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posted by Fnord666 on Friday February 05 2021, @06:34PM   Printer-friendly

Apple may finally fix its flimsy iPhone charger cables:

Every iPhone user likely has had one Lighting cable fray [on] them. It's been an annoying issue, and one that's driven third-party sellers to create braided cables that can withstand more abuse.

It seems that Apple is at the very least researching ways to make its cables more resilient. According to a patent filing first noticed by AppleInsider, Apple has been working on a "cable with variable stiffness" that gets thicker toward the ports.

Lightning cables are known for having thick connector points. It's what Apple internally refers to as the strain relief sleeve. While the ends of Apple cables are meant to keep the cable from fraying, often those areas become pressure and kink points. Apple acknowledged as much in its patent filing.

"In addition to making the cable locally stiffer, the strain relief sleeve also makes the cable thicker at the ends. In some instances, the added thickness may not be desired," the patent filing reads.

To get around this, Apple is essentially designing a cable that has denser material toward the ends that tapers off. [...]


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 05 2021, @10:59PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 05 2021, @10:59PM (#1109445)

    I've had various Apple mobile devices for at least 7 years, and never have had a cable fray. What are y'all doing to them?

  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday February 06 2021, @02:31AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 06 2021, @02:31AM (#1109486) Journal

    What are y'all doing to them?

    Classy Apple G-strings, what else? (grin)

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 2) by helel on Saturday February 06 2021, @03:59AM

    by helel (2949) on Saturday February 06 2021, @03:59AM (#1109503)

    My partner used to chew through USB cables for their android phones, generally about three cables every two years, until they decided to switch to iPhone threeish years ago and haven't broken a cable since. I can't even imagine how much rougher everyone with these complaints must be on their gear. Maybe they like to use their phone and charger as nunchucks?