Article proceeds to show pricing for a thunderbolt cable instead of USB 3.
this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2023
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Can't stoke outrage with honesty.
I love a lot of Apple’s products, but their wires are easily the worst of the worst. They’re expensive and made to fall apart after like 6 months.
I’m still using the cable that came with the 5s. What are you doing with the cables?
The main predictor of cable wear is whether people are using the phone while the cable is attached.
If you just leave it to charge they will last for u years. If you continue to use them while they are charging, life span of the cable is measured in weeks.
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I've had several fall apart from usual wear and tear. If you roll them up, pack them, run them on things, pull them in and out of bags/pockets etc they wear down pretty quickly compared to even mid range aftermarket cables. I have some nice baided cables Ive had for 10+ years. I can't imagine and apple one lasting that. Unless it just sits plugged into an outlet all the time, any cable last forever like that.
Connecting to my car’s head unit.
Gotta love the Macbook charger cables that wear down to exposed wires after a few years of normal use. Some will even give you a small sparky lightshow reminding you it's time to be a consumer again!
I currently have an iPhone cable that is frayed at the neck of the iPhone connection end. It’s from repeated bending from completely normal use. I had to stop using it because it was actually making my iPhone hot and was having sluggish connection issues. This is now the 3rd cable to do this and that includes MacBook cables too.
Apple intentionally makes them cheap because they’re such an easy moneymaker for them. I have tons of old cables from other devices that have never had this issue, so I know this isn’t some isolated thing and I’m somehow the stupid one in the scenario. Their cables are terrible.
When I had a MacBook Pro with the 1st generation Magsafe, I went through 2 legit Apple chargers and 3 off brand ones in the 9 years I had the laptop. One of the off brand chargers even exploded! Well, a capacitor inside it exploded, but it was designed well enough that it didn't damage anything else or catch fire.
I've only ever had that one laptop, and I was using it in college so I was constantly plugging and unplugging it, so I have no idea how abnormal that cable use is.
Magsafe is super cool, and it definitely saved my computer from certain death several times, but damn it sucked buying those expensive chargers. It would've been nice just to buy the cable, not the whole damn charger.
I now use a USB-C to magsafe 1 adapter on my Mid 2012 MBP, free to replace the cable and charger at any time. Currently using a 65W PD brick and a nice long 10ft/3m cable 😁
The magsafe connector has saved my ass a bunch of times too LOL, my previous barrel jack laptop was yanked off tables more than a few times. Uni lectures were the worst as multiple people wouldn't see the charger on the floor and trip on it 🥲
My 2011 MacBook Pro is on her original charger… I don’t know how you all take such poor care of your stuff.
Same. I’m still using my original lightning cable (USB-A and all) and it looks almost new other than some staining from use.
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It's the people who tightly wind their cords up every time they put it in the bag. I always just loosely put the charger in my bag to minimize stress on the ends of the cords.
My 14” MacBook Pro has a braided MagSafe cable. It took way too long but they did finally fix that problem.
and yet people will still buy them.
Brand name obsession is one hell of a drug.
I mean, yeah. I use Android because I hate Apple's walled garden and smug attitude, but when I was shopping for a phone recently it kinda became clear how Apple has gotten their market share in North America.
Android manufacturers simply refuse to use sensible naming schemes and many of the best Android phones aren't available in the US at all. Not to mention a constant push to follow Apple up whatever blind alley they happen to be going in at the time. I'm still salty about headphones jacks.
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But if you want to really get all the juice in and out of your new iPhone, especially if you’re buying a 15 Pro or Pro Max, you’ll need the $69 Thunderbolt 4 Pro Cable
I mean, that is an outright lie. There is nothing a TB4 cable would add over a USB 3.2 cable here.
Hell it's talking about juice, a £5 amazon basic USB PD cable with 2.0 speeds will support up to 65w (25w on iphone due to their own limits)
Yeah, the linked article is manufactured FUD.
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I don't need any of these, I already have the USB-C cables for my laptop, that was the whole point of switching to USB-C. Also in the cover photo is that a USB-C to USB-C dongle? What use is that??
Nah it's a $29 USB-C to Lightning dongle
That's kinda dumb but also incredibly niche, prob low volume
I'm sure they're hoping people will buy them to connect to existing Lightning cables for charging, but the main use would be connecting to a handful of lightning-based peripherals.
Yes, niche use.
In other news: Water is wet
Though it should be pointed out, this article is a little wonky. No iPhone needs a thunderbolt 4 charging cable.
What’s wrong with something like this?
It isn't made by Apple, therefore it must be bad and probably will break your phone /s
There's really nothing wrong with it, it's just that Apple knows they can charge anything for the silliest things and a wave of mindless consumers will buy without thinking
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I simply can not fathom the obsession people have with Apple products when they so egregiously price gouge their customers.
I'm not a fan of their MacOS based products, but I prefer iOS for the fact that I can rely on getting timely updates. For a good long while. That is not something that is generally true with Android. I'm fine with paying for that level of support.
Last time I looked, no Android vendors provided close to the same level of support.
That said, if I was a business and needed to field in house apps to mobile devices, everyone would be getting an Android device. Custom apps for iOS are a pain in the ass.
Mac minis are $600.
And yet, people buy iPhones instead of 3 Mac minis.
A physically smaller Minisforum UM480XT with 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD is $249.
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All this arguing aside, good job EU. Good legislation at work right there. Whether people claim it's better or not everyone in the end wins. Single adapter used with all devices, single cable provided for charging and data transfers. Simplicity and eco friendly. Everybody wins, especially iPhone users since now they don't have to deal with shitty cables costing 40$ which fall apart 3 months after purchase.
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