World’s first USB-C iPhone sells on eBay for $86,001 (opens in new tab)

Cheaper, really. And documented.

Hacker News group-think is strong these days. Instead of bothering to stop and post a counter-reply, many just downvote like it's Reddit, and move on.

I've been a few times recently, whereas in the past my counter opinions would have kicked off interesting debate.

You can't seriously expect people not to downvote any support of expensive locked down standards, can you?

Generalising is also expensive.

But, but.. but his sister is literally one-of-a-kind (unless she has a twin), and (probably) there shall never be another one (human) as her!

> Think, charging on a red eye flight.

https://www.cntraveler.com/story/jetblue-mint-suite-business...

https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-qatar-airways-busines...

https://www.astronics.com/aircraft-in-seat-power/wireless-ch...

A matter of time before this becomes super common. It's a low-cost perk that provides a service previously not available: a free charger while on the plane. And in the meanwhile, see below.

> Using a power bank for a long hike/camping.

Plenty of power banks with wireless chargers. I use Anker's own myself, works well. Also can be used as a regular charging pod when simultaneously connected to a power source.

> Quick charge in the morning when you forgot to charge the previous night, etc.

Fast wireless charging is already a thing. Besides, if you drive, you can charge it while driving, too.

The minute public space, business offices, car and regular furniture with wireless chargers built-in become common, it will be a non-issue all of the sudden.

However, I reckon it's still a matter of 5 more years, and doubt Apple can hold-off having to switch iPhone to USB-C until then.

Yeah, it seems like what's holding it back is a wireless charging standard similar to USB, once we have that and it's ubiquitous - I think we'll just expect wireless and be annoyed by cords. It needs to reach an adoption tipping point though which will likely happen slowly then all at once.

I'm sure they'll sell a charging wallet with a USB plug or something. They've gone to extraordinary and inconvenient lengths on points of principle before (from USB-only on the first iMac through to USB-C only and faulty keyboards on the 2018 macbook pros).

Then imagine (magnetic) external contacts, like the Apple Pencil.

Wireless data rates (eg- Wifi6) currently exceed wired by a good margin. The only barriers to fully utilizing that are vendor-manufactured and can be solved with both custom firmware and more open app stores.

Why can’t you use MagSafe while flying?

Isn't the efficiency of MagSafe quite high?

Out of curiosity, is it harder to charge on early morning flights?

My Apple Watch already does this. It’s here already.

In his 2020 article about wireless charging inefficiency [0], Eric Ravenscraft wrote:

> In my tests, I found that wireless charging used, on average, around 47% more power than a cable.

[0]: https://debugger.medium.com/wireless-charging-is-a-disaster-...

Yes, yes, and yes.

It is but the magnetic alignment of Apple's version makes it a bit more efficient than usual wireless charging.

Fully sealed? So no built-in microphone or speaker either?

MagSafe doesn’t break compatibility with any qi chargers, and you have the difficulty of alignment issue backwards. MagSafe is easier to align - that doesn’t mean magnetless qi is made worse.

Why do you believe that to be true? If there are no physical ports then all data transfer and access must happen wirelessly which means there must be means to connect, and extract data wirelessly. Sure, maybe there’s a temporary reprieve until the same level of exfiltration can be done wirelessly, but it will happen. And in this future wireless-only world your data will be exfiltrated without you ever knowing about it.

I don't get it, are middle class cosmopolitans hydrophobic?

Is there any actual data to makes this more valid?

Especially when currently Apple uses USB-C for their entire lineup with exception of iPhones and iPad 9th gen.

In this (sample size of 1!) experiment, microUSB failed at 8000 insertions device side. USB C lasted beyond 8000 insertions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqtNleXhTRE

This isn't the first time I've heard someone suggest Lightning is more durable than USB-C, but I've not seen evidence of it.

USB C survives a remarkable amount of abuse.

My device have a pretty hard life. I carry them around a lot, do a fair amount of travel, and am fairly clumsy, so pretty much everything ends up falling once in a while. Sometimes considerably more than that.

I'm typing this on a laptop I bought 3 years ago. The bottom cover is bent, the fans are making a grinding noise, and both upper corners of the screen have been dented to the point of damaging the LCD on both corners. It's just had a few too many awkard falls and is about at the point where I think fixing it isn't going to be worthwhile.

All USB C ports are still in perfect working order, though, despite a few falls from a desk with cables plugged in.

I've not had issues with any other USB C devices either. Yeah, I'm sure it can be broken if you try really hard, but it does seem to take a far amount of effort. The port seems very solidly built and I think damaging the cable is more likely.

No USB-C port i have used has failed. Still working like new on a ~5 year old phone. Multiple laptops, one with a USB-C charging port are also fine.

This is a Hackernews meme until some solid real-world evidence is provided. Not edge cases.

Haha, what an absolute hustle