USB-C for Lightning iPhones
obsoless.com

・

224 points

・

colinprince

・

6 days ago

139 comments

seltzered_ ・ 3 days ago

Ugh, this just needed a headphone jack to be perfect.

(Relatedly, back in 2017 eric migicovsky of pebble tried to make a usb-c iPhone case that also charged airpods: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/581404323/podcase-batte... )

  • frollogaston ・ 3 days ago

    If this case had a jack that worked reliably, I'd totally buy it. It's just that every other adapter I've used has somehow had occasional hiccups where the phone plays via speakers instead.

    • nabwodahs ・ 3 days ago

      The best Lightning audio adapter is Apple's Lightning-to-30-pin-iPod adapter. It provides line-level audio out, as the 30-pin port always did. So you don't have to dick around with two volume levels; it's fixed coming out of the phone, and you only adjust your amp.

      I built one into a dock in my car that charged the phone and delivered audio to my car radio.

      • dcrazy ・ 3 days ago
        ・ 4 more

        There’s no analogue audio over Lightning, so if the 30-pin adapter is disabling volume level on the phone, it’s just picking a fixed gain for its internal DAC—perhaps because the DAC is only good within a certain gain range. The Apple USB-C to 3.5mm adapters are widely regarded as having excellent DACs irrespective of their size and price. I’m not as familiar with the reputation of the Lightning to 3.5mm adapters, but I would consider the ability to configure the DAC volume an indicator of superior quality DAC compared to the 30-pin adapter.

        • piva00 ・ 3 days ago

          The Lightning-3.5mm adapter has a quite good DAC for its size, I remember seeing a teardown article from when it was first launched, quite impressive engineering going on in a such a small piece of electronics.

        • glitchc ・ 3 days ago

          I'm pretty sure it's the same DAC since the signal is digital whether over Lightning or over USB-C until it hits the DAC.

          They earned their reputation when new phones came packaged with the adapter for the first few generations (circa iPhone 7/8?) after the 3.5 mm jack was removed.

      • atoav ・ 2 days ago
        ・ 3 more

        This is how any generic 5 Euro USB-C-to-TRS 3.5mm jack adapter works on Android. Didn't know this was a big issue in Apple-land.

        • frollogaston ・ 16 hours ago

          It's an issue if you don't want to buy AirPods, or whatever the Pixel or Samsung equivalents are. Each realized there's money to be made this way, cause people will just buy.

          Or in my case I've got an audio receiver with flaky Bluetooth. Guess it's "my fault" for not replacing it with an Apple TV, better yet Homepods.

    • crenwick ・ 3 days ago

      This is also the case with Apple wired usbc headphones. Probably the phone software and not the adapter.

      Reminds me of when Android phones used to do the same with analog audio jacks.

  • bodge5000 ・ 2 days ago

    There used to be cases that added USB-C to iPhones (prior to Apple doing it themselves), and there used to be cases that added the headphone jack to iPhones (not updated since the iPhone X), but for some reason never both which has held me back from getting one

  • MostlyStable ・ 3 days ago

    So this comment made me go looking, and there _is_ a case that adds headphone jacks back to iphones, but literally not a single one for any model of android phone. I guess they figure that the people who care enough to buy such a case will go out and buy one of the dwindling number of android phones that still have such a jack.

    • ChrisMarshallNY ・ 3 days ago

      Apple devices have a much smaller variance in shape. It’s a lot easier for case designers to develop for Apple. Android devices have a lot of variety.

      That said, I have seen some fairly cool cases for Android devices, so I assume that some case companies support just the big sellers.

    • seltzered_ ・ 3 days ago

      The divide generally is that android phones with headphone jacks as of 2025 generally dont have 5G ultrawideband support* . And there are some split-out dangles which offer a jack and usb-c, but they've sorta had annoying quirks in my experience (the CableCreation one is less terrible in my experience). One could design a case around one of these dangles, though it's add some bulk and the dangle quirks mean you sometimes need to disconnect it from the phone.

      * - supposedly the Sony xperia pro (2020) might be the rare exception to this rule.

      • alias_neo ・ 3 days ago

        The don't always seem to work either. My wife asked for one of the little USB-C to 3.5mm adapters of which I had a few from various Android phones over the years, and one from an iPhone and she couldn't get them to work on her Samsung Galaxy S21, I ended up buying hear some bluetooth earbuds (yes, she could have done it herself but she trusts my judgement on selecting these sorts of things).

    • pydry ・ 3 days ago

      This is probably as much of a reflection of the market size and lack of device fragmentation for the apple ecosystem than demand.

      It's similarly easier to buy a wide range of different case designs for apple.

