> It matters little what subset of USB any given device supports. No reasonable person will expect, say, high-speed video from a cheap mp3 player.
No, it's both. Laptops ship that have one USB-C port that will carry DisplayPort alternate mode, and another, equivalent looking port, that won't, because it's not wired to the GPU. Consult a manual to figure out which port or ports is wired for video.
Your Nintendo Switch will work with an DisplayPort demuxing dock to output an HDMI signal, but put the forthcoming Nintendo Switch Mini, with an identical looking port in the same dock, and no video will output, because the mini lacks a DisplayPort crossbar mux IC connected to the port, and only uses it for charging and USB-C peripherals. This is a frequent source of complaint on gaming forums.
Laptops ship that will charge off of one USB-C port but not another, because the manufacturer saved a few cents by only wiring one for the optional high-speed charging spec.
Etc. Etc. Etc. While some things obviously don't support some USB 3 or USB-C optional features (obviously my USB-C keyboard does not output DisplayPort), consumers are often frustrated in other cases when their intuition and the equivalent looking ports suggests something should work when it doesn't.
The solution is to mark ports with symbols. It already happened with USB 2.0. I remember charging and not charging ports there, with a label on the charging one. Furthermore people learn with quickly which port does what on their laptop.
On the other side, is this phone I'm writing on capable of video out? No way to know unless I google the spec. I think it does, but I don't remember. It's not I'm doing that every day, or every month.
that one cable to bind them all.
Have you seen the prices for VGA cables, cat5, etc. at Walmart, best buy, etc.? They absolutely will jack the price up because they know the only people who buy that stuff there are ignorant or too desperate to wait for shipping.
My work desk has a built-in USB-3 C port, and says it supports USB Power Delivery. The desk is plugged into the wall. Excellent, I can use that port to charge the MBP, right? No! Plugging into that port will cause OS X to believe it's connected to a power supply — so the battery is "charging" according to the OS. Even more fun, is after leaving the laptop in this setup for some time: there's no visual indication in OS X that the battery is about to die and AFAICT, OS X would happily take no action, since it believes it's connected to a power supply¹.
Why? Because the USB "power delivery port" only delivers 10 W. (A normal MBP power adapter, connected to a wall, can deliver like 80 W. How much the laptop needs is dependent on use, but in my case, it's >10 W.) And AFAICT, the desk is compliant with the letter of the spec; USB PD ports are allowed to negotiate whatever power they can deliver; it just allows a device to draw as much as possible/needed, but doesn't guarantee any max rate.
Why anyone puts a max 10 W port on a desk basically hand-tailored for the SV 4-ft desk open office "experience" is beyond me, though.
¹and, technically, it is.
AFAIK, macOS is aware of three different states: 1) no power connected, 2) connected to power (but not charging), 3) charging battery.
2) is indicated by the black background of the battery charging icon, and 3) is indicated by a white background of the battery charging icon.
In the case where the power source can't deliver enough energy for charging (in your case), it is in state 2); and I'm pretty sure macOS always takes action when the battery is about to die unrelated to the state. It'll backup the RAM when the laptop's battery level is dangerously low and shut off itself, and will be restored later.
So, you're correct, and I actually did not know this when I wrote the post you've replied to.
But the point still stands: regardless of which of icon 2) or 3) you get, it still isn't going to alert you to the issue: both are normal icons. 2) appears during a full charge, since then you are also not charging, but connected to power. That is, regardless of 2) or 3), both icons also appear during a normal, actually charging charge cycle, so neither indicates an issue.
> I'm pretty sure macOS always takes action when the battery is about to die unrelated to the state
As I recall it, it was awfully close. But that's not to say that there wasn't still time, and that the OS couldn't have acted. (I didn't drive it to empty to find out!) So, it could be that I'm wrong on this point.
If the people are the same, you have answered your own question. Open Offices are not a bright idea in the first place; not sure why you would be expecting anything other than similar ideas :)
Seems simple to me: it costs a lot less to put a cheap, crappy 10W port there, and then they can advertise that their overpriced desk has this fancy feature. The idiot managers at tech companies (probably non-technical HR types) who make the purchasing decisions don't know any better.
When buying cables from a reputable manufacturer there doesn't seem to be much of a problem. There are only two figures that matter: the speed they are rated for and the amperage. A good manufacturer will state both clearly on the package.
