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I too am a USB-C maximalist, but with a handful of differences from OP: - You lose me at "toothbrush." I don't want personal care items that have internal batt

I too am a USB-C maximalist, but with a handful of differences from OP: - You lose me at "toothbrush." I don't want personal care items that have internal batteries at all, because they'll eventually die on me while the device itself (brush heads notwithstanding) is otherwise perfectly functional. I'd much rather keep rechargeable AA(A)s on hand for that kind of stuff. (I still haven't found a good electric razor for this purpose, though, and have actually just gone back to manual for the foreseeable future.) - I don't think I could live off just one charging port, but would rather just ditch USB-A entirely. - I'm using wired earbuds, with a standard headphone jack, but with the number of full-sized cans that are using USB-C in some way it baffles me that there aren't more or them (or any, that I've been able to find) that also support using it for audio input, so you you can play them while charging.

nemomarx 2mo ago
Why haven't phones just moved to have two USB ports? A slight convenience when you want to charge it in that you don't have to turn it around, you can have USB headphones and also charge, you could use more accessories...
- penultimatename 2mo ago
  Because the use case and demand versus the cost of engineering and manufacturing isn’t there. The market for USB headphones is minuscule compared to Bluetooth headphones.
- chaosharmonic 2mo ago
  See, I agree with this too. You wouldn't have to worry nearly as much about the random little things that are specific to just one device or another (IR blasters, the DAC on old LG phones, etc) if you could just plug in a second USB peripheral. But what I'm more getting at is the other way around: that wireless headphones will already have USB-C for charging anyway. And that, particularly for larger ones (that have that port directly on the device, and not in a separate charging cradle), it really seems like a waste that more of them don't leverage that -- so that, again, you could use the headphones while you charge them.
  - alterom 2mo ago
    >so that, again, you could use the headphones while you charge them. Yes! And you could charge them off your phone! If I could dream: wouldn't it be nice if you had headphones with charging cables attached to them so that you never had to worry about losing them. And phones could have a convenient extra port for plugging such headphones into. Ah, one could only dream.
    - rootusrootus 2mo ago
      There are still wired options, though, right? I don't really miss them, the nostalgia is not strong enough to forget how often the damn cable would catch on something and try to rip the headphones off my head. Or the cord noise. I get that people do not like having to eventually replace a battery, but high quality wireless headphones are a nice upgrade IMO.
    - plagiarist 2mo ago
      Heh. I hate having any attached cables, they're too easy to fray. But otherwise I am with you, I only buy wired headphones.
    - chaosharmonic 2mo ago
      See, you also lose me at non-removable cables as a point of failure, for the same reason OP loses me at "toothbrush"
      - alterom 2mo ago
        Oh, a great new idea then! What if the same port could be on both headphones and phone? For convenience, we could make it, like, round so it could go in which every way. Then you could use whatever male-to-male cable you want if and when the one you have goes bad.
- alterom 2mo ago
  My XReal Beam Pro¹ has two USB-C ports: one for charging, one for Thunderbolt video output (both support data transfer IIRC). My other phones (Samsung Galaxy A23 etc) have a USB-C and a 3.5mm headphone jack as Lord intended, so I don't have the idiotic problem of choosing between charging or using headphones / aux cable / etc. There's no reason to not have two USB-C ports and a 3.5mmm headphone jack too in a device that already costs hundreds of dollars and is, on average, brick-sized, other than fuck you, that's why (aka being "brave"). I.e., same reason that some phones (not mine) don't have a microSD card slot. Particularly those shipped with atrociously little internal memory at a time when a 1TB memory card costs a few dozen dollars. Anyways, unless the EU rolls out new legislation (like the one that forced Apple to include USB-C on their phones), looks like it's not going to change any time soon. Apple has enough money to bravely get away with whatever anti-consumer BS they want, paving the way for others to copy them for fashion and profit. Sure there are exceptions (which is what I buy). But they're not the norm, as evidenced by comments here. Voting with one's wallet buys very little in terms of impact. People still decry the loss of the 3.5mm TRRS headphone jack, which didn't really go away and never had to. ____ ¹ It's an "AR processor", i.e. an Android phone without the phone plus 3D camera and special sauce
  - chaosharmonic 2mo ago
    > My XReal Beam Pro¹ has two USB-C ports: one for charging, one for Thunderbolt video output (both support data transfer IIRC). I know what you're saying, but to be a little pedantic about it it's actually only USB 3. (I wish there were mobile devices supporting USB4; it would bring them significantly closer to feature parity with larger devices.)
    - deleted 2mo ago
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- jitl 2mo ago
