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Apple Reveals Furthers Details on Reversible USB Cable With Flexible Internal Connector
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"...the contact portion of the tongue can be thicker and more durable, with the flexible portion of the tongue minimizing the possibility of breakage and providing room for the thicker tongue to still fit in either orientation."
I can definitely think of entirely different scenarios in which this would be useful.
Lol! I see what you meant.
I have MUCH cheaper, better solution: People just learn to be patient and careful, and not jam things in too hard when there's obvious resistance to them doing so. Do we have reversible IEC plugs (mains plug for PC/Mac)? Do we have reversible shoes? Yes, this is a good idea, but designing AROUND patience and common sense? How about people just learn the hard way and suck it up, teaching them a valuable life lesson - BE CAREFUL WITH YOUR EQUIPMENT.
Der!!
Like I said before, they need to scrap this idea and go with a MagSafe 2 port design. Or maybe even some sort of wireless charging. This isn't the 90's anymore.
Like I said before, they need to scrap this idea and go with a MagSafe 2 port design. Or maybe even some sort of wireless charging. This isn't the 90's anymore.
Amazing how people jump on the bandwagon against product improvement...
Many of you concur the piece that Apple is making from an elastomer is going to eventually snap because of repeated use. Do you even know what an elastomer is?
Boeing makes an airplane wing that flexes billions of times over the lifecycle of an airplane but Apple can't make a reversible USB cable that won't be susceptible to snapping after repeated use?
Lots of smart guys commenting in this forum.
Many of you concur the piece that Apple is making from an elastomer is going to eventually snap because of repeated use. Do you even know what an elastomer is?
Boeing makes an airplane wing that flexes billions of times over the lifecycle of an airplane but Apple can't make a reversible USB cable that won't be susceptible to snapping after repeated use?
Lots of smart guys commenting in this forum.
Elastomer fatique takes LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of bending to even START to occur. Yup.
Elastomers conduct electricity?
In how many of these Boeing aircraft do the electrical wire harnesses flop around a billion times over the lifecycle of an airplane.
This isn't necessarily fragile but just as resistant to failure as the normal USB socket design? Not likely.
Conductive ones do, yes, as used in LCD watches, calculators etc:
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Even then, the flex back and forth is a minimal difference. It's maybe 1 or 2 degrees of motion.
All they really need is some spring steel. Hell, even aluminum might survive that minor of a flex 100's of 1000's of times.
Not so much FRAND but more so Apple doing extensive wrap-around patents so that can go to basic concept holder and demand substantially lower licensing costs than whatever FRAND number that holder might have come up with.
Folks are still going to need to license the core concept patent here that isn't Apples.
It is just the now normal issue with patents these days between companies. Piled-higher-and-deeper , "My stack is taller than your stack" negotiations . It only has tangent usefulness for users in mind. The vast majority of stuff flowing through patent office these days is never going to make it market at all.
Why am I reminded of the old pro-Windows argument that Windows is better BECAUSE it's less reliable and harder to use, thus making you a real man or some such thing?
You also make it sound like making a product more durable in any way is teaching a bad "lesson." Make all hardware out of balsa wood and teach people to handle stuff gently! Don't let the device work for you—YOU should work for the device (I know you're kidding but some are serious so I'll point out: shoes and power plugs don't look AND feel the same in both directions. So they already have a solution for the problem USB has.)Agreed! I hate it when companies make small improvements. ONLY earth-shattering improvements should be allowed.
Non-reversible USB only bothers me 1 to 2 times a day, maximum. I'd be much happier facing such a minor problem forever instead of solving it.
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Then you are going to be even more happy. You can get reversible USB cables right now. They've been on sale for quite some time. Apparently not marketed very well though.
How many cables are you inserting that 3 seconds longer per cable insert actually matters?
...what, those nice, chunky hexagonal plugs that make it very easy to tell, by sight or touch, which way up the plug and socket is?
This is a specific problem with the USB A connectors where it is tricky to tell visually and almost impossible to tell by touch which way up they should go.
The point of the USB connector is that it plugs into existing USB sockets. Like the ones in virtually every computer, most modern cars (or with a cigar-to-USB adapter), an increasing number of hotel rooms, some 4-way adapter strips, generic USB power supplies that you've probably already got half-a-dozen of etc. All available by simply carrying a USB cable. Even with multiple devices, you can probably get away without carrying a power supply, you certainly don't need to carry more than one.
Wireless is great but you have to carry the wireless charger with you, or at least the induction plate part (and what does that plug into the power with... tadah! USB!)
Whomever came up with that one is a visionary pioneer. USB is **THE** gamechanging connector that truly revolutionized the world. Before that, there were serial, parallel, and remember Apple's bulky SCSI 1 and 2 connectors? How about Apple's not-so-distant firewire? Or the current Thunderbolt?
Just be thankful for a great technology and look forward to the next evolution of it.
Everyone want's reversible tongues.
Is this so customers can bend them, and not break ?
Just another thing to say "Now, we can freely bend this because technology allows us, we couldn't do before"
Maybe people should just be more careful, then we wouldn't need these technologies,,
Although cool. I could also nae Sapphire here too..
Looks like the marketing hype from Apple is working. I would never get a flexible usb cable..... why ?
The reversible thing may be all well and good, and while i have tried to just "shove it in there", don't people look at ports anymore ?
That basically what sums it all up here.
Is this so customers can bend them, and not break ?
Just another thing to say "Now, we can freely bend this because technology allows us, we couldn't do before"
Maybe people should just be more careful, then we wouldn't need these technologies,,
Although cool. I could also nae Sapphire here too..
Looks like the marketing hype from Apple is working. I would never get a flexible usb cable..... why ?
The reversible thing may be all well and good, and while i have tried to just "shove it in there", don't people look at ports anymore ?
That basically what sums it all up here.
They don't use the mechanism this article is about. Making them, in theory, more fragile. (Not sure if that has contributed to their lack of success in the market.)