FRESH
Hacker News
Hacker News Hacker NewsI think the only thing we're missing to make the USB-C experience perfect is cable labelling. It's unreasonable to make every cable perform to the max spec, but if we could standardise on some labelling or colours for cables that are charging-only, 480 mbit (usb 2 speed), 5 Gbit (usb 3 speed), 10 GB (usb 3.1 speed), 20 GB (usb 3.2 speed), plus whatever higher speeds (and I guess Thunderbolt too), then we'd be golden.
I like the cables I have, and by know I know what cables do what, but it ain't obvious without testing.
I wrote about it a few years ago; the post does not have affiliate links: http://jackkelly.name/blog/archives/2024/10/06/travel_tip_us...
- You lose me at "toothbrush." I don't want personal care items that have internal batteries at all, because they'll eventually die on me while the device itself (brush heads notwithstanding) is otherwise perfectly functional. I'd much rather keep rechargeable AA(A)s on hand for that kind of stuff. (I still haven't found a good electric razor for this purpose, though, and have actually just gone back to manual for the foreseeable future.)
- I don't think I could live off just one charging port, but would rather just ditch USB-A entirely.
- I'm using wired earbuds, with a standard headphone jack, but with the number of full-sized cans that are using USB-C in some way it baffles me that there aren't more or them (or any, that I've been able to find) that also support using it for audio input, so you you can play them while charging.
Throughout the years they were cautious when it was introduced, thankful after it was established, and now they are too young to know any other world.
And yes, USB as main connection standard was driven by Apple. But USB as main charging standard was set by the EU.
Your chance is 100% because the charger for GBC is 2 AA batteries ;)
It should be considered a defective design and recalled, I have been burned several times by this.
Terrence's issue here is that he is over complicating things:
- Toothbrush - Just take a non-battery toothbrush, it's perfectly fine and will not break down or need charging.
- Tracker - I'm doubtful you will get it back in most countries. Always keep the essentials such as phone, wallet and passport on your physical person where possible.
- Bug Bite Zapper - Do as the locals do, they too don't want to be swamped with insects.
Looking back 15 years or so, I remember the old ThinkPad and Dell Latitude/Precision docking stations functioned reliably for as long as I can remember.
Today I have a variety of USB-C and thunderbolt 3/4 docking stations, all of which have been affected by various issues. The the manufacturers of these things don't care.
The latest casualty is a Pluggable TBT4-UDZ, which randomly decided one day that I should only have one working monitor instead of two. Doesn't matter if I use Windows, Mac or Linux. Meanwhile, the same monitors & cables work fine with my desktop.
I appreciate USB-C as a means to charge my stuff, but from now on, I'm going to try and use other ports and cables for everything else. Every laptop's settings will assume only the main screen will ever be used. I've no time to get used to a nice multi-monitor setup just to have it taken away when the USB-C dock starts acting up.
That’s the dream, anyway. Life rarely works out quite that cleanly for me.
A few samples:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11021665 (read comments)
- https://www.quora.com/Is-it-just-me-or-are-USB-C-ports-not-actually-very-durable-or-stable
- https://www.reddit.com/r/PSVR/comments/11mdfn8/so_this_happened_accidentally_tugged_cable_ps5/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/daddit/comments/1s1kk4i/pro_dad_tip_if_your_kids_have_lights_or_toys_that/
Fairly high. Nitpick time: The Gameboy Color[0] took a standard-size battery that you can still buy today. It did not need to be charged, but you did have to turn the system off to swap batteries unless you had a barrel-jack adapter.
Barrel-jack DC wasn't quite standard, but you might be able to find something compatible if you went to an electronics supply store and paid careful attention to the listed input voltage and polarity on the device. Regardless, most people didn't bother tethering their Gameboy and just fed it batteries since it ran forever on them.
The real proprietary hellhole started with the Gameboy Advance SP, and didn't end until the Switch used Type-C. Hell, the SP is basically a modern smartphone:
1. Proprietary form-fitting battery pack
2. Custom power input connector
3. No separate headphone output
Bonus points: the headphone adapter Nintendo sold for the SP didn't have a power pass-through, so you had to choose between headphones or charging. Though there are third-party ones now that do both headphone output and USB-C power input.
[0] No "u", not even in the UK
65watts isn't even that much, but its enough that I don't need:
- the mac charger that's always connected to the magsafe cable I can't use with anything else,
- the dinky iPhone brick with the cable that needs USB-C on both ends,
- and the slightly less dinky pocketbook e-reader charger with the cable that needs USB-A on the brick-end and micro USB on the business-end.
2x 65 watt USB-C ports and 1x USB-A running at whatever anemic power USB-A is capable of pitfully spitting at my ancient e-reader without drawing the ire of UL or something (5v/500ma still?), perfection.
You should go purpose-buy a charging brick, anything is better than the freebie ones you get with stuff.
