Page 798 - Windows 10 May 2019 Update The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box

After 20 years of USB, the world’s electronics companies got together and

(over the course of three years) designed its successor: USB-C. It’s
fantastic.

UP TO SPEED OF HUBS AND POWER

If your PC doesn’t have enough built-in USB jacks to handle all your
USB devices, then you can also attach a USB hub (with, for example,
four or eight additional ports), in order to attach multiple USB devices

simultaneously.

Whether the USB jacks are built in or on a hub, though, you have to be
aware of whether they’re powered or unpowered jacks.

Unpowered ones just transmit communication signals with the USB

gadget. These kinds of USB gadgets work fine with unpowered jacks:
mice, keyboards, flash drives, and anything with its own power cord

(like printers).

Powered USB jacks also supply current to whatever is plugged in. You
need that for scanners, webcams, hard drives, and other gadgets that

don’t have their own power cords but transmit lots of data.

The bottom line? If a gadget isn’t working, it may be because it requires
a powered jack and you’ve given it an unpowered one.

This connector can carry power, video, audio, and data—simultaneously. It
can, in other words, replace a laptop’s power cord, USB jacks, video output

jack, and headphone jack.

A USB-C cable is identical top and bottom, so you can’t insert it the wrong
way. It’s identical end for end, too, so it doesn’t matter which end you grab

first. It feels more secure than USB when you insert it; you get a physical
click instead of just relying on friction to hold it in.

USB-C can charge your gadget faster and transfer data faster than what’s

come before, too. It’s tiny—about the same size as a micro-USB—so the
same cable can charge your phone and tablet and laptop. And the brand