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Lightning is/was actually pretty great. Also remember that it was introduced before USB-C even existed.
Yeah alternative was MicroUSB which is dogshit.
At the time it came out, definitely, considering its main competitors for a standardised connector were Mini USB and Micro USB, which were serviceable but not that great…
Could be worse though, you could’ve been stuck with “superspeed” Micro USB like some folks were, those were just plain awful to use.
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I think the problem is that between lightning cables and USB-C, one is made by an asshole company who wants you to use it for your phone and literally nothing else, and one is useful for your phone and literally everything else.
lightning suffered the same fate as FireWire before it: excellent protocol that would have benefited the users with mass adoption, hampered by Apple and their co-developers (in lightning’s case, Intel) charging too steep of licensing fees, rendering them niche
Funnily enough, Apple co-developed USB, introduced it in their laptops and everyone complained.
They complained because they literally stripped away most or all the usb-a’s in that process, forcing people to have to use hubs.
Apple does this shit all the time, and people always hate it.
USB-C wasn’t really useful for anything when Lightning was introduced, on account of it not even existing as a spec, let alone actual hardware, until 2 years later.
No
You can always tell the Apple fans, can’t you? This cable was hated by everyone when it came out because it broke everyones docks.
It also wasnt much faster, in fact, I’m almost positive the first phones were throttled, not unlike the new iPhone’s with type c.
Yeah, it’s amazing what people will stand up for. It’s quite odd.
Appledrone
Lightning was significantly ahead of the competition when it came out in 2012. Micro-USB is a terrible collection of ports. C came out two years later though, and quickly surpassed Lightning in almost every way.
The amount of USB type ports I’ve seen where the ‘tongue’ has been absolutely mangled is mind boggling — an issue that Lightning completely bypassed.
For example, I’m repairing some kids PS5 and both back USB ports have had their pins twisted and the plastic snapped off. The HDMI port pins are lifting from the mainboard and the front of the unit is scratched to high hell. I see some of the worst treated tech at my job, and those plastic bits get damaged a lot. While Apple needed to move to USB-C six years ago with the iPhone X, I will respect Lightning for this one thing.
All cables have issues. One thing I see often only with iPhone cables are they’re always falling apart, especially the outer parts near the end.
And yet I never have USBC problems, but had multiple I phones that started failing to charge via the wired port.
i havent had a usb-c cable go bad from anything but a cat chewing on it. The ports on the other hand…
C came out 4 years later. Not two. And C has tons of problems with it still.
The problems with type C cables have to do with overloading it to work with very high bandwidth applications like thunderbolt docks (which is mostly to do with the cable itself rather than the connector). Nobody has any issues with charging and basic data transfer on type-C (no more than any other cable).
The problems with type c cables come from the spec that allows every cable to work differently. Did you know type c cables are allowed to work in only one direction? Yeah, they can have data directionality. There are a ton of other issues but I seriously doubt anyone that is downvoting has ever soldered their own type c cable or even read the spec for them so it’s pretty clear they don’t realize all the issues.
USB-C has less problems than Lightning
I’m pro USB C all the way, but I definitely appreciated the lightning connector. It’s smaller, fewer things to go wrong with it, less delicate… so to speak… at least the female side seems to be from my experience. The male side isn’t half bad either, but the cables apple used for their USB to lightning wires was basically trash. Every time I witnessed someone with a bad iPhone charging cable, the connector was generally fine and the wire was torn to shreds.
The biggest weakness of the standard was that it was stuck on USB 2.0. Beyond that it was pretty good.
I still like USB C more, both for speed and for how ubiquitous it is; but, being fair to lightning here, the center area were the pins are is a failure point, one wrong move and it’s toast. Granted it’s nestled in there pretty good and the chances of that actually happening is pretty small, but lightning doesn’t have this issue.
Lightning is far from perfect, but they did a good job… for the time. Right now the only benefit to lightning is twofold, it’s everywhere, and the connectors basically never broke with normal use. At the time micro-B was horribly fragile. C is way better than micro-B was, but I still think that lightning has the crown for durability IMO.
With all that being said, USB C all the things. Lightning was a shining example of a better way, and hopefully we learned from that. I don’t know what comes after USB C, but I hope the improvements are significant. It will be a while before C goes anywhere though.
Possibly, but Apple’s shitty version of the cable basically made it break more on the actual cable than the connector. It seems that this may be fixed with usb c because of the thicker cable though.
Yes! I hope they can force apple (and others) into more interoperability and repairability (the two things apple hates the most), ruining their disgusting business model by re-enabling competition and benefitting users and environment.
Ok, I have to take issue with this. I will never be an apple user, but until USB-C came out I was honestly jealous of the lightning cable. It is reversible and consistent, two things other phone chargers never were. Sure, for data transfer it’s outdated as hell now, but it is still good enough for most uses
It is reversible and consistent
consistent in what?
Consistent in connecting /charging on first try, compared to micro usb.
Consistent in frying pins and fraying cables.
Consistent in that they used the same type of charger for almost all their devices after they established it. Mini-USB outdoes them in ubiquity, but the connector is usually a piece of shit.
welcome to 2014 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C
It WAS a good cable about 6 years ago when even flagship phones still used micro USB. I would have killed for lightning on my old android phone. However, usb c just takes the cake, every cake. It has its own problems but the tradeoffs are miniscule compared to lightning.
No 🤣
Nah. The only thing usbc has over lightning is transfer rates and charging speed.
Transfer rates don’t matter because how often do you dump 128gb over the wire and 500Mbps isn’t good enough?
