Regardless of how many USB ports your devices seem to have, you are always short a couple of ports. Now the creators of the Infinite USB cable believe they have solved the problem once and for all.

The promise is that you can keep connecting their nesting USB cables (plugging one cable into another cable over and over). The idea sounds incredible at first but... Remember that most USB ports have limited power which means you will quickly make become unable to power the USB devices you are plugging into them. This means that you wouldn't be able to keep chaining cables to your hearts content. At most you would be able to plug 2 maybe 3 of them (if you are lucky).

$12 get's you a MicroUSB while $14 get's you an Apple Lightning cable. There is a USB Type C cable in the works which may be the best option.

See it on Kickstarter (link)

Best Lightning Cable for iPhones and iPads

January 12, 2015technologyEdward Kiledjian

Every Apple mobile device user (iPhone, iPad or iPad mini) needs lightning cables. A question I receive regularly is:

“Aren’t all Lightning cables the same? They all look alike”

The reality is that you can buy a lightning cable on sites like Aliexpress.com for around $US2 from ads like this.

But should you? The answer is a resounding NO!

Although most lightning cables look alike, they are very different on the inside and it is the inside that really counts. Bad cables will break quickly and even charge slower. Remember that every "real" Apple certified MFI lightning cable includes a special control chip that is only sold by Apple. The cheap $2 cables do not include an original Apple provided chip (the cheapest ones forego the chip which means your device will flag it as an uncertified accessory and some have counterfeit replica chips).

The best lightning cable

I have written and twitted about Monoprice for years now so it should be no surprise that my favorite (best value) lightning cable comes from them. When you look at the design of the cable (on the inside), it is built as good as the original Apple cable.

The original Apple one costs $7 more.

Before anyone asks the question, I did look at other competing cables from other name brands and the Monoprice is the best.

Runner up to best lightning cable

If for some reason the Monoprice cable is not available, my next favorite cable is the Anker lightning cable:

It is built almost as well as the original Apple product or the Monoprice cable. The Anker lightning cable charges devices just as fast also. I have tested a handful of Anker products so far (batteries, AC wall plugs, etc) and have been fairly impressed with the quality of their wares.

You can get the Anker cable directly from Amazon (link).

Best short travel lightning cable

My favorite short travel or everyday carry lightning USB cable is the HelloNomad NomadKey I have written about before (link). It is small, lightweight and very durable (although a bit pricey at $29).

Best Hybrid Lightning Cable

There is one last category of cable I want to talk about and that is the hybrid micro-USB and lightning cable. My first experience with a hybrid dual use cable was many years ago when I had an iPhone 4 and bought the Innergie Magicable Trio

It was an expensive ($30) but well designed cable that travelled around the world with me for years. Innergie did release the MagiCable Duo with Lightning (link) recently but I haven't had a chance to test it out yet so I can't recommend it just yet. This new cable costs $29.

Since you probably have dozens of micro-USB cables already scattered across your house, another option is to buy Apples Lightning to Micro-USB adapter

For $11, you can convert any of your existing micro-USB cables to a makeshift lightning cable (charges and syncs). This is an adapter that I own and carry when I travel because it means one of my cables can be dual use (micro or lightning). It is small and incredibly solidly built.

Again don't buy the cheaper micro-USB to lightning adapters (from AliExpress.com, DHGate.com, DealExtreme, Amazon, etc) because most of them don't have an authentic Apple issued Lightning connector chip. Pay a couple of dollars more to protect your $500-700 investment (ipad or iphone).

25% coupon code for all Nomad products

June 17, 2014technologyEdward Kiledjian

There is a saying in photography

“The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You”

— Chase Jarvis

A $5,000 super sophisticated camera doesn't help you capture that special moment if it isn't with you. This is why smartphone photography has really taken the world by storm (since our smartphones are always with us).

I have the same issue with charging cables. Over the years I have bought hundreds of cables ranging from cheap chinese knockoffs to expensive high quality manufacturer sold ones. Regardless of the cable, they never seemed to be with me when I really needed them or were a hassle when travelling.

