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Comment by lekevicius | Hacker News Reader

As a European, I'm very happy.

USB-A has been with us for over 20 years. It's only disappearing because of USB-C, and USB-C seems to have room to grow. I wouldn't be surprised if it will still be the most popular connector in 2035, and not just because "legislation stops innovation".

Making sure there are no weird exceptions to a very good port is reasonable and good.

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It does stop innovation in things like lightning and MagSafe. And it doesn’t fix the multiple charger issue either, because so many manufacturers don’t adhere to the USB-C standard that any combination of charger + cable + device has an unreasonably non-zero chance of not working or even damaging the device.

So in the end we still have to have multiple chargers, but now we can roll the dice on which one works with or damages which device because they all use the same connector.

It does not stop innovation like MagSafe : https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Adapter-Connector-Transfer-C...

I'm not sure what you mean by 'unreasonably non-zero', but I've been sharing chargers between Macbook, XPS 13 and Thinkpad with no concern, + a charger from amazon.

Some charger are less powerful than others, so charge is not always as quick, but in real life it does not matter : it's still charging fast enough in any combination, and for the last year the only reason I have multiple chargers is to have one at home and one at work, but any laptop works well on all chargers.

You shouldn’t use a lower wattage charger so it goes.

I have seen it in some forums as well, but do you have any explanation links about why that may be ?

I have trouble finding relevant information that is not some random dude on a forum speaking very confidently one way or another without much data to back it up, and I don't see why that would cause any harm other than charging more slowly, eventually to the point of discharging if you consume a lot of power (which is a pretty tolerable downside).

I assume it's just people being impatient. Using a lower powered charger is arguably better for battery longevity.

By the way, it’s been talked on HN a lot when USB c comes up, it you shouldn’t use those magnetic cables. The “magnetic disconnect” motion can cause arcing and static electricity that can theoretically damage the thing they’re plugged into. Especially if you leave the exposed pins on the device as you use it unplugged.

How did MagSafe historically handle this? The pogo pins may've been recessed, but they were still exposed to the elements.

There's communication between the device and the power brick. When the communication stops the power stops being delivered. Not sure how Apple is doing that these days with the MagSafe USB-C they have introduced on their laptops since you can plug the other end into any and all USB-C capable chargers.

I don't think an adapter is the kind of innovation HN users are looking for.

I've fried at least one USB-C device, a high-end wireless headset, seemingly by connecting it to a name-brand USB-C charger that had some kind of incompatibility with the headset.

Plus, even among Apple chargers, some USB-C chargers will support fast charging, and some won't, regardless of their rated wattage. Plus some will and will not support fast charging via a wireless charger (either a MagSafe wireless charger or an Apple Watch charger). There are a lot of charging incompatibilities in the current state of USB-C, even among devices from a single manufacturer.

> So in the end we still have to have multiple chargers, but now we can roll the dice on which one works with or damages which device because they all use the same connector.

Doesn't really matter. Just charge with any charger that's USB-C compatible. If it breaks the machine just RMA it. It didn't adhere to the spec so file a complain to the EU commission in charge of these charging standards as well.

Wait what was the point again? Ohh E-Waste reduction.

And when that happens I lose all the data on the device and access to a device for months at a time.

And all I gained from this is that I will have to buy a cable separately from the device itself now.

But hey, at least I'll only get 5 new cables in a decade instead of 10! Such incredible savings.

> It does stop innovation in things like lightning and MagSafe

I think avoiding "innovation" in the form of yet another connector is USB C's mission.

Apple just released a USB C to MagSafe cable, where is the problem?

Lightning isn't innovation it's pure vendor lock in complete with embedded cable chips to enforce it.

Any improperly designed device can damage other devices, suggesting it's somehow particular to USB C is specious.

> that any combination of charger + cable + device has an unreasonably non-zero chance of not working

These issues have evaporated for me in the past couple of years. The only devices that I have in use that are still finicky are Nintendo Switch, and it's my understanding that newer models have fixed these problems, too.

My only complaints are that I wish my MBP would draw 10W from non-PD USB, instead of 5W (not really a USB-C problem), and my kids' laptops that have USB-C ports but don't support USB-PD and only charge from coaxial power adapters.

