‘USBefuddled: Untangling the Rat’s Nest of USB-C Standards and Cables’

Glenn Fleishman, writing for TidBITS:

USB-C was supposed to be the last cable you would ever need. It hasn’t worked out that way.

The hardware side works terrifically: a USB-C plug fits into any USB-C jack. But perhaps the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), the group that manages the development of the USB standard, didn’t fully think through the complexity of what has to go over the USB wiring and how to communicate that effectively: power and video coupled with several different standards for data.

You know what doesn’t have any of these problems? Lightning.

★ Monday, 27 December 2021