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Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

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Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#221

Post by izzydata »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #66

I see no reason why to buy anything but Anker. I once tried to purposely destroy an Anker MicroUSB cable (bought a 5 pack that had three 3ft, one 6ft, one 1ft, didn't need the 1ft), by grabbing the head of it with clamping pliers and yanking the fuck out of it with the cable wrapped around my hand, and bending it to near 180 degrees repeatedly for about 5 minutes. I could not kill it without straight up taking wire c…

I recently got a Nexus 5X and it only came with a usb-c to usb-c cable and I wasn't able to connect it to my computer. I searched specifically for anker, usb-c to usb-a and couldn't find anything. Can anyone confirm that this is a product somewhere?

This is what I went with, but it didn't seem to support data transfer. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011N7ME48?psc=1&redirect=t...

Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#222

Post by csours »

phkahler wrote: post #202
bkmartin wrote: post #17

The average consumer has no idea if one of these cables will actually do what they proclaim. The only way to really know is when other customers review the product, which we know is barely useful most of the time due to fraudulent reviews. Great job on the part of this Google engineer for writing such clear and technical reviews of the products. Now that an expert has called some of these cables out as not adhering t…

>> The average consumer has no idea if one of these cables will actually do what they proclaim. Isn't that what standards compliance is supposed to be for? Shouldn't the product have to be tested against the standard in order to get labeled USB X.Y ?? Or doesn't USB have such a requirement?

To quote Tommy Boy: "Hell, I can take a crap in a box and slap a guarantee on it for you"

Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#223

Post by lucb1e »

distantsounds wrote: post #37

I wish someone would do this for micro-usb2 cables. I've bought so many different ones and found that they don't carry enough current from the charger to properly charge my Nexus 6.

Yeah I'm still not sure how that works. My phone will randomly charge really quickly on the wall adapter for weeks, and then at some point it decides it's going to charge slowly for the next few weeks. Same adapter, same cable.. it seems to be wacky. It's all original from Samsung.

The micro-USB connection is also really loose with this particular cablephone combination (cable is fine with other phones; phone is fine with other cables). Used my old Nokia micro-USB for this reason and charging was always slow, then connected the Samsung one and it was a lot faster.. for a while.

I never knew the cable could do something like this, unless it's something like being way too long. From your comment I take it that you do need a certain amount of copper in those wires to work? So more expensive cables might actually be better? (I always laughed at "gold plated extra quality HDMI cables of 30cm for 30 euros because HDMI is a digital signal.)

Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#224

Post by toomuchtodo »

excalq wrote: post #213
organsnyder wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've also started buying Anker exclusively. Their chargers work with every device at full-rate, and their cables are decent. I have had the clips break on a couple of MicroUSB cables, including the 1ft from a similar 5-pack. I had my phone attached to a battery pack and stuffed both in my pocket. The stress of bending the cable in strange directions messed up the clips on the cable. Not quite bulletproof, but not bad…

They also make a ridiculously amazing Solar charger array, which when I took across a border to Israel, had the inspectors in serious awe and wishing they could get one as inexpensively as we can in the States.

Amazon link?

Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#225

Post by yoodenvranx »

tehstone8 wrote: post #187
DiabloD3 wrote: post #66

I see no reason why to buy anything but Anker. I once tried to purposely destroy an Anker MicroUSB cable (bought a 5 pack that had three 3ft, one 6ft, one 1ft, didn't need the 1ft), by grabbing the head of it with clamping pliers and yanking the fuck out of it with the cable wrapped around my hand, and bending it to near 180 degrees repeatedly for about 5 minutes. I could not kill it without straight up taking wire c…

Definitely agree with this. I use my phone heavily (Ingress mostly) and it's not uncommon to go through 3 or 4 full charge cycles a day or to just keep my phone plugged in all day. Before I started buying Anker's cables, I would burn through a cable every two weeks or so. First monoproce, although I quickly dropped those. Then several other brands. Another point in Anker's favor is that the profile of the USB-C plug…

Another Ingress player here. I know several people who managed to destroy Anker cables due to Ingress, but all in all Anker still seems to be the best choice. Almost everything else just breaks much faster.