  • ubermonkey ・ 2 days ago

    I don't miss headphone jacks AT ALL.

    I mean, I thought I would. I really did. I was VERY salty about their loss. But then I tried the OG Airpods, and then the Pros with ANC, and they were honestly better than any "casual" buds I'd used before that depended on wires.

    Still, I harrumphed, wireless can't possibly compete with Real Proper Headphones, or so I thought.

    Then I tried the AirPods Max a friend had. I was honestly stunned. I bought a pair, and then compared them directly to a similarly priced set of Sennheisers that I have that require a headphone amp to really shine.

    The fancy wired rig probably does sound a LITTLE bit better than the Maxes do, but the logistical cost of the cabling is such that I call it a win for wireless, absolutely. In fact, we recently moved house, and as part of the pre-move purge I gave away the Sennheisers and the little amp. I just wasn't using them.

    There's definitely contexts where a wire probably still makes sense. I'm given to believe that latency can be a problem for musical recording, for example, and so those folks still use wired phones. But for me? Yeah, it's wireless all the way now.

    (When I say the move is recent, I mean REALLY recent -- like, we're still working around boxes. It sure would be nice to figure out which of the remaining boxes has those Airpods in it.)

    • GuB-42 ・ 2 days ago

      > I don't miss headphone jacks AT ALL ... But then I tried the OG Airpods, and then the Pros with ANC ... Then I tried the AirPods Max ... I bought a pair

      Now, what you miss is around $1000, for hardware that will likely fail faster than any wired alternative.

      That's the part that pissed off so many people. Apple obsoleted good quality headphones to sell their high margin products. Airpods are decent, but it is a cash grab.

      My phone (Galaxy XCover 7) has a headphone jack by the way, and I use it. Not very often, but I sometimes plug my gaming headset to it, or sometimes an AUX jack. And by the way, it also has a removable battery and it is IP68, for those who think that it makes waterproofing impossible.

      • 8n4vidtmkvmk ・ 21 hours ago

        Aux to USB c converters are cheap and work well btw. I just leave mine permanently attached to my headphones. Not that big of a deal.

      • cyberpunk ・ a day ago

        My Airpods Maxes are 4 years old and i use them for 8-10 hours a day twice a week.

        No issue with battery so far.

        Pretty good going, in my experience.

        But the killer is the ANC. Bollocks to public transport without it.

      • ubermonkey ・ a day ago

        I bought Maxes very early, and they've held up MARVELOUSLY well even with some heavy travel periods. Apple kit tends to be quite durable, so I'm not upset about the investment at all.

    • danielbln ・ 2 days ago

      Same story here. I was very much in the "take my headphone jack over my dead body" camp. But then I got used to wireless earbuds/air pods and now I never ever want to go back to cabled earphones, ever. Just the thought of the cable getting snagged on something and pulling out one or both earphones makes me rage.

  • mvdwoord ・ 2 days ago

    I was disappointed to find out that my girlfriend's iphone (albeit a few years old) is not able to charge my wireless earbuds. A feature I've enjoyed on my Samsung phones for as long as I can remember.

    • justusthane ・ 2 days ago

      Reverse charging is still not a feature on iPhone

      • ruperthair ・ a day ago

        "You can use your iPhone 15 and later to charge your AirPods, Apple Watch or another small device that supports USB Power Delivery at up to 4.5 watts." from https://support.apple.com/en-gb/105099

        This works with my Beats headphones and is very useful.

Brajeshwar ・ 3 days ago

For those not going for this one, should get a bunch of USB-C to Lightning adapter. I bought a few packs and they are all over the house, the car, tech pouch, etc. I stopped caring about Lightning cables. Lighting pins are going to be needed for a pretty long time. The TV Remote is going to be there for quite a while, the mice, the keyboard.

  • Starmina ・ 3 days ago

    Like he highlights in his video, those adapter are not reversible. They only charge 9V max in one side and limited to 5V if you flip them.

    • zulln ・ 3 days ago

      Which should be fine for all the things the comment mentions though (remotes, keyboards, etc).

  • thrance ・ 2 days ago

    ALL my devices are now USB-C and it feels great: laptops, phone, headset, mice, game controller...

rahulbisht ・ 3 days ago

The USB‑C connector sticking out feels a bit odd. We can explore to move the port at the bottom, make it horizontal and add a cut‑out in the case for the cable to fit in. That would make the cover more natural and clean.

ubermonkey ・ 2 days ago

That's a cool idea and I'd probably be on board for it if I weren't married to a different case system for compatibility with the mount on my motorcycle.