  I've needed 2 USB-C ports on one-port devices (phone, Steam Deck) a few times so I got this tiny 2-port hub with micro SD card reader (also has option for 3.5mm audio port instead of card reader): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DKV7JSHC?th=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DKV7JSHC?th=1 "Satechi USB C Mobile Hub, 4-in-1 USB C Multiport Adapter, 4K HDMI, 100W Pass-Through Charging, 10Gbps Data"
- Gigachad 2mo ago
  Because space inside a phone is at an extreme premium. And this problem is solved by either using magsafe to charge or using an external hub for more ports.
- palata 2mo ago
  Because physics sucks! USB ports take space, a phone is not Mary Poppins' bag :-).
- mplewis 2mo ago
  It's better to use a dongle for that.
- dzhiurgis 2mo ago
  Wha wha whaat? You'll more likely to see no ports soon than two lol. I don't remember when I actually plugged my phone for anything other than charging. Must be nearly a decade. And wireless charging is becoming good, albeit not ubiquitous quite yet.
- imtringued 2mo ago
  You shouldn't use your phone while charging, that's bad for the battery.
jonhohle 2mo ago
For the vast majority of things I need to power or charge, dumb USB charging is fine, and I have a 10-port Anker “IQ” charger that works great for most of those things. Why doesn’t the equivalent USB-C charger exist? I don’t need 65W on each port. I just needs lots of ports for gadgets that can trickle charge for hours at night (4 kids, lots of devices). I mostly want to standardize on USB-C host cables, but no one makes a cheap device for doing that more than a decade after USB-C became a thing.
- TulliusCicero 2mo ago
  I'm guessing it's because people expect USB-C ports to at least handle 18w.
- benoau 2mo ago
  > Why doesn’t the equivalent USB-C charger exist? Isn't this just a USB 3.x hub?
  - jonhohle 2mo ago
    You know of a 10-port USB-C hub that can negotiate power (old USB style, not PD) without a host device?
- tempest_ 2mo ago
  The reason is because while you want to use the low end the general public does not understand that USB-C is the connector only and that various levels of power and data depend on the cable and the device at both ends. If you sell a 10 port USB-C charged someone is going to plug 10 MacBooks into it and complain it doesnt work. The best I have seen for what you want is https://ca.ugreen.com/products/ugreen-500w-desktop-charger https://ca.ugreen.com/products/ugreen-500w-desktop-charger but is not cheap at all or something like https://www.amazon.ca/Powered-Aluminum-Adapter-Computer-Printer/dp/B0G13RQ2SZ https://www.amazon.ca/Powered-Aluminum-Adapter-Computer-Prin...
  - xp84 2mo ago
    Macbooks aren't the absolute best example anymore, since 20W is plenty to charge ARM-based MacBooks in a few hours, so a 200W 10-port charger could do a fine job with 10 MacBooks. But your point is still valid. As a nerd I really appreciate being able to use say, my 100W laptop charger or the car jumpstarter pack I have to charge up my earbuds or an electric toothbrush, since it reduces the number of weird little cables or chargers I have to keep track of, but it sure does baffle the non-technical majority that their toothbrush charger fits their laptop 'for some reason' but of course does nothing - plus the confusion when they realize they could physically plug the toothbrush into a pair of headphones, or plug two portable batteries together.
groovefx 2mo ago
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rogerrogerr 2mo ago
Re. toothbrush, I have to take the opportunity to give Philips credit for the Sonicare electric toothbrushes they made ~15 years ago. That thing just keeps trucking, it’s incredible. I go on 2 week trips and don’t even bring the charger, and have no worries about it dying. It must have been crazy overspecced, I expected it to be a 5-year disposable piece of non-serviceable tech.
- rootusrootus 2mo ago
  Yeah I was going to say, I'm at 20 years on a Sonicare (pushing 25 now that I remember it is 2026, damn...) and it still works fine. Holds a charge long enough that I've never run out on vacation.
- sudobash1 2mo ago
  Also, it looses functionality gracefully in that it is still a perfectly serviceable toothbrush even if it is out of battery. That said, I have never had a Sonicare run out of battery either.
- moffkalast 2mo ago
  Ha I thought mine was on the verge of dying after a good few years of use (amazon reviews were all like, yeah it only lasted a two years), so I ordered a new one, but the old one keeps going so I keep the new one in reserve looming over it menacingly, and it just refuses to kick it lol.
- pupppet 2mo ago
  Another vote for the Sonicare.
- m463 2mo ago
  I have a sonicare. great. The travel case it came with is actually an inductive charging case with a USB-A hidden inside ready to be unfurled.
  - wwalexander 2mo ago
    The pricier ones have a case with just a USB-C port.
deleted 2mo ago
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bigfishrunning 2mo ago
I had a pair of sennheiser urbanite headphones that used USB (micro :( ) for digital audio input, and you could use them while charging. Was shocked and disappointed when i eventually replaced them with Audio Technica ones that could only charge via USB but didn't do audio via USB, only bluetooth or analog. I agree (and am sad) that it's not a ubiquitous feature, but headphones with a built-in dac do exist
qurren 2mo ago
