Edit: for people downvoting me, I'm not saying they are just cables, I'm just saying I don't know what the difference is, and asking for an explanation. Please calm down.

[–] sebi@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

There is physical connections between devices. The pins that make electrical contact. There are 24 on UsbC and 8 on lightning making a lot more things possible.

Also there are structural benifits. Lightning connectors are held in by the device which makes replacing the clamp a lot more difficult than just switching the cable like UsbC, where that mechanism is inside the cable.

And last but not least is Usb an open protocol while you would have to pay Apple if you wanted to implement Lightning.

[–] BornVolcano@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

You just had me unplugging my cable to shine a flashlight down it to look for the pins haha. Thank you for the info!

[–] reddit_sux@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Though lightning had 8 pins, for being reversible it is actually 2 pairs of 4 pins.

USB-C works around this by using cc1/2 pin which indicates the orientation of the connection.

[–] sebi@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I think the Lightning-Protocol was a little more difficult, because there were Display Adapters which probably need more than 4 lanes. And who could forget: some iPad actually had Usb 3 over Lightning.

[–] Ravi@feddit.de 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There are different dimensions for this, balance of importance differs between users and application:

data transfer rate
power transfer rate
durability
reusability with other products
length
price
someone made it white and engraved a pictogram of an incomplete apple on it

[–] Hoomod@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Don't worry, apple is still limiting data transfer to usb2 protocols except on the pro models

[–] Ravi@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh I always expect them to find a loop hole to sell their ridiculously expensive peripherals. My best bet is a chip that forces you to use an apple usb c cable.

[–] CptMuesli@artemis.camp 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They planned to something like this, but EU regulators made clear that this is an violation and would lead to consequences.

[–] Ravi@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

Nice

[–] BornVolcano@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

See it's at this point I get lost haha, but I think I'm starting to understand the gist of it

[–] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

There is zero technical reason to limit the speeds. Apple is just being an asshole and wants to misrepresent USB-C to their customers. Because again, Apple are assholes.

[–] reddit_sux@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Apple is using the last year's Pro chip in this year's standard iPhone. That doesn't have USB 3 support. They could have added a USB 3 chip for that but it's Apple.

The newest a17 bionic chip has USB 3 support built in. It is only present in iPhone Pro hence USB 3 support for the cable.

[–] BornVolcano@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Okay, so getting information and energy to and from the phone (what a cable does), how long it lasts, how many different types of cables you'd have to buy to work with similar devices you have, length and price are self explanatory, and whether or not apple is being apple.

I think I got it, thank you!

[–] klyde@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, they aren't.

[–] BornVolcano@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah, I'm learning that, which is exactly why I asked the question

[–] programmer_belch@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Usually it's about the time it takes to charge the phone or transfer files. I have never used the lightning cable so I can't personally compare but as USB C is compatible with USB 3.0 whereas lightning isn't, I assumed USB C is faster

[–] BornVolcano@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I'm also seeing things about not using the phone while it's charging which is a rule I'm currently breaking as we speak. Whoops!

[–] boonhet@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lightning is more convenient to clean the port which I like. I fully admit usb c is better in every other way. I personally don't need it though - I don't want to kill my battery with uber fast charging and I never connect it to my computer these days. But I'm excited to see if this makes Apple Carplay faster.

[–] BornVolcano@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, I recently made the switch from apple to Android after my second apple device in a row had a major internal hardware malfunction out of nowhere and the people at the store just went "yeah no I can't fix this sorry, you need a new phone", so I'm still figuring out the complex world of not apple. I didn't even realize you had to clean the ports, but I guess it would make sense. I recently found out my android and my computer use the same port (usb-c) and I got really excited so that's the level of "tech savvy" I'm on haha

[–] JCreazy@midwest.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm curious what Android phone you picked up

[–] BornVolcano@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My dad gave me his old Razer 2 since he doesn't use it anymore. It's not in great condition, but it works

[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 year ago

If you are afraid of hardware malfunctions, may I propose the Fairphone?

It is literally designed so you can replace the hardware yourself. USB-C port broken? 15€ and 10 minutes later you have a new port (even if you don't know anything about phone repair). Screen broken? 80€ and you have a complete new one. Battery replacement is 30€ and that is just pop-and-go like in the old days.

They also give at least 5 year warranty, and you can still buy parts for the Fairphone 2, which is about 7 years old at this point.