Current Events > EU proposes mandatory USB-C on all devices to cut down on waste

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/23/22626723/eu-commission-universal-charger-usb-c-micro-lightning-connector-smartphones


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Why are they so dumb

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Good. Fuck Apple.

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I thought this had already happened, but the article said what had already happened was not quite this

A step in the right direction
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Apples about to ditch charging ports all together. Any respectable Android phone has been USB-C for nearly half a decade. Maybe this will affect things like wireless headphones where the manufacturers are cutting cost.

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Why does Europe hate Apple so much?
Jack up the prices for them

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iPhones will have no ports at all before Apple entertains the USB-C standard for them.

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Returning_CEmen posted...

Why does Europe hate Apple so much?

Europe hates the free market.

I really wish proprietary connectors would go away entirely.

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CableZL posted...

I really wish proprietary connectors would go away entirely.

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Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

Good. Fuck Apple.

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Good.

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CableZL posted...

I really wish proprietary connectors would go away entirely.

When you can buy a knockoff cable at the gas station, it's not quite proprietary.

This would actually create waste since there's billions of Lightning accessories that will become useless.

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Guys, I get that Apple sucks, and I think their connectors are mostly bullshit customer exploitation, but this won't solve anything. you'll get a bunch of wasted materials and some nonsense bureaucratic struggle when it comes time for the next standard upgrade.

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archedsoul posted...

This would actually create waste since there's billions of Lightning accessories that will become useless.

By that logic, we should have never standardized at all. We should have left things like the early 2000s where seemingly every cell phone had its own weird charging cable. Somehow Apple is the only big company who doesn't realize, or doesn't care, that letting one cable charge every electronic device would be good for the world.

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archedsoul posted...

This would actually create waste since there's billions of Lightning accessories that will become useless.

Pretty sure Apple has already moved away from lightning cable to usb-c anyway.

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Kuuko posted...

By that logic, we should have never standardized at all. We should have left things like the early 2000s where seemingly every cell phone had its own weird charging cable. Somehow Apple is the only big company who doesn't realize, or doesn't care, that letting one cable charge every electronic device would be good for the world.

This argument doesn't hold up. The scale of production, and the way the industry shifted to standards, is completely different.

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CableZL posted...

I really wish proprietary connectors would go away entirely.

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archedsoul posted...

This would actually create waste since there's billions of Lightning accessories that will become useless.

Yup. Right alongside piles and piles of mini-B cables.

Based?

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My iPad uses USB-C, I assumed Apple was already switching over to USB-C.

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Returning_CEmen posted...

Why does Europe hate Apple so much?
Jack up the prices for them

Stupid way to look at it.

Regular usb charges so many different devices.

Apple usb just does apple. It is a waste and shame to the planet.

Lightning is better than USB-C anyway, in that there's no tiny floating connector inside the device just waiting to break off.

USB was a great idea when the A and B ends were rather large. As the B end got smaller, it just got more fragile, and now C is fragile on both ends.

archedsoul posted...

This would actually create waste since there's billions of Lightning accessories that will become useless.

The possession of older accessories was already wasteful because you buy a new one and it comes with a charger, now you have two and you don't need both. The other main part of this if you look at the article is making it easier for people to buy new products without a new charger.

Yes there is going to be waste in changing but eventually it should be a net positive once it gets widely adopted

Good.

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Lightning is better than USB-C anyway, in that there's no tiny floating connector inside the device just waiting to break off

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Kuuko posted...

By that logic, we should have never standardized at all. We should have left things like the early 2000s where seemingly every cell phone had its own weird charging cable. Somehow Apple is the only big company who doesn't realize, or doesn't care, that letting one cable charge every electronic device would be good for the world.

I get what you're saying and I hate proprietary shit myself and have wanted the iPhones to go USB-C forever.

But Lightning has been around for a decade now. To force a switch in the name of reducing waste, while wasting a decade of accessories is counter-productive.

WeeWeiWiiWie posted...

Pretty sure Apple has already moved away from lightning cable to usb-c anyway.

They are and that's good, but they haven't with the iPhones, for which most those accessories are for.

Regardless, this is gonna be bad whether Apple personally does something to change it, which they did by introducing Lightning in the first place. Or they're forced to.

