Why your USB gadgets are running slow and how to fix them

It’s good to take a step back and recognize how significant the original version of USB was. Prior to its arrival, computers were often a confusing mess of ports, such as serial and parallel connections, or extremely niche variants like Apple Desktop Bus. While it took a few years for USB to become the norm — heavily propelled by the popularity of the iMac — there was no going back, except perhaps in circumstances where there was literally no choice. For a while, there was no way USB could compete with standards like HDMI or FireWire.