[ihusasmiiu]

> Lightning was what Apple standardized on when the world was still using dock connectors with completely incompatible pinouts and wire protocols.

What? Lighting is what Apple imposed (to themselves) when the world standardized on micro USB and Apple was still using dock connectors.

[sockaddr]

I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you simply are unaware of the physical realities (re: limitations) of micro USB and not actively trying to mislead but here’s a real anecdote from someone who routinely repaired micro USB and lightning devices:

Micro USB ports failed considerably faster and more often than lightning. Easily by a margin of 100:1. the design of the “cage” that held the male connector would wear out, the thin center plastic would break, etc. Micro USB was and still is complete garbage.

Apple engineers knew this and thankfully put in the effort to make something better.

The rest of the industry was still trying to pull their head out of their ass and apple had this awesome durable new connector. That’s what really happened.

Now, years later people like you have either forgotten or I guess maybe never saw the comparison up close for prolonged periods but it tires me to see this careless and ignorant argument brought up time and time again.

[projektfu]

My experience with lightning cables has been that they frequently get scorched on one of the pins so that the cable becomes one-sided, the female side frequently fills with lint and slowly causes mismating, and they often claim to be waterlogged because, I guess, it's humid outside of California.

It's difficult to buy lightning-compatible devices because Apple incentivizes knockoffs instead of authentic parts. Even if you wanted to buy from a reputable brand like Apple, Anker or Belkin, they might not have the type of product you need.

On the other hand USB-C is designed to exclude water and is better at lint exclusion, never seems to arc, and is a real standard that has many suppliers of quality interfaces.

[smoldesu]

The cable sleeve is also notoriously fragile. I've gone through 5+ first-party lightning cables from frayed rubber sleeving alone.

[Laaas]

I've had a similar experience wrt. it getting scorched, but I've found that you can fix it my cleaning it thoroughly.

[sonofhans]

Preach it. Even by the standards of the times, MicroUSB was hot garbage.

[steve_adams_86]

It’s the only connector I’ve had fail multiple times. I replaced the port on a friend’s camera as well. On the other hand, I have lightning ports and cables pushing 5 years of regular use.

For some reason it never occurred to me that these connectors were so awful until very recently when I had one fail on a brand new micro controller. Unfortunately it’s still a super common connector in that space.

[graphe]

USB-C isn't making me very enthusiastic either. Both of them suck. It would rock to get lightning on there lol.

I've been using magnetic ones to prevent my ports from wearing out and if anyone preaches about safety or standards I don't care. It's what I'm forced to do, and now my data rates are slow but at least my port will work next time.

[saiya-jin]

Ever seen a frayed lighting cable? In my whole life, from all Apple people I know, I've seen only those, in various stages of decomposition. Do I see white cable breaking apart? No need to check connector, I know its apple's. For the price of 5-10 USB ones that keep working much much longer.

Since we are comparing personal anecdotes I never had a single USB port fail me in 20 years, be it mini, micro, usbc. But I don't treat my electronics like garbage, that usually helps a bit.

[least]

> Ever seen a frayed lighting cable?

This was due to a particular material they were using that was more environmentally friendly, if I recall correctly. It wasn't just lightning cables, pretty much all of Apple's cables from that time were susceptible. It's not an issue with whatever they're currently using, though.

Regardless, the material of the rubber they're using the wrap the cable has absolutely nothing to do with the lightning connector.

[Xylakant]

Apples cables are shitty, but that's not the connectors fault. Just don't buy Apple cables.

[karlshea]

But the micro USB connector is trash, so it’s no surprise they didn’t use it.

[ginko]

So they should have been active in defining the successor USB standard.

[vineyardmike]

... like how they had an active role in USB C?

[ginko]

Did they? As far as I can tell USB-C was mainly invented by Intel and TI.

[madeofpalk]

Yes. Apple engineers played a significant role in developing USB-C.

Of the 79 engineers who worked on the original spec, 18 of them were from Apple. Intel had 24, JAE had 21, TI had 12 https://www.docdroid.net/uf3z/typec-pdf

[thiht]

Isn't USB-C basically Thunderbolt? Which was made by Apple

[grishka]

Wasn't Thunderbolt made by Intel?

[dmitriid]

They did. It's called Thunderbolt.

Then they were literally the first to go all in on USB-C in their laptops.

And the world (well, HN) loudly complained every single time.

[ginko]

Thunderbolt isn't an open standard.

[dmitriid]

Define "open".

Thunderbolt 3 spec was released to USB-IF in 2019 as a royalty-free standard.