I’ve got beef with Apple’s frustrating hardware transition

I bear in mind the notorious day in 2012 when Apple determined to throw a wrench on the charging world and convert all Apple loyalists to its “pick-me”

Lightning
cable. Regardless that “Lightning” sounds cool, it most positively was not a cool transfer by the tech large. It was supposedly within the title of effectivity, however my intestine was fairly assured it was a monetary play (sigh).

I used to be nonetheless rocking my LG Cosmos Contact, so I wasn’t affected by such a dramatic shift. I obtained the iPhone 5s in 2013, and upgraded alongside the road of Lightning-supported iPhones since. However a number of weeks in the past, I lastly purchased the

iPhone 16 Pro
after 5 years of utilizing my trusty iPhone 12 Professional, and that got here with a number of

uncomfortable changes
, together with the EU-induced shift to a USB-C port.

I knew that might be essentially the most painful shift, however experiencing it for myself highlighted a number of issues that rubbed me the flawed means. So what did I do? Wrote all of them down, in fact. Apple, for those who’re studying this, I’ve obtained a number of notes for you.

I should not have to search around for brand spanking new {hardware}

For a $1000 cellphone, it is ridiculous

Simply because I knew it was coming did not make it any simpler. The iPhone 16 Professional solely got here with the brand new USB-C cable — no block, no dongle, no USB-C-capable EarPods. I do know that Apple minimize out the charging block years in the past (and EarPods far sooner than that) for waste-reduction functions, however it will’ve been useful to have a charging block that went with the actual USB-C wire that got here with the cellphone. I spent a minimum of every week charging my cellphone from my MacBook Professional whereas I waited for an Apple-branded charging block to reach.

The identical factor went for my listening habits. In my very own cussed method, I refuse to put on Bluetooth headphones until I am on the gymnasium. If I am working, strolling, or listening to music on my commute, I exploit wired headphones — whether or not that is Apple’s EarPods (which I nonetheless assume have the perfect microphone) or my trusty discontinued Bose headphones. Due to Amazon’s quick delivery, I solely needed to go sooner or later with out listening to my music and night meditations, however it was nonetheless one other $25 plus taxes I needed to ship to the Apple overlords. It is not cool when dongles and EarPods are virtually pocket change to the corporate.

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You’ve got obtained your outfits deliberate out, so what about your tech?

Champagne issues, sure, but when I am paying over $1000 for a cellphone when all is claimed and carried out, I should not should exit and spend $30+ on a block, dongle, and new headphones. Apple needs us to improve so badly, however it nonetheless needs us to pay the distinction within the adjustment.

Throw us a bone, Apple

A minimum of for the following couple of generations

It could be one factor if I went out years from now and purchased an iPhone 19, 18, and even 17 this fall — at that time, we might be years into the USB-C period, and it will be extra commonplace to come across these sorts of chargers and such. I would not have practically as a lot floor to complain on there. Nevertheless, Apple may’ve thrown us a bone for the primary couple of years and included these varied bits of {hardware} to make the transition only a bit simpler on the {hardware} entrance.

I bear in mind how annoying the problem was for my mates who upgraded to the iPhone 15 sequence when it got here out in 2023. It was painful watching the look in your finest buddy’s face when her cellphone was about to die at your own home earlier than an evening out and all you had available was a Lightning charging cable. It was even worse when the buddy with the perfect playlist went to go plug into the aux within the automobile and their USB-C port was met with the soon-to-be “previous” cable. Everybody suffered when our Spotify kings and queens had been stopped on the {hardware} gates of your automobile cable.

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Wanting on the years forward

The one means out is thru, apparently

Understanding what the primary group of USB-C converts went by way of, I am preserving all my Lightning cables round for a number of extra years in case somebody involves my home (or automobile) with a pre-15 sequence iPhone. I want Apple had put slightly extra of its new branded {hardware} out into the world (particularly with the prevalence of corrupted third-party {hardware}) simply to make the transition slightly simpler.

Nevertheless, similar to the unique swap to Lightning — which was way more annoying, I am positive — Apple customers are simply going to should get used to it. The EU backed the tech large right into a nook for a very good cause, and so they needed to cave or else lose the European market. I am simply hoping that we’ve got a minimum of a decade earlier than Apple tries to tug one other pick-me {hardware} transfer on us once more.

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