

Type B connectors are very similar to Type A connectors, but they are shaped like a square instead of a rectangle. Using them with the wrong device can cause serious problems, so you should always ask the manufacturer for guidance before you try to use one for a two-way connection. They usually aren’t meant for two-way connections, although a few double-sided cables do exist for that purpose. That is their most common use, and they can handle almost any type of peripheral, such as storage drives, and even monitors. “The USB A-Type was designed to create a connection between a host device, such as a computer, and an attached peripheral device, such as a mouse,” said Newnex. These are the flat, rectangular cables with a single connector rather than a series of pins. While you should always check the device’s manual for guidance to find out what cable you need, you can normally assume that it will be a type A. Type A cables are the most common by a very large margin. Fortunately, they aren’t nearly as complicated as they first appear. Dealing with the different cable types is not as difficult as dealing with a world where each device needs to have a unique cable, but it can still be fairly daunting. Unfortunately, different devices have different needs, so there are many different USB cables available. The effort was mostly successful, since almost every modern device will use an USB connection instead of having its own unique connector.

USB connectors were designed to standardize the connections between devices.
