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The USB paradox is one of the most familiar experiences of the digital age. Every time you try to plug in a USB cord, it seems like you always get it wrong on the first try. It doesn't matter how much attention you pay to the plug or the cord or the icons on the cord. It's always wrong.
And there's a good reason for that! In an interview published Thursday by DesignNews, Intel's Ajay Bhatt spoke at length about why the ubiquitous technology has been so infuriating for so long. Bhatt was a member of the team that developed USB technology. Even at the start of development, they knew that making the connector flippable would be a better user experience in the long run. But doing so would require twice the wiring and more circuitry, which would increase costs.
"If you have a lot of cost up front for an unproven technology it might not take off. So that was our fear. You have to be really cost conscious when you start out," Bhatt said.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Sunday December 03 2017, @06:15PM (4 children)
No, "too clueless to mandate a label on one side of the connector and one side of the plug" sums it up.
Connectors don't have to be invertible; they just have to be comprehensible.
If the A side of the connector had a solid, obvious bar, and the A side of the plug had a solid, obvious bar, you'd be able to plug these in correctly every time, as long as you could see (blind people, oh well. They'd still have to fumble.) The extra cost? Negligible.
Invertible is nice. But it isn't necessary.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by toddestan on Sunday December 03 2017, @06:29PM (3 children)
We have that already. The USB logo is supposed to be on the top of the plug. So long as the USB port isn't upside down (not always a given), you should in theory know how to plug the cable in by looking at. If it's embossed you could also do it by feel.
The problem is that a lot of cables don't include the logo. Either because they are too cheap, would rather their logo be there, or because they they prefer form over function and don't care about standards (hello Apple). And there's things like USB memory sticks that almost never have the USB logo on them.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday December 03 2017, @09:27PM
It has to be a functional part of the interface. In other words, the shape of the connector.
Have you ever heard of someone trying to connect an RS232 connector [wikipedia.org] upside down? Or a parallel port connector? [wikipedia.org] A VGA connector? [wikipedia.org] A Firewire connector? [wikipedia.org] An HDMI connector? [wikipedia.org]
Now look in comparison at the standard size USB connector. [wikipedia.org] Do you notice a difference?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by rleigh on Sunday December 03 2017, @10:45PM (1 child)
How many end users know about the USB logo on the plug telling them about the orientation? I only know because I read about it, and I'm a nerd.
Even with this logo, it doesn't help when the socket is in a vertical orientation. Is it left or right? All the connectors on my current systems are vertical, and it's a lottery trying to plug things in.
Even when you know the orientation, USB is still a terrible design. Who recognises this: try to plug in USB cable and fail, turn 180 degrees and fail again, turn back to the original orientation and finally succeed. Or a fourth time if you were wrong originally! USB sockets and plugs are a terrible design. Compare this with the original FireWire 400 design, which works every time because it's intuitively clear and you don't have to try three times to make it work. Or FireWire 800, DisplayPort, mini-DisplayPort or HDMI. All are newer connectors, and they are all better designed. Most marks to full-sized DisplayPort for a nice retaining clip which HDMI lacks, and fewest to mini-DisplayPort for lacking one and falling out if you so much as sneeze.
It's a shame IEEE1394 didn't take off since it was vastly better than USB in pretty much every aspect. Shame on Apple for killing it with licensing fees.
(Score: 4, Funny) by FatPhil on Monday December 04 2017, @01:48PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves