Accessory makers in Apple’s Made-for-iPhone/iPad/iPod (MFi) licensing program now have the ability to create new types of products as the company adds specs for a Lightning to 3.5mm output cable and USB-C ports. The new specs were detailed in Apple’s recently updated materials for manufacturers in the MFi program, according to sources.
Two weeks ago, 9to5Toys introduced you to a unique Apple accessory that will likely help a ton of you with one of the biggest issues we iPhone users experience: the dead battery. We’ve seen tons of small MFi keychain chargers and tiny USB battery packs but this is the first time, to my knowledge, that a battery is actually included into a Apple Certified MFi cable.
This week, I took the $16 (after code JCRJEWEL) Jackery Jewel for a spin.
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4K Smart UHDTVs: Samsung 48-inch 60Hz $500 (Reg. $700+), LG 55-inch 120Hz $698 (Reg. $800+), more
Host a Christmas party that doesn’t suck with these rowdy adult board games
With thousands of generic battery packs now on the market, it takes something special to make a new option stand out, and Nomad’s new Wallet for iPhone certainly succeeds. Shaped like a standard bifold wallet, the Wallet hides a 2,400mAh battery pack in its spine, as well as a 3″ Made for iPhone-certified Lightning cable.
Nomad notes that the goal was to produce a wallet that wasn’t any thicker than what “guys are already sitting on.” Made from Saffiano leather and measuring 4.7″ by 3.5″ by 0.75″ when closed, Wallet can hold six cards and a bunch of cash, in addition to providing at least a full recharge for pre-iPhone 6 models of the iPhone, and around 100% for the just-released iPhone 6s. Wallet for iPhone is available for preorder now for $79, and shipping on November 16; the price will go up to $99 for all orders placed after November 15. A gallery of images is below…
Less than two years after they each went into service, only one of the three Lightning cables pictured above is actually working properly. It’s not the big Belkin cable on the left, which is visibly pretty wrecked, or the thick, no-name 6-foot cable on the right, which looks fine on the surface but can’t properly supply power to a connected device. The one that works without problems is, amazingly, Apple’s official Lightning cable — the one that has been pilloried by numerous dissatisfied users, notably including our own Zac Hall, for coming apart after months or years of use.
These complaints aren’t without merit: even Apple-authorized Lightning cables do break, which is particularly infuriating given how expensive they tend to be. But there’s a lot of bad information about Lightning cables floating around right now, and having spent a lot of time using them and reading user complaints, I wanted to help people avoid some of their preventable failures. Taking a few precautions can save you a $10 to $20 replacement cost, as well as wasted time and stress…
Lightning cables and battery packs are often so similar that I rarely have a strong preference for “nicer” alternatives over basic ones. But Nomad has been working to change that by creating practical charging accessories that you’ll actually want to carry around everywhere. Last year, it debuted the NomadKey ($25), which places a Lightning to USB cable on your keychain, as well as NomadPlus ($40), an iPhone battery pack that combines with Apple’s 5W USB Power Adapter to become an 1800mAh “anywhere” recharger.
Now it’s shipping the NomadClip ($40), which combines a super-sturdy carabiner clip with a Lightning cable. I’ll walk you through all three accessories below in this combined review.
USB wall chargers are commodities, churned out by anonymous factories and sold for low prices everywhere around the world. But chargers that are both safe and fast enough to use with Apple’s products are less common, particularly when they are capable of charging more than one device at a time. RAVPower’s Dual 2.4A USB Wall Charger ($50, currently $13), Bolt 4-Port Desktop USB Charger ($70, currently $17), and Bolt 6-Port Desktop USB Charger ($70, currently $27) have such low street prices that they seem too good to be true. But they’re all great chargers, and worked well with the large collections of iPhones and iPads we tested.
Following the USB power adapter redesign rumors, we’ve now received word that Apple’s new reversible Lightning to USB cable may not be ready in time to ship with the iPhone 6. According to third-party Apple retailer Moca.co, Apple has yet to place orders for the reversible cable from its manufacturing partner…
When you think about easily damaged Apple products, a smashed iPhone display with a screen like a spider web probably first comes to mind. While I’ve never cracked my own iPhone screen in my four years of carrying one virtually everywhere and mostly without a case, I have had to replace the charging cable required to keep the iPhone juiced up more than enough times.
The classic 30-pin cable used on the iPhone 4s and prior certainly wasn’t the most durable cable I’ve ever owned, but the Lightning cable introduced alongside the iPhone 5 in 2012 has proved one of the least forgiving accessories I’ve ever needed to use, and that’s despite Apple SVP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller touting Lightning’s “improved durability” when he introduced it.
You may not have the same experience, but there’s even a Tumblr dedicated to venting over broken Lightning cables, and that just shouldn’t be the case.
We’ve learned Apple has quietly introduced a new specification for manufacturers in its Made-For-iPhone/iPad/iPod (MFi) program that allows them to create headphones that connect to iOS devices using a Lightning connector instead of the usual 3.5mm headphone jack. Apple has not flipped the switch on the audio input support for Lightning cables and existing iOS devices, but it will release a software update in the future that will enable support in devices running iOS 7.1 or later.
