New USB-C logos make picking USB cables, chargers less confusing • Hacker News Board

Re: New USB-C logos make picking USB cables, chargers less confusing

#191

Post by silisili » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 2:03 PM UTC

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #129

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 (firewir…

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.

Re: New USB-C logos make picking USB cables, chargers less confusing

#192

Post by dionian » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 2:03 PM UTC

thermin wrote: post #185

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #129

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 (firewir…

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…

Plus USB-C doesn't require a correct orientation, you just put it in and it always fits. Maybe underrated but to me it's worth a lot...

Re: New USB-C logos make picking USB cables, chargers less confusing

#193

Post by postalrat » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 2:04 PM UTC

Because putting 40GBPS 240W on the cable was too simple, they needed a logo.

Re: New USB-C logos make picking USB cables, chargers less confusing

#194

Post by OJFord » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 2:07 PM UTC

thermin wrote: post #185

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #129

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 (firewir…

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…

> >into the correct usb port to charge the laptop

> The port is either marked (everything but MacBooks) or doesn't matter (MacBooks, pretty sweet).

From https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/363337/how-to-find...:

> TLDR; If your MacBook Pro runs hot or shows a high % CPU for the kernel task, try charging on the right and not on the left.

Re: New USB-C logos make picking USB cables, chargers less confusing

#195

Post by SketchySeaBeast » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 2:08 PM UTC

thermin wrote: post #185

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #129

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 (firewir…

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…

Not taking exception to any of your points - honestly, I think that while this new USB world is confusing, it is much better than it was in the day of the barrel plugs, especially not that everything is becoming USB-C. Just taking exception to this one point:

> The port is either marked (everything but MacBooks) or doesn't matter (MacBooks, pretty sweet).

Except that even when there shouldn't be a right choice, there still is:

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/309802-charging-a-macb...

Re: New USB-C logos make picking USB cables, chargers less confusing

#196

Post by thermin » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 2:08 PM UTC

Ginden wrote: post #190

thermin wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> were barrel plugs of slightly different diameter Some of them had the same diameter, so accidentally plugging 12V to 5V port could fry your device.

True! I literally own two identical-looking (to the most minute details of the plug itself) barrel plug chargers (one for the vacuum, the other for the elliptical trainer). One is 18V, the other is 9V, both 500mA

At least I'm not afraid that the 65W USB PD charger will fry my phone lol

Re: New USB-C logos make picking USB cables, chargers less confusing

#197

Post by zamadatix » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 2:08 PM UTC

jdhn wrote: post #138

Tijdreiziger wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why can’t all USB C cables just do all the things? I'd guess 'cost'.

What's the difference in cost between a cable that can do the bare minimum, and a cable that can do everything, assuming they're the same length? Just seems like the USB committee is unnecessarily complicating everything.

A couple of years ago I couldn't find a cable that did the max speed with max charging for any price. Now looking it seems like you can get a TB4 with 100W 3' for ~30 dollars and 6'-7' for ~60 dollars. Or a 5 pack of standard type c cables for ~10 dollars.

Re: New USB-C logos make picking USB cables, chargers less confusing

#198

Post by the_gipsy » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 2:09 PM UTC

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #129

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 (firewir…

> Yes, you needed 20 cables, but things were simple.

You also had to buy a new motherboard every time some new peripheral port got adopted.

Re: New USB-C logos make picking USB cables, chargers less confusing

#199

Post by endless1234 » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 2:09 PM UTC

huuuz wrote: post #91

neals wrote: post #84

They should invent a new cable standard that universally does the same thing on all devices. I think there might a big market for that.

It already exists and it's called lighting. Since it's actually useful, the UE is looking into outlawing it.

I don't think 18 watts is enough to do everything.

Re: New USB-C logos make picking USB cables, chargers less confusing

#200

Post by thermin » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 2:10 PM UTC

OJFord wrote: post #194

thermin wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> >into the correct usb port to charge the laptop > The port is either marked (everything but MacBooks) or doesn't matter (MacBooks, pretty sweet). From https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/363337/how-to-find... : > TLDR; If your MacBook Pro runs hot or shows a high % CPU for the kernel task, try charging on the right and not on the left.

That's quite insane, thanks Tim Apple.