We were promised a utopia. A single, universal connector to rule them all — one reversible oval that would charge our laptops, transfer our 4K movies, and connect our monitors without a second thought ...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. After many, many years of competing I/O standards, the introduction of USB (short for Universal Serial Bus) in the late '90s was welcome. USB ...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. The introduction of USB Type-C in 2014 was a welcome change for consumer technology. Users had grown frustrated with the confusing mess of ...

A good charger is one piece of the puzzle as far as charging your phone is concerned. A shoddy cable can easily ruin your experience, or worse, harm your smartphone. Picking the right cable also takes ...

I have a drawer full of USB cables and every time I want to connect a device, I have to try them out. USB-C was supposed to simplify things: One cable for everything, that was the promise. In practice ...

For more help with cables, check out Glenn Fleishman’s new book, Take Control of Untangling Connections. It answers common questions and aids in troubleshooting problems. You’ll learn how to recognize ...

I used to buy cables by price, now I buy them by capability.

Kramer introduced its new USB 3.2 Gen 2 cables, designed to simplify AV installations by featuring icons on the connectors that indicate support for video, data and charging. These C-U32/MFF ...

The standards organization behind the USB protocol has released some handy dandy logos. They're helpful, but it's still confusing. Reading time 2 minutes Although people got excited when the USB-C’s ...

A cable with a USB-C plug at one or both ends often reveals little about what it’s capable of doing. Despite guidelines for labeling set by the USB-IF (the USB trade group) and Intel’s Thunderbolt ...

In brief: Identifying which USB standard is being used can be a pain for users looking to purchase cables or docking stations. Terms like "USB 3.2 Gen 2" leave people scratching their heads due to ...