Now Apple users can truly flex

I guess this is based on the idea that iPhones are expensive or exclusive? Or rather, some people think that iPhone owners think they're elite for having what is actually the most common phone in the US? They haven't been the most expensive phones on the market for at least 7 years.
- Americans flex about the weirdest things.
  The most common truck, the most common phone, food from the most ubiquitous fast food joint, having merch from the most popular artists and sports teams.
  Those are their biggest flexs.
  Yeah buddy, great flex with your Taylor swift hoodie, Starbucks frap, iPhone 12 in your Ford F-150.
  
  Its especially confusing because for many, many years, and even still today, American's are pushed to be UNIQUE and whenever anyone is UNIQUE then people criticize them for enjoying or doing things outside whatever is ubiquitous for whatever thing. Its ridiculous honestly.
  
  For all its boasts about "independence" and "freedom", the thing America values most is conformity.
  
  If you think about it, it just proves the 'genius' behind these companies advertising strategies. They have managed to convince a large percentage of the population that their mass market products a rare, unique and something to be desired.
  
  And also the most common death of children being shot.
  /s
- Note to phone users of all makes, I really couldn’t give a fuck what colour your chat bubble is.
  
  I think that’s the real reason. It’s been 10 years since I saw anyone think they’re special because they have an iPhone but still run into this concept that iPhone users think they’re elite. Perhaps that’s true for some tiny percentage of apple fanatics, but for the average person, it’s just the phone they prefer or the phone they have.
  I’ve been to bars and begged them humbly to help me charge my phone and never once have I thought “IPHONE, yeah! You heard me!”
- Never underestimate the power of Apple's marketing department.

I believe the point was "I am specifically asking for an iphone cable so you know that I have an iphone and not an inferior android", which is not actually a flex because nobody thinks iphone users are cool except iphone users.
- Yeah, imagine being so dramatic that you assume someone asking for a damn phone charger is trying to flex on you instead of just trying to charge their phone.

Who the hell asks for a cable as a flex?
Who the hell has such an inferiority complex that they think someone asking for an iphone cable is a flex?
- There are people who based their entire personality on their Apple products, and I'm not even exaggerated.
  On my social media's feed the other day, someone posted "I'm literally crying during the apple event, I felt disrespected by apple and the new iphone".
  I was like "wtf does that even mean, dude."
  
  http://i.imgur.com/d5Qs39g.jpg
- I once stubled across a girl on tinder who wouldn't date anyone who doesn't have an iphone.
  
  I’m sure there’s plenty of stupid on tinder, an iphone is a lousy metric. Used ones can be had for far cheaper than the mistake of wasting money trying to date someone like that.
  
  Me too, but it was because I couldn't use FaceTime.
- For me as an iPhone user, its more like an embarrassment to ask for a lightning cable.
  
  I feel the same…because I feel dumb for having not thought to bring my own or adequately charge my phone. If anything else, I’m probably irritated too because of the proprietary cable means I can’t just use any old USB-C, or micro/mini usb that are so ubiquitous.
- There are areas in the world where the overpriced iPhone costs more then a persons income for 2 - 3 months or even more. Owning such a device is a matter of status and overcoming low self esteem by association with a famous brand.
  In short: a lot of people.

I remember when they switched from 30 pin to lightning when I was in highschool. It was the best time to be a little shit, whenever someone asked if you had an iphone charger you could ask what kind they need and then say you have neither.

I have always had an Android phone, while my wife has had iPhones. Whenever one of the kids got old enough to get their own phone, they inherited hers and gave her an excuse to get a new iPhone. (Meanwhile I just traded mine in.)
The unintentional result is that she can never find a charging cable or block for her phone because the kids keep taking them (and inevitably somehow breaking them), while I have a surplus of ways to charge my own. And also the kids' batteries are always low, because they can't figure out how to ration screen use with an old-ass worn out battery.
So everyone else in the house is always squabbling about who took the charger, while I rarely see my phone dip below 50%. They hate it SO MUCH when I point this out. I swear I try not to smirk when I do.
- I mean, your kids didn't choose to have an iphone, so it seems like kind of a dick move towards them specifically.
  
