Re:Macbook Pro frying USB peripherals
by _bxg1 on Tuesday May 01, 2018 @05:37PM
(#16971934)
Between this and the Nintendo Switch fiasco, I'm worried about the future of USB-C. It sounds like trying to combine primary power supply and all data transfer into a single port is more dangerous than was anticipated.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Nintendo Switch isn't using USB-C, officially. They're implementation is not spec compliant unfortunately so the blame should be 100% on Nintendo in this case for using a universal port with proprietary implementation.
FWIW, both Nintendo JP and UK refer to it as a USB Type-C connector
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Nintendo-Switch/Specifications/Sp...
There was a submission earlier on HN about how the Switch is not USB-C compliant: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16706803
I wonder whether it would (would have been?) possible to trademark the USB-C shape to enforce compatibility.
Or, you know, in the future, vendors will be more demanding from USB-C components and parts.
One would hope, but these aren't shady Chinese knockoffs having these problems, these are Nintendo and Apple products. Part of the problem, though, is that the worst-case scenario is so much worse than before. If your regular USB accessory is shoddy, it just... doesn't work. But since USB-C has the capability to transfer tons of power, having something go wrong can have much bigger consequences. Also, as mentioned in another comment, you can't have things like a hardware fail-safe to prevent a certain amount of charge from going through a port, because they're intentionally left under the control of software, because sometimes maybe you'd want that much power going through there.
Doesn't the trade group that owns the USB trademark require certification or conformance testing?
Nope. Not officially, one reason why I am against iPhone dropping lighting for USB-C. That was few years ago when no one see or believe this mess is coming.