I break about 1 USB-C plug a week. They are simply not designed well for real people who do real things in the world, including physical work, exercise, hiking, woodworking, biking, and the like. They are designed by someone in a corporate office who just never gets out to see the real world. Here's how the last few broke: * Phone with typical inadequate battery + external portable battery pack plugged in, shoved in together in pocket running Google Maps navigation via bluetooth, and biking. My thigh bent the USB connector. * USB-C got mangled by office chair. If I had been a USB designer in an office, this would have been the FIRST thing I would have stress tested for * USB-C plugged into phone and sat on while on car seat. Another thing any half-competent design intern would have listed on their stress test scenario list but it seems the senior designers missed * Laptop plugged in on the edge of standing desk, USB cable got jammed in gap between adjacent desks. I much preferred real, sturdy mechanical connections. They should just miniatureize the IEC power connectors and put straight up 19VDC through them.
- hbn 2mo ago
  Is IEC really the gold standard for connectors to you? I always thought they feel terrible to plug in. There's no snap or solid bottom-out indication to when it's "connected." And it just sits in the socket from friction that doesn't feel particularly solid. It's the kind of connection where if it gets yanked a little bit and the connection fails, it's not obvious because it's half-seated in the socket.
  - timc3 2mo ago
    IEC isn’t great, hence you get a cage around them to hold them in for critical use.
    - nightpool 2mo ago
      good luck miniaturizing that! :D
    - qurren 2mo ago
      That cage is for stress relief, and should be federally mandated on all external connectors of all devices. Stress relief is a thing, people in the 2020s have somehow forgetten about it.
JoshTriplett 2mo ago
> I'd much rather keep rechargeable AA(A)s on hand for that kind of stuff. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=rechargeable+aa+batteries+usb+c https://www.amazon.com/s?k=rechargeable+aa+batteries+usb+c But in practice, I greatly prefer devices with integrated batteries, because they're more likely to be able to give me useful feedback about the battery level (e.g. a reliable low-battery indicator), rather than just winding down, or having a low-battery indicator with only a passing correlation to reality.
- chaosharmonic 2mo ago
  I'm aware these aren't mutually exclusive. To me, the bigger benefit of not integrating them is that I can just rotate in freshly charged batteries anytime they die, and don't have to care about being within proximity of a charger. (I also find this important for gamepads, to the extent that I don't just opt to play wired.)
  - JoshTriplett 2mo ago
    I do wish more devices supported hot-swappable rechargeable battery packs. My headset does that. But in the absence of that, I'll take USB-C and the ability to charge while actively using. I find that useful even for wireless gamepads, because then I can attach them to a generic charger on one side of the room, and not run a cable across the room to the console/TV area, because the communication is still wireless and only the power isn't.
- cogman10 2mo ago
  > But in practice, I greatly prefer devices with integrated batteries, because they're more likely to be able to give me useful feedback about the battery level (e.g. a reliable low-battery indicator), rather than just winding down, or having a low-battery indicator with only a passing correlation to reality. That has less to do with the battery being integrated and more to do with different battery chemistries having different voltage curves. Nothing would prevent a device from accurately detecting battery levels of NiMH batteries. The problem is all these devices are tuned to an Alkaline battery voltage curve which is much more slanted than NiMH. NiMH has a nearly flat curve with a sudden drop off while Alkaline have a pretty steady decent (with a sudden drop off).
xp84 2mo ago
Just recently acquired a set from "Philips" that is an 8-pack of lithium-ion AAs with a charging-case that connects to USB-C (Note: the case itself doesn't have its own battery, like an earbuds case would -- it's just a normal charger that doubles as a case). Sounds like this would be great for your toothbrushes and such!
ValentineC 2mo ago
> I don't want personal care items that have internal batteries at all, because they'll eventually die on me while the device itself (brush heads notwithstanding) is otherwise perfectly functional. I'd much rather keep rechargeable AA(A)s on hand for that kind of stuff.* I thought the same, but that'll happen with devices that use AA batteries too. I was using a cheap Panasonic EW-DJ10 water flosser that uses AA batteries, but the battery compartment contacts would corrode after some time. I then switched to one of those China USB-C water flossers, but I think the built-in lithium battery's nearing the end of its life since it'll cut off randomly now. I also used to worry about charging it, since the USB-C port would need to be dried out before I plugged the charging cable in. No idea what's a happy medium for electronics that need to work near water.
- imp0cat 2mo ago
  Inductive charging, like the often-mentioned-here Sonicare toothbrushes have.
  - ValentineC 2mo ago
    Inductive charging doesn't help with non-replaceable lithium batteries that will eventually degrade past usable in maybe 1-3 years.
    - imp0cat 2mo ago
      Right, but it solves the other problem that you mentioned - charging ports or contacts exposed to the elements.
hokkos 2mo ago
