Behold, the New All-Way Standard for USB Cables
Soon you’ll never have to worry about plugging in your USB cord the wrong way again.
Photos of a new standardized design for USB cables (those wires you use to connect your phones, tablets, and computers) emerged on Thursday, showing a thinner design that plugs into a new USB slot no matter which way it’s turned.
In addition to having no wrong-way-up issues, the cable is also the same at both ends, unlike today’s USB cables that usually have a fat, square plug on the computer (or power brick) side and a smaller, D-shaped connector at the other.
Whether you dig it or not, the new cable, dubbed “Type C,” will likely become modern society’s default connector for most devices. The new design is meant to catch up with the fact that devices are getting thinner and thinner. And that people don’t like having to worry about which side is up.
Images of the prototype were first spotted by The Verge. The updated cable looks very similar to Apple’s custom Lightning connector, which is smaller than a regular USB plug and also reversible.
The USB Implementers Forum — which I hear is, like, the dopest forum out there — says that the new designs will likely be finalized in July.
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