Reversible USB - Type C

[HossHuge]

The most abundant connector standard in technology, the Universal Serial Bus, is getting ready for its most revolutionary change yet with a new specification that will be finalized in July of this year. Breaking physical compatibility with current ports, USB Type-C is much smaller than the USB plugs you're used to and is, perhaps more importantly, symmetrical. The reversible design means you'll be able to connect a Type-C cable without worrying about the plug's orientation or the cable's direction.
Intended to replace both USB and Micro USB with one universal standard, Type-C looks to be pretty much the same size as Apple's proprietary Lightning cable, which has a similar reversible design. With support for USB 3.1, the new cables will offer bandwidth of up to 10Gbps, though their biggest benefit will surely be in eliminating the frustration of trying to plug devices in the right way round. The design and the full spec have not been fully settled yet, but the USB Implementers Forum is confident enough in its current plans to release these images illustrating what can be expected.

Time for a new case?

http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/2/5573680/first-images-of-the-reversible-usb-cable

 

[Frick]

A friend spoke about this some time ago, and he was SUPER excited about how you can plug them in any way. I never understood that excitement really.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I wonder if there will be Type-A to Type-C and Type-B to Type-C cables. If there is, great. If there isn't, it might as well be a different name for the Lightning connector and it will go the way of Betamax.

I never liked how USB 3's four additional pins were superimposed on the USB 2 connector. Yeah, it is backwards compatible but something has to be said about the costs.

 

[AsRock]

WOW, to think USB was on computers back in the 90's and how long it took to actually make it available and the fact they did not think of this then lol. I guess it just another way to make a few extra $ of people.

 

[cheesy999]

WOW, to think USB was on computers back in the 90's and how long it took to actually make it available and the fact they did not think of this then lol. I guess it just another way to make a few extra $ of people.

The original usb connector was not reversible to make it cheaper, as they thought a cheaper design would make it more popular

They were correct

 

[AsRock]

Riiight.

 

[eidairaman1]

A friend spoke about this some time ago, and he was SUPER excited about how you can plug them in any way. I never understood that excitement really.

As we go thru the time tunnel people are getting stupider and even more lazy, now a polarity interpreter chip has to be implemented Which costs the customer more...

 

[FordGT90Concept]

The original usb connector was not reversible to make it cheaper, as they thought a cheaper design would make it more popular

They were correct

Yup, look at the wild success of Thunderbolt. Its controller is very expensive so implementation is isolated to very expensive motherboards and Apple products.

 

[Frick]

Yup, look at the wild success of Thunderbolt. Its controller is very expensive so implementation is isolated to very expensive motherboards and Apple products.

Isn't that because USB is more open or something though?

I mean this would be neat and eventually it might be as ubiquitous as what we have now is, but it will be a couple of years with adapter galore, not least because flash drives tend to last a long time, and replacing a perfectly fine USB 3.0 16GB flash drive is dumb.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

You know what’s incredible about USB 3.0 today? It’s practically free. It comes baked into chipsets from both AMD and Intel, and even when it’s not native, host controllers cost just two bucks. Thunderbolt’s pricing, on the other hand, is crazy expensive. At least we think so; we don’t know how much the controllers—all made by Intel—even cost. Early on, one vendor told us $200, which is insane. Other board makers have since told us that T-bolt chips cost about $30. Whatever the cost, the fact is that basic boards with Thunderbolt cost about $60 more than similar boards without it. Let’s not even get into the cables, which today cost $50 for a basic 2‑meter span. By a country mile, USB 3.0 wins this category, and we can’t see that changing for the foreseeable future. Did we mention that Thunderbolt cables cost $50?

not-so-secret-secret-sauce

Cables for Thunderbolt are much, much more expensive.

 

[RejZoR]

Because sticking in an USB connector is such a difficult task... I've been doing it blindly for my phone for ages (microUSB) and don't really recall massive problems with normal sized ones either.

The thing is, USB is so successful because it's truly universal. No matter what device you have, even ancient USB 1.x device, it will work. But if you break this standard now, you're effectively rendering 98% of devices useless. You're facing exactly the same issue as the x86 standard. Sure it's old and all, but you can run anything from 20 years ago on it and also moderd stuff.

And it's also the reason why none of the new "faster" and "better" standards are so widely accepted. Hell, look even at USB 3.0. Considering its age it's really poorly accepted standard, because even brand new devices still come with only USB 2.0 and one would expect that every current new device will use USB 3.0 and nothing else.

 

[RejZoR]

They could use two retractable connector plates within USB connector, where always only one can retract and "move away" from the other side connector. This way you can keep the compatibility and also make it reversible. However it makes the retractable connector a bit more prone to mechanical failure and of course a bit more complex. But it would be reversible and backward compatible.

 

[eidairaman1]

It would make it bulkier too

 

[xLDKx NewYorker]

How lazy are people getting? It's sad that you can be just moderately intelligent and still be smarter than most people now a days.... HurrDurr wer3 d0e5 My co/2d g0?!?9?q?
I've thought about this before, and i think it's useless because your implementing a new standard... If we move past USB might as well move past x86 to a new Arch