NOMAD HAS BOTH LIGHTNING AND MICRO-USB TIPS

That is until I met the ChargeKey (pictures above). This thing is always with me ready to charge my iPhone. You should read my review of the ChargeKey (link).

Nomad also has a ChargeCard which offers the same convenience in an easily walletable card format.

“The Nomad ChargeKey has been on my keychain getting beaten up in my pocket for 4 months now and it works perfectly and looks like new.”

— Edward Kiledjian

SAVE 25% off Any Hello NOMAD product this week

Order any product from helloNomad.com and use code "LIVESIMPLE" (without quotation marks) to save 25% off your order. It's a great time to stock up.

All Nomad Lightning cables are Apple MFI certified so they are guaranteed to perform.

Shipping is free for the US, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia. It's $5 anywhere else.

Best Travel USB and Lightning cable - Chargekey

April 21, 2014technologyEdward Kiledjian

I have tested lots of USB and lightning cables but most of them die a quick and horrible death from the extreme pressures of travel. Most end up broken, cracked or otherwise unusable.

That's until I discovered the wonderful Chargekey from Nomad.

I wrote a review about it (link) that I encourage everyone to go read. In summary it is a durable, flexible, keychain attacheable USB or lightning cable that goes everywhere with you.

I have tested other ChargeKey clones from Amazon, DHGate, DealExtreme and AliExpress but none of them are build as solid as the original ChargeKey. For an Everyday Carry (EDC) USB or lightning cable, the ChargeKey gets a 5 out of 5 from me.

Nomad ChargeKey extremely portable lightning cable review

March 12, 2014technologyEdward Kiledjian

My smartphone has become so indispensable to me, I typically travel with a portable charger and an Apple lightning cable on me all the time. My smartphone is used for entertainment, news consumption, communication and navigation.

Needless to say, the battery and cable take valuable pocket space. My poor lightning cables typically don't last too long... The designers over at Nomad recently released a product that really caught my attention, the ChargeKey.

It is a short, flexible, key-chain attachable lightning cable. They also offer this little device with a micro-USB tip for Samsung, HTC and Nexus users.

Design

As you can see in the above images, one side has a USB connector (for your MAC, PC or portable battery pack) and the other has a lightning or micro-USB connector. The plastic holding those connectors in place is nice and rigid (the key chain loop is also rigid plastic).

The plastic bridge holding both connectors together is made from a soft flexible plastic. This is one of the design decisions that really works well. The flexibility of this peace means it is much less likely to break in your pocket.

You can see the size comparison of the Chargekey compares to a Roam Mobility "dumb" phone and a portable iPhone microphone.

It is also very thin (thinner than most of your keys). The little hockey stick like angle tip means it is a little larger than the typical key but not by much. The shape and design of this means that you won't know its on your keychain until you need it.

Use

Its a short USB to lightning cable that is always with you. Plug one end into a power source and the other into your device. Its that easy. I tested it with a MAC, a PC, a bunch of power bricks and the original Apple wall plugs. It worked with every one of the power sources and successfully charged an iPod, iPhone and iPad.

And YES! you can use this to sync with your phone to a PC. It is USB 2.0 so it is compatible with every PC in the market.

Durability

I am not known for being gentle and I carried this little device with me for a week. I bent it, squeezed it and generally torture tested it. and it continued to work.

The flexible plastic bridge meant I could angle the device when my iPhone and connected device weren't perfectly aligned. As I used it, I appreciated the small design decisions that make this thing a joy to use.

Conclusion

Small, portable and durable... Nice combination of qualities.

The device costs $25 and in the package, they give you instructions on how you can get another one for free. Whether you buy the lightning or micro-USB version of the ChargeKey, you won't be disappointed.

You won't use this with a wall charger too often because of its short length (which is by design). You don't want to dangle your $800 smartphone in the air. But that isn't the design purpose for this anyway.

I often test products and then forget about them and move on. The ChargeKey is now a permanents fixture on my everyday keychain. A 5 star rating by me.

You can order your very own directly from Nomad (link)

Infinite USB cables promise to add USB connectivity to your devices