I'm incredibly excited for the possibilities of this connector. Imagine a laptop that has a bunch of USB Type-C ports—and nothing else. Plugging a (universal!) charger into any of them charges the laptop at a rate of up to 100 watts. Displays are connected via DisplayPort-over-USB, etc. In fact, the display could actually be the charger as well (or, if you have a desktop, the display could be powered from the PC). A single USB Type-C cable could run an all-encompassing, manufacturer-agnostic docking solution.<p>Phones would also feature the same connector, so a laptop charger could also charge a phone, with no adapter needed.<p>I'm really looking forward to having a single connector for virtually all of my devices (excluding special situations, such as water-resistant devices) within the next few years.
"A third benefit of Type-C is that it can deliver greater amounts of power -- up to 100 watts. That means you should be able to charge something as big as a laptop via a USB cable, as well as the phones and other small devices you can charge today."<p>How awesome would it be to not need a dedicated power port on your laptop? In my experience with repairing laptops, that's one of the first things to break if you're keeping the thing plugged in constantly. It gets old disassembling the entire machine just to J-B Weld or solder the female end back in place. Then there's the idea that you may eventually be able to charge your other internet devices with the same cord you charge your laptop with. You get a cord with every device, so that means you'll have backups ready if your main charge cord breaks or disappears. This just seems like an all-around Good Thing.
Having designed some analog electronics, it continues to amaze me that cheap USB cables costing on the order of pennies are capable of carrying GHz-rate signals over a couple conductors, despite not being coaxial. There are so many opportunities for loss and noise, it is incredible it works at all. And it works well. Imagine if we had to use a double(or triple)-shielded coaxial cable with BNC connectors to connect our monitors and high data rate devices. The USB spec is amazing. USB-C finally brings decent usability to the connectors.
MiniUSB was far better than MicroUSB. I can't count how many MicroUSB devices I've somehow broke (maybe it's just me). Always the tongue that seems to snap.<p>Thankfully wireless charging is now becoming more and more popular.<p>USB Type-C still has a tongue whereas Apple's new connector port does not; and Apple's is still reversible. Shame they patented it.
I wonder if the increased power capacity is implemented by the device and power supply negotiating a higher voltage. 100w at 5 volts would be 20 amps, which seems a bit high.
I haven't been able to find anything saying how many wires are in the cable, does anyone here know and have a reference?<p>Is it the full 24 wires mapped end-to-end or are some of the connectors mapped to a single wire? Like, the 4 USB 2.0 connectors, I imagine it makes little sense to have 4 physical wires there, right? Yet they obviously have the SuperSpeed lanes wired separately because they can run DP alt mode on one side of the connector and USB 3.1 on the other.<p>I'd love to see something discussing this and it could affect the longer term viability of the physical connector spec.<p>EDIT:
Honestly, I'd love it if the spec said they must have 24 wires AND that balanced pairs would be twisted pairs. As long as the connector is durable I'm willing to pay more for a good cable designed to that spec.
In connection with this article, according to 9to5mac the next MBA should have a unique USB Type-C connector.<p><a href="http://9to5mac.com/2015/01/06/macbook-air-12-inch-redesign" rel="nofollow">http://9to5mac.com/2015/01/06/macbook-air-12-inch-redesign</a>