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John Gruber: Apple Invented USB Type C

SlCKB0Y said:
What's your source for this? Got any stats to back this up? :rolleyes:
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You are arguing that everyone needs more ports. He is arguing that most do not. Two opposite viewpoints. You have as much obligation to back up your claim that most people need them, as he does that they do not. All we have to go on here is the vocal computer enthusiasts on a website that the vast majority of computer users have never been to. And I seriously believe many of these vocal people here are the Apple haters looking for a reason to bash an Apple product. Hence in the 24 hours after introduction of the new Macbook, 95% of negative comments jumped on that. Begins suspicious.
 
couldn't it be that the magnet has moved to the other end of the cable and is at the power brick on these new chargers?
 
I think Grubers information is correct. It is clear that USB-C suits Apples needs more than anybody else. They want to reduce the number of different ports, but must keep at least one port that ensures compatibility with the vast world of PC accessories. So every Mac must at least have a kind of USB. Thats why it is in Apples interest to make USB-C small, reversible ( both upside down and the same on both ends ) and versatile ( graphics, power, data ). USB-C is either the brainchild of Apple itself or a clone of Apples approach to connector design.

avanpelt said:
Why ditch MagSafe, though?!
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Will the whole PC industry incorporate magnets in each and every future USB port? No! And thats why this new standard cant incorporate anything expensive. Its only going to become a standard when it is inexpensive enough to go into the cheapest computers imaginable.
 
cfedu said:
They could have asked google how they put 2 inside the Chromebook Pixel 2
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Really? Now I just need to find one somewhere and two charging cords and plug one in each port and see what happens -- for science.
 
weave said:
So how would that work? Would you be able to plug a power cord into any of the ports if there are more than one port? What if you plug in more than one power cord? Like put in a power cord into each port?
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Whatever circuitry is charging the battery won't draw more current than it needs. They could easily put them in parallel.
 
Well if they invented the standard, they sure as hell did not design the physical port and plug. Those things are a mess of tiny parts that could fail.
 
Necessity is the mother of invention; "EU plans to pass common phone charger law: Et tu, Apple?"

The EU wants an end to the hundreds of millions of perfectly usable chargers that are rendered unusable each year because the proprietary product they connected to has passed on. In some countries (France, for example) all electronics purchases carry a disposal levy (about a Euro, in most cases) which could be ramped up to an uncompetitive level as a punishment to suppliers who stick to non-standard connectors.

Apple's decision to promulgate a simple standard connector that will work with laptops, iPads, phones and all manner of other gadgets (wearables?) is logical; they all but invented Firewire and then released it as a standard (IEEE 1394?) so Gruber's idea is not without precedent.
 
weave said:
I'm thinking more logistically. Let's say your laptop had 3 USB-C ports. You can't tell me that you can plug a charger into any of those ports and they are all wired internally back to the power supply input. And if not what happens if you plug your charger into the wrong port then?
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Really, why couldn't they all be tied to the power supply? If they are not, just label one as the power port. You wont blow up the computer plugging into the wrong port. I highly doubt the standard was created with out thinking all of this through beforehand.
 
manu chao said:
I don't know whether the magnets are in the MagSafe plug or the port (or both). If they are in the port, I wonder what the magnets would do to a data signal travelling within a millimetres distance.
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Could be an issue. I can't imagine they didn't test ways of making the two work together. I do think it is a mistake to take away MagSafe but the other brands don't seem to constantly be knocked on the floor by people tripping over the cord. Anyhow, there isn't much we can do about it. Luckily the MacBook Pro still has MagSafe (for now).
 
weave said:
Really? Now I just need to find one somewhere and two charging cords and plug one in each port and see what happens -- for science.
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You think this would be a standard without the ability to have more than 2 ports on a device?

For the sake of science you should not do some stupid experiment or ask google, just sign up for a science class.

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DonutHands said:
Really, why couldn't they all be tied to the power supply? If they are not, just label one as the power port. You wont blow up the computer plugging into the wrong port. I highly doubt the standard was created with out thinking all of this through beforehand.
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Bingo
 
cfedu said:
You think this would be a standard without the ability to have more than 2 ports on a device?

For the sake of science you should not do some stupid experiment or ask google, just sign up for a science class.
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Dude, you gotta chill out more. It was a joke. Of course they thought it through, I was curious how...

Anyway, I found my answer. The standard has it so everything is negotiated over the wire what happens so the charger negotiates with the device "hey do you want me to send you some juice?" before it goes sending current down the wire sort of thing....

