Over the last five years, if there has been one topic in discussion in every way possible by phone and laptop manufactures, media, and tech enthusiasts, it is USB C. How it works, whether it is better than older versions, how fast companies will adapt to it, the possibilities of its uses and many more questions and topics are the focus of these discussions.

So why is it in the discussion? And why should device manufacturers switch over?

The simple answer is that USB C is fast. As fast as a thunderbolt. Excuse the pun.

USB C came into being in 2014, followed by newer, faster iterations of it over the last 5 years. When Apple made the MacBook with just a single USB C port, it was outrageous! It pushed people to think about the I/O panels on devices. If one port can do it all, can form factors be smaller? Can they have one port for everything including charging?

How this can change the average user’s life is the question to ask. Let’s use this blog to take a look at it:

Cable Management

Remember the time when you needed a specific cable for each of your devices? USB C changes that (or rather aims to) drastically. The connector is potentially ubiquitous. You can use fewer cables to charge all your devices that have the USB C port. Therefore, your charging station definitely benefits, but you only have to carry just one cable for all your devices when you are traveling. You can use this cable to charge, exchange data, as a connector for projectors, for your headphones, etc. Of course, having more than one USB C cable would be convenient in this situation, but not necessary.

Additionally, it would also be environmentally friendly to not need too many cheap quality cables for various uses. You can just have two or three high quality ones that last longer and are recyclable.

Display Set Up

USB C, the right variant of it, can power two 4K devices. Not only will you be able to get content on two screens but the same cable will also supply power to them simultaneously. With this, you can have high-end display monitors running on a single laptop or external CPU. It makes for a clutter-free setup that is also speed efficient.

Form Factor

If you can use one port for input/output, and charging, you don’t need to put any other ports on a device. Just like you can carry a single USB C cable, you can use a single port for multiple uses. While you may need to attach something that requires different USB cables, you can use a USB C hub for now when device manufacturers are still using the dated ports.

When there is a single or even just two USB C ports on a device like a laptop, it allows for a slimmer, more portable form factor.

Streamlined Accessories

We attach a huge number of devices to each other for various reasons. If each of them had a USB C port, it would make the connection as simple as if it were wireless, with the reliability that comes from cables.

The USB C connector is popular as the one connector to rule them all, but that largely depends on device manufactures and how soon they implement their customers’ demands. The smarter thing to do, right now, is to buy gadgets with Type C ports and to hold on to all the USB C cables that come with it. One day we will not have to live the dongle life and it really will take the weight off of our shoulders.

Until then, SF Cable can cater to all your requirements for USB cables, including and definitely not limited to USB C cables and dongles.

Source: https://www.sfcable.com/blog/usb-c-other-side-dongle-mess/

Find More Blogs:

Why You Should Only Use Your Own Charger

Some FAQs About USB C Cables Answered!

Five Types of USB Type-C Adapters You Must Know About

Why Keep Away From Cheap USB Chargers?

Why Should You Choose USB Type C Over All Other Cables?

If you've ever bought any gadget, whether it is a TV, a laptop, a camera, a tablet or a phone, in the past five years, you have met HDMI. Sometimes it is the regular HDMI, mini HDMI cable, or even a micro HDMI cable. As the name suggests, all three are different, the regular one being standard in most use cases. But then what do we need the other two for and how are they different?

The main difference in any cable standard is its usage. Since HDMI stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface, you can use the cable for audio-video data transfer.

The mini HDMI cable comes into play when you want to connect a gadget to perhaps a computer or a TV. The port is generally on devices that have less space to spare. For example, a DSLR camera, video cameras, and standard size tablets. All of these devices are compact to make it as portable as possible.

On the other hand, the micro HDMI cable is for when there is an even smaller space than mini HDMI. The few examples of these are smartphones and smaller tablets.

