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Something I found interesting when discussing this with my wife.. All my friends are tech heads and champing at the bit to have usb-c in their iPhones. But wh

by dagmx 4y ago

Something I found interesting when discussing this with my wife.. All my friends are tech heads and champing at the bit to have usb-c in their iPhones. But when she asked me why people were mad about the switch to usb-c it took me by surprise. Then she showed me a lot of online responses from non technical people who see the change of port as annoying and wasteful because now all their stuff won’t work without adapters. I think it’s really interesting to see the difference in mind sets between different demographics.

danpalmer 4y ago
Absolutely. USB-C appeals to techies, people with an engineering mindset, because it's an elegant solution. It's one connector, with graceful handling of different use-cases from charging, through peripherals, to high-speed high throughput data transfer. But practically speaking, I've bought several HDMI adapters, had a hard time choosing a mouse that had USB-C a few years ago, have bought a new charger, lost MagSafe on my laptop. This is how most people view it, and it's hard to convince them otherwise, and rightly so!
- robocat 4y ago
  I have had Android phones where the USB-C port has failed bricking the device (can’t charge). Micro-USB was far worse, but USB-C still fails to often. Lightning appears to be much more robust (anecdotally watching friends devices, I have had few Apple iDevices). Mechanically and electrically, I like the lightning connector (although I loath proprietary shit generally).
  - anotherman554 4y ago
    Your android phones can't wirelessly charge?
- hot_gril 4y ago
  There are some technical pitfalls of USB-C too. Solvable but still present. Probably the biggest thing people don't think about is how rare USB-C hubs are. I don't mean the ones that adapt to other ports (if you thought of that first, it illustrates my point), I mean one that takes one USB-C and gives you more. For years after 2016, the chip to make this simply didn't exist. Even now, it's expensive. For this reason, it actually makes sense to use USB-A accessories even if your PCs take -C, cause you can always get more -A ports for cheap. So companies still make -A accessories, and even a lot of -C ones tend to come with an A-to-C cable in the box (and no -C to -C cable!). Non-tech people tend to understand these things without knowing it. They see new port, they say no.
- stouset 4y ago
  It's not even an elegant solution. Having one port profile front for multiple technologies (USB, USB-PD, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt), and multiple versions of those technologies, with the cables being random able/unable to support any particular matrix of them, has been a usability nightmare. Also on a purely functional level the actually-a-male design of the Lightning plug has made it—in my opinion—a far superior physical plug than the looks-male-but-is-female-in-disguise design of the USB-C plug.
hotpotamus 4y ago
One time my mother ordered a power cable for an old coffee maker, I think a Revereware percolator or something similar. I remember she found one specifically for it and waited for it to arrive so she could test this and re-sell it. I took a look and it's just a regular ATX computer power cable (type C13 but I had to look that up), and I was like, I've got a pile of those and could just have given you one. People just don't realize what are standard cables vs what are bespoke for their application, and this sort of thinking has bitten me personally as well.
brundolf 4y ago
But even those non-tech people should have some USB-C cables lying around at this point Android phones have used USB-C cables for many years. The Nintendo switch and PS5 controllers use USB-C cables. Chromebooks use USB-C cables. The alarm clock I just bought uses a USB-C cable. My keyboard uses a USB-C cable. Every MacBook made in the last five years (and most iPads sold in the last couple years) uses a USB-C cable. It's very possible, if they're nontechnical, that they already have cables that will work with it and don't even realize it (which to be fair might be its own problem, but it's certainly a smaller problem)
- irrational 4y ago
  We have 5 iPhones (no usb-c connectors), 5 tablets (no usb-c connectors), 1 desktop (no usb-c port), and 6 laptops (only 1 of which has a usb-c charger). So, we have a grand total of 1 usb-c cable in the house. And that one is already in use charging a laptop. I sure hope Apple is planning on including a cable and charger with future iPhones so I don’t have to purchase a separate cable. Frankly, hardware doesn’t become as obsolete as fast anymore, so there has been little reason to purchase usb-c replacements for our non-usb-c hardware.
- dagmx 4y ago
  If they do have a usb-c cable they likely don’t necessarily think of it as one. It’s just generic charging cable that works with this device that they probably leave plugged in all the time. But when you tell them that the thing they plug in and out every day is changing cables that ruffles feathers.
- tokamak-teapot 4y ago
  I have about twelve Lightning cables (2 in car, 4 permanently installed at convenient locations, a few in my work bag, an couple in another bag and some currently missing) and one USB-C cable, which I use for charging my laptop. At some point soon, perhaps when I get a new iPhone, I am going to have to start buying more USB-C cables. I will then spend years looking at the end of cables to see what the connector looks like. Just like USB-A and B where I had to make sure they were the right way up, which takes at least three attempts. At some point, my iPad and iPhone - and my family’s iPads and iPhones - will all be dead, and replaced with USB-C versions. We are quite good at hanging onto devices until they can no longer have new safe batteries (installed by Apple) or have no real use, so this could be around ten to fifteen years. This drive by the EU seems to mainly talk about power adapters, and how it’s a waste to have separate ones, but all the power adapters I use for phone and iPad have USB-A sockets. With USB-C on both ends of cables, I expect I’ll have to buy some new power adapters soon. I will then have to have two adapters everywhere (one for my USB-A to Lightning cables), or buy lots of USB-C to Lightning cables for the transition period. To go with the USB-C cables for post transition period. I’m not at all inconvenienced by Lightning and not at all desperate to have USB-C, and USB-C will be replaced by USB-D in a few years, probably many years before the Lightning devices have given up, to USB-C, so I will probably carry several Lightning to USB-A, several Lightning to USB-C, several Lightning to USB-D, several USB-C to USB-C, several USB-C to USB-D and several USB-D to USB-D. * not counting the Switch. I’m not gambling with that - it gets its original PSU only.
password1 4y ago
I know many people that mentally only perceive connectors as "the iphone cable" and "the android cable". The "Android cable" could be anything from micro-usb to usb-c to old propietary connectors of old nokia and motorola. To this people this change effectively removes what's familiar and understood for something unknown, but I think it will still be for the better if eventually they will only perceive it as "the cable" that just works with pretty much anything.
shuntress 4y ago
It is not a difference in mind sets. Those "non technical people" want the same thing that the "tech heads" want: One type of cable that is compatible with all their devices. They just don't necessarily realize that they have already organized their lives in a way that excludes mismatched cables. I would be just as happy to have everything switch to lightning. I really don't care what it is I just want all my cables to be the same.
hot_gril 4y ago
I think tech heads are the least practical with tech. It's not necessarily about convenience to them, and they'll tolerate a lot.

