Engineers on the forum: did you like the Lightning connector?

[dualstow]

Lightning is going to the landfill and everything is going to be USB-C. At least for the next 7 months.

A lot of engineers here probably never used lightning connectors, having stayed with Android devices. If you did, do you know anything good/bad about it? I rather liked it. USB-C is like this big hole that can fill up with dirt and dust.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_(connector)

[Smith1776]

Lightning is going to the landfill and everything is going to be USB-C. At least for the next 7 months.

A lot of engineers here probably never used lightning connectors, having stayed with Android devices. If you did, do you know anything good/bad about it? I rather liked it. USB-C is like this big hole that can fill up with dirt and dust.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_(connector)

I liked lightning enough but I love USB-C.

The connector can go in any which way, it's super versatile, and makes my tech life really easy.

I charge my PS5 controllers using my USB-C laptop charger. I use the USB-C ports on my laptop for external monitors, storage, and power simultaneously. I don't have to think about compatibility. The stuff just works!

[dualstow]

But lightning can also go in upside down. I wish they would have made it the standard.
But, I don’t know the details with regard to speed, etc. I just know C has triple the number of pins.

[Mountaineer]

But lightning can also go in upside down. I wish they would have made it the standard.
But, I don’t know the details with regard to speed, etc. I just know C has triple the number of pins.

Engineer here. My iPhones, ear pods, etc are lightning. My MacBook Pro is USB-C. I don't have a preference for either, both are fine. I have had to buy various adapter cables to use my old USB-A external hard drives and now will have to do with USB-C to lightning adapters if I get a new iPhone, or an Android for that matter. My main issue is that I anticipate a lot of waste due to trashing the billion or so lightning cables and such. Another good in theory but poor on doing home work (e.g. life cycle analysis) in advance; pretty much like foisting fully electric vehicles on us (drill baby drill shutdown anyone when we have decades if not centuries of oil and gas and coal in the ground?) without the infrastructure in place to make it user friendly and cost effective not to mention the environmental impact of all the lithium mining and battery disposal waste and replacement battery cost that will be on the horizon. Just make the consumer pay more in order to please the virtue signaling politicians.

[dualstow]

Fear not, Mountaineer, for Apple is ready to sell you a $29 dongle
I have exactly one lightning device, and when I trade it in I’m going to send my cables in for recycling. Will they accept them all? Maybe not.

[yankees60]

Fear not, Mountaineer, for Apple is ready to sell you a $29 dongle
I have exactly one lightning device, and when I trade it in I’m going to send my cables in for recycling. Will they accept them all? Maybe not.

How is it I, the non-Apple lover, have so many devices that use lightning cables? iPad mini's, iTouches, iPod ear buds ....

?!!!!

[dualstow]

Because you’re not aware that they’re poor value!

[yankees60]

Because you’re not aware that they’re poor value!

I do think that all the Apple products I own are great! And, especially great value since I bought all of them used (except for my first iPad which I bought refurbished).

It is only Apple computers which I have never owed and believe to not represent the same value as all these other items.

[dualstow]

I know, Vinny. I’m teasing. I acknowledged all this before.

[Mountaineer]

Fear not, Mountaineer, for Apple is ready to sell you a $29 dongle
I have exactly one lightning device, and when I trade it in I’m going to send my cables in for recycling. Will they accept them all? Maybe not.

This I know.

Lightning round followup question:
How many dongles will I have to dangle to have no needed dongle left undangled?

[dualstow]

A dozen dangling dongles will do

[Tyler]

Engineer here who used to design iPod/iPhone accessories. While the lightning connector was always top-notch mechanically (all Apple products are), the primary reason that Apple insisted on using their own connector standards (remember the old 30-pin?) is that they controlled the global supply chain for those connectors and could charge all accessory companies a licensing fee for the right to connect to their device. I'm happy to finally see it gone. And I also love not having different cables for every device on my desk.