Let's take a detailed look at the different use cases of these two cables:

1. Photo Booth

Photo booths are a popular party feature nowadays. While most people don't print photos nowadays, vintage photo booths did print photos. You can have a similar concept but with a digital camera and digital printing setup. You can have a camera set up on a tripod, and connect it to a laptop via the mini HDMI cable for quick edits. Add a printer to the laptop and you have your photo booth read!

Add a funky backdrop, arrange some props for people to use and modify the camera settings for the situation. You can have a person taking the photos and another who can make basic alignment edits and print. If you wish, you can offer different types of prints as well, like the one that comes out of an instant camera, one with four pictures like a filmstrip, one simple average frame sized print, etc.

Instant prints can be a hit because you'll be giving tactile souvenirs that people can put on their fridges and have framed rather than a 24-hour long story on a social media account.

2. Movie Night

Powerful projectors are tiny now. They have so many features that they can even replace your TV. But if you just need one for cozy movie nights while camping, you don't need a high end one. Simply, get a lightweight one with decent inbuilt speakers that you can connect to your phone via a micro HDMI cable. And voila! There's a movie theatre in the middle of nowhere!

Add some cheese popcorn, make some smores, fill up your hot chocolate mugs, and settle next to the fire for the best movie experience possible. Because of this, you don't need to watch movies on your phone alone. You can share the movie with your fellow campers!

These are some of the unique advantages of HDMI cables. One can liven up a party with a fun photo booth, and another can take the big screen to a campsite!

Article Source: https://www.sooperarticles.com/shopping-articles/electronics-articles/different-use-cases-mini-micro-hdmi-cables-1746852.html

If you found these blog useful, here are some other blog posts that may be of interest.

USB cables and chargers are everyday must-haves. Whether it is to connect your phone to the music system, transferring files to another device or just for charging. When our phones are running low on the battery we never think twice before borrowing chargers from others.

But it could be the biggest pitfall for your device. Because you never know the quality of their USB cables and USB adapters.

According to an article by TechCrunch, a hacker was able to access the phone’s data through a simple iPhone USB lightning cable. They manipulated the cable and added a small Wi-Fi enabled implant that let hackers run commands from a nearby device or within the Wi-Fi range. A hacker who goes by the online name MG made these implants where he claims that he gave utmost attention to make them look like the original ones.

Wondering, if it had already happened to you? Well, if you ever bought a cable from a shop which is not selling legitimate products or is just an unknown shop around the block, then there are chances they might’ve sold you so-called “MG cables”. As soon as you plug that cable to your device, hackers can access your data and easily transmit malicious payloads on your device. They can even send phishing pages to your screen, lock or even steal your data.

MG attempted to implant firstly in iPhone cables. But anyone can use these implants in any cable to target whoever they want. In one of his interviews, MG said that “Most people know not to plug in random flash drives these days, but they aren’t expecting a cable to be a threat.”

Why It Is Necessary To Avoid Fake USB Cables And Chargers?

If we look at the basic operation of any cable, it has one particular job to do: supplying your device with power. The cable isn’t the only part of a phone charger. There are various other parts inside that charge your phone without damaging it. Like a regulator. This part notifies your USB adapter that your phone is full and doesn’t require power any further. Also, make sure you are not constantly overcharging a battery as it will shorten the lifespan of any device.

When you opt for the fake chargers, it draws too little power to your device. Some chargers will show that your device is on charging, but after an hour when you check, all it did was just indicate that it is charging. It didn't actually pass any power to your device.

All this can put your battery and to some extent your device to risk.

How To Avoid Buying Fake USB Cables And Chargers?

Some tips on taking good care of your original charging cables:

Next, check the amperage. Usually, smartphone chargers can accommodate an output of 1 A. If a device requires less than 1 A, it will only pull what it needs. In case your adapter’s capacity is, for example, up to 500 mA, and if you charge your device with it then chances are it might damage your device.

Additional Tip for iPhone Users: Look for the ‘Made for iPod’ logo whenever buying any peripherals for your device. This logo is Apple’s licensing program for the manufacturers developing peripherals for Apple.