Whenever there's a change, whether to something better or some proprietary BS, it fucks up everything before it. I just think the penetration of Lightning is way deeper than anything proprietary before.

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CoorsLight posted...

The possession of older accessories was already wasteful because you buy a new one and it comes with a charger, now you have two and you don't need both.

Apple legitimately stopped putting chargers in the box last year and people raked them over the coals for it lmao. Can't win!
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Super Saiyan 3 Goku posted...

C is a bit more stout than mini-B, but not by much.

The floaty PCB bit in the middle is prone to snap off if you're a bit rough plugging in - or for no apparent reason sometimes, after plugging and unplugging about once a day for a couple or three years.

Bio1590 posted...

Apple legitimately stopped putting chargers in the box last year and people raked them over the coals for it lmao. Can't win!

Remember the epic shitstorm when New 3DS didn't include a charger?

Questionmarktarius posted...

C is a bit more stout than mini-B, but not by much.

The floaty PCB bit in the middle is prone to snap off if you're a bit rough plugging in - or for no apparent reason sometimes, after plugging and unplugging about once a day for a couple or three years.

Remember the epic shitstorm when New 3DS didn't include a charger?

What do you do to your devices? I have never had any issues with usb c and I have dropped my phone while it was plugged in before and it still works fine.

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I don't disagree with this.

There's no reason why this shouldn't be a universal standard. Between your phone to your game controller to data transfer, USB-C is already a well-established format - making it a standard for all devices, at least until a better non-proprietary option comes along, is a no brainer for compatability's sake.

The worst part about the PS4 and Xbone controllers is that their chargers were micro USB, which worked for the most part but was always kinda flimsy and fiddly. USB-C is reliable and tactile, and with the size of our devices today it's not that big of an ask.

Making USB-C a universally standard format is great for consumers. It doesn't mean that other formats like USB 3.0 or FireWire are explicitly done for - functionality for those formats will likely still be present for PC, and FireWire will probably still be available for phones through dongles and other accessories if it's that big of a deal for it to exist in the first place.

Universality in tech design is a good thing. It's always a pain in the fucking ass when a company will make their own proprietary phone charger, or when a company like Sony pushes their own file storage format rather than use the perfectly adequate solution we already have in the form of SD cards. USB-C and SDXC formats will eventually become obsolete, like micro USB and minidisc before it - but right now, making those formats standard across the board makes technology more user- and consumer-friendly, and it reduces waste. I think this is a solid idea that more places should adopt.

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LightHawKnight posted...

What do you do to your devices?

Magnetic connectors. Plug it into the device and leave it there essentially forever, outside of the occasional data transfer.

Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

Good. Fuck Apple.

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Questionmarktarius posted...

Remember the epic shitstorm when New 3DS didn't include a charger?

lmao that one was great.

People were pretending like Nintendo wouldn't have just charged them the extra amount if they *had* included it.
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CoorsLight posted...

The possession of older accessories was already wasteful because you buy a new one and it comes with a charger, now you have two and you don't need both. The other main part of this if you look at the article is making it easier for people to buy new products without a new charger.

Yes there is going to be waste in changing but eventually it should be a net positive once it gets widely adopted

Huh? They don't include them and if the point is to keep using old ones, then...

Questionmarktarius posted...

Remember the epic shitstorm when New 3DS didn't include a charger?

Bio1590 posted...

lmao that one was great.

People were pretending like Nintendo wouldn't have just charged them the extra amount if they *had* included it.

Both were bad, but Nintendo was egregious. Apple and Samsung include the cable. You just need a charger brick. It's also not aimed at kids.

Nintendo included nothing for something that's proprietary and used only for that line of systems and aimed at kids.

And no, the price would not have gone up from $199.99. Since it was depreciated tech by then and they managed it before and it costs like $1 to make. It was a purely greedy move.

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archedsoul posted...

it costs like $1 to make

I seriously doubt a 3DS charger has only a dollar of components.

Also you want to know the one thing that kills me?

Apple still doesn't use double-sided connectors inside iPhones to speed up data transfer. Even the 12 Pro line still does USB 2.0 speeds, I doubt the 13s are going to be any different because Apple's for sure given up on anything to do with wired connections.
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archedsoul posted...

Nintendo included nothing for something that's proprietary and used only for that line of systems and aimed at kids.

