18 ms·

USB-C Has Finally Come into Its Own

100 points by headalgorithm 7y ago

mlrtime 7y ago
I remember getting the Samsung S8 when it first came out. I left my charger at home and was at a conference all day. I called every computer store around and nobody had a cable. I would say USB-C has come into its own when every corner store or uber car has a usb-c charging cable standard.
- Rebelgecko 7y ago
  Anyone with a new-ish Apple laptop would've been able to help. I think the MBPs started using USB-C for charging in 2016.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - dajohnson89 7y ago
    anyone with a new iphone would not be able to help. when will Apple get serious about using usb-c universally?
    - RandallBrown 7y ago
      They'd at least be able to help with a wall wart... Apple is in a tricky place because there are so many accessories in the world that work with Lightning. Customers would be pissed if they had to use dongles for all of that stuff they already own. The 30 Pin connector existed for 9 years before Lightning came out in 2012, so we still probably have a few years before they consider abandoning it. I imagine by then, USB-C will actually be the universal solution that everyone wants. Part of me is actually expecting Apple to abandon cables altogether and just provide wireless charging/syncing.
      - akersten 7y ago
        > Customers would be pissed if they had to use dongles for all of that stuff they already own. Eh, they were brave enough to do it for the 3.5mm jack, I don't see why they couldn't do it here. So I think the real reason is they want to continue to sell $40 lightening cables, or whatever they cost now.
        macintux 7y ago
        Or, as the article points out... > In Apple’s case, the hesitation at least makes some sense. As long as USB-C compatibility is more tangled than a late-stage game of Twister, it will remain anathema to Cupertino’s mantra of “it just works.” USB-C can still feel more like "it works, just not always how you were expecting." Apple already achieved USB-C’s space-saving and reversibility benefits seven years ago with the introduction of its Lightning cable. And in those seven years, an expansive ecosystem of Lightning peripherals has emerged, all of which would head straight for the scrap heap with a jump to USB-C.
        Dylan16807 7y ago
        If they had jumped straight to USB-C on their phones it never would have been tangled. Exact data speeds don't matter for a phone, they could have avoided any headphone adapter confusion, and the issue of charging-only cables exists no matter what, on lightning too. And adding an adapter onto lightning plugs is less invasive than the issues with removing the headphone jack. Edit: So would anyone like to explain how any of that is such a bad contribution it deserves a downvote? I'm always surprised when a comment gets silently downvoted, it's never something where I expected any downvotes...
        OkGoDoIt 7y ago
        Lightning came out several years before USB-C. So I don’t think going straight to USB-C was really an option. (not suggesting that’s why you were downvoted, just clarifying the timeline of the ports)
- m463 7y ago
  aren't there high and low power cables?
herogreen 7y ago
mini USB: octobrer 2000 to january 2007 (6 years, 3 months) micro USB: january 2007 to august 2014 (7 years, 7 months) USB-C: august 2014 - ? (5+ years) I hope we keep increasing the lifespan of the "suggested" mobile-device USB form factor, to increase convenience and (slightly) reduce environmental impact.
- SnarkAsh 7y ago
  At least when you had a micro USB or mini USB cable, you knew it would be compatible with everything of the same form factor. USB-C's form factor might stick around longer, but its compatibility problems are going to be much worse.
  - B1FF_PSUVM 7y ago
    Not to mention that software may disable your hardware's USB ports if it thinks they're dirty - a feature in Android 10, if I read https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20868164 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20868164 right
- lstamour 7y ago
  It's very likely we'll hit a point where the connector (Type-C) doesn't change, but the cable standards do. Just like how USB Type-A has been very stable, or HDMI, DisplayPort and mini-DP. That said, I don't see USB Micro-B disappearing anytime soon. And everything USB power delivery is an improvement over how we used to do power via randomly-sized DC connectors. I remember spending quite awhile looking for alternative power adapters for my PSP-1000 which did have its own micro USB port. Don't get me started on proprietary cellphone power adapters... or the various 30-pin connectors ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dock_connector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dock_connector
  - InitialLastName 7y ago
    At least Type-C is permanently reversible, where MicroUSB is just destructively reversible.
- 7y ago
ses1984 7y ago
"a reputable vendor like Amazon" Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
rahuldottech 7y ago
> “but we expect that as the adoption of USB Type-C products and USB Power Delivery continues to increase the market will guide [manufacturers] toward a common implementation.” I'd really like this, but I don't know if it'll ever happen. The situation, as it stands now, is a mess: The Raspberry Pi finally got USB-C, but they botched the implementation. As did the Nintendo switch. Even with phones and audio, there's like two different kinds of dongles and you never know which will work? https://youtu.be/Ly-bSBHOSIo https://youtu.be/Ly-bSBHOSIo Not to mention that there's a ridiculous number of standards that a USB-C device can support, but you have no way of knowing what by looking at it physically. Power delivery? Not on most non-high-end Windows laptops. Data? On most, except the Raspberry Pi? QuickCharge? Sometimes. Video? Only with some phones and laptops. Not most non-high-end devices. You always have to look it up, it's a huge mess.
- mmastrac 7y ago
  USB-A had the same growing pains. I recall buying a USB hub around 2000ish that used to crash randomly. It wasn't until the mid 2000s til you could get hubs that were reliable. There was also a myriad of charging options around the launch of the iPad. It was a hit or miss gamble with chargers, cables and devices. Maybe you'll get 1A? Maybe not? USB-C is a complex standard, but the chipsets and processes are improving and this pain will be a distant memory - just like all those USB-A pains we had.
  - rhombocombus 7y ago
    I remember, it was such that I despised USB for many years, but then it reached a level of ubiquity and maturity that made it really great. Like you, I think that in a few years this will all be like USB-a in the late '90s/early 2000s.
    - SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
      Probably just in time for USB4 / USB-D to come and mess it all up again ;)
Animats 7y ago
USB-C isn't just USB. It's USB plus a whole bunch of other optional features, from higher power to DisplayPort video to a JTAG back door. It's a collection of features jammed into a really tiny connector. Of course it's not very compatible.
shantly 7y ago
My wife, last week, a couple days after she gets a new Macbook Air to replace her old one that stopped working: "Wait... there are no USB ports on this thing? How the fuck am I supposed to plug anything in?! My flash drives, my camera, my microphone... anything? Seriously?" Welcome to dongle life :-( 2019, still don't have a single thing in our house to plug into a USB-C port, except adapters. Probably reach the end of 2020 in a similar state. Just bought a new 4TB portable HD that's USB-A (3.0), because USB-C wouldn't be able to plug into anything but a new Macbook, without an adapter.
- asciident 7y ago
  I don't know about you, but my flash drives, camera, and microphone are all usb-c. It sounds like you have either not upgraded your devices in a while, or bought devices with out-of-date connectors. It's pretty easy to avoid out-of-date non- usb-c accessories these days.
  - JCharante 7y ago
    I don't think I've ever seen a USB C flashdrive in my life
  - shantly 7y ago