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Following Apple’s official announcement of CarPlay this morning, Volvo has now officially announced its partnership with the company and provided some details on its first vehicles to get the feature.
Volvo Cars enhances Apple’s capabilities by linking them to a specially-developed interface that allows drivers to use voice and steering wheel controls to access Apple features and services, ensuring the entire interaction is always safe and easy to use.
CarPlay, previously known as iOS in the Car, makes features from iOS available via a vehicle’s in car touch display through a familiar iOS-like interface. Volvo announced that its all new XC90 SUV coming in 2014 will be its first with access to CarPlay.
It also sounds like Volvo will have some features exclusive to its vehicles, such as the Volvo Cars’ portrait screen that “gives users the benefit of having both Volvo Cars and Apple content co-existing simultaneously, removing the need to switch between a dedicated car and iPhone screen.” It does note, however, that the feature will initially require a connection with a Lightning cable and that Wi-Fi connections are “coming in the near future.”
“iPhone users will feel completely at home in a new Volvo. We have created a wholly-integrated user experience in our large portrait-oriented touch screen that takes the in-car mobile device experience to a new level. That, coupled with the obvious driver safety benefits of an advanced voice control system like Siri, made Apple a perfect match for Volvo,” says Håkan Samuelsson.
From 9to5Toys.com:
A large majority of the deals we cover each day come from a variety of ‘Daily Deal’ websites or are so popular that they don’t even last 24 hours. We know you can’t be at your computer every second, so we’re going to round up the best deals each day to make sure you have a fair shot at the deals you want. Be sure to follow 9to5Toys.com so you never miss a deal... Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+.
Today’s featured deals:
Other great deals from today:
The Google Chromecast is finally back in stock at Amazon. Pick it up for $35 with free shipping. http://t.co/HkNN1lCPRh
— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) September 18, 2013
The best deals that are still alive:
New product announcements & reviews:
From 9to5Toys.com:
A large majority of the deals we cover each day come from a variety of ‘Daily Deal’ websites or are so popular that they don’t even last 24 hours. We know you can’t be at your computer every second, so we’re going to round up the best deals each day to make sure you have a fair shot at the deals you want. Be sure to follow 9to5Toys.com so you never miss a deal... Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+.
Other great deals from today:
The Google Chromecast is finally back in stock at Amazon. Pick it up for $35 with free shipping. http://t.co/HkNN1lCPRh
— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) September 18, 2013
The best deals that are still alive:
New product announcements & reviews:
As we suspected when Apple added a warning to a pre-release version of iOS 7 that non-certified cables may not work reliably with iPhones, the launch version is actually blocking some of them from charging the phone. Certified cables contain a chip that allows them to authenticate.
We first spotted this in a Reddit post, and have since confirmed. The warning message itself is unchanged, but it’s no longer an empty threat – though as seen in comments, some non-certified cables are still working. Possibly ones that use cracked chips. The good news is that there is a workaround for others, but it’s not pretty …
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From 9to5Toys.com:
A large majority of the deals we cover each day come from a variety of ‘Daily Deal’ websites or are so popular that they don’t even last 24 hours. We know you can’t be at your computer every second, so we’re going to round up the best deals each day to make sure you have a fair shot at the deals you want. Be sure to follow 9to5Toys.com so you never miss a deal... Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+
Today’s Featured deals:
Canon announces the new EOS 70D Digital SLR camera, aims to replace your current camcorder… http://t.co/aHlBADzy0a
— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) July 2, 2013
Pre-ordering begins for the 32-inch Asus IGZO 4K UHD display: ASUS, a worldwide leader in… http://t.co/2S5pvYqkzn
— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) July 2, 2013
Other great deals we love:
Logitech Bluetooth Illuminated Keyboard K810 $60 Shipped (Reg. $100)
Logitech Bluetooth Easy-Switch Illuminated Keyboard K811 (Mac version) $73 Shipped (Reg. $100) http://t.co/s6IWOU2uso
— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) July 2, 2013
We were the first to report that iOS7 notifies users that they were using non-certified 3rd party Lightning cables in iPhones and likely iPads and iPods as well. Apple currently still allows these cables to charge and sync data with iOS devices but if Apple can detect these cables, that means they could also disable iOS 7 from using these cables in a future version of iOS.
One third party company called iPhone5mod (coincidentally, the company that made the cable used to demonstrate iOS7 warnings in the images here) says it has a way around Apple’s warnings and theoretically around detection at all…
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Numerous global sites are running images this morning with what the posters claim are plastic backings of upcoming ‘value’ iPhones. Because of the lack of any evidence that these are real we’re running these only for discussion. As Mark said last night, these could be anything.
https://twitter.com/markgurman/status/341290891761303554
The above image appears to have a Lightning cable inserted but no markings on the back while the below image seems to show another look at the back.
Nowhereelse.fr applied filters to the top image and from that it appears that the plastic iPhone shell is just a case…
In other unlikely iPhone 5S news, Apple.hdblog.it thinks it has found a bunch of the iPhone 5S parts we’ve been seeing for the past few months:
