this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
417 points (91.6% liked)

Technology

58164 readers
4584 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I don't buy this argument at all, they could have contributed towards a combined connector with the usb-if, but instead they made their own proprietary connector.

[–] snowe@programming.dev 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They did contribute towards usb c. And lightning came out years before c did. They had promised to only switch connectors once a decade because people got so mad about the switch from the thirty pin to the lightning.

[–] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Source for them contributing towards USBC prior to implementing lightning port?

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Weird request when USB-C was released 2 years after lightning.

[–] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's not a weird request at all, they could have contributed to the USBC protocol before it released, that's... How it works you know.

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You’re asking for proof they contributed before an arbitrary date. Can you provide a list of everyone other than Apple who contributed before 2012?

[–] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

We can look at the press release announcing USBC from 2013 where Apple isn't mentioned at all... https://studylib.net/doc/18619173/usb-type-c-press-release-from-2013

It looks like they were mentioned in a 2014 list however https://www.docdroid.net/uf3z/typec-pdf

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Those are two completely different lists. One is “the promoter group” and the other is “everyone involved” which are in no way equivalent. It’s like the opening credits on a movie, vs the closing credits. One of the two is inherently going to be more detailed.

[–] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's true, but if Apple was heavily invested at the time, you'd think they'd show up in the "opening credits" :p

[–] snowe@programming.dev 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Really my point was just that Apple designed the lightning connector instead of working collaboratively toward a USBc-like standard

[–] snowe@programming.dev 1 points 10 months ago

They did work collaboratively towards a standard. They just also in parallel worked on their own project, because they know standards can take an indefinite amount of time, so it could have been a decade to get USB C fleshed out, while they had already been working on Lightning in the background.

[–] kirklennon@kbin.social 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

they could have contributed towards a combined connector with the usb-if

There was already one in the works but it was still years ago. They wanted to ditch the dock connector and didn't want to wait forever.

[–] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Lightning came out in 2012, USB-C came out in 2014, not exactly "forever"

This is just cope man come on

[–] kirklennon@kbin.social 2 points 10 months ago

Yes, that's two years, and we're also needing to look at hardware engineering decisions made in 2011 (since major components are finalized long in advance). Even if they knew then that USB-C would be ready in three years, that doesn't mean it necessarily justifies keeping the dock connector that much longer, but there was also no guarantee it would be a viable option in 2014. How long do you stick with inferior options when you can just to it better yourself sooner? We have to keep in mind the reason we like industry standards in the first place. Ideally they lead to a better customer experience; they are not a goal in and of themselves, just because they are a standard.

My point is that there were very real, entirely legitimate reasons why it was good for Apple's customers that Apple introduced Lightning.