I hate it how we went from simple, to simpler to totally complicated regarding computer ports.
"Back in the days", it was a bunch of different ports of different sizes and shapes, and each thing had its own cable that fit into that thing only, and into only port only on the back of the pc. Yes, you needed 20 cables, but things were simple.
Then came the USB... one cable, one protocol for all.... except video (firewire) and storage (esata). Then even those got replaced by USB, as new usb standards made it faster.
And now? You buy a new laptop... usb-c charging, great. You need another charger, you go to the store, find a usb charger, buy it, plugi it in - everything fits - but it won't charge. You need a fast charger... back to the store, bring it home, doesn't charge. You need a PD charger and not a QC charger... store again, new charger... plug it in, doesn't charge. You need a PD charger, that goes up in voltage enough (20V) to charge. Store again, a new one... you plug it in... still nothing. Even though it fits in the hole, not all holes are equal, and you need to plug it into the correct usb port to charge the laptop. Yaay, everthing works! Start a game, play, nice framerate, and bam, battery low warning. Yes, it charges, but your charger is only 45W, and that's not enough, you need a correct wattage one (eg 65W).
And then you go to the store and buy an original charger for your laptop, and you're back at where we were 20 years ago, just with a higher chance of plugging the charger in a wrong port, because it fits in more than one hole.
There's a lot of doom and gloom here; let's see if it really got that bad.
>You need a PD charger and not a QC charger...
Impossible, all USB-C QC chargers are also USB PD chargers.
>into the correct usb port to charge the laptop
The port is either marked (everything but MacBooks) or doesn't matter (MacBooks, pretty sweet).
>buy an original charger for your laptop
Good! Now you have a USB PD charger that covers your laptop and also every device you own that's lighter in wattage. Less chargers to pack when travelling :)
>you're back at where we were 20 years ago
No, not at all. 20 to 10 years ago all charging ports (including on cameras, phones, everything) were barrel plugs of slightly different diameter; everybody's cranking out their own boxy black chargers putting out maddening variations on the same ~20V for laptops and 3-5V for smaller devices, you can't share chargers between devices, can't always find the replacement, especially if the device is on the older side. Buying a device with a different connector - bam, old charger goes to e-waste (or e-bay).
>but it won't charge. You need a fast charger...
EU makes it mandatory to say on the packaging what wattage the device needs, and what wattage the chager can provide. Granted, the laptops are not covered by the EU proposition in question yet, but have patience, we don't now have those 240W chargers for nothing :)
I'm pretty sure that USB wasn't created originally with charging capabilities "back in the days". Just power supply (5V @ 500mA max). Charging through USB came after and was when things started to be more complicated: someone used USB as a mean for charging a battery, then bigger batteries came, then people started to complain that devices took too long to charge, then the 500mA limit was moved, then every vendor would implement their own proprietary handshake to negotiate charging current.
> things were simple
I think USB accomplished its goal by standardizing a lot of communication protocols for a lot of (type of) devices. I lived through the 80's and 90's as a kid. I still feel the pain of plugging a new mouse or joystick and try to make it work. Then USB came and it was 'magic'.
Edit: still, if I have a serial port outputting data from a device I'm debugging and I turn on my PC, sometimes Windows would think it has a Trackball mouse connected to the serial port and will move the cursor around until I reboot my computer... I say this as a reminder on how things were back in the day (regarding communication protocols for devices).
It was never that simple. Your serial cables had peripheral or null-modem (I have a serial cable marked "MIDI" I have no idea what is different). Parallel port cables could be SCSI cables instead. Some cables didn't have all pins wired to save money. With PS/2 ports you had to get the mouse and keyboard the right way around despite having the same port.
"Back in the days" you would either buy an original charger, which the store probably wouldn't have in stock, or buy one of those universal charger with a dozen plugs in which case you would have to be careful to pick a powerful enough charger anyway. You would also have to be very careful to pick a charger with the correct voltage.
I was trying to help a lawyer out and trying to explain why the $5.00 USB-C cable he'd bought from Amazon wasn't delivering 4K video to his expensive monitor AND powering his laptop too.
Me: OK: so its a USB-C cable, but its not a high data rate USB-C cable.
Him: But, its a USB-C Cable.
Me: but, no, not all USB-C cables are high speed cables. And some of them can't do high speed and power delivery
Him: but... its a USB-C cable: it plugs into the port.
