this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
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Technology
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It’s beyond stupid. ISPs are in the business of, ya know.. providing internet services. It’s like the government charging the cinema because I used the public roads to get there.
The EU once again showing their ineptitude to actually effectively regulate anything technical. They lack the knowledge or the desire to gain the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions.
I also think their USB-C ruling was stupid but not quite as stupid as this.
I agree with you on the point, but this is a terrible example, as the government does in fact charge cinemas for infrastructure use through property taxes.
I wouldn't go that far, recent regulation is very hit or miss with this and Chat Control. That said, it's not like the US has a better track record either.
What's the problem with forcing standard formats on phone chargers?
The USB C thing is daft because we already had a de facto standard. All smartphones connected to a USB-A charger. Requiring USB-C forevermore stifles innovation for whatever in time would supersede USB-C.
There’s also the small matter or ewaste. Mandating that the phone end must be USB-C but saying nothing of the charger end has ended up with most OEMs interpreting it as USB-C both ends. So people are either getting cables that don’t work with their chargers which get wasted or they go buy new chargers causing their old ones to be waste.
As an aside lightening is also a more physically robust design (setting aside transfer speeds etc.. which mean nothing to most users), so kinda sucks that all phones will be required to have the tongue-in-port design which is a weak point.
I also wonder when Apple will stick two fingers up at this and go portless and just have wireless, which Androids would then copy, then we’re in a far worse place heh.
Great intentions, execution that delivers little to benefit or, at worst, detriment.
Fair point on the cinema example - didn’t think that one through!
USB-A is one-sided, unlike USB-C, so you can't do direct data transfers between two devices with USB-A ports. It's much slower too. Electronic waste is not ideal but it has to happen for a large-scale hardware upgrade. I try to reduce it by recycling my USB-A bricks and cables.
I also cannot understand why, unless you use Apple devices exclusively, you would be happy that one company's series of devices has to use a completely unique charging system from every other device in the world. I don't care if Lightning is better when it's proprietary. If Apple "sticks two fingers up" and doesn't integrate USB-C charging into the iPhone 15, I won't be buying another device from them, because I'm tired of having to carry two different cables around - one USB-C for my laptop, Android phone, power bank, speaker and other devices, and one Lightning charger for nothing else but the damn iPhone.