  Well, we actually did give them the choice. They all chose iPhone, though I admit we encouraged that because it was simpler to lock those down and keep track of their location with them when they were younger.
  My oldest had his for a few years and switched to an Android when he became more tech savvy and realized that an Apple didn't afford him the customization he wanted and didn't mesh as well with the PC he built with his summer job money.
  I kind of like that we have an assortment of ecosystems in the house, because it exposes them to the advantages and drawbacks of each. Lord knows they hear me cussing out Windows often enough when I use the laptop, so maybe they'll be motivated to learn to use another OS when they're older.
- Good news! With the next generation iPhone, your cables are no longer safe.
  
  D'oh!
- I went to visit my in-laws one winter and my Samsung charging block turned up missing. I'm the only non-Apple phone in the family. I'd be mad, but I'm sure someone needed it more than me.

How is being a cableless beggar a flex?
- Ever since this was introduced I've been seeing a lot of people naming the use case of using other people's chargers. Does nobody take responsibility for their own stuff anymore?
  
  anymore
  They never did
  
  I don’t take a charging cable with me to other people’s houses or cars.
  
  What other convenience or use case would there be? When I'm at home or in my car I have plenty of Lightning cables. It also hasn't been a problem when I've asked at bars etc. considering that the iPhone has the largest market share. So I don't really see what the advantage is other than what the EU was going for, which was unifying the market.

While the lightning cable was ahead of its time when it came out, mostly because the USB consortium couldn't get its shit together, nowadays it's woefully inferior.
Having said that, Apple has still managed to fuck their customers over by making so that only their overpriced "high speed" USB-C cables can work at anything better than USB 2.0 standard.
I doubt that 3rd parties won't try to circumvent Apple's BS, but goes to show even the EU couldn't make Apple drop the act entirely.
Edit: And that's not even talking about the wildly expensive lightning to USB-C converter they're selling to anybody desperate enough to hold onto their lightning cables
- Thankfully, they recently introduced logo requirements for this exact reason.
  In order to pass through the USB-IF Compliance Program, all USB-C® to USB-C cables categories must be labelled with either a power capability of 60W or 240W by using the appropriate power icon and/or logo. The USB-IF now requires that all cables must be labeled with the 60W or 240W logo prior to compliance testing so that testing can confirm the intended display of such icons/logos. The policy now extends to all USB-C to USB-C cables. These markings must be checked before compliance testing can begin.
  In addition to the power markings, in order to pass through the USB-IF Compliance Program, all cables except for High-Speed USB (USB 2.0) USB-C to USB-C cables, are required to be marked with the appropriate data rate they can support. An example, a USB 20Gbps USB-C – USB-C cable that supports 20V at 3A must be marked with the Combined Performance and Power 20Gbps/60W logo.
  Here's a table of the logos
  
  USB 3.2 Gen 2x2
  A group of people thought that was a good name for the protocol. And as you were saying, with no marking to indicate the cable is compatible.
  
  I usually flex my cables a bit to figure out their types, if it's stiff enough, chance that it supports PD. The only way to be sure is to plug it in though and pray the cable is not shitty enough to ruin your device.
- Ah, so Apple definitely wouldn't sell you a 60W USB-C Charge Cable while limiting other cables to 20W?
  Nor would Apple ever dream of selling you a cable capable of delivering up to 240W for their phones?
  I'm not suggesting that Apple is nerfing their USB-C cables. What I'm telling you is that they're nerfing their competitor's cables compatability in order to sell you a solution you wouldn't need if they weren't such dicks.
  Also, I apologise. The USB 2.0 speed fuckery only applies to the pro series Iphones... the normal series ones are limited to USB 2.0 no matter what cable you use.
  As for that lightning adaptor, even if you did need it I wouldn't recommend buying that one, unless you're desperate to give Apple even more profits. There are smaller form factor, significantly cheaper converters out there that will do the job just fine.
- I don’t really know much about hardware and never bothered looking at transfer speeds and such, but why is lightning inferior? I like it because it’s reversible and the prong doesn’t seem like it could snap or get damaged that easily.
  Not that matters much because in the three years I’ve had the phone I’ve plugged it in like five times.
  
