Apple’s iPhone 15 series will officially only support USB-C accessories that have been certified by Apple’s own Made for iPhone (MFi) program, potentially limiting the functionality of accessories not approved by Apple, an established leaker has now claimed.
So you’re getting USB-C, but not really. Leave it to Apple to milk even something as mundane as this.
Nope, not going to happen. That violates not only US law but also several indian and EU laws.
Of course this is going to happen!
The new and rather stupid and shortsighted law only requires the device must be able to charge via USB-C. Not how fast and nothing about data-transfer. And since there are dozens of different protocols available via that physical connections and also dozens of different voltages and currents for loading depending on the cable and the power-plug this is the logical consequence.
Apple will be not alone – Samsung and other are doing so already.
Ssshhhhh. That doesn’t fit the narrative.
Everything is perfect in Android land! People don’t have to sift through piles and piles of garbage to find the correct combination of cable, charger, and device to get advertised features!
!!!!! đ
Flatland_Spider,
Not all cables are the same or to the same spec, and you’re right this can be frustrating.
But if this article is right then even cables and peripherals that are genuinely to spec will have reduced functionality. That’s a problem. IMHO apple (and others) shouldn’t be allowed to do that.
The devil might be in the details on this one.
There was a report the USB-C iPhone would support Qualcomm’s proprietary Quick Charge, and that only works when everything in the chain has been blessed by Qualcomm.
Samsung has had this feature for a while.
Implementation of a proprietary hardware standard might be the problem here.
Flatland_Spider,
Yeah. To the extent that devices & peripherals are following usb-c standards I think it’s reasonable to expect them not to get blocked based on brand identity chips. In reality though, it may be wishful thinking.
Alfman,
That’s my expectation. USB works! Thunderbolt 4 or Fast Charging support has specific requirements for the items involved.
NaGERST,
I’ve not dug into the laws, but do you have a source for this? For all the commotion on getting apple to standardize in the EU, I don’t recall the US following suit.
On the news that apple would be forced to support usb-c connectors, my reaction was: this is good, it will benefit consumers. I simply expected apple to adopt usb-c in good faith. It did not occur to me that apple would simultaneously adopt usb-c connectors while sabotaging compatibility with standard cables & peripherals using software restrictions. If they proceed with this, it would protect apple sales by forcing consumers to keep buying apple branded peripheral. This defeats the benefits of hardware device & cable compatibility for consumers. This is devious as hell, but it seems possible that it could satisfy the letter of the law…?
I don’t know about the EU or India, but in the US, the only laws that matter are the ones lobbyists draft on the backs of checks they hand to legislators, and the ones that emerge from expensive court cases. What is currently written almost doesn’t matter in the US.
Hopefully the EU has the ability to block iphone shipments on principle and not just the exact letter of the law.
Considering the mess that is USB 3 and the metric tonne of low quality cables out in the wild, that is unsurprising.
If nothing else, this is probably something legal put in to keep people from launching lawsuits after their out of spec $0.01 cables fails to be faster then USB 2.
Actually Apple has already a similar certification process for any lightning cable to ensure a bare minimum quality.
USB-C is a mess right now with identical cables that actually have two different functions (the same cable used to charge the laptop cannot be used for data transfer ..).
Anyway the “news” is nothing more than a rumor, but with “Apple” in the subject it surely is a click bait; please remember this website is called OS NEWS not OS rumors.
enryfox,
That doesn’t mean consumers shouldn’t be free to buy and use whatever brand components they want. After all there are other brands that offer quality. I’d be ok with a simple message stating the fact that the peripheral isn’t apple branded, but that’s it. Forced lock-outs go too far though and should not be tolerated by regulators.
If a manufacturer elects to pay apple royalties to use apple’s trademarks, then that’s fine “no harm no foul”. But they shouldn’t be forced to pay apple royalties otherwise consumers will be blocked from using them. This kind of market abuse needs to be prohibited by regulators. This is no different than fixing a car: you can use OEM parts certified by the manufacture at the official dealership/shop, or you can use 3rd party parts at the mechanic of your choosing. The law is on your side to choose what you want. This should be no different. It’s especially important to defend consumer rights when it comes to dominant companies that would otherwise seek to stifle the competition.
