I GET A CHARGE OUT OF APPLE

Apple Gave Us The Cheapskate’s Charging Cable

Just kidding

My messy cable drawer — photo by author

One of my Android-toting nephews once jabbed me about being an Apple Sheeple with my Aye-Aye-Apple Phone. I zapped him back with how sorry I was that he couldn’t afford a really good phone.

Unfortunately, his phone was a very nice Samsung phone and cost more than my Apple did. I had to laugh and give the point to him. Damn kids!

Apple Lightning cables have been the target of much criticism, both for their price and for their supposed failure rate. I never felt either charge was fair as Lightning Cables have a lot of built in intelligence and my cables lasted for years. Well, except for the ones in my car that I step on or get caught in the shifter. Those get ruined pretty quickly.

When I worked at Apple, there was a dentist who frequently returned supposedly defective Lightning cables. One night I looked at what he was returning before sending him to the Genius Bar for a swap. The connectors were rusted! I asked him why. He told me he was sterilizing them in an autoclave!

We won’t need to argue about cables much longer. With iPhone 15, USB-C replaces Lightning. From now on, iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Airpods will all charge with USB-C.

Hurrah!

Hold on. This is true, but there’s more to know. Did you know that USB stands for Universal Serial Bus? Yes it does, so USB-C cables must be universal, which should mean any of them will work with anything, right?

Yeah, no. Or no, sort of. Take your pick.

Yes, you can charge your new USB-C iPhone with any USB-C cable you or your nephew happen to own. Unless the cable is obviously physically damaged, you won’t hurt your phone. It’s not true that some cheap Chinese cables will cause your phone to overheat.

But the charge might take much longer than you’d like because USB-C cables also carry a wattage rating and meet different USB standards. If you want the fastest charge for your new toy, you want a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 cable and a 20 or 40 watt charger.

You could use a 100 watt or higher charger, but your iPhone 15 will only ask for and get 18 or (Pro models) 29 Watts.

So that settles that. Or does it?

Do you want the fastest possible charge? Maybe sometimes you do, but most of us usually charge our gear while sleeping, so does Absolute Fastest matter?

And then there’s the annoying reality that pumping electrons at a high rate slightly decreases battery life due to heat. It’s not a big o-mi-god deal, so most of us don’t worry about it. Maybe use a lesser setup for overnight and keep the super-duper cable and charger around for when you are in a hurry? Sure, why not? Okay by me!

USB-C cables also have a speed rating, though that’s important for big data transfer work, not charging.

Someday chips and screens will use far less power. Someday we may have longer lasting batteries. Someday charging might be an infrequent chore.

And someday my messy cable drawer may have very few cables in it.

[embed]Get an email whenever Anthony Lawrence publishes. Get an email whenever Anthony Lawrence publishes. You can unsubscribe if I become annoying. By signing up, you will…pcunix.medium.com