cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/22828099
USB was supposed to rule them all but it’s now a mess of standards sharing the same connector. Different speeds, voltage, charging protocols, alt modes, even the number of pins used is variable… For those asking, the thing is available on Kickstarter
Importantly, it’s universal compared to having parallel and Serial and PS/2 and the old joystick port and FireWire and whatnot.
How annoyed everyone is/was about Lightning sticking around should be pretty good evidence of how universal USB is. Especially since Lightning still used USB-A or USB-C on the host end.
Sure there are different versions of USB, but they will still work. They might not work at their best if they don’t have compatible higher-end features, but they’ll still communicate.