I for one am glad this is being brought to our attention. We’ll see what happens. Hopefully you are right.
In principle i fully agree on the freedom of choice – it is always nice to have, but if you look at it from the other side there are also problems too.
Smartphone accessories market is flooded with low quality chinese stuff; some of that simply does not work as expected, other is plain dangerous (I opened-up a couple of ultra light cheap chinese USB chargers and they should be avoided like the plague). Some users looks for decent quality, but many other just buy “the cheapest one”; the effects of a low quality accessory also reflects on the smartphone itself (“my usb charger got up in flame while charging my iPhone – iPhones are dangerous”). Big brands like Apple and Samsung wants to defend their reputation and hence will very likely require a certification process for third party accessories to be fully qualified with their phone. Users will pay a higher price, but at least what they buy is a) not dangerous b) working.
The same applies to car spare parts: you can buy third party spares, but what guarantee you have they were designed to manufacturer specs ? For sure they can even be better than OEM parts, but unless there is a certification process by the car manufacturer, you have to trust the third party. In the aviation industry, some serious plane incidents were caused by unapproved third party spare parts.
I’ve gotten burnt by that so many times.
When building servers, buy parts off of the approved list because other wise odds are 60/40 and not in your favor. Especially if it’s RAM or a PSU.
Car parts are a crap shoot, and probably worse then cables. That is always stressful. Sure it “fits” that make, model, and year, but does it really? Until the part in installed, it’s never a given, and I don’t have the time or money to waste on that.
enryfox,
I have no issue with certification process…if users want to stick with certified products, that’s fine by me. However the problem we’re talking about though is the element of “force”. A warning would be fine, but forcing should not be allowed.
Flatland_Spider,
People can always choose to go with official products. This shouldn’t be an issue at all as long as it’s the owner’s choice.
Assuming the official products are still an option or the company knows what they put into the product to begin with.
Flatland_Spider,
Well, I would think you generally have a choice of what products to buy and what shops to use, no? I guess maybe you’re talking about fraud and counterfeit products, if so I agree that’s a big problem. Somethings I find 3rd party parts work fairly well, but no one should be tricking buyers into thinking they’re getting something when they’re getting something else. Truth in labeling is very important to me, but with today’s supply chains…god help you, haha.
Alfman,
I have a tendency buy used or refurbished stuff, so it’s sometimes a challenge to find replacement parts. The parts supply dries up for EoLed items unless someone keeps making 3rd party replacement parts, which isn’t a given. Especially not in the computer space.
It’s hard to find places which know what they’re doing which stick around. The best places are ebay, amazon, and craigslist.
I’m talking about a lot of things. đ
My search for, and experience with, car parts is bleeding over into this conversation.
I had one car which mechanics couldn’t tell me definitively which alternator was in it until they took the alternator out. There were apparently 2 alternator models used throughout the model run, and it was kind of random which one a car got. There was a slight difference between the 2 alternators, so they weren’t completely interchangeable. LOL
Currently, I’m looking for an OEM wheel for my car. The width could be 8″ or 8.5″. There isn’t a definitive answer to which one my car has aside from measuring. Of course, I have to find the wheel first.
Then there are the interior bits which are even harder to find then body items.
Then there are amazon workers who have zero idea what they’re pulling. I ordered a windshield wiper for a hatchback I had, and I got a windshield wiper. It wasn’t the correct wiper, but it was a windshield wiper.
It’s just really hard to find sources who know what they’re doing when dealing with aftermarket parts, or just parts, and who can stock items regularly. There’s a lot of chaff and not a lot of wheat.
