For years, iPhone users have been saddled with an unusual feature: The popular Apple smartphone used a proprietary cable, called the Lightning cable, for charging.
By the 2020s, most manufacturers of comparable devices had switched to a universal standard, USB-C. Even some other Apple devices—including the iPad, which in many ways resembles an oversized iPhone—moved to the common USB-C. But the iPhone remained stubbornly attached to its Apple-specific cord.
