this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2023
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It makes them a very small amount of money. But they’ve also been rumored to be making iPhones use a “Made for Apple” type of cable for faster charging speeds. I think that would be really dumb but here we are.
That is absolutely ridiculous, but not surprising at all.
They can't do that. The iPhone must comply with PD.
Yes they can. Its just all about labeling. They can label a cable that fits to the standard and say "made for apple"
No, the regulation isn't just usb-c, it's usb-c and power delivery. Apple can't magically escape both of them with a "made for apple" cable. It must accept all third party cable and charger.
Of course they can:
USB -PD support at limited speeds.
A proprietary Apple chip enables higher speeds, either using USB-PD still or another proprietary charging protocol.
They can just have both
As I commented above, the regulation clearly states "any additional charging protocol allows for the full functionality of PD.. irrespective of the charging device used."
So they can't have both unless they split EU & RoW devices.
I hadn’t heard this. Good on the EU not letting them squirrel out of this (hopefully)
The question is more about "how much" of PD they support right? Like PD has standards for charging at higher or lower currents.
My understanding of the current-gen MacBook Pro is that they support some kind of "fast charging", but only if you use their MagSafe port. You can still charge on the USB-C ports, but not as fast as you could with MagSafe. I'm not sure if that's a violation of the regulations, or if PD simply doesn't have support for the amount of power they're pushing through the MagSafe.
But I think the point is that they'll continue to look for ways to offer a better experience with their proprietary stuff, even if they're forced to support a standard in addition.
Interestingly all Apple silicon Macs support fast-charging via USB C. The 16-inch can only do 140W fast-charging via MagSafe, but that makes sense since ports that support charging speeds >100W are fairly new
Laptops are being gradually added to the list of devices within scope of this change. It only counts for any new device being sold on the market after the changes take effect.
The clause only makes sure that chargers do not limit, when connected to competitors devices. The regulation is coming from an e-waste perspective, which the EU has made it clear that it is not interested in entertaining or letting companies push them around.
No:
https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-10713-2022-INIT/x/pdf
The regulation actually enforces that PD is implemented if high speed charging is available and that it can’t be limited in speed compared to any other charging protocol that’s also available on the device, irrespective of the charging device used.
We don’t need to guess if we can just read the regulation: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32022L2380&qid=1691523718368.
Wouldn't that be false advertising? It needs some internal feature that makes it faster, and there's no way it'll naturally be faster than a regular USB-C.
How is it false advertising? Apple makes a cord to spec and standard and slaps a "made for apple" tag line on it. Its just marketing. Nothing special about the cable. Its just a way to ensure apple fanboys buy it.
The bolded part is the problematic bit.
I never said for faster speeds. All it has to say is "made for apple".
Okay...but that's what the guy you were originally replying to had quoted...I think we can both agree it changes quite a bit if you don't include the faster speed.
At least then there will be no more confusion over who's fault it is when your iPhone doesn't charge as fast as you'd like.
It's always been Apple's fault, but now there will be no more saying it's because Lightning is somehow better.
I’ll give them some fairness. When lightning originally launched, it was a great interface for lightweight power delivery and was more sturdy than the deplorable micro USB. I can’t explain just how bad microUSB is. So it made sense. I think USB-C just put in the legwork to be a much better adapter.
Also the giant plot hole missing here is that Apple sits on the USB forum I believe and so has some say in what the billions of devices they produce use to charge. They just can’t make money off of a standard now.
Don't be silly. I have an iPad mini with lightning and had a ton of phones with miniUSB and had exactly zero problems with any of them. (I still have that iPad because I couldn't sell it without losing a ton of money and I never found a use case other than watching movies for a tablet so I didn't buy another)
Well my anecdote is that every single micro USB device I have has either a stuffed port or stuffs the cable. Those things are so incredibly flimsy.
I hate microUSB so much. I always feel like I have to treat microUSB ports like fine china or they will break on me. That nervous anticipation every time you plug something in that this will be the time it finally breaks. Too bad mini USB ports had that problem with getting loose over time.
As someone that has soldered micro USB, mini USB, and USB c, micro and mini are absolutely horrendous. They fail constantly, so much so that they were literally deprecated one after the other due to their failure rates.
Lightning was perfect for the devices it was used in. Apple never split it out into laptops because that wasn’t its purpose, it’s incredibly thin and incredibly durable. USB C is pretty durable but not thin. I actually love the lightning port for how durable it is. The biggest problems with it are:
USB c is great, for laptops and headphones and general peripheral connectors. It’s got a fuck ton of problems though, because you can literally have identical cables that do not have the same features. I had to buy a device to test USB C cables to determine what features they support. Also, did you know USB C is directional? Well it can be at least. I didn’t know that until the cable I soldered up only worked in a single direction.
Don't worry, Apple fans will happily buy an official charger for 3x the price even if third party work perfectly well.