The best way to make sure there are parts available is to buy multiples of the same item. I seriously contemplated buy a twin of my current car to get the parts I needed recently. LOL
Flatland_Spider,
Oh. I didn’t see where this was going, but yes, I do that as well. As it relates to the topic at hand I’d say that’s yet another reason I don’t want companies dictating what peripherals are allowed to be used with the products I own. Artificial restrictions built into products that are EOL become that much more problematic.
Remote activation servers will become especially problematic for those still interested in old devices. It’s only a matter of time before they all stop working. Even something like “reset to factory defaults” before handing the phone to a new owner may end up bricking a device.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxaCUugPoRY
I do this too and for the same reason, but TBH a car’s too expensive for me to buy redundantly đ
I can’t afford a second car just for parts either, but the process is annoying enough that the thought crossed my mind. LOL
It never stopped companies from producing lightning cables or accessories, and it never stopped people from buying them. It just meant the cable or accessory was tested and going to work like it’s supposed to.
It’s like CE, UL, or FCC labels on equipment. People can buy equipment without those labels, but companies who get certed put extra care into making sure their equipment works correctly.
That’s basically the entire program. It’s a label stating the product is not an Apple product, but it meets Apple’s standard.
I agree. Blocking third-party accessories should not be tolerated, and it makes the equipment less useful. As someone who likes buying used equipment, it damages the brand.
However, I do like official certification programs from companies. I’d rather spend a little more to get something that’s certified to work and in OEM specs then roll the dice on a random part from Amazon.
Flatland_Spider,
For the record, I’m fine with all of that, but the article suggests this is more than just a passive label. Maybe it’s just speculation and they could be wrong.
It’s a leak without details or context. I’m not buying stock in rumors. It’s interesting to see what the prognosticators prognosticate, but ultimately, I’ll weight my options when the thing ships.
There are a dozen ways this could go. Marketing bullet points, legal disclaimers, hardware limitations, product segmentation, Qualcomm settlement….
Flatland_Spider,
That’s fair enough. Sometimes the leakers are right though and ideally I’d rather EU regulators got wind of any competitive restrictions before release rather than after the fact. All too often corporations will drag their feet for years.
I really dislike Apple but they are not the only one doing this. A variety of USB-C accessories like USB-C to 3.5 mm audio work fine on my Motorola but do not work on a Samsung. Even stronger regulations are needed from the government as the private sector has created an untenable situation for consumers. Even a radical right wing anti regulation co-worker of mine opined recently he would be alright making an exception and having the government step in here.
Even a radical right wing anti regulation co-worker of mine opined recently he would be alright making an exception and having the government step in here.
I hope you yelled “slippery slope!” and “government oppression!” at him, lol.
Honestly. Sticking any USB-C charger in an iPhone. And being able to charge it. And on top of that installing full blown Firefox on an iPhone. Accessing the standard web without Apple approval. This is a nice start and personally i don’t care if Apple is now making some lame moves. Trying to save face. Now the next thing is supporting normal installation of applications on iPhone. Without Apple having any say in it. We are getting there.
Geck,
Yeah. A lot of my criticism for apple products stem from owner restrictions; with any luck the software restrictions could finally be behind us. It may not mean much for those who do not care about non-apple software & stores, but removing forced owner restrictions is a big step for competition and those who want access to 3rd party software and stores. We’ll have to wait and see if they actually support this in good faith.
Any progress is good, but I probably still won’t switch though, I suspect there will still be anti-features like what’s alleged in the article and hardware programmed not to be serviceable…
“iPhone 14 Pro Programmed To Reject Repair – Teardown and Repair Assessment”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2WhU77ihw8
I’m not married to android – I’m only on the boat because it seems to be the “least bad”. It would be delightful if iphone 15 did away with all owner restrictions and anti-features, but I won’t believe it till I see it, haha. Apple just isn’t an open company.
Can we also complain about the fact iPhones don’t ship with chargers anymore? You see, people were rightfully complaining that the bundled charger didn’t have enough watts to charge their device as fast as the device could support, so Apple “fixed” it by removing the bundled charger. Now you get to pay through the nose for the fast charger.