An electric toothbrush can never break: it can only become a toothbrush. You should never see an “Electric Toothbrush Temporarily Out of Order” sign, just “Electric Toothbrush Temporarily Manual.” Sorry for the exercise.
- encrypted_bird 2mo ago
  RIP Mitch Hedburg
  - herodoturtle 2mo ago
    Love this comment <3 For those of you that are wondering, Mitch Hedburg was a relatively famous stand-up comedian whose special went viral. In said special was this classic: “I like an escalator because an escalator can never break; it can only become stairs. There would never be an 'escalator temporarily out of order' sign, only 'escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience.’” RIP indeed.
- BoppreH 2mo ago
  Generally true, but don't forget that some people are disabled and absolutely need the electric functions. "Escalator temporarily stairs" is funny until your foot is in a cast. Same goes for those seemingly-useless, single-purpose kitchen devices. You're just probably not in the target audience.
hereme888 2mo ago
You're probably missing out on the feeling of really, really clean teeth. Regular brushing never gave me the feeling of ALL biofilm getting stripped from the enamels.
- ChoGGi 2mo ago
  Yea, first time I used an electric was great, haven't used a manual since.
- deleted 2mo ago
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BeetleB 2mo ago
My Sonicare worked for almost 15 years. I don't worry about the reliable brands dying on me.
NoPicklez 2mo ago
> - You lose me at "toothbrush." I don't want personal care items that have internal batteries at all, because they'll eventually die on me while the device itself (brush heads notwithstanding) is otherwise perfectly functional. I'd much rather keep rechargeable AA(A)s on hand for that kind of stuff. (I still haven't found a good electric razor for this purpose, though, and have actually just gone back to manual for the foreseeable future.) I've had an Oral B electric brush for around 3 years now and it hasn't skipped a beat. I'd hate to have to change batteries when I can just pop it on a inductive charging dock every night.
subarctic 2mo ago
I find Philips Sonicare toothbrushes break after about a year, long before the battery gives up. Which i guess is another reason not having integrated batteries would be nice. But then they might not make as much money whenever I buy a new one so they probably wouldn't do that
- theshrike79 2mo ago
  How hard do you brush if you can _mechanically_ break an electric toothbrush?
  - subarctic 2mo ago
    Not sure I get your point, they're more fragile than manual toothbrushes not less. The metal connector part starts getting loose and it becomes loud and ineffective
- Grombobulous 2mo ago
  I've never experienced them breaking that quickly, but it's worth pointing out that the cheap models are far inferior. The motors are weaker and they even come with a worse charger that doesn't come with a normal wall outlet plug. I don't like USB-C for toothbrushes to charge because there's water in the bathroom. The proprietary inductive charger/stand that comes with Sonicare/Oral-B electric toothbrushes are ideal. Sucks that they are proprietary but they have been trivially easy to clone by third party manufacturers. $7 on Amazon.
  - jbverschoor 2mo ago
    I've had the topline ones fail on me three times after a couple of years. Now on a base model, and works just as fine. The old charging glass isn't compatible with newer ones, so I have a couple of those laying around as junk. All the travel cases used micro usb-a, which is super inconvenient. So no "ecosystem" buy-in into any Philips line from me anymore. They have a very bad product lines anyway.. Super complex, tons of SKUs with minimal differences. But they do have some good products.
bsammon 2mo ago
> I don't want personal care items that have internal batteries at all, because they'll eventually die on me while the device itself (brush heads notwithstanding) is otherwise perfectly functional. I'd much rather keep rechargeable AA(A)s on hand for that kind of stuff. (I still haven't found a good electric razor for this purpose, though, and have actually just gone back to manual for the foreseeable future.) My solution to this was to get an electric razor that doesn't use batteries. My 20-year-old no-battery electric Norelco razor was bought in a chain pharmacy. I've looked in recent years, and I don't see them any more in brick-and-mortar stores, but they're still made, and available online. The (minor, IME) downside is that electric razors without batteries are generally on the low-end of the spectrum, rarely including the fancy (even non-battery-related) features found on the high end electric razors.
jmhammond 2mo ago
For what an anecdote’s worth, I have the same rechargeable Norelco razor that I’ve had going on 17 years. Same nicd battery it came with; gets recharged about once every three weeks. I think it’ll relive me.
coffeebeqn 2mo ago
A electric toothbrush does a much better job at cleaning your teeth though. I have a basic oral B one that I can get new heads for cheaply and easily and it has a usb-c charger. It’s great honestly. I’m sure it’ll die one day but so do normal toothbrushes. I’ll crack the shell open and recycle the battery it’s not a big deal. I had a random Amazon one before that broke after a few months but the very basic “old” style electric brushes seem to last some years. The more “UI” and features it has the less it’ll last
- sdh9 2mo ago
  Unless something has changed, it's pretty difficult to replace the battery in Oral B toothbrushes. Which is a shame, because they die pretty much like clockwork after about 3 years.