    USB-A is only out of date for Apple, and if the actual connection is USB 2 or 3 (not, say, thunderbolt) there’s little reason to choose USB-C. Desktop? USB-A only. Raspberries Pi? USB-A. Older MacBook Pro? A. Every console for the last couple generations, except sort-of the Switch? A. They should have had a couple years of a transition model rather than going all-A to all-C at once.
denormalfloat 7y ago
I didn't come to appreciate the power of USB-C until I started using it with my laptop. It is a single cable that connects to my monitor, powers the laptop, provides USB access to the keyboard and mouse, and to the hub on the monitor. This is a big enough improvement to the desktop-style workflow, since there is only a single wire, and no docking station. It's trivial to jump between desktop mode and laptop mode. That's usability changing experience with USB-C.
- paulgb 7y ago
  It's really great for travel. I can bring one charger that works for my phone, my MacBook, and my work PC. Ironically, one of the reasons I went with Android instead of iPhone last time I bought a phone was that I could use my MacBook charger with it.
  - dboreham 7y ago
    And some cameras (e.g. Canon EOS-RP)
  - reustle 7y ago
    Don't you need to be really careful with which chargers you use with each device, regardless of the cable type? Pretty sure USB-C headphones shouldn't be charged with a USB-C Macbook Pro wall charger.
    - cjhopman 7y ago
      > Pretty sure USB-C headphones shouldn't be charged with a USB-C Macbook Pro wall charger. That should be fine. There's a protocol for the charger and the device to communicate and decide what power to charge at.
    - cesarb 7y ago
      > Pretty sure USB-C headphones shouldn't be charged with a USB-C Macbook Pro wall charger. Unless explicitly negotiated by both ends, every USB-C charger outputs the same boring 5 volts as classic USB, so the headphones should charge just fine.
pier25 7y ago
My experiences with USB-C/TB3 have not been great... I have to clean the USB-C port on my Android phone every couple of months otherwise it won't charge because the cable won't completely fit into the port. A thicker port means now more fibers and dirt can get in. This never happened to me with micro USB or lightning ports. The Nintendo Switch has a USB-C port which means you should be able to use any USB-C to HDMI cable or dock to charge it or connect it to a TV, right? Nope. You can only use the official expensive dock or USB-C cables. Otherwise you can brick your Switch. [1] I bought a cable for TB3 to connect an SSD to my iMac and instead of getting 40Gbps I only got 480Mbps... my fault for not reading the small print, but having the same connectors for different protocols is not a smart idea either. So I bought a real 40Gbps TB3 cable and then discovered whenever I plug anything on the TB3 ports of my iMac the CPU temps increase by 10ºC which makes the fans audible pretty much all the time. I opted for using USB3 which uses pretty cheap cables, is fast enough, and doesn't heat up my iMac. [1] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/04/nintendo-warns-against-using-substandard-switch-charging-cables/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/04/nintendo-warns-agains...
- jerf 7y ago
  "The Nintendo Switch has a USB-C port which means you should be able to use any USB-C to HDMI cable or dock to charge it or connect it to a TV, right? Nope. You can only use the official expensive dock or USB-C cables." AIUI, the way this all shook out (that's an early story) is that you can stick any USB-C charger you want into the Switch directly, and it'll work fine without bricking anything. However, when a dock gets involved, it gets more complicated. The easiest and safest way to remember the matrix of safe vs. unsafe is "use the official dock directly and don't do anything else". Technically there are other safe things in the matrix, such as using the USB cable with a proper resistor in it, but it's all too easy to get any other such policy wrong, and not usually worth it. Not that you're wrong to complain about the bricking issue. It's broken. It's just not quite as totally broken as some of the early articles thought. (For obvious reasons, nobody was too interested in conducting careful experiments to nail down all the variables.)
  - pier25 7y ago
    I agree but like you said it's a real issue. Another issue is that not all USB-C cables to HDMI work either because I think I read somewhere that Nintendo didn't follow the HDMI specs. It's not USB-C's fault of course but I've never seen so many issues with USB1, 2, or 3.
charlesdaniels 7y ago
Personally, I have only ever had negative experiences with type C (touchbar MacBook pro, Nintendo Switch). Type C was one of the main reasons I sold my MBP and switched to Linux. It was just impossible to find peripherals / cables that worked reliably. Aside from being a fragile and poorly designed physical connector, the state of protocols that can be run over it is a disaster. My grandmother definitely will not be able to troubleshoot why her devices don't work properly together when she uses a USB type C cable to connect Thunderbolt devices. I suspect this will be the same for many other users. While having a ridiculous number of different connectors isn't great, I think it would have been reasonable to at least have different connectors for power, data, and video (even if they were all part of the same spec, and just keyed different to help end users figure out what to plug in where). I would also have really liked to see a solid core connector. Apple Lightning is a good example of what that would look like -- there is no tiny wafer inside of the device-side port to crack, and both the port and connector are much more durable. Not that I think we should all use lightning, but it's an example of a reasonably well designed connector in my view. Finally, I think the fact that so many vendors have failed to properly implement the spec is a sign that it's a bad spec. Raspberry Pi and Nintendo presumably have competent engineering departments. By and large, nobody had difficulty getting microUSB right.
- saghm 7y ago
  > Personally, I have only ever had negative experiences with type C (touchbar MacBook pro, Nintendo Switch) Out of curiosity, what issues have you had with the charger/port of the Switch? I've had a Switch for a couple of years now, and the closest thing to an issue I've had with charging is that I can't use a less powerful charger (e.g. the one for me phone) effectively with it, but I basically knew that going in.
  - rhinoceraptor 7y ago
    AFAIK, it's highly discouraged to use any charger or dock other than the official Nintendo ones. Apparently Nintendo really bungled the USB-C charging protocol implementation and it's possible your switch will get fried if using 3rd party chargers or docks.
Ididntdothis 7y ago
Does anybody know why there are no USB-C hubs? With USB-A there are hubs that have four or eight USB-A outputs. But with USB-C I can’t find any hubs that have four USB-C outputs. Some have four USB-A but none have four USB-C output. Pretty strange and quite a loss of functionality.
- shantly 7y ago
  Guesses: 1) not that many people have four USB-C devices they need to plug in at once (unlike USB-A), 2) it'd probably be super expensive and in some cases impossible to support all the abilities of USB-C across 4 ports, leaving only some small subset of capabilities available on all four and maybe forcing you to not use some of the ports at all if one or two of them have higher-end capabilities and you're actually using them for that. Experience is probably confusing and frustrating at best—and expensive anyway.
- EwanToo 7y ago
  I've seen statements (that I can't verify) that chip support doesn't exist yet for additional usb-c ports. I guess negotiating the bandwidth and power delivery would be pretty complex
- zifutreiua 7y ago
  Maybe there is no market for them yet? Besides phones and laptops there are not many USB-C devices out there yet. And you don't connect phones and laptops to hubs (as a guest, not a host).
  - greggman2 7y ago
    > Maybe there is no market for them yet? Then I guess the title "USB-C Has Finally Come into Its Own" is a lie.
  - pfranz 7y ago
