this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023
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Technology
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It does increasingly feel like the EU is the only institution that has any willingness to stand up to big tech.
Another thing I point out is "look no further than the bottom of your phone" to bring up how EU forced phone manufacturers to use USB-C.
Good thing that didn’t happen during USB Micro. That was one of if not the worst connector invented.
A shame the writers of the law didn't have good enough knowledge of the underlying technology to mandate not just the USB C connector, but specific USB C standards. The fact that USB C cables are very much "you can't even tell what it does without plugging it in" is a bit of a nightmare.
But on the other hand, there's always changes for further revisions in the future.
And fortunately they made the law future proof. It doesn't say that "hey, you should use USB-C" but it says "hey, you should use the connector mentioned in Appendix H which is defined by committee R". That way they don't need to start over the whole bureaucratic process the pass the law, just ask a committee to reevaluate the tech and they change the appendix. It can be USB-D from tomorrow.
Quick aside, there won't be a USB D (unless the USB people change their mind yet again), it will be something different from USB. The idea was to have USB A be what you plug on your source and B on your destination and was designed as a way to avoid power surges in the original 1.0 spec because the A side was physically different from the B side you weren't ever going to plug in something that sends power to something that receives power (basically it prevented users from breaking their devices on accident). USB C changed that with a chip on each cable that handles negotiation before agreeing on a power spec
Honestly I never had a problem with MicroUSB and haven't really seen a benefit to USB-C for basic charging of devices. I guess some might charge faster, but USB-C is so screwed up that you need a magic mix of cable, charger and device to get more than baseline anyway, it works the same as MicroUSB for me.
I’ve had and seen many a device get ruined when the fragile connector breaks off. Combined with the slower charging, lower speed transfer, one way design that isn’t as obvious, etc.
And yes, I’d rather have lightning over usb-c as at least the lightning cables have consistent standards.