If I were 10 years younger I'd probably leap on a new phone to pick up USB-C, but (a) Apple replaced my Lightning-based iPhone 14 Pro at like the last possible moment of warranty, so right now I have essentially a new phone and (b) there's still so many OTHER Lightning or USB-Micro holdouts in our house that USB-C Nirvana is years away.

(E.G., Lightning on 2 sets of regular Airpods plus my Maxes as well as our phones; Micro on both our Kindles, my espresso scale, my camera's battery charger, and a ton of cycling gadgets.)

p_ing ・ 3 days ago

This only gives you USB 2.0 speeds. If that's not a concern, then this is a good upgrade.

  • colejohnson66 ・ 3 days ago

    Lightning only ever supported USB 2.0. Theoretically, the free serial pins could’ve been used for the SuperSpeed 3.0 pins, but Apple never did.

    • brigade ・ 3 days ago

      They supported superspeed for the lightning iPad pros by doubling the number of pins (top and bottom rows)

      Only the lightning to usb3 camera adapter used them

      • ThatPlayer ・ 3 days ago

        I think it's also notable that the iPad Pro never supported usb 3 client either. The iPad Pro had a separate USB3 host controller, and so only supported that camera adapter. There was never a USB-A (or C) 3.0 to Lightning cable.

  • delfinom ・ 3 days ago

    I would assume the vast majority of people aren't doing anything serious with their USB ports on a phone....

    • xp84 ・ 3 days ago

      It did take 8 hours to do a migration of data from my wife's 256GB iPhone 14 (lightning) to her iPhone 15 Pro this year, so that's at least one "serious" thing. I am so glad to be rid of that cursed Lightning port. Now I just have to come up with a good excuse to replace the younger child's tablet, despite it working fine. It is so frustrating to have to maintain special charging cables just for certain devices especially when you know it was a deliberate and cynical choice by the vendor. Thank goodness for the EU forcing this matter.

      • ggreer ・ 3 days ago
        ・ 9 more

        Taking eight hours to migrate the data is almost certainly a software issue. Assuming the phone is completely full, transferring 256GB over USB 2.0 (480Mbit/sec, or 60MB/sec) should take about an hour and 15 minutes.

        • xp84 ・ 6 hours ago

          It probably is a software issue (though I usually assume USB-2 is more likely to be about half its raw rated speed), and if the pokey USB-2 speeds aren't a bottleneck that's truly ghastly.

          But it was an interesting data point to me. It's utterly ridiculous how long Apple devices take to do migrations now.

        • userbinator ・ 3 days ago

          USB 2.0 mass storage bulkonly protocol maxes out around 40MB/s due to protocol overhead and hardware limitations, and in practice it's closer to ~35MB/s.

          https://superuser.com/questions/317217/whats-the-maximum-spe...

          ...which still gives ~2h as the amount of time taken to transfer 256GB. My suspicion for the slowdown (to around 8MB/s?) is the flash controller is doing read retries and applying ECC to compensate for retention failures.

        • BobbyTables2 ・ 3 days ago
          ・ 3 more

          I suspect the flash storage can’t sustain 60MB/sec writes indefinitely…

          • ggreer ・ 3 days ago

            The iPhone line has used NVMe drives for a decade. Even the iPhone X can do sustained writes of over 100MB/sec.

          • Dylan16807 ・ 3 days ago

            The amazonbasics 256GB microsd is faster than that. I really doubt the flash in an iPhone is worse.

            And the speed you should actually expect from USB 2.0 is more like 35MB/s so that's even easier for flash to handle.

        • frollogaston ・ 3 days ago
          ・ 3 more

          USB 2.0 doesn't realistically do 480mbit/s I thought

          • delfinom ・ 3 days ago
            ・ 2 more

            It absolutely can. Many years ago the limitation was PC mobos sucked and the likewise flash drives sucked. They marketed it but it was often just a peak.

            Nowadays I can fully saturate the 480 mbit.

            • userbinator ・ 3 days ago

              No, real-world throughput is closer to 40MB/s (320Mbps) due to protocol overhead, which is relatively high.

      • sgarland ・ 3 days ago
        ・ 5 more

        IMO, Lightning was a better physical connector. But a near-universal standard is better.

        • brookst ・ 3 days ago
          ・ 4 more

          Lightning puts the main failure modes device-side. Apple’s learnings, which they contributed to USBIF as part of the USB-C effort, were to put the mechanical failure points in the cable, not the device.

          • Uvix ・ 3 days ago

            USB-C may have added a mechanical failure point in the cable, but the port is still fragile. Possibly more so than Lightning, with the delicate little tab inside.

