Apple Working On High Speed USB 3.0 Lightning Connector

Thanks to our trustful sources, we found out that the Apple company is trying to solve some compatibility issues, to be more exact the connection issues that appeared between its new Lightning connector and the high speed USB 3.0 . In order to replace its old 30 pin Dock connector, which has nearly a decade of usage, Apple launched in September 2012 along with the Iphone 5,? the new, improved and smaller Lightning I/O. The new device came, unfortunately with some compatibility issues between it and the already existing accessories. For instance, if you want to use it you will have to buy from Apple and adapter that costs between $29 and $39. This controversy even won a funny and sarcastic post from the guys at the Joy of Tech treatment.

We also noticed that Apple posted recently, an add in which they mentioned that they are interested in hiring a Senior Software Quality Engineer (USB). The new member will join the team for USB Connectivity Compliance QA. They also mentioned a few requests and qualities they are interested in, like? experience in testing the bus devices, for USB 3.0 and also for the older version 2.0. These were their exact words: “to help lead testing efforts on our exciting iOS and iPod product lines.?

Considering that all the new products from Apple, such as MacBooks and Macs contain now ports for USB which are compatible with USB 3.0 as well as USB 2.0 (a thing that we cannot extend to a variety of PC’s, since they usually have different ports for each type of? USB), we’re thinking that it won’t be long until the new Lightning connector will be compatible with USB 3.0 using a high speed connection for syncing data between Windows or? MAC computers, and new devices from the Lightning generation, like Iphone 5, new models of? iPads or iPod Touch devices.

In the present moment, if you choose to connect an iPhone5 to a Mac through the port USB 3.0, the only thing you will obtain would be a data transfer with a speed specific to an USB 2.0 port.? Even though (as you already got used by now) the jobs added by the Apple company are looked at with a pinched eyebrow, this time there is a big possibility for them to actually search for a manner in which to improve this kind of connectivity, in order to give its users full access to the usage of the USB 3.0 port.

The trademark called Lightning was bought by the Apple company? from Harley Davidson in November 2012, and after the modifications brought to it, it can reach, if used in the SuperSpeed mode, the amazing speed of 4.8 Gbps. We say amazing, because the previous USB 2.0 port could only reach 480Mbit/s data transfer speed, not to mention the port USB 1.0 which could only go until 12 Mbs.

We are going to present you a few of the adapter models that currently exist on the market, if you want to form an idea over what you’d need. If you want to acquire something from Apple’s online store, then you have the next options: the Lightning to micro-USB adapter which will cost you $19, an adapter for the Camera with two versions, Lightning to USB,? which costs $29 and? the Lightning to VGA adapter which costs $49. Available in Apple store you can also find the adapter for Lightning to SD Camera Reader, with $29.? Furthermore, the company called Cupertino recently released on the market a shorter adapter, of only 0.5 meter long, which also costs $19. This one is an adapter for Lightning to USB, and does the exact same job as its clone from Apple.

As we got used to so far, Apple always came with their own software? solutions for their devices, just as seen in this case. For instance, even if the connector Lightning is able to easily support the USB hosting, if you don’t have a special software installed on your iPad or iPhone, then you cannot use any of them as a portable USB drive, and you won’t be able to move information from the computers to one of those devices. Considering that the USB solution wasn’t good enough for this job, they chose to go ahead with their own solutions.

For example, Lightning connectors are reversible so they fit either way. Of course, Apple?s Lightning cables and adapters have a premium attached to them, with a few official and unofficial alternatives now appealing to price sensitive buyers.

We have to mention that the controversial Lightning connector is convertible, so it fits both ways. As you probably know by now, the official Lightning adapters and connectors wear premium features attached to the, but considering that in order to use the new USB model you have to pay extra, there were released on the market (both officially and unofficially), some alternatives for those who don’t want to pay too much for using this kind of tool.

In the picture below you can see some of these alternatives, the Lightning connectors released by the Griffin firm in November last year.

We can also add to the official accessory makers list the firm Scosche. They just released for the users their own Lightning chargers. On the other hand, in the unofficial list you can find the iPhone5Mod firm name, which sells these kind of cables at only half a price the official channels do.

We know from Mophie, one of Apple’s official accessory maker Mophie, that this program, the Lightning connector program is held secret and strict, as much as it can be.

One of the main reasons the Apple company is keeping it so strict, would be to stop the Chinese producers from bringing on the market cheaper versions of the Lightning products, which could also be harmful to the original devices.

More than that, in order to prevent this as much as they can, Apple even placed authentication chips in their cables, and they request an extra fee to the accessory vendors which sell official Lightning cables and adapters. They even placed serial numbers to all those adapters so they can easily know if their products are tested or used, and by whom.