I wouldn't call micro-USB "uncommon" today. All of the gadgets I've purchased this summer use micro-USB: GPS, phone, tablet, eBook reader, Arduino boards, notebook hard drive enclosures, etc..

Outside of Job's World, they're becoming quite common.
And yes, they're a total PITA to get "right way around" when connecting them!

And the "micro USB" connector on my phone has an HDMI output cable avaiable for it too ($15, dx.com).

Then it's really taken off over the past year or so. Because, to this day, the only devices I've ever had in the house with micro USB are a BT headset and my wife's Blackberry. Every other device uses mini USB and before that many were using the standard USB B plug. Ugh.

Is there any word on when one can buy an unlocked iphone 5?

I bought one today.


In the UK

In Canada Apple is only selling unlocked phones (today). In the US Apple is only selling locked phones (today).

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-575127...-in-u.s-canada/

In the US it seems one might have to wait until October/November. But you're saving $50 over the Canadian prices.

All in all, I consider the iPhone 5 announcement and public reaction somewhat disappointing. Apple's stock is only up around $30 over last week and it hasn't broken $700/share yet.

Micro USB has been the standard for everyone not in the Apple world for the past three to four years. Nearly all Android phones, Blackberries, and Kindles have used it.

I don't know why there's even any debate on this. The fact is unless your household ONLY has Apple devices, you need a variety of cables. I'd rather just throw a bunch of cables in a bag and pick out any one to take with me. Instead I usually bring two 30 pin cables for my wife's iPhone and Nano, and I bring micro USB cables for my phone, her Kindle and Kindle Fire, and my portable mouse (there's some more devices for you, my desktop set charges via micro USB too).

Let me get this straight: I don't LIKE micro USB. It's a terrible shape, it's difficult to plug in (even when I have it the right way around). But it's what we have, and I'd rather everything standardized than have multiple connections.

I'd just stop buying devices that use Micro USB. Problem solved.

But seriously, I'd just rather have the best possible solution, period. If only one device or one manufacturer decides to break the mold and do something better, then so be it. I'm willing to put up with the potential cable confusion to have at least one or some products that do it "better."

Be happy that most charger (i.e.. wall warts) for these products use a standard USB A connector, so you don't necessarily have to take multiple of those. Just take the Apple one because it's probably going to be the one less likely to catch on fire.

You'd really rather that every device used a crappy connector ?

I really don't understand why when it came to USB3 they didn't sit down and design a decent set of connector, rather than just using/adding to the crappy old ones. Mind you I also don't understand why the didn't go the extra mile with the initial connector design and make them reversible*.

"Design" by committee

* unless maybe that is very hard to pull off, it does see kind of odd that just about every modern connector is keyed

It's like these guys didn't learn anything from the simplicity of some of the best connectors ever made: phono plug in various sizes, including the ubiquitous 3.5mm and of course the trusty "RCA" connector. Forget the physical attachment aspects if you like, but the no-nonsense insertion aspect is very appealing.

This kind of orientation-agnostic connection dates back millions of years and still works as well today as it always has.

I just don't get you guys. First of all, I made it especially clear that I DON'T LIKE micro USB. I'd rather everyone use a good standard, and if lightning were that standard I'd be perfectly happy. But it's not going to be and who do you think is going to be the company standing in the way of that?

I just don't know why you guys would harp on Sony for doing something just like this, but give Apple a pass just because you live in their ecosystem. At least Sony tries to get everyone to use their standards, even though their standards are usually stupid and probably aren't cost effective for other companies to use.


Heh, see the thread I just posted.

If I owned a series of Sony devices that I had to plug and unplug on a daily basis, I'd be delighted if they opted to use a quality well designed connector rather than micro USB. Especially if they rolled it out to all their mobile devices, which no doubt Apple will do and no one else has the guts to do.

I'm sure if enough clout, in the form of money likely, came to the table, Apple might entertain licensing that connector for other devices. I think the bigger issue might be that Apple didn't set out with that as a goal so there may be a number of technical issues on top of financial.

I wish. For my upcoming trip, I need to pack a:

MiniUSB cable for charging the GoPro (new 2012 version) it's spare battery, and the WiFi attachment
USB to proprietary for the WiFi remote for the GoPro
MicroUSB for my rechargeable mouse, and Jambox
MicroUSB3 for my portable HDD
Apple 30 pin for the iPad and iPhone

5 different cables for 9 different devices.

And check out USB 3.0's new variant on the micro-B connector:



There's a regular micro-B connector in there, but now it's got a friend next to it. This doesn't strike me as an improvement. Hopefully Apple will kick the USB standards committee into doing something useful for USB 4.

