I assure you, I am not a corporate sycophant. However, the article linked here is a classic definition of FUD. The histrionics in the comments here seem to mostly be driven by anti-Apple zealotry rather than any reasonable analysis of the facts.

There is exactly nothing forcing anyone to purchase an iPhone 15, and it very clear in all of the materials from Apple what the different between the Pro and non-Pro models is. The iPhone 14 Pro was discontinued (at a higher price) to make way for the non-Pro iPhone 15, since they are roughly equivalent in capabilities... including in their USB speeds.

USB speed was a non-issue 30 days ago, and now it's an emergency that is worthy of histrionics, hand-wringing, and FUD, including calling anyone pointing out how ridiculous this is a "corporate sycophant".

Please.

> There is exactly nothing forcing anyone to purchase an iPhone 15

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35014499

Son was bullied in school, then father was bullied and flagged by HN.

Doesn't sound like force to me. Teenagers are assholes, news at 11. Note, that post was flagged for being pointless flamewar content, and I also flagged this submission we're in now for being pointless flamewar content and FUD.

Except asshole teenagers are part of Apple business strategy https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33500579

Do you flag other submissions where companies are called out for minor fuckups? :-)

I flag anything that doesn't meet HN guidelines. It's as simple as that. HN does not need more flamewar content, especially flamewar content that doesn't add any new information to the conversation.

There's a ~1000 comment thread about the new iPhone models, yet this article was posted specifically to spark a flamewar and the article itself is FUD clickbait that adds nothing new to the conversation that's not explicitly stated in the press release. During every iPhone release for the last few years, they have used the previous-generation SoC for the non-Pro models, and that is the core reason the non-Pro iPhone 15 has USB 2 speeds, because that's the controller in the SoC.

This is neither surprising, nor worth litigating. It's something Apple themselves socialized over a year ago.

> During every iPhone release for the last few years, they have used the previous-generation SoC for the non-Pro models

iPhone 14 (last year) was AFAIK the first time they did this (non-pro iPhone 14 didn’t get a new SoC and kept the one used in ALL iPhone 13 models) and there was quite an uproar.

Lightning (for its proprietary connector and slow USB) has personally been irritating me for something like a decade now.

That they only switched when forced by the EU is sadly typical of them.

That they then used this to market segment, so $800 phones still have USB speeds I expect from $15 junk I’d buy on Amazon?

That’s just irritating.

Your comment is the kind of anti-apple zealotry mentioned. Lightning was superior to what was out there at the time (in some ways it still is). But, Apple went full in on usb-c awhile back, and has been walking their largest selling lightning product towards usb-c for awhile. It's like everyone just forgot the complaints Apple received when they changed from the 30-pin connector. I've already heard from non-tech friends, "why is Apple is making me buy new cables?!" By including usb-c to lightning with the last couple iPhones and moving other lower volume products to usb-c, Apple has tried to make the switch easier on customers. But yeah, the EU forced them.

Bwahaha.

I own an iPhone dude. I’ve used Mac’s for decades (alongside Linux and Windows machines).

Calling a spade a spade isn’t anti-zealotry. Refusing to see the obvious is…. Something though.

The design of the lightning plug is vastly superior to their other choices at the time, namely the 30pin dock connector they had been using and the only other obvious choice micro usb B, micro usb b is the most cursed connector in recent memory. It's fragile as fuck, I don't know how many of those fucking plugs I've replaced for friends in devices of all kinds.

The lightning plug design on the other hand is as close to bulletproof as you can get for the size and number of connections. The only time someone has ever come to me with a problem with a lightning connector it's been quickly resolved by taking out some very fine tweezers and pulling a bit of lint or dirt out of the female connector.

If they’d swapped it out, oh I don’t know, 5 years ago. Or not required the EU stomp on them to switch, I’d be right there with you.

Same with if they had modern speeds on their non-Pro models.

They’re just being dicks now though.

They really aren't. It's very typical that the next gen 'normal' model is more or less the last gen pro.

That the last gen pro didn’t have USB-C at this point is ridiculous. That’s part of my point.

The other part is that when they went through the design work to put USB-C in (per the legal mandate), they didn’t spend the extra 2c to put a USB3.x or whatever host controller in. Because it would likely have cost them less than 2c to do it.

They didn’t just swap a plug and call it good in a rush, they made multiple new models, that they are selling as improvements and they segmented it so that the $800 model has speeds from prior ancient tech.

That’s being a dick. On top of the ‘being a dick’ of continuing to use their proprietary connector 5+ generations after it stopped being relevant.

guess you can skip over to android where you can live with limited os upgrades and janky pack in software, like buying a random pc laptop at bestbuy.

> That they only switched when forced by the EU is sadly typical of them.

Apple promised 10 years of support for Lighting. They gave it that.

Trivially solvable by including an adapter. Which they do all the time anyway.

They also had to adapt to the EU regulation, which doesn't allow adapters =)

So, the alternative would have been that they'd have to produce a new SoC. This would add cost (both the upfront development cost, and costs relating to the inevitable waste of the old chip). This cost would be absorbed via either lower margins (good luck with that, it's Apple we're talking about) or higher cost device. Approximately ten users would ever notice the difference.

I think Apple made the obviously sensible decision here.