Apple: As long as we can gaslight you into thinking we’re classy, we can do whatever the fuck we want
They should remove the USB-C ports, so you have to send it back to Apple for charging
I honestly can’t be mad at this point because what they SHOULD do is sell cables in bulk packaging to the Apple store, and then when they sell a phone they say “Do you need a USB cable? Free with the phone.” If they say “No we’re okay I’ve got hundreds of them by now” no problem, if they say “Yeah in fact can I get two?” Sure. Same with chargers. Of course this is Apple we’re talking about, so they’re probably $69.99 each.
There is a good Adam Savage video on yt about the engineering of the thunderbolt or whatever cables.
They still should be shipped in bulk to the store but it makes more sense why they wouldn’t be given away free
iPhones don’t come with those expensive high-bandwidth cables, they come with charging cables that only do USB 2.0
I’ve had one apart and to be fair they are not carelessly made. They’re jacketed in soft silicone under the braid and have thicker than average stranded conductors. You can totally use whatever cables you want, but theirs are built a little better than you’d think and they just feel nice.
Maybe this is a tactile/autism thing for me?
Now, Apple might argue that they’re being environmentally conscious by reducing packaging waste. That’s a fair point,
It isn’t… That’s like not flushing the toilet in a public bathroom to “save water”
Flushing two toilets because there is all the packaging and shipping for the separate apple branded cables.
They are a huge tech company. They should have a checkbox in the checkout flow that lets you add a free cable if you need one.
It’s fine if they reduce the price accordingly.
If it’s still the same price after they take the cable out, it was never about reducing waste to begin with.
Knowing Apple, that wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest, which is why I never have and never will own any of their products.
well…by selling both the cable and wall adapter as separate items it doubles the packaging by necessity so it was still never about reducing waste
which is why I never have and never will own any of their products.
✊👍
Next up: you have to buy the box first, which is empty. Then you can buy the phone. No box? No phone.
Everyone I know has at least 10 USB-C cables lying around, what’s the point of shipping more e-waste?
Final step would be to remove the phone from the box. They would do world a favor.
I was just thinking either box or the phone has to go next.
Any moment now…
Price wouldn’t change.
I don’t love it, but I guess it does remove some e-waste. I don’t use any of the original cables for my headphone or my phone.
Really? Send them to me. The cables they come with are always really nice and I know they’ll support the data rates and powers the device can use.
There’s not a data connection for this device?
Apple isn’t the only company doing this
After being forced to standardise to usb c and be responsible for some of the e-waste it produces, apple has finally relented.
They fought tooth and nail against the EU regulations to force charging standards. I don’t care if they up sell cables to some people; most people will reuse what they have and thats the whole point of the regulations.
Regulation works.
They transitioned most of their devices to usb save the iPhone before the EU legislation went into effect.
Apple caught shit for going USB-C only on their laptops years ago.
Exactly, and it’s still kind of annoying years later on my work laptop (2019 Macbook Pro). I got a USB hub and now I get all those other ports, but that wouldn’t have been necessary if they just gave me an HDMI and USB-A port. The newer M-series Macbook Pros went back to having HDMI, which is really nice.
I wish everything I had was the same port, but I’m not going to go out and repurchase everything to standardize on one plug.
HDMI is a dogshit standard and everyone should’ve moved over to DisplayPort or Thunderbolt over the USB-C form factor.
Nah, it’s totally fine, and it’s ubiquitous. Ideally, I get both, so if I’m connecting to a TV or something, I can use HDMI, and if I’m connecting to a monitor, I can use DP.
Are people connecting their laptops to TVs frequently enough that this should be built into every single unit shipped? I can’t imagine the percentage of users who actually use their HDMI ports is very high.
Yes? Someone in my group connects to our work TV pretty much every day for our morning meeting, and I connect to a monitor at home and at work multiple times every day. Yeah, I guess you could ensure that every TV supports streaming and have a USB-C hub at every desk, but that sounds odd compared to just adding an HDMI port or something.
You use HDMI for all those use cases? Seems like Thunderbolt is a much better dock for workstations, and DisplayPort is generally better for computer monitors and the resolution/refresh rates useful for that kind of work. The broad support of cables and HDMI displays is for HDMI 2.0, which caps at 4k60. By the time HDMI 2.1 hit the market, Thunderbolt and DisplayPort Alt mode had been out for a few years, so it would’ve made more sense to just upgrade to Thunderbolt rather than getting an all new HDMI lineup.
But cables wear out.
Agreed. The life of a phone includes multiple cables (unless someone here knows some trick I don’t), so including OEM hardware that’s tested and recommended for the device is great and I wish it were still standard. Phone manufacturers not including parts that they still sell separately seems to have little to do with environmentalism/conservation and much to do with profits.
On the contrary, I’ve had a USB cable last multiple phones before. I think the trick is to avoid using it when it’s plugged in as much as possible. Another common pitfall is that microfiber (pocket lint) can build up in the charging port over months and years, resulting in a poor connection. You can usually remove this by turning the phone off and using the tip of a wooden toothpick to gently scrape out the lint.
I definitely think they should include a cable in the box though.
I’ve used the same cables for years with no problem. You don’t yank them out of ports using the strand, you don’t stress the connectors by winding tightly or making them bend at sharp angles and just treat them with care.
Ok, let’s be real here. A charger can last a decade even if the charging speed slows…a cord will not outlast a phone. If it does, there’s a serious issue
I see you’ve been using apple cables. Other cables will absolutely last ten years or more.
Frankly, I don’t see much of a problem with this.
They’ll sell the “Apple” charging cable for $40 or something fucking insane, but as long as you can buy and use a normal USB-C cable that does exactly the same thing, go for it.
Of course being Apple, they will probably void the warranty or add an identifier to their cables so that nothing else works. In that case, I hope the EU bankrupts them completely.
Once the phone runs out of battery, send it to warranty repair