nemomarx 2mo ago

Why haven't phones just moved to have two USB ports? A slight convenience when you want to charge it in that you don't have to turn it around, you can have USB headphones and also charge, you could use more accessories...

penultimatename 2mo ago
Because the use case and demand versus the cost of engineering and manufacturing isn’t there. The market for USB headphones is minuscule compared to Bluetooth headphones.
chaosharmonic 2mo ago
See, I agree with this too. You wouldn't have to worry nearly as much about the random little things that are specific to just one device or another (IR blasters, the DAC on old LG phones, etc) if you could just plug in a second USB peripheral. But what I'm more getting at is the other way around: that wireless headphones will already have USB-C for charging anyway. And that, particularly for larger ones (that have that port directly on the device, and not in a separate charging cradle), it really seems like a waste that more of them don't leverage that -- so that, again, you could use the headphones while you charge them.
- alterom 2mo ago
  >so that, again, you could use the headphones while you charge them. Yes! And you could charge them off your phone! If I could dream: wouldn't it be nice if you had headphones with charging cables attached to them so that you never had to worry about losing them. And phones could have a convenient extra port for plugging such headphones into. Ah, one could only dream.
  - rootusrootus 2mo ago
    There are still wired options, though, right? I don't really miss them, the nostalgia is not strong enough to forget how often the damn cable would catch on something and try to rip the headphones off my head. Or the cord noise. I get that people do not like having to eventually replace a battery, but high quality wireless headphones are a nice upgrade IMO.
  - plagiarist 2mo ago
    Heh. I hate having any attached cables, they're too easy to fray. But otherwise I am with you, I only buy wired headphones.
  - chaosharmonic 2mo ago
    See, you also lose me at non-removable cables as a point of failure, for the same reason OP loses me at "toothbrush"
    - alterom 2mo ago
      Oh, a great new idea then! What if the same port could be on both headphones and phone? For convenience, we could make it, like, round so it could go in which every way. Then you could use whatever male-to-male cable you want if and when the one you have goes bad.
alterom 2mo ago
My XReal Beam Pro¹ has two USB-C ports: one for charging, one for Thunderbolt video output (both support data transfer IIRC). My other phones (Samsung Galaxy A23 etc) have a USB-C and a 3.5mm headphone jack as Lord intended, so I don't have the idiotic problem of choosing between charging or using headphones / aux cable / etc. There's no reason to not have two USB-C ports and a 3.5mmm headphone jack too in a device that already costs hundreds of dollars and is, on average, brick-sized, other than fuck you, that's why (aka being "brave"). I.e., same reason that some phones (not mine) don't have a microSD card slot. Particularly those shipped with atrociously little internal memory at a time when a 1TB memory card costs a few dozen dollars. Anyways, unless the EU rolls out new legislation (like the one that forced Apple to include USB-C on their phones), looks like it's not going to change any time soon. Apple has enough money to bravely get away with whatever anti-consumer BS they want, paving the way for others to copy them for fashion and profit. Sure there are exceptions (which is what I buy). But they're not the norm, as evidenced by comments here. Voting with one's wallet buys very little in terms of impact. People still decry the loss of the 3.5mm TRRS headphone jack, which didn't really go away and never had to. ____ ¹ It's an "AR processor", i.e. an Android phone without the phone plus 3D camera and special sauce
- chaosharmonic 2mo ago
  > My XReal Beam Pro¹ has two USB-C ports: one for charging, one for Thunderbolt video output (both support data transfer IIRC). I know what you're saying, but to be a little pedantic about it it's actually only USB 3. (I wish there were mobile devices supporting USB4; it would bring them significantly closer to feature parity with larger devices.)
  - deleted 2mo ago
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jitl 2mo ago
I've needed 2 USB-C ports on one-port devices (phone, Steam Deck) a few times so I got this tiny 2-port hub with micro SD card reader (also has option for 3.5mm audio port instead of card reader): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DKV7JSHC?th=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DKV7JSHC?th=1 "Satechi USB C Mobile Hub, 4-in-1 USB C Multiport Adapter, 4K HDMI, 100W Pass-Through Charging, 10Gbps Data"
Gigachad 2mo ago
Because space inside a phone is at an extreme premium. And this problem is solved by either using magsafe to charge or using an external hub for more ports.
palata 2mo ago
Because physics sucks! USB ports take space, a phone is not Mary Poppins' bag :-).
mplewis 2mo ago
It's better to use a dongle for that.
dzhiurgis 2mo ago
Wha wha whaat? You'll more likely to see no ports soon than two lol. I don't remember when I actually plugged my phone for anything other than charging. Must be nearly a decade. And wireless charging is becoming good, albeit not ubiquitous quite yet.
imtringued 2mo ago
You shouldn't use your phone while charging, that's bad for the battery.