by dagmx 4y ago

danpalmer 4y ago

Absolutely. USB-C appeals to techies, people with an engineering mindset, because it's an elegant solution. It's one connector, with graceful handling of different use-cases from charging, through peripherals, to high-speed high throughput data transfer. But practically speaking, I've bought several HDMI adapters, had a hard time choosing a mouse that had USB-C a few years ago, have bought a new charger, lost MagSafe on my laptop. This is how most people view it, and it's hard to convince them otherwise, and rightly so!

robocat 4y ago
I have had Android phones where the USB-C port has failed bricking the device (can’t charge). Micro-USB was far worse, but USB-C still fails to often. Lightning appears to be much more robust (anecdotally watching friends devices, I have had few Apple iDevices). Mechanically and electrically, I like the lightning connector (although I loath proprietary shit generally).
- anotherman554 4y ago
  Your android phones can't wirelessly charge?
hot_gril 4y ago
There are some technical pitfalls of USB-C too. Solvable but still present. Probably the biggest thing people don't think about is how rare USB-C hubs are. I don't mean the ones that adapt to other ports (if you thought of that first, it illustrates my point), I mean one that takes one USB-C and gives you more. For years after 2016, the chip to make this simply didn't exist. Even now, it's expensive. For this reason, it actually makes sense to use USB-A accessories even if your PCs take -C, cause you can always get more -A ports for cheap. So companies still make -A accessories, and even a lot of -C ones tend to come with an A-to-C cable in the box (and no -C to -C cable!). Non-tech people tend to understand these things without knowing it. They see new port, they say no.
stouset 4y ago
It's not even an elegant solution. Having one port profile front for multiple technologies (USB, USB-PD, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt), and multiple versions of those technologies, with the cables being random able/unable to support any particular matrix of them, has been a usability nightmare. Also on a purely functional level the actually-a-male design of the Lightning plug has made it—in my opinion—a far superior physical plug than the looks-male-but-is-female-in-disguise design of the USB-C plug.

