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An engineer at Google has taken it upon themselves to save you from non-compliant USB Type-C cables, with warnings of charging problems and potential damage to your devices. The engineer is Benson Leung, who has worked on Google's Chromebook Pixel and Pixel C tablet. In order to help customers avoid dodgy cables, he has been going to Amazon and leaving reviews outlining issues.
The problems seem to stem from cables using USB Type-C on one end and a Type-A or Type-B connector on the other. It seems that some off-brand companies are selling cables that don't make use of the specific resistor value to meet compliance.
Leung explained his motivation a bit more over on Google+: “Now that there are more and more Type C products rolling out from Nexus, One+, Nokia, and more, this I have found painfully true : USB Type-C will only be as good as its ecosystem, and more specifically, the worst of its ecosystem. I have started reviewing USB cables on Amazon because I have gotten fed up with the early cables from 3rd party vendors that so blatantly flaunt the specification and I want to hold them to task. You may not just get weird behavior from your devices with these bad cables… What some these vendors are doing is downright dangerous.”
It's not all about weeding out the bad cables though, Leung is also making sure to recommend cables that do meet the proper specifications and compliances with high rated reviews. You can find all of his reviews, HERE.
KitGuru Says: Dodgy cables can be a bit of a problem, particularly when they can cause damage to devices or don't use the proper components. USB Type-C is set to become the new standard, it's nice to see someone looking out for the early adopters like this.
