I’ve bought beef with Apple’s irritati...

I bear in mind the notorious day in 2012 when Apple determined to throw a wrench on the charging world and convert all Apple loyalists to its “pick-me”

Lightning
cable. Despite the fact that “Lightning” sounds cool, it most undoubtedly was not a cool transfer by the tech large. It was supposedly within the title of effectivity, however my intestine was fairly assured it was a monetary play (sigh).

I used to be nonetheless rocking my LG Cosmos Contact, so I wasn’t affected by such a dramatic shift. I bought the iPhone 5s in 2013, and upgraded alongside the road of Lightning-supported iPhones since. However a couple of weeks in the past, I lastly purchased the

iPhone 16 Pro
after 5 years of utilizing my trusty iPhone 12 Professional, and that got here with a couple of

uncomfortable changes
, together with the EU-induced shift to a USB-C port.

I knew that will be essentially the most painful shift, however experiencing it for myself highlighted a couple of issues that rubbed me the unsuitable method. So what did I do? Wrote all of them down, in fact. Apple, in the event you’re studying this, I’ve bought a couple of notes for you.

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I traded in my iPhone 12 Professional and walked right into a tech identification disaster.

I should not have to search around for brand spanking new {hardware}

For a $1000 cellphone, it is ridiculous

Simply because I knew it was coming did not make it any simpler. The iPhone 16 Professional solely got here with the brand new USB-C cable — no block, no dongle, no USB-C-capable EarPods. I do know that Apple minimize out the charging block years in the past (and EarPods far sooner than that) for waste-reduction functions, however it could’ve been useful to have a charging block that went with the actual USB-C wire that got here with the cellphone. I spent no less than per week charging my cellphone from my MacBook Professional whereas I waited for an Apple-branded charging block to reach.

The identical factor went for my listening habits. In my very own cussed method, I refuse to put on Bluetooth headphones except I am on the gymnasium. If I am working, strolling, or listening to music on my commute, I take advantage of wired headphones — whether or not that is Apple’s EarPods (which I nonetheless assume have the most effective microphone) or my trusty discontinued Bose headphones. Because of Amazon’s quick transport, I solely needed to go at some point with out listening to my music and night meditations, however it was nonetheless one other $25 plus taxes I needed to ship to the Apple overlords. It isn’t cool when dongles and EarPods are virtually pocket change to the corporate.

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You have bought your outfits deliberate out, so what about your tech?

Champagne issues, sure, but when I am paying over $1000 for a cellphone when all is claimed and achieved, I should not need to exit and spend $30+ on a block, dongle, and new headphones. Apple needs us to improve so badly, however it nonetheless needs us to pay the distinction within the adjustment.

Throw us a bone, Apple

Not less than for the subsequent couple of generations

It will be one factor if I went out years from now and purchased an iPhone 19, 18, and even 17 this fall — at that time, we would be years into the USB-C period, and it could be extra commonplace to come across these sorts of chargers and such. I would not have practically as a lot floor to complain on there. Nevertheless, Apple might’ve thrown us a bone for the primary couple of years and included these numerous bits of {hardware} to make the transition only a bit simpler on the {hardware} entrance.

I bear in mind how annoying the difficulty was for my mates who upgraded to the iPhone 15 sequence when it got here out in 2023. It was painful watching the look in your finest buddy’s face when her cellphone was about to die at your own home earlier than an evening out and all you had available was a Lightning charging cable. It was even worse when the buddy with the most effective playlist went to go plug into the aux within the automotive and their USB-C port was met with the soon-to-be “outdated” cable. Everybody suffered when our Spotify kings and queens have been stopped on the {hardware} gates of your automotive cable.

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Presumably, however you should not get one straight from Apple.

Wanting on the years forward

The one method out is thru, apparently

Understanding what the primary group of USB-C converts went by, I am retaining all my Lightning cables round for a couple of extra years in case somebody involves my home (or automotive) with a pre-15 sequence iPhone. I want Apple had put somewhat extra of its new branded {hardware} out into the world (particularly with the prevalence of corrupted third-party {hardware}) simply to make the transition somewhat simpler.

Nevertheless, identical to the unique swap to Lightning — which was much more annoying, I am positive — Apple customers are simply going to need to get used to it. The EU backed the tech large right into a nook for an excellent cause, and so they needed to cave or else lose the European market. I am simply hoping that we’ve got no less than a decade earlier than Apple tries to tug one other pick-me {hardware} transfer on us once more.

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My iPhone 16 Pro felt wrong, then I tweaked these 7 settings

Name me dramatic, however my iPhone 16 Professional did not really feel like mine till I did this.