Lightning Cables

Most iPhone users are probably using Lightning to USB-A cables for charging and data transfer, especially since that's what iPhones and iPads currently ship with. The USB landscape right now is a confusing mess of several different specifications and protocols, but that will all be cleared up with the arrival of USB4, probably in late 2020. Whereas USB 3.2 uses incorporates both USB-A and USB-C connectors, USB4 will move completely to USB-C. If this is already confusing, it is only the tip of the iceberg.

Charging bricks disappear. Often. Kids lose them, suitcases and hotel rooms eat them, your co-workers steal them. The cheap replacements you buy at the gas station on the way home break after a few weeks and charge at a glacial pace.

And Lightning cables? Mostly the same story. Unless they wear out before they have time to disappear. Third-party replacements never seem to last long. They break, the jackets slip off the port adapters, or they just stop working. Even the authentic Apple brand cables have a bad habit of failing right where the cable meets the Lightning adapter.