The symmetric connector USB should have been...

USB Type A plugs - the connectors you plug directly into your computer - look symmetrical. A little rectangular hole, a little rectangular plug, that should be able to work either-side-up, right? Wrong - and I'm sure that the sum total of man-hours wasted in the 14 years since that design mistake was made would truly boggle the mind. Better late than never, along comes the UltraTek Flipper USB Plug, which despite having the worst graphic design and website I've seen in quite a while, delivers on the promise to be able to plug the damn thing in either way. Sure, it probably costs more, and it may have reliability issues. But for god's sake, from a usability standpoint, it's what USB should have been in the first place!

[via Engadget]

1 comment:

Jebby said...

Yeah the USB connector is a piss poor design. I still to this day struggle with the odd device. Some devices have lights that I assume would point up when you plug them into a laptop so I push & push. Turns out the light actually faces down. One of the worst connectors from a usability standpoint. The only upside is that it's very hard to damage the connector unlike connectors with pins that can easily bend.