There was a time in our digital lives when reaching for a cable was a straightforward affair. If we needed to connect a CD player to our amplifier, an optical cable was the right tool for the job. If we bought a new printer, a USB-A to USB-B cable of the right length would almost certainly guarantee success. Even in the early days of the HDMI cable revolution, connecting a Blu-ray player to a TV was a simple matter of finding the most affordable cable we could — in the mid-2000s, I bought several $5 HDMI cables from Monoprice and they all worked just fine.
But the age of easy connectivity is now behind us, and every year it seems to get worse. As our devices become more capable, they place an increasing set of demands on the cables that connect them. And some of our existing cables — and many we might buy in-store or online — can’t meet those demands.
Will that USB-C cable in your desk drawer let you charge your new Samsung phone using a 45-watt power adapter? Will it support fast data transfer speeds so you can move 4K videos from your action cam to your laptop before the battery dies? Will the HDMI cable that you’ve been using for years to connect your Roku to your TV work on your new PlayStation 5?
Unless you’re a cable connoisseur, there’s just no way to know without trying.
It doesn’t need to be this way.
In the world of industrial and commercial cables, key information is printed on the insulating jacket. IT pros know that’s where you’ll find the category of an Ethernet cable (5, 5E, 6, 6A, etc.), which tells you if it’s right for your needs. The same goes for electrical and various other types of wiring.
So why don’t we do this for all cables? In fairness, portions of the electronics industry have taken stabs at it.
The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) oversees the development of the ever-expanding USB specification. It has come up with a standard set of icons that can fit on cable plugs — a logical place…
Read full on Digital Trends
