> while everyone else manages with a single USB-C cable for everything.

Which brand and model of cable is that so I can go buy myself a couple dozen? I’ve got a whole bin of seemingly identical cables here and usually have to try several before I can get devices to connect properly.

Yeah, standardizing on USB-C would be a great idea, but only in a world where there weren’t fifty different “standards” using visually indistinguishable connectors. Thunderbolt, in particular, should have its own connector: it’s so annoying when I accidentally plug my Thunderbolt 3 dock into a normal USB-C port and then can’t figure out why my external monitor and other peripherals aren’t working.

The expensive Apple 1m USB-C I believe is a full-featured cable and you pay for it.

A lot of the cables that get included with devices only supports the subset of features that device needs - sometimes down to just power delivery only.

Cables are much more complicated now with embedded chips and so on so you need to select and use them as if they were any other electronic you would spend time reviewing the specs or comparisons on.

I got a few, also the longer one. Works 99% for both days and PD.

But then I have this one Seagate external SSD that simply won’t mount with it, for which I have to use a TB4 cable (even though it’s not rated for TB).

Also, some cheap Chinese devices only work with their supplied USB-A to C cable.

Other than those edge cases, those Apple cables are great.

It goes to show there is no one cable to rule them all, even though they look identical.

For those interested, this video shows scans of what is inside Apple’s cable vs cheap cables off Amazon.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AD5aAd8Oy84

For those who prefer to read and want to look at the scans in more detail, that can be found here:

https://www.lumafield.com/article/usb-c-cable-charger-head-t...

They compared a thunderbolt 4 cable to several non thunderbolt cables. It's not surprising the non thunderbolt cables do not have thunderbolt chips

This cable also has no thunderbolt chip and is only usb 2.0

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MU2G3AM/A/240w-usb-c-char...

The cable is not supposed to be user-replaceable.

And the reason it's not USB-C is because it needs to have a locking mechanism and be ultra-robust at the ends.

I've never seen a USB-C cable with either.

From what I saw, a SIM ejector and allow the user to disconnect the cable. This is more trivia than anything, since it’s a unique connector.

I think the bigger reason behind locking the cable to the battery pack, is the same reason the cable locks to the headset. They don’t want it to come unplugged while you’re using it. If the pack falls out of your pocket, it would probably better for it to catch itself and hang, than come unplugged.

Apple recently started the switch to USB-C, so I don't understand this comment. All of my Apple devices charge with USB-C now

To be fair - their hand was forced by the EU to do that. They were not forced for VR headsets and they came out with 3-4 new type of connectors for this. So I think the parent comment was fair

Apple was well on their way moving everything to USB-C. It was going to happen with or without the EU.

I suspect the iPhone was last because it is the most popular device. They don’t want to do anything risky, and it would be good if people already had a bunch of USB-C around the house before the iPhone switch to make it less impactful. People were very upset when Apple moved away from the 30-pin connector, because all their accessories became obsolete overnight. They promised Lighting was designed to last for the next decade, which is about how long it lasted.

It’s good to remember Apple was forced to switch by the EU for the phone. It was not choice they made on their own.

Apple would have absolutely switched to USB C anyways, at most the EU got them to do it a year or two earlier than planned.

The iPad Pro had already moved to USB C back in 2021 with the iPad Air and entry level iPad following suit the next year.

The notion that the EU forced Apple's hand with the iPhones a year after that (and not that Apple continued a transition that was already in progress) is some people's favorite conspiracy theory.