Why does nobody talk about how hard it is to find a working USB 2.0 hub anymore?

Spent 2 hours last Saturday digging through a drawer of old cables and adapters just to plug in my vintage Palm Pilot, only to realize none of my modern USB-C hubs actually talk to it. Finally found a dusty Belkin hub from 2008 at a thrift store and it worked first try. Anyone else keep a graveyard of old peripherals just in case?

3 comments

3 Comments

kimfisher26d ago

Ever notice how the stuff that just works is always the stuff nobody wanted to make look pretty? That Belkin hub is probably ugly as sin but built like a tank.

xena_bailey1826d ago

Bet my paycheck that thing's got a power brick the size of a brick too. Ugly plastic, maybe a weird gray or beige nobody asked for, but you could probably drop it off a second story window and it'd still work. Meanwhile, that sleek aluminum dock with the lights? One wrong cable tug and its USB-C port snaps off like a twig. Function over form is the real flex these days.

riverh4926d ago

You ever stop to think maybe the problem isn't the hubs but your ancient Palm Pilot? USB 2.0 is like two decades old at this point, and expecting modern hardware to prioritize backwards compatibility with something that ran on AAA batteries feels a little entitled. Those old Belkin hubs are ugly and definitely have a massive power brick, but they also have terrible power management and can't handle data speeds for anything past 2009. I'd rather have the sleek aluminum dock that works with all my current devices and just buy a cheap adapter for the rare occasion I need to boot up a museum piece.