Our President is an bottom who is systematically destroying our government.  Nothing new to report here. There's a "buy nothing" boycott on right now, but I fail to see what it will accomplish.  I need to replace some light switches so I'll go to the hardware store.  Sorry.

Trump (or advisor) played a cool hand Luke with Ukraine, went to Putin-Petrified Zelensky and Europe forcing EU into also try to bid for their minerals, where did that info suddenly appear from and lost.
Looks like he won the Mineral deal (wasn't Biden accused of money laundering in Ukraine also).
 
Starmer visits Trump to ensure our "special relationship" and to back Trump over Mineral Deal ??
Reminds me of UK backing USA when we went into Kuwait, Bush got all the benefits and Blair got ??

Just build a new Maginot line around NATO countries and call the rest "the cursed earth"

I honestly dont think Starmer could align tins of beans on te shelf ATM.

"Apple has historically resisted allowing other companies to use Lightning connectors because it's a proprietary technology that allows them to control the quality and design of accessories, generate revenue through licensing fees from third-party manufacturers who want to make Lightning accessories (through their "MFi" program), and maintain a distinct feature that sets Apple devices apart from other brands; however, due to recent EU regulations, Apple has been forced to switch to USB-C on their iPhones, meaning they can no longer exclusively use Lightning connectors."

It's not a APPLE v ANDROID thing for me, Apple could have allowed their products used by others but did not and earned money through their patents, but chose not to.
I like the idea of one connection for all, (stares into my box full of various cables    and dare not throw any away "just in case" ) and have no argument with anyone who uses Apple (all but myself in my household have Apple and I still think Apple Pads are the best).

Because it is not their job to mandate restrictions technology: it is their job to ensure the market is open.

It's their job to act in the best interest of the consumer. This policy saves the consumer money and reduces waste. Personally I find it great that I can ask an iPhone user for a charge, and likewise offer them a charge. I would say that this is acting in the interest of the consumer.

Yes they were - as you note, Apple were using USB-C when it was appropriate, and may well have moved all devices to USB-C under their own steam without legislation.

Then they could have changed the iPhone when they changed their other devices, however they did not. There is a direct financial incentive for them to not adopt USB-C on their phones.

Rubbish - a primary reason for retaining the Lightning connector was to support the massive installed base that had billions of Lightning compatible devices and cables. "Anti-Apple consumer" may be roughly comparable to "pro-general consumer", but this is not a given.

The large majority of the user base already have USB-C chargers and cables. E-waste is bad if it's needlessly having to be replaced. However in this case its unlikely you had to replace your charger since you already had a USB-C one. I don't see how this is different to them dropping Magsafe on Macs, Lightning on iPads, or removing the headphone jack on phones either, where they had no problem making peripherals useless.

As has been pointed out, manufacturers like walled gardens, because it maintains the user base, but in Apple world Lightning connectors were a minuscule part of the garden wall. This does appear to be in the EU's remit, though, as if you squint you can see this as assisting the consumer in moving between suppliers.

Walls like this are anti-consumer. Anything that the government can do to remove these walls is pro-consumer. You're right that it was a small part of this wall, but that does not negate the fact that it is still a part of this wall. With enough small steps, Apple may become a respectable company, but by this logic we should just give up. Perhaps next the EU will tell them to stop using serialised parts, promote right to repair, fine them harder for throttling older phones, challenge Apple's app store monopoly, and make them support RCS.

Yes, we could. It wouldn't have made any technical sense to mandate (for example) standardisation on coax ethernet (which at the time was as fast as could be envisioned) but the idiots in the EU could have mandated it. It would have made just as much sense as mandating a transient connector.

I could not disagree more on this point. Only a few years after the standardisation of thick/thin ethernet was twisted pair in development. There were clear negatives to this technology, such as the shared bus topology meaning one failure could bring down the network, the difficulty of troubleshooting such a network, poor speed scaling with multiple clients, high interference susceptibility, half-duplex communication or the installation difficulty due to the rigid cable. USB-C has no such downsides, and has already seen widespread adoption. Furthermore, during the peak growth of Moore's Law, it was easy to see that data requirements would grow.

Regardless of its undoubted benefits, USB-C should have been transient - not permanent - because technology moves on. I am surprised that you think that "requiring its use would no longer be a negative for innovation", as for example USB-C is already too thick for ultra-thin devices; no manufacturer is encouraged to invent a thinner connector because it would be illegal to use in the EU. This stifles the invention of thinner devices, through legislative stupidity.

I don't know why you are acting like we are stuck with USB-C until the ends of time. Every standard is transient. If we refused to standardise anything, nothing would have any regulation. In addition, the consumer benefits outweigh the hypothetical future constraints. The mess of proprietary connectors on devices outside of Apple and e-waste are current issues.

There are also devices that are 3.6mm thick utilising USB-C. I think it would be hard to get much thinner regardless of USB-C or not. We aren't forced to use USB-C forever either. It would be perfectly reasonable for a company to bring their case to the EU court and argue for an exemption or propose a new connector.

I would consider this as an example of kludgy workarounds because of the restriction - by a stupid law - from creating a custom connector that could do a job.

They created this port in 2021, before any restrictions. I prefer this connector over something completely different. I am able to use USB-C to charge and power the device, and if I wanted to use an external graphics unit from Asus, it's nice that it can simultaneously break out the USB-C into more USB ports and provide charging too.

The whole thing is almost certainly a storm in a teacup, though, as Apple will doubtless move to wholly wireless charging as soon as it becomes feasible, and stuff the damned USB-C connector!

I don't know why you have a personal grudge against USB-C. You are not unhappy with it on the iPad and iMacs, so why is it bad on an iPhone. Nothing stops a new thinner device using wireless charging, and a slimmer port for high speed data.

I don't really get your argument any more. Why shouldn't have the EU mandated the use of USB-C on devices? You are right that Apple's involvement in progressing USB should not be understated. It could even be said that they have been the driving force behind USB since day one, apart from being a member of the USB consortium from early on. They got it into mainstream adoption first -> they were unhappy with the slow progression of USB -> they made firewire to compete (although firewire development started way before USB and was a group effort) -> USB got faster -> they let firewire die off -> they made lightpoint/thunderbolt -> thunderbolt became a part of USB. They also worked on the USB-C standard.

Despite this, Apple were not changing the port on their own. USB-C is better in every way except perhaps durability, but I have never had a USB-C connection break yet. The mandate made Apple switch, which is good. Outside of Apple, everything has to be USB-C now, which is also good as its's very convenient, and apparently will save the consumer money and reduce e-waste. The only reasons Apple had to retain the Lightning connecter are anti-consumer. Therefore it is a good thing that the EU forced their hand.

We could not have had a mandate like this before USB-C. For example USB-A, even at a modest 10gbps, is too slow to be universal. Video connectors were already around the 20gbps range at the time 10gbps USB was common. Therefore you could see that speeds would increase again soon, and that the 9 pins of USB would likely not be enough to support this. USB was also not physically reliable enough, especially the micro/mini variants, to be enforcing its use so strictly. Now that USB-C has been around a while, and that development has not slowed on this connector, requiring its use would no longer be a negative for innovation, and it is physically good enough for general use. I'm not sure about your point regarding USB 3, since that predated Lightning.