One exception to this are the cables which came with both my Motorola Moto Gs phone. They charge very fast and I use one of them for over 1.5 years and it does not show any wear. I really wish I knew where to buy more of those specific Motorola cables.

Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#226

Post by pbhjpbhj »

ohitsdom wrote: post #196
fpgaminer wrote: post #83

The current rhetoric when it comes to the failings of online reviews is to point at fraudulent reviews. I posit that, rather, it's the lack of weighting reviews by the expertise of the reviewers. Clearly the reviews of a hardware engineer at Google should have more weight to them than an average consumer (on products like this), because as bkmartin points out, the average consumer has no idea as to the true quality o…

That's why I clicked on each of his reviews and marked them as helpful. That way they will sort to the top. Ideally this will happen on every product review page, as other readers recognize an educated review and mark it as helpful accordingly.

Your clicks probably got discounted as fake, perhaps if you spent enough time on pages showing each review first they wouldn't? I don't truly know how careful Amazon are to filter anomalous upvotes however.

Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#227

Post by jon-wood »

bengoodger wrote: post #152
x0x0 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in a nutshell, that's why people buy stuff from apple. imo, their brand is "here's a good thing, and we promise it will work". Amazon's is "you're on your own, but it's really fucking cheap!" That's not to say amazon doesn't have good customer service, but the whole thing is still shit. I just wanted a [cable|dongle|hdmi adapter|battery|plant spray|charger] that was what it claimed to be and worked correctly the…

Funny story. I wanted to buy a cheap iPad for my son. I could have got one from Amazon but after hearing so many stories about scams or refurb devices or devices with someone else's state on it I decided not to deal with that headache and ordered direct from the Apple website. Upon turning on the device for the first time it showed a screen saying it was controlled by the LDS Church and wouldn't proceed through guide…

Annoyingly in places it looks like data they have and turns out but to be. I once bought a desk lamp which below it included the "people buy these together" box, which showed the llano and a bulb.

Frustratingly it wasn't the right bulb, but I just fed a further data point into Amazon's model, and reinforced their belief that its useful to list those two items as a pair.

Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#228

Post by chedabob »

SixSigma wrote: post #103
fpgaminer wrote: post #83

The current rhetoric when it comes to the failings of online reviews is to point at fraudulent reviews. I posit that, rather, it's the lack of weighting reviews by the expertise of the reviewers. Clearly the reviews of a hardware engineer at Google should have more weight to them than an average consumer (on products like this), because as bkmartin points out, the average consumer has no idea as to the true quality o…

One problem I have with Amazon reviews is this type : "Just got the product, arrived really quick. It worked when I tried it a minute ago, 5 stars."

I have a feeling there's some kind of reward system in place for reviewing products and answering questions. There's so many answers to fairly simple questions that are along the lines of

> will this HDMI cable connect my laptop to my tv?

> i don't know but it sends a good signal from my xbox to tv

They help nobody and just clutter up the actual helpful answers

Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#230

Post by pbhjpbhj »

synctext wrote: post #3
Albright wrote: post #2

…And on ones that do. Looks very useful for weeding out actual quality from the muddle. Would love to see someone doing this kind of work with other types of cables, too.

Clearly shows the need for a reputation system, not locked into 1 company. Reviews need sharing.

Reevoo is quite good IMO.

Example USB-2 cable: http://reevoo.com/p/startech-com-usb-2-0-active-extension-ca....

I've used ebuyer (UK computer retailer) quite a bit and they moved away from their own review system to use Reevoo (the ebuyer one was better IMO however). Still Reevoo seems to have useful reviews in the computer/tech space.

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