But in reality, if you don't want to pay $50 that Apple or Belkin charge for a cable, it's a nightmare. (I assume manufacturing cost couldn't be more than a 10th of that.) I've yet to buy a third party USB-C cable that has lasted for 100 insertions (they are supposed to be rated at 10K insertions) - and I must have bought 20 of them by now.
I have no idea how to buy a reasonable quality USB-C cable. I've resorted to treating them like consumables - buying them 5 at a time, and ensuring I always have a few spares in the house. It's doubly frustrating because the OEM cables that come with the devices are invariably good, so they are out there, I just don't have a clue how to find them.
There is no level of manufacturing scale that will make an active signal cable cheaper than an equivalent-length passive one, and cable manufacturers, who live and die on razor thin margins, are never going to be convinced to forgo the cost savings of building cheaper passive cables when their client's devices don't even use the higher speeds the active circuitry is required for.
> to forgo the cost savings of building cheaper passive cables when their client's devices don't even use the higher speeds the active circuitry is required for.
That's why I think standardization should disallow this very attempt at costs savings. A given device may only need a passive cable, but as a user, I want to be able to use that cable with a different device. Moreover, cables are often bought separately (e.g. replacements). It's already a huge problem with USB 2/3 - buying a cable is a lottery wrt. transfer rates and charging amperages.
(The last time I lost that lottery I happened to be in China, so I went to a local seller with a voltage measurement app, and started testing cables they offered one by one. After finally finding a cable that could push proper 2+ amps, I bought something around 60 of them, because back home, everyone sells USB cables packaged in hard plastic, so I wouldn't even be able to run this test.)
> ...
> That's why I think standardization should disallow this very attempt at costs savings.
There's a somewhat famous Common Lisp FAQ along the lines of "Why didn't the standardization committee just force implementers to do X thing?"
And the answer is: your premise is wrong. Standards bodies don't have the power to force anybody to do anything. If implementors don't like your standard, they'll just ignore it. Standards live or die by their ability to raise consensus.
If Generic Device Manufacturer #4823738 looks at the USB 4 standard and decides there isn't a big market for USB peripherals whose 2 meter charging cable (say, a gamepad that charges via a fairly long 5 W USB, like a gaming console uses) runs $75 because it requires fairly heavy gauge wire to additionally support (unneeded by the gamepad) 100 W charging and has to contain (unneeded by the gamepad) 40 Gbps active signalling circuitry, they're just not going to implement the bloody USB 4 standard. They're not going to implement it if there's a $1 to be saved by going some other route, honestly.
Instead of the "universal protocol" dream dying on the rocks of a hodge-podge of subtly incompatible cables, you've simply killed it by convincing manufacturers to ship USB 2 devices until the end of time, instead.
The standard committee can impose onerous, financially punitive requirements on anything calling itself USB 4, but they can't then make manufacturers adopt USB 4, so in the end they can't solve this by forcing anyone to do anything, which is why the entire idea of "one universal protocol" is hamstrung by its own internal contradictions.
I think the solution is to improve branding. When I look at the USB-C cables in my bag, I can't tell at a glance which ones are full-featured: one of them has a tiny logo that maybe indicates something like that, but it's not obvious or prominent. I tend to end up plugging in the wrong one and discovering that the device isn't charging, performing as well as expected, etc. If the USB spec defined consistent, prominent branding for full-featured cables, this would be much less likely to occur. (yes, I know I should replace the inferior cables, but I only use them when I work away from home, which is infrequent enough that it hasn't crossed the threshold to be worth the time)
Any company that tries to compete by upgrading all their output to the top 25% of the market, paying materials costs at the top 25% rate across the whole production run, is committing economic suicide. All it takes is one competitor to not do that and only address the low end, and the whole strategy collapses in ruins.
That's why I was talking about putting this in the standard, so that only one type of cable is considered compliant. This way, all competitors would have to upgrade too.
Prices are to some extent arbitrary. I'm pretty sure people with limited income would be able to buy devices with slightly more expensive cables just fine, especially if you remove the backpressure of a reduced capability alternative keeping the price higher.
It matters little what subset of USB any given device supports. No reasonable person will expect, say, high-speed video from a cheap mp3 player, just because it's the same USB as their screen. However, it's perfectly reasonable to use the cable that came with aforementioned mp3 player to connect a computer to a screen, and expect the video signal to be carried through.
I don't see a good reason why cables shouldn't be required to carry everything USB supports.