

Reversible USB Type C connector and 10 gigabit USB 3.1 are here - nkurz
http://www.pcgamer.com/reversible-usb-type-c-connector-and-10-gigabit-usb-31-are-here/

======
deskpro
What I'm excited about here is monitor hubs. You plug your monitor into a
power socket, and peripherals into the monitor's USB ports.

You arrive at work, and only need to plug your laptop into the monitor. The
monitor hub sends power and data from peripherals to your laptop. Your laptop
sends video to the monitor all through the same cable.

~~~
pdpi
Yeah, that's basically what Apple offers today on their thunderbolt monitors
(except those still need a separate power cable). Hopefully we'll actually see
a wider adoption of the concept once it's on commodity USB-C instead of the
massively expensive thunderbolt.

~~~
post_break
Only problem I've seen is that the thunderbolt hubs cost over $200, plus the
cost of the cable. And even then they only have a few ports.

~~~
pierrec
The idea is that you can daisy-chain many devices without using a hub. Among
thunderbolt devices, I believe most screens and high-end hard drives provide
the two ports necessary for daisy-chaining. USB also supports this quite well,
and high-end USB hard drives also generally include a port for this purpose.

It's an interesting comeback for the concept - it reminds me of daisy chaining
PCs on their serial ports for playing Starcraft:

[http://www.angelfire.com/nt/startupage/sc/FRAMES/SERIAL/3OR4...](http://www.angelfire.com/nt/startupage/sc/FRAMES/SERIAL/3OR4WAY.html)

~~~
post_break
I know you can daisy chain, my point being that you get only a few ports, per
$200+ device. Vs USB 3 where added usb ports, ethernet, etc is $20 a device.

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Someone1234
If laptops can charge via USB, international travel will be so much nicer.

USB has already made international travel much better (thanks to 90% of your
key electronics being USB, and international USB adapters being cheap and
reliable, or heck just buy a local one in each country, they're $5/each).

Most laptops have a "brick" which works in most countries, but you still need
to find the correct local cable or have an adapter (and frankly some adapters
are unsafe/bad). In a future where everything is USB (type-C) which might be
10+ years off, everyone will benefit.

~~~
jewel
> If laptops can charge via USB, international travel will be so much nicer.

I got the HP Chromebook 11 for just that reason. It charges with a micro-usb
port, i.e. the same cable as android phones. It's nice to not need to bother
packing a charger or cable for it.

It's too bad all ultrabooks don't add a micro-usb port just for this purpose
(in addition to the normal charger). The current chargers are much thicker
than the computer which is annoying, and it'd be nice if you could just leave
a charger in your car and suitcase and figure that you'd be covered.

~~~
baldfat
Latest rumor is Apple's Air is going to have only one USB 3.1 port for
everything. [http://9to5mac.com/2015/01/06/macbook-air-12-inch-
redesign/](http://9to5mac.com/2015/01/06/macbook-air-12-inch-redesign/)

No maglock power supply, no display port, just the one port.

~~~
valarauca1
Its kinda limiting. That's means I have to lug a hub around with me at all
times, a spare port would be nice for phone charging, usb drives, etc.

~~~
Synaesthesia
Shades of the original iMac, which ditched everything in favour of just USB.

~~~
zaphoyd
The original iMac had more ports than the current Air (audio in/out, power,
ethernet, modem, USBx2, and an expansion slot).

One port that can do power, data, or video is pretty spiffy. Using that as an
excuse to only have one port on the entire machine seems a bit extreme. At
least give us one on each side..

------
rgersten
As others have pointed out, there's a lot to be exited about. I definitely see
this as a big step forward.

That said, I think the connector shape is flawed. I've seen too many micro USB
connectors break off in phones because it's hard to make something that small
strong enough for movement from the cable. I wish they would have chosen
something closer to the lightning connector or magnetic for durability. I'd
hate to have to replace the main point of connectivity of an ultra-thin
laptop.

~~~
bryanlarsen
Type C was designed to be more durable than micro-USB.

~~~
rgersten
I'm sure, and there's probably a ton of other considerations that went into
this design e.g. space savings in laptops, manufacturing costs, etc. I just
really like not worrying about connectors breaking after replacing laptops and
cellphones early because of broken power/micro-USB jacks.

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sp332
From CES: "A story in three acts"
[https://twitter.com/dakami/status/552986333434490880](https://twitter.com/dakami/status/552986333434490880)
If you can't see it, it's advertising DisplayPort over USB Type C!

------
jcr
Previous discussion from yesterday:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8848712](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8848712)

------
doczoidberg
Even better than USB 3.1 is Wigig and wireless charging. Broadwell does
support Wigig. Where are the Wigig docking stations now?

~~~
seanp2k2
Wireless charging is pretty lame in that it only works <1cm from the base,
something my toothbrush has done for the past decade. It's useful for devices
where a port is undesirable (e.g. Smart watches) but IMO otherwise pretty
useless. If they had e.g. Desks which charged your laptop + phone when set on
the desk, that might be the slightest bit more convenient than plugging it in,
but it seems like a lot of tech for a little convenience.