Me: Um... just because it plugs in, doesn't mean its going to work. You can have USB-C cables that are actually slower than the old USB ports.
Him: but.... shouldn't it just work?
And so on. For... 15? more minutes? maybe 30? I finally got him to buy a "proper" belkin USB-C cable . Which was bought from a company that should be anonymous, but lets just say that a "refurbished" cable was shipped, which, surprise, surprise ,didn't work, for ANYTHING.
This basically sums up everything that is wrong with Tech thinking vs User Thinking.
I think we're in a troubled phase of the transition to a truly universal port. I believe soon enough most cables and charging, bricks, and devices, will start to be more versatile and also better labeled. At this point companies are still transitioning and people still don't understand the concept so we'll either. Maybe we need something like color coding in cables, similar to the color strips in resistors. We definitely need some way to know what a cable supports after the label is long gone. With that said, I still prefer the current situation where I can charge my laptop and my phone with the same cable and charger, and the same port can be used to video out.
> "Back in the days", it was a bunch of different ports of different sizes and shapes, and each thing had its own cable that fit into that thing only, and into only port only on the back of the pc.
When I was a young kid just getting into computers and didn't know what the hell I was doing, I would try and connect the parts solely based on what wire fit into which hole. And amazingly, it just worked.
Today, I'm still replicating that clumsy behavior, albeit in different ways.
It was absolutely not that simple. You could easily destroy a device if you only went by the fit of the connector. There wasn't even a guarantee that 2 cables with the same ends were compatible since you had both straight through cables and crossover cables.
Valid points. It's finally getting better, but one has to wonder what took so long.
Luckily, it seems QC is finally fading away. Last gen it was a subset of PD anyways, and I've not seen many devices advertising QC5 as a selling point.
There are other more niche chargers and cables - look no further than Oppo and Xiaomi and their proprietary things. I suspect this was mainly because USB spec fell behind, leaving companies to go it alone. I imagine these too will go away as the specs now cover their intended charging speeds.
In the past, I'd always wished these cables were color coded for quick identification. Like probably many people, I have a box full of unlabeled usb cables that I have no idea the specs on. These new logos will certainly help in that regard, at least. Once I get a few, I fully intend on getting rid of this box of random cables.
The # of types of parallel ports was never that simple. One port, many possible speeds and support modes.
> And now? You buy a new laptop... usb-c charging, great. You need another charger, you go to the store, find a usb charger, buy it, plugi it in - everything fits - but it won't charge. You need a fast charger... back to the store, bring it home, doesn't charge. You need a PD charger and not a QC charger...
All the chargers I've gotten are multi-mode.
And yes buying a tiny charger is a problem. Yes it sucks, but back in the bad old days I had an android phone that came with a charger that could barely charge it if I was streaming video on the phone while it was plugged in. Oops!
I've also had laptops that came with such a weedy charger that it had similar issues.
FWIW my el-cheapo USB-C hub, charges almost everything.
I wonder if it's possible that we standardize on the "hole" (USB-C) and then make little square things with a male side and a female side that plug into the cable and into each other to add capabilities to the signal path. Each of those square things would have a name and an icon and every device would be characterized by a list of these widgets.
(In part I propose this to validate whether this is the correct mental model for what a cable is and what it is expected to do.)
I am surprised this is the top upvoted comment on HN, in the past anything suggesting USB-C complexity was not the right solution and the old days of simple cable usage were better always get downvoted or intense disagreement. Sometimes it is hard to judge the sentiment of HN.
Rumours suggest Apple will go back to Magsafe ( hooray ) and offer USB-C as additional functionality. That way the mental model is simple. You want, fast, full speed usage of your Laptop you use the original charger. If you use USB-C to charge, dont expect it to keep you full voltage given it depends on both cables and charger.
I have also wanted USB-C cable to simplify into two model instead of giving 6 options.( if I remember correctly, may be more in the newer 2.1 specification ) Just 2, thinner cable = (may be 30W), and thicker cable is Full USB4 + 240W capability.
Right now you can even have USB-C cable without data lane. Although no longer possible with USB-C spec 2.1, but that doesn't solve the problem as there are no mandatory requirement to force the usage of newer spec.
It really is a bag of hurt. USB should now stands for Universally Silly Branding.
