USB-C and Apple...
I'm generally on the anti-Apple side of the equation. But a lot of people have somehow been upset about Apple's involvement in USB-C. So, this time I get to play the other side of things.
To be frank, with USB 3.0 only just becoming a stable, yet another USB standard does make things a bit of a pain, and that does jive with Apple's typical plays (see their involvement in SIM card standards). So, while I'm not praising Apple by any means, their involvement in open standards is definitely something to hail rather than balk at.
Note, this is the company that historically shunned all standard connectors and instead developed their own (see Thunderbolt ports, and whatever crap connector came before it).
And, Apple generally does demand good things be included. They are shipping the new MacBook with these connectors after all. I don't personally find orienting the USB connector the right way to be a problem, or that there are almost always two completely different ends on every USB cable... but a design which eliminates those problems certainly doesn't make things worse. I also have no need for any of my devices to be any thinner than they already are... but hey, if it also allows them to shrink the ports and thus enable smaller and lighter devices... again, no complaints.
Basically, this kind of community involvement is great for the industry. To a degree. And here is where the praise ends. Before going on however, the point here is the above. The positive. What follows is about things that haven't yet happened with USB standards.
The problem with a company like Apple is that they have a lot of things they value which push them to change far more often than makes sense. The SIM card thing is a good case. Apple got involved in standards to get the SIM's smaller which was a good thing. But then, they wanted to start pushing more changes, more frequently. Had they succeeded the market would suck a little bit more. If you want to push out new standards more frequently than people upgrade their phones anyway... why bother with SIM cards at all? It isn't relevant if they are easily swapped between devices if the next device you buy is unlikely to work with the one you have now.
The same goes with cables for peripherals. Frankly, I don't think the timing of the Thunderbolt connector was bad. The old connector was just that... old. It had been around through several product iterations, and the technology had advanced to a point where there were numerous benefits.
The funniest thing about USB-C has to be that the only people it potentially burns are those with Apple laptops with Thunderbolt ports. Thunderbolt was the connector that didn't live long enough to have made sense in the first place. USB-C to me, looks like and offers more or less the same tangible benefits as a Thunderbolt port.
So, if USB-C sticks around long enough, then kudos to Apple. If they turn around tomorrow and want to push more changes and generate a new version, then I'll retract my praise at that time.
To be frank, with USB 3.0 only just becoming a stable, yet another USB standard does make things a bit of a pain, and that does jive with Apple's typical plays (see their involvement in SIM card standards). So, while I'm not praising Apple by any means, their involvement in open standards is definitely something to hail rather than balk at.
Note, this is the company that historically shunned all standard connectors and instead developed their own (see Thunderbolt ports, and whatever crap connector came before it).
And, Apple generally does demand good things be included. They are shipping the new MacBook with these connectors after all. I don't personally find orienting the USB connector the right way to be a problem, or that there are almost always two completely different ends on every USB cable... but a design which eliminates those problems certainly doesn't make things worse. I also have no need for any of my devices to be any thinner than they already are... but hey, if it also allows them to shrink the ports and thus enable smaller and lighter devices... again, no complaints.
Basically, this kind of community involvement is great for the industry. To a degree. And here is where the praise ends. Before going on however, the point here is the above. The positive. What follows is about things that haven't yet happened with USB standards.
The problem with a company like Apple is that they have a lot of things they value which push them to change far more often than makes sense. The SIM card thing is a good case. Apple got involved in standards to get the SIM's smaller which was a good thing. But then, they wanted to start pushing more changes, more frequently. Had they succeeded the market would suck a little bit more. If you want to push out new standards more frequently than people upgrade their phones anyway... why bother with SIM cards at all? It isn't relevant if they are easily swapped between devices if the next device you buy is unlikely to work with the one you have now.
The same goes with cables for peripherals. Frankly, I don't think the timing of the Thunderbolt connector was bad. The old connector was just that... old. It had been around through several product iterations, and the technology had advanced to a point where there were numerous benefits.
The funniest thing about USB-C has to be that the only people it potentially burns are those with Apple laptops with Thunderbolt ports. Thunderbolt was the connector that didn't live long enough to have made sense in the first place. USB-C to me, looks like and offers more or less the same tangible benefits as a Thunderbolt port.
So, if USB-C sticks around long enough, then kudos to Apple. If they turn around tomorrow and want to push more changes and generate a new version, then I'll retract my praise at that time.
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