  USB-C has for years now supported higher wattage power delivery, and higher data transfer speeds than lightning.
  I can't speak to your experience, but from mine, the build of quality of Apple's own lightning cables was terrible. I owned two IPod Touch's over the course of about 6 years, and I basically went through one cable a year because they'd just disintegrate towards the ends of the cable or internally decapitate themselves. Didn't even need to break them, they'd break themselves.
  Whereas in the 6+ years I've used phones with USB-C, only two of them have broken. One was because the cable got snagged under a chair and I pulled the USB-C end off not realising it was stuck, and the other one was my Mum breaking the USB-A end shoving it into a plug the wrong way. Both things that had nothing to do with the build quality of the cables. I still have every other one of my USB-C cables.
  
  For one, USB-C can (if implemented) transfer data at 40Gbps vs lightning's 0.5Gbps. USB-C also charges a lot faster.
  USB-C is also reversable like lightning, and the connectors are internal.
  Android phones used to use USB-B micro, which wasn't reversable, but a long time go exeryone switched to USB-C which feels like at was invented to be a better version of lightning and has had many advances while being backwards compatible with early USB-C hardware.

Literally it's just wealth peacocking and classism, that's it... people who are proud of owning an iphone are gross
- There is more expensive and nicer built iPhones if you really care about blowing money, it's all so stupid.
  Also... Who cares? It's 2023 all phones pretty much do the same shit.
  
  My chat is shown in a different color on their device
- They seem to have gone out of fashion, but back when I was rocking a HTC Desire I remember seeing people with iphone cases that had a hole in the back so you could see the logo when they were talking on them…
  
  My ignorant understanding was that iphone made that a requirement for their cases
  
  Those cases are still around.
- Just as gross as people who are proud of not owning an iPhone. It's a fucking phone, if it's part of your identity you're a dork.
  
  Agree, but I see this kind of behavior out of Apple users way more than I see it from Android users.
  
  honestly, what with all the additional anti privacy and DRM shit google have been adding to phones lately, I've been getting less and less enamoured with Android phones. Sure I can sideload, but I can't install root level apps without jumpling over a number of hoops just to stop other apps from failing Safety net.
  I miss the time where all you had to do is install the su binary, then you can do what you want without fear of borking shit.
  My current phone has some weird instability issues with Magisk - I can't install AdAway and systemless hosts or LSPosed in zygisk because for some reason, the moment I try it, it causes the phone to randomly freeze up, which to fix requires a reboot. I missed many alarms due to that happening in the middle of the night while I was asleep. (Which while those modules were installed, would happen almost every night) it's a pixel 3a, with stock ROM. The only module I have currently installed is Universal Safetynet Fix, which for some reason, only half works (passes basic attestation, but not the CTS profile matching)

They will also soon be forced to allow app sideloading. This might be huge and the only way I'd consider an iPhone
- YouTube ReVanced and Gecko Firefox UBlockO would be the only way I consider an iPhone. And emulator support. This isn't negotiable.
  
  iOS had uYou+ which has more features than vanced. Notably, I can disable the god awful pinch to zoom feature and the snap to time stamp feature. I cant find those features on ReVanced.
- iPhones are great for one reason and one reason only: they have a great app ecosystem. Most Android apps are really shit. I know there are great exceptions out there, but it's rare.
  It's weird how the EU is forcing Apple to make better products, since tbh the combination of better apps on the app store, and being able to sideload your own from anywhere kind of makes the iphone a no brainer.
  
