John T
macrumors 68020
As has already been said, the result if kinking, excess bending etc etc.
Agreed! 5 volts can be very dangerous! 😉
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Lightning sucks
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As has already been said, the result if kinking, excess bending etc etc.
Agreed! 5 volts can be very dangerous! 😉
I'm honestly surprised by the amount of people coming to the defense of the apple cables. They are garbage compared to your average USB to micro USB cable that comes with a droid. The micro USB cables are thick and stiff (giggady) and durable and literally last a lifetime. The apple cables last a couple years MAX. Luckily 3rd party companies make durable apple cables.
Slightly fragile
I like the Lightning connector. Doesn't feel like I will break the port on the iPad by fumbling continually; might break the cable tab, but not the slot on the iPad. This is better than phone and tablet chargers with those tiny USB plugs - there are a certain number of those charging ports that get mangled by users and result in a costly repair or even an unusable device. On the other hand, the Apple cables have never impressed me with their cable to connector design or their strain relief. Modern lamp cords long ago solved the problem of "pulling out by the cord instead of by the housing," yet Apple can't do a cable wrapper that extends over the plastic housing for the connector to solve that problem here? Yes, they need a little design tweaking. Until then I'll just be careful, but it's hard to get my kids to be careful too.
I like the Lightning connector. Doesn't feel like I will break the port on the iPad by fumbling continually; might break the cable tab, but not the slot on the iPad. This is better than phone and tablet chargers with those tiny USB plugs - there are a certain number of those charging ports that get mangled by users and result in a costly repair or even an unusable device. On the other hand, the Apple cables have never impressed me with their cable to connector design or their strain relief. Modern lamp cords long ago solved the problem of "pulling out by the cord instead of by the housing," yet Apple can't do a cable wrapper that extends over the plastic housing for the connector to solve that problem here? Yes, they need a little design tweaking. Until then I'll just be careful, but it's hard to get my kids to be careful too.
That's not accurate. There were no off the shelf materials for this cable. This is why Apple has several thousand hardware and chip engineers. They do design and hand it off to manufacturing. Same with many desktop and laptops components such as the motherboard and some chipsets.
I don't know what the complaint about Apple cable durability is about. I've never had these issues and am only somewhat careful with cables..
I don't know what the complaint about Apple cable durability is about. I've never had these issues and am only somewhat careful with cables..
I used to work at Motorola and can guarantee you that many people are not happy with the quality of pack in Micro USB cables.
Droid btw is the name for only a specific number of Android devices.
Many Android devices are shipped with low quality Micro USB cables.
Also Micro-USB does a lot less than a Lightning cable in terms of audio and data and especially charging. Try charging an iPad with a Micro USB cable. It would take a very long time.
This is why so many Android tablets have proprietary chargers or special non standard micro usb cables for charging.
Here is a good explanation of why lightning is superior to usb.
http://brockerhoff.net/blog/2012/09/13/boom-2/
Monoprice has lower cost lightning cables if cost is a concern.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?keyword=lightning+cables
So does Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-...id=1363805665&sr=8-2&keywords=lightning+cable
Droid btw is the name for only a specific number of Android devices.
Many Android devices are shipped with low quality Micro USB cables.
Also Micro-USB does a lot less than a Lightning cable in terms of audio and data and especially charging. Try charging an iPad with a Micro USB cable. It would take a very long time.
This is why so many Android tablets have proprietary chargers or special non standard micro usb cables for charging.
Here is a good explanation of why lightning is superior to usb.
http://brockerhoff.net/blog/2012/09/13/boom-2/
Monoprice has lower cost lightning cables if cost is a concern.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?keyword=lightning+cables
So does Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-...id=1363805665&sr=8-2&keywords=lightning+cable
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Do these cable sync as well as charge? I know there was an issue with apple having solo control over the chip inside the lighting cable, but never did catch if they released this control to third party's for resale.
I wish apple or amazon basics had 6ft cables available, looks like ill have to go with monoprice since they are the only reputable game in town for longer cables.
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lucasfer899
macrumors 6502
Plutonius
macrumors G4
lucasfer899
macrumors 6502
Nothing wrong with either mine or my wives cables, and she's known not to take care of her cables
John T
macrumors 68020
Absolutely! You should have ended your last sentence with ... "using "off the shelf materials"". 🙂
Minhimalism
macrumors 6502a
i put electric tape around the parts that usually rip on my main cable and then it stays fresh forever and doesn't ever rip!
I always have issues with the iPhone cables, the ones from apple and third party cables. I know it's my fault, mostly because I use the phone while it's charging so it bends it at a weird angle.
Still doesn't change the fact that it's annoying though =)
I bought my iPhone 5 exactly three weeks ago and this is what the cable looks like already lol and this cable is only used by my bed. It's never unplugged, rolled up, taken anywhere. It stays plugged into the wall in one spot and charges my phone every night. This is after only three weeks of use! I do feel like the lightning cables are made cheaper and aren't near as sturdy as the 30 pin cables. I don't see this cable lasting me more than another month tops. I've already bought five more cables on amazon though, for $5 a piece so I can't complain. A heck of a lot cheaper than the OEM apple cables.