Charging speed kinda matters but not really because the charge controllers on the phones are throttling down the lightning chargers anyway.
Remember: the eu is forcing usbc, a port designed for general purpose use that has a bunch of delicate pins and a plastic tongue, to replace lightning, a much simpler port designed to go in pockets.
This will ultimately make you unhappy.
The only way that USB-C is better than lightning is all the things that a cable does
Begone Apple shill!
A phone cable. Lightning is a better phone cable than usbc. I say that because it’s more durable and easier to clean. Thats way, way more important than charging or transfer speed when the port knocks around in a pocket or purse 420-7/369.
Lightning is a worse cable because it is proprietary.
How many times have you encountered the problem of wanting to charge your phone at a friends place, and they don’t have your device specific cable?
In the last decade, I only encountered that with Apple devices.
I have only once encountered that problem. I don’t usually charge stuff outside home/work/car.
If I did, I’d keep my own cable because even before the advent of malicious cables people often had messed up stuff that only worked half the time.
Think “hey can I borrow that guitar cable?” “Sure!” “What the hell, this things buzzing all over the place!” “Oh, you gotta loop it around the strap peg and it doesn’t work with angled jacks.”
The idea of proprietary hardware nowadays is interesting. It used to be, especially in industrial and commercial uses, that proprietary meant you had to have something that could only be bought from one place and wasn’t publicly documented. An interface for a rohm drive for example. Those weird one-off parts and dongles were expensive and not well understood, so they definitely fit the definition and spirit of being proprietary.
It’s a little disingenuous to me to call a cable you can buy at any gas station for five bucks “proprietary”. Especially when searching “lightning pinout” gets immediate results.
Is it technically proprietary? Maybe. Is it proprietary in practice? Not in the slightest.
I preffered lightning too usb-c i have had several phones where the usb c connector failed but my iphone was the first phone in a long time that i replaced for reasons other than the charging port. I would have been very happy if lightning had become the standard.
Yeah, the lightning connector is really great for being a reliable connection for a long period of time. If Apple had just made it an open standard that everyone could use, it would likely be the dominant connector today. At least, so long as some improvements could be made to data transfer and charging rates.
The connector sure, but the cable itself sucks donkey balls.
Yeah i agree. Not that i particularly need high transfer speed on my phone its unfortunate that they wanted too wanted too keep it proprietary. But they are what they are like most companies. Anyway i hope i have better luck with my new phone than my previous experiences with the connector.
Yes, Lightning was better than MicroUSB but by now I hope we can all agree, that it has overstayed its welcome
When apple changed to lightning it was in the middle of the accessory hype where there were loads of accessories using the 30-pin. People where outraged because they could no longer use any of their accessories. Apple then commited to lightning for 10 years in order to sooth the public image. This was 11 years ago, and they didn’t switch last year to cut costs, but I’d argue it only overstayed it’s welcome for a year.
Inb4 apple places a chip in the cable that only handshakes with apple devices?
The EU said they would ban Apple out of EU if they even attempt.
It’s the ports, they force USB2.0 speeds (same as lightning) unless you get the Pro (this is unverified)
Wait so if it’s not apple’s cable you’re throttled to usb 2.0 speeds?
Didn’t some early 2000s Mac USB cables have a bit sticking out and a notch on the computer so they could only be used with Macs?
Lightning was a good cable. It’s just that Apple didn’t improve it any for a decade and never opened it up so it could have been a standard.
It’s smaller and more durable. It’s just slow and proprietary.
I think the apple connector was a good one. Nothing wrong with it except that it was apple licensed. Whereas USB-C is a standard. Also, because of Power Delivery over USB-C I think that should make USB a standard connector on way more devices. It’s a one-stop shop for data and power needs.
I can also see PD becoming the power system used for all small devices, especially once there’s (if not already) some very low cost single chip (or very simple reference circuit) solutions for handling the negotiation. Also it will need more of the available PD chargers/supplies to support more voltages.
My work laptop already uses PD, and that was useful when I forgot to take the supply once. Just used my 45W PD charger that I DID pack, and it worked fine (it should have 65W, but it seemed not to discharge).
Who knows, maybe houses in the future will be built with some PD wiring too alongside the standard mains power.
Wall outlets exist with USB C ports built into them. It’s pretty neat, I’ve got one in my kitchen
i am happy the standard has won but tbh, i prefer the lightning type of connector (male). if only Apple standardized this instead of USB-C which is far more fragile.
but as I am not going to buy an iphone anytime soon , this is a non-news to me. :)
USB C cables are more fragile, but it’s designed that way so the ports are more durable. And I think having more durable ports is the right call.
Not the cable but the port. Some are stiffer (better) than others. The USB-C port of my monitor is broken/loose, same for my thinkpad t490s. But my smartphones’s USB-c port are good though, strange because they should get more mechanical stress than my monitor or thinkpad.
Actually, I have more issues with the ports than the cable itself. that’s why I prefer type male connector like the lightning. The lightning has issue though, one of the PIN could corrode.
anyway, hope the USB type C cable is there to stay and with the new intel progress on bandwidth , it might be the case.
No, the USB-C ports are more fragile. I owned and operated a repair shop for multiple years. USB ports, all of them except for A, are among the most fragile ports in use on electronics. Lightning ports are significantly less prone to damage. The cables snap off in the port easily, but all you need is tweezers to pull the tip out. On USB C devices the central tongue breaks off rather frequently. C is miles ahead of Micro-B though, seriously probably the worst port in use today, including proprietary ones.
