Why the hell are these things so short?

Its probably meant for a portable external HDD, and keeping the cable short means that people can't place the drive far away from their laptop, forget about it, and then have it go flying across the room when they pick up their laptop and move it.

Alternatively because of cost savings.

2 way road it generates heat on smaller end, the longer the cable.

>>57290068
I have a laptop and use it in small spaces so it's really a pain not having a longer cable to move it somewhere (like on the floor).

>>57290046
they actually come in a variety of lengths.
shop around, dipshit.

because it's for a portable hard drive, which should be close to the laptop i the first place.

why the hell are you trying to keep it so far from the host device?

>>57290085
That might be convenient for you but not so much for Western Digital which probably gets thousands of RMAs because of stupid decisions like that.

>>57290088
All I know is when I tried to transfer large files to a ruizu mp3 player, with a 5 foot usb 2.0 cable the transfer failed after a while and the device became hot, with the 6 inch cable it was quick and the device was cool. Have you ever tried extending a usb game controller's cord? The longer you make it there eventually is a noticeable lag and delay in input.

>>57290095
The USB 3.0 standard actually reduces wifi speeds because of the frequencies emitted from the cable ends. It's best to keep it away if you want good wifi speeds.

>>57290115
I have found shorter cables are best for hard drives but controllers generally you can have a meter cable and be fine.

>>57290133
Also the longer USB cable doesn't work with my hard drive enclosure for some reason but works with the controller.

>>57290133
I did an inline splice on the cord, it's probably like 8-10 feet.

>>57290095
I don't have a desk. So the hard drive can get knocked easily when it's placed on something near the laptop.

>>57290156
Velcro it to the back of your laptop

>>57290085
Buy one yourself

>>57290046
Shorter distance for your gigabytes to travel. Why do you think USB3 is so fast?

>>57290046
Just buy a charger for a galaxy s5. Its the same cable and its longer