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Cross-Platform P2P Wi-Fi: How the EU Killed AWDL

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223 points stusmall | 5 comments | 28 Mar 25 13:13 UTC | HN request time: 1.09s | source
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joshstrange ◴[28 Mar 25 15:01 UTC] No.43506331[source]▶
So it's lightning all over again? Lightning was better than micro-usb, then USB-C came out and was even better and people get pissy at Apple for creating something better than the standard (and donating some of that back to the standard).

I know this will not be popular here but I really do not like the EU's most recent round of "no, you have to open up this feature".

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lxgr ◴[28 Mar 25 15:27 UTC] No.43506639[source]▶
I absolutely love it. USB-C is easily among my top 3 changes for the better on iPhones in the last 10 years.

If "Wi-Fi Aware" (almost as ridiculous a name as "Bluetooth Low Energy", but that's a different topic) ends up allowing Android to iOS file transfers without any third-party apps or network connectivity – like feature phones could, 20 years ago – that'll make the top three too.

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joshstrange ◴[28 Mar 25 15:31 UTC] No.43506699[source]▶
Apple was bringing USB-C to their entire line well before the EU "mandated" it. They were one of the first to put it on their laptops.
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lxgr ◴[28 Mar 25 15:33 UTC] No.43506722[source]▶
Yes, and they even co-developed the standard to my knowledge.

Still they were stubbornly refusing to bring it to their phones, which are their most popular product line by far, until the EU forced their hand.

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joshstrange ◴[28 Mar 25 15:59 UTC] No.43507011[source]▶
You say "refusing to bring it to their phones", I say they were cautious about changing the port for the second time ever. I'd bet my retirement fund that Apple was going to bring USB-C to the iPhone that year already or at most 1 year later. It was slowly working its way down the line and I understand them being most hesitant about touching their golden goose.

But I understand your viewpoint and, again, I love USB-C (and my iPhone). My biases are absolutely playing into my viewpoint on this. I just don't think they were dragging their feet due to wanting to make more from MFI/Lightning as some suggested, it was mostly just being slow to change something that would annoy people (and the change did annoy many people, even though I don't think they should have been annoyed).

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1. 3D30497420 ◴[28 Mar 25 16:25 UTC] No.43507268[source]▶
Wasn't Apple super "courageous" when they killed the headphone jack?

I tend to view Apple's actions (and those of any company really) first through the lens of their own self-interest. Killing the headphone jack, which was an open standard, benefited wireless headphones. And, unsurprisingly, Apple's proprietary integration with Airpods help make them the best wireless headphone choice.

While I don't wholly disagree that Apple would have eventually switched to USB-C, I doubt they were slow to migrate out of an abundance of caution. Apple is a huge fan of lock-in, and never gives in to open standards easily.

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2. chuckadams ◴[28 Mar 25 19:11 UTC] No.43508966[source]▶
Apple did switch to USB-C on the iPad, as Lightning was showing its age both in max power draw and data rate. Putting it on phones was inevitable at that point.

I’m not a huge fan of the EU government making specific demands of specific companies to adopt specific technologies, but this is Wi-Fi and telecom tech has a long history of adoption through legislation. So it’s not at all unprecedented and is probably the lesser evil in this case.

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3. ryao ◴[28 Mar 25 22:02 UTC] No.43510290[source]▶
They had usb 3.0 speeds over lightning on some models (e.g. the iPad Pro), but they kept introducing models that were usb 2.0 speed only for no apparent reason other than cost savings on the rest.
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4. int_19h ◴[28 Mar 25 22:17 UTC] No.43510419{3}[source]▶
And they still do it with USB-C. iPhone 16 and 16 Plus are restricted to USB 2.0 speeds; you have to shell out for 16 Pro or 16 Pro Max to get USB 3.0.

I don't think it's about cost savings, even. It's just a way to differentiate the products, Apple-style.

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5. realityking ◴[29 Mar 25 17:12 UTC] No.43516969{4}[source]▶
Even better, the iPhone 16e has DisplayPort support on the USB-C port. Even the necessary pins are blank. So we have at least three different USB-C capability levels on iPhones now.