Cable Bag Update

The cable bag has been shrinking and this is thanks to the progress in standardization of connectivity and power supply options. Namely: the single Type-C connector (including Thunderbolt, USB 2/3 and Power Delivery) to rule them all. USB has had a fascinating ride for the last 25 years and has probably been my favorite connectivity technology (alongside Bluetooth of course :).

So here is my cable bag, the H2/2021 edition. May items may actually be considered quite old, but the bottom line is USB-C has been working for me extremely well. And the world is catching up.

  1. RAVPower PD Pioneer power supply. 2 ports / 90W / half the size of the genuine Apple brick. This one is quite old but you can find several similar ones today.
  2. Generic EU (and UK if you know how to use it) wall socket adapter.
  3. JCPAL 1.5m (6ft) USB-C power and data cable. This one stands out, as it is rated at 100W (5A) power AND does USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 data transfers, while still being sturdy and flexible. And also has a nice angled connector on one side. Not many cables can do all that. Again this particular one is no longer available, but just search for "100W USB-C data cable", like this one.
  4. 1m (3ft) USB-C power cable. Even more flexible, but the data part is "only" USB-2. But it is a good balance to use occasionally for simultaneous charging of a second device.
  5. SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD, 4TB. My primary backup device. Super small and super fast. My weekly incremental backup takes about 20 seconds end-to-end, so no excuses of doing that. Just remember to have it encrypted - for Windows the standard BitLocker works great.
  6. Dockcase short super flexible and flat C-C cable. I use it for data transfer to the SanDisk as well as when connecting an iPad as a secondary screen when on the road. Again, an alternative available today.
  7. Legacy cables, to occasionally charge lightning or micro-USB devices. In my case these are AirPods and the Logitech Mouse.
  8. Plug adapters, from top:
    • Legacy USB-A (just in case. I no longer have a USB-A accessory, but still find it frequent people asking if I have an adapter lik this one to lend).
    • Female C-C adapter. This is actually a new addition and I find it handy to combine two USB-C cables into a longer one. Often in some casual spots a charging socket is quite far away, so combining two cables solves this issue).
    • USB-C to Garmin adapter. Replaces my originally hand-crafted one.
  9. Jabra Bluetooth adapter. This one brings me mixed feelings. It solves a problem that should not exist: connecting an audio conferencing speaker or headset to a computer over Bluetooth. The problem is the Bluetooth implementation on Windows (and MacOS too) which has some performance problems preventing good audio quality (and especially good echo cancelation). The Jabra dongle is a workaround - it contains its own Bluetooth stack which performs great. 
I believe you will find some of the above suggestions useful!

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