hotpotamus 4y ago

One time my mother ordered a power cable for an old coffee maker, I think a Revereware percolator or something similar. I remember she found one specifically for it and waited for it to arrive so she could test this and re-sell it. I took a look and it's just a regular ATX computer power cable (type C13 but I had to look that up), and I was like, I've got a pile of those and could just have given you one. People just don't realize what are standard cables vs what are bespoke for their application, and this sort of thinking has bitten me personally as well.

brundolf 4y ago

But even those non-tech people should have some USB-C cables lying around at this point Android phones have used USB-C cables for many years. The Nintendo switch and PS5 controllers use USB-C cables. Chromebooks use USB-C cables. The alarm clock I just bought uses a USB-C cable. My keyboard uses a USB-C cable. Every MacBook made in the last five years (and most iPads sold in the last couple years) uses a USB-C cable. It's very possible, if they're nontechnical, that they already have cables that will work with it and don't even realize it (which to be fair might be its own problem, but it's certainly a smaller problem)

irrational 4y ago
We have 5 iPhones (no usb-c connectors), 5 tablets (no usb-c connectors), 1 desktop (no usb-c port), and 6 laptops (only 1 of which has a usb-c charger). So, we have a grand total of 1 usb-c cable in the house. And that one is already in use charging a laptop. I sure hope Apple is planning on including a cable and charger with future iPhones so I don’t have to purchase a separate cable. Frankly, hardware doesn’t become as obsolete as fast anymore, so there has been little reason to purchase usb-c replacements for our non-usb-c hardware.
dagmx 4y ago
If they do have a usb-c cable they likely don’t necessarily think of it as one. It’s just generic charging cable that works with this device that they probably leave plugged in all the time. But when you tell them that the thing they plug in and out every day is changing cables that ruffles feathers.
tokamak-teapot 4y ago
I have about twelve Lightning cables (2 in car, 4 permanently installed at convenient locations, a few in my work bag, an couple in another bag and some currently missing) and one USB-C cable, which I use for charging my laptop. At some point soon, perhaps when I get a new iPhone, I am going to have to start buying more USB-C cables. I will then spend years looking at the end of cables to see what the connector looks like. Just like USB-A and B where I had to make sure they were the right way up, which takes at least three attempts. At some point, my iPad and iPhone - and my family’s iPads and iPhones - will all be dead, and replaced with USB-C versions. We are quite good at hanging onto devices until they can no longer have new safe batteries (installed by Apple) or have no real use, so this could be around ten to fifteen years. This drive by the EU seems to mainly talk about power adapters, and how it’s a waste to have separate ones, but all the power adapters I use for phone and iPad have USB-A sockets. With USB-C on both ends of cables, I expect I’ll have to buy some new power adapters soon. I will then have to have two adapters everywhere (one for my USB-A to Lightning cables), or buy lots of USB-C to Lightning cables for the transition period. To go with the USB-C cables for post transition period. I’m not at all inconvenienced by Lightning and not at all desperate to have USB-C, and USB-C will be replaced by USB-D in a few years, probably many years before the Lightning devices have given up, to USB-C, so I will probably carry several Lightning to USB-A, several Lightning to USB-C, several Lightning to USB-D, several USB-C to USB-C, several USB-C to USB-D and several USB-D to USB-D. * not counting the Switch. I’m not gambling with that - it gets its original PSU only.

password1 4y ago

I know many people that mentally only perceive connectors as "the iphone cable" and "the android cable". The "Android cable" could be anything from micro-usb to usb-c to old propietary connectors of old nokia and motorola. To this people this change effectively removes what's familiar and understood for something unknown, but I think it will still be for the better if eventually they will only perceive it as "the cable" that just works with pretty much anything.

shuntress 4y ago

It is not a difference in mind sets. Those "non technical people" want the same thing that the "tech heads" want: One type of cable that is compatible with all their devices. They just don't necessarily realize that they have already organized their lives in a way that excludes mismatched cables. I would be just as happy to have everything switch to lightning. I really don't care what it is I just want all my cables to be the same.

hot_gril 4y ago

I think tech heads are the least practical with tech. It's not necessarily about convenience to them, and they'll tolerate a lot.