USB-C PD cables will work for your new laptop same as the old laptop. I can bring a single power brick (with 3 USB outputs) and charge a macbook and a windows laptop and my phone-- all at once.
Will it support higher wattages? Maybe not: the cables have to advertise their supported wattages. But maybe that's preferable to years gone by with shady USB cables that would happily cook your phone due to bad wiring.
QC is a red herring here, as it was never a USB standard. Some vendors decided to piggyback on a standard connector with a goofy protocol: as if some motherboard / switch vendor decided that the PS2 connector should also be used for a high-end network connector as well.
In classic USB committee style, they try to do the right thing and still bungle the naming/marketing.
Just like the absurd “hi-speed/super speed” debacle, they fail to mention what people really want to know:
“Will this drive my monitor?” — bandwidth tells me most of what I need to know but to the average user it makes no sense.
“Is this a fast cable for my external drive”? “Is this really expensive cable overkill for my external drive?” Sorry, most people will have to guess, and will get the more expensive one “just in case”
“Will this work with my YYY” (i.e. “Does this have the alternative mode I need” — who knows?
“Will this charge my XXX?” - this is mostly right TBF: if device wants Y watts, choose a charger and cable with that number or larger. The knowledgeable user may be able to “trickle charge” their device in a pinch but not everyone needs to know this,
Isn't charging also complicated by some fast-charge protocols? I know the phone accessory companies are always saying things like "Supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 23.45 with Sprinkles" in addition to "18 watts". I think the cables might more or less be the same, but it's still a complex ecosystem question.
I have two devices with USB-C chargers. I can make a reasonable guess that the bullion-cube sized charger provided with the phone isn't gonna be able to supply a thirsty 15" laptop, but will the 65-watt laptop brick be capable of the right wiggle-dance to convince the phone to quick charge, or will I plug it in overnight and find it saying "62% - charging slowly" when I check in the morning? I end up carrying both when I travel, eliminating the convenience that USB-C promised.
I'm also going to go out there and say that USB-C laptop charging is stupid when most devices are limited on their USB-C ports. On my laptop, I can apparently use a USB-C to DisplayPort cable to get 4k/60 output (while the HDMI is limited to 4k/30). But now I've got no way to charge it.
I wonder if PoE could be delivered through a docking station as an alternative means of charging a laptop.
> most people will have to guess, and will get the more expensive one “just in case”
Good. The more full-features and the less underfeatured USB cables are bought and found around - the better for everyone. I don't buy/grab a USB cable "for the drive" I expect it to do the job every time I happen to need a USB cable.
In fact I'd like a single ultimate USB-n-All logo to exist which would mean the cable is fully and reliably capable of all (including extensions like Thunderbolt) the possible USB cable usages which existed at the moment the specific generation of USB was released or became relevant.
Having the same connector for everything is not a value worth the hassle. Having the same cable for everything is.
With bandwidth, the monitor packaging/manual can at least simply say that you need a port and cable that both say at least 10 on it.
That's much better than the previous mess at least.
The alternative would be one new logo and a requirement that all the cables have to meet all the criteria, which would in theory "only" make cables more expensive, and in practice lead to many fake/mislabeled cables that work sometimes.
This is all too confusing to me. Why isn't there a mandatory (or reference) specification string that combines all the necessary, useful information in one neat package instead of countless repetitive and easily misunderstood logos? Something like (just a basic, messy example)
USB-C/<generation>/<bandwith if any>/<supported power delivery if any>/<can drive audio/video>/<supports PD>/etc.
I had to buy some cables recently and really couldn't pick one nor distinguish particular features at glance, and the item description and graphics can be deceiving, even more so on stores like Amazon
The new logos show the word 'certified'. Wait for the "super-certified" and "ultra-certified" USB logo variants in two years, to help clear up the newly-latent confusion.
One new logo shows the word 'charger'. Wait for the "super-charger" and "ultra-charger" and "really really a charger" variants in three years, to help clear up that newly-latent confusion.
Leibnitz had a hypothesis that all one needed was one base word, with all possible meanings to be encoded by diacritics. USB tells us we only need one logo for all backplanes-in-a-cable, with all possible variants to be flagged by graphical diacritics. Reincarnation gone wrong.
I am waiting for UUU cables -- Ultra Universal USB. "We have both kinds of religion: universalist and unitarian."
