Upcoming Reversible USB Cable Depicted in New Renderings

Alphabetize said:

It would be nice if Apple adopted this type of cable in place of a proprietary one.

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Uh, you do know Apple was the first to buy into USB in a big way, right? Right?

At this point, there are about a cajillion times more Lightning connectors in the world than there are "USB 3.1 Type C" connectors. IMO, this new USB connector would have never happened, had Apple not shown the world the right way to implement a reversible connector in the first place. (And I'm not granting the Type C connecror is necessarily going to be a good design for real world use.)

would have been great first time around

sulliweb said:

Ok, I'm confused... yes, the Lightning connector is reversible, but well, the only things that really use it are iDevices, and the speeds (so far as I've read) are more comparable with USB 2.0, not even Gbps...

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The lightning connector is just the physical interface. The reason why you are seeing USB 2.0 speed when syncing is because the devices have USB 2.0 chipsets in them.

This is just like a USB connector which can carry USB 1.1, 2.0, or 3.0. It's not the connector, it's the chipset in the device.

sulliweb said:

So aside from the fact it's reversible, what's so great about the lightning connector?

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It's the little things. This will sound ridiculous to anyone who doesn't use it, but to anyone who does use it, they will know what I'm saying. It's really a genuine pleasure to use. The reversible aspect is a large part of it, but there's more:

1) There's also a nice snap to it as it goes in that gives you confidence it's in all the way and secure. USB connectors just sort of slide in and have the same amount of friction whether its barely in or all the way.

2) It's easy to plug in. USB, even if you have it the right way up, doesn't naturally align. How many times have I tried to plug it in, assumed it was upside down, flipped it over and tried to plug it in again, assumed it was upside down THIS TIME, and flipped it over AGAIN, and finally it goes in.

3) It's smaller than it's predecessor. Micro USB got BIGGER going to USB 3, AND more finicky to insert. Seriously???


4) Lightning is solid. Micro USB has a reputation for being fragile and cellphone repair shops say it is the most commonly broken part they fix.

5) All my Apple devices use the same connector. My USB devices, which are "standard", use USB 2.0, Micro USB, Micro USB 3.0, and Mini USB. Four different cables for USB, and soon to be five when this one comes out.

sonicrobby said:

I dont like new standards because all my current stuff will no longer be compatible with the new equipment

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We need more standards to standardize the existing standards. Has anyone standardized the process of standardizing standards? I love new standards.

cmChimera said:

What Pc manufacturer would replace their Type A USB 3.1 port for Type C? Why not just make type A reversible?

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Because technically speaking, this is impossible to do without changing the internals of the port itself and breaking compatibility with older USB cables (and forward compatibility).

So... technically speaking they have to change the port anyways to make this possible.

ActionableMango said:

5) All my Apple devices use the same connector. My USB devices, which are "standard", use USB 2.0, Micro USB, Micro USB 3.0, and Mini USB. Four different cables for USB, and soon to be five when this one comes out.

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The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from. LOL!

mattbaar26 said:

How and why is the lightning connector better?

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Well, based on the rendering, which of course might not be it at all, I'd say it's better because the USB port on a device still has that little wafer in the middle of the port that the cable plug needs to wrap around. Seems flimsier and more apt to break than Apple's solution, which is essentially a peg in a hole. More sturdy, I'd say.

I love the lightning connector Pity that it is proprietary and cannot be used throughout the industry. Despite all the complaints from media when Apple changed the connector to lightning I think it was the right move and it is a great improvement over the 30-pin connector and over any USB existing connector.

ActionableMango said:

2) It's easy to plug in. USB, even if you have it the right way up, doesn't naturally align. How many times have I tried to plug it in, assumed it was upside down, flipped it over and tried to plug it in again, assumed it was upside down THIS TIME, and flipped it over AGAIN, and finally it goes in.

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Funny, I do the same thing with my iPad Air in the dark, except with rotating the iPad. It's somewhat difficult to feel exactly where the port is.

Granted, this is more related to the iPad Air's design than to Lightning.

I've been saying that a new USB client connector would need to be introduced eventually. MicroUSB is just too fragile and not not future proofed (as evidenced by the extra bit they had to add for 3.0). I suppose the host side is also getting rather old. (The smaller, unified connector will make it easier to implement USB host functionality into tablets)

KindredMAC said:

I have always hated how it seems that I can never plug a usb cable in on the first try.

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Aye, looking forward to no more 'best out of three'!

screensaver400 said:

Ugh. So now Apple either has to switch from Lightning to the Type C connector, or make cables that are Type C on one end and Lightning on the other.