jonhohle 2mo ago

For the vast majority of things I need to power or charge, dumb USB charging is fine, and I have a 10-port Anker “IQ” charger that works great for most of those things. Why doesn’t the equivalent USB-C charger exist? I don’t need 65W on each port. I just needs lots of ports for gadgets that can trickle charge for hours at night (4 kids, lots of devices). I mostly want to standardize on USB-C host cables, but no one makes a cheap device for doing that more than a decade after USB-C became a thing.

TulliusCicero 2mo ago
I'm guessing it's because people expect USB-C ports to at least handle 18w.
benoau 2mo ago
> Why doesn’t the equivalent USB-C charger exist? Isn't this just a USB 3.x hub?
- jonhohle 2mo ago
  You know of a 10-port USB-C hub that can negotiate power (old USB style, not PD) without a host device?
tempest_ 2mo ago
The reason is because while you want to use the low end the general public does not understand that USB-C is the connector only and that various levels of power and data depend on the cable and the device at both ends. If you sell a 10 port USB-C charged someone is going to plug 10 MacBooks into it and complain it doesnt work. The best I have seen for what you want is https://ca.ugreen.com/products/ugreen-500w-desktop-charger https://ca.ugreen.com/products/ugreen-500w-desktop-charger but is not cheap at all or something like https://www.amazon.ca/Powered-Aluminum-Adapter-Computer-Printer/dp/B0G13RQ2SZ https://www.amazon.ca/Powered-Aluminum-Adapter-Computer-Prin...
- xp84 2mo ago
  Macbooks aren't the absolute best example anymore, since 20W is plenty to charge ARM-based MacBooks in a few hours, so a 200W 10-port charger could do a fine job with 10 MacBooks. But your point is still valid. As a nerd I really appreciate being able to use say, my 100W laptop charger or the car jumpstarter pack I have to charge up my earbuds or an electric toothbrush, since it reduces the number of weird little cables or chargers I have to keep track of, but it sure does baffle the non-technical majority that their toothbrush charger fits their laptop 'for some reason' but of course does nothing - plus the confusion when they realize they could physically plug the toothbrush into a pair of headphones, or plug two portable batteries together.

groovefx 2mo ago

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rogerrogerr 2mo ago

Re. toothbrush, I have to take the opportunity to give Philips credit for the Sonicare electric toothbrushes they made ~15 years ago. That thing just keeps trucking, it’s incredible. I go on 2 week trips and don’t even bring the charger, and have no worries about it dying. It must have been crazy overspecced, I expected it to be a 5-year disposable piece of non-serviceable tech.

rootusrootus 2mo ago
Yeah I was going to say, I'm at 20 years on a Sonicare (pushing 25 now that I remember it is 2026, damn...) and it still works fine. Holds a charge long enough that I've never run out on vacation.
sudobash1 2mo ago
Also, it looses functionality gracefully in that it is still a perfectly serviceable toothbrush even if it is out of battery. That said, I have never had a Sonicare run out of battery either.
moffkalast 2mo ago
Ha I thought mine was on the verge of dying after a good few years of use (amazon reviews were all like, yeah it only lasted a two years), so I ordered a new one, but the old one keeps going so I keep the new one in reserve looming over it menacingly, and it just refuses to kick it lol.
pupppet 2mo ago
Another vote for the Sonicare.
m463 2mo ago
I have a sonicare. great. The travel case it came with is actually an inductive charging case with a USB-A hidden inside ready to be unfurled.
- wwalexander 2mo ago
  The pricier ones have a case with just a USB-C port.