    Sony's pretty popular BT headphones, WH1000XM3, switched to USB-C about a year ago. I've noticed a bunch of external hard drives have, too. I picked up a micro-b to USB-C cable so I wouldn't need an adapter. Nintendo Switch was released in early 2017. It's difficult to even find chargers with more than 1 USB-C port. Apple has been shipping laptops with only USB-C since 2015. Many people rely heavily on dongles and breakout boxes. A USB-C hub would be welcome even at a steep premium. My guess is that all of the tech that tunnels through USB-C would be really difficult to hub or to share. Which is why the closest thing I've seen to a hub is a passthrough plus a USB-C for power.
ProfessorLayton 7y ago
A bit tangential, I have been pretty content with Apple's relative stability on their proprietary connectors on their mobile devices. Just look at the mess of variants for USB: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_hardware https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_hardware While I've only had to deal with 2.5-3* transitions for my Apple devices so far. * Apple of course did cause their own mess transitioning away from Firewire while keeping the 30-pin connector: - 30-pin Firewire data + charge - 30-pin Firewire charging only - 30-pin USB, no firewire charging (Remember all those Bose dock/car 30-pin adapters). - Lightning port transition. In this case, Apple's proprietary ports ended up feeling a lot more universal.
- mrpippy 7y ago
  In addition, adapters were available for all those steps: 12V to 5V charging, and the 30 pin to Lightning adapter. And on the software side, even the ancient iAP accessories are still working. I’ve seen 2007 car kits hooked up to an iPhone 6 through those 2 adapters and behaving just as you’d expect.
- dzhiurgis 7y ago
  A soft way for Apple would be offering iPhones with two different connectors - Lightning for luddites and USB-C for rest. However they’re more likely to come up with one with no cables at all...
Analemma_ 7y ago
I'm glad things are working great for the author, but for me USB-C is still a dumpster fire. When locked and plugged into its USB-C docking station, my MacBook Pro kernel panics multiple times per day. Since my current workplace has very strict rules about never leaving unattended computers unlocked, every trip to the bathroom is a 1-in-4 chance I'll have to watch my Mac reboot when I get back, unless I want to unplug it and lose all my window positions. It's mind-boggling how the entire industry fucked this up so badly.
- crooked-v 7y ago
  Part of the problem here is that you shouldn't actually need a 'docking station', just a USB-C hub with a bunch of full-feature USB-C ports on it (they can do practically anything, after all), but nobody's bothered to make one.
- Dylan16807 7y ago
  USB and displays have been hot-pluggable for decades. If there's a kernel panic then it's Apple's fault, not an entire industry.
- cerberusss 7y ago
  There's something wrong with either your docking station or your laptop. Since december 2016, I've been docking a MacBook Pro and I've never had a kernel panic.
  - Analemma_ 7y ago
    Unfortunately no: I've replaced both the laptop and the docking station, and the problem still occurs with a brand-new one of each. Something about macOS doesn't like this model of docking station.
    - cerberusss 7y ago
      I wonder what that dock does. Would be hugely interesting to see what it sends over the line. But now that I think of it, macOS shouldn't crash. Can you say which dock it is?
gwillz 7y ago
I've always felt like
gwillz 7y ago
I've always felt that manufacturers got the USB-C dongle very wrong. Instead of converting USB-C to DP/USB-A/HDMI, the dongle should be converting DP/USB-A/HDMI to USB-C. It's about upgrading the older perpherials instead of downgrading the new devices. For example, the dongle is instead fixed to my DVI port on my monitor. Now my monitor has a USB-C socket, instead of my laptop or phone having a DVI socket. It reduces bulk and now I truly only have to use USB-C cables everywhere. If someone knows where to find dongles like this I'd be very excited.
- cesarb 7y ago
  For USB-A, that's explicitly not allowed. From the standard: USB Type-C receptacle to USB legacy adapters are explicitly not defined or allowed. Such adapters would allow many invalid and potentially unsafe cable connections to be constructed by users. For DP and HDMI, I haven't seen the standard so I don't know if they are allowed, but they probably aren't, because they would be confusing for users. Such an adapter would be a USB-C "sink", and when you connect two USB-C "sinks" together, nothing happens (it would be like connecting together two devices which only have the classic USB-B port). So if a user tried to use a pair of these dongles together with a USB-C cable to replace a "native" DP or HDMI cable, it wouldn't work.
rektide 7y ago
Huge supporter of USB-C, but the premise is a joke. Dual chargers are only just starting to trickle out! Few laptops have >2 ports. How many people even in the tech realm have any idea what USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 means? (dual 10Gbit connection) The cost of implementation is really high & relies on way too many chips to achieve anything. Few SoC have USB-C built in. It's gonna take a decade before this becomes at all regular. It'll be in products, but it's still exotic to work with, & only doable along very narrow paths. That's the pace we're running at.
new_realist 7y ago
For all the bitching and moaning about USB-C in Apple MacBooks, the move looks prescient in retrospect.
- batiudrami 7y ago
  I don't think anyone was arguing that it wasn't. USB-C is and was obviously the future and a far superior standard. But not having even one USB-A port is still ocasionally a pain today, and definitely would have been four years ago.
notacoward 7y ago
If USB-C has finally come into its own, why is it still impossible to find a dual USB-C power adapter or battery? Still have to use hacky USB-C to USB-A cables connected to a low-amp USB-A port for all but one device. USB-C will have come into its own when I can travel without any extra cables or adapters to work with the older standard.
- alex-mohr 7y ago
  Chargers are finally coming: here's one that does 48w from one usb-c port or 30w+18w from 2 ports (plus 2 usb-a), plenty for a non-gaming laptop and phone: https://www.amazon.com/Universal-International-Worldwide-Multi-Nation-Countries/dp/B0785QS46W/ref=mp_s_a_1_12 https://www.amazon.com/Universal-International-Worldwide-Mul.... I have one and it works fine. Only battery pack with 2 usb-c seems to be the ZMI Ambi: https://www.amazon.com/ZMI-PowerPack-Ambi-USB-C-Power/dp/B07N7ZQ68Z https://www.amazon.com/ZMI-PowerPack-Ambi-USB-C-Power/dp/B07....
- callmeal 7y ago
  Anker[0] has a dual usb-c power adapter. Comes in handy while traveling. [0] : https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerport-atom-pd-2/A2029121 https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerport-atom-pd-2/A...
  - notacoward 7y ago
    Cool. I have the single-port Atom and love it. Nice to see these are finally appearing on the market.
- boulos 7y ago
  I recommend the dual-port 60W Anker: https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerport-atom-pd-2/A2029121 https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerport-atom-pd-2/A... It'll do 60W from one (laptop), or 2x30W and is fairly compact. So I amusingly now have lightning to USB (damn you Apple), and also bring a single USB-A to USB-C adapter sometimes (e.g., for a Fitbit charging cable).
greggman2 7y ago
Does anyone make a multiple USB-C charger? My Pixel, my MiFi, and MBA are all USB-C. I can get USB-C to Lightning Cables for my iPhone and Airpods but I can't find a power block that has more than a single USB-C socket. All of Anker's are 4 USB-A and 1 USB-C https://www.anker.com/ca/products/108/216/desktop-chargers https://www.anker.com/ca/products/108/216/desktop-chargers Checking on Amazon I see at most 2 USB-C (with nothing else so not useful)
- javagram 7y ago
  https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerport-atom-pd-2/A2029121 https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerport-atom-pd-2/A... This one has 2 USB-C https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerport-atom-pd-4/A2041122 https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerport-atom-pd-4/A... This has 2 USB-C and 2 USB-A. Apparently it’s out of stock on amazon right now though...