I assume you'll only be able to legally use these logos on your products and packaging if you actually pay for certification. Most USB devices/charges/etc aren't certified today, I don't see this new logo scheme changing that.
Certification costs money, and you might fail. No consumer really cares (or probably no consumer understands) what buying a "certified" USB thing even means.
If your existing USB things don't have the red white and blue USB logo on them, they're not certified. Info: https://www.usb.org/logo-license
I know at some point I'm sure I asked for fewer connector types. Seeing it now: I suspect unique connectors to a purpose is insanely useful usability. Immediate failure feedback has it's uses.
Please, for the love of god, make it obvious if a USB C cable can be used as a display cable or not. One thing that absolutely blows about USB C is that they all look the same, but to connect my LG UltraFine to my GTX 2070 I had to do literally hours of research before I could find a reliable cable on Amazon that was a “bidirectional USB C DisplayPort” cable because I naively assumed that USB C was a general purpose cable type that could do data/display/power/etc. Having one plug be capable (or incapable) of doing so many things melted my brain.
Why can’t all USB C cables just do all the things? To me, the fact that I can plug a cable into my graphics card… and it fits… and then it does nothing… that’s awful physical UX.
They already had USB4 cable logos denoting either 20Gbps or 40Gbps (still on the USB-IF website). This is in fact a rebranding, and the first USB logos since the very beginning of the standard that don't feature the trident.
Hmm the article did not clearly state this, but I assumed that the 240W / 40Gbps labels were just an example. Hopefully they are not neglecting a huge portion of the market that does not need that much PD...
Rather than messing around with logos why not mandate a specific typeface to be used mentioning the version/speed/capacity immediately next to the logo? Rather than screwing around with more hieroglyphics pretending it is the solution, just write it out.
Unless you can get Apple to agree to use these logos on their official cables, this kind of standard isn't going anywhere. And I don't think Apple would be seen dead with logos that look like that.
If they want to be the "cable and connector for everything", they should simply require more specs. If that increases the diameter and cost, then so be it.
This whole thing is such a confusing mess, and destroys people's devices because of poor implementation (nintendo switch for example).
1. There needs to be a small, inexpensive device that:
A. You can plug into a USB-C port and it tells you what that port is capable of as far as power delivery, data rates, and data protocols go.
B. You can plug a USB cable into the device and it tells you the power, data rates, and data protocols that the cable can handle.
2. There needs to be inexpensive true USB-C hubs. It needs to be possible to have computers that only have USB-C ports, peripherals that only have USB-C ports, and only USB-C to USB-C cables to hook the peripherals to the computers.
Right now if you have a computer with N USB-C ports and M peripherals with USB-C ports and M > N, you generally have to use a hub that hooks to peripherals via USB 3 A ports, and so you need USB-C to USB-A cables.
I don't need cables or chargers to be less confusing. I need the damn ports on devices to be less confusing. One of my family's phones supports Dash charging and DisplayLink but not usb-3 speeds or charging while outputting video. One of our phones supports HDMI out while charging but only supports QuickCharge v2. One of my tablets will charge over its type-c port but only at 400mA, and you're supposed to use a different port for full speed charging. Then there's my Nintendo Switch that violates so many parts of the USB spec some of my OEM phone chargers won't charge it at all.
So it’s good that the fruit company are finally going to be forced by the EU to implement USB-C on their phones at same time as telling me that I need a matrix to explain which usb cable I need.
Reading through the comments it seems those right two logos are the best solution we have. We need a way to quickly identify speed and power ratings per cable. Users might benefit more from simplifying further down to something like colors to establish baseline requirements ("Requires gold rated power delivery") but setting those baselines doesn't provide room to grow and expand the standard.
[+] [-] ajsnigrutin|4 years ago|reply
"Back in the days", it was a bunch of different ports of different sizes and shapes, and each thing had its own cable that fit into that thing only, and into only port only on the back of the pc. Yes, you needed 20 cables, but things were simple.
Then came the USB... one cable, one protocol for all.... except video (firewire) and storage (esata). Then even those got replaced by USB, as new usb standards made it faster.
