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It’s not like that kind of control isn’t possible with the ports installed today.

The Bluetooth can ask what devices it’s connected to, the SIM card reader can read which SIM card is inserted and the lightning port can ask what’s at the other end of the cable.



My android phone still has a USB port on it that comports with USB standards. Google cannot limit which devices can charge my phone, which USB cables I use to tether my devices.


Actually, they can, and do. The Pixel 6 will not charge with cables and chargers Google deems "low quality", which seems to be anything that doesn't meet the USB-C spec.

https://9to5google.com/2021/11/29/pixel-6-reject-charging-ca...


The phone rejects non-spec cables, cables that might actually harm the phone. It doesnt reject cables based on manufacturer. Google doesnt own the spec.


I'm curious how this is different from the terrible dystopia you described in your root comment. Google is telling you which cables you can and cannot use.


Can't and don't are different. There's no reason google couldn't just change what they consider to be on-spec.


Maybe they should because of how easy it is to brick phones with crappy USB cables/chargers these days.


IMO, this is on manufacturers. If they stop messing around with the USB standard and stop the hybrid approach with USB and propriety crap along with it, then we would have this issue minimized as possible. Nintendo did with their USB-C propriety thing and it blew up on their face. Because they changed the internal (which is not in compliance with USB standard) and ended up multiple consumers have their Switch bricked.


One of the reasons USB-PD has active power negotiation is because of all the terrible $1-to-make chargers that flood phone stores and degrade your battery capacity over time. The kind that either: (A) charges your battery in pulses, (B) tries to force-send more current than the phone can handle for "faster charging", or (C) improperly protects the connected device from power grid spikes.

USB-PD then makes power negotiation a protocol rather than a dance of resistors, forces the device to have a dedicated charging circuit (regulate current), and allows for a device to say "please send less power now" or shut off charging if it overheats.

Manufacturers change the ports and occasionally you have a Nintendo that wants to reuse a port with their own mini-spec, but most of the blame lies with those outright malicious chargers.


Famously Apple used to prevent iPhones from being charged with “non-lienced” lighting cables.

They seemed to have slackened of since then, but for a while there was a 50/50 odds of a cheap 3rd party cable causing iOS to throw up an error message and refuse to charge.




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