“The latest iteration of the USB connector is called Type-C, and while it was officially introduced in 2014, it’s really just starting to appear on the devices we can buy and use,” Bob O’Donnell writes for Tech.pinions. “Apple’s 2015 MacBook was among the first to support the new connector, but it’s now showing up on all kinds of Windows PCs, smartphones, monitors, docking stations, storage peripherals and more.”
“USB Type-C supports several alternate modes, most notably the ability to carry up to 100W of power over the line, as well as the ability to drive up to two 4K displays at a 60Hz refresh rate,” O’Donnell writes. “Best of all, it can do this simultaneously with data transfer, allowing a single connector to theoretically now deliver power, data and video over a single line. Truly, this should be the one cable to rule them all.”
“As we all know, however, there’s often a big difference between theory and practice,” O’Donnell writes. “The crux of the problem is that not all USB Type-C connectors support all of these different capabilities, and with one important exception, it’s almost impossible for an average person to figure out what a given USB Type-C equipped device supports without doing a good deal of research… The real problem is that there are no simple means of demarcation or labelling for different varieties of USB Type-C. One of the goals of the standard was to produce a much smaller connector that would fit on smaller devices—leaving little room for any type of icon.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, when it comes to USB Type-C, unfortunately some homework is required. Joe Sixpack (who absolutely refuses to RTFM) is going to be pretty lost.
… and there was me thinking that having standards means that things complying with that standard would work together.
Muddying the water with similarly named, but incompatible connectors and devices is a retrograde step.
I questioned Apple’s reluctance to use USB-C in the latest iOS devices, but after reading about how USB-C connectors and cables will be an unmanaged crapshoot, I can sympathize with them wanting to keep using Lightning just to ensure some standards between all the cables and docks they certify.
There’s no reason that Apple couldn’t provide more leadership in the standards committees.
It’s really simple: power, USB, and Thunderbolt are three separate things and really deserve unique ports.
Problem is, there are some non-technical people at Apple who don’t understand the user needs and think that eliminating ports is always best. They are wrong. Now that Apple finally got Magsafe right, they should stick with it.
USB-C is essentially a worldwide standard to rival Lightning, but Apple has no choice but to use it. The rest of the world will.
Thunderbolt is another constantly-evolving connector mess that Apple needs to get figured out ASAP before it becomes another FireWire — technically superior but killed by lack of market development.
Intel doesn’t give a care what the external Thunderbolt physical connector is, they just want computer makers to buy motherboards with it. Problem is, Apple hasn’t done a bit of public education or advertising to explain what makes Thunderbolt attractive. It’s NOT something that should be combined with low-speed data (USB). But last year Apple undermined Thunderbolt by releasing a netbook MacBook that has no Thunderbolt. The 2015 MacBook can’t be used conveniently with any external display, including Apple’s own Thunderbolt Display. Why?????? Apple already sold a neutered Mac, it’s called an iPad.
Even the best and the brightest don’t always read manuals plus it’s generally not included any more.
When you did your survey, did you notice that most of the people that didn’t read the manual carried lunch buckets to work? Perhaps you might expand your cohort limits and include people who not only finished high school but also might have gone to university and got degrees in engineering or the sciences.
I might address your comment, as I spent 30+ years as a technical writer at various major computer makers, including Apple.
Again and again and again during that period, we found that users not only tended to not RTFM (read the fine manual); increasing educational background didn’t have a direct connection to whether they were more or less likely to actually read the documentation.
Moving away from paper manuals to electronic or online documentation (largely driven by hugely escalating printing costs), helped in some cases, but not by a lot.
My own experience has been that a “lunch bucket worker” was just about as likely as a white-collar worker to read the manuals before giving up and asking for help. As often as not, from a pre-teen or teenage boy who’d figured out how things worked on their own, for fun.
Yes, it may do many wonderous things but if it requires an adapter/widget to do them simultaneously then many would prefer two slots not one.
Apple should have kept the magsafe power and USB -C functions separate.
Why should anyone have to read a manual for a connector? You buy the thing, and plug in things that fit into the connector.
Well that’s the trade-off with a universal connector. There’s just no way that USB-C can support everything that it’s capable of with every device using it.
