charlesb88

Hap said:

You're right. I missed that Apple called them USB4 above. I think was is somewhat deceiving about them though is that they don't support a lot of USB4 speeds - only 10Gb/s and not the 20Gb/s or 40Gb/s. Note I'm talking about USB speeds and not TB speeds.

Would be nice if they actually said it support DisplayPort 2.0 which is part of the USB4 spec as well.

What some people are missing here is that the USB4 Spec is not just about speed (unlike the transition say from USB1 to USB2, for example, which was all about a major speed bump), and as such USB4 includes all sorts of other aspects to the spec beyond speed as well with many optional aspects that a controller or device may optionally support, much like USB-C. Thus the spec allows controller manufacturers (such as Apple) and device manufacturers to state they support USB4 without needing to provide support for all USB4 speeds possible (that's speed on the USB bus, not TB). So like USB-C and while this may be confusing for customers, it is not technically deceiving since it relies on a misunderstanding of what the  USB4 spec is. As such, with USB4 you'll have to reads the specs carefully to see just what the max USB speed any USB 4 computer or device is capable of, if USB speed is your concern. Everyone concerned about this should read the USB 4 spec to see just what is required to be implemented to be USB 4 complaint and what is not so that you know what you can assume with USB4 and what you cannot (because it's optional). This is the approach we have to use with USB-C since any USB-C port may or may not support all features USB-C is capable and as such not all USB 4 ports support charging, thunderbolt, or DisplayPort, for example. You can complain about how the USB spec authors wrote the spec with too many optional aspects while not making sure there was a adequate labeling scheme  to clarify what any particular USB4 port/device supports. HDMI allready has decent labeling system that better explains to consumers what features/option any particular HDMI port/Device device supports so there is no reason USB4 can't do the something similar.