(Photo by Marcus Urbenz on Unsplash) The USB-Confusion

USB-C was supposed to be the last cable you would ever need. It’s also reversible across its long axis, so it’s impossible to insert it in the wrong orientation. Power can flow either way with the same cable: a computer charging a battery or phone a battery charging a computer. Instead of host device Type-A and peripheral Type-B, Mini-B, Micro-B, and others, a single connector works for both ends of a connection and carries both power and data. The evolution to USB-C connectors just after the release of the USB 3.1 standard promised simplicity. More obscure connectors also appeared, like the wide and oddly shaped USB 3.0 Micro-B, which is most commonly seen on external hard drives. A peripheral either had a directly wired cord or sported a Type-B USB port: blocky, nearly square, and with only one correct orientation as well.Īlong the way, though, we accumulated others: Mini-B, a thick trapezoid used by Texas Instruments graphing calculators, early Amazon Kindles, and other devices and Micro-B, a slim trapezoid that became the de-facto charging shape for mobile devices, headphones, and other battery-powered hardware. USB used to mean one kind of connector for a computer: Type-A, which was flat, rectangular, and had one correct orientation. Pardon the pun, but you know what I mean. You’ll learn how to recognize ports, identify cables you own, and buy the best cable for USB, Thunderbolt, Ethernet, DisplayPort, HDMI, and audio at the fastest, best, or highest-fidelity method available. It answers common questions and aids in troubleshooting problems. USBefuddled: Untangling the Rat’s Nest of USB-C Standards and Cablesįor more help with cables, check out Glenn Fleishman’s new book, Take Control of Untangling Connections. #1643: New Mac mini and MacBook Pro models, new second-gen HomePod, security-focused OS updates, industry layoffs.#1644: Explaining Mastodon and the Fediverse, HomePod Software 16.3 and tvOS 16.3, GoTo breach.#1645: AirPlay iPhone to Mac for remote video, Siri learns to restart iPhones, Apple's Q1 2023 financials.1646: Security-focused OS updates, Photos Workbench review, Mastodon client wishlist, Apple-related conferences.1647: Focus-caused notification issues, site-specific browser examples, virtualizing Windows on M-series Macs.

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