Would you really expect the Apple TV 4 to support two 4K monitors with its USB-C port?
Would you expect a smartphone to output 100 watts with its USB-C port?
So the alternative is that we have a different port for everything that USB-C is capable of, or we use one port and then read a manual (more likely a spec sheet) on what the device is capable of while using that port.
This isn’t new. We’ve had this issue from the beginning as things like video ports outputted different resolutions to monitors capable of displaying different resolutions.
While I can agree I don’t expect the devices to support everything the cable/connector is capable of, I would expect a cable/connector standard to support everything in the standard.
Using USB for power to a laptop means when your co-worker trips on your USB cable, you have REAL problems.
When that single USB connector in the laptop goes poof, what do you do then?
The same thing you would do when the single power port goes poof. I don’t know many computers with multiple power ports, but with USB-C (and Skylake) the potential for multiple ports capable of being used for power exists.
I think Bo is getting at is that it is a single connector that provides power as well as all other data transmissions.. You lose that one USB port that provides everything and you’re up the creek..
Yup. I have a USB on a MBPro right now that got “knocked” and it no longer works.
Knock a MagSafe and all you do is snap it back on.
Right, but the rMB aside, the idea is that you would have more than one USB-C port. The rMB is the only one so far to do a solo port. Skylake will support multiple USB-C ports. So given what would be expected as a multiport notebook, if you lose 1 (or maybe even 2), you’d still have another USB-C port that can be used for data/power (at the same time).
Considering how rare it’s been for me to loose any port since the 1970s, I’m not particularly worried about this, but knowing that there will be multiple ports that can be used for anything (including power) is even more reassuring.
What I find interesting about the idea of merging the power cable with USB-C is that depending on the connection to the device, the device is either receiving power through the cable or sending it to a ‘client’ device. The first time a cable would be sending power in opposing directions depending on which two things are connected..
Read about the 1 plus 1 phone that uses the USB-C cable that is uncompliant, and can burn any port of a non 1 plus 1 phone if used to charge.
it is like using the cable for analog voltage. Crazy
Is that a case of the device not being compliant with the USB-C standard (e.g. expecting a lower voltage than should be expected) or the version of the USB-C cable used by the 1 plus 1 phone exceeding the standard for the power pin?
Here’s what Mac users need to know about USB-C in 2016. USB-C is your Thunderbolt 3 connector (whereas the Mini-Display port previously was the Thunderbolt connector) . . . In 2016 Apple will be releasing Macbooks and Macbook Pros with the USB-C Thunderbolt 3 connector. CES 2016 had a number of USB-C devices and docks. Here is an example of a USB-C dock from OWC, which shows you the potential of this connector . . . https://eshop.macsales.com/preorder/OWC-USB-C-Dock/
Apple screws up again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I DONT WANT A DOCK !! just to do the tasks I used to do without one.
“Joe Sixpack,” AKA every “Windows expert.”
Since WHEN did Steve Jobs want customers to “RTFM”? Get a clue.
This is nothing new. It goes back to the very beginning of computing when ports were capable of different outputs (and inputs).
I thought the whole point of being an Apple fan was that it just worked and indeed advertising used to promote the bonus of not having to read reams of instruction manuals and research when setting things up. Has this changed MDN? Equally is it really so difficult to mark each socket with a coloured dot or simple symbol that indicates the various capabilities to make looking it up rather a simple task?
Don’t be an extremist. If Apple comes out with a laptop with two USB-C connectors and claims it can drive two UHDTV monitors or one 5k monitor from either of those ports are you going to expect that laptop to provide full power support to those monitors? Only an idiot would.
Could you expect it out of the next MacPro (if one ever shows up)? Maybe.
True plug and play has been the high ground Apple has maintained since the DOS/ISA days. (You do remember IRQ setting don’t you?) But that does not mean that oddball configurations will be supported.
This is no different than the days of the DB-9 and DB-15 and DB-25 connectors. The connection (protocol over the connector) could be many, many different things. Even Apple did RS-232 and RS-422 over the same connector. It senses what it was talking to and defaulted to the appropriate connection..
The issue here will be on the host and user sides and not buying crap cables that don’t support all the functionality.
Manufacturers must make it clear in their marketing materials what connections will be supported in their devices — that includes you Apple!
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