I recently looked at the connector and reflected on how insanely small it is. It's no wonder it took decades to get to this point, and it's a very neat physical design at a great price. 16 pins and 10A in that little thing. Amazing.
I really don't get that. Why not a handheld fan? It's cheap, doesn't require a battery, and doesn't need electronics.
I see more electronic fans than handheld fans, and I just don't get it. People like buying brittle plastic future e-waste?
Is there a good reason we can't hook one (or both?) end(s) of a cable to a computer and use a program to tell what it does?
The charging port on my motorola phone got so loose that I frequently end up with an uncharged phone after a full night of "charging", just because the cable's own weight keeps yanking it out of the phone. The phone is not even 3 years old.
It would be nice to get a user replaceable USB port. Meanwhile, I'm not sure if those magnetic USB cables help this situation any bit or they further damage the port.
I was afraid this article was going to say one connector for everything when it said maximalist. If it had said to kill eSATA, SPF+, RJ-45, DisplayPort, HDMI, 3.5mm audio, and a bunch of other ports it would have been far more controversial. I’ve seen people saying we don’t need card formats anymore because everything can just be an external USB-C flash drive. I’m glad this article wasn’t that maximalist.
So if you only bring a single power bank on a trip, make sure it can power all of your devices, especially if some of them are by third-party unknown manufacturers.
You can't be saying the first with a straight face if you then type the second about a specialized hardware testing device that no average consumer will ever use
The next phase I wish hotels all around the world provide USB-C Port by default with a few high power port of 60W Plus.
This is not to spec, and to my knowledge this was a cost-cutting measure done by Chinese companies to cheapen manufacturing costs.
So for that reason I CANNOT simply rely on USB-C, I also have to have a USB-C-to-A converter and a USB-A-to-C cable, which is of course ridiculous. Thanks, China.
My ONLY problem with it is it's just a bit too small. That creates mechanical problems within the plug which are annoying. Plug it in and pull it out 1 too many times and eventually you get a loose connector cable that needs to be replaced.
Generally that's fine as all my chargers have replaceable cables, it's just an annoyance.
For sources, I basically have an INUI battery bank and a 100W wall adapter, then everything is a USB-C sink: Lenovo X1, Pixel 10, Nintendo Switch, Sennheiser headphones
I usb-c modded my DSi a little while back and it's awesome. No worries about trying to find an out of date charger, just smash it in the same one my phone uses and it's fine. I used this one https://github.com/giltesa/Nintendo-DSi-USB-C-Mod and while the reassembly of the DSi was a nightmare, it works fine apart from that. Needed a bit of case modding with some side cutters though
Like AC power strips, with a long cable and a body maybe 12" long with spaced out USB-C and a few USB-A ports.
I'd also like a version that sits on top of a desk and is angled towards you.
They make things like this for AC, but not USB.
(actually there are a few out there by no-name brands, but not many)
> Tracker What if someone steals my bag? Hopefully the PebbleBee "Find My" device will help me recover it.
In your review (from last year) of the tracker, you wrote it doesn't work with Graphene. [1] From the linked issue, looks like there's partial support now. [2] What's the experience like now on Graphene? Is it good enough for tracking a checked bag or similar?
[1] https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/01/review-pebblebee-clip-unive...
[2] https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues/4079
Likely not, at least police won't care about location info. Theft is painful for many reasons, especially because most countries don't consider it "serious". And trying to find thieves yourself is a bad idea either.
Best advice is to be aware of your belongings at all times.
Yes, you can buy adapters, but you end up w/device warts that don't work w/normal USB-C cords and my understanding that they are for the most part pretty dangerously out of spec
Magnetic coupling is an incredibly underutilized user experience tool
[0] https://www.anker.com/products/a2687-anker-prime-charger-160...
Someone's trying to talk about stuff they never used, experienced or googled ever.
But yeah game boy advance cable is $2.5 one day delivery here in Poland
My BT in-ears charge with Micro USB, my 2 bike lights do, my flashlight does. The only downside of my Suunto watch is the proprietary charger cable (USB A on the other end)
And yeah, adapters exist of course, but still.
I imagine whatever replaces USB-C in the future should fix this issue and make a more solid connection like USB-A. However USB-C could be the last wired interface as everything in the future will move to wireless.
I love USB-C and I guess the device(s) weren’t to spec, but if it plugs, it ought to be safe. Kind of a surprising miss to be honest. Usually the cheap Amazon crap isn’t this bad.
- Vacuum, $???, Xiaomi, okay (hard to clean filter): https://www.mi.com/global/product/xiaomi-vacuum-cleaner-p30/ (gift from friends)
- Beard trimmer, $90, Manscaped, great (but I just got it): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQ1GZY7H
- Shaver, $20, Xiaomi, great: https://www.mi.com/global/product/xiaomi-electric-shaver-s20... (purchased at Xiaomi store in Manila)
- Front door palm reader lock, $299, Eufy, good (slow charge speed mitigated by second built-in battery): https://www.amazon.com/eufy-FamiLock-Smart-Lock-Recognition/...