          • Shekelphile ・ 3 days ago
            ・ 2 more

            I have no clue how you're drawing that conclusion. The lightning connector is indisputably more durable than USB-C and failures of lightning ports outside of extreme abuse is pretty much unheard of.

            • 2muchcoffeeman ・ 2 days ago

              I think people argue this because the little pins for lightning are in your device. If these break there’s no fix. The flexible pins on USBC is in the cable. Do if the pins break, you get a new cable. Thought arguably, you now have this thin plastic flappy bit. But none of the parts that are meant to flex are in your device.

      • brookst ・ 3 days ago
        ・ 10 more

        The EU did not force the matter. They trotted out in front of the parade and pretended to lead it.

        Apple switched a year before required, and not coincidentally, ten years after promising that Lightning would be the connector “for the next decade” so as to reduce fears from those who were angry about being “forced” to replace their 30-pin peripherals.

        I don’t know why tech enthusiasts tend toward conspiratorial thinking, but certainly if Apple had obsoleted Lightning after only 8 years, many of these same people would be professing outrage and demanding class action lawsuits over such a greedy deceit.

        • dangus ・ 3 days ago
          ・ 6 more

          I think you need a pretty good amount of willful naivety to think that Apple didn’t make the switch with such coincidental timing to EU law changes purely out of the love of their customers.

          Let’s not forget the very same year they stopped including the charging brick they started including USB-C to lightning cables in the box, so that their supposedly environmentally friendly practice forced their users to buy a new brick unless they saved previous cables. Why didn’t they switch to USB-C back then? To make users do another transition a few short years later?

          They’re aren’t exactly a company with a track record of maintaining standards for the convenience and backward compatibility for their customers. This idea that they kept lightning around to maintain legacy standards doesn’t really track with the rest of their behavior.

          They have a 20+ year old reputation for abruptly dropping and replacing ports.

          • storgaard ・ 2 days ago
            ・ 2 more

            > Let’s not forget the very same year they stopped including the charging brick they started including USB-C to lightning cables in the box, so that their supposedly environmentally friendly practice forced their users to buy a new brick unless they saved previous cables. Why didn’t they switch to USB-C back then? To make users do another transition a few short years later?

            Maybe I'm missing something here but how does a transition from having a charging brick to not having one relate to the transition on the other end of the cable going from one port to another?

            • dangus ・ a day ago

              I’ll explain:

              The status quo is that I have an iPhone with the included USB-A 5W charger. On the other end is a lightning connector.

              Next iPhone comes out and Apple stops including the charging brick, but the included cable is now USB-C to lightning.

              So I can’t keep the brick that I already own and actually use the new cable that Apple includes in the box. If I want to sell my phone with all accessories then I’m left with a cable and nothing to plug it into. If I want to keep using my old cable and brick I now have a spare USB-C to lighting cable that does nothing for me.

              Basically Apple created a situation that doesn’t really make sense for any hypothetical user. Someone somewhere is buying a new brick or cable or has an extra wasted cable because of it.

          • dwaite ・ 3 days ago

            > Let’s not forget the very same year they stopped including the charging brick they started including USB-C to lightning cables in the box, so that their supposedly environmentally friendly practice forced their users to buy a new brick unless they saved previous cable

            There are countries which put pressure on removing both the charger and the cable with regulations related to e-waste. France I believe requires a product to be available for purchase without a charger. Ironically, Apple at least used to bundle EarPods with the iPhone in France due to some electromagnetic radiation regulation.

          • Shekelphile ・ 3 days ago
            ・ 2 more

            > I think you need a pretty good amount of willful naivety to think that Apple didn’t make the switch with such coincidental timing to EU law changes purely out of the love of their customers.

            The designs are finalized years in advance. Apple would have made the choice to ship USB-C before the EU mandate was even proposed.

            • dangus ・ a day ago

              “Years in advance” but a new phone design comes out every year. Doesn’t pass the smell test.

              If an individual hacker can change the lightning port to USB-C in the phone (this really happened) then Apple can definitely make the design change within a short timeframe like a month.

        • xp84 ・ 5 hours ago

          > those who were angry about being “forced” to replace their 30-pin peripherals

          > many of these same people would be professing outrage and demanding

          As you may have guessed I'm pretty critical of Apple (despite giving them a ton of money) but I'd classify the above critics as idiots (and given the media loves a story like that, a lot of that outrage is entirely made up for clicks). To the extent Apple cares what anyone thinks (and I doubt they do), they surely know that any decision they make will be attacked by this type of knee-jerk silliness.

          Media: Apple keeping their proprietary Lightning connector for MFi revenue reasons and because they don't want to be compatible or make it easier to switch to Android.

