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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. [...]
(Score: 2) by DavePolaschek on Saturday February 06 2021, @02:40PM
I haven’t had a single Lightning cable die on me before the phone did, in spite of using nothing but iPhones since the 3G.
Then again, I plug my phone in every night at the same charger next to my bed, and have used wireless charging as long as it’s been offered, so the lightning cable is plugged into the Qi pad most of the time, and doesn’t get strained from moving. Before wireless charging was available, I had a cradle that the phone sat in. Again, the Lightning cable didn’t move except when I had to dust under the cradle.
On road trips, I generally carry a Qi pad. Before that, I did wear out one Apple cable, but it was the old 30-pin connector, not Lightning, and I’m pretty sure it was the one that came with an original iPod that I used on the road with my iPhone 3G.