Go plug yourself, Apple — Can we please just have USB-C on the iPhone already?

As part of the Hardware team here at TechCrunch, I love me a good Apple event, and this one was, er, eventful. I’m an active human who loves scuba diving, so the Apple Watch Ultra seems like an underwater match made in heaven. The new iPhone Pro’s cameras and the fact that Apple has been playing catch-up on the computational photography side of things means that the company’s phones are photographically finally back on par with Google’s high-end Pixel phones.

This is the iPhone 14 Pro

There’s literally just one thing stopping me from switching right this minute, and that’s a dumb, incomprehensible idea that keeps getting worse and harder to understand with every new iPhone launched: The continued insistence on using the Lightning connector on its phones.

Apple’s current-gen iPad Pros are running on USB-C, as are its laptops of all stripes. The EU demands USB-C on all smartphones, and, look, if you’re a reasonably current technology nerd, there’s a million reasons why you already have USB-C cables everywhere. Headphones, flashlights, portable speakers, e-readers. Hell, pretty much everything that isn’t an iPhone, an Apple Keyboard, or AirPods is running on USB-C these days.

For a company that prides itself on how progressive it is, it’s sure holding on to a technology it knows is on the way out.

Come on, Apple, you’re so damn proud of doing the right thing. Just do the right thing.