[LINK] The 'Sea Snake' Phenomenon: 'Please Explain'

[Karl Auer]

On Fri, 2021-09-24 at 14:36 +1000, Ivan Trundle wrote:
> > On 24 Sep 2021, at 11:04 am, Karl Auer <kauer at biplane.com.au wrote:
> > It's simple: Apple (and earlier, others) changed chargers every
> > time a new modem came out.
> This was true 10 years ago. Things have moved on since then.

Indeed. That's why I wrote "changed/came" instead of "changes/comes".
The welter of chargers was not an Apple-only problem by any means! I
recall having a pile of useless chargers with different sized and
shaped plugs for my various devices, often with the actual chargers
delivering the exact same voltage, amperage etc.

But Apple was a particularly bad offender, made worse by the usurious
cost of their replacement parts and their legendarily poor quality
cables. And they have definitely NOT embraced any standard that would
allow charger cable interoperability. This is in stark contrast to
pretty much every other manufacturer of tablets and phones (and similar
devices like bluetooth speakers and what have you).

> > big shift to USB (micro and C), Apple ignored it.
> Not true: Apple has embraced USB-C for (some) new devices.

OK - "mostly ignored it" then. Colour me corrected.

> Apple has a different view, and whilst I’m no apologist for their
> position, they claim that the EU ruling stifles innovation, and in
> any event, it’s quite possible that in the future, USB-C will not
> deliver what is needed for future devices.

It's also quite possible that it will - for some value of "future".
Nobody is saying that this or any other standard must last forever.

> At present, on a technical level, USB-C offers higher throughput and
> higher power loads - if made to a standard. That standard is not
> well-policed, which has created a market for substandard and cheaper
> USB-C cables, in which the buyer may or may not get the functionality
> that is required for their device.

That is either a breach of the standard, a breach of consumer
protection laws, or fraud. I'm pretty sure there are a heap of crappy
Lightning cables out there too. Not Apple's problem or indeed the EU's
problem. Thousands of tonnes of discarded chargers every year just
because Apple of Samsung or whoever brings out a shiny new model - THAT
is a real problem and the EU has made a big dent in it.

The astronomical number of discarded devices are another, even bigger
problem. I doubt it will be long before Apple (and others) have much
more serious cause to cry, namely when regulators tell them that they
MUST provide replaceable batteries, MUST provide basic repairability,
MUST permit third party repairs and components under warranty, MUST NOT
invalidate the functionality of old devices for a minimum of ten years,
and MUST provide a minimum of an 80% discount on new for old for any
device brought out within three years of a previous model. I.e., when
sanity starts to prevail.

"Innovation" in the tech space is this little business god - a god that
is drowning us in pollutants and bringing a thousand other ills with
it, mostly for barely perceptible incremental gains.

> For now, until we see a new standard. And hopefully with some
> backward compatibility.

USB-C is a bloody good standard, as standards go. Predictions are
tricky, as Yogi Berra said, especially about the future. But unless
Apple (or **anyone**) can come up with something a great deal more
concrete than "it might", "it could" and "we don' wanna" then as far as
I am concerned they can go whistle dixie.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer

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