Still doesn't change the fact that it's annoying though =)
I bought my iPhone 5 exactly three weeks ago and this is what the cable looks like already lol and this cable is only used by my bed. It's never unplugged, rolled up, taken anywhere. It stays plugged into the wall in one spot and charges my phone every night. This is after only three weeks of use! I do feel like the lightning cables are made cheaper and aren't near as sturdy as the 30 pin cables. I don't see this cable lasting me more than another month tops. I've already bought five more cables on amazon though, for $5 a piece so I can't complain. A heck of a lot cheaper than the OEM apple cables.
The-Real-Deal82
macrumors P6
I've had my iPhone for over 5 months. It's plugged in by my bed every night and the cable travels with me on business often which means its carefully packed into suitcases. It has not been bent, pulled, twisted, etc.
Seeing and reading some of the complaints and examples here just demonstrate how careless some people are. Oh look I've bent my cable in half and its all Apples fault! You couldn't write a funnier script! We seem to have evolved into a race where if there's blame, there's a claim and we are unable to take responsibility for our own stupidity. 🙂
Seeing and reading some of the complaints and examples here just demonstrate how careless some people are. Oh look I've bent my cable in half and its all Apples fault! You couldn't write a funnier script! We seem to have evolved into a race where if there's blame, there's a claim and we are unable to take responsibility for our own stupidity. 🙂
Jadenfire
macrumors newbie
Hmm lightning cord my issue too....
I bought a iPad Mini this January and my cable went bad March 15th had problems charging. cord needed to be in a certain spot it didn't do that before. By Sunday it refused to charge my device or sync to my computer. Monday a call went to Apple for a replacement part. they put a charge hold on credit card and said it would arrive today (Friday). For one thing since I bought the mini the cord always would flop down by the neck had the issues just like fizz7283's pic. even day one when I plugged it in. the whole cord was floppy it just didn't seem right for it to be like that. so its not my wear in tear. the cord stays in one spot never gets forcefully bent, coiled or yanked. Well the new cord arrived today (Friday) and me and my mother compared the 2 cords. The default one that came with the iPad Mini and Apples replacement and oddly the replacement is more durable and stronger and not flimsy or floppy at all. Weird thing is the wire is made of like hard plastic I really can't describe it too well its definitely different. The default is made of a flimsy soft rubber and is really floppy... Apple did state that they were trying to resolve the issues with the lightning cables, so mabye the issue was resolved? It's just strange on how the 2 cord wires can be made of 2 different materials and both came from Apple themselves... Anyone notice this yet? Im a newbie yes I've been on search for a forum about this and I'm happy I found this topic. though its hard as heck to do this on mobile chrome I can't stylize anything word wise I've included a pic of the new cord the old is shipped and sorry for bad quality there's poor lighting in here....
I bought a iPad Mini this January and my cable went bad March 15th had problems charging. cord needed to be in a certain spot it didn't do that before. By Sunday it refused to charge my device or sync to my computer. Monday a call went to Apple for a replacement part. they put a charge hold on credit card and said it would arrive today (Friday). For one thing since I bought the mini the cord always would flop down by the neck had the issues just like fizz7283's pic. even day one when I plugged it in. the whole cord was floppy it just didn't seem right for it to be like that. so its not my wear in tear. the cord stays in one spot never gets forcefully bent, coiled or yanked. Well the new cord arrived today (Friday) and me and my mother compared the 2 cords. The default one that came with the iPad Mini and Apples replacement and oddly the replacement is more durable and stronger and not flimsy or floppy at all. Weird thing is the wire is made of like hard plastic I really can't describe it too well its definitely different. The default is made of a flimsy soft rubber and is really floppy... Apple did state that they were trying to resolve the issues with the lightning cables, so mabye the issue was resolved? It's just strange on how the 2 cord wires can be made of 2 different materials and both came from Apple themselves... Anyone notice this yet? Im a newbie yes I've been on search for a forum about this and I'm happy I found this topic. though its hard as heck to do this on mobile chrome I can't stylize anything word wise I've included a pic of the new cord the old is shipped and sorry for bad quality there's poor lighting in here....Attachments
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Issue with lighting is no analog out video which was one of the great things about the 30 pin. Too bad they didn't work that into the lighting. Now all we have is digital out which works, but not for all applications.
OSxiPro
macrumors member
People moan at apple for not moving along with consumer technology and when they make a great jump with the cables people moan. I can see why apple stick to the same boring OS and barely upgrade hardware or come up with anything majorly new now. Analogue is ancient technology for consumers.
It's like moaning at why we now have to buy dual or quad core CPU when making a computer when single core CPUs were good and were better at getting higher clocks than multicore systems. The duals and quads are much better but people still hide behind better clocking instead of upgrading and that is how I would describe this cable debate - useless. The 30pin needed to be obsolete 3 years ago.
VulchR
macrumors 68040
Apple should open up the Lightning standard and use it as a replacement for USB. I'm really tired of try to figure out which way to flip my USB memory stick when I cannot see the back of the computer I am working with. The standard USB plugs are far worse for usability than Lightning.
sjinsjca
macrumors 68020
Haven't heard back 😎
But there was one occasion when Apple was being intransigent about something and I wrote to Steve Jobs expressing my opinion and, more importantly, advancing a solution. Didn't hear back, but a few weeks later the company changed its policy to mirror what I'd suggested. Maybe they listened? ...On the off chance the answer is yes, seems there's no harm in writing concise, direct and actionable feedback to the CEO's account.
Jobs was famous for responding to e-mails. And I totally agree. Can't hurt to try.