Lightning USB Cables

dirtychinchilla · 2 Sep 2013 at 11:02

Well I've just ordered one that cost £2.25, so hopefully it'll work. In my experience they're fine for a few weeks, and then just clap out.

TriedandTested · 2 Sep 2013 at 11:10

Bookmark this just in case: http://www.apple.com/uk/support/usbadapter-takeback/

dirtychinchilla · 2 Sep 2013 at 11:30

That's great, thanks. I'd rather return the crap one and pay £8 for a new one than just end up with a mediocre one.

DJMK4 · 2 Sep 2013 at 11:44

dirtychinchilla said:
Well I've just ordered one that cost £2.25, so hopefully it'll work. In my experience they're fine for a few weeks, and then just clap out.

The cheapo £2 cables on eBay, guaranteed to break very very easy

joeyjojo · 2 Sep 2013 at 12:05

bitslice said:
The connector's not the issue, it is the fact it's proprietary.

Indeed, they could have just used the micro-USB standard like every other tech company.

The cables are probably expensive to cover the cost of buying the "Lightning" trademark from Harley Davidson (look it up on wikipedia!).

Quint · 2 Sep 2013 at 12:20

Sync via wifi and just use cable to charge, problem solved.

dirtychinchilla · 2 Sep 2013 at 12:23

What do I do in my car, then?!

Quint · 2 Sep 2013 at 12:24

Ah yeah, headphone jack or keep original in car and use the new one's in house to charge.

dirtychinchilla · 2 Sep 2013 at 12:26

That's looking likely. I took the genuine one in the car and it seems to be working perfectly, though, no doubt if I give it some time it'll **** up too.

Quint · 2 Sep 2013 at 13:09

I bought 2 from poundland, not tried syncing them but they charge fine.

Tbid · 2 Sep 2013 at 13:11

I purchased an amazon basics one for under £10, it works fine both charging and syncing.

dirtychinchilla · 2 Sep 2013 at 13:18

They're up to £11.99 now!

oceaness · 2 Sep 2013 at 14:25

I think really this comes down to the fact that you get what you pay for, as with everything in life.

I bought a second genuine Apple cable (£15) for my car from an actual brick and mortar Apple shop :eek:

, well, glass and aluminium technically (it seems that's not the done thing any more

). Both the original one that came with my iPhone 5 and the extra one I bought are still working perfectly after nearly a year of abuse. I'm not the most careful person either when it comes to unplugging them, I tend to pull on the cable rather than the plastic bit and sometimes I even kick the cable out of the phone as I stumble out of bed at 6 am lol.

Edit: On the topic of the chip, I believe it serves two purposes.
Firstly, the obvious one of allowing Apple to dictate who can manufacture accessories for their phones.
Secondly I believe it has the ability to reassign the pins based the connected accessory, as we've moved from a 30 pin connector to a 8 pin connector?