  Mobile developer here. Somewhat. I've written mobile apps for my internship and I have some several hundred hours of experience.
  This is because Apple provides a much better SDK and, most importantly, the fact that all the iOS devices actually get updated means you are not stuck needing to support ancient SDK versions and you can freely rely on newer methods more easily
  Though my personal phone is Android. I see the difference in polish between most iOS and most Android apps, but I think that's an objective difference but a subjective trait. For now I still prefer Android: while everything is still a little more rough around the edges the gap has been slowly closing for s few years now, Material You is finally really good, and gone are the days of the fiddly Android phones that never worked quite right or needed the occasional trip to recovery mode to wipe /cache to stay fast or the occasional factory reset: modern Android is much different, it's basically fully immutable in a way where every action is completely reversible, and it does a much better job at maintaining itself than it used to in the past.
  Still yes, for people who value the slightly higher polish on native iOS apps, being able to sideload as well is big. It would make me at least consider the iPhone. A lot of the apps I use every day come from F-Droid, and F-Droid is where I look for my apps first when I need something to fulfill a certain purpose. I'm pretty big on FOSS, but I've never been able to truly commit on my phone yet as it's not really ready for my use case yet (mostly, weird bugs and missing features in MicroG). So it's not FOSS Vs Apple - it's Google vs Apple in my case, so neither is an ethical choice.

Wait all the time iPhone users have been flexing?
- Flexing their cables 'til they fray and tear, yes
  
  Oh yeah I remember those bits at the end of every charger lol
  
  That ended about 8 years ago. Sure was bullshit at the time, though.

Even better when your mental idea of an iphone charger is a conector hanging from a wire with the insulation peeled.

Apple introduced the Lightning connector with the iPhone 5 back in 2012. At the time, it was reversible and superior to the existing Micro-USB connectors. Having been manufactured of a single piece of metal, it was also more durable than the more complex USB connectors.
The first USB-C phone was released in 2015. Samsung released their first USB-C phone, the infamous Galaxy Note 7 in 2016. Their flagship model didn’t use USB-C until 2017.
I find the whole Lighting-hate thing slightly puzzling. Imagine that you come up with a technological solution that solves a problem. Years later, other people finally find a way to solve the same problem. Then they accuse you of being backward. Finally the use of your solution is declared illegal.
Still, now that iPhone indeed has switched to USB-C, Apple's keyboards, headphones and touchpads should follow suit as soon as possible. It makes no sense for them to use Lightning anymore as the ecosystem around it is obsolete.
Edit: another thing that I have found puzzling is how Apple is getting all the hate for proprietary standards, yet at the same time multiple other manufacturers have developed their own proprietary fast charging protocols which means you need both a proprietary cable and a proprietary charger to charge your phones to get charging speeds anywhere close to what is advertised. This was tested by for example Android Authority a few years back. To provide a more up-to-date example, OnePlus 10 Pro supports fast charging at 65 watts but only with its own ”SuperVooc” charger. If you try to charge through USB-PD, you are limited to 18 watts even though PD would theoretically support up to 240 watts. The SuperVooc chargers also refuse to charge any other device at a power higher than 10 watts. It’s interesting how this phenomenon has slipped under most people’s radar.
- A lot of the hate comes from apple having been a big supporter of the usb-c standard when it was developed, yet they still chose to go the anti-consumer route and stick with lightning for years after they already had a better cable. Now there's landfills of useless lightning cables, while we can still use micro-usb for a lot of other old devices.
  
  after they already had a better cable
  Better how? There is nothing in the iPhone 15 that was improved after changing the port. For the iPhone 15 Pro, faster transfer speeds are now supported but if we are honest, how many iPhone owners will ever transfer anything to or from their phones using a cable? I remember doing so once in the past 5 years. Using the cloud or AirDrop is significantly more convenient. On a device as small as the phone fast charging at higher wattage than what Lightning already provided is most likely going to murder your battery.
  Now there’s landfills of useless lightning cables, while we can still use micro-usb for a lot of other old devices.
  I don't see why we couldn't still use Lightning cables for old devices the same way as we can use micro-usb cables for old devices? Apple and other manufacturers have sold billions of devices and accessories utilizing Lightning. It's not going to disappear any time soon.
- They only accuse Apple of being backwards in this case because for anyone else to use it they have to pay a licensing fee to Apple. The new standard (USB-C) is free to add to your device.
- Did they did improvements on it or it has been always the same identically connector?
  
