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I'm not really making an argument. I'm not trying to "win" a debate. Actions can have multiple outcomes. Yes, it's annoying to have to buy all new cables. This passing will make millions of people have to buy and/or throw away a bunch of cables in the short term. Also, in the future, it could lead to innovation happening slower. They don't have to be related. It's just two reasons why this isn't a slam dunk.

"You're still arguing. "Yeah but what if apple goes bankrupt tomorrow, how will we get any other innovation?"" When did I say anything even remotely close to this in any way? I mean, come on. I don't think this is that crazy of a concept. In a world where there are laws that dictate what charging port you can put on 20% of the devices you sell, you are much much less incentivized to put R+D money into improving the charging ports. You would be completely disincentivized to go out on a limb and try something new as a company. It basically ties one hand behind your back. It's not impossible, but it becomes much more burdensome. Maybe we've reached a point where it is no longer necessary and this connecter will see us through for the next 20 years. It's possible we've reached that point... but if at any point in the last 20 years they made a law like this, we would probably currently have a worse connector on the bottom of all of our phones. The USB standards body is not aligned with the EU. They have different goals. The standards body isn't going to push for change as hard as an individual company would. They will move slowly. The EU will move even slower than that. I'm not out here ranting and raving or even disagreeing. I'm just putting some legitimate contrarian thoughts and concerns out there and everyone is piling on me like I'm some sort of stupid dipshit. It all feels very hostile and condescending. We're talking about fucking computer cords. I mean, come on.

I haven't been paying attention to this much, and had no idea who this kid was. I thought this was pretty scandalous and was surprised to see on twitter how much everyone seems to think this Christian Walker kid is just a ridiculous piece of shit. Apparently he's some sort of online influencer and has said a whole shitload of really really stupid stuff and people really really hate him like a lot. I don't know. Seems like the whole family sucks I guess. I don't know and I don't really care that much. I know most of you already know all this, I’m just adding this bit of info if anyone else wasn’t aware this kid is already established and comes with a dump truck full of baggage. It was news to me.

Wait, you mean one you put in yourself? Because when our's broke (like 3 years ago) I sent it into Nintendo and they charged me like $150 bucks to fix it and I was pissed as hell... because I felt like they shared at least part of the blame for making crap hardware and that their repair price was onerous for a $300 device.

My kid destroyed the Switches USB-C port as well. Just by using it too rough while it was plugged in. He's also killed two iPads in this way. We destroy wires like you wouldn't believe. I used to just throw them out, but for last 2-3 years or so I've been saving every dead cable and winding them up into a big ball of shame. There are probably 20 cables in that ball. I just buy cheap ass 5 packs of cables on amazon. I'm convinced I get better bang for my buck by buying 5 cables for $15, then better quality ones. The better quality ones will last longer, but not longer enough to justify the cost. I use a label maker to put a little "DAD" ribbon on the cables on my desk and nightstand. No one but me is allowed to use any "DAD" cable in my house.

It seems like you missed the 2 or 3 times I've said I too would prefer if they moved to USB-C. All I've been trying to convey is that this isn't necessarily as black and white as people make it out to be. I also don't know if passing laws is the best way to handle this, because I do worry about what that does to future technical progress. I understand very well the other sides of the issue, but I think it's complicated. It doesn't seem like the kind of thing the government should be getting involved in.

When I was referring to USB-C vs lightning numbers I was talking more about phones and less about things like webcams, laptops and hard drives... but even with that I'm probably completely off on my thinking. There are more USB-C devices. America is really an outlier here and it probably causes a decent amount of biased thinking in my mind. In America the iOS / Android split is roughly 50/50... but those numbers are nowhere close anywhere else in the world. Android is more popular in Europe (like a 66/33 split) and way way way more popular everywhere else (besides Japan, which I think is also 50/50).

*plugs lightning cable into same port?* ...or do wheelchairs have male USB-C charging cables? I really don't know.

It seems like an obvious misdirection for hardcore nerds... but 99% of the people watching it will not be expecting it. I think it has to be him. There are too many clues. My question is how long do they drag it out? I think they will have to tip their hand this season, because once people figure it out, it will leak out into the mainstream and they won't be able to get that "No, I am your father" moment, because of the internet and how fast stuff like this spreads.

Fuck yeah they are. I don't know why, but I find this meaningless shit fascinating.

Apple is one of the main members of the USB standards body. They are rumored to have single handeledly invented the physical USB-C connector and were heavily involved in creating the standard. They were one of the primary companies pushing for its use in the beginning. They pushed their entire line of laptops to USB-C only way before the industry had adopted it. They weren't the very first to use it, but they were the first mainstream company to push it in a big way. Apple is all over USB-C. We're at a point I time where we are probably looking at a time coming up soon where devices won't have physical connectors at all. It's very possible that USB-C will dominate for the next 10 years and won't be replaced by anything. I know there are carve outs, but it adds tons of friction to the process. It will slow progress. If this law existed 20 years ago, where would we be today? we don't know. I think Apple should have jumped off Lightning years ago... but I understand why they don't. They really have little incentive to do so. In the short term it's just going to upset huge swaths of their customers. Nerds like us want them to go USB-C, but I guarantee you that the vast majority do not. Even if it will be better for them in a couple years, they won't care. All it will do it make them annoyed at Apple. It's also not because they don't want to stop making money from lightning cables. I think they amount of money they get from lightning cable sales is probably a rounding error on a fraction of a sliver of a percentage point in the giant bucket of money they make. The amount of discontent it will stir in their customer base is much more of a painful pill for them to swallow. It's not just because Apple doesn't feel like it.