  - greggman2 7y ago
    I listed 3 devices so 2 is not a solution. And I've had 4 before and expect them to go up so would prefer to get a 5 port USB-C power supply now if such a thing existed.
- dmix 7y ago
  Next to my bed I have a 5 port USB-A charger w/ 3x high power throughout USB-A->USB-C cables + 1x USB-A->Lightning + 1x USB-A->Micro. More than sufficient for all my devices. Doesn't need to be USB-C->USB-C and way cheaper. One of the USB-C cords powers the fan beside my bed!
  - greggman2 7y ago
    The entire point of claiming USB-C has come into it's own would mean I don't need a bunch of non USB-C cables and adaptors. As it is I have a USB-C to USB-C cable for my Macbook for it's power supply, another for my Mifi, another for my Pixel. But I have no power supply that can charge all 3 so instead I have to have 2 cables for every device. One when use it on it's own. Another for each when using a single charger. If I hadn't sold my late 2018 iPad I'd have 4 USB-C devices needing 8 cables. That's not "Come into it's own" that's "Still in frustrating transition from USB-A era" I could list a bunch of other cables and adaptors I need because USB-C is not yet "come into it's own".
ailideex 7y ago
USB-C is a terribly designed connector. Both devices I have that use it disconnect when you just slightly graze the cable connected to USB-C. That includes a Nokia 7 plus phone and a HP elitebook. And this started after less than a year of use for both devices. I never had this problem with previous connectors and I wish I never spent any money on devices with such flimsy connectors.
- oxplot 7y ago
  I had a similar issue with my Pixel Phone's USB-C socket. The Apple's USB-C cable would fall out on its own after a while! Turns out, there was so much lint from clothing trapped at the end of the socket that the cable couldn't latch properly. Took a toothpick and got the dirt out. The cable now clicks in quite pleasurably and stays there firmly. Thought I'd mention in case others are wondering.
taneq 7y ago
Time to change the connector again, I guess.
intsunny 7y ago
I've heard that Apple engineers helped with the USB-C spec based on their experiences with Lightning. Why did they opt for a connector with a tongue that could break on the device? The Lightning connector seems to be superior because it does not have a piece that could not only break, but is a real PITA to fix.
- faceplanted 7y ago
  Because those breakages are rare enough in the real world for it to be worth the choice.
- charwalker 7y ago
  What's your failure rate? I haven't had a USB C cable break like that, not even the cheap ones.
oxplot 7y ago
USB-C can supply up to 100 watts of power at 20v and up to 5A current. At the moment, you can easily get your hands on 87 watt Apple charger which is a high quality and compact [1]. That's a huge amount of power. To put this into perspective, here are a few unsuspecting items that can be easily powered by Apple's charger (stuff around my apartment): * A fairly capable soldering iron [2] * Studio grade lighting [3] * Prusa i3 3D printer [4] * Emblaser Core Laser Cutter Each of these devices come with their own power supply unit, most of which are bricks at least twice the size of the Apple's charger, while most likely of lower output signal quality (e.g. higher ripple). It'd be great if all that waste could be replaces with a USB-C port! That's why I'm currently working on a PCB kit which can be programmed to require a certain voltage/current from an upstream USB-C power supply [7]. It can then be used as adapter for (or embedded inside) devices that don't have USB-C power input. I'm hoping to sell the kit in the future. I'll be getting rid of my power bricks one by one while making them more portable with things like high power car chargers [6]. I'm also working on an upstream USB-C power supply (as a kit) [8] that can take any input from 10-35v and provide up to 100 watt output (which is currently rare). [1]: http://k.sina.com.cn/article_1677177940_63f7b454001003fpl.html http://k.sina.com.cn/article_1677177940_63f7b454001003fpl.ht... [2]: https://www.weller-tools.com/we1010na/ https://www.weller-tools.com/we1010na/ [3]: https://www.amazon.com.au/Godox-SL-60W-Temperature-Continous-Lighting/dp/B01EA25GDY https://www.amazon.com.au/Godox-SL-60W-Temperature-Continous... [4]: https://shop.prusa3d.com/en/3d-printers/180-original-prusa-i3-mk3-kit.html https://shop.prusa3d.com/en/3d-printers/180-original-prusa-i... [5]: https://darklylabs.com/emblaser_core/ https://darklylabs.com/emblaser_core/ [6]: https://satechi.net/products/72w-type-c-pd-car-charger-adapter?nosto=frontpage-nosto-1 https://satechi.net/products/72w-type-c-pd-car-charger-adapt... [7]: https://imgur.com/a/GIia7Fo https://imgur.com/a/GIia7Fo [8]: https://imgur.com/a/ejbPBIT https://imgur.com/a/ejbPBIT
- llampx 7y ago
  Apple's charger is nice but it also costs a pretty penny. Are you sure you couldn't get a nicer custom-built power supply if you wanted to spend that much money?
  - oxplot 7y ago
reportgunner 7y ago
> letting you use a laptop to power your smartphone, for instance What do they mean ? I remember charging my phone (or even a mp3 player) from my laptop using mini USB and later micro USB like 8 or 10 years ago.
- jakobegger 7y ago
  Yeah, that part doesn't really add up. Maybe they meant to say that the same port on a laptop can be used to put power in or take power out, but that's not really that big of a deal. What's new is that you can now use a laptop charger to charge a phone.
  - eloisant 7y ago
    Well, considering the shitshow that is voltage on USB-C, I would never try to charge my phone with my laptop charger. Maybe in a few years when USB-C is more mature, and manufacturer know how to place safeguards in devices so you can't fry it by plugging the wrong charger...
    - SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
      Is it? My understanding was that it supplied 5V (as per previous USB standards) until devices negotiated otherwise?
      - elliottkember 7y ago
        It does. I do this nightly. The iPhone has a fast-charge mode when used with a laptop charger, or their new fast charger, and it’s like 50%-in-30-minutes fast with either
    - llampx 7y ago
      I've charged my (Huawei) phone just fine with Apple and Lenovo USB type C chargers. In fact I could even (slowly) charge my Thinkpad with my phone's charger. Would I do it with a no-name charger or cable or an older one? Hell no.
mnd999 7y ago
The ports are too fragile and the different cable standards are incomprehensible. I was quite pleased when I heard about USB C but it started badly with the dodgy cables and had just got worse. I’m hoping Apple stick with lightning.
dwb 7y ago
The cables/protocols situation is pretty silly, but even despite that I got on the USB-C train as soon as I could, dongles and new cables and all. The connector is that much better, and yes, if you can arrange a one-cable-to-rule-them-all laptop docking situation it's glorious. I'll take the upheaval for that.
whywhywhywhy 7y ago
Tried to charge my Macbook Pro with a colleagues charger recently. After an hour I unplugged it only to find it hadn't actually been charging. Turns out the Macbook chargers although looking almost identical to the Macbook Pro chargers can only provide enough power to run the Macbook Pro but not enough power to run and charge it. Not sure how non-technical people are ever supposed to realize or understand any of this.
- electrum 7y ago
  This isn't specific to USB-C. The older MagSafe adapters (and likely the ones before them) came in different wattage for different computers. The smaller wattage adapters are physically smaller and lighter -- often important for someone who intentionally purchased a lightweight computer.
cmurf 7y ago
I've got an HP Spectre laptop, and Moto X4. Both have USB-C. Both came with their own power supplies. I'm scared to try the HP brick cable to see if it'll charge, or blow up my phone. I doubt the Moto charger would even register on the laptop but maybe it'd trickle charge it? I have no idea or confidence in how mixing these things would work. But otherwise I prefer USB-C to all previous alternatives so far.
dariusj18 7y ago
USB-C will actually be here when Logitech releases a mouse/keyboard dongle for it.

