Distinguishing Different Kinds of Cables and Connectors

Anthony Tyler
2 min readDec 15, 2015

Wireless world is the dream of the future. There will come a time when we can finally go on our daily activities without being wasting time dismantling tangled wires and connectors. Everything will soon be digitally connected.

In the meantime, while we are not into that phase of technology yet, we can only hold our complaints in and lengthen our patience in handling the bowl of spaghetti behind and around our personal computers and laptops. Perhaps, acquainting ourselves with their names and functions can help.

1. USB Cables

Who does not know a USB connector when he sees one? I bet everyone knows the basic function of a USB connector, or as many refer to it, Flash Drive cable. This is probably one of the biggest achievements of technology. The Universal Serial Bus (USB) connectors are being used for different kinds of things including but not limiting to sharing media files, operate mouse and keyboards and access other hard storage devices.

USB cables have two ends. The other end we call USB-A is a standard rectangular connector which goes into the USB port of your computer or laptop. On the other hand, the other end of the USB cable, USB-B comes in different shapes and sizes depending on the use and compatibility to the device where you will be using it. Some have square connector commonly used with printers, external hard drives, and larger devices while others are smaller connectors such as the Mini-USB and Micro-USB that are commonly used with portable devices such as media players and phones.

2. Audio Cables

From the term itself, these cables are used to connect and listen to music or for personal listening purposes. The most common audio cord is the headset jack. This is also available in different sizes but the most common ones are the 35mm cable.

Most speakers and microphones can connect to the computer with these audio cables. The microphone port on your computer is usually pink while the speaker port, where you insert the stereo audio cable, is colored green. Please be advised of the warning that wearing your headset for a long time can harm your ears.

3. Video Cables

Video cables include the most common Visual Graphics Array (VGA), DVI (Digital Visual Interface) for old computers, S-Video or other known as separate videos which are used to connect camcorders or DVDs to the computer.

About the Peterson Group

The Peterson Group is a distributor of mobile phone accessories and laptop peripherals in South East Asia. Aside from Taiwan where it is currently based, TPG holds port in Jakarta, Indonesia and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Please visit the site for more information.

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