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Comment by schmichael | Hacker News Reader

At this point USB might as well auction their branding rights like sports stadiums:

- USB Coke Zero

- USB House of Dragon streaming exclusively on HBO

- USB Crypto.com

Consumers, Devices, and cables could continue ignoring it all but at least the consortium could have a new revenue stream.

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Google did it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_KitKat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Oreo

That was a fairly repulsive move on Google's part. I still don't understand why they did that.

It just hit me that (of course) this was coordinated. I'm against many forms of advertising, but somehow I don't mind this. They needed a name for the letter and looked around. I can't imagine the brands having paid all that much to be the name of an Android version.

IIRC, no money changed hands - it was just cross-promotion (like TV cross-over episodes).

I thought it was pretty harmless fun, YMMV.

Would be more harmless with non-shit food.

Android release names are named after sweet foodstuffs/desserts: all of them[2] are named after "shit food" - that is the theme they were going for!

1. [x]Cupcake, [x]Donut, [x]Eclair, [?]Froyo (maybe not shit food), [x]Gingerbread, [?]Honeycomb...nothing remotely heathy since then.

What's repulsive about it? It seems pretty innocuous to me in terms of promotion.

I'm waiting for Android Barbie. This really would say something about the inner workings.

Pepsi Presents: HDMI 3.0. With the most refreshing refresh rate ever.

If it doesn’t have any optional features, I’d take that in a heartbeat.

HDMI Pepsi: Same great taste, no matter where you are.

USB Yushityu 2007 Mimetic-Resolution-Cartridge-View-Motherboard-Easy-To-Install-Upgrade For Infernatron/InterLace TP Systems For Home, Office Or Mobile (sic)

Infinite Jest vibes

> - USB Crypto.com

Still better than the Washington Nationals' Terra/Luna branding. [1] But like, not much.

[1] https://blockworks.co/unparalleled-luxury-nationals-still-pi...

Well, there are worse things. Just consider USBet.gg and USB brought to you by Raid Shadow Legends.

Stop giving them ideas straight out of Idiocracy

sobs in mountain dew

Welcome to Best Buy, I love you.

While I meant this as a joke, tying USB versions to cultural artifacts would actually give folks a better idea of their age:

Oh your computer only has USB Avengers Endgame, but I’m afraid this device needs at least USB Better Call Saul Season 6.

This is a really stupid comment and you should probably delete it. What they've done here is pretty close to what I've been wanting. They're now advertising the port speed, which is all anyone cares about. They're not advertising meaningless version numbers anymore. The only improvement I could offer now is to advertise the speed specifically. What they are labeling as

40gb

20gb

10gb

5gb

is in actuality

More like

2x 20gb

2x 10gb

1x 10gb

2x 5gb

1x 5gb

Just specify exactly what the port/cable does. That's all you need to do. Version numbers mean nothing to me.

Someone here doesn't understand jokes.

> They're not advertising meaningless version numbers anymore

USB IF is the only party responsible for making version numbers meaningless. They are _extremely_ useful for other hardware products - HDMI, DisplayPort, WiFi, etc.

There are scenarios where they would be useful. But USB IF decided to make them meaningless on purpose.

Everything about their history related to version numbers seems anti-consumer to me. Intentionally obfuscating capabilities and confusing consumers was a terrible idea.

Yes, it pretty much started when they decided not to "confuse" consumers the first time with USB 2.0. Claiming said fear they made all the USB 1.1 Devices USB 2 just with a different speed name. That way you could have USB 2.0 Mice and Keyboards.

So you had USB-Low Speed for keyboards and mice and USB Full Speed for Full Speed and Hi Speed for High Speed (later Super speed for speed that was just super).

Not confusing at all and it resulted in a time when you had to actually be darn careful not to get a USB 2.0 "full speed USB Hub" or other device. Later the same thing happened with regards to USB 3 a few years later.

Manufacturers making these (for a time until the relevant usb3 parts become too cheap to bother with these near fakes) always pop up.

At this point it will be a long painful process to replace all the hardware that doesn't follow the new scheme and USB version numbers could have been the much simpler solution.

One thing missing from their specs is the glut of "Power only" cables on the market. By failing to giving recommendation there Chinese manufacturers will all just do whatever - Probably abusing the High-Speed based labeling and that will pollute those and again cause confusion.

How hard is it to give them a symbol to print on their shitty power cables so people don't have to buy a cable tester?

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