Apple Reportedly Planning to Limit iPhone 15's USB-C Port in the Same Way as Lightning

[krspkbl]

Why apple do you need to be awkward *******s?

Just put USB-C in the phone without any crap. It's not difficult.

 

[boyarka]

If you’re talking about the old 5w bricks that were ubiquitous I have literally at least a dozen around the house, mostly powering raspberry pis. They were solid chargers that have had teardowns done, like, everywhere, for a decade and more. I absolutely promise you that there is no deliberate built in mechanism to prevent charging samsung phones

Yes, I will take your solid promise vs my actual real life experience any day of the week.

 

[TigerNike23]

I, for one, LOVE THIS. Sure it’s anti-consumer, but it’s also a middle finger to the EU.

“Here’s your stupid port, that’s all you get. Now buzz off.”

 

[RigSatMe]

This is the great response to EU lawmakers! I’m sure Apple would do it in other way if EU didn’t push.

 

[S1njin]

The point of the EU legislation is that all phones can be charged with USB-C. Your Anker charger will be fine. It's unknown at this point what additional benefit this custom port would give.

I really don't mind, say, if Apple forces me to use their cable to send video over or do fast file transfers. I mean, I get why people would be miffed at that, but I generally just buy Apple cables anyway. The chargers, on the other hand, I think Anker is eating Apple's lunch there. So long as the charge speeds aren't gimped, I'm sorta agnostic on this one.

Thanks for responding.

 

[Rented Parsley]

I doubt it. The don’t do this in the iPads like the article points out. It would be a terrible move to implement this in the iPhone. this would kind of defeat the entire purpose of having usb-c. Are they so eager to get an extra 30 from every customer?

Perhaps it’s a method to implement Thunderbolt capabilities instead of something nefarious? Considering we’re evaluating some person’s speculation and not actual info from Apple..it’s all up in the air.

 

[SactoGuy18]

If the speeds are limited to USB 2.0 that would be a jump the shark moment for Apple. Seriously this phone outputs 6GB a minute ProRes video and there is no solid way to move data quickly off device.

Sometimes I'm shocked at Apples methods, is it really hard to throw a Thunderbolt controller on a A16?

I think it will be more like USB 5 Gbps certified (USB 3.0 standard) for the iPhone 15 models and USB 20 Gbps certified (USB 4 Gen 3X2) for the iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max models.

 

[dampfnudel]

I can't see the EU liking this approach if true

I know the EU wanted Apple to change to USB-C, but did the EU ever challenge the integrated authenticator chip in lightning? Apple also plans to limit USB speeds on the lower priced 15 models so Apple is definitely not giving us the truly open USB-C experience we were hoping for. I guess a port-less iPhone is only a couple of years away given Apple’s reluctance to make all of our USB-C dreams come true.

 

[dampfnudel]

just to make an ass of EU bureaucracy, classic Apple

No, that will be when the iPhone goes port-less, maybe in a couple of years.

 

[collin_]

Oh I'm about to get real disrespectful...

 

[ilikewhey]

I used MagSafe on my iPhone 12 for charging at night. When I checked on battery health before trade-in, it was significantly worse after a year of use (I think around 89% or so) than any previous iPhone I used. I went back to charging via cable after that. I also think that while Apple likely wanted to go wireless at one point, wireless tech hasn't progressed very much and I suspect they have delayed any plans with going fully portless. Also there's the issue of CarPlay, or even just using your phone with an older car with no display, which would have to be addressed with adapters or some such thing.

wireless charging dumps so much heat around that it increases the internal temperature of the phone, when your phone is burning like a brick, charging it at the same time dramatically shortens the battery life span. therefore even though my car has 2 wireless charging pads up front, i'm forced to have a lighting cable sticking out of my glove box.

 

[roguegeek]

Apple is being anti-consumer again? Weird.

 

[jadot]

This is just one of those rumours that are just one of those rumours.

 

[lovehateapple]

It's all in the name of protecting the consumer from unsafe / unapproved third party accessories.

 

[TundraKing]

If really true I suspect that the EU may have something to say about this as the main push from the EU is to standardize on USB-C to allow for multiple use cables and charging systems to limit e-waste.

 

[Michael Scrip]

USB-C cables are hit or miss.

