This snake pit of cables thanks to MFG chaos. Why do we have 3 types of USB to micro-USB? My early Blackberry used a fine cable and charging system that used a USB to small USB cable. Then MSFT and some other MFGs came up with a "universal" USB to small device cable. THEN my new Blackberry came with yet a 3rd USB to mobile format. The guys at Batteries + were stunned when I bought a cable marked for Nokia for my Blackberry Curve 8900. They were practically foaming at the mouth when I contradicted their sourcing manual and bought the cable for the that was clearly marked NOKIA. Guess what? It worked fine.
The newest cable sagas in my life are Firewire and HDMI.
I think the cable MFGs are making a killing selling us new cables, new battery packs, wall chargers, cable couplers, etc. Every time a new device comes out, it's as if the MFGs get together and decide we need a new format of battery for their device. Imagine if we had 5 sizes of AA battery? The AA (also referred to as the original format AA battery), the AA+ (also referred to as the AA-mini), the AA- (also referred to as the AA-micro), the AA-3 (also referred to as the AA-extended), and finally the $35 AA-hybrid (also referred to as the AA-uber, AA-super, AA-hyper, AA-really-bad-ass-but-expensive).
Well we have that new wonderful chaos in the Firewire market. First there was Firewire. Then came Firewire 800. (But initially this did not require a new cable format.) Then we got the Firewire-Mini from Sony to fit into their firewire-enabled cameras. Now we have Firewire-somewhere-in-between. So maybe you can explain this to me, but Apple created a new Firewire cable size to make it fit better on my new MBP 13"? Uh? We're talking about 5mm folks. I've got three different Firewire connectors for three different Macs. And for a minute there the MBP dropped Firewire all together, but the people rebelled. And guess what: Apple responded and put the Firewire port back on the Mac. Even the odd sized thing that I now have on my MBP that does not conform to any of the wires in the snake pit of wires shown above. (Actual photo above.)
There is no reason I need yet another Firewire cable set. And speaking of cables, why do I need like 3 connectors to get my computer signal out to an HDMI monitor? And here's a great one. Why in the world is an HDMI-to-HDMI coupler $32 at Office Depot? It's 3" of plastic and some metal pins, for goodness sake. Well, my friends it is $32 because not many companies make the little gem. AND because they CAN charge that much. When you are looking to hook up your computer gear, what are you going to do, dive into the cable pit (shown above) or go buy a $32 coupler from Office Depot?
It's easy to see what they want you to do. But I think we need to tell the MFGs loud and clear that a 4th USB-to-mobile format is NOT NECESSARY.
I believe we are getting soaked folks, and it's up to each of us to tell Sony, "Hey, Sony, no more formats. No more memory-stick formats. No more battery formats." And repeat as necessary to each MFG until they hear us. (I commend Apple for reversing the Firewire removal crisis. I have not seen a company retool so fast, and take care of the people who bought the FW-less Macs! Well done Apple!)
@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/cable-hell
Next we're gonna take on battery life in laptops, again. My new awesome Apple MBP with 10 hr battery life (Did Intel set up that performance metric, or did apple, or did Sony the battery manufacturer? And does it make ANY sense in real-world usage.)