So, next time you go cable shopping make sure you are bringing home only the legitimate ones. Of course, using the original branded company charger is the number one solution to the ‘fake cable’ problem. Other than that, look for reliable sources that sell authentic merchandise. That includes online stores as well as retail stores.

If you found these blog useful, here are some other blog posts that may be of interest.

Understanding USB Cables & Their Types

Some FAQs About USB C Cables Answered!

Five Types of USB Type-C Adapters You Must Know About

What Makes USB C Cables Better Than Other USB Cables?

Why Should You Choose USB Type C Over All Other Cables?

The battle between HDMI and DisplayPort is not new. But if you really understand them both, you will know that each serves its own purpose. In this blog, we will talk about how to get the best display results with the use of these two cables.

A wide range of devices come with HDMI port, from TVs to laptops and projectors. DisplayPort, on the other hand, has a much more niche usage (or acceptance or requirement). It is great for a gaming setup and external monitor usage in a workstation setup. It works great with most graphics cards and has a daisy chain mechanism, so you can hook up more than one monitor to a single CPU with just one DisplayPort on it.

Let us explore the nuances of the different setups that work with the HDMI cable and DisplayPort cable:

Entertainment Setup:

Since all TVs have an HDMI port on it, it is the easiest and the best option for this setup. Generally, a TV has around two or three HDMI ports. With the increase in streaming devices, this is great if you want more than one option. You can use one port for a channel setup box, the second for a streaming device and yet a third one for connecting a soundbar.

HDMI Arc output gives you the option to route audio out to a soundbar. This is, of course, very convenient as you can extend your music system beyond simple TV speakers. You are free to switch up to whatever speakers you want to use, including the latest ones that have digital assistants built-in.

This gives you the flexibility of switching out the streaming device if you ever want to plug in your laptop to the TV, leaving the soundbar and the channel setup box as a permanent setup.

Another different entertainment setup is when you want to use a projector. All standard projectors have HDMI compatibility. So, you can attach your source device and a soundbar to it.

HDMI’s ubiquity provides an assurance that you can buy a device with this standard and expect it to work with the rest of your setup over the coming years. Device manufacturers will not want to instantly disconnect you from their brand, so no matter how much “courage” they have, the HDMI port is not likely to disappear from everywhere suddenly. This is why the cable is cheap to buy.

Such a setup would not require a particularly long HDMI cable. An average of 3 to 5 feet should be just enough, though SF cable does have a variety of options to suit your needs.

Gaming Or Video Editing Setup:

We can easily club these two setups in terms of the devices used. Whether you are gaming or editing videos, the most important thing is the monitor. You need something with a high refresh rate, ideally 90Hz or more. But the monitor’s refresh rate is not enough to get the best results. You need to connect the computing source to it, with a DisplayPort cable that can drive such a high refresh rate.

DisplayPort has this neat function of being able to daisy chain monitors. You can connect one monitor to a CPU and add the rest to it. This makes for a neat setup even when your CPU does not have more than one DisplayPort. This is of great value for video editing because you need to be judicious with the ports.

An efficient setup tends to have three monitors: one for a full display, and two for the edit timeline. Additionally, this setup needs to have advanced no latency audio output, through speakers or headphones. If required, a sound mixer is also a part of this editing suite.

If gaming is your priority, a two or three monitor daisy chain connection via the DisplayPort cable is essential. You can add a joystick, controllers, and headphones or speakers. Just like video editing, gaming also requires zero-latency data transfer and you can do it using DisplayPort.

With both, the HDMI cable and the DisplayPort cable, it is important to note what version you are buying. The ports and the cables have to be of the same version. If your cable is older but your device is new, then you will not get the best results.

For optimal display experience, you must check their compatibility. The newer your port and cable, the more future proof it is.

SF Cable offers all kinds of cables under the sun, in varying lengths. Contact us today to start building your dream entertainment and working setup!

The debate is not between HDMI and DisplayPort because their version and your requirement are what really matters for the perfect display. Learn what all these cables can do.