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The USB Situation

The USB Situation

herbertl

Comments (166)

  • crispyambulance
    I think USB-C is certainly a step in the right direction.The remaining problem is the lack of CLEAR, easy to understand markings on the cable that indicate whether it’s intended as power delivery cable or as a 10Gbps data cable or as a thunderbolt-capable cable or any of many combinations in between those. This should not be limited to physical markings on the cable itself but also in the form of electronic self-identification so that you could plug in a cable and have the OS tell you exactly what cable you plugged in. Why not? We have power-delivery protocols, adding cable self-id would be a trivial addition.I suspect the vendors of these, and perhaps the designers of the spec too, have deliberately made this confusion an integral part of the standard. It creates churn and consumers buying more cables than they need.
  • grey-area
    Having a standard plug is great, I hope we stick with it for decades and gradually the situation will improve as everyone gets used to the standard.USB-C gets rid of all the stupid previous decisions on the physical connectors (orientation required but not obvious, fragile clips, too large, too small), the physical side of things is now set and hopefully all devices, chargers and outlets will now converge on usb-c.Yes getting the right cable can make a difference but the situation is so much better than before, partly because phone manufacturers were forced by the EU to adopt one connector early one. I’m so glad Apple’s proprietary connector is gone.
  • cycomanic
    One of my pet peeves with USB C is that many laptop manufacturers went "great less space occupied we can push the porta closer together to make space for something else", but many USB C devices (particularly USB Sticks ...) have inherited the dimensions of USB A. So there is not enough space for a plug and cable, e.g. I can't use my yubi key while my monitor is connected to the laptop.
  • larodi
    https://randsinrepose.com/guides/usb/usb-guide.htmlthis is 100% Claude-generated,and without citations I'd be very careful at trusting it. wonder why whoever prompted this in existence would not include actual references and sources of information.disclaimer: me -> everyday CC user, so trust me, this thing loves to spit nonsense.
  • forsatellite
    No need to overthink it. USB cables should just label themselves with their bandwidth - it's not rocket science. Lots of other kinds of cables have a similar requirement. And I guess their maximum watts too. Admittedly I'm not sure why so few USB cables do this.I'd very much rather not have a new connector shape every time the technology improves and devices and cables gain new capabilities. The benefit of where USB-C is at, is the new stuff is backwards compatible with previous generations. The complaints in the early years - about one connector, unpredictable capabilities - were wrong. It took time for this benefit to accrue.Also all the version numbers and brand names have been confusing, but the bandwidth is just a single number that goes up each generation and covers most of the issues now. There are just a few edge cases this doesn't cover these days.
  • userbinator
    In an alternate world, Ethernet took on the role of the universal serial bus, and we have laptops that charge via PoE, but only possible on one of their ports (the others are usable for peripherals --- with protocols running over Ethernet too, of course.) But the same confusion regarding power and speed capabilities exists.
  • dbg31415
    Was HDMI any better? =PAnd somehow, we survived.
  • staplung
    Per Dave Barry"The plug on this device represents the latest thinking of the electrical industry's Plug Mutation Group, which, in a continuing effort to prevent consumers from causing hazardous electrical current to flow through their appliances, developed the Three-Pronged Plug, then the Plug Where One Prong is Bigger Than the Other. Your device is equiped with the revolutionary new Plug Whose Prongs Consist of Six Small Religious Figurines Made of Chocolate. DO NOT TRY TO PLUG IT IN! Lay it gently on the floor near an outlet, but out of direct sunlight, and clean it weekly with a damp handkerchief."
  • TipsForCanoes
    The two things every IT person now needs, a USB-C cable tester[0] and a USB Charger tester[1].0. https://www.pcworld.com/article/3014680/your-usb-c-cables-ar...1. https://www.fnirsi.com/products/fnb58
  • jonplackett
    It would help if computers / phones had an easy way to just identify a cable when you plug it in. Is this hard to do or just something normal people never care about?
  • JSR_FDED
    “The lie”, “The Gap”, “The Trap”…Ugh.
  • 9cb14c1ec0
    Feels like the appropriate place to put this link: https://www.lttstore.com/products/ltt-truespec-cable-usb-typ...
  • the__alchemist
    I get the frustration over standards for high speed and high power applications. I note this:For many/most applications, 5V/1A power + 480Mbps USB 2.0 data is supported on every or almost every USB cable and device, and exceeds requirements. USB C being ubiquitous and capable of these makes it a the most consolidated/universal power + data standard I have experienced in my life. It's also a small connector that's easy to plug in.There are exceptions: Charging your laptop or phone benefits from higher current. External drives or other mass data transfer benefits from high speed. I look at the electronics devices (Computer peripherals and otherwise), and most are fine with USB-C for power and data, not coming close to the limits on either.
  • isodev
    And on top of that, Apple has that thing where only some devices can charge from their adapters. I have a special adapter just for non-Apple things because the white bricks (despite the usb-c) sometimes just refuse to give power to things. So frustrating.
  • HotGarbage
    Never forget Rands was in Jerkcity (now Bonequest) and had them retroactively replace his character with atandt:https://web.archive.org/web/20170918052437/http://www.jerkci...https://bonequest.com/715
  • roywashere
    I hate obviously AI written posts so much. Not spending my time with reading
  • turtlebits
    IME, having the right cable is 100x more useful than having a fast one.That said, the only weirdness I've experienced is a device that came with a USB C to A cable that would not take power from a C to C
  • applfanboysbgon
    > The USB situation.> The lie.> The gap.> The names.> The age.> The trap.> The buy.> The truth.> The chain.> The lunacy.> The cheat sheet.Fucking LLMs have literally ruined the word "the" for me.
  • SeriousM
    @dang, can we please get a flag function for ai slop?"The lie, the age, the gap, the trap, the names, the buy, the ..."I really don't come to HN to read such a stuff and HN is full of it since months. Please let us flag it and filter it out.
  • sandworm101
    Yup. I have a work laptop that is meant to charge via USB ... But only one of the two ports will charge ... They are right beside each other! An evil trick at the office is to move someone's USB cable from one port to the other.
  • amelius
    Just switch to a different brand then.
  • avazhi
    What in the slop is this.
  • jmyeet
    Unfortunately, the USB label is trying to capture too many things and they really should've learned their lesson with USB 2.0 but they didn't.So USB 1.1 was 12Mbps (theoretical). USB 2.0 as 480Mbps (theoretical)... kind of. It got complicated because a distinction was made between USB 2.0 Full Speed and USB 2.0 Hi Speed. "Full" Speed was just USB 1.1 (12Mbps). USB 2.0 Hi Pseed was the 480Mbps. I assume they didn't want to confuse consumers who might wonder if they can plug USB 1.1 and 2.0 together but they just created more confusion. Nikon famously started saying USB 2.0 for Full speed, as just one example.So the version number is useless to consumers and should never be used.This got a whole lot worse with USB 3.0+ because more capabilities got added to the standard but not all cables supported them so you could look at a cable and have no idea what it could do. Capabilities include:- Data. This started at 5Gbps for SuperSpeed but has gone higher with subsequent versions.- Power (max wattage varied)- USB Alt Mode (DP, HDMI or TB over USB-C)So how do you capture at least 5 capabilities of a cable? You can't make a cable do everything. That's prohibitively expensive and also massively limits cable length.Whatever the case, saying things like "USB 3.2 Gen 2" was not the answer.
  • anon
    undefined
  • jmclnx
    Yet another interesting article wit grey text on white background, making it very hard for me to read.I wish people would realize doing this can lockout people with some eye issues.