Hacker News Reader

Comment by DannyBee | Hacker News Reader

Lightning is elegant precisely because it is not backwards compatible. This connector is. You can plug a usb 2.0 micro cable in it and it will work properly.

If we are willing to throw everything out, you could make something brand new and shiny like lightning too.

View on HN

I'm willing to throw everything out as long as it is very infrequent, for a good reason, and known to be for a long lifespan before doing it again.

Going from 30-pin to Lightning was acceptable, as it really does seem to be a 10+ year future standard, and Dock had been around for a long time (although it is a real pain for the car; I'd like to put in a lightning spec dock, but I need to find audi radio keys and either do it or find someone else to do it who won't screw up my electrical system this time (sigh) and really I just hope my car gets totaled and a Model S falls from the sky.) Going from MagSafe to MagSafe 2 was infrequent, but didn't feel meaningful.

I got pissed when ThinkPads moved from 14.4V to 20V sometime around the T43p -> T60 series, which is when I moved to Apple, so there's always a risk.

I'm not sure anyone cares about being able to plug a USB 2.0 Micro cable into a USB 3.0 device. Perhaps they should have asked somebody.

Nobody except everyone with existing chargers, cables, etc. Have you never gone out with a phone and realised you're low on charge and need to plug in? Backwards compatibility is a major win here.

Have you never gone out with a phone and realised you're low on charge and need to plug in?

Sure, but for how many years should I expect to hold the world hostage to my obsolete phone?

What about the millions who want to use the car phone charger they brought for their last phone?

(Shrug) They can use an adapter. It wouldn't be any less clunky or awkward than this cable.

I actually have a stack of 2 adapters on my car cable to let me use my iPhone 5. One handles conversion from the old FireWire voltage source to the more regulated ISB style, the other adapts the 30 pin to lightning.

I would. I've got a decade's worth of USB 2.0, Micro USB cables laying around. So do all of my friends. If I'm out somewhere and need to charge my phone or (less likely) transfer a lot of data, I don't want to have to deal with a connector that can't help me because it isn't backwards compatible.

I keep spare microUSBs everywhere -- my apartment, my bag, my office, etc -- to charge my various devices. Having to keep a completely separate set of a different cable would be annoying. I think most people have plenty of spare micros that this is useful for them.

That feature, to me, guarantees USB 3's adoption, and massively boosts my confidence in the standard.

That philosophy is going to wear a bit thin by the time USB 8 comes along.

Yes, I am willing to throw out an old cable to get a much better solution. Is there a reason that most people shouldn't be willing? Life is too short to always be worrying about backward compatibility.

Problem: We have 34 standards

    Is there a reason that most people shouldn't be willing?

Problem: We have 35 standards.

Apple had one connector for a decade and people complained when they changed. I guess if you randomly pick a number less than 100 and say if we add 1 then we have a bigger problem, it sounds convincing. I'll take a much more improved technology any day.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com