[philwelch]

That's an example of lock-in that makes absolutely no sense. Why would you do that with USB extension cords of all things? The only reason I can think of--it physically locks the cables together better so it doesn't pop open in the middle of the extension cord where it's difficult to reach and reattach.

[gxti]

I'm pretty sure they do it because the keyboard can't source the required 500mA of current. They "proprietarize" it in order to keep people from plugging high-current devices in.

[chaosmachine]

The keyboard itself contains a 2 port USB hub (regular ports, btw, with enough juice to power a Wacom tablet and charge my phone at the same time), so I'm not sure that makes sense.

[gxti]

Never mind, then. I have no idea why they did it but there's probably a perfectly valid technical explanation.