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Apple never used Mini-USB or Micro-USB, nor did they add Lightning ports to any of their notebooks. What does that tell you about the likelihood of Type C ports? I bet Apple will support USB 3.1 over backward compatible Type A ports.

Also, those Type C are screamers.

I wish Lightning could become the industry standard!

whooleytoo said:

Great. So instead of just flipping a USB plug over so it fits, now I'll have to buy & carry adaptors because all my existing devices have traditional USB ports?

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ActionableMango said:

3) Micro USB got BIGGER going to USB 3, AND more finicky to insert. Seriously???

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It should be clarified that while new connector is a little bit thicker (2.5mm vs 1.8mm), it is also narrower than the microUSB 3.0 connector (8.3 vs 12.2).

How would this reversible C connector be more finicky than microUSB?

Shouldn't we be comparing this to the Lightning connector rather than the Thunderbolt one, given it's likely use? (I haven't seen any thunderbolt to thunderbolt cables yet - what would they connect? Thunderbolt to Lightning would be good though.)

mungo2k said:

Shouldn't we be comparing this to the Lightning connector rather than the Thunderbolt one, given it's likely use? (I haven't seen any thunderbolt to thunderbolt cables yet - what would they connect? Thunderbolt to Lightning would be good though.)

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Who is comparing it to Thunderbolt other than you?

Thunderbolt to thunderbolt cables connect thunderbolt devices.

None of this new-fangled UBS stuff for me. I'm stickin' with ADB.

JarScott said:

A far smaller, Lightening size USB port will mean great things for products. Particularly laptops - doing away with ethernet ports (already done) and slimming down USB ports will mean crazy thin laptops.

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And I believe that this is precisely why Apple has been waiting so long to radically redesign their portable computers; they wanted the new USB standard to be a central part of the new design. Thunderbolt + USB 3.1 = crazy thin laptops!

ActionableMango said:

This is just like a USB connector which can carry USB 1.1, 2.0, or 3.0. It's not the connector, it's the chipset in the device.

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So then why does apple's description of the cable itself say it's 2.0? Sure, it's possible when iOS devices ship that support USB 3 speeds those cables will as well, but it's also possible that what Apple is saying is true and users might need to switch to newer Lightning cables. I hope not, but nobody can say it isn't a possibility.

cymerc said:

Cool that there's something universal coming. The Lightening connector seems way better though.

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In what way specifically?

John.B said:

Why on God's Green Earth did it take this long (and still hasn't been released in the wild)?

Image

Edit: Note that this is opposite of the Lightning connector, where the male connector sits inside the socket. That design will mean a lot of sockets inside expensive electronics will what breaks, instead of the connector on a cheap cable. These USB guys really couldn't be more daft...

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This allows cable manufacturers to use cheap metals for the contacts that aren't as corrosion resistant because the contacts won't come in to contact from the oils from peoples fingers. Not defending it, but no doubt that's why they chose this design versus male end on the cable like the lightning cable design.

milo said:

So then why does apple's description of the cable itself say it's 2.0? Sure, it's possible when iOS devices ship that support USB 3 speeds those cables will as well, but it's also possible that what Apple is saying is true and users might need to switch to newer Lightning cables. I hope not, but nobody can say it isn't a possibility.

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If it said USB 3 everyone would complain they weren't getting USB 3 speeds, so I'm not sure what else it would say.

But you're absolutely right, it is a possibility. It can only be future proof within reason. What if they there's a really cool feature that depends on something that the current cable won't do? We'll all have to get new cables.

However, the last cable, the dock connector, lasted, what, 9 years? That's pretty good!

APlotdevice said:

It should be clarified that while new connector is a little bit thicker (2.5mm vs 1.8mm), it is also narrower than the microUSB 3.0 connector (8.3 vs 12.2).

How would this reversible C connector be more finicky than microUSB?

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It's not, and I didn't say that it was. I was clearly talking about the jump from Micro USB 2.0 to 3.0, as I stated in the text you quoted, and showed in the picture I had provided.

The new C connector looks promising! It will, however, mean that I'll soon have 5 different types of USB cables for my devices.

ActionableMango said:

Micro USB got BIGGER going to USB 3, AND more finicky to insert. Seriously???

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The reason for this is they wanted to make it backwards compatible, so you can plug a Micro USB 2.0 cable into a 3.0 device. USB 3.0 has more pins, so they just extended the plug a bit with those pins, so the new connector looks like two ports stuck together.

It's simultaneously clever and a kludge. The USB forum is (rightly) big on backwards compatibility.

heimo said:

We need more standards to standardize the existing standards. Has anyone standardized the process of standardizing standards? I love new standards.

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No not yet...
That is why there are a stack of Standards bodies. They all think theirs is the right way to standardize standards.