports, so it’s only adding a new option, not replacing one.
So it’s definitely worse than their mobile devices, but not quite as bad as it might at first seem.
It’s not an unfair reputation at all. I still have trauma from needing to buy new 24/30pin connectors every couple iPod generations. They absolutely did that shit on purpose, and lightning might have been a more moderate version of their planned obsolescence peripheral policy, but there was no fucking reason in the world for them to stick with the inferior lightning standard, other than forced fragmentation of the peripheral market. Apple knows that the number one reason people don’t even consider switching away from iPhone is because of all their lightning peripherals
This is a weirdly untrue comment. The iPod used FireWire for a couple generations before switching to 30 pin and never changing again throughout the rest of the history of the classic iPod form factor.
And a cable has nothing to do with why people buy or stick with an Apple or Google device. A switch to USB C would be better for everyone and Apple knows it (otherwise why switch the iPad to usb c? Why not put proprietary connectors on macs???)
Also? If Apple switched to USB C when it was invented AFTER Lightning, you’d be complaining even harder about how Apple keeps switching their ports to get you to buy more cables. Better late than never
Yeah it’s a really weird reputation Apple’s gotten, but it’s completely unfair. In the time I’ve been using Android smartphones they’ve switched from micro-USB to USB-C.
Over that same time period, Apple has always used Lightning.
Go back a bit further and Apple’s older 30-pin connector comes into play, but that’s still just 2 cables in the entire history of smartphones so far. Compare that to the proprietary cables that could often vary by model on the various devices that existed prior to Apple and Android taking over the market and it’s a pretty good situation.
iPads have been a little worse, going from 30-pin to lightning and starting to use USB-C in 2018. But still, even that’s been very stable since then.
There’s plenty of legitimate things to criticise Apple for. Like their opposition to the right to repair. We don’t need to be making shit up.
Don’t forget miniB USB before the microB.
It went: proprietary–>open standard MiniB–>open standard MicroB–>open standard C.
On iPhone: proprietary 30pin–>proprietary Lightning
Mini USB was a dark dark time. Please don’t bring up those bad memories.
Hahahahahhahaha!!! I was actually thinking how bad those times were in tech hahaha
I didn’t forget it, I just have never seen a phone with mini USB. I’ve still actually got some devices that use it, but never a phone.
Not doubting that they exist, but I was very explicitly comparing my own personal experience to the Apple one.
That’s fair. I do know that miniB phones were few and far between, since the microB was popularized shortly after the smartphone was starting to go ubiquitous. I know about HTC phones, since those were where my experience was with early smartphones (specifically the HTC Dream and HTC Hero, which both had miniB).
Also, it’s frustrating that everyone acts like lightning has no redeeming qualities. Lightning is a postless port, meaning that the failure mode is outside the device. If you accidentally trip over your cable, the cable will break but the port will be fine. That’s why your grandma can be using a 10 year old iPhone and treat it like shit
I think a serious argument could be made that more e-waste could be made by having a device that has a higher chance of breaking.
I’ll be happy to have a single cable for everything but that device will have a short life overall once it hits the point where the cost of any repair on the port outweighs the value of the device.
I’ll also have a lot of lightning cables that will become obsolete but that’s how it goes. There will be a ton of old people giving a lot of retail works a lot of shit that Apple changed ports just to make money. It happened when they went from 30-pin to lightning over decade ago and will happen again
Tbh this is thing I’m not excited about the USB-C future on. On paper, I would expect that Lightning be more problematic since the springy bits are on device rather than the connector. In practice, I’ve never seen a Lightning port fail since it’s come out. Micro-USB, which is much closer to USB-C in design (obviously with improvement) for me has basically come with an expiration date. I don’t have enough USB-C stuff yet to say if that’s going to continue, but it’s a concern for sure.
If every cell phone brand acted like Apple we would have like thirty different proprietary chargers.
We shouldn’t give them a pass just because they’re the only ones brazen enough to be stupid.
USB C didn’t exist when Apple made the lightning connector.
Are they idiots, or are they innovators and the rest are just trying to catch up?
USB C didn’t exist, but it was being developed, and apple was on the USB-IF forum which developed it. So literally part of apple was developing USB-C while another part decided “nah, we will make our own” and of course it takes less time to make your own than to make something everyone agrees on.
Micro USB did.
And then instead of making a connector like USB-C that everyone could use they made their own proprietary one.
Micro usb sucked.
It was weird how you’d go to plug it in in the darkness of night, and it wouldn’t fit, so you’d rotate it, but inexplicably it still wouldn’t fit, so you rotate it again….and now it fits?!?
No thank you, I don’t like cables that break the fabric of space and time and betray reality itself.
Micro-usb is just about the most garbage connector in the last 30 years. I’d damn near rather Apple have actually sent me a breadboard and some leads than have that connector.
It used to be the case, just like it was for laptops until very recently.
I remember when it used to be that way. Every damn brand had a slightly different size barrel jack for charging.
That reputation is definitely unfair for their mobile devices but extremely fair for their laptops. 3 different magsafe connecters, switched to thunderbolt, switched to a new magsafe connector all over again, all in 10 or so years.
That’s a fair point. Though I’d point out that two of the three pre-Thunderbolt (which—and I assume you know this, but I’m adding it in for the casual reader who might not know—uses the USB-C connector) Magsafe cables actually used the same connector, so you could use them interchangeably. They just improved the way the cable itself worked to come out at an angle instead of 90º. And that the new post-Thunderbolt Magsafe laptops can also be charged using the Thunderbolt/USB-C ports, so it’s only adding a new option, not replacing one.
So it’s definitely worse than their mobile devices, but not quite as bad as it might at first seem.
It’s not an unfair reputation at all. I still have trauma from needing to buy new 24/30pin connectors every couple iPod generations. They absolutely did that shit on purpose, and lightning might have been a more moderate version of their planned obsolescence peripheral policy, but there was no fucking reason in the world for them to stick with the inferior lightning standard, other than forced fragmentation of the peripheral market. Apple knows that the number one reason people don’t even consider switching away from iPhone is because of all their lightning peripherals
This is a weirdly untrue comment. The iPod used FireWire for a couple generations before switching to 30 pin and never changing again throughout the rest of the history of the classic iPod form factor.
And a cable has nothing to do with why people buy or stick with an Apple or Google device. A switch to USB C would be better for everyone and Apple knows it (otherwise why switch the iPad to usb c? Why not put proprietary connectors on macs???)
Also? If Apple switched to USB C when it was invented AFTER Lightning, you’d be complaining even harder about how Apple keeps switching their ports to get you to buy more cables. Better late than never