100 points by headalgorithm 7y ago

I remember getting the Samsung S8 when it first came out. I left my charger at home and was at a conference all day. I called every computer store around and nobody had a cable. I would say USB-C has come into its own when every corner store or uber car has a usb-c charging cable standard.

Rebelgecko 7y ago
Anyone with a new-ish Apple laptop would've been able to help. I think the MBPs started using USB-C for charging in 2016.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- dajohnson89 7y ago
  anyone with a new iphone would not be able to help. when will Apple get serious about using usb-c universally?
  - RandallBrown 7y ago
    They'd at least be able to help with a wall wart... Apple is in a tricky place because there are so many accessories in the world that work with Lightning. Customers would be pissed if they had to use dongles for all of that stuff they already own. The 30 Pin connector existed for 9 years before Lightning came out in 2012, so we still probably have a few years before they consider abandoning it. I imagine by then, USB-C will actually be the universal solution that everyone wants. Part of me is actually expecting Apple to abandon cables altogether and just provide wireless charging/syncing.
    - akersten 7y ago
      > Customers would be pissed if they had to use dongles for all of that stuff they already own. Eh, they were brave enough to do it for the 3.5mm jack, I don't see why they couldn't do it here. So I think the real reason is they want to continue to sell $40 lightening cables, or whatever they cost now.
      - macintux 7y ago
        Or, as the article points out... > In Apple’s case, the hesitation at least makes some sense. As long as USB-C compatibility is more tangled than a late-stage game of Twister, it will remain anathema to Cupertino’s mantra of “it just works.” USB-C can still feel more like "it works, just not always how you were expecting." Apple already achieved USB-C’s space-saving and reversibility benefits seven years ago with the introduction of its Lightning cable. And in those seven years, an expansive ecosystem of Lightning peripherals has emerged, all of which would head straight for the scrap heap with a jump to USB-C.
        Dylan16807 7y ago
        If they had jumped straight to USB-C on their phones it never would have been tangled. Exact data speeds don't matter for a phone, they could have avoided any headphone adapter confusion, and the issue of charging-only cables exists no matter what, on lightning too. And adding an adapter onto lightning plugs is less invasive than the issues with removing the headphone jack. Edit: So would anyone like to explain how any of that is such a bad contribution it deserves a downvote? I'm always surprised when a comment gets silently downvoted, it's never something where I expected any downvotes...
        OkGoDoIt 7y ago
        Lightning came out several years before USB-C. So I don’t think going straight to USB-C was really an option. (not suggesting that’s why you were downvoted, just clarifying the timeline of the ports)
m463 7y ago
aren't there high and low power cables?

herogreen 7y ago

mini USB: octobrer 2000 to january 2007 (6 years, 3 months) micro USB: january 2007 to august 2014 (7 years, 7 months) USB-C: august 2014 - ? (5+ years) I hope we keep increasing the lifespan of the "suggested" mobile-device USB form factor, to increase convenience and (slightly) reduce environmental impact.

SnarkAsh 7y ago
At least when you had a micro USB or mini USB cable, you knew it would be compatible with everything of the same form factor. USB-C's form factor might stick around longer, but its compatibility problems are going to be much worse.
- B1FF_PSUVM 7y ago
  Not to mention that software may disable your hardware's USB ports if it thinks they're dirty - a feature in Android 10, if I read https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20868164 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20868164 right
lstamour 7y ago
It's very likely we'll hit a point where the connector (Type-C) doesn't change, but the cable standards do. Just like how USB Type-A has been very stable, or HDMI, DisplayPort and mini-DP. That said, I don't see USB Micro-B disappearing anytime soon. And everything USB power delivery is an improvement over how we used to do power via randomly-sized DC connectors. I remember spending quite awhile looking for alternative power adapters for my PSP-1000 which did have its own micro USB port. Don't get me started on proprietary cellphone power adapters... or the various 30-pin connectors ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dock_connector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dock_connector
- InitialLastName 7y ago
  At least Type-C is permanently reversible, where MicroUSB is just destructively reversible.
7y ago

ses1984 7y ago

"a reputable vendor like Amazon" Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

rahuldottech 7y ago

> “but we expect that as the adoption of USB Type-C products and USB Power Delivery continues to increase the market will guide [manufacturers] toward a common implementation.” I'd really like this, but I don't know if it'll ever happen. The situation, as it stands now, is a mess: The Raspberry Pi finally got USB-C, but they botched the implementation. As did the Nintendo switch. Even with phones and audio, there's like two different kinds of dongles and you never know which will work? https://youtu.be/Ly-bSBHOSIo https://youtu.be/Ly-bSBHOSIo Not to mention that there's a ridiculous number of standards that a USB-C device can support, but you have no way of knowing what by looking at it physically. Power delivery? Not on most non-high-end Windows laptops. Data? On most, except the Raspberry Pi? QuickCharge? Sometimes. Video? Only with some phones and laptops. Not most non-high-end devices. You always have to look it up, it's a huge mess.

mmastrac 7y ago
USB-A had the same growing pains. I recall buying a USB hub around 2000ish that used to crash randomly. It wasn't until the mid 2000s til you could get hubs that were reliable. There was also a myriad of charging options around the launch of the iPad. It was a hit or miss gamble with chargers, cables and devices. Maybe you'll get 1A? Maybe not? USB-C is a complex standard, but the chipsets and processes are improving and this pain will be a distant memory - just like all those USB-A pains we had.
- rhombocombus 7y ago
  I remember, it was such that I despised USB for many years, but then it reached a level of ubiquity and maturity that made it really great. Like you, I think that in a few years this will all be like USB-a in the late '90s/early 2000s.
  - SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
    Probably just in time for USB4 / USB-D to come and mess it all up again ;)

Animats 7y ago

USB-C isn't just USB. It's USB plus a whole bunch of other optional features, from higher power to DisplayPort video to a JTAG back door. It's a collection of features jammed into a really tiny connector. Of course it's not very compatible.

shantly 7y ago

My wife, last week, a couple days after she gets a new Macbook Air to replace her old one that stopped working: "Wait... there are no USB ports on this thing? How the fuck am I supposed to plug anything in?! My flash drives, my camera, my microphone... anything? Seriously?" Welcome to dongle life :-( 2019, still don't have a single thing in our house to plug into a USB-C port, except adapters. Probably reach the end of 2020 in a similar state. Just bought a new 4TB portable HD that's USB-A (3.0), because USB-C wouldn't be able to plug into anything but a new Macbook, without an adapter.

asciident 7y ago
I don't know about you, but my flash drives, camera, and microphone are all usb-c. It sounds like you have either not upgraded your devices in a while, or bought devices with out-of-date connectors. It's pretty easy to avoid out-of-date non- usb-c accessories these days.
- JCharante 7y ago
  I don't think I've ever seen a USB C flashdrive in my life
- shantly 7y ago
  USB-A is only out of date for Apple, and if the actual connection is USB 2 or 3 (not, say, thunderbolt) there’s little reason to choose USB-C. Desktop? USB-A only. Raspberries Pi? USB-A. Older MacBook Pro? A. Every console for the last couple generations, except sort-of the Switch? A. They should have had a couple years of a transition model rather than going all-A to all-C at once.