So I suppose if a device has multiple USB-C ports it is possible to design it so only one of those ports are capable of charging and/or powering the device and is labeled as such... and if you plug a power cord in one of the other ports, basically nothing happens.
 
bobob said:
How did the 89% of laptop owners with Windows machines ever manage? :eek:
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Exactly,

I like the magsafe on my Macbook, but these things have such good battery life now, not many people have them wall charging through out the day.

I get 12 hours on my MBA, I just charge it every night and rarely get past 40% after some all day usage.

Just saying, the magsafe is not why people buy Macs Apple knows that.
 
Derived said:
Why do you people keep banging on about "Thunderbolt is dead!" - it's a ridiculous, false, and silly statement. USB C maxes at 10 gb/sec, Thunderbolt 3 will be coming soon with 40. USB C as implemented in the devices it's in now is at 5. Also, it's missing a lot that Thunderbolt can do, and *still* relies on the CPU instead of a discrete controller to manage the data stream.
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... and you can daisy chain it. Does USB-C allow it?
 
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baryon said:
I didn't say they're not wonderful, they're both great, but for example: FireWire 400 was superseded by FW800 which had a different shaped connector, so no matter when you owned a FireWire hard drive or other peripheral, chances were you could only ever plug it into your own computer. No matter how professional you are, it's extremely useful to be able to use your stuff on a borrowed computer or some other computer in case of an emergency, it happens a lot. If you have a FireWire compatible camcorder but can only use it on your own professional computer that happens to have a FW port, and it will be incompatible with your new computer or anyone else's computer, that sucks, no matter how much better it was than USB 1.0 at the time.

I used to do a lot of professional video work at the time of camcorders and it was a huge pain, because I was using 2 cameras and 3 computers, each having a different port.
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Remind me to never hire your "professional" services. I lived through FW400/FW800 as an Amateur with some Firewire gear. It was as simple as ordering a cable (From Monoprice, IIRC) with a FW800 plug on 1 end and a FW400 plug on the other end. I even had a FW800 to mini FW400 for the Sony D8 Handicam I had. Problem solved, and the devices - hard drive and Epson R800 worked just fine on my G4 iMac, Powerbook G4, and Unibody Macbook Pro.

If you can't figure out to order a few cables with the correct end or ensure your computers have a Firewire port or card, I wonder about the rest of your services!
 
Ted13 said:
Hey genius: since you know that Apple didn't invent it, how about sharing with us who exactly did invent it?
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"Apple assigned 18 engineers to help build it alongside companies like Lenovo, Dell, and HP. That engineer count is second only to Intel (with 24 people) and just above Microsoft’s 16 assigned engineers. Apple significantly surpasses the amount of engineers assigned from Google (10), Dell (5), and HP (6)."

http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/6/7505187/apple-macbook-2015-usb-type-c-reversible
 
cdm283813 said:
I highly doubt a Apple blue shirt is going to tell a customer that you can buy a cheaper adapter from Monoprice or eBay. Their goal is to pitch a sale and snag you with accessories. A Apple consumer has no idea what USB Type C is. Hell; most people here did not know what Type C was a week ago today.

And just look at the title of this article.

"John Gruber: Apple Invented USB Type C"
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Yeah but that's John Gruber, he's an attention whore and also he has been wrong a couple times recently. Obviously an Apple employee will advise you to buy Apple periphals, that's their job but I don't think they will try to fool you into thinking only Apple dongles will work with the MacBook. Also, if an Apple consumer has no idea what USB Type C is that's their problem, they can ask an Apple Genius for help or take 30 seconds to look it up on the internet. Anyway, someone that's going to spend $1300 on a MacBook obviously has $70 to buy the dongle.

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Rachel Faith said:
They could have made a Mag Safe USB C. For real !! Now we can all go back to breaking our power connectors again.
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Maybe the MacBook is too light for MagSafe to work.
 
gavroche said:
You are arguing that everyone needs more ports. He is arguing that most do not. Two opposite viewpoints. You have as much obligation to back up your claim that most people need them, as he does that they do not. All we have to go on here is the vocal computer enthusiasts on a website that the vast majority of computer users have never been to. And I seriously believe many of these vocal people here are the Apple haters looking for a reason to bash an Apple product. Hence in the 24 hours after introduction of the new Macbook, 95% of negative comments jumped on that. Begins suspicious.
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My issue is the one port is for charging and accessories. If there had been the typical charging port and at least one accessory port it wouldn't have been as much of an issue.
 
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