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New videos and photo of purported reversible Apple USB to Lightning iPhone 6 cable

We raised the possibility yesterday of the iPhone 6 including a redesigned USB to Lightning cable that allows the USB end of the cord to be inserted into a USB port in either direction. In other words, like the Lightning connector, the next Apple USB cable could be reversible. Leaks of the purported cables have been flowing quickly out of Asia-based areas surrounding the Apple supply chain, and now Sonny Dickson has shared a video of the cable in action. While the video does not show the iPhone actually syncing with the new USB cord, the video does show the cable being inserted in both directions into a standard USB port. This lines up with a recent Apple patent, which is for a USB connector that can be inserted in either direction into currently existing USB hubs.

You can watch the videos and see the new photo below:

Update: Dickson exclusively sent us a pair of photos showing the charger functioning in both directions:

usbphoto

Update 2: We’ve been sent a much better video of the cable in action. This video shows the charger functioning with the iPhone in both directions:

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Comments

  1. Taste_of_Apple - 10 years ago

    This would be pretty great…as long as they are sturdy enough.

  2. That box looks fake as hell. The kerning of the letters are way spaced out to be an official product.

  3. MaRico NoHands Spikes - 10 years ago

    Sounds good and all but I want more

  4. Jamie Lunn - 10 years ago

    Well, clearly a fake box…

  5. Give it to me now.

  6. Avenged110 - 10 years ago

    It’s really sad that it took them this long to implement it. But not as sad as me going out and buying several to replace my perfectly good lightning to USB cables I already have.

    • WaveMedia (@WaveMedia) - 10 years ago

      What’s really sad is it took Apple to do this (assuming it’s real) rather than the USB group as a whole.

      • chipsy86 - 10 years ago

        Well it didn’t really take Apple to do this. There are already reversible USB type-a connectors out there. It’s just not the standard. Tripp Lite has this f.e.. Just Google Tripp Lite reversible USB, and you’ll see it looks like these connectors Apple is going to launch.

  7. yepperoni - 10 years ago

    I’m calling fake on this one. There’s been a lot of fake hardware floating around. The box it came out of is using Charcoal as the font with no Apple logo on it. Yes, Charcoal, the font used back in Mac OS 8/9 over a decade ago. Not Lucida Grande or Helvetica Neue. There is no proper barcode label with model number on the bottom like all Apple accessories do.

    And anybody keeping up with tech should know that the official USB-IF has finalized the USB 3.1 spec with reversible connector, and it looks nothing like this.

    http://www.anandtech.com/show/8377/usb-typec-connector-specifications-finalized

    For it to be called “USB”, it can’t have a weird implementation like this. Same thing with HDMI adapter-cables a while ago.

  8. If this is all released to the public, I’m all for it! And if it supports USB 3.0 (which I doubt), that would be an awesome upgrade! Then again, how many people sync their iOS devices with their computer. I hardly do myself.

    • lycius84 - 10 years ago

      I do as I’ve found wireless sync to be a slow process. Hopefully adding and utilizing 802.11 ac would improve this for people that have already adopted the technology. I wish they would go USB 3.0 but this may never happen.

  9. James Hopkins - 10 years ago

    So Apple – I hope this new reversible connector is USB 3.0?

    USB 2.0 is very 2000, USB 3.0 was released, what 6 years ago and USB 3.1 has already been press released. The reversibility, while good, does not achieve any benefit beyond the two seconds it takes to flip the connector over if you luck out on the 50/50 chance of having it the right way up. To really save time we need something that operates a bit (lot) faster than the lousy 32MB/s (at best) that the 14 year old USB 2.0 standard provides. I love apple innovation on speed, thunderbolt is great, on board SSD’s are lighting fast, but PLEASE keep up with the times with USB.

  10. Jani Rajamaki (@raitti) - 10 years ago

    Looks like that thing’s gonna break more often than a regular b-boy.

  11. andreww500 - 10 years ago

    Fake… They just pull one cable out with the symbol on it and plug a different one in without it.

    • This.

      The cable leaves the frame in each video… Probably an entirely different cable is plugged back in. Hollywood movie magic!

    • jrox16 - 10 years ago

      Agreed this is suspect because it was real, why wouldn’t Apple put the symbol on both sides? Would seem very un-Apple to leave one side blank if it was truly reversible.

  12. Pierre Calixte - 10 years ago

    I question the durability of a product like that.