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USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

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Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#321

Post by afiori »

dheera wrote: post #305
mikepurvis wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends, though. In all likelihood it would end up thrown back on the consumer— "Did you use a licensed/approved/certified charger? Sounds like you need to take this up with whoever made the charger that fried our product." It might help resolve certain really common cases like compatibility between the chargers and devices of the mainstream entities. I guess I'd argue that that should be happening on its own, but…

The chargers that use standard plugs should also be made to support the standard or they should be held legally responsible. In this particular case I think even well-known name brand chargers which follow standards (Apple, Anker) are breaking the Nintendo, and that's unacceptable.

I would rather like it if USB standards had better names and a definition of a "safety score" then device manufacturers have to advertise a minimum supported score (for devices) and a minimum guaranteed score (for chargers).

Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#322

Post by coryfklein »

Apple MacBooks with USB-C are standard issue for everyone at our company. You know what else is standard issue? A f$#%ing dongle so you can actually plug anything into said laptop. I can't help but think that all these folks saying, "oh it's so nice, everything I've ever wanted to plug in runs on USB-C" represent a tiny minority of the real world.

The only two cables I own that can plug into my laptop connect it to:

1) the charger that came with it and

2) the aforementioned dongle

That's it. And no, I'm not going to drop a bunch of cash upgrading monitors, phone cables, keyboards, and mice to get rid of the dongle. Especially when the "USB-C compatible" ones all cost twice as much.

Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#323

Post by abruzzi »

ethbr0 wrote: post #106
jeremymcanally wrote: post #4

Really? I find it to be a game changer for me. The fact that my laptop, Switch, iPad, and several other devices can all share a charge has made my life much easier. I can just sprinkle a few of them throughout the house and never be without power. Before it was always a hunt to find a cable, or I had to be in [x] room to charge [y] device because that's where the charger lived. Plus, I can charge my MacBook on either…

This is a simple problem, and there's a simple solution. Problem: Physical connectors previous encoded information about data/power transfer mode support. When USB C unified the physical connector, that information was lost. Solution: Mandate visually encoded supported standards on the USB cable in colored ring form, a la resistors. Make them plastic, so you can snip them off if the aesthetic bothers. But I should be…

> Solution: Mandate visually encoded supported standards on the USB cable in colored ring form, a la resistors.

I agree in principal, but please don't do it with colored rings. Many of us have much more limited color perception due to colorblindness. I recently purchased some 8 cable 1/4" TRS snakes, and the only thing identifying which connector on one side of the snake was connected to a connector on the other side were colored bands--many of which I couldn't tell apart. I ended up pulling out a multimeter to test continuity, and then labeled then with unique glyphs on each end that weren't dependent on color (i.e. 1, 2, 3, etc.).

Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#324

Post by sergeykish »

oftenwrong wrote: post #128
bla3 wrote: post #6

It's a mess, but it still seems much better than the situation before to me. It's true, you currently need to be careful when buying cables, but if you are, you can charge all your devices with the same plug. And usb-c video means your monitor can act as usb hub for keyboard and mouse over the video cable, so you only need to replug a single cable to move video and mouse and keyboard between computers. I use this a l…

For "normal" people like my mother, it is worse. She ended up in a situation recently where something worked with one cable, but not with a different cable. She thought the cable must be broken. I explained the issue to her, and she understands now, but she still has a hard time remembering which cables and adapters to use for the various purposes. She can't just keep them in a drawer all together. She also has troub…

Buy some colored tape or colored cable protectors.

Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#325

Post by nonbirithm »

shadowgovt wrote: post #212
nonbirithm wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a set of cables positively reviewed by Benson Leung for my new phone, and they worked fine. Recently I bought a new laptop and it doesn't charge with it, or any other USB cable in my place, except the one it came with, which is too short, and only ends in USB-C so I can't use it with any other power adapter I own. I don't know why it doesn't charge with any other cable. If not even Benson Leung's recommended…

I mean, if there's a magic cable to charge just that one device, sounds like that device is broken.