- Lighter, 10 for $66 after negotiating, Shenzhen Vasipor Technology Co, good but needs USB-A-to-USB-C cable: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/High-Powered-Recharge...
what really gets me though is products that support usb-c and then don't support PD, so you end up charging at a glacial pace. The most upsetting incidence of this I've seen is a powerbank charging via usb-c but not supporting PD. So slow!
That's a problem that people need a solution for? To the point of packing an additional device for it when "traveling lightly"?
User replaceable batteries next: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47098687 .
Supposedly would unify things, but can't find two cables that have same specs.
It's idiotic that companies don't even test this properly and never read the specs, but here we are. Many cheap Chinese devices like toothbrushes will have this problem.
Devices like this usually come with an A-to-C cable in the box and that's a warning sign, but an even more twisted version of this is when they come with a C-to-C cable and a Type C charger that does not support PD. That's the only combination they tested, and that's your problem now.
I now carry enough adapter cables that I can deliberately take PD out of the equation just to work around these devices.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FC1HSS9X/ for RJ45/Ethernet - these are super small and deliver full gigabit speed, for instance.
Similar things for video (tiny HDMI male adapter), and even my walkie-talkie (the Chinese market has come up with Motorola programming cable adapters that are just little dongles - https://www.ebay.com/itm/800104798120 - I can reprogram and even reload AES256 keys into my radio!).
PD triggers let my travel CPAP run off of battery (using a Transcend Micro - it only needs a 19V PD trigger and a solid 100W).
And of course... an Ecoflow solar hat and a battery I can shove in my back pocket for when I'm wandering around in the open air.
... and I just realized I can hook my Sony Reon Pocket cooler up to the solar hat...
I've had a couple be broken by getting "squashed" because there's no mechanical support because of the rounded edges so the metal easily pancakes.
They also seem to be easily damaged such they stop connecting through a failure mechanism I haven't quite figured out (my macbook air no longer reliably connects to them).
Finally, the ports don't have reliable insertion and they're sharp, so they scratch up whatever device they're on as people repeatedly miss the insertion position resulting in surface scuffing. Phones especially should not be using them because of this issue and should be using something like lightning that did not have any sharp edges which avoided most scratching.
USB-C is not so great for PC peripherals because of how hard/pricey it is to get more of those ports and how unclear the capabilities are. That's why so many peripherals are still USB-A. Some keyboards even have USB-C input but come with an adapter to -A because they know that's how you're plugging it into your PC. Also have never had a reliable video dongle, so either the display has USB-C or it's gonna be annoying. So uh yeah HDMI is great on my MBP, please add a USB-A port too now.
Yes, USB-C is very common in Europe, and indeed worldwide. And this is partly as a result of European policy:
> One common charging solution for all
> USB-C is the common port.
https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/electrica...
The charging standards, voltages, and data rates, are frustrating because they're almost never labeled. This is especially true on low end, cables, and device devices. The worst offenders will only charge with a USB-A to C cable with low voltage, which is not what I hope for when I see a USB-C port on a device.
USB-C being "one standard" is a bit of a stretch. It is the Unintuitive Serial Bus, after all. Most will charge. Some faster than others. Some will supply data with 2.0 speeds, others 3.0, yet others will do more. Some will only work with the other devices they came with. Few cables will tell you which is which, unless you have a tester.
The Lightning holdouts:
* My wife and I both still have Lightning phones with plenty of life left in them. My 14Pro was actually replaced under AppleCare not quite a year ago, so it's nearly new!
* I have two sets of headphones that are Lightning: Airpods Pro and Max. Both still have great battery life despite years of use. If either failed tomorrow, I'd buy a new example, but I'm not spending that money without good reason.
* I have a full suite of Apple desktop peripherals (trackpad, mouse, and keyboard) that I swap in from time to time for variety. Like most Apple kit, they're all very well made and will last a long time -- and all charge by Lightning.
MicroUSB holds on, too:
* The battery charger for my bicycle's derailleurs is MicroUSB -- and SRAM still isn't selling a USB-C version, which is crazy. I could by an aftermarket one, but why?
* Likewise, the charger for my camera batteries is Micro.
* My bicycle headlight and taillight are both Micro.
* We have two Kindles that are both Micro.
All these things work just fine. The MicroUSB stuff is less annoying, since most of those things don't need to travel, but the Lightning holdouts are the ironic downside to Apple's generally high level of hardware quality.
What would be even better is an electric toothbrush that doesn't contain a battery that would work with USB-PD plugged in. Why? Because I like putting my electric toothbrush in my checked bag because it's not essential, and technically you're not supposed to put lithium batteries in checked bags.
Wait until they discover off brand usb cable with incorrect e-marker.
Except this isn't true. Different power delivery capabilities, different standards. Some can transfer data, some can transfer 4K, some support quick charge, others don't. I love USB C but different cable standards all looking identical is infuriating sometimes