  At least one improvement has been made to the spec over the years: the iPhone X / iPhone 8 introduced support for fast charging through the USB-PD standard which meant something had to be upgraded. I'm fairly sure that change did not result in physical changes to the connector though. It has always remained backwards-compatible.
- ~~Wrong. OnePlus One, released in April, (as invite only) 2014 had USB-C~~.
  I was wrong, sorry. It was not until OnePlus two.
  
  What? I'm not the one you're correcting, but I'll be correcting you. I was invited through their forums, and bought the OnePlus One (EU version), which definitely had micro-USB. Have you really had/seen the OnePlus One with USB-C? I'm confused, but I think you're the one being wrong.
- It doesn't have to be a OnePlus charger, it can be any charger that actually has that output.

The flex is "i own an expensive phone" not the cable itself. Not that I think that is cool in any way, just explaining.
- I mean the most expensive phones are Androids nowadays, like the Galaxy Z Fold5 that starts at $1799 for the one with the smallest storage..
  iPhones are just more consistent pricing wise, though they also released budget versions by now, right?
  
  You're exactly right. I think the most expensive iPhones are maybe $1k USD and the cheapest are around $400 USD. Android phones range from basically free to nearly $2k. iPhone fans look at it as fragmentation (because it is) and Android fans look at it as freedom of choice (because it is).
- Funny how the only reason my dad has an iPhone is it's the only one they didn't charge him extra for in his phone plan
  
  I don't believe this. That's got to be a weird phone plan if that's true. Not one of the major carriers. It might be the only "premium" phone that wasn't extra though. I'd believe that.
- With USBC the cable is now the expensive thing
- My Sony Xperia Android phone costs more than an iPhone.

Lightning might've been somewhat better by itself for the years before USB C became ubiquitous (because it was doing some of what USB C is doing) - but even then it was Lightning (Apple only) versus Micro USB (practically any other phone). The EU forcing Apple to adopt USB C is a good thing for everyone (except Apple themselves probably - because they'll sell fewer special cables).
- The EU forcing Apple to adopt USB C is a good thing for everyone
  Apple adopting USB-C is good for everyone. But I’m skeptical that the “EU forcing them” aspect is. It basically means we’ll never see a new interconnect standard for phones evolve beyond USB-C. If someone found a way to improve the durability of hybrid fiber+copper cabling, it would face immense artificial barriers to adoption.
  Imagine if this decision had been made a decade ago, and micro-USB became the EU standard. Would we even have USB-C today?
  
  Always think this argument is weird. The bill has a line about replacing the USB-C standered with a new one in the future, and the port can handle at least 80Gbps.
  
  Well sure. But what u r saying is under the assumption that laws cannot be changed. Right now, the best and most widely adopted standard (by a very large margin) is USB-C.
  There r two possibilities for this standard to be replaced:
  A new, wired standard: While this possibility exists, the probability of this happening is extremely low. USB-C solves all problems that a port can solve. The chances of new wired tech evolving beyond this are close to none.
  A wireless standard: This could be the most probable replacement in the future. However, looking at the state of this tech right now, it still has a very long time to become usable in consumer tech. When this happens, the laws would be changed to keep up with the times.
  
  That's not really how it works. If someone can evolve the standard he's totally free to do it and nobody would object. Standards are by definition collaborative, they can be evolved.
  I think the matter was around forcing a proprietary cable, which was also worse and expensive

Sadly, boomers are now referring to USB-C cables as "iPhone chargers"

Constantly having to charge your phone...not really a flex.

