Strange USB Micro Male Plug

[brucewol]

I ordered a std USB Type A female to USB Micro male converter from eBay China. Probably didn't look close enough at the photo. But it looks like it has 2 USB micro males side by side. Looking at wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB at the host and device interface receptacles it looks like the male plugs are a micro-a and a micro b alongside one another. I'm looking for something that I can plug into my smartphone, tablet, etc which takes what longs like a trapezoid plug what I thought was the only usb micro plug. Can I just cut off the rectangular type a micro. Don't want to experiment with my smart phone?

 

[brucewol]

Okay, after more research I found out what the plug is. For USB 3.0, the micro USB plug has 2 connenctors - a USB 2.0 portion that looks like the charging port of most smart phones and a USB 3.0 portion that is about the same size but rectangular. Ends up being just as wide as the std type A USB plug but thinner which is important for cell phone plug real estate. But a ugly looking plug. Not many devices have them yet, The Galaxy S3 is one. For USB 3.0, use the ugly plug in the S3. You can use you old style USB 2.0 plugs in the S3 by just using the 2.0 portion of the socket. Maybe later there will be micro plugs that are just USB 3.0 as it becomes more common but you wouldn't be able to use any of your USB 2.0 stuff.

 

[hang-the-9]

Sounds like you just ordered a USB3 cable instead of a 2. The extra connector is because the USB3 cables have more pins than the USB2 ones. You can't plug in a micro B USB3 into a USB2 connection.