Hacker News Reader

Comment by pain2022 | Hacker News Reader

pain2022

Forced usb-c charger for laptops is concerning.

1) it is additional attack vector, what if maid in my hotel enhanced my charging brick with rubber ducky?

2) mag safe is very convenient

Why? I use the same Baseus 65-W power brick for two phones and two laptops very, very conveniently. And GAN chargers are a third of the size of traditional power bricks.

Also, who cares about magsafe? Only Apple laptops have it.

I think the move to USB-C is a smart one, it can even reach 100W. Speeds are insane too.

Gaming laptops draw over 100W. Won’t this eliminate an entire market of laptops that require specialized plugs that can deliver more power? Or else you’ll end up with the dreaded “dies while it’s plugged in” situation.

USB-C will deliver up to 240W.

"...laptops that are rechargeable via a wired cable, operating with a power delivery of up to 100 Watts, will have to be equipped with a USB Type-C port"

From: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20220930IP...

Besides the fact that USB-C was updated to support 240W, laptop can have e.g. two USB-C ports for charging.

USB-C for laptop chargers isn't a fantastic idea IMO. The majority of laptop manufacturers solder USB-C ports to the motherboard, so when the port inevitably wears out/becomes loose, you need to have micro soldering skills to replace it. Putting the USB-C port on a daughterboard (or flex cable as seen in phones) isn't easy to do if you want to push USB 4 speeds through the port (40 Gbit/s).

Compare that with the traditional barrel connector which is usually an easy repair. Most designs have the barrel connector on a cable assembly rather than having the connector soldered to the motherboard.

> Also, who cares about magsafe? Only Apple laptops have it.

I wish more laptops had it. My old work HP laptop's USB-C port started having some play, so my monitor wouldn't always connect properly to it. Bump the desk, and the screen would start to flicker. The same monitor / cable works perfectly on other PCs.

My new HP work laptop has the USB-C port so tight, that whenever I need to unplug the charger, it counts as arm day.

And while I, personally, don't do it all the time, it does happen from time to time that I grab my foot in the power cable and drag the laptop with it. I usually realize it quickly enough to not pull it completely off the desk, but it's the kind of fear I never had with my MBP.

Is MagSafe resistant to wear from connecting and disconnecting?

It would seem so. The connection is magnetic, so there's not a lot of wear. I only have the older macs (2012 / 2013), where the connector seems fairly securely attached to the case, instead of hanging off the motherboard. Don't know how the newer ones are.

I've never heard of anyone complaining about the connector wearing out or otherwise working less well after a while. What usually happens is that the cable frays around the connector, but I'd say that's not a connector problem, but rather thin plastic without enough tension relief.

1. if you are worried about these type of attacks than charger is least of your worries... You should probably turn off thunderbolt support completely...

2. I think mag safe chargers will be allowed to continue. Note that even now you can charge the macbooks with magsafe with usb-c charger..

How exactly is the charger the least of the worries if it is the one thing that you are forced to use?

I'm sure these will be available in iPhone design soon:

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/usbharpoon-is...

A charger has one job, namely to charge. Stop this "thin hardware design" mania and design a proper plug.

The law does not mandate that USB-C be the only way of charging the device. Simply that it supports it as a charging method (if it supports any wired charging method at all) and that if the device can be charged via cable at voltages greater than 5 volts, or currents greater than 3 A, that it also support USB Power Delivery. Plus there are some labeling requirements, like indicating on the box if the device includes a charging brick or not, indicating minimum and maximum charging wattages supported, etc.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com