{"items": [{"author": "Danner", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/116129545217153?comment_id=116133431883431", "anchor": "fb-116133431883431", "service": "fb", "text": "then I'd just mash it into the wrong one. what I did was put a mark of paint on my cable, which I need to feel with my thumb, which coincides with the front of my phone. regular USB cables are supposed to have the USB symbol on only the top of the usb plug. I think the dual microUSB would just increase thickness and cost.", "timestamp": "1354118393"}, {"author": "opted out", "source_link": "#", "anchor": "unknown", "service": "unknown", "text": "this user has requested that their comments not be shown here", "timestamp": "1354118631"}, {"author": "Danner", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/116129545217153?comment_id=116137198549721", "anchor": "fb-116137198549721", "service": "fb", "text": "Justin: if only they were ever open with their standards... the way they play in their walled garden, i simply don't care. Good article btw, I like hearing some actual logic behind these things. Apple usually has good design in mind when they do crazy stuff.", "timestamp": "1354119035"}, {"author": "Hollis", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/116129545217153?comment_id=116144661882308", "anchor": "fb-116144661882308", "service": "fb", "text": "Another frustration about uUSB: there isn't a consistently-applied standard for whether the jack is installed with the wide part of the jack \"up\" or with the chamfered part of the jack \"up\". Different phones (sometimes even by the same manufacturer) do it differently, which makes Danner's otherwise-good solution still unhelpful in the general case.", "timestamp": "1354120794"}, {"author": "opted out", "source_link": "#", "anchor": "unknown", "service": "unknown", "text": "this user has requested that their comments not be shown here", "timestamp": "1354121705"}, {"author": "Kiran", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/116129545217153?comment_id=116153361881438", "anchor": "fb-116153361881438", "service": "fb", "text": "Or license Apple's new connector, which is a vast improvement over USB. (Were USB connectors designed by a committee? That would explain why they're all dreadful.)", "timestamp": "1354122732"}, {"author": "Mad", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/100533872344198336746", "anchor": "gp-1354123287316", "service": "gp", "text": "Next time they need to make a cable standard accept either rotation (it goes in either way, autodetects orientation and treats accordingly). (I should note that someone else mentioned this to me, so I can't claim the idea.)", "timestamp": 1354123287}, {"author": "John", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/107538053067746902173", "anchor": "gp-1354125546946", "service": "gp", "text": "Like the Lightning connector on newer Apple IOS products (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, iPad Mini)?  It goes in either way. It can also carry more current than the Micro USB so it allows for faster charging.", "timestamp": 1354125546}, {"author": "Mad", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/100533872344198336746", "anchor": "gp-1354125948612", "service": "gp", "text": "I wonder if the rotational flexibility thing is patented by Apple and the rest of us are just waiting for that to expire. That would be unsurprising.", "timestamp": 1354125948}, {"author": "Alex", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/100936518160252317727", "anchor": "gp-1354132736643", "service": "gp", "text": "I suspect that if someone built this, people would flood their call centers asking which one they're supposed to plug into. It also would ruin the nice low profile of the uUSB socket by doubling its height.\n<br>\n<br>\nI like \n@Madeleine\n's idea better -- make it rotation-symmetric -- though there may be physical packaging issues that make that hard to do without Apple's magnets (which are almost certainly patented). One of the main claimed advantages of uUSB over miniUSB was its improved durability over many plug-unplug cycles, and if you look closely at a uUSB male connector, it's got little springs on top that certainly have something to do with that.", "timestamp": 1354132736}, {"author": "John", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/116129545217153?comment_id=116241575205950", "anchor": "fb-116241575205950", "service": "fb", "text": "Actually, any number of discussions (e.g., several at slashdot.org) have turned up lists of the companies that made similar magnetic connectors back in the 1950s and 69s.  Of course, they weren't used much for a while, because usually you don't want, e.g., your or child coming along and bumping into the plug for your refrigerator or alarm clock or television.  It's mostly useful when you don't need constant power supplied, e.g. for modern portable electronic gadgets.  We also have the problem of the US Patent Office rubber-stamping applications for just about anything, and Apple was able to patent this old technique for a \"fragile\" connection.  You can license it from them, but most companies don't care, because it'd eat into their profit margin (and replacements for broken connectors are a lucrative business).  You could fight it in court, and you'd probably win, but against one of the world's richest corporations, you probably don't have the financial clout to carry the legal expenses for a decade or so that it'd take to win.  That's the way \"the system\" works these days.", "timestamp": "1354143908"}, {"author": "opted out", "source_link": "#", "anchor": "unknown", "service": "unknown", "text": "this user has requested that their comments not be shown here", "timestamp": "1354144996"}, {"author": "Kiran", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/116129545217153?comment_id=116249298538511", "anchor": "fb-116249298538511", "service": "fb", "text": "I have to wonder why Apple didn't come up with a new magnetic iPhone connector.", "timestamp": "1354145239"}, {"author": "Dereck", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/116129545217153?comment_id=116291415200966", "anchor": "fb-116291415200966", "service": "fb", "text": "Inductive charging is pretty cool too, I don't have to plug anything in.", "timestamp": "1354159038"}, {"author": "Alex", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/100936518160252317727", "anchor": "gp-1354161796077", "service": "gp", "text": "@Lucas\n\u00a0exactly -- I guess I was ambiguous -- it's not that Apple has special magnets, just that they have used magnets to solve this problem. Remember that we're talking about a plug that\n<br>\n<br>\n1. is tiny and therefore can't be made with fragile parts, or parts that are small relative to the plug\n<br>\n2. has to maintain excellent contact on all pins 99.999% (or more) of the time\n<br>\n3. will be plugged and unplugged 10,000 times (design lifetime of uUSB)\n<br>\n<br>\nYou are correct that they have twice as many pins as necessary (according to wikipedia), but it has a lot of nice properties. With fewer pins, or even just an even number of them, you'd have to be much cleverer and more careful, with some autodetection protocol and failsafes built in. Swapping hot with ground by accident or putting +12V on the communications pin could be very bad news. And I'm not sure you could fit a fifth pin easily into a package as small as uUSB while satisfying the requirements above.", "timestamp": 1354161796}, {"author": "Kiran", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/116129545217153?comment_id=116307245199383", "anchor": "fb-116307245199383", "service": "fb", "text": "But you have to carry the weight and bulk of a receiver around all the time.", "timestamp": "1354165156"}, {"author": "Dereck", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/116129545217153?comment_id=116308985199209", "anchor": "fb-116308985199209", "service": "fb", "text": "True, but I have one just about in all the places I need one, at home, office, and car.", "timestamp": "1354165820"}, {"author": "Kiran", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/116129545217153?comment_id=116331015197006", "anchor": "fb-116331015197006", "service": "fb", "text": "And the one you carry around in your pocket, inside the phone. That's the one I'm thinking of.", "timestamp": "1354171865"}]}