          Also Media: Apple forcing everyone to switch from Lightning to USB to force them to buy all new expensive accessories! Greed!

        • scarface_74 ・ 2 days ago

          Apple would have eventually moved the iPhone to USB C. It had already started moving the iPads to USB years before the mandate. The EU hastened it.

        • yieldcrv ・ 3 days ago

          haven't seen this kind of Apple glazing in a long time

    • makeitdouble ・ 3 days ago

      IMHO it is a learned habit that will change as limitations are lifted.

      Plugging a SD card reader to one's phone instead of pulling out the laptop to push the images to the cloud for instance. You do it once, and will be immediately convince of the advantages.

    • scarface_74 ・ 3 days ago

      I have a portable external monitor with two USB C ports. It can get power and video from one USB port.

      I can plug it up to my iPhone 16 Pro Max using the same standard USB cord. With a phone, it can only power the display up to 50% brightness by itself. If I plug power into the second USB C port, it will show the display up to 100% and charge my phone.

      https://imgur.com/a/6g1QOkT

      Having USB C also means I can use a standard USB C to HDMI cord for TVs and use the same cord for my computer. Not to mention all of the other standard USB protocols like audio, mass storage, Ethernet, etc. that just work.

      • ThatPlayer ・ 3 days ago
        ・ 2 more

        It's also funny that the Lightning to HDMI adapters had to add hardware to decode a compressed video stream from the Lightning port.

        It's basically a wired AirPlay adapter. That's why they cost so much.

        • dwaite ・ 3 days ago

          Lightning was meant to be a software-defined serial data interface, I suspect because of the confusing breaking mess that was the 30 pin adapter over its lifetime. The digital logic to work with hardware was pushed outside the phone into the cable.

    • frollogaston ・ 3 days ago

      I'm not doing anything serious with it, but photo/video transfer takes annoyingly long

traspler ・ 2 days ago

I just got the iPhone 14 Pro version of it two days ago.

I like the texture very much and all-in-all it seems like a great case. The textured buttons and the wide island are very nice touches :)

The way I hold the phone in my right hand does make the connector-corner dig into my palm, which is not very comfortable. I'll see how well I can adapt.

Also the top piece has veeery slight warping which makes some seams not as seamless but does not impact functionality. I know it's a hand-made product so that's fine to me, just a reality check on what to expect.

The clasp of the top piece also seems a bit flimsy and even with the adjustments mentioned in the video I worry if it will break at some point.

BobbyTables2 ・ 6 days ago

How does he have so much equipment? That’s way beyond a hobbyist!

  • ProllyInfamous ・ 3 days ago

    I've worked in a few hardware tech startups (early phases underling) and his pick'n'place is nicer than many multimillion dollar companies'.

    • aaronblohowiak ・ 3 days ago

      Is that an open source opulo? You could get one for 2k

      • aaronblohowiak ・ 3 days ago
        ・ 2 more

        Oops, saw he upgraded to a big boy unit at end of video

        • ProllyInfamous ・ 2 days ago

          >big boy unit

          Yeah, it was way above my paygrade. But I'd speculate the video's p'n'p was in the low-$xx,xxx range.

          I remember when a different startup (that began inside a barn) moved from its first few h.sqft location into a proper industrial-zoned k.sqft facility. I remember when that place got its first short-schoolbus-sized Haas CnC... then got its second!

          Now its had hundreds of employees (I was employee #2, non-co-founder, in this memory). I have wired in several p'n'place machines there and even the current model isn't as nice as in the video's =D

  • LeonM ・ 3 days ago

    Either he had some money available, or he just financed. It's not that hard to get a small business loan/financing for this kind of equipment.

    I don't know how many he sold, what his production capacity is, and what margin he makes, but I recon he could definitely make his investments work from the sales of the cases alone. And even if it does not, then there are also future products that this equipment enables. So a good investment if you ask me.

  • Retr0id ・ 3 days ago

    There's your answer, it's beyond his hobby.

chromatin ・ 3 days ago

I actually want lightning for my USB-C phone :/

  • K7PJP ・ 3 days ago

    For what purpose? There are USB-C to Lightning adapters if you were using some specialized Lightning device you couldn't or didn't want to replace.

    • cactusplant7374 ・ 3 days ago

      It is more satisfying to plug in a lightning cable. I know it sounds crazy. I can’t explain it.

      I don’t care about charging speeds or data transfer speeds. When it is done, it’s done. Until then I will find something else to do or use it while charging.