And now? You buy a new laptop... usb-c charging, great. You need another charger, you go to the store, find a usb charger, buy it, plugi it in - everything fits - but it won't charge. You need a fast charger... back to the store, bring it home, doesn't charge. You need a PD charger and not a QC charger... store again, new charger... plug it in, doesn't charge. You need a PD charger, that goes up in voltage enough (20V) to charge. Store again, a new one... you plug it in... still nothing. Even though it fits in the hole, not all holes are equal, and you need to plug it into the correct usb port to charge the laptop. Yaay, everthing works! Start a game, play, nice framerate, and bam, battery low warning. Yes, it charges, but your charger is only 45W, and that's not enough, you need a correct wattage one (eg 65W).
And then you go to the store and buy an original charger for your laptop, and you're back at where we were 20 years ago, just with a higher chance of plugging the charger in a wrong port, because it fits in more than one hole.
[+] [-] thermin|4 years ago|reply
>You need a PD charger and not a QC charger...
Impossible, all USB-C QC chargers are also USB PD chargers.
>into the correct usb port to charge the laptop
The port is either marked (everything but MacBooks) or doesn't matter (MacBooks, pretty sweet).
>buy an original charger for your laptop
Good! Now you have a USB PD charger that covers your laptop and also every device you own that's lighter in wattage. Less chargers to pack when travelling :)
>you're back at where we were 20 years ago
No, not at all. 20 to 10 years ago all charging ports (including on cameras, phones, everything) were barrel plugs of slightly different diameter; everybody's cranking out their own boxy black chargers putting out maddening variations on the same ~20V for laptops and 3-5V for smaller devices, you can't share chargers between devices, can't always find the replacement, especially if the device is on the older side. Buying a device with a different connector - bam, old charger goes to e-waste (or e-bay).
>but it won't charge. You need a fast charger...
EU makes it mandatory to say on the packaging what wattage the device needs, and what wattage the chager can provide. Granted, the laptops are not covered by the EU proposition in question yet, but have patience, we don't now have those 240W chargers for nothing :)
[+] [-] scoutt|4 years ago|reply
> things were simple
I think USB accomplished its goal by standardizing a lot of communication protocols for a lot of (type of) devices. I lived through the 80's and 90's as a kid. I still feel the pain of plugging a new mouse or joystick and try to make it work. Then USB came and it was 'magic'.
Edit: still, if I have a serial port outputting data from a device I'm debugging and I turn on my PC, sometimes Windows would think it has a Trackball mouse connected to the serial port and will move the cursor around until I reboot my computer... I say this as a reminder on how things were back in the day (regarding communication protocols for devices).
[+] [-] kalleboo|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] simon1573|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ksec|4 years ago|reply
I was trying to help a lawyer out and trying to explain why the $5.00 USB-C cable he'd bought from Amazon wasn't delivering 4K video to his expensive monitor AND powering his laptop too.
Me: OK: so its a USB-C cable, but its not a high data rate USB-C cable.
Him: But, its a USB-C Cable.
Me: but, no, not all USB-C cables are high speed cables. And some of them can't do high speed and power delivery
Him: but... its a USB-C cable: it plugs into the port.
Me: Um... just because it plugs in, doesn't mean its going to work. You can have USB-C cables that are actually slower than the old USB ports.
Him: but.... shouldn't it just work?
And so on. For... 15? more minutes? maybe 30? I finally got him to buy a "proper" belkin USB-C cable . Which was bought from a company that should be anonymous, but lets just say that a "refurbished" cable was shipped, which, surprise, surprise ,didn't work, for ANYTHING.
This basically sums up everything that is wrong with Tech thinking vs User Thinking.
[+] [-] toper-centage|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] logicalmonster|4 years ago|reply
When I was a young kid just getting into computers and didn't know what the hell I was doing, I would try and connect the parts solely based on what wire fit into which hole. And amazingly, it just worked.
Today, I'm still replicating that clumsy behavior, albeit in different ways.
[+] [-] ziml77|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] silisili|4 years ago|reply
Luckily, it seems QC is finally fading away. Last gen it was a subset of PD anyways, and I've not seen many devices advertising QC5 as a selling point.
There are other more niche chargers and cables - look no further than Oppo and Xiaomi and their proprietary things. I suspect this was mainly because USB spec fell behind, leaving companies to go it alone. I imagine these too will go away as the specs now cover their intended charging speeds.
In the past, I'd always wished these cables were color coded for quick identification. Like probably many people, I have a box full of unlabeled usb cables that I have no idea the specs on. These new logos will certainly help in that regard, at least. Once I get a few, I fully intend on getting rid of this box of random cables.
