ACAB but expressed in USB connector types (that funky shaped one on the right was a short lived USB connector type B). I only had like one peripheral, a scanner, that used it.
this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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short lived
A printer I bought two years ago, a DAC a month ago. Its definitely not short lived
Yeah, AFAIK all printers still have these
Yeah I always call it the printer USB port. I wonder why it’s so popular there? Maybe it’s the USB connector that is hardest to break or pull off by accident?
My understanding it's the other end of a one way USB cable. Normally the cable is attached like your mouse or keyboard, or commonly these days USB C, but if you are plugging in USB and it's not USB C but the cable unplugs at either end, one will be USB A and the other USB B so you can't put it in backwards like you could if they both has USB A.
Early android smart phones used USB B micro or mini, but printers have no need to keep the plug small.
Yeah, C had two major innovations: it was symmetrically functional, and it was symmetrically functional. Everybody knows about how A was kinda a pain because you'd try to plug it in upside down a lot, but A also was unidirectional. You never see male A to male A cables despite A being so common, meanwhile C to C is the default C cable, even things that would have used an integrated cord often just slap a port on instead
Maybe it’s the USB connector that is hardest to break or pull off by accident?
Yeah, pretty much. Printers and scanners are kinda the only common devices big enough not to need to use a more fragile mini-B or micro-B.
(There are certainly other more niche "big" devices that also use it: the MIDI connection on my digital piano, for instance.)
A screen I bought recently has this for the integrated USB hub, I think?
Every monitor with a USB hub and every printer I’ve owned for the last 20 years has had one. It’s used to differentiate USB directionality, for example which side is upstream or the “host device” and which side is meant to plug into the computer.
They’re moot now with USB C which is bidirectional; USB-A male to USB-A male is dangerous and not compliant with the USB specification, so they’d use USB-B on one side.
Wild, TIL.
So short lived you can still find it on brand new printers
In case anyone thinks you're being figurative, LITERALLY brand new printers. The Brother laser I bought last week is USB-B, as I expected it would be : )
This replaced the HP laser I bought in 2004 which was, of course, also USB-B.
Why change? It does the job. The cable doesn't need to pass audio or video, doesn't need to pass fast charge power, and sure as hell doesn't need 80Gbps data transfer speeds... the bottleneck will always be the print function itself. Usb-c would be overkill. And Usb-b is made to be secured to prevent accidental disconnection for devices that typically dont move like printers and scanners, unlike Usb-c which is made for repeated insertions and easy release for devices like smart phones. Only reason the connector might change in the future is if they either start adding stupid features to printers or if it simply becomes cheaper to support newer standards.
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Anything non-portable that you plug in to a computer with a USB-A connection is supposed to have a USB-B on the other end if the cable is removable.
I have a lot of music gear with USB-B connectors on them
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a short lived USB connector type B
Not short lived at all, it's literally one of the three standard connectors alongside A and C. USB is an inherently directional protocol, so one side if the host device and the other is the peripheral device. The difference between Type A and B plugs helped enforce that directionality. Prior to the C connector becoming the new standard regardless of direction, all USB cables had both a Type-A and Type-B connector. (A to A cables violate the spec, and are an abomination).
The miniUSB and microUSB connectors are both Type-B connectors, just physically smaller to accommodate smaller peripheral devices. There's also technically a mini-A and micro-A, but they're very uncommon since host devices are usually large enough for a full size plug, and now USB 3.0+ Type-C connections don't require a directional cable the same way.
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USB 1.x type B definitely wasn't short lived, I've picked up new devices with a B connector in recent years.
The B connector you pretty much never see is the USB 2.0 one. Pretty much all devices I've seen use the wide version of USB Micro-B or, you know, USB C.
Are you thinking of the USB 3.0 versions of Type B? 1.0 and 2.0 should be pretty much indistinguishable.
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usb microphone, usb audio interface, midi keyboard, printer they all use it
Wait until you learn about USB 3 with connector type B.
And of course USB 3 micro B, the mangled step child.
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USB B is still standard with audio hardware for some reason.
Because it's not short lived, it has a niche use. Basically its meant for receptor devices, whereas A is for host devices
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Honestly, it’s oddly satisfying how universal those symbols are. You don’t need words—everyone just gets it.
I think the people getting this are in a strong minority. Most people don't know that the archetypical USB port is called USB-A, and most people don't even interact with USB-B at all
Most people don't know that the archetypical USB port is called USB-A, and most people don't even interact with USB-B at all
Perhaps most people on the street. I would wager the average citizens understanding of, idk, Star Trek, Linux and also USB-ports is a smidgeon lower than the average Lemmings understanding of them, on average.
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That took me a hot second, but I love that!
The average person I know thinks of USB-B as "that squarish one." The existence of the differently shaped USB-B 3.0 doesn't help with this. Micro USB 3.0 also really throws people for a loop.
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Why doesn't it at least have USB-A 3.0? One of those ports needs to be blue.
Is that the "thin blue line" I keep hearing about?
That's genius, im stealing this!
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I can't be the only one who thought that this was a cute lil' guy flipping his middle finger right?
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