[yankees60]

Fear not, Mountaineer, for Apple is ready to sell you a $29 dongle
I have exactly one lightning device, and when I trade it in I’m going to send my cables in for recycling. Will they accept them all? Maybe not.

I had been wondering about you sending in your cable for recycling since it seems you would need it as long as you have a device that uses one.

Now that I reread what you wrote now I understand.

While doing an unrelated mission this morning ... I ended up organizing my electronics that had none yet been organized plus all the cables.

Somehow I've ended up with at least 9 lighting cables.

I do own the following which use them:

1) 2 iPad Mini's
2) 2 iTouches
3) 3 iPod earbuds

So those cables will continue to be put to good use as long as the batteries hold out in all those devices.

This week is the 11th year anniversary of me acquiring my first iPad - a refurbished one. It still holds a good battery charge.

On another cable note .... I seem to have way more than 9 cables that fit into Amazon Kindles. But they do seem to fit into other devices? Like a bluetooth speaker?

Do those cables that fit into Amazon Kindles have a specific name like the Lightning and USB-C do?

[dualstow]

Yes they do have a name. Check the wiki page on USB and you’ll see the different types. I have too many of those kindle-type ones you mentioned and had to buy a “normal USB”-to-USB cable recently because despite having a basket full of cables, I couldn’t find a single normal one for my disk drive. Very frustrating.

Apple has such a great trade-in program. If you’re not using all those devices, I encourage you to get some $$$ back toward new ones. I keep my desktops because they’re so old by the time I upgrade, but I love trading in iPad minis for a new one. (Wish I could keep this last Lightning one, but… battery, planned obsolescence…)

[dualstow]

Engineer here who used to design iPod/iPhone accessories. While the lightning connector was always top-notch mechanically (all Apple products are), the primary reason that Apple insisted on using their own connector standards (remember the old 30-pin?) is that they controlled the global supply chain for those connectors and could charge all accessory companies a licensing fee for the right to connect to their device. I'm happy to finally see it gone. And I also love not having different cables for every device on my desk.

That is unsurprising, and makes me feel a bit better about letting go. I’m glad to read it, Tyler.
It felt good to ditch Sony camera memory sticks for otherwise universal SD cards once upon a time.

I still have the weird plugs Vinny mentioned for my bluray drive/burner and various other small items. Maybe they need those plugs? But, my cheap Tribit bluetooth earbuds have a little case that takes USB-C. I’m hoping that even these other small devices will also take C in future iterations (provided they don’t disappear altogether).

I have a quasi-relative who helped design the Nano. I wonder if you guys worked together.

[yankees60]

Yes they do have a name. Check the wiki page on USB and you’ll see the different types. I have too many of those kindle-type ones you mentioned and had to buy a “normal USB”-to-USB cable recently because despite having a basket full of cables, I couldn’t find a single normal one for my disk drive. Very frustrating.

Apple has such a great trade-in program. If you’re not using all those devices, I encourage you to get some $$$ back toward new ones. I keep my desktops because they’re so old by the time I upgrade, but I love trading in iPad minis for a new one. (Wish I could keep this last Lightning one, but… battery, planned obsolescence…)

I only buy my electronics new if that is the only option. Otherwise I prefer the value of used. Since I know how (relatively) little I pay for items used plus the few times I've checked on what a place offers for a trade-in it always made sense to me to just hold on to them as a spare. Just in case. I never like depending upon only one device.

[Smith1776]

As long as I'm not using that giant 30-pin connector Apple used to ship I'm good lol.

[yankees60]

As long as I'm not using that giant 30-pin connector Apple used to ship I'm good lol.

You mean the one that all my old iPads, iPods, iTouches, iPhones use?

I have innumerable of those cables and use one frequently for the iPad I use to keep score at my softball games.

When I was connecting it a solar battery charger during our play-offs when we played three games that day ... I asked my teammate if I was doing it correctly. His response was, "Wow! I've not seen one of those connectors for awhile!"