this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
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ShowerThoughts
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Sometimes we have those little epiphanies in the shower.. sometimes they come from other places. This is a home for those epiphanies.
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Bro USBC is soo good. One cable to rule them all.
It’s actually terrible if you pay attention to the details. USB c only really describes the connector but there’s no way to tell specs and there is a wild variety of specs out there. I have USB-C cables that have 240w charging capacity but 500mb of data transfer, then I have another one that can do high speed data transfers but charges slowly (I forget the actual specs). Then you have the cheap devices with USB C input that charge at USB A speeds and won’t work with high charging speed cables. But the best thing about USB-C is that they all look the same so you can’t tell which specs it has by looking at it unless the manufacturer labels them somewhere (unless you deliberately buy them with different looks like I do so I can easily tell them apart. )
The only good USB C I/o is thunderbolt because there is an actual standard of data and energy transfer.
Look, I get your point about the confusing cables, but still, having universal charging is so useful.
I havent had a single issue with usb-c so far. Just dont buy cheapo uncertified garbage and you wont have any issues either. Ofcourse they come in different levels but what they can do will always be written on the box. If i just want a charging cable i dont wanna have to spend 30€ on a USB4 compatible cable, so the segmentation is good.
Exactly it requires your engaged decision making as a consumer. Its just your duty to ensure the good qualities of the free market win the Darwinian competition of products.
Its actually pretty good once u understand the standards. So the way the cable works is it establishes communication between the devices and negotiates protocol. So u have USBC power delivery that negotiates power hence why my 100w laptop charger can charge everything from my phone to my vape. Then u have the USB levels so usb1 usb2 usb3 usbcss (I can't remember them cos they keep changing them but u got different data levels) that are speeds.
Yeah what you’re saying is what I’m saying, you’re just saying it in an upbeat way: it’s a mess of different specs, some USB C cables don’t even have the chip to negotiate power. It’s better than everything having a different proprietary connector for sure, but it’s still a mess. I guess the average consumer won’t realize they could get faster data transfer or charging so in the end all they are really happy about is using a single cable for everything. Meanwhile I have spent more money than I ever had before on cables just to have the right one for each of use cases. Ignorance is bliss I guess.