US must adopt USB-C charging standard like EU, senators urge | Hacker News Reader

US must adopt USB-C charging standard like EU, senators urge

theregister.com

10 pointspizza8 comments

There is now no reason for this. Apple isn't going to be selling two versions for each continent.

The far left wing of the Democratic party is out of touch with the values and priorities of most Americans. This will go nowhere, which is good, because we don't need the federal government dictating product design to companies.

Industry defines standards and then fights for dominance. At some point you have electrocuted enough elephants and it is time to normalize on something for a while. I mean the US' 110V AC absolutely sucks in comparison to many things, yet it wins compared to a nation with random regional power systems.

USB-C is already becoming the norm, though. The market is working, and it's not necessary to make it illegal to invent an alternative that may be better. What makes this regulation extra baffling, though, is that everyone already has the ability to vote directly on whether they want devices to use USB-C. They vote with their dollars when they buy a device.

I generally see Apple's port oddities as part of their overall ecosystem as a trust pattern. I can't pick things from their ecosystem without an inconvenience not because inconvenience is necessary and beyond the skills of their designers but because they make more from converting people to Apple only users than they would from playing seamlessly and having more users that use one product comfortably without either being pulled in to 3 products or abandoning them altogether.

In the case of a phone, their product is actually dangerous without a standard connector in a way the US focuses on more than any other nation AFAIK. A 911-call ability risk.

Re: you not liking Apple—ok, don't buy their products. The nice thing about the free market is that there are alternatives to choose from. I don't feel strongly about the lightning port, but it's worth pointing out that it exists because it predates USB-C by multiple years.

> In the case of a phone, their product is actually dangerous without a standard connector in a way the US focuses on more than any other nation AFAIK. A 911-call ability risk.

This is a real stretch. In that case, should the federal government also make it illegal to not carry a phone?

> The nice thing about the free market is that there are alternatives to choose from.

That's the nice thing about a free market with perfect trust busting. You are trying to make me choose a large tech to like just so I can buy a phone with everything they choose for me to maximize their benefit.

> This is a real stretch.

The US made this stretch over and over, i.e. on IP phones that didn't want to support 911. In a way they are right, any reductions in quality or expectations in availability would quickly go from a niche problem to few people still having a landline with 911 service. Having no phone is fine because you don't expect to have it be your way to call 911, iphone owners often think they planned correctly but can't make any calls once their battery dies.

Nobody said you have to choose big tech. It's 2022, there are thousands of smartphone options to choose from. You can buy a variety of Linux based phones if that's something you'd prefer.

> Having no phone is fine because you don't expect to have it be your way to call 911, iphone owners often think they planned correctly but can't make any calls once their battery dies.

People know they can't make calls if their phone battery dies.

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