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Comment by Someone1234 | Hacker News Reader

If laptops can charge via USB, international travel will be so much nicer.

USB has already made international travel much better (thanks to 90% of your key electronics being USB, and international USB adapters being cheap and reliable, or heck just buy a local one in each country, they're $5/each).

Most laptops have a "brick" which works in most countries, but you still need to find the correct local cable or have an adapter (and frankly some adapters are unsafe/bad). In a future where everything is USB (type-C) which might be 10+ years off, everyone will benefit.

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> USB has already made international travel much better (thanks to 90% of your key electronics being USB, and international USB adapters being cheap and reliable, or heck just buy a local one in each country, they're $5/each).

I often travel with just one power adapter, for my laptop, and then I charge my cell phone from my laptop via USB, rather than bringing a separate charger and thus needing a second power adapter.

Stay away from cheap USB adapters made by mystery manufacturers:

http://www.righto.com/2012/03/inside-cheap-phone-charger-and...

> If laptops can charge via USB, international travel will be so much nicer.

I got the HP Chromebook 11 for just that reason. It charges with a micro-usb port, i.e. the same cable as android phones. It's nice to not need to bother packing a charger or cable for it.

It's too bad all ultrabooks don't add a micro-usb port just for this purpose (in addition to the normal charger). The current chargers are much thicker than the computer which is annoying, and it'd be nice if you could just leave a charger in your car and suitcase and figure that you'd be covered.

Latest rumor is Apple's Air is going to have only one USB 3.1 port for everything. http://9to5mac.com/2015/01/06/macbook-air-12-inch-redesign/

No maglock power supply, no display port, just the one port.

Its kinda limiting. That's means I have to lug a hub around with me at all times, a spare port would be nice for phone charging, usb drives, etc.

Well, with MB Air holding charge for 8-11 hours you don't really need to have it connected to power all the time.

And even if you run out of juice, you can probably recharge it within 30-60 minutes. So it would only mean this long without a usb drive.

Finally, who knows - perhaps Apple will turn the power brick into a usb hub.

Shades of the original iMac, which ditched everything in favour of just USB.

The original iMac had more ports than the current Air (audio in/out, power, ethernet, modem, USBx2, and an expansion slot).

One port that can do power, data, or video is pretty spiffy. Using that as an excuse to only have one port on the entire machine seems a bit extreme. At least give us one on each side..

Steve Jobs is smiling from wherever. The more things removed the better for him. Personally I never have owned a laptop and still love my mouse, keyboard and three monitors.

That's clearly fake, they wouldn't ditch Thunderbolt entirely.

All rumors are "Fake"

It is nice for charging overnight, but not so much for usage. Even a beefy iPad adapter (~2.1 amps) doesn't provide enough power during usage. If you want to run it without drawing down the battery, you need the included charger (3 amps), which had a tendency to overheat and melt in its first iteration.

I'd like to see an interim conversion adopted for charging from USB3.1 to things like Magsafe on the MacBooks. In the dark days of laptops, stepping on the power cable could end your laptop, USB 3.1 looks like it'd be a return to that if used as a primary charging source.

Other than that, USB3.1 looks fantastic. Thunderbolt 1.0 speeds, big power, and much better connector.

> to things like Magsafe on the MacBooks

Unfortunately, the owner of patents on magsafe is unlikely to allow that to happen.

The patent could probably be challenged. Magnetic power connectors existed prior to MagSafe (e.g. you don't want hot oil from your deep fryer to spill on you if you trip over the cord), so the patents seem more like those "X but on a computer"-type patents.

Oh I agree, the patents are ridiculous, but I think if any of the big manufacturers were willing to make a go of it, they'd have done it by now.

That said, I think the specific innovation they rest their patent on is that it can be inverted. Under current patent doctrine that might be enough, and I suspect people wouldn't be very happy with a non-invertable magsafe-like.

Make it a triangle that can be plugged in in any _three_ directions.

Oh yeah.... Make it a circle!

I fully agree with you that the MagSafe utility patent is a paper tiger, but unfortunately in this case Apple still hold a design patent on the general MagSafe connector shape[0]. So anyone is free to make their own magnetic power connectors, it just can't have five pins in a line that matches the exact sizes that Apple has chosen.

[0] http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2012/12/apple-wi...

Also the makers of magsafe are possibly ditching it for usb 3.1 if the latest macbook air rumors are true.

http://9to5mac.com/2015/01/06/macbook-air-12-inch-redesign/

well, plus a super attack vector.

plugging into power is safe, as no data access is possible. some high-sec site solder USB ports shut. already a headache with smartphones and tablets that use the single-port concept (USB, Lightning).

that free USB charging station in beijing airport might not be so free after all...

Practice safe charging: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1137339450/lockedusb-ad...

This calls for a USB condom? http://www.zdnet.com/article/protect-your-devices-with-a-10-...

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