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Apple is replacing USB-C cables that shipped with early MacBooks

froggyboy604

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If you were an early adopter of Apple's slimmed-down MacBook, then this may apply to you. According to the company, a "limited number" of laptops sold between its launch in April of 2015 and June 2015 have USB-C cables that could fail due to an unspecified "design issue."

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There seems to be a lot of news about USB-C cables these days. I wonder if all these stories about USB-C cables could cause people to prefer to buy devices with the Micro-USB cable type instead of USB-C.
 
Isn't USB-C like a really tiny usb cord? I think my Note 4 uses micro-B and that feels like it would break easily.
 
Demon_Skeith said:
Isn't USB-C like a really tiny usb cord? I think my Note 4 uses micro-B and that feels like it would break easily.
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USB-C plug is like a rectangle with round corners, and the USB-C cord looks similar to the Cord on Micro-B cords. I bet, USB-C is not very durable like Micro-B because USB-C cords don't look like they are made to last a long time like Full-Size USB, and those old Serial ports found on older harder.
 
alakazam said:
Are they replacing them for free or...?
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I think they are offering the replacement for free, or if you already bought a replacement cable, you can get a refund if you read the full article on Engadget.

Of course, if you think you've already had to buy a new cable after a failure due to this issue, you should contact Apple about a refund.
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Just a quick note about USB C. The cool thing about it, and why it's in a completely different market then mini/micro USB, is that USB C can have power go through it both ways, has enough power that can go through it to charge laptops, has the potential to power bigger or multiple hard drives, and isn't proprietary like Thunderbolt. Here's a CNET article about USB C and it's relation to USB A & B.
 
OMDO said:
Just a quick note about USB C. The cool thing about it, and why it's in a completely different market then mini/micro USB, is that USB C can have power go through it both ways, has enough power that can go through it to charge laptops, has the potential to power bigger or multiple hard drives, and isn't proprietary like Thunderbolt. Here's a CNET article about USB C and it's relation to USB A & B.
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Micro-USB can also has power go through it both ways because It is possible to plug-in a USB Keyboard or USB Flash drive into some Tablet and Smartphine Micro-USB ports if you have a USB On-The-Go Cable which converts your Micro-USB port into a Full-size Regular USB port, so you can use the Full size port on the OTG Micro USB cable to plug in a USB Flash Drive, Keyboard, Mouse, Game controller, USB portable hard drive, charge other USB devices, and power other low powered devices.

 
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froggyboy604 said:
Micro-USB can also has power go through it both ways because It is possible to plug-in a USB Keyboard or USB Flash drive into some Tablet and Smartphine Micro-USB ports if you have a USB On-The-Go Cable which converts your Micro-USB port into a Full-size Regular USB port, so you can use the Full size port on the OTG Micro USB cable to plug in a USB Flash Drive, Keyboard, Mouse, Game controller, USB portable hard drive, charge other USB devices, and power other low powered devices.

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Sure, you can do all that, but you wouldn't also be able to do digital video out and data in/out, potentially daisy chain, your transfer speeds would be lower, and there's no way you would be able to charge a laptop with mini or micro. This is a technology that's hoping to future-proof itself, so it's going to have a on of other use-cases.
 
OMDO said:
Sure, you can do all that, but you wouldn't also be able to do digital video out and data in/out, potentially daisy chain, your transfer speeds would be lower, and there's no way you would be able to charge a laptop with mini or micro. This is a technology that's hoping to future-proof itself, so it's going to have a on of other use-cases.
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There is the newer Micro-USB 3.0 which is basically a USB 3.0 in the Micro-USB/Micro-B form factor, and with the same speeds of USB 3.0 which is up to 5 Gbit/s (625 MB/s), and has a maximum power charging output 100 W: 20 Volts, 5 Amps, so it has enough power to charge a laptop if it comes with a charger which can output 100W of power according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_3.0

Micro-USB 3.0 is also backwards compatible with older Micro-USB 2.0 chargers, cables, and devicea like Micro-USB 2.0 On the Go/OTG cables, Micro-USB 2.0 flash drives, external batteries, etc.

 
froggyboy604 said:
There is the newer Micro-USB 3.0 which is basically a USB 3.0 in the Micro-USB/Micro-B form factor, and with the same speeds of USB 3.0 which is up to 5 Gbit/s (625 MB/s)
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USB 3.1 Type C has transfer speeds of 10Gbps, double USB 3.0, a fourth of Thunderbolt 3.
Oh, speaking of Thunderbolt 3, it's moving to support USB 3.1.

It's a super cool technology that I hope gets more widespread success. I mean, I could potentially have one adapter that would let me have a 4K monitor, potentially a chain of hard drives, charge my phone and charge my laptop, all through the one port on a MacBook, or potentially the Chromebook Pixel. That's pretty cool.
 
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