denormalfloat 7y ago

I didn't come to appreciate the power of USB-C until I started using it with my laptop. It is a single cable that connects to my monitor, powers the laptop, provides USB access to the keyboard and mouse, and to the hub on the monitor. This is a big enough improvement to the desktop-style workflow, since there is only a single wire, and no docking station. It's trivial to jump between desktop mode and laptop mode. That's usability changing experience with USB-C.

paulgb 7y ago
It's really great for travel. I can bring one charger that works for my phone, my MacBook, and my work PC. Ironically, one of the reasons I went with Android instead of iPhone last time I bought a phone was that I could use my MacBook charger with it.
- dboreham 7y ago
  And some cameras (e.g. Canon EOS-RP)
- reustle 7y ago
  Don't you need to be really careful with which chargers you use with each device, regardless of the cable type? Pretty sure USB-C headphones shouldn't be charged with a USB-C Macbook Pro wall charger.
  - cjhopman 7y ago
    > Pretty sure USB-C headphones shouldn't be charged with a USB-C Macbook Pro wall charger. That should be fine. There's a protocol for the charger and the device to communicate and decide what power to charge at.
  - cesarb 7y ago
    > Pretty sure USB-C headphones shouldn't be charged with a USB-C Macbook Pro wall charger. Unless explicitly negotiated by both ends, every USB-C charger outputs the same boring 5 volts as classic USB, so the headphones should charge just fine.

pier25 7y ago

My experiences with USB-C/TB3 have not been great... I have to clean the USB-C port on my Android phone every couple of months otherwise it won't charge because the cable won't completely fit into the port. A thicker port means now more fibers and dirt can get in. This never happened to me with micro USB or lightning ports. The Nintendo Switch has a USB-C port which means you should be able to use any USB-C to HDMI cable or dock to charge it or connect it to a TV, right? Nope. You can only use the official expensive dock or USB-C cables. Otherwise you can brick your Switch. [1] I bought a cable for TB3 to connect an SSD to my iMac and instead of getting 40Gbps I only got 480Mbps... my fault for not reading the small print, but having the same connectors for different protocols is not a smart idea either. So I bought a real 40Gbps TB3 cable and then discovered whenever I plug anything on the TB3 ports of my iMac the CPU temps increase by 10ºC which makes the fans audible pretty much all the time. I opted for using USB3 which uses pretty cheap cables, is fast enough, and doesn't heat up my iMac. [1] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/04/nintendo-warns-against-using-substandard-switch-charging-cables/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/04/nintendo-warns-agains...

jerf 7y ago
"The Nintendo Switch has a USB-C port which means you should be able to use any USB-C to HDMI cable or dock to charge it or connect it to a TV, right? Nope. You can only use the official expensive dock or USB-C cables." AIUI, the way this all shook out (that's an early story) is that you can stick any USB-C charger you want into the Switch directly, and it'll work fine without bricking anything. However, when a dock gets involved, it gets more complicated. The easiest and safest way to remember the matrix of safe vs. unsafe is "use the official dock directly and don't do anything else". Technically there are other safe things in the matrix, such as using the USB cable with a proper resistor in it, but it's all too easy to get any other such policy wrong, and not usually worth it. Not that you're wrong to complain about the bricking issue. It's broken. It's just not quite as totally broken as some of the early articles thought. (For obvious reasons, nobody was too interested in conducting careful experiments to nail down all the variables.)
- pier25 7y ago
  I agree but like you said it's a real issue. Another issue is that not all USB-C cables to HDMI work either because I think I read somewhere that Nintendo didn't follow the HDMI specs. It's not USB-C's fault of course but I've never seen so many issues with USB1, 2, or 3.

charlesdaniels 7y ago

Personally, I have only ever had negative experiences with type C (touchbar MacBook pro, Nintendo Switch). Type C was one of the main reasons I sold my MBP and switched to Linux. It was just impossible to find peripherals / cables that worked reliably. Aside from being a fragile and poorly designed physical connector, the state of protocols that can be run over it is a disaster. My grandmother definitely will not be able to troubleshoot why her devices don't work properly together when she uses a USB type C cable to connect Thunderbolt devices. I suspect this will be the same for many other users. While having a ridiculous number of different connectors isn't great, I think it would have been reasonable to at least have different connectors for power, data, and video (even if they were all part of the same spec, and just keyed different to help end users figure out what to plug in where). I would also have really liked to see a solid core connector. Apple Lightning is a good example of what that would look like -- there is no tiny wafer inside of the device-side port to crack, and both the port and connector are much more durable. Not that I think we should all use lightning, but it's an example of a reasonably well designed connector in my view. Finally, I think the fact that so many vendors have failed to properly implement the spec is a sign that it's a bad spec. Raspberry Pi and Nintendo presumably have competent engineering departments. By and large, nobody had difficulty getting microUSB right.

saghm 7y ago
> Personally, I have only ever had negative experiences with type C (touchbar MacBook pro, Nintendo Switch) Out of curiosity, what issues have you had with the charger/port of the Switch? I've had a Switch for a couple of years now, and the closest thing to an issue I've had with charging is that I can't use a less powerful charger (e.g. the one for me phone) effectively with it, but I basically knew that going in.
- rhinoceraptor 7y ago
  AFAIK, it's highly discouraged to use any charger or dock other than the official Nintendo ones. Apparently Nintendo really bungled the USB-C charging protocol implementation and it's possible your switch will get fried if using 3rd party chargers or docks.

Ididntdothis 7y ago

Does anybody know why there are no USB-C hubs? With USB-A there are hubs that have four or eight USB-A outputs. But with USB-C I can’t find any hubs that have four USB-C outputs. Some have four USB-A but none have four USB-C output. Pretty strange and quite a loss of functionality.

shantly 7y ago
Guesses: 1) not that many people have four USB-C devices they need to plug in at once (unlike USB-A), 2) it'd probably be super expensive and in some cases impossible to support all the abilities of USB-C across 4 ports, leaving only some small subset of capabilities available on all four and maybe forcing you to not use some of the ports at all if one or two of them have higher-end capabilities and you're actually using them for that. Experience is probably confusing and frustrating at best—and expensive anyway.
EwanToo 7y ago
I've seen statements (that I can't verify) that chip support doesn't exist yet for additional usb-c ports. I guess negotiating the bandwidth and power delivery would be pretty complex
zifutreiua 7y ago
Maybe there is no market for them yet? Besides phones and laptops there are not many USB-C devices out there yet. And you don't connect phones and laptops to hubs (as a guest, not a host).
- greggman2 7y ago
  > Maybe there is no market for them yet? Then I guess the title "USB-C Has Finally Come into Its Own" is a lie.
- pfranz 7y ago
  Sony's pretty popular BT headphones, WH1000XM3, switched to USB-C about a year ago. I've noticed a bunch of external hard drives have, too. I picked up a micro-b to USB-C cable so I wouldn't need an adapter. Nintendo Switch was released in early 2017. It's difficult to even find chargers with more than 1 USB-C port. Apple has been shipping laptops with only USB-C since 2015. Many people rely heavily on dongles and breakout boxes. A USB-C hub would be welcome even at a steep premium. My guess is that all of the tech that tunnels through USB-C would be really difficult to hub or to share. Which is why the closest thing I've seen to a hub is a passthrough plus a USB-C for power.

