Lightning cords for the upcoming iPhone could be sporting a reversible Type-A USB connector
There isn’t a more annoying process than trying to insert a USB cable into a socket, figuring out it’s upside down, and flipping it over and over again until it fits. According to a new photo from professional leaker Sonny Dickson, Apple might be working on a solution for just this problem: A new reversible USB Type-A connector that works with standard USB ports found on almost every laptop and desktop computer.
Reversible USB port on the new Lightning cables! pic.twitter.com/bhVKjK3xKl
— Sonny Dickson (@SonnyDickson) August 17, 2014
No, the leaked picture has no relationship to the new USB spec published earlier this month describing reversible USB Type-C connectors. But the idea’s not totally out of left field: Apple filed a (rather detailed) patent application for a “Reversible USB Connector” in 2013 that describes an invention that looks strikingly similar to the leaked photo from Dickson.
The Dickson leak also backs up photos from a Chinese blog that shows Lightning cables with the same newfangled USB Type-A connector. Of course, as with all leaked photos and patent applications, the fact they exist doesn’t mean a new product is coming out, but based on the number and quality of leaks, this one feels likely. There are, after all, new iPhones and new iPads coming out this fall, and the current USB 2.0 Lightning cable can stand to be upgraded.
If Apple does end up shipping these new USB Type-A connectors this fall, making both ends of the Lightning cord fully reversible, it will be the first to have a dummy-proof smartphone cable that doesn’t care which way you plug it in.
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