• Pechente@feddit.org
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    5 days ago

    Yeah I always call it the printer USB port. I wonder why it’s so popular there? Maybe it’s the USB connector that is hardest to break or pull off by accident?

    • Dave@lemmy.nz
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      5 days ago

      My understanding it’s the other end of a one way USB cable. Normally the cable is attached like your mouse or keyboard, or commonly these days USB C, but if you are plugging in USB and it’s not USB C but the cable unplugs at either end, one will be USB A and the other USB B so you can’t put it in backwards like you could if they both has USB A.

      Early android smart phones used USB B micro or mini, but printers have no need to keep the plug small.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Yeah, C had two major innovations: it was symmetrically functional, and it was symmetrically functional. Everybody knows about how A was kinda a pain because you’d try to plug it in upside down a lot, but A also was unidirectional. You never see male A to male A cables despite A being so common, meanwhile C to C is the default C cable, even things that would have used an integrated cord often just slap a port on instead

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Maybe it’s the USB connector that is hardest to break or pull off by accident?

      Yeah, pretty much. Printers and scanners are kinda the only common devices big enough not to need to use a more fragile mini-B or micro-B.

      (There are certainly other more niche “big” devices that also use it: the MIDI connection on my digital piano, for instance.)