ProfessorLayton 7y ago

A bit tangential, I have been pretty content with Apple's relative stability on their proprietary connectors on their mobile devices. Just look at the mess of variants for USB: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_hardware https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_hardware While I've only had to deal with 2.5-3* transitions for my Apple devices so far. * Apple of course did cause their own mess transitioning away from Firewire while keeping the 30-pin connector: - 30-pin Firewire data + charge - 30-pin Firewire charging only - 30-pin USB, no firewire charging (Remember all those Bose dock/car 30-pin adapters). - Lightning port transition. In this case, Apple's proprietary ports ended up feeling a lot more universal.

mrpippy 7y ago
In addition, adapters were available for all those steps: 12V to 5V charging, and the 30 pin to Lightning adapter. And on the software side, even the ancient iAP accessories are still working. I’ve seen 2007 car kits hooked up to an iPhone 6 through those 2 adapters and behaving just as you’d expect.
dzhiurgis 7y ago
A soft way for Apple would be offering iPhones with two different connectors - Lightning for luddites and USB-C for rest. However they’re more likely to come up with one with no cables at all...

Analemma_ 7y ago

I'm glad things are working great for the author, but for me USB-C is still a dumpster fire. When locked and plugged into its USB-C docking station, my MacBook Pro kernel panics multiple times per day. Since my current workplace has very strict rules about never leaving unattended computers unlocked, every trip to the bathroom is a 1-in-4 chance I'll have to watch my Mac reboot when I get back, unless I want to unplug it and lose all my window positions. It's mind-boggling how the entire industry fucked this up so badly.

crooked-v 7y ago
Part of the problem here is that you shouldn't actually need a 'docking station', just a USB-C hub with a bunch of full-feature USB-C ports on it (they can do practically anything, after all), but nobody's bothered to make one.
Dylan16807 7y ago
USB and displays have been hot-pluggable for decades. If there's a kernel panic then it's Apple's fault, not an entire industry.
cerberusss 7y ago
There's something wrong with either your docking station or your laptop. Since december 2016, I've been docking a MacBook Pro and I've never had a kernel panic.
- Analemma_ 7y ago
  Unfortunately no: I've replaced both the laptop and the docking station, and the problem still occurs with a brand-new one of each. Something about macOS doesn't like this model of docking station.
  - cerberusss 7y ago
    I wonder what that dock does. Would be hugely interesting to see what it sends over the line. But now that I think of it, macOS shouldn't crash. Can you say which dock it is?

gwillz 7y ago

I've always felt like

gwillz 7y ago

I've always felt that manufacturers got the USB-C dongle very wrong. Instead of converting USB-C to DP/USB-A/HDMI, the dongle should be converting DP/USB-A/HDMI to USB-C. It's about upgrading the older perpherials instead of downgrading the new devices. For example, the dongle is instead fixed to my DVI port on my monitor. Now my monitor has a USB-C socket, instead of my laptop or phone having a DVI socket. It reduces bulk and now I truly only have to use USB-C cables everywhere. If someone knows where to find dongles like this I'd be very excited.

cesarb 7y ago
For USB-A, that's explicitly not allowed. From the standard: USB Type-C receptacle to USB legacy adapters are explicitly not defined or allowed. Such adapters would allow many invalid and potentially unsafe cable connections to be constructed by users. For DP and HDMI, I haven't seen the standard so I don't know if they are allowed, but they probably aren't, because they would be confusing for users. Such an adapter would be a USB-C "sink", and when you connect two USB-C "sinks" together, nothing happens (it would be like connecting together two devices which only have the classic USB-B port). So if a user tried to use a pair of these dongles together with a USB-C cable to replace a "native" DP or HDMI cable, it wouldn't work.

rektide 7y ago

Huge supporter of USB-C, but the premise is a joke. Dual chargers are only just starting to trickle out! Few laptops have >2 ports. How many people even in the tech realm have any idea what USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 means? (dual 10Gbit connection) The cost of implementation is really high & relies on way too many chips to achieve anything. Few SoC have USB-C built in. It's gonna take a decade before this becomes at all regular. It'll be in products, but it's still exotic to work with, & only doable along very narrow paths. That's the pace we're running at.

new_realist 7y ago

For all the bitching and moaning about USB-C in Apple MacBooks, the move looks prescient in retrospect.

batiudrami 7y ago
I don't think anyone was arguing that it wasn't. USB-C is and was obviously the future and a far superior standard. But not having even one USB-A port is still ocasionally a pain today, and definitely would have been four years ago.

notacoward 7y ago

If USB-C has finally come into its own, why is it still impossible to find a dual USB-C power adapter or battery? Still have to use hacky USB-C to USB-A cables connected to a low-amp USB-A port for all but one device. USB-C will have come into its own when I can travel without any extra cables or adapters to work with the older standard.

alex-mohr 7y ago
Chargers are finally coming: here's one that does 48w from one usb-c port or 30w+18w from 2 ports (plus 2 usb-a), plenty for a non-gaming laptop and phone: https://www.amazon.com/Universal-International-Worldwide-Multi-Nation-Countries/dp/B0785QS46W/ref=mp_s_a_1_12 https://www.amazon.com/Universal-International-Worldwide-Mul.... I have one and it works fine. Only battery pack with 2 usb-c seems to be the ZMI Ambi: https://www.amazon.com/ZMI-PowerPack-Ambi-USB-C-Power/dp/B07N7ZQ68Z https://www.amazon.com/ZMI-PowerPack-Ambi-USB-C-Power/dp/B07....
callmeal 7y ago
Anker[0] has a dual usb-c power adapter. Comes in handy while traveling. [0] : https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerport-atom-pd-2/A2029121 https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerport-atom-pd-2/A...
- notacoward 7y ago
  Cool. I have the single-port Atom and love it. Nice to see these are finally appearing on the market.
boulos 7y ago
I recommend the dual-port 60W Anker: https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerport-atom-pd-2/A2029121 https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerport-atom-pd-2/A... It'll do 60W from one (laptop), or 2x30W and is fairly compact. So I amusingly now have lightning to USB (damn you Apple), and also bring a single USB-A to USB-C adapter sometimes (e.g., for a Fitbit charging cable).

greggman2 7y ago

Does anyone make a multiple USB-C charger? My Pixel, my MiFi, and MBA are all USB-C. I can get USB-C to Lightning Cables for my iPhone and Airpods but I can't find a power block that has more than a single USB-C socket. All of Anker's are 4 USB-A and 1 USB-C https://www.anker.com/ca/products/108/216/desktop-chargers https://www.anker.com/ca/products/108/216/desktop-chargers Checking on Amazon I see at most 2 USB-C (with nothing else so not useful)

javagram 7y ago
https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerport-atom-pd-2/A2029121 https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerport-atom-pd-2/A... This one has 2 USB-C https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerport-atom-pd-4/A2041122 https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerport-atom-pd-4/A... This has 2 USB-C and 2 USB-A. Apparently it’s out of stock on amazon right now though...
- greggman2 7y ago
  I listed 3 devices so 2 is not a solution. And I've had 4 before and expect them to go up so would prefer to get a 5 port USB-C power supply now if such a thing existed.
dmix 7y ago
Next to my bed I have a 5 port USB-A charger w/ 3x high power throughout USB-A->USB-C cables + 1x USB-A->Lightning + 1x USB-A->Micro. More than sufficient for all my devices. Doesn't need to be USB-C->USB-C and way cheaper. One of the USB-C cords powers the fan beside my bed!
- greggman2 7y ago
  The entire point of claiming USB-C has come into it's own would mean I don't need a bunch of non USB-C cables and adaptors. As it is I have a USB-C to USB-C cable for my Macbook for it's power supply, another for my Mifi, another for my Pixel. But I have no power supply that can charge all 3 so instead I have to have 2 cables for every device. One when use it on it's own. Another for each when using a single charger. If I hadn't sold my late 2018 iPad I'd have 4 USB-C devices needing 8 cables. That's not "Come into it's own" that's "Still in frustrating transition from USB-A era" I could list a bunch of other cables and adaptors I need because USB-C is not yet "come into it's own".

