But that's not how it actually goes. Many devices aren't actually spec compliant
that's pretty much not true anymore. the wild west after USB-C first came out is over, testers are available enough and sketchy vendors get shamed loudly enough that unless you're buying cables at unreasonably dodgy stores, you're going to get something spec-compliant.
Snap-On still sells (along with many others) flashlights that charge via USB-C... only when using an A-C cable. Just as long as we're shaming non-compliant vendors.
that's pretty much not true anymore. the wild west after USB-C first came out is over, testers are available enough and sketchy vendors get shamed loudly enough that unless you're buying cables at unreasonably dodgy stores, you're going to get something spec-compliant.
Snap-On still sells (along with many others) flashlights that charge via USB-C... only when using an A-C cable. Just as long as we're shaming non-compliant vendors.
This isn't an example of someone still selling a device that either fries others or gets fried, though, right?
This is still ridiculous. The USB certified logo should be one image, then a similar sized wattage and Gbps number displayed next to it. The pertinent information is still too tiny. The cables themselves are still way too easy to mix up. Connector's inner plastic should have different colors
no there should be only one cable that does work for all use cases.
do you really think most consumers now what the 40gbps/20gbps or 5w/240w or whatever even means for them?
This is still ridiculous. The USB certified logo should be one image, then a similar sized wattage and Gbps number displayed next to it. The pertinent information is still too tiny. The cables themselves are still way too easy to mix up. Connector's inner plastic should have different colors
no there should be only one cable that does work for all use cases. do you really think most consumers now what the 40gbps/20gbps or 5w/240w or whatever even means for them?
No, consumers mostly don’t know this, but the market also needs lower tier cables. USB-C high throughput, high voltage cables with thunderbolt and display port (I think that is the max of what a cable can carry) are quite expensive.
Lots of people need reasonable cables to charge their phones.
I recall coming across the color guide for the various features, like blue for USB3, and red for… power delivery, maybe? But then one day I was on AliExpress or Alibaba or something and seeing that you could just buy cables from some manufacturer with whatever color you wanted. And I lost faith in the reliability of color id for cables.
> red for… power delivery, maybe? I'd go with yellow, like how we draw lightning.
> “As we started to update our branding we did a lot of focus group studies with many different types of consumers,” he tells The Verge, “and none of those people understood the messaging and the branding, and they don’t understand revision control or spec names.” You didn't need a focus group to tell you this (though I'm glad they did one). Just look at every single comment thread on HN about USB branding, at this p…
Given the terrible product naming[1] most hardware companies[2] have, at this point I’ve just come to the conclusion that most people in command don’t have any idea of how other people behave and reason. [1]: Sony WF-1000XM3 are AirPods competitors, but you’d never tell your friends about your Sony WF-1000XM3 [2]: Except Apple and a handful others
Sometimes I wonder if that's intentional. You won't suggest the WF-1000XM3, so you recommend "the Sony ones", and your friend goes to their preferred store where the XM3 is unavailable/out of stock and just orders some lower quality/older generation Sony ones rather than a competitor
This is still ridiculous. The USB certified logo should be one image, then a similar sized wattage and Gbps number displayed next to it. The pertinent information is still too tiny. The cables themselves are still way too easy to mix up. Connector's inner plastic should have different colors
They could introduce color coded rings like resistors have.
The color coded rings on resistors is a mightily bad idea, at least as implemented on resistors.
I'm not that colorblind, I see traffic lights, fruits between leaves and other things others have problems with, basically everything except resistor rings and distant lighthouse colors (yes, the colors on a map make sense, but trying to decode them IRL is as hard as resistor codes.)
No in my view. USB should be USB. That rectangle thing you poke into a port somewhere. Not just on chargers, motherboards or literally aircraft and cars. If it's not that. Call it something else. LEET, PHAT, BIGPORT. I really don't understand. Universal Serial Bus... in 10 different formats make's it no longer universal.
USB should be retronymed to Unpredictable Serial Bus.
This is unfair.
USB mostly has predictably "just worked" as in "there is a port for it and it works when I plug it in".
> “As we started to update our branding we did a lot of focus group studies with many different types of consumers,” he tells The Verge, “and none of those people understood the messaging and the branding, and they don’t understand revision control or spec names.” You didn't need a focus group to tell you this (though I'm glad they did one). Just look at every single comment thread on HN about USB branding, at this p…
Given the terrible product naming[1] most hardware companies[2] have, at this point I’ve just come to the conclusion that most people in command don’t have any idea of how other people behave and reason. [1]: Sony WF-1000XM3 are AirPods competitors, but you’d never tell your friends about your Sony WF-1000XM3 [2]: Except Apple and a handful others
Sony has done a better job with other lines -- with Walkman, Discman, Vaio [Letter], PlayStation, Alpha, Aibo, and such. When they have a huge array of products, as with cameras or headphones, they soon become unnameable. They do have a set of headphone models called "LinkBuds" now, though. So they're not as clueless as you think.