You need to buy a cable tester like this just to see what a particular cable can handle:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/electr/c2c-caberqu-usb-c-cable-tester

​

Why did you make it? ​

The amount of possible USB C cable combinations is endless. If you use the wrong cable, data transmission may be slower than possible or certain devices may not work at all. In the USB C standard, the cable plays an important role and has to advertise itself as such. All of them need to have certain pins connected, some need to be grounded, some need to have resistors attached. Unfortunately there is no easy way to extract whether a certain cable can support a certain use case.

🤣

 

[lovehateapple]

I've used the MM with the bottom charging port for years and it's never been a thing I think about. First, a charge lasts a crazy amount of time. Second, if it dies (b/c I've ignored the warnings), I plug it in, make some coffee, use the restroom and then it's good for the rest of the day.

I guess they could have moved it to the side, but it wouldn't have been any easier to use while charging. And, the port would have been right where I rest my fingers, making it uncomfortable.

Now, if you want to complain about it being too low to the desk there are arguments to be made.

I wish the MM could be charged from the front so it could be used similar to a wired mouse when it needs power. I don't think that would negatively affect the aesthetics of the device and it would be a lot more practical than charging from underneath.

 

[GeoffDeGeoff]

I can totally see them doing speed limits but if they were going to do an ID chip they would have done it on the iPads already.

 

[mike2q]

I, for one, LOVE THIS. Sure it’s anti-consumer, but it’s also a middle finger to the EU.

“Here’s your stupid port, that’s all you get. Now buzz off.”

I feel like I must be missing something here. Are you saying that you don't mind getting screwed over by Apple so long as the Europe union also gets owned? If so, what a weird flex. Especially considering that the EU has all the power over commerce in their regions and Apple telling them to "buzz off" would be an unprecedented drop in revenue for the company as a whole. The EU is Apple's 2nd largest market by profit and even if you combine the third and fourth (China and Japan) it would still come in less than what the EU generates by itself. So no, with that kind of money on the line Apple won't be telling them to buzz off any time soon.

 

[BradMacPro]

So it's a shame that Apple intentionally hampered the iPhone's Lightning speed and now the iPad 10th generation, but considering the data needs of the newest models, there has to be a reason they chose to make it so on the iPhone and if rumors above are true, even the iPhone 15 Pro won't use it? That's really a shame. Apple has been pushing for more differentiation between the plain and the Pro. I don't see why this can't be one of the differences. Maybe it's a power need, and only an iPad can support it. That at least makes sense, as only a iPad Pro has ever supported USB 3.0 speeds over Lightning. So, to sum up, one word: Why?

 

[BidFlux]

Is it the cable or the port that is more important here?

 

[bookofxero]

Why is Apple mobbing USB-C so much? Apple took part in the development of USB-C. It is not some standard imposed on them by others.

Was Lightning not Apple’s USB-C proposal?

 

[bookofxero]

It's stupid from an engineering perspective, it's limiting for the user, it's the opposite of environmentally friendly and it's only serving their greed. Hope the EU will update that law, so we don't need to buy more useless cables.
Some marketing people don't know how to create value so they intentionally extract it in order to sell an expensive option that has it. Immoral and hopefully illegal one day.

How is it “stupid from an engineering perspective” if it controls device authentication? My old X1 Carbon laptop has settings on how strict or loose to be with Thunderbolt device authentication and this seems to be roughly the same in the form of an IC.

 

[bookofxero]

That would be pretty much impossible for Apple to prove. If a customer was using a cheap charger and it broke their phone, Apple would need to completely prove that the customers charger was at fault to legally deny warranty service. To do that they would need to see the charger that was being used and ultimately the customer could just lie and bring in a genuine charger and cable and say they were using those when the phone broke.

Impossible? Maybe you do not know what that means. With an IC, all sorts of identifying information for the cable and its IC can be logged, making it trivial to differentiate between the cable presented and the cable used.

 

[Bremse]

The EU directive requires USB-C for the connector and the USB power delivery protocol for negotiating the power connection and facilitating the charging operation. Apple cannot limit this capability to their own cables (or licensed cables) without violating the directive. What they can limit is anything beyond charging. Maybe certain accessories, while connected via USB-C, will require special apple-sanctioned hard- and software to fully function with an iPhone. In general, every USB-C power delivery application requires appropriate controller chips on both sides to negotiate the charging process. Maybe the rumor source is confusing that with the authorization chips apple requires in lightning accessories. Or maybe apple plans to authenticate accessories that is tests and certifies for compatibility.