I quite often use my phone as a portable mass storage device.
I'll admit that the vast majority of my syncing is now done via cloud/remote access, but there are times when I might want a more immediate transfer of bulk data, and the phone is absolutely ideal for that. Transferring 100GB+ of data via USB 2.0 is arduous.
USB-C being 'less physically secure' than lightning is also a bonus in my book. When I nearly twat myself tripping over a rogue USB cable, I like to know that the connection between the cable and the device will be the weakest link, rather than needing to replace the cable every time my boat feet come into contact with it. It does tend to have some slight wobble/play, but I think this is probably specced in to allow for a slightly larger margin of error when mass producing USB-C plugs/sockets. My current phone is getting on for three or four years old now, is regularly used whilst plugged in (like now) has a 'wobbly' USB-C socket but has never given me any issues whatsoever in regards to reliability. If it was Micro-USB, previous experience says it would be long dead by now.
I suspect that Apple have done themselves no favours by sticking so fervently to Lightning all these years. It's a proprietary connection that became relatively obsolete just about a year after it was introduced. I suspect Apple's true reason for not wishing to replace it is due to their insistence on using the same internals whereever possible for the vast majority of their phones. Just about anyone with the means to own an iphone will also have some form of USB-C device by now. I'd imagine that requiring a specific proprietary cable that only charges your phone must be a massive pain in the tits for even the most indoctrinated of iphone zealots these days.
(, Wed 8 Jun 2022, 23:29, Reply)
It's horses for courses at the end of the day.
I only ever plug in my phone to charge it from a power bank, and for that I prefer lightning. Truth be told I seldom need to plug in anything in these days besides memory sticks, so while USB-C may be faster, that doesn't help me at all. I just want a solid connection for charging. I did use an iPod as an external drive a long time ago, but that was back when they had firewire ports, which were a lot faster than USB.
I also make a comparison to the shitty micro-USB ports that disconnected when faced with an especially loud fart, but for the sake of argument while USB-C isn't exactly new it's still not really widespread so time will tell. I'm not convinced that putting the thin breakable bit on the device side is such a good idea; it seems like it's the more likely end to break.
FWIW lightning was made obsolete because no-one really needed a port for data anymore, not that the protocol itself was too slow. Besides, only phones and tablets ever used it. The dock connector had all those pins because at the time wi-fi was only 11Mbps and portable devices seldom had it anyway. I think Apple stuck with lightning because it was slightly smaller, a lot less complex in terms of pinout and perfectly adequate for what most people used it for.
MagSafe on the other hand, has probably saved my laptop a dozen times over. Apple should never have been able to patent that.
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jonbob loves you, Thu 9 Jun 2022, 0:05,
Reply)