Depending on what you define as "that line of systems", Nintendo had used the same charger since the DSi was released.
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Questionmarktarius posted...

Magnetic connectors. Plug it into the device and leave it there essentially forever, outside of the occasional data transfer.

No I mean what do you do to your devices that you break parts that easily?

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Questionmarktarius posted...

I seriously doubt a 3DS charger has only a dollar of components.

They did a breakdown back then and it was definitely between $1 and $2. It sold for $10. They would have sold it for more if there wasn't a nice markup and 5x isn't that great for accessories.

Bio1590 posted...

Depending on what you define as "that line of systems", Nintendo had used the same charger since the DSi was released.

3DS vs the sheer availability of Lightning/USB-C. I don't think the DSi changes much because not everybody got that.

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LightHawKnight posted...

No I mean what do you do to your devices that you break parts that easily?

If I had any idea, I wouldn't have popped magnetic connectors on everything.

I've, uh, just broken a plasma lighter, and the USB socket on my NES Classic got a little flaky. Went all paranoid right after.

I didn't know that they started excluding chargers, not an iPhone user. Still think that in the long run this will be good

archedsoul posted...

3DS vs the sheer availability of Lightning/USB-C. I don't think the DSi changes much because not everybody got that.

The DSi XL alone outsold both the n3DS and n3DS XL combined. If you add in the DSi it's not even close.
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Bio1590 posted...

The DSi XL alone outsold both the n3DS and n3DS XL combined. If you add in the DSi it's not even close.

I think you're missing the point here.

It was a charger for one system that couldn't be used with anything else, not even the Wii U, which had more proprietary BS. Adding in the DSi just makes it 2. The last actual system before that was different as well. It didn't serve dual purposes or could be separated to just the brick or cable. None of that.

I don't see any reason to defend Nintendo with that one. It was a very cheap and bad move which they could have easily avoided. No other company had ever tried anything like that before, so I'm not sure where they even got the balls for that.

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archedsoul posted...

I think you're missing the point here.

It was a charger for one system that couldn't be used with anything else, not even the Wii U, which had more proprietary BS. Adding in the DSi just makes it 2. The last actual system before that was different as well. It didn't serve dual purposes or could be separated to just the brick or cable. None of that.

I don't see any reason to defend Nintendo with that one. It was a very cheap and bad move which they could have easily avoided. No other company had ever tried anything like that before, so I'm not sure where they even got the balls for that.

It's literally the same charger that has been used in every handheld from the DSi on. If you had bought any of the following in North America:

DSi
DSi XL
3DS
3DS XL
2DS

You already had a compatible charger.

Also Nintendo didn't include the charger with the standard 3DS XL in Japan or Europe, it wasn't actually a new move at all (just in NA).
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archedsoul posted...

But Lightning has been around for a decade now. To force a switch in the name of reducing waste, while wasting a decade of accessories is counter-productive.

They could simply sell adapters to make older devices compatible, much like USB-C to USB-A / micro-USB adapters are used where needed.

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Bio1590 posted...

It's literally the same charger that has been used in every handheld from the DSi on. If you had bought any of the following in North America:

Who said otherwise? I think you're not understanding what I'm saying.

Bio1590 posted...

You already had a compatible charger.

Also Nintendo didn't include the charger with the standard 3DS XL in Japan or Europe, it wasn't actually a new move at all (just in NA).

It's a proprietary charger used for a game system. It doesn't work with anything else.

I'm including Japan in this, which is why it's even worse. They wanted to cut it way earlier.

Again, not including a key item needed for it to function that's proprietary and not used for anything else is anti-consumer.

Relying on people to have an earlier revision or a specific revision of the last console is not acceptable. Which is also why I brought up it being aimed at kids, who wouldn't have previous ones.

Which is why I was wondering why anyone would defend something so easily remedied by including the $1-$2 charger in the $200 system that's been outdated by several years at that point. Pennies to a billion dollar corporation.

Even today, no other company has done this. As I brought up, Apple and Samsung at least give you the cable. You just need to find a port. And they did it in the past year after people stockpiled for years.

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So what about when USB-D is invented 15 years from now and we all want to move to it for all its benefits but EU law is locking us on an old port?
although I do support the notion that all devices use industry standard ports