deleted 2mo ago

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bigfishrunning 2mo ago

I had a pair of sennheiser urbanite headphones that used USB (micro :( ) for digital audio input, and you could use them while charging. Was shocked and disappointed when i eventually replaced them with Audio Technica ones that could only charge via USB but didn't do audio via USB, only bluetooth or analog. I agree (and am sad) that it's not a ubiquitous feature, but headphones with a built-in dac do exist

qurren 2mo ago

I break about 1 USB-C plug a week. They are simply not designed well for real people who do real things in the world, including physical work, exercise, hiking, woodworking, biking, and the like. They are designed by someone in a corporate office who just never gets out to see the real world. Here's how the last few broke: * Phone with typical inadequate battery + external portable battery pack plugged in, shoved in together in pocket running Google Maps navigation via bluetooth, and biking. My thigh bent the USB connector. * USB-C got mangled by office chair. If I had been a USB designer in an office, this would have been the FIRST thing I would have stress tested for * USB-C plugged into phone and sat on while on car seat. Another thing any half-competent design intern would have listed on their stress test scenario list but it seems the senior designers missed * Laptop plugged in on the edge of standing desk, USB cable got jammed in gap between adjacent desks. I much preferred real, sturdy mechanical connections. They should just miniatureize the IEC power connectors and put straight up 19VDC through them.

hbn 2mo ago
Is IEC really the gold standard for connectors to you? I always thought they feel terrible to plug in. There's no snap or solid bottom-out indication to when it's "connected." And it just sits in the socket from friction that doesn't feel particularly solid. It's the kind of connection where if it gets yanked a little bit and the connection fails, it's not obvious because it's half-seated in the socket.
- timc3 2mo ago
  IEC isn’t great, hence you get a cage around them to hold them in for critical use.
  - nightpool 2mo ago
    good luck miniaturizing that! :D
  - qurren 2mo ago
    That cage is for stress relief, and should be federally mandated on all external connectors of all devices. Stress relief is a thing, people in the 2020s have somehow forgetten about it.

JoshTriplett 2mo ago

> I'd much rather keep rechargeable AA(A)s on hand for that kind of stuff. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=rechargeable+aa+batteries+usb+c https://www.amazon.com/s?k=rechargeable+aa+batteries+usb+c But in practice, I greatly prefer devices with integrated batteries, because they're more likely to be able to give me useful feedback about the battery level (e.g. a reliable low-battery indicator), rather than just winding down, or having a low-battery indicator with only a passing correlation to reality.

chaosharmonic 2mo ago
I'm aware these aren't mutually exclusive. To me, the bigger benefit of not integrating them is that I can just rotate in freshly charged batteries anytime they die, and don't have to care about being within proximity of a charger. (I also find this important for gamepads, to the extent that I don't just opt to play wired.)
- JoshTriplett 2mo ago
  I do wish more devices supported hot-swappable rechargeable battery packs. My headset does that. But in the absence of that, I'll take USB-C and the ability to charge while actively using. I find that useful even for wireless gamepads, because then I can attach them to a generic charger on one side of the room, and not run a cable across the room to the console/TV area, because the communication is still wireless and only the power isn't.
cogman10 2mo ago
> But in practice, I greatly prefer devices with integrated batteries, because they're more likely to be able to give me useful feedback about the battery level (e.g. a reliable low-battery indicator), rather than just winding down, or having a low-battery indicator with only a passing correlation to reality. That has less to do with the battery being integrated and more to do with different battery chemistries having different voltage curves. Nothing would prevent a device from accurately detecting battery levels of NiMH batteries. The problem is all these devices are tuned to an Alkaline battery voltage curve which is much more slanted than NiMH. NiMH has a nearly flat curve with a sudden drop off while Alkaline have a pretty steady decent (with a sudden drop off).

xp84 2mo ago

Just recently acquired a set from "Philips" that is an 8-pack of lithium-ion AAs with a charging-case that connects to USB-C (Note: the case itself doesn't have its own battery, like an earbuds case would -- it's just a normal charger that doubles as a case). Sounds like this would be great for your toothbrushes and such!

ValentineC 2mo ago

> I don't want personal care items that have internal batteries at all, because they'll eventually die on me while the device itself (brush heads notwithstanding) is otherwise perfectly functional. I'd much rather keep rechargeable AA(A)s on hand for that kind of stuff.* I thought the same, but that'll happen with devices that use AA batteries too. I was using a cheap Panasonic EW-DJ10 water flosser that uses AA batteries, but the battery compartment contacts would corrode after some time. I then switched to one of those China USB-C water flossers, but I think the built-in lithium battery's nearing the end of its life since it'll cut off randomly now. I also used to worry about charging it, since the USB-C port would need to be dried out before I plugged the charging cable in. No idea what's a happy medium for electronics that need to work near water.

imp0cat 2mo ago
Inductive charging, like the often-mentioned-here Sonicare toothbrushes have.
- ValentineC 2mo ago
  Inductive charging doesn't help with non-replaceable lithium batteries that will eventually degrade past usable in maybe 1-3 years.
  - imp0cat 2mo ago
    Right, but it solves the other problem that you mentioned - charging ports or contacts exposed to the elements.

hokkos 2mo ago

An electric toothbrush can never break: it can only become a toothbrush. You should never see an “Electric Toothbrush Temporarily Out of Order” sign, just “Electric Toothbrush Temporarily Manual.” Sorry for the exercise.

