[OrionAntares#CB]

Yeah, but now wherever you have/use a micro-usb connection, you'll either have to buy some of these proprietary magnetic dongles or carry it around separate.

Not earth stopping, but not convenient either.

-Suntan

Apple does it.

As long as they don't gouge for licensing or first party sale of the adapters like Apple does, I think it'd be a good idea. Especially since it essentially closes the device and makes it less vulnerable to dust and moisture.

[Suntan]

Apple does it.

As long as they don't gouge for licensing or first party sale of the adapters like Apple does, I think it'd be a good idea. Especially since it essentially closes the device and makes it less vulnerable to dust and moisture.

And that's one of a number of reasons why I don't buy apple (or Sony for that matter.)

As for dust/moisture, if you think the dust is getting in from the usb slot, pull your back cover off and see how disgusting it is around your camera and speaker... Eiminating that usb port, by itself, will do nothing to improve the NEMA rating of the average tablet.

Or put another way, I've probably stopped using about 15 gadgets in the last couple years. None due elemental ingress. They all become obsolete long before dust and moisture cause any problems.

-Suntan

[nimer55]

1) apple does it, but almost every household has atleast one ipod,iphone,ipad,etc..

2) Proprietary ports should be avoided, the're bad for the user, and bad for the environment. I'd leave webos if hp adapted it.

3) If you want ONE universal port go with Thunderbolt (aka lightpeak without the light). It will soon become the standard, it can output 10gbs in both directions simultaneously.

[champiful]

If the magnetic adapter were to come with all the common ports, no cables just ports and a good magnetic hold then I would be interested. It all depentds on the packaging, if they could make it look cool though.

[hrminer92]

Amazed how the electronics world have lasted this long with these damage prone connectors. I'm sure this fancy new interface called USB will fail before it even takes off what with this glaring damage potential.

Yeah, no one has ever broken off the little plastic piece in the USB port that holds the metal contacts. Accidents can happen to anyone, so if it makes the product more robust that's fine with me. There have been numerous threads in this forum about people complaining about either the Pre's USB port or headphone jack. From the stupid door, or cracks due to the opening, how to clean out the headphone jack when junk gets in it, etc. A person would be less worried about damaging an adapter like the Veers when trying to clean out a bunch of crud that got stuck in it than doing the same operation on a phone. The worst case with the former is they end up buying another adapter. With the latter, it's returning the phone to a store for a replacement.

[Suntan]

Yeah, no one has ever broken off the little plastic piece in the USB port that holds the metal contacts.

If it is such an obviously superior design to have a couple of contact pads and a magnet, why hasn’t any of the connector standards in the last decade adopted it?

firewire, HDMI, displayport, lightpeak, etc. etc. heck, USB alone has umpteen different standard connector arrangements and not a one of them in the standard is a flush-contact magnet design.

Why are they all continuing to use the (according to you) obviously inferior methods…?

-Suntan

[redmist]

Physical connectors are so last year, Wireless is where it's at

[Rockbeast]

... I've probably stopped using about 15 gadgets in the last couple years. None due elemental ingress. They all become obsolete long before dust and moisture cause any problems...

Not if you drop your PDA in the dog's water bowl (raises hand) or knocked your mobile phone off your 'click in' belt holster while tying the boat off at the dock...but seriously, who would be so stupid to wear their phone on a click-on holster while riding in a ski boat on the lake, really, who? (raises hand...again).

Actually I was able to resurrect both devices from what appeared to be watery graves. The phone rested on the lake bottom for about 1.5 hours before I retrieved it from the sandy muck.

[Rockbeast]

Physical connectors are so last year, Wireless is where it's at

Next up...sub-dermal implants...I think some Swedish company...Borg, is it?...is working on this now.

[i2y4n]

Everyone keeps mentioning Apple's proprietary connector and although I like the idea of it I definitely believe that it is not the right way to go.

HTC, however, is the company that HP should learn from on this issue. How many of you know that all HTC phones have their own proprietary connector? I'm unsure of all of the features the connector allow but it does allow video out at the least. Now where is this connector I'm talking about?... its that little port that looks like a microUSB. Yep, thats right, HTC has a proprietary connector that adds features while maintaining backwards compatibility with the industry standard.

I would love to see HP partner with HTC to use this port or to avoid extra costs, build their own backwards compatible port.

[hrminer92]

If it is such an obviously superior design to have a couple of contact pads and a magnet, why hasn’t any of the connector standards in the last decade adopted it?

firewire, HDMI, displayport, lightpeak, etc. etc. heck, USB alone has umpteen different standard connector arrangements and not a one of them in the standard is a flush-contact magnet design.

Why are they all continuing to use the (according to you) obviously inferior methods…?

-Suntan

You would have to ask the people on those standards committees. I would guess that some of it is that mobile/ruggedized equipment is still considered a niche compared to the overall computer market which drives the development of those standards.

Given the number of times I've had to fix relatives' laptops because they were careless in how they plug things into them, I wish connectors like this and Apple's MagSafe power connector were more widespread.