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7 years ago I wrote a comment, dismayed about the coming USB-C insanity and was made fun of. Here we are. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9645013 https:/

7 years ago I wrote a comment, dismayed about the coming USB-C insanity and was made fun of. Here we are. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9645013 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9645013

spicybright 5y ago
See you again in 7 years! :(
tempnow987 5y ago
Haha... That's pretty perfect. And after 7 years I'm also still playing with stuff. I got a hub with an external power connector that plugs into wall and it charges my iphone at trickle charger rates. Meanwhile my "crappy" apple charger seems to blast my iphone up in no time. One cost me MORE (the hub/dock).
- smoldesu 5y ago
  This just in! Accessory designed for use with phone works well with phone, while off-the-shelf generic accessory does not. More at 11.
  - tempnow987 5y ago
    We have been told, repeatedly, about the "next great thing" in standards. The EU mandated micro-USB (ugh!). 7 years ago we were being hyped up about USB-C. Here we are 7 years later, and the SAME lighting cable apple has had for 10 years (!!) is more sturdy, has great low latency (if you compare to USB-C for music making the difference is crazy), has fantastic reliable power delivery. I mean, after 10 years you'd think the new standards would be absolutely crushing Apple's old tech. But I can't get the low latency on USB-C for audio I get on lighting (anyone know why? Both are wires) 10+ years later. It's maddening. And the power delivery and speeds of USB-C/USB3 are just crazily all over the map. You can plug into a blue USB3 port and go no faster than you did on an old port!
    - smoldesu 5y ago
      If only Apple had considered the plight of man before switching their laptops over to exclusively use USB-C connectors.
djur 5y ago
The problem here isn't related to the standardized port and incompatibility between devices, though, is it? It's a matter of the functionality of the hardware in the peripheral, which has been an issue with USB hubs forever. Your comment is all about device compatibility, not devices being cheap and shitty.
- Roritharr 5y ago
  One begets the other is my implied argument, if the standard wouldn't be this wide and allow for so much missing functionality, devices being this cheap and shitty would stick out more. Overall prices would be higher, but the quality per device would increase, even if just for economy of scale reasons. How many bad USB 2 Hubs did you have to deal with?
  - djur 5y ago
    This has nothing to do with USB 3 or USB-C, though. The same shortcomings were true of previous USB standards, it just was rarely feasible to run so many different peripherals through a single hub.
  - Dylan16807 5y ago
    What missing functionality? When chips die, that's not something the standard could affect. When a USB to Ethernet converter happens to be on the same circuit board as an actual hub, the USB standard isn't responsible for the Ethernet part. The screen connections are pretty much just passthrough. That's the narrowest you can get. And it doesn't sound like the USB ports on the hubs had any problems. If you split things up by standard, you'd have a USB hub that always works, with a flaky ethernet converter plugged in one port and a flaky HDMI converter plugged in another port.

7 years ago I wrote a comment, dismayed about the coming USB-C insanity and was made fun of. Here we are. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9645013 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9645013

spicybright 5y ago

See you again in 7 years! :(

tempnow987 5y ago

Haha... That's pretty perfect. And after 7 years I'm also still playing with stuff. I got a hub with an external power connector that plugs into wall and it charges my iphone at trickle charger rates. Meanwhile my "crappy" apple charger seems to blast my iphone up in no time. One cost me MORE (the hub/dock).

smoldesu 5y ago
This just in! Accessory designed for use with phone works well with phone, while off-the-shelf generic accessory does not. More at 11.
- tempnow987 5y ago
  We have been told, repeatedly, about the "next great thing" in standards. The EU mandated micro-USB (ugh!). 7 years ago we were being hyped up about USB-C. Here we are 7 years later, and the SAME lighting cable apple has had for 10 years (!!) is more sturdy, has great low latency (if you compare to USB-C for music making the difference is crazy), has fantastic reliable power delivery. I mean, after 10 years you'd think the new standards would be absolutely crushing Apple's old tech. But I can't get the low latency on USB-C for audio I get on lighting (anyone know why? Both are wires) 10+ years later. It's maddening. And the power delivery and speeds of USB-C/USB3 are just crazily all over the map. You can plug into a blue USB3 port and go no faster than you did on an old port!
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    If only Apple had considered the plight of man before switching their laptops over to exclusively use USB-C connectors.

djur 5y ago

The problem here isn't related to the standardized port and incompatibility between devices, though, is it? It's a matter of the functionality of the hardware in the peripheral, which has been an issue with USB hubs forever. Your comment is all about device compatibility, not devices being cheap and shitty.

Roritharr 5y ago
One begets the other is my implied argument, if the standard wouldn't be this wide and allow for so much missing functionality, devices being this cheap and shitty would stick out more. Overall prices would be higher, but the quality per device would increase, even if just for economy of scale reasons. How many bad USB 2 Hubs did you have to deal with?
- djur 5y ago
  This has nothing to do with USB 3 or USB-C, though. The same shortcomings were true of previous USB standards, it just was rarely feasible to run so many different peripherals through a single hub.
- Dylan16807 5y ago
  What missing functionality? When chips die, that's not something the standard could affect. When a USB to Ethernet converter happens to be on the same circuit board as an actual hub, the USB standard isn't responsible for the Ethernet part. The screen connections are pretty much just passthrough. That's the narrowest you can get. And it doesn't sound like the USB ports on the hubs had any problems. If you split things up by standard, you'd have a USB hub that always works, with a flaky ethernet converter plugged in one port and a flaky HDMI converter plugged in another port.