[vikingcaffiene]

My entire household uses Apple products. A few years ago I got fed up and went all in on Linux and Android. I liked a lot of things about it but ultimately came back to Apple. When I switched back to an iPhone my wife told me "I'm so glad you're back on iMessage..." like she'd been holding this dark secret inside her the entire time I was out of the fold.

It's baffling honestly as messaging was the least of my problems. Sucky apps, weird driver issues, and just general friction with simple things like printing were what finally got me.

[BuckRogers]

Windows and Android play very nicely together. I'm a Windows and iOS user, but interfacing iOS and Windows definitely requires research. It's hard to not go whole hog on Apple once you have the iPhone trojan horse. A very high built quality device that receives years of security and feature updates.

That said, if they don't go USB-C by the next time I upgrade, I'm going Pixel or Samsung. Or if they go portless, I'm out. The build quality does suffer, but I'm done with USB 2.0 transfer speeds and goofy Lightning ports. Apple is the only company that could get away with such things in 2022.

[MBCook]

There’s nothing wrong with lightning, I think it’s an excellently designed connector. I like that they seem to be sticking with it.

However, the fact that it doesn’t support USB three speeds is… baffling. I hope they fix that.

I was listening to a podcast last week (The Talk Show?) And they were talking about the fact that you can take this glorious 4K footage on the newest iPhones and everything looks amazing and it takes FOREVER to transfer it off the phone because you have to do it at USB 2.0 speeds or Wi-Fi speeds.

They can fix that without a new connector.

Sidenote: I find this kind of hilarious. So many people were up in arms when they introduced lightning because they were changing things and making things obsolescent and people had to buy all new stuff.

Here we are a few years later and all sorts of people are mad that Apple is not introducing a new connector and forcing everyone to buy all new stuff.

I understand the desire. It’s just sort of an ironic situation.

[zamadatix]

Most don't need to buy new stuff for a USB C charger. I can take the same cable and charge my MacBook, Windows laptop, iPad, Xbox controllers, Switch controllers, Switch, Android phone, drone, and portable battery. I can plug that cable into many of the different chargers around the house or plug a combination of devices together with it. When I do I can share charge or exchange data. When I leave I can unplug my 4k portable fold up monitor from my desktop's GPU and put it in the laptop bag to use on my MacBook with the same cable as anything else. Generally I carry 2 USB C cables and 1 dual port charging brick in that bag and I'm covered for charging, data, power, or display of any device I bring along.

When lightning was introduced no non-Apple things used or would use lightning, you were forced to buy all new stuff. Now it's rarely the case someone buying a brand new iPhone doesn't also already have any USB C chargers or cables. As such this is not ironic for the majority, just sad and frustrating... as what doesn't fit into this mold? My god damned Air Pods Pro which insists I have a dedicated c-to-lightning cable just for it wherever they go with me. Not the cable on the couch for the console controllers, not the cables around the PC, not the 2 cables that do everything else in my travel bag, not the phone charging cable next to my bed, the lightning cable the charge the charging pod to charge my headphones. Fantastic headphones as they are while on the go in noisy environments... why they needed to be lightning I'll never come to terms with.

.

Regardless it's unlikely they'll be sticking with it. The EU is now requiring mobile phones with a wired charging port to support USB C (and additional interfaces if they desire but at least USB C directly). So like the GP alluded to either the next iPhone will be portless or have USB C. Well, or Apple doesn't sell the iPhone in Europe but given the iPad and current MacBooks are USB C that seems exceedingly unlikely. Portless however... wouldn't surprise me.

[MBCook]

> Most don't need to buy new stuff for a USB C charger. […]

You’re right. That’s different this time and I’m sympathetic to it. As I’ve started to gain more and more USB-C stuff the possible convenience it would provide has certainly increased. When people were beating this drum 2-3 years ago I basically didn’t have any USB-C stuff so it wouldn’t have given me any convenience. But overtime that’s changing.

Regarding the EU: I like Apple but they are stubborn as hell. For that reason alone I have a hard time seeing them doing it. They could start making two options, one USB-C and one lightning, but that doesn’t sound like Apple either.

Portless would certainly be a solution, but I have a hard time seeing that either. Wireless charging is just too slow.

I really don’t know what’s gonna happen on that one.

[BuckRogers]

USB-C and then portless when the technology is good enough. It'll be hard to stick with iPhones knowing this. I never want zero ports, they'll never match charging efficiency of a cable having no port.

[MBCook]

I agree. Unless someone figures out some sort of epic hack around physics, I can’t see getting rid of the charging cable ever.