I’m a big believer in USB-C, and I was one of those people wondering why everything hasn’t fully switched over to it yet. The idea of using the same cord for everything was great, and now that we’re finally close to that world, I’m left mourning the loss of USB-A. I didn’t think I’d ever find myself in this position, but it wasn’t until I tried to do things that still need that port that I realized that I miss it.

You might be shocked to know how much stuff still needs a USB-A port. Things like my fan, PC microphone, and webcam all need to be plugged in using a USB-A port, and that’s all fine and dandy since I have a power strip near my PC, along with countless USB-A ports on my PC. However, my Chromebook doesn’t fare nearly as well as my PC does. I have just a single USB-A port on that device, and it’s very easy to feel limited there.

USB-A ports are dying out, and I miss them

You don’t know what you have until it’s gone

To be fair, I haven’t had a laptop in a few years, so I don’t know when the shift happened, but I miss USB-A ports. I know USB-A ports have been on the way out there for a while, and I think it’s quite cool that my Chromebook charges with a single USB-C cable. However, having just one USB-A port is tough.

I’m not a fan of touchpads, so I typically use a wireless mouse, and in this case, I have a dongle plugged into the lone USB-A port so I can connect my mouse. Typically, that’s fine, but it got annoying in a hurry once I needed to transfer files to my SD card. To do this, I had to unplug my mouse and plug in my SD card reader. I didn’t think it would be an issue since I could use the touchpad, but it was a nightmare. I had all sorts of struggles moving files around on my Chromebook without a mouse, and that’s what spurred me to write about this.

If I had just one more USB-A port, this wouldn’t be a problem at all. Unfortunately, that’s not the situation I’m in, and it’s very annoying. It’s funny because if you would’ve asked me a few years ago about this, I would’ve been all on board. Now that I see how that works in practice, I’m not sure if we’re fully ready to make the swap. Yes, there are some changes I could make myself, like using a fully Bluetooth mouse, but I don’t want to have to go out and buy new hardware. Then again, I guess that’s the future we’re building toward.

A unified platform is better

Still some stumbles along the way

While I just complained about the lack of USB-A ports, it really will be better once we all get on a unified platform. I have a first-gen Apple TV 4K, and to charge that remote I have to use a Lightning cable. It’s the only Apple product I have, so I had to go out and buy a specific cable just for that purpose. Apple has since dropped the need for that, and it was applauded, as it should be. I feel the same pain when I have to charge my Kindle using a micro-USB cable. Fortunately, examples like that are becoming less common.

Over the years, I’ve amassed a large collection of USB-C cables, and that means I can power almost all of my devices aside from the ones that I’ve mentioned. While those are downsides I run into more often than I’d like, it’s worth it. I’ll get a new Kindle eventually, and that means my micro-USB cable can finally stay plugged into my PS4 and charge my DualShock 4 like it’s meant to. Writing all this down made me really think about how scattered we used to be with cables, and it’s amazing how we were able to navigate it all. I mean, there was a time when you had to have multiple cables of different formats just to power your devices. Now that USB-C is closer to doing it all, it’s hard not to wonder what was stopping this from being the case before.

I don’t anticipate USB-C being the final format, but I wouldn’t mind if it is. I love being able to use the same cable for everything, and I guess my wish would be compatibility being guaranteed going forward. I think of how the HDMI format works where additional speeds are offered with the latest cables, but you can still use those same cables on older devices. I don’t see why USB-C can’t do the same thing, and it would make so all the cables I buy now won’t go to waste in the future. If I end up getting a new Apple TV that doesn’t need a Lightning cable to charge the remote anymore, that cable will become waste. I want to avoid situations like that in the future, and that’s where a unified platform is nice.