While Floppy Disks were considered a sexy way of transferring data a few decades ago, they’ve since sadly become obsolete, leaving behind only a 2D image of themselves in the top left corner of this Microsoft Word document. Luckily for us, a new standard of data transfer was on the playing field. Enter the USB Standard and many years of moaning at how short USB cables are, the fact that they have a lifetime of a few months before they get frayed near one end (a much shorter lifetime if you have a cat, a fact I can attest to) and general confusion when trying to determine if your phone needed a mini or micro USB adapter.
But when it came to transferring files, music, movies, pictures or scores of other such data between laptops/computers and handheld devices, it was indispensable. USB 2.0 rolled out, a standard the modern homosapien is familiar with. Boasting an impressive data transfer speed of 280 Mbit/s, it cut down the time you’d have to transfer a song to your mobile from a few minutes to just a few seconds, and for a few years the world was at peace with itself when it came to USB data transferring. However innovation was not to be denied a chance, why wait a few seconds when you didn’t have to wait at all? So in came USB 3.0, swaggering with the knowledge that it could transfer data at 5 Gbit/s.
However In an age where companies are desperate to promote the next thinnest/weightless appliance, gadgets are shrinking in size and weight by the day, fueled by the dogma that “less is more”. This resulted in a technical issue: there really wasn’t all that much clearance space to fit a USB port in a 13.5 mm thick laptop. Other I/O ports (apart from the sacred 3.5 mm headphone jack) suffer from this problem as well, resulting in you having to invest a lot in wireless peripherals.
In response to this problem the USB Implementers Forum have decided to develop the new USB-C connector. The cable has the same connector on both ends (one that resembles a Micro USB connector) as opposed to generic USB 2.0 to Micro/Mini USB cables. Further more the connectors have no up or down orientation, meaning you’ll be spared that half a second of shame when you try to plug a USB cable in, only to find out you’re doing it the wrong way up. As for data transfer speeds, USB-C is the king since it boasts USB 3.1 speeds (which are twice as fast as USB 3.0). And since many companies such as Apple, Dell, Microsoft and Samsung are part of the USB Implementers Forum, this new standard will more likely to be accepted amongst PC manufacturers. This in turn further strengthens its claim to be the “one cable to connect them all”.
USB-C also allows for bidirectional power, meaning that in times of need a peripheral device could charge a host instead of the usual opposite. Furthermore you would no longer need to carry around a plethora of clunky power adapters for laptops since USB-C could easily power it the same way you power your smartphone using the little USB ports.
While it is expected to become widespread in 2015, many people wishing to embrace the USB-C standard will have to chuck all their old gadgets into the bin and go summer shopping for devices that have at least one USB-C port, though I wouldn’t advise that since there are only two laptops and a tablet that support USB-C on the market so far. However once the market gets more saturated with USB-C devices, a single cable is all that you could need.