Apple can keep selling laptops with MagSafe because they are also capable of charging via the USB-C ports. Same with phones, they can add whatever wireless charging technology they want, it's the wired charging port that is required to be USB-C.

The idea's nice. I'll still have about 30 unusable micro-USB chargers lying around, though.

Sure, doesn't still mean we should stagnate and be forced to use tech that is basically obsolete for a modern world's requirements.

I wouldn't stand on the hill of this is obsolete tech, there should be more devices built with power efficiency from the ground up as well as less focus on the USBC charges your phone faster. This is more about usbc will charge every device you have in a few years so no reaching for custom chargers. Usbc->X cables however are another matter nothing is stopping HP making a custom usbc->HP port for their laptops for instance

Basically obsolete. As someone who uses a 7 yr old ipad, a 10 yr old windows phone and a 9 yr old Nexus 7 this is hot garbage

Just because you are using old tech with a connector that's prone to break and is not able to transfer data quickly doesn't mean everyone else has to.

Everyone else should not have a choice to buy new equipment as cheap as they can do today, whenever they wish. That's simply not sustainable.

That's how progress works though. Would you rather be stuck with micro-USB technical limitations to this day instead?

This almost certainly prompts a USB-C iPhone followed by a portless one. (I don’t think they’re thin enough yet for USB-C to be structurally compromising.) In the box will either be no charger or a wireless charger with a USB-C port, thereby technically meeting the requirement.

Interesting, I've never seen a charger with microUSB permanently attached, all my chargers have a USB-A port where you can change the cable.

In any case, you can just stick tiny plug adapters on all your chargers. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G54XXZZ/

I have an old Blackberry charger that has the cord attached, and I'm pretty sure I also have some old Samsung charger that's the same. But they're clearly quite rare.

I've got a whole bunch of them, actually. Luckily, they can be repurposed for older Pi models.

Off the top of my head, the Official Raspberry Pi Power Supplies, for both the microUSB and USB-C variants are permanently attached cables.

Cables, not chargers.

Your chargers are USB-A, and you can make them usable with an A-to-C cable.

There are no chargers with micro-USB output port (USB never specified such thing). Micro-USB has been designed to make cables essentially disposable (and not meant to be hardwired into any device), because the more robust side of the connector is in the device's port, and the fragile side is in the cable.

> Micro-USB has been designed to make cables essentially disposable [..], because the more robust side of the connector is in the device's port, and the fragile side is in the cable.

In my experience, this wasn't true. I had both a tablet and a phone that had the charging port fail. If I didn't apply a constant sideways force on the cable, it wouldn't charge. Tried other cables to make sure it wasn't a bad cable, but still had the same problem.

> There are no chargers with micro-USB output port

https://www.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberry-Supply-Adapter-List...

> There are no chargers with micro-USB output port (USB never specified such thing

I have several chargers with a brick and a permanently attached micro-USB cable that came with devices. One from Samsung; a couple from Grandcentral; a few for Raspberry Pis.

>There are no chargers with micro-USB output port

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=microusb+AC+adapter&t=ffab&iar=ima...

Great until you have some "sales rep" in a supermarket dealing with a Karen who's device won't charge fast enough off a 10W USBC charger that fundamentally isn't the same as a 60W one.

That's not new to USB-C though, there was already a wide range of charging speeds on USB-A

Yeah, but now there are the bonus points for a "fastish" USB-A charger (QC something, that puts out ~20W) which won't do anything to a laptop that requires "PD", even though the 20W would be enough to at least slowly charge the battery while off.

Legacy fast charging was always a mess of competing proprietary standards. A charger adhering to one standard (e.g. Samsung AFC or Oppo VOOC) wouldn't fast charge a phone using a different standard (e.g. Qualcomm QC or Apple 2.4A).

https://www.androidauthority.com/fast-charging-explained-2-8...

Kind of is new when all of the specs rely on cable capability and not all manufacturers label different cables differently. The spec for what it is, is a mess, but it's a nice, nay, highly desirable form factor.

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