BTW I don’t expect a “foreign” charge to be able to take full advantage of the capabilities of the device, but the bundled charger should, especially when shipped with a device that costs as much as the iPhone.
The Pixel phone I got to test with didn’t come with a charger either.
That’s a fair criticism.
As someone who has been in the Apple ecosystem for a while, not getting a yet another charger is kind of nice. I found three forgotten Apple chargers at the bottom of a box the other day. LOL
What I would like to see is Apple release is chargers with multiple ports. Particularly the laptop chargers. I have my home charger with enough power to charge several devices if it had multiple ports.
Flatland_Spider,
Agreed. I already have a box of “useless” USB chargers. Many of them has no use anymore (1A max).
Not including chargers is actually good for the environment. But my gripe is this was not reflected into the final price. So a $40 phone discount and/or a coupon for a brand store charger would be good. But expecting this from corporations is not actually realistic.
This is true. It doesn’t change the price of the phone, and in the case of the Pixel, Google didn’t bother to tell me I should get a charger.
The existing USB-C standards are actually pretty good. But a high quality cable can already be in the $20-$30 range, and one that supports Thunderbolt 4, is long, etc, is even more expensive.
There is a negotiation for the charging voltage and amperage. If both ends cannot meet, it of course falls back to lower wattages. All cables should support at least 3A, and that is 15W at 5W, and 60W at 20V. Some support 5A, which leads to 100W at 20V. (20V is the common voltage for many existing random laptop chargers). However, again, not all chargers and devices agree on voltage and amperes. And there is also backwards compatible cables (type-A to type-C), which are limited even more. (Some devices go off spec, and support QC, and other non-standard chargers, but that is something that is not supposed to happen).
Anyway, if you buy one good quality charger, and one good quality cable (possibly for $50-$100 total), you would not have much problems. Apple should also be able to work off that.
But Apple being Apple, I can see them not supporting these standards.
(For reference the wiki article is very helpful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C)
Not supposed to. For example, the RPi4 famously uses non-standard USB-C power. đ
I can see Apple implementing USB 4 and defaulting to Thunderbolt 4 with fallback to USB.
Then again, USB-C iPads work fine without limitations, so Apple does know how to work with USB-C.
And they received some backlash for it. Especially when their custom solution was broken: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-4-usb-c-update
I’ve actually seen worse. An LED light set came with a type-C cable, which was used as a raw 12V power carrier. Just a random charger that supplies 12V over USB for no reason other than “why not?” (I know USB may carry that voltage. But that has to be negotiated). So just threw the set into electronics recycling bin, fearing one day I will plug in an expensive device by mistake.
Unfortunately the world is an imperfect place.
sukru,
I probably would have soldered on the correct connectors than throw the whole set away, but yes indeed it does seem extremely stupid for manufacturers to repurpose USB connectors/cables for devices that aren’t electrically compatible. IMHO 12v LED strips should just stick with the standard barrel jacks that they’ve been using forever as there isn’t much of a reason to plug them into USB. It unnecessarily raises costs to do adhere to the USB spec (or creates a non-compliant device voltages as you’ve found).
Most things probably should just use barrel jacks or something like MagSafe in the case of portable electronics.
This might be the law of unintended consequences with the EU forcing a common charging standard. “iNoVayShuN!” I guess. (I’m not saying a common standard wasn’t a good idea. I’m saying the road to hell is paved with good intentions and bad execution.)
I can see plugging the strip in if the controller could be reprogrammed, but yeah, leave USB alone! It’s suffered enough!
Good, I’m glad they fixed it. They didn’t make it a usable USB port, but at least it’s to power spec now.
That’s horrible! Those monsters!
I’ve always had a nagging feeling about USB as a power source for non-electronic devices, but I’ve never been able to put my finger on it. Now, I know.
People taking shortcuts is why we can’t have nice things. đ
Well, at least Iâll be able to chage my next iPhone with the same charger as my friends and family.
But yeah, they ought to regulatenit further. Espescially considering the headset situation.
Doesn’t the USB-IF have a word or two to say in that case?