I agree that Jason’s tone wasn’t the best but you are massively over-reacting.
There are jokes about flipping usb but in my experience they are funny because they are exaggerated comical over-reaction to a trivial issue in the same vein as all the photoshopped autocorrect jokes that seem to be everywhere. Adding another incompatible connector to the list of usb, mini-usb, micro-usb, square usb, old apple, and new apple cables that are already hanging around due to my phones, cameras, printers, and other devices is the real problem.
If I can digress for a moment I’d like to say that I don’t understand this comment. If anything the new usb connector feels like Win 8 to me. A change for changes sake “solution” to a non-problem.
It’s no more annoying than those electrical plugs that have one prong that’s bigger. I always seem to plug them the wrong way the first time. No big deal.
First, you’re assuming it’s a non-problem. The problem exists for some people, even if you don’t experience it personally. I’d point to the poll results showing 7:3 right now that it’s a problem, except that for all I know Chris Nahr’s comment is typical, and several of the “no” results should be “yes.” It’s not phrased well and I guess the choices are ambiguous for at least one person.
Second, Windows 8 wasn’t a change for change’s sake either. They were trying to create a tablet OS to compete with iOS. The utter incomprehension of the user permeates Windows 8 in the number of user-hostile design decisions.
They forced a tablet-oriented design on desktop users who didn’t have touch screens.
The Start menu was a major feature, and they removed it.
When people complained about that, their “solution” was to put in a button that put desktop users into the tablet interface.
It’s not obvious how to do basic things like close applications.
When it became clear that people weren’t figuring it out, instead of creating methods that were easier to understand without instruction, they put in time-triggered, unskippable tutorials that forced the user to drop what they were doing to complete the tutorials.
Maybe you’re interpreting a somewhat lengthy reply to a short comment as an “overreaction.” Whereas the way I see it, I was trying to explain a problem to people who don’t experience the issue and dismissed opposing points of view as a result. That usually requires a lot of words.
A lot of unnecessary hostility in this thread. Let’s save that for P&R, where it belongs.
I do dislike USB, and have all the problems that Gus identified, whether in the dark or not. I just got my first Lightning connector device and love it, I literally plug it in nightly in pitch black conditions and I’ve never messed it up. Connectors change, and usually for the better. People said the same things I’m hearing in this thread about the PS/2 and the serial and parallel connectors evolving to USB.
There are two things I can guarantee when it comes to technology:
Connectors will keep changing. You will need to spend money at some point upgrading your cables or buying adapters if you aren’t also constantly upgrading your devices.
I’m not assuming its a non-problem. I’m stating that it is not a problem for me nor has it ever been described as a problem by any of the people I encounter. Furthermore I’m stating that random Internet cartoons are less then worthless, in my opinion, as data supporting the problem in that its unclear whether the cartoons as laughing at the overreaction/rage at such a trivial thing or expressing real frustration.
Objectively a position independent USB is an advantage. To me that advantage is completely outweighed by the associated costs.
I knew I shouldn’t have used a throw away comment in an Internet thread. :)
Microsoft feels that Win 8 is an improvement just as you (and the engineers who designed it) feel that the new reversable USB is an improvement. You don’t feel Win 8 is an improvement and thus disagree with the Microsoft designers because, for you, the costs of Win 8 are too high. You prefer the legacy environment of the start button, non-touch interface, and so forth.
I feel that the costs of a new USB connector whose only advantage is reversibility are too high. I prefer the legacy environment of fewer cables and no adapters.
But all the comics are about the USB-A connector, which, yes, we can all agree is terrible. I think if USB-B was called something different, people wouldn’t ever have made the same joke about it.
The solution to the micro USB-B problem is simple: solve gross orientation by making the connector have a distinct top and bottom. Then, you always have the “top” facing up when plugging into a handheld device. (This doesn’t work for USB-A, because the USB-A connector doesn’t have a consistent orientation across different devices).
As for the higher power / data transfer rates, of course you can’t solve that with the current standard.
Yes it was the long post that I felt was the overreaction. Your explained the problem as if Jason, and by extension everyone who might think of having a different opinion than your own, was an idiot for not seeing how huge this issue was.
You’re just reiterating the position that “it’s not a problem for me, therefore it is not a problem for anyone.”
Oddly, even though this is a thread about the new, reversible USB 3.0 connector, we’ve been mostly talking about the Lightning connector. So this is a return to being on-topic.
