Top Lightning-Based Apple Products That Must Switch to USB-C by 2025 for EU Sale
Earlier today, the European Parliament voted in favor of enforcing a standard charger across all smartphones and a wide range of consumer electronic devices by the end of 2024, including new products released by Apple thereafter.
The new rule will directly and most heavily impact Apple, which across a wide range of products, continues to use a decade-old port. Below, we've listed some of the most popular Apple products that currently feature Lightning but will have to adopt USB-C if newer models go on sale in 2025 or later to comply with the new law.
- iPhone (the first iPhone with a USB-C port is actually rumored to be next year's iPhone 15)
- Entry-level iPad: The only iPad that currently still features a Lightning connector
- AirPods Charging Case: All AirPods cases continue to feature the Lightning port
- Accessories: MagSafe Battery Pack, Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, Magic Mouse, EarPods, and Beats products
Apple introduced the Lightning port in 2012 as part of the iPhone 5 redesign, promising improved durability and ease of use compared to the 30-pin connector used on previous iPhones. During its announcement in 2012, Phil Schiller called the Lightning port a "modern connector for the next decade."
While Apple has chosen to bring USB-C to many of its iPad models, it has for the most part stuck with Lightning for its most popular products. Meanwhile, the rest of the industry has overwhelmingly moved to USB-C. A majority of Android flagship smartphones feature USB-C, and the port has become the standard for consumer products for makers and customers alike.
Popular Stories
iOS 18.3 should be released to the public next week, following beta testing since mid-December. While the software update is a relatively minor one, it still includes a handful of new features, changes, and bug fixes for iPhones.
Below, we recap everything new in iOS 18.3.
Notification Summary Changes
Examples of inaccurate Apple Intelligence notification summaries
Apple Intelligence...
Walmart still does not accept Apple Pay or other NFC payments at its more than 4,600 stores across the U.S., and it stood firm on its reasoning for that today.
A spokesperson for Walmart today informed MacRumors that its position on contactless payments has not changed since we last reached out about the matter in 2022. The big-box retailer said it remains focused on its own convenient...
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 18.3 today, and with it comes release notes confirming what's new. While we knew about several of the features that are in the update, there are some lesser known tweaks and bug fixes.
The update adds new Visual Intelligence features for iPhone 16 models, it tweaks Notification summaries on all...
Popular caller ID app Truecaller is rolling out an update that brings real-time caller ID support to its iOS subscribers.
Apple introduced Live Caller ID Lookup in iOS 18, allowing third-party caller ID apps to securely retrieve information about a caller from their servers, hence today's Truecaller update.
iPhone users can enable the Live Caller ID Lookup feature by going to Settings ➝ ...
A leaker known as "Majin Bu" today shared an alleged image of a component for the rumored, ultra-thin "iPhone 17 Air" model.
The blurry, pixelated image shows a pair of rear iPhone shells with a pill-shaped, raised camera bar along the top. On the left side of the bar, there is a circular cutout that appears to be for a single rear camera. On the right side of the bar, there appears to be an ...
A new Apple TV is expected to be released later this year. In this article, we recap rumored features and changes for the device.
The next Apple TV will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He said the chip supports Wi-Fi 6E, which would be an upgrade over the current Apple TV's standard Wi-Fi 6 support. Wi-Fi 6E extends the...
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app.
Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
Apple is set to release iOS 18.3 next week, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a couple of neat new capabilities to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 devices, and bug fixes.
While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.3 still introduces capabilities that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've...
New information has surfaced that indicates the rumored iPhone SE 4, iPad 11, and new iPad Air models are nearing launch.
A private account on social media platform X today revealed that iOS 18.3 or iPadOS 18.3 will be preinstalled on all of those upcoming devices when they are released. It is still unclear exactly when the devices will launch, but this information suggests that Apple will...
