TECHNOLOGY

Wireless Charging is So Wasteful, Right? USB-C is Better!

Or is it?

Too many cables — photo by author

Cables, cables, everywhere. Aside from what I’ve shown in the photo above, I have a similar rat’s nest of dissimilar cables in another part of the house: Lightning, USB-A, USB-C, USB Micro and Mini , and more— it drives me nuts.

Feeling similar pain, the European Union wants to force all tablets, cameras, headphones, portable speakers and handheld video game consoles to use USB-C charging connectors.

As I am plagued by my cables, you might expect that I’d be an enthusiastic champion of this idea and would love all my devices to be USB-C.

Nope. Forcing manufacturers to use USB-C is idiotic.

USB-C is not the bee’s knees

Like Lightning, USB-C has no right-side up requirement. You can’t plug it in upside down. That’s nice, but in dim light or when you cannot see the charge port at all, both Lightning and USB-C can be difficult to insert. That’s annoying.

Apple had a great solution: MagSafe. I’m talking about MagSafe as it used to be on older Mac computers and MagSafe 3 as recently reborn on the M1 MacBook Pro’s. This was and now is again a connector you can attach without seeing the port, without fumbling, and without…