I think you need to keep in mind that it’s a new USB 3.0 connector, not USB 2.0. Market penetration of USB 3.0 micro-B is pretty small at present. If this completely replaces the USB 3.0 micro-B early on, the associated costs are minimal.
Since it’s USB 3.0, reversibility isn’t the only advantage, it also significantly improves speed. The new speed is not acheivable while retaining USB 2.0 connectors, unlike the USB 1.0 -> 2.0 transition. We’re eventually going to incur the cost of transitioning away from USB 2.0 micro B connectors regardless of whether the new connector is reversible or not.
Is there agreement that it’s terrible? The people who have denied a problem with the USB micro-B in this thread have also categorically denied the USB-A problem.
Is that enforced for client devices? I know USB-A connectors are supposed to be consistent, but they aren’t.
Also, not all handheld devices have a top. Card readers often don’t, for example.
Finally, there’s the manufacturer problem. I had the understanding - maybe I’m wrong - that current USB-B connectors are supposed to have the USB logo on the top, but many don’t. I have quite a few cables that either don’t have the logo at all, or have it on the wrong side. If the solution isn’t an integral part of the connector, where you can’t build a cable without the solution, there will be a lot of cables that don’t have it.
Something that isn’t clear to me: does this mean that USB-A is going away? Would we have USB-C on both ends of the cable (a long and painful transition obsoleting everything with a USB-A port?), or does USB-C just replace USB-B micro on the tail end of the cable?
I guess USB-A replaced PS/2, but it is now waaaaay more ubiquitous than PS/2 ever was.
Because neither this, nor the Apple Lightning connector, solves the problem of the horrible USB-A connector.
So any time I make an effort for clarity, that’s an overreaction.
That was not my intent. Jason, and obviously you, have never experienced the problem. If the problem is not intuitive to you, it requires a careful description to convey how it’s even possible to experience it. I don’t think you or Jason are idiots because you don’t experience it. I think you’re being dismissive of other people because they’re having a different experience.
I’m approaching this from a programming standpoint. I’ve spent a lot of time dealing with bug reports. If a tester encounters a bug and I don’t, that doesn’t mean there’s no bug. It means I need to understand the steps to reproduce the bug more clearly. Bugs aren’t popularity contests, either. If 10% of users encounter it, it’s still a problem that must be fixed.
No. It’s a new USB 3.0 B connector. It doesn’t change the USB 3.0 A connector.
While the USB 3.0 A connector requires more wires than the USB 2.0 A connector, it’s still backwards compatible with USB 2.0 cables. It’s a little bigger than it needs to be as a result. I’m not sure they could have designed a USB 3.0 B connector that also had more wires but worked with USB 2.0 jacks. In any case, they didn’t.
Fixing a bug solves a problem without associated costs to the user. If USB-B is broken and can be fixed without incurring any additional costs for any user than of course you should fix it. But in this case the fix does have associated costs in that it creates a situation where there can be two cables meant for the same purpose that are incompatible. Thus it becomes reasonable to look at the issue and see if they benefits justify the cost. If it can come out fast enough to become the default USB-B 3.0 standard then its probably great. If not then I question whether reversibility is really worth having to deal with multiple connectors.
If we’re talking about connector diversity, I’m not even sure micro-B was a good idea. It’s not that much smaller than mini-B, and I don’t know that I’ve ever encountered a device with a micro-B connector which would be bigger if it had to use mini-B instead. Not even phones.
On the other hand, mini-B was necessary. Full size square USB-B connectors are huge.
I actually thought that as well for a while, since I had a mini-B MP3 player, until I actually compared mini-B and micro-B. Mini-B is still pretty huge, it’d be hard to fit it onto a phone when micro-b ports go. You’d need at the very least to have weird plastic humps on one end around where the connector is.
Let me point out another cause of the microUSB frustration. Take my Nexus 7 1st-gen, and my Nexus 4. Lay them both down screen-up. The orientation of the microUSB ports are flipped between them.
So when I charge one of them with a generic microUSB cable lying at my bedside, I always do those flips in the GIFs.
At least, for the regular sized USB ports, there is only 1 orientation, and the plugs can draw a picture on top to tell you its correct orientation.
I’m missing whatever it is you’re seeing. Just to double-check, I dug out one my two USB 3.0 cables. The A connector looks pretty much like a 2.0 A connector. Only the plastic insert is blue instead of white.