[+] [-] com2kid|4 years ago|reply
> And now? You buy a new laptop... usb-c charging, great. You need another charger, you go to the store, find a usb charger, buy it, plugi it in - everything fits - but it won't charge. You need a fast charger... back to the store, bring it home, doesn't charge. You need a PD charger and not a QC charger...
All the chargers I've gotten are multi-mode.
And yes buying a tiny charger is a problem. Yes it sucks, but back in the bad old days I had an android phone that came with a charger that could barely charge it if I was streaming video on the phone while it was plugged in. Oops!
I've also had laptops that came with such a weedy charger that it had similar issues.
FWIW my el-cheapo USB-C hub, charges almost everything.
[+] [-] javajosh|4 years ago|reply
(In part I propose this to validate whether this is the correct mental model for what a cable is and what it is expected to do.)
[+] [-] ksec|4 years ago|reply
Rumours suggest Apple will go back to Magsafe ( hooray ) and offer USB-C as additional functionality. That way the mental model is simple. You want, fast, full speed usage of your Laptop you use the original charger. If you use USB-C to charge, dont expect it to keep you full voltage given it depends on both cables and charger.
I have also wanted USB-C cable to simplify into two model instead of giving 6 options.( if I remember correctly, may be more in the newer 2.1 specification ) Just 2, thinner cable = (may be 30W), and thicker cable is Full USB4 + 240W capability.
Right now you can even have USB-C cable without data lane. Although no longer possible with USB-C spec 2.1, but that doesn't solve the problem as there are no mandatory requirement to force the usage of newer spec.
It really is a bag of hurt. USB should now stands for Universally Silly Branding.
[+] [-] the_gipsy|4 years ago|reply
You also had to buy a new motherboard every time some new peripheral port got adopted.
[+] [-] lordlimecat|4 years ago|reply
Will it support higher wattages? Maybe not: the cables have to advertise their supported wattages. But maybe that's preferable to years gone by with shady USB cables that would happily cook your phone due to bad wiring.
QC is a red herring here, as it was never a USB standard. Some vendors decided to piggyback on a standard connector with a goofy protocol: as if some motherboard / switch vendor decided that the PS2 connector should also be used for a high-end network connector as well.
[+] [-] gumby|4 years ago|reply
Just like the absurd “hi-speed/super speed” debacle, they fail to mention what people really want to know:
“Will this drive my monitor?” — bandwidth tells me most of what I need to know but to the average user it makes no sense.
“Is this a fast cable for my external drive”? “Is this really expensive cable overkill for my external drive?” Sorry, most people will have to guess, and will get the more expensive one “just in case”
“Will this work with my YYY” (i.e. “Does this have the alternative mode I need” — who knows?
“Will this charge my XXX?” - this is mostly right TBF: if device wants Y watts, choose a charger and cable with that number or larger. The knowledgeable user may be able to “trickle charge” their device in a pinch but not everyone needs to know this,
[+] [-] hakfoo|4 years ago|reply
I have two devices with USB-C chargers. I can make a reasonable guess that the bullion-cube sized charger provided with the phone isn't gonna be able to supply a thirsty 15" laptop, but will the 65-watt laptop brick be capable of the right wiggle-dance to convince the phone to quick charge, or will I plug it in overnight and find it saying "62% - charging slowly" when I check in the morning? I end up carrying both when I travel, eliminating the convenience that USB-C promised.
I'm also going to go out there and say that USB-C laptop charging is stupid when most devices are limited on their USB-C ports. On my laptop, I can apparently use a USB-C to DisplayPort cable to get 4k/60 output (while the HDMI is limited to 4k/30). But now I've got no way to charge it.
I wonder if PoE could be delivered through a docking station as an alternative means of charging a laptop.
[+] [-] qwerty456127|4 years ago|reply
Good. The more full-features and the less underfeatured USB cables are bought and found around - the better for everyone. I don't buy/grab a USB cable "for the drive" I expect it to do the job every time I happen to need a USB cable.
In fact I'd like a single ultimate USB-n-All logo to exist which would mean the cable is fully and reliably capable of all (including extensions like Thunderbolt) the possible USB cable usages which existed at the moment the specific generation of USB was released or became relevant.