      • zevon ・ 3 days ago
        ・ 5 more

        That's not crazy at all. If you look at a male lightning connector, you can see detents at the sides that snap into a (spring-loaded) retaining mechanism on the female side. USB-C doesn't have anything like that which results in less tactile satisfaction.

        • frosted-flakes ・ 3 days ago
          ・ 4 more

          USB-C uses an identical spring mechanism, actually, except the cord is the female side, and the port is male.

          • brookst ・ 3 days ago
            ・ 3 more

            I don’t think this is correct? GP is talking about the indentations on the side of the male lightning connector, which get gripped from the side by the device. I don’t think the center tab on USB-C has those same features, nor do the cables have the grippy things.

            I’d welcome correction. Certainly if those features are there they don’t feel the same. Lightning has a very satisfying snick.

            • frosted-flakes ・ 3 days ago
              ・ 2 more

              If you look closely, you can see the springy retention clips in the plug. Below is a Stack Overflow answer with more details, it includes a link to the USB-C spec where you can also see the corresponding notches in the male part of the receptacle.

              https://superuser.com/questions/1577898/how-does-the-retaini...

              Also, some good USB-C cables have a very similar click to Lightning, including Apple's own USB-C cables. Lightning and USB-C are essentially the same design, except USB-C adds an automotive-style shroud around the male side.

              • zevon ・ 3 days ago

                Interesting. I stand corrected and thanks for the links! Seems I didn't look hard enough at my USB-C cables. Now I'm curious - like the person I responded to, I always felt that Lightning is more tactile and more consistent than USB-C (including Apple's own USB-C cables) and I wonder why that is. Maybe the Lightning spring is beefier or something?

      • SchemaLoad ・ 3 days ago
        ・ 2 more

        Lightning plugs in with a pretty hefty thunk. While USB-C is a light click.

        • frosted-flakes ・ 3 days ago

          That depends on the cable. Apple's USB-C cables in particular have a very tactile non-squidgy click.

      • esseph ・ 3 days ago
        ・ 5 more

        You just want what, magnetic connectorized charging?

        • __mharrison__ ・ 3 days ago

          I have magnetized adapters for most of my USB C devices. I've had a USB C port fail on a phone in the past.

          They are very easy to use and have a satisfying snap when the cord connects.

          My only issue with them is that we were recently at Great Sand Dunes National Park and my phone fell into the sand. The magnetic adapter was covered with sand (which wasn't too hard to clean) and very smart metallic bits that stick to the magnet. They were difficult and annoying to remove and prevented the adapter from connecting.

          I guess on the plus side they protected the original port. I was able to remove the magnetic adapters and charge the phone with classic USB C.

          I guess I do have two issues. The adapter on my MBP is very particular about the cable I use. And the adapter, that supports high speed data transfer and charging, appears to be directional. Although the plug seems to be symmetric, in practice it doesn't work on both sides.

        • bee_rider ・ 3 days ago
          ・ 3 more

          Actually if they’d put a little magnet at the back of a USB (whatever type) port, that would be satisfying as heck. Like the computer is actively grabbing whatever you plugged in.

          • avhon1 ・ 3 days ago
            ・ 2 more

            I fear magnets inside the connector would draw ferrous debris into the connector. I'd really rather that not happen!

            • bee_rider ・ 3 days ago

              Oh, that is a good point. Springs it is, then.

    • bigyikes ・ 3 days ago

      I love my USB-C iPhone but Lightning was smaller and easier to plug in.

      • Modified3019 ・ 3 days ago
        ・ 3 more

        From my experience using various (work provided) devices in outdoors agriculture use, I consider the lightning connector/port less prone to failure as well. If something was to break (from torque), it seems like the tab on the cable should snap or the cable just pull out before catastrophic damage to the port can occur.

        Though I still had to replace cables because the cable itself developed a break somewhere, even with one that had proper stress relief at the ends.

        Meanwhile most of the USB C ports on my Lenovo laptop from 2022 are barely working because somewhere along the line either the soldering broke or the port got too loose. Possibly from too much torque but I’m not sure. So the cable has to be at just the right angle. I’ve also done some android phone battery/screen replacement for friends, and had to do a few USB-C ports when it was possible due to the same sort of thing.

        However all that is pretty much moot now, thanks to wireless charging and magnetic attachment docks. As such the only time I connect a cable anymore is monthly for cleaning out photos and other data. Previously I’d be connecting cables several times a day to charge in between fields as the battery went to shit. Honestly the “MagSafe” concept is the only change I’ve seen to smart phones in the past decade that I actually really like.

