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SMK Toughens Up Those Tiny Micro-USB Connections
An anonymous reader writes "If a gadget ships with a micro-USB port, I see it as a plus because it isn't proprietary — meaning I can easily and cheaply buy replacement cables. But the micro-USB ports aren't the strongest connectors in the world, so if the gadget is expensive (a smartphone) and you accidentally bust the port, you're in trouble. And that's easily done. Japanese manufacturer SMK may have fixed the problem, though, with a new double-strong connector design. They started producing them on Friday, and at an output of 500,000 a month, hopefully they'll be shipping with most new gadgets before long."
Unless it's going to reduce there under contract replacement costs smartphones will not have these. US phone companies want your phone to break every couple of years so you buy a new one with a new contract so they can have horrid service.
No sir I dont like it.
It's called a "through-hole mounted connector." Phone manufacturers just like to save a few pennies by using a surface-mounted connector, which is weak as shit.
*Yes this is even stronger, good for the improvement. But through-hole is strong enough, the problem of weak connectors was caused by phone manufacturers being cheap bastards.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I thought that one of the reasons to move to micro-usb was that the parts most likely to be damaged are now on the easier to replace cable side, as opposed to mini-usb where the springs were on the device side. So I would think that the likelihood of device side damage was already less than with mini-usb.
Anyone else think its gotten a bit sad that a company building something to last/stand up to use has become a news story?
"Give someone a program, frustrate them for a day... Teach someone to program, frustrate them for a lifetime."
The micro connector was designed for 10,000 cycles, IIRC. So you can plug and unplug your phone 6 times a day for 4.5 years. Note that the mini-USB was only designed for 1/10th of that, so the micro connector is the better choice. Go check the Wikipedia article if you don't believe me (not that it's any more authoritative than I am).
Sometimes making something harder or stronger doesn't actually solve the problem. Firstly, you can simply shift the breakage point to something more expensive (the circuit board itself). Often, making something more flexible and forgiving goes a lot further. A "soft" connector that flexes instead of breaks would be much more useful.
I see this with surface coatings all the time. If we have a problem with scratching, making the surface harder actually is counter-productive. Making it softer and more malleable is more likely to solve the problem (the surface deforms around the particle that's scratching it, often resulting in no damage. Even when it still scratches, the resulting defect is much less noticable).
"Bend with the wind"... it's why Bamboo is such a useful material.
I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
I can't remember the last time I charged my phone over the Bluetooth port. Oh wait, it doesn't charge over Bluetooth.
Fifty percent chance? Everybody knows that when you plug in a USB device you push it in, flip it over, push it again, then flip it over the way you had it to get it in! USB connectors are three-way.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
I don't believe that Apple doesn't have a valid patent on it. Waring has had magnetic breakaway cables for years and has been using them for powering deep friers.
A lot of patents on this sort of tech are simply a reiteration of what should be considered prior art with an appended "in a mobile computing device."
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)