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Re:MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch by diebeforei485 on Monday October 18, 2021 @11:03PM (#28914418)
USB-A is alright for charging small electronics. It's 5V and somewhere between 0.5A and 2.1A (1A is very common).

I have charging cables (with USB-A on the power side) in multiple places around the house, using the 5V/1A adapters that shipped with iPhones over the years. This works fine, though it is slower than the "fast charging" we've grown to expect these days.

The device end of these cables are miniUSB (bicycle lights), microUSB (external battery pack), USB-C (my partner's noise cancelling headphones), and many of them are Lightning (Airpods, Airpods Max, iPhones, iPads, Apple TV Remote).

Re:MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch by lugged on Tuesday October 19, 2021 @01:01AM (#28915021)
I suspect USBA isn't going away, it's far more robust than USBC, what I suspect will happen is devices that need smaller sockets will use USBC and everything else will stick with USBA. There is a reason I have one USBC port on my motherboard and 5 USBA ports.
Re:MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch by lamnk on Tuesday October 19, 2021 @04:45AM (#28916086)
Guess I'm the opposite. I hate USB-A the connector with passion. I always have to try 2-3 times to be able to plug the USB-A connector in. Now I keep only 2 USB-A chargers in my home for legacy devices and advice my wife explitcitly not to buy new gadgets with USB-A connector, be it mini or micro.
Re:MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch by aceazzameen on Tuesday October 19, 2021 @09:28AM (#28917845)
Here's a slightly helpful tip. USB-A connectors have a USB logo on them. Look at or feel for that logo on the connector and always have it face up when you plug it in. It should always work.

There's a few exceptions. If the USB-A jack is rotated sideways on the device, then "up" could be left or right. And if it's a cheap off-brand sweat shop connector, then the logo may be on the opposite side. A sign that it could break quickly too.

Re:MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch by chromaton on Tuesday October 19, 2021 @04:18PM (#28923211)
I've marked the top of all of my USB cables with contrasting paint.