ailideex 7y ago

USB-C is a terribly designed connector. Both devices I have that use it disconnect when you just slightly graze the cable connected to USB-C. That includes a Nokia 7 plus phone and a HP elitebook. And this started after less than a year of use for both devices. I never had this problem with previous connectors and I wish I never spent any money on devices with such flimsy connectors.

oxplot 7y ago
I had a similar issue with my Pixel Phone's USB-C socket. The Apple's USB-C cable would fall out on its own after a while! Turns out, there was so much lint from clothing trapped at the end of the socket that the cable couldn't latch properly. Took a toothpick and got the dirt out. The cable now clicks in quite pleasurably and stays there firmly. Thought I'd mention in case others are wondering.

taneq 7y ago

Time to change the connector again, I guess.

intsunny 7y ago

I've heard that Apple engineers helped with the USB-C spec based on their experiences with Lightning. Why did they opt for a connector with a tongue that could break on the device? The Lightning connector seems to be superior because it does not have a piece that could not only break, but is a real PITA to fix.

faceplanted 7y ago
Because those breakages are rare enough in the real world for it to be worth the choice.
charwalker 7y ago
What's your failure rate? I haven't had a USB C cable break like that, not even the cheap ones.

oxplot 7y ago

USB-C can supply up to 100 watts of power at 20v and up to 5A current. At the moment, you can easily get your hands on 87 watt Apple charger which is a high quality and compact [1]. That's a huge amount of power. To put this into perspective, here are a few unsuspecting items that can be easily powered by Apple's charger (stuff around my apartment): * A fairly capable soldering iron [2] * Studio grade lighting [3] * Prusa i3 3D printer [4] * Emblaser Core Laser Cutter Each of these devices come with their own power supply unit, most of which are bricks at least twice the size of the Apple's charger, while most likely of lower output signal quality (e.g. higher ripple). It'd be great if all that waste could be replaces with a USB-C port! That's why I'm currently working on a PCB kit which can be programmed to require a certain voltage/current from an upstream USB-C power supply [7]. It can then be used as adapter for (or embedded inside) devices that don't have USB-C power input. I'm hoping to sell the kit in the future. I'll be getting rid of my power bricks one by one while making them more portable with things like high power car chargers [6]. I'm also working on an upstream USB-C power supply (as a kit) [8] that can take any input from 10-35v and provide up to 100 watt output (which is currently rare). [1]: http://k.sina.com.cn/article_1677177940_63f7b454001003fpl.html http://k.sina.com.cn/article_1677177940_63f7b454001003fpl.ht... [2]: https://www.weller-tools.com/we1010na/ https://www.weller-tools.com/we1010na/ [3]: https://www.amazon.com.au/Godox-SL-60W-Temperature-Continous-Lighting/dp/B01EA25GDY https://www.amazon.com.au/Godox-SL-60W-Temperature-Continous... [4]: https://shop.prusa3d.com/en/3d-printers/180-original-prusa-i3-mk3-kit.html https://shop.prusa3d.com/en/3d-printers/180-original-prusa-i... [5]: https://darklylabs.com/emblaser_core/ https://darklylabs.com/emblaser_core/ [6]: https://satechi.net/products/72w-type-c-pd-car-charger-adapter?nosto=frontpage-nosto-1 https://satechi.net/products/72w-type-c-pd-car-charger-adapt... [7]: https://imgur.com/a/GIia7Fo https://imgur.com/a/GIia7Fo [8]: https://imgur.com/a/ejbPBIT https://imgur.com/a/ejbPBIT

llampx 7y ago
Apple's charger is nice but it also costs a pretty penny. Are you sure you couldn't get a nicer custom-built power supply if you wanted to spend that much money?
- oxplot 7y ago

reportgunner 7y ago

> letting you use a laptop to power your smartphone, for instance What do they mean ? I remember charging my phone (or even a mp3 player) from my laptop using mini USB and later micro USB like 8 or 10 years ago.

jakobegger 7y ago
Yeah, that part doesn't really add up. Maybe they meant to say that the same port on a laptop can be used to put power in or take power out, but that's not really that big of a deal. What's new is that you can now use a laptop charger to charge a phone.
- eloisant 7y ago
  Well, considering the shitshow that is voltage on USB-C, I would never try to charge my phone with my laptop charger. Maybe in a few years when USB-C is more mature, and manufacturer know how to place safeguards in devices so you can't fry it by plugging the wrong charger...
  - SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
    Is it? My understanding was that it supplied 5V (as per previous USB standards) until devices negotiated otherwise?
    - elliottkember 7y ago
      It does. I do this nightly. The iPhone has a fast-charge mode when used with a laptop charger, or their new fast charger, and it’s like 50%-in-30-minutes fast with either
  - llampx 7y ago
    I've charged my (Huawei) phone just fine with Apple and Lenovo USB type C chargers. In fact I could even (slowly) charge my Thinkpad with my phone's charger. Would I do it with a no-name charger or cable or an older one? Hell no.

mnd999 7y ago

The ports are too fragile and the different cable standards are incomprehensible. I was quite pleased when I heard about USB C but it started badly with the dodgy cables and had just got worse. I’m hoping Apple stick with lightning.

dwb 7y ago

The cables/protocols situation is pretty silly, but even despite that I got on the USB-C train as soon as I could, dongles and new cables and all. The connector is that much better, and yes, if you can arrange a one-cable-to-rule-them-all laptop docking situation it's glorious. I'll take the upheaval for that.

whywhywhywhy 7y ago

Tried to charge my Macbook Pro with a colleagues charger recently. After an hour I unplugged it only to find it hadn't actually been charging. Turns out the Macbook chargers although looking almost identical to the Macbook Pro chargers can only provide enough power to run the Macbook Pro but not enough power to run and charge it. Not sure how non-technical people are ever supposed to realize or understand any of this.

electrum 7y ago
This isn't specific to USB-C. The older MagSafe adapters (and likely the ones before them) came in different wattage for different computers. The smaller wattage adapters are physically smaller and lighter -- often important for someone who intentionally purchased a lightweight computer.

cmurf 7y ago

I've got an HP Spectre laptop, and Moto X4. Both have USB-C. Both came with their own power supplies. I'm scared to try the HP brick cable to see if it'll charge, or blow up my phone. I doubt the Moto charger would even register on the laptop but maybe it'd trickle charge it? I have no idea or confidence in how mixing these things would work. But otherwise I prefer USB-C to all previous alternatives so far.

dariusj18 7y ago

USB-C will actually be here when Logitech releases a mouse/keyboard dongle for it.