        • brookst ・ 3 days ago
          ・ 2 more

          Lightning had small pins inside the port that could be caught by debris and pulled out of alignment (or in worst cases, broken off altogether). USB-C has no moving parts on the device side. Apple was reportedly behind that design since Lightning was nearing release when design for USB-C started (and Apple is/was a member of USBIF)

          • mschuster91 ・ 3 days ago

            > Lightning had small pins inside the port that could be caught by debris and pulled out of alignment (or in worst cases, broken off altogether).

            Lightning has 1.5mm of height in the slot, debris has to be pretty large to get stuck and usually it's enough to just blow some compressed air into the slot to get dirt to release.

            In contrast, USB-C has only 0.7mm between the tab and the respective "other" side, so debris can get trapped much much more easily, and the tab is often very flimsy, in addition to virtually everyone sans Apple not supporting the connector housing properly with the main device housing.

      • floxy ・ 3 days ago
        ・ 10 more

        Does anyone have reliability data for USB-C ports? It seems to me like Lightning is more robust to repeated plug/unplug cycles. But this is only on my limited sample size of one laptop with a failed USB-C port and some vague hand waving.

        • xp84 ・ 3 days ago
          ・ 8 more

          It shouldn't be, my understanding is that the springy bits (the most likely wear part) in Lightning are in the port, whereas in USB-C they're intentionally in the cable so you can replace it. I'm surprised you have a failed USB port, but I've never experienced one fortunately.

          I see Lightning as fragile on both sides of the connection, since the port has springy bits that can wear, and the cables also die, either due to the DRM chips Apple involves in the mix for profit reasons, or due to the pins becoming damaged (perhaps this? https://ioshacker.com/iphone/why-the-fourth-pin-on-your-ligh... ).

          • ggreer ・ 3 days ago
            ・ 4 more

            USB-C has an unsupported tab in the middle of the port. It's pretty easy for that tab to bend or break, especially if the plug is inserted at an angle.

            Lightning doesn't have that failure mode. Also Lightning ports only use 8 pins (except on the early iPad Pros), so reversing the cable can often overcome issues with corroded contacts. That workaround isn't possible with USB-C.

            • carlhjerpe ・ 3 days ago

              I've never seen a device with a broken tab. One thing people seem to misunderstand grossly to keep regurgitating these claims is that there are thousands of USB-C ports from different manufacturers and price points. The Lightning connector is strictly quality controlled by Apple. The USB-C in your juul isn't the same as the one in a high-end device.

              The tab in the USB-C port makes the port more durable since it moves the sensitive springy parts to the cable(s) which are easily replaced.

              Quality control matters, Apple is arguably quite good at it. USB-C is more wild-west so if you're prone to buying cheap crap you'll be worse off.

            • toast0 ・ 3 days ago
              ・ 2 more

              Reversing works around some broken conditions for usb-c, power and usb 2.0 data are on both sides. Depending on how bad the corrosion is, reversing may help.

              Usb 3 might be trickier, but then iPhone lightning doesn't have that anyway.

              • Dylan16807 ・ 3 days ago

                Baseline USB 3 is also single sided. Only some of the extra fast modes use both sides.

          • SchemaLoad ・ 3 days ago
            ・ 3 more

            The springy bits never wear out anyway. I've never once seen an iphone that couldn't grip the cable unless the port was full of pocket lint. Main problem I see is USB-C has both a cable and port which are hard to clean.

            • brookst ・ 3 days ago

              The springy bits get torqued weirdly by debris and can be bent out of alignment and/or into contact with each other. It’s rare, but it happens. And the whole port needs to be replaced, which usually means the whole device.

            • tjmc ・ 3 days ago

              The white plastic toothpick found on most Swiss Army knives is perfect for cleaning USB-C ports.

        • frollogaston ・ 3 days ago

          The Lightning port itself might be more reliable, problem is Apple Lightning cables always break, and all third-party ones (even MFi) are prone to randomly not working after a while. I'd be perfectly fine with Lightning if it were an open spec, instead it singlehandedly created the meme of iPhones always being on 1% battery.

    • KennyBlanken ・ 3 days ago

      The Lightning connector is superior for everyday use. It's exeptionally reliable, tolerant of debris, and difficult to damage. It was designed to last, unlike every single USB device port ever made, which was designed to fail so you'd need to replace the cable and device eventually. MiniUSB, MicroUSB, and USB-C. It's all trash.

      Lightning has a perfect mechanical design. The pins phone-side are nearly possible to damage because they're well supported and only poke out in a bump shape that can't hook on anything. The cable side is the same way - no pins to catch on anything. The port is easy to clean out. The cable end is trivial to clean. The retention mechanism doesn't rely on anything that can wear out or break.

