A and B are the original, used for host and device sides, respectively. C is the same on both ends of the cable because figures there’s device classes which can sensibly act as both, in particular phones. It’s also the most modern of the bunch supporting higher data transfer and power delivery rates because back in the days where A and B where designed people were thinking about connecting mice and keyboards, not 8k monitors or kWhs worth of lithium batteries.
The whole mini/micro shennanigans are alternative B types and quite deeply flawed, mechanically speaking.
Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Previous connectors had inherent flaws. The USB-C connector is sturdy, is easy to use etc. But even if we had made the micro-usb connector the only legal connector, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world. Existing standards can be improved instead of making new shapes each time.
fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de 6 days ago
I find it a bit annoying that different usb-c implementations have different capabilities.
As in, not all cables are compatible with all devices, and there’s not even a standardised way or reporting capabilities.
What’s the point of being able to put every plug in every socket if you don’t know if it’s going to work?
Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Yea but that can be fixed by improving the current standard, not by changing the shape.
barsoap@lemm.ee 5 days ago
My kitchen scales have a USB-C port. While I certainly would like it to have the capability to stream GB/s worth of measuring data over it fact of the matter is I paid like ten bucks for it, all it knows is how to charge the CR2032 cell inside. I also don’t expect it to support displayport alt mode, it has a seven-segment display I don’t really think it’s suitable as a computer monitor.
What’s true though is that it’d be nice to have proper labelling standards for cables. It should stand to reason that the cable that came with the scales doesn’t support high performance modes, heck it doesn’t even have data lines literally the only thing it’s capable of is low-power charging, nothing wrong with that but it’d be nice to be able to tell that it can only do that at a semi-quick glance when fishing for a cable in the spaghetti bin.
baatliwala@lemmy.world 6 days ago
USB-C is a bitch to clean, I have had multiple devices where fast charging stopped working until I cleaned out the port or held the wire in a particular angle.
Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Yea that’s a valid concern. But if a new standard ever get’s invented that is clearly better the law can easily be switched. And if it doesn’t… USB-C is still more than fine.