encrypted_bird 2mo ago
RIP Mitch Hedburg
- herodoturtle 2mo ago
  Love this comment <3 For those of you that are wondering, Mitch Hedburg was a relatively famous stand-up comedian whose special went viral. In said special was this classic: “I like an escalator because an escalator can never break; it can only become stairs. There would never be an 'escalator temporarily out of order' sign, only 'escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience.’” RIP indeed.
BoppreH 2mo ago
Generally true, but don't forget that some people are disabled and absolutely need the electric functions. "Escalator temporarily stairs" is funny until your foot is in a cast. Same goes for those seemingly-useless, single-purpose kitchen devices. You're just probably not in the target audience.

hereme888 2mo ago

You're probably missing out on the feeling of really, really clean teeth. Regular brushing never gave me the feeling of ALL biofilm getting stripped from the enamels.

ChoGGi 2mo ago
Yea, first time I used an electric was great, haven't used a manual since.
deleted 2mo ago
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BeetleB 2mo ago

My Sonicare worked for almost 15 years. I don't worry about the reliable brands dying on me.

NoPicklez 2mo ago

> - You lose me at "toothbrush." I don't want personal care items that have internal batteries at all, because they'll eventually die on me while the device itself (brush heads notwithstanding) is otherwise perfectly functional. I'd much rather keep rechargeable AA(A)s on hand for that kind of stuff. (I still haven't found a good electric razor for this purpose, though, and have actually just gone back to manual for the foreseeable future.) I've had an Oral B electric brush for around 3 years now and it hasn't skipped a beat. I'd hate to have to change batteries when I can just pop it on a inductive charging dock every night.

subarctic 2mo ago

I find Philips Sonicare toothbrushes break after about a year, long before the battery gives up. Which i guess is another reason not having integrated batteries would be nice. But then they might not make as much money whenever I buy a new one so they probably wouldn't do that

theshrike79 2mo ago
How hard do you brush if you can _mechanically_ break an electric toothbrush?
- subarctic 2mo ago
  Not sure I get your point, they're more fragile than manual toothbrushes not less. The metal connector part starts getting loose and it becomes loud and ineffective
Grombobulous 2mo ago
I've never experienced them breaking that quickly, but it's worth pointing out that the cheap models are far inferior. The motors are weaker and they even come with a worse charger that doesn't come with a normal wall outlet plug. I don't like USB-C for toothbrushes to charge because there's water in the bathroom. The proprietary inductive charger/stand that comes with Sonicare/Oral-B electric toothbrushes are ideal. Sucks that they are proprietary but they have been trivially easy to clone by third party manufacturers. $7 on Amazon.
- jbverschoor 2mo ago
  I've had the topline ones fail on me three times after a couple of years. Now on a base model, and works just as fine. The old charging glass isn't compatible with newer ones, so I have a couple of those laying around as junk. All the travel cases used micro usb-a, which is super inconvenient. So no "ecosystem" buy-in into any Philips line from me anymore. They have a very bad product lines anyway.. Super complex, tons of SKUs with minimal differences. But they do have some good products.

bsammon 2mo ago

> I don't want personal care items that have internal batteries at all, because they'll eventually die on me while the device itself (brush heads notwithstanding) is otherwise perfectly functional. I'd much rather keep rechargeable AA(A)s on hand for that kind of stuff. (I still haven't found a good electric razor for this purpose, though, and have actually just gone back to manual for the foreseeable future.) My solution to this was to get an electric razor that doesn't use batteries. My 20-year-old no-battery electric Norelco razor was bought in a chain pharmacy. I've looked in recent years, and I don't see them any more in brick-and-mortar stores, but they're still made, and available online. The (minor, IME) downside is that electric razors without batteries are generally on the low-end of the spectrum, rarely including the fancy (even non-battery-related) features found on the high end electric razors.

jmhammond 2mo ago

For what an anecdote’s worth, I have the same rechargeable Norelco razor that I’ve had going on 17 years. Same nicd battery it came with; gets recharged about once every three weeks. I think it’ll relive me.

coffeebeqn 2mo ago

A electric toothbrush does a much better job at cleaning your teeth though. I have a basic oral B one that I can get new heads for cheaply and easily and it has a usb-c charger. It’s great honestly. I’m sure it’ll die one day but so do normal toothbrushes. I’ll crack the shell open and recycle the battery it’s not a big deal. I had a random Amazon one before that broke after a few months but the very basic “old” style electric brushes seem to last some years. The more “UI” and features it has the less it’ll last

sdh9 2mo ago
Unless something has changed, it's pretty difficult to replace the battery in Oral B toothbrushes. Which is a shame, because they die pretty much like clockwork after about 3 years.