      Meanwhile the USB-C connector puts a fucking thin wedge of plastic in the middle of the connector and even worse, there are pins around that center thin wedge and they're easily broken/damaged because they have no protection whatsoever and poor mechanical support. Oh, and the retention mechanism sucks just like it has in every

      The USB-C port on my airpods is contactly getting fucked up while once in a blue moon I need to tick a toothpick in and rummage around a little to get some lint out of my phone's Lightning plug, and it's good for a couple more months...and that thing lives in my pocket, whereas the Airpod case spends most of its life sitting around on tables.

      It's also a substantial plus that Apple tightly controls the cable spec. Just go look at the pages where people document USB-C cables that are so shitty they'll destroy the electronics in one or both devices.

    • dylan604 ・ 3 days ago

      because you still need a cable with a lightning end in your spaghetti of cables in a drawer somewhere. if all of your devices had USBC on both ends, then you don't need the one cable with the special adapter. you just need USBC cables. this isn't rocket science, and it's not a hard position to be sympathetic with either.

      • toast0 ・ 3 days ago

        Having everything be usbc makes sense.

        Having everything be lightning makes sense too, but is infeasible. Lightning was never going to be good for almost all devices, like usb mini-b, micro-b, and now usb-c have managed to get to.

    • frollogaston ・ 3 days ago

      Adapter might not fit, or is annoying even if it does

Pfhortune ・ 2 days ago

Once the SE third gen is available, I could finally have a TouchID iPhone with USB-C! Really wish Apple had done a final fourth gen of the SE with these features...

OrvalWintermute ・ 3 days ago

This guy needs to make more of them so he can TAKE MY MONEY!

tamimio ・ 3 days ago

I would take fast speed like USB 3 in lightning form than USB-C, it’s solid design, just needs some speed boost.

MrBuddyCasino ・ 3 days ago

Just to clarify: I can’t use the wired USB-C Apple headphone adapter with this?

  • LeonM ・ 3 days ago

    The data and PD communication are both working (that was the majority challenge on the EE side, shown in his video). So it would depend on the capability of his solution to let the phone work in host mode, thus being able to provide power to the adapter.

    Though I'm also not sure how the MFi situation is with those generations of iPhones, and what restrictions Apple has built in to the OS. I haven't worked with MFi for a while, and I don't know for sure if MFi chips are even required anymore for that generation of lightning devices, or whether the author has incorporated one.

    EDIT: I just saw this on his website:

    > Any other accessory that requires power from the phone is not compatible.

    So no, USB-C to headphone adapters won't work, they need power.

DrNosferatu ・ 3 days ago

Killer feature would be also a 3.5mm earphone jack.

rckt ・ 3 days ago

What is the point of this? I'm not questioning the engineering part. This guy is amazing. I just don't understand the issue with iPhones' lightning port. Is there a shortage of lightning cables in the world?

  • pimterry ・ 3 days ago

    It's just _ridiculously_ useful having every single device you own work with the same charger. It's not the end of the world, but not even having to think about chargers has been a gamechanger.

  • WhyNotHugo ・ 2 days ago

    My current lightning cable is breaking apart and I'll need to buy another at some point. I have dozens of USB-C cables at home.

    Having to carry one able less while travelling is also nice. Currently I carry a USB-C cable for headphones, would be nice to re-use that for the phone too.

  • bapak ・ 2 days ago

    I love unplugging the charger from my computer and charging my phone in a swift, 3-seconds motion.

    Likewise, I hate that USB-A is still everywhere and I cannot use it without carrying yet one more cable. Sometimes I have it, sometimes I don't.

  • rf15 ・ 3 days ago

    Saving up on actual cables you carry around - you always have that one extra iphone cable, while everyone else is on USB-C for years now.

  • diggan ・ 2 days ago

    > What is the point of this?

    Probably for people like me, where the only Apple hardware I own and use is a iPhone 12 Mini, almost everything else is USB-C or the previous USB iterations. It'd be great if I can use the same cables I use for everything else with my phone too.

vachina ・ 3 days ago

Haha, 50 Swiss franc for what the Chinese can do for 10CNY. Yeah nah.

  • Workaccount2 ・ 3 days ago

    What sucks (or is awesome) is that if this gets popular, it will certainly show up on Alibaba in the next few weeks and Amazon a few weeks after that.

    It will be a nicer material while much cheaper too.

    • zevon ・ 3 days ago

      The material thing is debatable. 3D printed Polyamide - possibly with a fibre filler - is really nice for phone cases, in my opinion. The surface texture is grippy, it's quite durable (and I like the look).

    • vachina ・ 3 days ago

      There are already charging cases that is a little thicker, that offers usb c input.