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Does this cable not work to plug an iPhone into a macbook these days, or am I missing something?

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MQGJ2AM/A/usb-c-to-lightn...



Sure it does, but it doesn't ship in the box. In the box is a USB-A -> Lightning cable.


I get that there's arguably a "general principle of the matter" component here, but the cable that comes with the iPhone is more useful to me than a USB-C version would be. My use cases -- and I doubt I'm an outlier -- are "charge the phone," where it really doesn't matter what the end that plugs into the charger is, and "connect to CarPlay," where my (model year 2019) car has USB-A but not USB-C. If the iPhone shipped with USB-C to Lightning cable and charger, it would be marginally less useful to me -- I'd just have to go buy the USB-A to Lightning cable.

The number of times I've needed to physically connect my iPhone to any of my Macs is, as far as I can recall, zero, and it's been that way for years. Wireless everything has been much, much better for me. The only time I've really used a cable is to do backups before installing beta versions of iOS. (And that backs up to my Mac mini, which -- even in its current updated incarnation -- still has USB-A ports.)


Not every computer comes with USB C. Pretty much every computer though does come with USB A. And IIRC, male A to male C cables are not allowed per the spec


Male USB-A to male USB-C cables are allowed, what's not allowed is male or female USB-A or USB-B to female USB-C. That is, on a USB-C to legacy cable, the USB-C end is always male.


It sounds like the new iPhone 11 Pros will come with USB-C -> Lightning. Since it's supposed to come with a 18W charger, and iPhones use USB-PD, which does not work over USB-A.




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