14 DAY TRIAL // Carrying around a cable to ensure that you can juice up your brand new iPhone 5 anywhere may prove cumbersome and energy consuming. That’s your energy, not the one coming out from wall sockets. And Apple has a solution for that.
The Cupertino, California-based computer company has officially kicked off sales of its Lightning to Micro USB Adapter which lets you charge up and sync your new-generation iDevice using nothing more than a traditional micro-USB connection.
That’s right, all you need to do is carry around this tiny piece of plastic the size of a peanut and wherever there’s a guy or gal with a micro USB cable, just ask them to lend it to you for a while.
Apple’s marketing pitch states, “Use this adapter to connect an iPhone, iPad, or iPod with Lightning connector to a micro USB cable to sync and charge, or to a compatible micro USB charger to charge your device.”
The hardware sells for a not-so-affordable $19.00 in the U.S. and €19.00 in the EU.
Apple’s Lightning to Micro USB Adapter works with iPhone 5, iPod touch (5th generation), iPod nano (7th generation), iPad (4th generation) and iPad mini.
Non Apple-fans are already jumping on the hate bandwagon to point out that, “…yes. Any micro USB cable will work just fine.”
While that’s essentially true, this type of connection will only facilitate simple tasks like charging the phone, or syncing your music library.
However, other features – like iPod out mode – will not be supported, as one commenter points out on Apple’s website.
The 8-pin array isn’t there just for charging and syncing, but it is reduced to that via a regular USB connection.