The title makes it sound like Apple did this of their own accord. In reality, this was the deadline for no longer selling these devices inside the EU.
Good riddance, historically the shittiest cables in existence in terms of build quality and design, and they polluted USB-C with that design, too…
What, you want the thing to be reinforced with a flexible brace near the plug so that the cable won’t fray? Fuck you. Oh, your cable frayed near the plug? Fuck you. Buy more cables, it’s just e-waste. Not like the environment’s going down the toilet or anything.
Now you get shitty USB c cables.
They really don’t make stuff like they used to, pretty much nobody. And credit where it’s due, Apple have been leading the planned obsolescence movement from the start (their iPhone 3 cables were just as bad as the current ones).
On the other end of the spectrum, I own a single no-name MicroUSB cable. I’ve owned it for, I think, a decade at this point. Maybe even longer than that. It was the cheapest cable I could find over 2m in length, cost me about two bucks back then. I’ve used it for phones, MP3 players, external hard drives, mice - you name it, it’s been plugged in it. It still performs just as well as it did when I bought it, it hasn’t lost its shape, and believe me when I say it received zero preferential treatment.
I honestly lost count of how many USB-C cables have failed me so far. Seriously…
I’m still using my flat OnePlus usb-c cable that I received with my oneplus 3t in 2017.
Somehow the flat cables seem to last longer overall.
The flat type was the second to fail, my first was a standard tube-y one… Granted, I bought mine in 2020, I think, so it may account for a drop in quality.
Bought it exactly based on that rationale, no dice in my case. Started developing a crease right where the cable met the nub toward the USB-C end, then it devolved into severed connections - would work if I wiggled it. And I really didn’t rough it up, it was either plugged into my PC, or plugged into a wall charger at night, with "normal’ amounts of flexing (I feel there’s a word for this, but I’m missing it).
It was my favourite from an aesthetic standpoint, too…
The cables Apple includes now are very flexible braided cables and they are excellent for their purpose. Haven’t had one fail yet, or even show major signs on use. Would like to find any other company making a comparable product, but all the “ultra flexible” cables I’ve found seem to not be as flexible.
Happy about this overal! Just hope I will still be able to buy replacement cables once my current ones die, as I do not plan to replace my iphone SE or gen1 airpods until there is any life in them left. If not, I guess tape will have to do the trick.
I wonder what happens to all those devices that are brand new, but can’t be sold any longer due to having the lightning port. My guess is that these devices will be shreddered and land up in a landfill - better for the environment than having to use a different cable (/s).
This EU Directive only applies to devices sold as brand new. Frome here on devices sold as new have to be equipped with a USB C charging port.
You still can buy a refurbished device equipped with a lightning charging port from a second hand market seller.
Nothing changes for most people. If you own a device that still has a lightning port, you probaly also have a lightning cable for it. The three most common types (USB C / Lightnin / Micro USB) will still be around for a couple of years.
From the enviromental point of view it would be best to keep any device until it is not usable any longer.
I’d rather would like to see that Apple is being forced into revealing the software code for end-of-life devices than having to switch to a new charging port. That would have a more severe impact, as devices often still work well hardware-wise, but are outdated software-wise. Even Apples glued-in batteries can be changed (albeit it is very complicated), in order to prolong a devices lifespan. If outdated Apple devices could be revived with a FOSS software solution to be still compatible for a longer time, it would be way better for the environment - given, protecting the environment was the goal all along.
I wonder what happens to all those devices that are brand new, but can’t be sold any longer due to having the lightning port.
The law was passed years ago and only came into effect now exactly so that Apple could sell the old stock. If they kept making new ones until the deadline, its not the laws fault. Also, they can be sold outside the EU.
I think they just ship the phones to places where they can still be sold like the UK.
They’ve also known about this deadline for years and were always allowed to switch to USB-C at literally any time before then (like they did years ago with the iPad Pro and Macbook).
If any e-waste occurred, it is squarely because of Apple’s utter pettiness.
I really hope so.
I doubt they still have that many lightning iPhones. This is mostly about lightning accessories.
You are not making bad points in your comment, but your first paragraph threw everyone off. As it should.
I get where you are going to let Apple reveal software code for end-of-life devices, but I can’t see why it is related to the USB-C law. The law is not about Apple, but all devices. That’s why it’s good for e-waste.