The thing is, if it was broken then none of the dozens of people who reviewed it mentioned it was broken at all.

The device itself is everything I expected it to be, and I can still charge it with the included cable. The only issue is that it only charges with the provided cable and nothing else I've tried so far. I don't think this justifies invoking my warranty on it. It isn't a deal breaker, I've paid enough for it and I'm already starting to use it daily. But there seems to have been no way to know it was "broken" in this specific manner, maybe because nobody really felt the need to test with a different cable in their reviews. They probably just declared, "hey, it charges, so no problems there."

Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#326

Post by pantalaimon »

crote wrote: post #211
warmwaffles wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's still only available in USB-A That's because it is still the most common type of port out there and it doesn't require a huge bandwidth that USB-C provides. If anything it would be overkill and over priced for what you get. I think logitech is waiting for USB-C to become more prevalent and the cost to manufacture to drop.

The interesting thing is that for small-bandwidth applications, USB C isn't that difficult to add. Compared to USB A, it's literally a different connector and two additional resistors on the CC pins. The power / data pins of USB C are completely compatible with USB 2.0.

Most computers only have 1-2 USB-C ports, but plenty USB-A ones.

You would not want to 'waste' a high-speed port for a webcam.

Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#327

Post by maxbaines »

jeremymcanally wrote: post #4

Really? I find it to be a game changer for me. The fact that my laptop, Switch, iPad, and several other devices can all share a charge has made my life much easier. I can just sprinkle a few of them throughout the house and never be without power. Before it was always a hunt to find a cable, or I had to be in [x] room to charge [y] device because that's where the charger lived. Plus, I can charge my MacBook on either…

Completely agree.

Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#328

Post by coryfklein »

josho wrote: post #98
whywhywhywhy wrote: post #37

It's honestly such a complete joke it's not even funny anymore. My USB-C MacBook Pro with it's pathetic two ports that my work bought for me is now old enough that the battery is starting to fail and we're still in a world where this single cable for power, screen and ports just doesn't seem to really exist. I'm starting to be convinced the port is fundamentally flawed, dongles with multiple ports are never reliable…

A good (read expensive) dongle will work fine. I have one that reliably powers 2 monitors (a 5k and a 4k), 1gb network and powers my macbook. I think the real problem is we get a lot of cheap products coming from China with very little quality control. QC is poor because they have no incentive to build in quality. E.g. you likely don't realize how flaky the dongle is until after the 30 day return policy, the branding…

But oh god why do we even need the dongle! What backwards world is 2020 where you can't plug a monitor into your computer?! At least, not any actual real monitor I have at home or have seen in the office.

Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#329

Post by chungus_khan »

oblio wrote: post #215
dx87 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nintendo says you shouldn't use anything except 1st party cables with the Switch. There were articles a couple of years ago talking about Switches being bricked. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/08/heres-why-nintendo-sw...

This is on Nintendo being jerks. Just because web server X doesn't implement the standard correctly, that does not make TCP or HTTP bad.

No, but the average consumer doesn't care who's actually at fault. They're just confused when their stuff doesn't work/is flaky. There is a difference between the standard in theory and the standard in practice, and I've seen a remarkable number of ordinary people very confused about whether various things actually work with each other, and a lot of it out in the real world is very poorly communicated and out-of-spec.

Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#330

Post by maxbaines »

jeremymcanally wrote: post #83
vr46 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aha - you may find that your Switch CANNOT in fact share a charge - Nintendo's port is not necessarily safe to use with anything but its supplied charger. And I've just learned this lesson with a $60 bill from Nintendo repair after the port went pop and couldn't charge the device. I only have reputable chargers in the house from Apple and one from Anker aside from the Nintendo's own. All my apple kit works fine off t…

I use it with my Apple charger without issue, and I've done that since I got it quite a while ago. While I don't doubt your experience, it sounds like perhaps your situation isn't quite universal. Defective Switch hardware maybe? Not sure, but it works well for me.

I have also had no issue.
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