I suspect Wigig will be as popular as WiDi, another Intel wireless technology:
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiDi](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiDi)
Keep in mind how long it took Bluetooth to really take off and work reasonably
well between devices (4.0 IMO): [http://www.bluetooth.com/Pages/History-of-
Bluetooth.aspx](http://www.bluetooth.com/Pages/History-of-Bluetooth.aspx)
(Bluetooth is 15 years old).

I remember having a Nokia 6600 back in 2003, with a Sony Ericsson bluetooth
headset, and getting a lot of questions about it. The phone had 3G and a video
camera, web browser, smartphone OS (at the time; Symbian S60) with apps, and
the Bluetooth headset I had (HBH-660) had called ID and a button to hang up,
was very light, and lasted quite a while on a battery (IIRC, it would connect
to Bluetooth on demand, since low-power 4.x wasn't a thing then). It's kind of
disappointing to me how this stuff hasn't advanced terribly in functionality
in the 10 years since. It's still wearables which work ~poorly, Bluetooth
inter-op issues (cars are pretty notorious), battery life struggles, etc.

~~~
300bps
_Wireless charging is pretty lame_

I've had a Lumia 928 for about 19 months now and I have to disagree. I haven't
plugged the phone in - to anything - since I bought it. I find just thunking
the phone down onto the Qi charger much more convenient than fiddling with
cables. Some day we'll look back on wires in general and laugh at how
primitive we were.

~~~
yoshamano
Likewise, I have a Lumia 920 and I use a Qi enabled cradle in my car. It makes
charging my phone in my car much more convenient. Combined with Bluetooth I
don't have to deal with any wires into my phone going into and out of my car
(which I do at least a dozen times a day).

------
cmsmith
In reference to the 100W power carrying capacity:

That seems to me like a lot of power to be sending through a 0.5mm wide
contact pin separated from the data pin by another 0.5mm. I see elsewhere that
they have upped the voltage to 20V, which reduces the current required - is
that all it takes?

~~~
lsaferite
Power comes across 8 pins (4 Vbus, 4 Ground)

From the spec: "3.7.7.4 Contact Current Rating (EIA 364-70, Method 2) A
current of 5.0 A shall be applied collectively to VBUS pins (i.e., pins A4,
A9, B4, and B9) and 1.25 A applied to the VCONN pin (i.e., B5 of the plug
connector) with the return path through the corresponding GND pins (i.e., pins
A1, A12, B1, and B12). A minimum current of 0.25 A shall also be applied
individually to all the other contacts. When the currents are applied to the
contacts, the temperature rise shall not exceed 30 °C at any point on the USB
Type-C mated plug and receptacle under test, when measured at an ambient
temperature of 25 °C."

[http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/](http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/)

~~~
lsaferite
The Vbus/GND wires are 20-28 AWG.

------
masklinn
> USB cables have been carrying power for years, but the interface has never
> been rated to feed devices more than 10 watts.

7.5W (1.5A@5V) according to the Battery Charging Specification 1.2. 10W
chargers are out-of-spec extensions, as were 5W chargers before 2010.

------
bluthru
In an alternative utopia: everything uses the lightning connector design.

------
helper
When can I buy a phone with a Type C connector?

~~~
seanp2k2
Well, Nokia is on board, and I expect all the other mfgs will follow in 2015:
[http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/18/7239695/nokia-n1-first-
ta...](http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/18/7239695/nokia-n1-first-tablet-with-
reversible-usb)

Welp, time to buy 15 new USB cables again! At least it's worth it this time,
vs mini -> micro, which has been a lot less durable in my experience (the
shape of the mini B connector + height made it a lot less likely to bend at
the flexible plastic part you grab)

~~~
stormbrew
From mini to micro they moved the stress and failure points from the port to
the connector. I'd rather replace a cable than a port, so imo it was a
significant improvement.

~~~
stouset
I keep hearing this, yet somehow the micro-USB port on nearly every device I
own has failed within a year or two of use. Not so for mini-USB.

~~~
stormbrew
Well, anecdata and all but I've had rather the opposite experience. Mini ports
that even new plugs just don't want to stay in and micro plugs where a new
cable was all I needed.

Someone in this post has been talking about micro plugs outright breaking off
in devices and I've never seen that at all.

~~~
sliken
I've had micro usb cables die, cables incompatible with devices, and even had
a phones micro-usb die. Seems like I get about a year out of micro-usb
cable/device/charger if I use it daily. Assuming no physical abuse I've never
had a problem with mini-usb.

------
guelo
Good to see the little teeth on the plug are gone, they were the main failure
mode for micro-usb cables.

~~~
AceJohnny2
That was their purpose. It was either that or put the teeth in the female
port, on your expensive device and impossible to replace when (not if) they
broke down. Put them on the cheap and easily replacable cable was a wise
design decision.

[http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/18552/why-
was...](http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/18552/why-was-mini-usb-
deprecated-in-favor-of-micro-usb)

Having no info on the mechanical properties of the Type C connector, I'm
curious (and a bit skeptical) about how that'll live on.

~~~
lsaferite
The retention spring are still on the plug, they are just internal now.

USB Type-C Spec v1.0 Section 3.2.1 / Page 32
[http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/](http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/)

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TD-Linux
Anyone know where I can buy type C connectors? They seem to be unobtanium at
the moment.

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wondenderboy
Sorry, I´ve read 10 gigabit Ethernet is here, who cares about USB?