Sent from my iPhone

Dumbest "meme" I've ever seen. Asking to borrow a cable has never been a flex in any way, whatsoever. The fact that this many people have even commented on this means you need to do something with ur lives. Let's try not to make Lemmy into Reddit, peeps.

This not a meme. This is real shit

Out of curiosity, will that atrocious "this device may not be supported" box FINALLY be dead? I haven't used an Apple device for a long time, but that was one of my biggest pet peeve.
- Hard to say. A LOT of USB-C cables don't meet spec and are either hot garbage or a risk waiting to happen, even if it's not immediately apparent to you as a user of them, based on the testing that Benson had previously done.
  If Apples devices can detect this, you may get an error. People are already ragging on the cost of Apples USB-C cables, but to my knowledge, they all meet the spec and will also 100% work at 100W of charging and the other auxiliary items in the spec that most manufacturers seem to just ignore.
  Now, with all that said, I'd never pay Apples price for a single cable, but if you absolutely want a cable that's going to meet spec, I also can't fault you for buying one either!
  
  What are they charging? A standard non-apple 5 amp cable is $15-$20 for a good one. People think they're cheaper because they're used to buying junky 1.5 or 3 amp cables that don't even meet the USB-C spec for $5 on Amazon. If you're using a quick charger and your charge times haven't changed, you're using a cable that doesn't support enough amps.

it's more of a battery problem than a flex lol

the iPhone charger looks like a dog chewed the end

A small handful of friends have had their phones die at my house because neither me nor my neighbor I'm friends with have any iPhone cables. Them being able to charge their phone now might get them to see the light a bit. (and hopefully stop being the only reason our group chat isn't rcs)

Wtf is this content

Also I can actually borrow peoples cables now, seems everyone with a cable has an iphone

How could this be viewed as a flex. It would be akin to viewing someone burning money in a sealed plexiglass cage where they also need to announce how easy it was to enter.
- I bought a new iPhone 6 for $200 when they were a couple years old. I used it for 3 years and was pretty happy with it. The idea that iPhones are more expensive than android is about 10 years outdated. You do get higher specs for the price with android but it doesn’t make a huge difference unless you’re trying to be bleeding edge.
  
  It's not that android phones themselves cost less. Though they very often do. It's that apple keeps you locked into a shitty app environment, has garbage peripherals with insane price tags, and connecting it to a Windows machine is a pain.
- My iPhone cost $125. I bought it last year and according to the menu, it’s an SE2. It’s the fourth iPhone I’ve had since 2012, for which I’ve paid a total of <$350. My last one never broke, but it had 16 gigs and was sadly no longer really usable.
  I don’t really care about my phone, my favorite thing about it is the size, but I stick to iPhones because it’s so easy to just log into the phone and have your old phone virtually.

Dislike it if ya dislike it!

- @Kuolematon the micro USB was indeed bad. I had quite a bunch of broken cables because the two pins at the bottom were no longer holding the cable lol. I wonder what will happen now with my USB-C cables

It was a flex because that would mean you have an iPhone. Are you stupid?

Oh stow it for crying out loud. Lightning was absolutely superior to the alternatives that existed when it came out, which was 13 years ago. It was faster, more robust and easier to use. So technology has evolved. Big deal. How long has USB-C been a thing on mobile phones? Not for 13 years, that's for sure.
But now we get all those edgelords who think it's classy to hate on a perfectly adequate technology. Just get some perspective. Lightning-equipped devices will be sold for at least another year if not more, and will be around for much longer than that. So those cables are neither obsolete nor are they going to disappear in a hurry.
- Apple themselves have been using usb c since 2015 in their laptops. They knew then that it was superior, but would be much harder to sell overpriced accessories for.
  
  Strange how I've had lightning devices since 2012 and never bought one of those 'overpriced accessories'. But I've lost count of all the USB-C-to-something-else adapters I've got floating around.
  
  Apple used USB C in laptops because of the power requirements.
  I’ve got plenty of lightning accesssories. Only one of those is made by Apple. Lots of cheap 3rd party lighting alternatives available
- cope