Can someone, in a relatively simple fashion, explain why USB 3 uses so many pins ON ONE END, yet the other end still has what looks like 5 pins?

That really is a thing of beauty.

Heh, I said it was the standard, and it is. I didn't say everyone used that standard. I know exactly how frustrating this is. I have a pair of headphones that has a charging port exactly the size and shape of a micro USB port, but it's NOT a micro USB port. That one kills me.

I think you guys are all getting too hung up on micro USB in what I'm saying. My preference is for a standard. I don't want multiple adapters or cables to go from one connection to another, I want to just outfit my house, car, go-bag, and travel kit with the same stuff, and having to double up on that with additional cables or adapters isn't appealing to me.


You didn't get the point of my example. It wasn't about charging ports, it was about standards. Sony would have loved for everyone to use memory stick duo in their products, but nobody did. I don't know if it was because everyone was already going towards SD or if because Sony was asking for too much, but at least they tried.


And all of that is a problem, in my eyes.

Because the other end has the extra pins hidden at the back of the connector. USB3 signalling is so different from USB2, that to preserve backwards compatibility, they leave USB2 running on all the normal USB2 pins and just add extra pins for the high-data-rate USB3 signals. To the extent that if you have a USB3 PC and a USB3 hub with both USB2 and USB3 peripherals plugged in, your PC talks USB3 via the hub to the USB3 peripherals and USB2 via the hub to the USB2 peripherals.

Peter

Cool, simple enough. I didn't know there were more pins at the back of the connector. Which begs the question, why didn't they do something similar for the device side of the connector instead of that weird siamese job?

I don't get it. Why is a product in 2012 being made with a mini port? MicroUSB has been in existence for well over 6 years. MicroUSB has real technical advantages over mini, and certainly will be more common if it isn't already.

If you're a manufacturer and you (like Apple) think you can do better, then design your own connector and see how well that works for you. Otherwise, get with the program. Even if you're trying to preserve compatibility with your existing installed base, the road ahead is clear. You either switch to MicroUSB already like everyone else and annoy a few people, or you're going to be late switching and aggravate more of your customers and still switch anyway. Why wait this long?

Mini is more robust is my guess. The space savings for micro might also be insignificant on a lot of devices - it might also cost more. The difference in size between mini and micro connectors is rather minimal when you compare with other connectors. 6.5mm to 3.5mm phono, Apple dock to Lightning, etc.

Micro is more robust, see Table 3-1 http://www.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs/CabConn20.pdf

I really don't know then. But I interact daily with mini-USB devices and literally never with micro.

Ok so who has seen the sockets that accept either USB or eSATA plugs.

Me, there is one on my laptop, but I've never used the eSATA part.

Every time I plug the micro USB into my Nexus 7 it feels like it is going to snap off in the socket.

It's interesting to see the philosophical difference between how Apple approaches backward compatibility and how the USB people have done the same. USB reused the old full-size connector but doubled up the pins, and for the micro connector, they doubled the size to add the new pins.

Apple's philosophy is clearly all about dongles. Let the new thing be designed in an elegant fashion, and support the older things with dongles. Dongles for VGA. Dongles for wired Ethernet. Dongles for their old 30-pin connector. Dongles for their new MagSafe power connector. Dongles everywhere! Unless you've got the newest and latest of everything, then you'll be free of dongles.

Just to be fair, I'd like to see USB do any of the things that can be done with dongles from Apple on Apple's proprietary ports. Some of the same things can be done, but with the requirement of attachments that make Apple's dongles seem elegant by comparison.

And vice-versa as well. The USB2 On-The-Go/MHL port on the Galaxy Nexus is pretty impressive. It can connect (USB slave) to a PC, or act as USB host for just about any peripheral, as well as connect to a big screen with HDMI. Not to mention charge the phone with the same cable/PSU as any of my other rechargeables.

Cheers

That's an implementation of a specific product and props to Samsung (correct?) for going that extra mile. But it's a far cry from what a typical micro USB port has at its disposal by default.

IMO, custom FTW.

Unrelated, but I may just add something like this to every post, Mac OS 10.8 is the worst OS apple has ever released, including every marginal System version prior to the first 10.0 version of OS X. As a stock-holder I'm glad to be seeing prices near $700, but I'm glad the general public (and investors) doesn't/don't know what a total piece of shit Apple engineering has become. Pathetic. Having paid $99 for the Mac developer program, I really feel Appl eowes me at least $1k for this past year alone.