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I agree that there was more that could have been done to signal correct orientation. But an additional wrinkle is that the orientation of the port itself was n
by jawns 3y ago
I agree that there was more that could have been done to signal correct orientation.
But an additional wrinkle is that the orientation of the port itself was not static. On laptops and desktops, it was horizontal. On certain other devices, it was vertical. Often these ports were in hard-to-reach or hard-to-see places, and having to reconcile the orientation in each case probably added to the frustration.
- stavros 3y agoNot really, HDMI ports are in weird orientation and mounted in hard-to-reach places as well, but the shape makes it very obvious (even by feel) which way it should (or can't) go. This is much harder with the rectangular USB plug.
- SAI_Peregrinus 3y agoThe "by feel" part is critical. Lots of ports on various devices are deliberately in the back of the device, or otherwise hidden, so that the wiring can be kept neatly out of the way.
- putlake 3y agoHDMI is better than USB but it's still hard to do plug it in in dark, hard to reach places.
- c22 3y agoI have definitely been frustrated by an hdmi port I couldn't see. I almost always have to gain visibility on the port to get the cable inserted correctly. If I happen to already know the orientation of the port on a device I can do it by feel, but I could also do this with the microusb-b to my old cell phone.
- pnpnp 3y agoIt’s still better than nothing at all! If you can physically see the connector, that’s a huge help. For USB-A, you often had to look into the cable to figure out which way it went. I agree that HDMI can be heads or tails based on if it’s tucked behind a TV, but sometimes I can feel enough to get it right. That was never so with the original USB.
- loeg 3y agoHDMI can be a real pain to plug in blind / by feel.
- qup 3y agoI think it's worse than USB. It's so damn narrow and has a requirement for precision. It's hard to know if you've got it upside-down or you're just not well-aligned.
- saratogacx 3y agoI'll often use my phone and get a picture of the plugs on the device before I dive in with the cable. This is especially useful when working with gear I'd rather not have t0 move.
- josefx 3y ago> or hard-to-see places Which brings up the idea of not making it size compatible with the network port.
- lxgr 3y agoAs somebody who keeps inserting the USB-C charger cable into the SD card slot of the new MBP, I couldn't agree more.