Types Of USB Cables
There are many types of usb cables depending on the kinds of electronic devices that you want to connect and the kinds of ports they have. But before we explain the various types of usb cables, let’s start with the basics. What is a usb cable? The initial’s ‘usb’ stand for ‘universal serial bus’, and it is a cable that connects one device with another. The reason why usb cables were considered so revolutionizing is because they have excellent compatibility, since almost every type of electronic device, from a computer and a printer up to digital camera and a PDA, has a usb port; plus usb cables are compatible with most operating systems available in the market.
The most common of all types of usb cables is a type A usb. Type A is the kind of usb you plug into your computer (whether it is a printer you are connecting to your computer or a camera); it is flat and wide, with a small piece of plastic splitting into two halves. One half is covered with plastic and the other is not, so that you know which side you should plug the cable into the port.
The second most common among the various types of usb cables is a type B usb cable. Type B cable differs from type A cables in that they usually have an aluminum piece instead of a plastic one, its shape is more rectangular rather than square, plus the two corners are missing a notch between them so that you know the proper way to plug it in the device. In case you are still wondering, type B usb cables is the kind of cable you plug into your peripheral devices, like the printers and the digital cameras mentioned above. In other words, when you connect a printer to your personal computer, the end of the usb cable that you will plug into the computer will be type A, while the end you will plug into your printer will be a type B.
The other two types of usb cables are the Mini B usb connectors and Mini A connectors. They look a lot like the respective types of usb cables we discussed first (type A and type B), but they are a lot smaller in size. The idea was to create types of usb cables that could offer connectability to smaller devices (like a cell phone) that did not have enough room to fit the A or B types of usb cables. More specifically, Mini B cables are usb cables that will connect your personal computer with your cell phone, your digital camera, or your PDA via a very tiny port. Alternatively, the second of the two Mini types of usb cables (Mini A) will probably connect two small devices together, rather than your laptop with another device.
In any case, despite the fact that the usb port made things a lot easier, all types of usb cables will seem redundant in a few years, since the standard connection between electronic devices will become wireless.
