Apple’s new USB-C iPhone cables and dongles are predictably expensive
Apple’s new USB-C iPhone cables and dongles are predictably expensive
The switch to USB-C is good! Except for all the dongles you’ll need to get there.
The switch to USB-C is good! Except for all the dongles you’ll need to get there.
Article proceeds to show pricing for a thunderbolt cable instead of USB 3.
Can't stoke outrage with honesty.
I love a lot of Apple’s products, but their wires are easily the worst of the worst. They’re expensive and made to fall apart after like 6 months.
I’m still using the cable that came with the 5s. What are you doing with the cables?
I've had several fall apart from usual wear and tear. If you roll them up, pack them, run them on things, pull them in and out of bags/pockets etc they wear down pretty quickly compared to even mid range aftermarket cables. I have some nice baided cables Ive had for 10+ years. I can't imagine and apple one lasting that. Unless it just sits plugged into an outlet all the time, any cable last forever like that.
Connecting to my car’s head unit.
Gotta love the Macbook charger cables that wear down to exposed wires after a few years of normal use. Some will even give you a small sparky lightshow reminding you it's time to be a consumer again!
I currently have an iPhone cable that is frayed at the neck of the iPhone connection end. It’s from repeated bending from completely normal use. I had to stop using it because it was actually making my iPhone hot and was having sluggish connection issues. This is now the 3rd cable to do this and that includes MacBook cables too.
Apple intentionally makes them cheap because they’re such an easy moneymaker for them. I have tons of old cables from other devices that have never had this issue, so I know this isn’t some isolated thing and I’m somehow the stupid one in the scenario. Their cables are terrible.
When I had a MacBook Pro with the 1st generation Magsafe, I went through 2 legit Apple chargers and 3 off brand ones in the 9 years I had the laptop. One of the off brand chargers even exploded! Well, a capacitor inside it exploded, but it was designed well enough that it didn't damage anything else or catch fire.
I've only ever had that one laptop, and I was using it in college so I was constantly plugging and unplugging it, so I have no idea how abnormal that cable use is.
Magsafe is super cool, and it definitely saved my computer from certain death several times, but damn it sucked buying those expensive chargers. It would've been nice just to buy the cable, not the whole damn charger.
My 14” MacBook Pro has a braided MagSafe cable. It took way too long but they did finally fix that problem.
and yet people will still buy them.
Brand name obsession is one hell of a drug.
I mean, yeah. I use Android because I hate Apple's walled garden and smug attitude, but when I was shopping for a phone recently it kinda became clear how Apple has gotten their market share in North America.
Android manufacturers simply refuse to use sensible naming schemes and many of the best Android phones aren't available in the US at all. Not to mention a constant push to follow Apple up whatever blind alley they happen to be going in at the time. I'm still salty about headphones jacks.
Permanently Deleted
This kind of dongle would be for Lightning accessories that plug into the phone, like headphones or speakers, where you can’t just swap out a cable because it’s built in. No more lightning port means those electronics would be useless for the new phones.
I can see that one use case, but boy is this an awful form factor for it. I would expect a longer cable in order to allow the device to sit flat somewhere rather than hanging off a short cable attached to some peripheral.
Also that same thing could be achieved with the Apple Pencil adapter that is female lightning to female usb-c, and costs less.
The only cable I think I would need that I don’t already have would be a C-to-A cable to plug the phone into the car. My car doesn’t support wireless CarPlay.
What lightning dongles do people use that they would need that adapter for?
Exactly. And c-to-a cables are much cheaper and more widely useful than this dongle.
But if you want to really get all the juice in and out of your new iPhone, especially if you’re buying a 15 Pro or Pro Max, you’ll need the $69 Thunderbolt 4 Pro Cable
I mean, that is an outright lie. There is nothing a TB4 cable would add over a USB 3.2 cable here.
Hell it's talking about juice, a £5 amazon basic USB PD cable with 2.0 speeds will support up to 65w (25w on iphone due to their own limits)
Yeah, the linked article is manufactured FUD.
The premise of the article is you buying an adapter from Apple to make your old stuff work with the new phone and highlighting how ridiculously priced they are. It's not a lie, as this is the actual price of the adapter. Sure, you can buy third-party stuff just like you can buy a phone from a different manufacturer and avoid the issue altogether, but that's obvious, no?
Not talking about an adapter, but a simple usb-c to usb-c cable with usb 3.2 standard, They are basically wothless. I have a about 30 of them sitting in a box at the office.
There is simply no reason why you would need an expensive thunderbolt 4 cable to charge a phone or transfere data at 10Gbps. Either these "journalists" are lying or they don't understand USB.
In other news: Water is wet
Though it should be pointed out, this article is a little wonky. No iPhone needs a thunderbolt 4 charging cable.
What’s wrong with something like this?
It isn't made by Apple, therefore it must be bad and probably will break your phone /s
There's really nothing wrong with it, it's just that Apple knows they can charge anything for the silliest things and a wave of mindless consumers will buy without thinking
You probably won’t get full charging speed. An actual type-c cable gives higher watts than lightning.
You probably won’t get full charging speed.
Then why not just use a USB C cable?
I simply can not fathom the obsession people have with Apple products when they so egregiously price gouge their customers.
I'm not a fan of their MacOS based products, but I prefer iOS for the fact that I can rely on getting timely updates. For a good long while. That is not something that is generally true with Android. I'm fine with paying for that level of support.
Last time I looked, no Android vendors provided close to the same level of support.
That said, if I was a business and needed to field in house apps to mobile devices, everyone would be getting an Android device. Custom apps for iOS are a pain in the ass.
All this arguing aside, good job EU. Good legislation at work right there. Whether people claim it's better or not everyone in the end wins. Single adapter used with all devices, single cable provided for charging and data transfers. Simplicity and eco friendly. Everybody wins, especially iPhone users since now they don't have to deal with shitty cables costing 40$ which fall apart 3 months after purchase.