And it’s true - no current owner of an iPhone with lightning will feel this. It’s harmless for consumers. But as soon as they get the USB-C port, they’ll know what they missed not having to bring their charger freaking everywhere.
Don’t get me wrong - I’m all in favor of the EU Directive that states that all such devices must have the same charging port from now on. I think that this should have been introduced way earlier.
I also realize that this law doesn’t apply to Apple exclusively, but you don’t find the Lightning port on any other non-Apple devices. If the Lightning port didn’t exist at all, Apple devices probably would have been equipped with USB C ports instead.
But one thing that affects all kind of devices is that they will be outdated at least software-wise mostly deliberately, no matter what charging port they are euqipped with. This even happens with Android-based phones, as there is a wide range of phones that can’t be fixed with alternative software (ie. Graphene, LinageOS and similar).
In my opinon it should be law that manufacturors should allow for end-of-service-devices to be opened up and upgraded with an alternative OS/ software, to extend liftime and to avoid being discarded. This affects mobile phones as well as smart lightbulbs, headphones, or vacuum robots and many more. This indeed has nothing to do with the EU Directive for charging ports, but it could have been another step towards keeping devices longer in the life cycle and thus avoiding landfill.
Too many devices are being bricked by manufacturers deliberatly, and there are barely any ways to repair such devices, because manufacturers do not let it happen.
It was introduced long ago and in the spirit of the law it gave manufacturers a decade to switch to the new standard, phase out the old connectors and sell off their old stock. If manufacturers chose to stick with the old until the last minute…
The same happened with GDPR. It was introduced with a lead in time of 5 years… everyone ignored it until it was mandatory and then everyone panicked and scrambled. If you wait to start your homework until the evening before it’s due, there will be stress.
I doubt even Apple is stupid enough to end up with a significant quantity of un-sellable stock just to ‘make a point’. Or that major vendors wound not have an agreement to rtv merchandise they can’t sell after a certain date. Apple will either use them for parts or reflash them if possible to meet different jurisdictions’ regulations and sell them there.
In regards to existing devices continuing to be used being better for the environment, the law allows that (which), it allows lighting cables (or micro-usb) to be continue to be sold so you can keep charging your working device. You won’t however have to buy new cables and chargers for a new device if you already have a usb-c cable (and compatible charger), nor will it have to be bundled with every new device.
The software code issue is out of scope of this law. There are initiatives that do somewhat help with planned obsolescence such as requiring manufacturers to allow app installation from alternative sources. Of course they could go further, such as allowing to boot an alternative OS, or preventing malicious compliance better. But that cannot be criticism of this directive.
It all comes down to numbers. What’s cheaper: recycling brand new phones and accessories for materials, harvesting parts, selling as refurbished, or shipping them to another country (if possible, because they might be targeted to certain markets). Whatever option is the most profitable, is what they’ll chose. Sometimes the landfill is the cheapest option.
If the number of phones is small maybe. Though I doubt they can just throw lithium batteries in a landfill in the EU.
There are manufacturer’s that produce different phones with the same name and different hardware for different regions but I could not find concrete info if there’s actual hardware differences for iphones.
I used to work as tech support and can say that there isn’t.
For instance, in some Asian countries the shutter sound is legally mandated. Apple accomplished this by checking where you are. If the phone’s region is one of those areas, It’ll always make a shutter sound. If your region wasn’t one of those areas, and the phone could still tell it was in the area (like a UK phone taken on vacation) It’ll make the sound while it was there.
There’s a bunch of ways to implement that, but the employee-facing article detailing this feature specified that a user who was from one of those countries but moved here could factory restore the phone to get it unregulated again.it had employees who were asked to do that to verify they weren’t in the original country anymore as a “cover your ass” legal disclaimer kind of thing.
This was multiple iPhone generations ago, now, but I doubt they’ve changed. Economies of scale say having one process is easier.
There are different hardware models but it’s mainly based on the radio and there are only 5 different models https://www.apple.com/iphone/cellular/#iphone-se
You have the Americas model, the Japan model, the China model, the Russia model, and then the model for any other country. So the EU ones could be sold in a large part of the world. They don’t even come with power bricks any more so you don’t need to swap out the plug or anything. Maybe some warranty paperwork?
Next will be usb copyright chip. Mark my words.
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