[quesera]

Micro-USB is not reversible.

Spend any time with an iPad or iPhone, try plugging it in in a dark room, and you'll curse Apple for having such a lame 30-pin connector.

Problem solved, finally. In fairness, it's hard to make a 30-pin connector reversible. And Apple probably didn't want to annoy legions of customers by switching until they had something that was incontrovertibly better, and that they could hang their hat on for a good long time.

The real question is: why does micro-USB suck so badly? The standards committee could have gotten it right all those years ago. They just didn't bother.

Apple bothers. I appreciate this, so I send them some money every few years.

[bryanlarsen]

Most microUSB cables have an engraved USB logo on the top of the cable. Once you realize that it quickly becomes a habit to ensure that your thumb is on the logo when plugging it in and you get it right every time, even in the dark. Throw out any cables that don't do this.

[halostatue]

Even with the engraving, I still miss with microUSB upwards of 60% of the time in the dark, and upwards of 30% of the time in the light (I also miss with regular USB connectors). See also this proof that USB connectors/cables exist in 4D space: http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2388

Strong reversible or universal connections are the way to go—and none of the USB standards are it. By universal, I mean like the nearly-ubiquitous circular plugs, but not the circular plugs—as I have yet to find one that is quality on both sides of the equation. I had a laptop die because of one of those plugs, and it wasn't the male part of the plug, but the female part. The female receptacle was slowly but surely pushed off the motherboard.

[quesera]

Sure. And I used to have a phone with a hateful connector that had a glow in the dark arrow on one side of the plastic housing. Treo maybe?

It worked. I was happy that it was there, and I thought it was clever-ish at the time. But it was more clever than smart. Smart is designing a connector that is easy to plug in, aligns itself, and can be done in either polarity.

That's what Apple did -- the obviously right thing that no one else had bothered to do.

Also, consider that micro-USB sucks for auto-insertion (docks, etc). It wasn't designed for it. Apple has never been shy abut breaking with common practice if they see a benefit for the product, and a few ruffled feathers won't stop them.

[jamesrcole]

I'd bet lots of people won't realise that and won't make an attempt to learn that way of doing it. For them the problem will just just be a temporary, minor -- but frequently repeated -- inconvenience that they won't ever really pay much attention to.

I think it'd be far better to completely remove the opportunity for doing it wrong in the first place.

If you'll permit me to rant a bit here, why is it that IT people seem to so frequently respond to some non-optimum feature of software or hardware with a response that comes down to "but it's possible to work around it" as if that was the only legitimate option? Does this also happen in other fields?