Newly leaked photos appear to give credence to the suggestion that Apple is set to revise its Lightning cable, at least the USB end of it.
USB has been a huge success since its introduction in the late 1990s having immediately simplified the cabling problem facing computer users. Nowadays though it’s beginning to look a little long in the tooth, which is why USB 3.0 is so important. Apple’s Lightning cables don’t take advantage of the new USB standard yet, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t well aware of one particular USB irritation: orientation.
We’ve all suffered from the problem that sees us all try and insert a USB cable at least twice before managing what should be a simple operation, and while Apple fixed part of the problem with the reversible Lightning connector, the other end of that cable is still a good old USB plug. We’d quite like that to go away, and now even more photos have surfaced which appear to show that Apple is of the same opinion.
While it is not clear yet that the cable is of USB 3.0 variety or good old 2.0, the new cable has its connector mounted to the middle of the USB housing rather than its top or bottom, depending on how you’re looking at it. That should, in theory at least, allow the cable to be plugged into a computer or charging brick with any orientation, completely doing away with the soul-sapping debacle that seems to come with every USB insertion.
It’s unclear exactly what Apple is aiming for here, assuming it’s simply not trying to do away with the orientation problem. Leaked photos have shown the new cable before now, but the newly released photos come from notorious iOS leaker Sonny Dickson which, in our opinion at least, adds some important credibility.
With the iPhone 6 and new iPads due within a matter of weeks, we may well see this new Lightning cable make its debut soon enough.
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