News - EC forces Apple to conform - Lightening-to-microUSB adapter

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The European Commission wants microUSB for all.

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Read more.

Umm... they've had (dock connector) micro usb adapters for a while
http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MD099ZM/A/apple-iphone-micro-usb-adapter

This isn't really news....

whats that got to do with lightning to microusb adapter?

It really is news as it's for the new connector and not the old and it really should be shipped in the box and not have to pay extra for it.
The universal charger directive is actually something the eu have done correctly.

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The little dongle can be purchased on Apple's online UK store for £15

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Welcome to Apple World, please leave your wallet at the front desk and kiss your overdraft goodbye :mrgreen:

Seriously, £15 for a bit of plastic and a couple of wires? Wut? That's basically giving knock-off companies a license to print money. Buy one, pull it apart, knock up your own version for a few pennies, sell them for a fiver. Profit!

But will anything happen? will they be fined for it? I somehow doubt they will be despite this being agreed years ago.

This should be included in the box throughout Europe in order to comply with the ruling.

This isn't like the old dock connector where many people have two or three cables lying around already due to past iPods or iPhones.

It's not specifically to do with the "lightning to microusb adapter" but the news article implies that apple have finally caved and released a microusb adapter for the iphone to comply with the EC ruling, when they actually did this some time back.

They should do like every other company and use the connector on the phone, what makes Apple exempt somehow?

It would be quite understandable if other MFRs stopped supplying chargers/cables soon; most people should already have a stack of them and it would cut down waste. I remember reading something about that being the aim eventually.

At least the much cheaper 3rd party adapters don't have much room to foul up like they have with the dangerous/fire risk knockoff mains>USB adapters...

It's 'lightning'. Not 'lightening'.

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Originally Posted by sykobee

This should be included in the box throughout Europe in order to comply with the ruling.

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I doubt that'd satisfy the EC. As mentioned in the article the dongle could easily get lost, and Apple have had a long time to develop an integrated MicroUSB interface for the iPhone 5. USB is sufficiently generic to do whatever you want the phone to do through it, so they've no excuse beyond NIH.

All of the above arguments are valid, but Apple won't do anything differently, because they'll STILL get the sales from the brain-dead sheeple-magpies. If any company needs a big flop to provide them with a kick up the rear, it's Apple. While I would love for that to happen with the [insert pointless lowercase vowel here]Phone 5, I don't believe it will.

Fingers crossed that HTC and Samsung put on a good showing with their LFE patent case in the next few days. For the pathetic 'rectangle' and 'wtf is prior-art?' legal wranglings that Apple had upheld in the US Hick court last month, they deserve to be brought down a peg or twelve in a more senior US court.

No word on USB On-The-Go (OTG) compatibility and...

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The little dongle can be purchased on Apple's online UK store for £15

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...well, at least it's price compatible with the rest of Apple's lineup (while at the same time most simple and passive adapters like this one sell for under $1 on Amazon/eBay/[insert your local brick&mortar shop], like for example microUSB OTG adapters)

£15?

Hahahahahahahahaha, you'd have to be mad to pay it. See eBay in a few weeks!

It does seem like a con to have such proprietary connectors. But at least if they are forced to have the adapter then iphone products could become more universally accepted?

Bazinga Apple.