Even if you've only got a few technological devices, you've probably got a rat's nest of cables strewn around your home: power cables, USB cables, monitor cables, and so on. But someday in the not-too-distant future, you may finally be able to get rid of a bunch of the cables crammed into your desk drawer, thanks to the new USB Type-C standard that's starting to make its way to market.

No, USB Type-C won't vaporize those old cables into oblivion, but it will end up eventually replacing what many of them can do. Right now your laptop has separate ports for power, video, and USB, but USB Type-C can actually handle all three of those over a single cable at the same time. Google's latest Chromebook Pixel has USB Type-C ports alongside traditional USB ports, while Apple's new MacBook has a USB Type-C port as its only port (aside from a standard headphone jack).