This feels like a weird beef to have. The general consensus is that this is one of their strengths. Supporting old hardware for much longer than most of the industry. What are you specifically referring to?

I've had both Lightning and USB-C ports go bad. I think Lightning feels much less robust because it's much more likely to be used in high-stress use cases. Let's see how USB-C holds up after we've been twisting and pulling on cables using it for a decade. I'm going to bet it will be better, but I don't think it's that much better. I guess we'll see. There are 1.8 Billion active iOS devices in use right now. I think there is a very good chance that there are more active lightning devices than USB-C. If there are more USB-C it's probably not by a huge margin. According to this half of all phones sold in 2018 still used Micro-USB. I don't know, maybe my math is off, but I bet it's closer than most think. EU agrees all phones and tablets must have a common charger by 2024 WWW.EURONEWS.COM Apple will have to change the connector on iPhones sold in Europe by 2024. Half the chargers sold with mobile phones in 2018 had a USB micro-B connector, while 29 per cent had a USB-C connector and 21 per cent a Lightning connector, according to a 2019 Commission study.

That uses the same connector. What happens if you invent a superior connector a decade from now. You're the one that started acting like a condescending jerk off. I'm willing to not escalate, but seriously dude.

This is one of the main drawbacks of Lightning. It still transfers data at USB-2 Speeds. The other big one is that for lightning the mechanical spring loaded clasps are in the device as opposed to USB-C where they are in the cable. The point of failure is the cable which is better. USB-C is also a hot clusterfuck of standards. There is one connector, but not all cables support all data transfer or charging speeds. It's very confusing. This doesn't effect this particular issue much, but it's frustrating.

The complication is that the 4 devices that need the most frequent and convenient charging are all lightning. All devices don't get equal weight. I've already said that me personally, I want the change. Make the switch. It will suck for 2-3 years and then be better. I just think it's a way more tricky issue than Lightning bad LOL, which seems to be the general level of discourse whenever this topic comes up anywhere. No one wants to even acknowledge that this issue isn't so cut and dried.

Are you sure? If you made cell phones what would be the reason to push a new standard if you are required by law in one of your biggest markets to support an older standard? Why push to be the first to adopt a new charging standard when so many hurdles are in your way. It can't help but slow progress. You come off sounding like a condescending little prick. Next stupid comment.

What would have happened if this law passed 5 years ago when they were first pushing it and every device was required to have Micro-USB. Would we even have USB-C on phones right now?

Sure. Except that it's a wildly popular and very good proprietary cable that is in use for billions of devices. There is a good chance that there are more lightning devices in the world than USB-C. It's clearly more nuanced of an issue than many make it out to be.

You clearly didn't read my post...

Let's go through the stuff we charge... Work MacBook = USB-C Personal Mackbook = USB-C My iPad = USB-C Son's Chromebook = USB-C Nintendo Switch = USB-C Son's iPad = Lighting Wife's Phone = Lightning My Phone = Lightning Son's Phone = Lightning AirPods x3 = Lightning Wife's Beats = USB-C Big Ass Portable Battery = USB-C or Lightning Magsafe Battery = Lightning Oculus = USB-C

It's not. Apple customers went ape-shit when they switched from 30-pin to lightning. Everyone hated it. No one wants to switch. They were mocked on late night shows, people everywhere hated it and whined about it... it was a whole thing. This transition will be the same. They will get dragged through the mud publicly and the vast majority of their customers will not like the change and will not want the change and will not understand or care why they had to change. All they will know is that the change will make their lives worse in the short term.

I think Apple gets way too much undeserved flak for this... What is the common criticism... oh, apple makes you buy a whole new adaptor ever year. They just want money, blah blah blah.... Well, Lightning has been on everything they sell for 10 years now. In the world of charging cables that may as well be 100 years. Isn't that what people want? Lightning cables are great. They started out great and they are still great. They stuck with them for a decade straight. That is something that should be applauded, not condemned. I guarantee you that this law passing will end up having a much greater short term negative environment effect. Every "apple" house that is filled with perfectly working lightning cables everywhere will have to switch over. The transition period where half your families stuff is lightning and the other half is USB-C also sucks... although we're already there... It's also funny that they get flak for not going USB-C when they were heavily involved in creating the standard (not confirmed, but strongly rumored to have created the entire connector system by themselves) and were one of the first companies to make a real hard push USB-C, by making it the only connector port on their entire laptop line years before the rest of the industry was doing it. I also wonder what happens when 5 years from now something way better than USB-C comes out. How will it get introduced to the world? What is the incentive for anyone to innovate in this field ever again? All that said, I'm down for switching everything to USB-C. Sometimes you just have to rip off the band-aid... Let's just do it. It will suck for a few years as we transition through a phase of having devices charge both ways throughout our house, but in like 2-3 years it will be great... but until then, oof...

We see more of them in the trailer.

If what CNN has said about Trump is worth $475 million in damages, how easy would it be to prove that Fox News owes Obama all of the wealth in the entire world times infinity?