New Lightning Connector – Smaller. Smarter. Durable.Reversible
It has been rumoured, now its official. Apple has redesign the old 30-pin connector with something smaller, newer and better –Lightning Connector. A new way to get connected. According to the company, the introduction of this new connector was essential to get the iPhone 5 thinner. The new connector is all digital, eight signal design.
[pullquote]smaller, newer and better.[/pullquote]
According to Apple website:
Making iPhone 5 thinner and lighter required a pivotal change: replacing the 30-pin connector with something newer, smaller, and better. Introducing the Lightning connector. It features an all-digital, eight-signal design that’s significantly more durable than the 30-pin connector. Another brilliant feature of Lightning: It’s reversible. Which means there’s no wrong way to plug in the cable.
Lightning Connector will need adapters
Despite the name ‘Lightning’, the new connector does not support any of the high speed standard such as Thunder Bolt and/or USB 3. For those with old 30 pins cables, Apple has introduced a new 30-pin adapter (sold separately). According to Apple, there will be some limitations in functionality with the new adapters.
The price for new adapters are as follow:
- Lightning cables, priced at $19/£15.
- The Lightning to 30-pin adapter costs $29/£25
- Lightning to micro-USB Adapter, which costs £15, or 19 Euros.
The Lightning to 30-pin adapter lets you connect devices with a Lightning connector to 30-pin accessories. It can support for analog audio output, USB audio, as well as syncing and charging. Video output not supported.
Apple plans to introduce new adapters to support video output in the future. These will include Lightning to HDMI and VGA cables in the coming months for both audio and video out.
Sources: Digitaltrends, Apple