Having the same connector for everything is not a value worth the hassle. Having the same cable for everything is.
[+] [-] estaseuropano|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tgsovlerkhgsel|4 years ago|reply
That's much better than the previous mess at least.
The alternative would be one new logo and a requirement that all the cables have to meet all the criteria, which would in theory "only" make cables more expensive, and in practice lead to many fake/mislabeled cables that work sometimes.
[+] [-] CameronNemo|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0x_rs|4 years ago|reply
USB-C/<generation>/<bandwith if any>/<supported power delivery if any>/<can drive audio/video>/<supports PD>/etc.
I had to buy some cables recently and really couldn't pick one nor distinguish particular features at glance, and the item description and graphics can be deceiving, even more so on stores like Amazon
[+] [-] a9h74j|4 years ago|reply
One new logo shows the word 'charger'. Wait for the "super-charger" and "ultra-charger" and "really really a charger" variants in three years, to help clear up that newly-latent confusion.
Leibnitz had a hypothesis that all one needed was one base word, with all possible meanings to be encoded by diacritics. USB tells us we only need one logo for all backplanes-in-a-cable, with all possible variants to be flagged by graphical diacritics. Reincarnation gone wrong.
I am waiting for UUU cables -- Ultra Universal USB. "We have both kinds of religion: universalist and unitarian."
[+] [-] bradfa|4 years ago|reply
Certification costs money, and you might fail. No consumer really cares (or probably no consumer understands) what buying a "certified" USB thing even means.
If your existing USB things don't have the red white and blue USB logo on them, they're not certified. Info: https://www.usb.org/logo-license
[+] [-] Forge36|4 years ago|reply
See NEMA outlet variation [1].
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEMA_connector#/media/File:NEM...
[+] [-] hbosch|4 years ago|reply
Why can’t all USB C cables just do all the things? To me, the fact that I can plug a cable into my graphics card… and it fits… and then it does nothing… that’s awful physical UX.
[+] [-] dragonwriter|4 years ago|reply
Good thing you missed the time when cables with DB9/DB25 connectors were everywhere, for every purpose.
[+] [-] evancox100|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thermin|4 years ago|reply
Every USB-C cable that is not USB 2.0 (meaning 5gpbs and up) will be able to drive 4K@60Hz.
[+] [-] viraptor|4 years ago|reply
That's not different than USB-A. You can have charging-only, USB 2, USB 3, etc. cables. We had this for decades.
[+] [-] Tijdreiziger|4 years ago|reply
I'd guess 'cost'.
[+] [-] mjevans|4 years ago|reply
The USB 40Gbps logo is fine too.
Now can we also get some logos for the other speeds: 20Gbps, 10Gbps, 5Gbps, 0.4Gbps (480Mbit).
Also the other (PD 2.0+) power levels: 100W, 65W, 45W, 27W, 15W.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_hardware#USB_Power_Deliver...
[+] [-] DaiPlusPlus|4 years ago|reply
Trademark law never stopped dodgy Amazon cable sellers before though.
[+] [-] thermin|4 years ago|reply
They already had USB4 cable logos denoting either 20Gbps or 40Gbps (still on the USB-IF website). This is in fact a rebranding, and the first USB logos since the very beginning of the standard that don't feature the trident.
[+] [-] zokier|4 years ago|reply
These all do have distinct logos already?
[+] [-] CameronNemo|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] someotherperson|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CameronNemo|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lmm|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pentae|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jbverschoor|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] neals|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Sosh101|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pishpash|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tzs|4 years ago|reply
1. There needs to be a small, inexpensive device that:
A. You can plug into a USB-C port and it tells you what that port is capable of as far as power delivery, data rates, and data protocols go.
B. You can plug a USB cable into the device and it tells you the power, data rates, and data protocols that the cable can handle.
2. There needs to be inexpensive true USB-C hubs. It needs to be possible to have computers that only have USB-C ports, peripherals that only have USB-C ports, and only USB-C to USB-C cables to hook the peripherals to the computers.
Right now if you have a computer with N USB-C ports and M peripherals with USB-C ports and M > N, you generally have to use a hub that hooks to peripherals via USB 3 A ports, and so you need USB-C to USB-A cables.
[+] [-] Causality1|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thedrbrian|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Cycl0ps|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jbverschoor|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] interestica|4 years ago|reply
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/2/27/18243425/u...