This country's "village rule" for USB-C ports is making things difficult for Apple

Apple is facing three major problems related to the USB-C port on the iPhone.

According to 9to5Mac, Apple's proprietary Lightning charging port has been present on iPhones since 2012, when used from the iPhone 5 series to the iPhone 14 series. But this year, the company was arrested by European Union laws. Forced to switch to USB-C for Mac and iPad on the iPhone 15 series.




Specifically, the law requires all smartphone manufacturers to use USB-C ports. The reason for this requirement is to reduce e-waste and allow consumers to use the same charger for multiple devices.





Now, India is also planning to apply this rule for the same reason. The law, which is currently being drafted, will apply to all devices manufactured in the country once it comes into effect. This would prevent Apple from making and selling older iPhones with Lightning ports, and would cause three big problems for the company.




Apple has difficulty with the new law on USB-C ports in India.




Firstly, many Apple customers in India cannot afford the latest models, the company currently operates mainly on the sale of used iPhones that are still manufactured in the country.





Second, Apple has set a production target that it must achieve to take advantage of the tax incentives that India offers. The country uses tax incentives to encourage the smartphone manufacturing sector, known as PLI.




Companies will receive tax breaks if production targets are met. If they fail to comply, they will face tax penalties. If Apple cannot produce old iPhones in India, the company's production targets will be difficult to achieve, meaning it will face much more expensive production costs than before.




Finally, India is Apple's second largest iPhone production center, after China. Being able to produce a variety of old and new iPhones in the country is key to reducing the company's dependence on China. And the new law could be a major obstacle to this.





Apple's current solution is to call on the Indian government to exempt older iPhone models from the new rules when it is issued. Because the EU regulations on USB-C only apply to new products starting next year, the Indian side wants to apply to all electronic devices sold in the country, including Old devices do not have USB-C charging ports, this will have a significant impact on Apple.

As part of its warranty policy, Apple now has a way to tell if a Mac's USB-C port has liquid leaks inside.

According to 9to5Mac, Apple's warranty policy has some limitations, notably damage caused by liquid, and this rule also applies to waterproof products such as iPhone, Apple Watch and iPhone. some AirPods models.




Therefore, Apple always has different methods to detect whether the device is damaged by contact with liquid or not. And on the latest Mac models, the company has now added a way to tell if liquid has ever entered the machine's USB-C port.





Macs will have the ability to detect liquid inside a USB-C port.

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As noted by 9to5Mac, macOS Sonoma 14.1 is integrated with a new daemon system called "liquiddetectiond". As the name suggests, it can determine when the computer comes into contact with liquid. More specifically, this daemon runs in the background to collect liquid detection analytics from each USB-C port on the Mac.




This daemon system is described as "Liquid Detection and Corrosion Mitigation Daemon", which can be understood as a liquid detection and corrosion mitigation system. On iPhone and iPad there is also a similar daemon, used to warn users when liquid is detected in the charging port so they can quickly disconnect the charging cable, thereby avoiding device damage.




However, on the Mac, according to Sonoma 14.1's program code, the system daemon appears to be used only for analytics and is not linked to end-user features. While Apple could still implement alerting capabilities similar to those on iOS, it is likely that the data collected by the daemon will primarily be used by technicians to identify eligible devices. Warranty and free repair or not?




Liquid detection warning on iPhone.




This is considered an additional way to detect liquid exposure, as Apple says its Mac laptops and some wired/wireless keyboards already have liquid contact indicators. Liquid Contact Indicators (LCI) to help determine whether products have been exposed to liquids. They are placed inside the device and will change color when exposed to liquid.






At this time, it is unclear whether the new daemon will work with Macs running the latest version of macOS, or only with M3 Macs due to some additional hardware requirements.