Apple Is Letting Companies Make 3.5mm To Lightning Cables Now (9to5mac.com)

Apple has updated the specs for its Made-For-iPhone accessories program, letting accessory makers put USB-C ports on licensed devices, as well as create 3.5mm to Lightning cables for the first time. 9to5Mac reports: With the new specs, companies in the MFi program can now include USB-C receptacles on their officially certified iOS and Mac accessories for charging. That allows users to charge MFi accessories with a USB-C cable and or power adapter they might already have, for example, and also draw power from the USB port on a Mac using the same cable. It also has other advantages for manufacturers. Apple's documentation for the new specs lists battery packs and speakers as products that could benefit from using a USB-C receptacle. Products are also allowed to bundle USB-C cables with the MFi accessories, but manufacturers can opt to not include a cable or adapter and reduce their costs and or price in the process. Unlike with Lightning receptacles, Apple does not allow the port to be used for passthrough charging or sync of an iOS device. Also, new for accessory makers is the ability to create a Lightning to 3.5mm stereo analog audio output plug, which would allow users to go direct from the Lightning port to a 3.5mm input on another device.

Comments

Re:Uhm...

[BronsCon]

The surface-mount implementation of the lightning jack measures more than 3.5mm thick (the cable-end version is 3.4mm thick) and requires that the case be soldered flat to the board for stability, so it can't be installed in a cut-out in the board.

Meanwhile, there exist 3.5mm headphone jacks which exploit the fact that the plug is cylindrical and only have material on two sides, making them exactly 3.5mm thick. The recommended installation for these is in a cut-out in the board, to keep them from spreading open over time. I used to have an MP3 player that used one of these jacks, but it (the device, not the jack) became obsolete a few years ago, having been made in the late 90's.

So now we have the 3.6mm-plus-board-thickness Lightning jack and the 3.5mm-and-sits-in-a-board-cutout 3.5mm jack, and you still believe you can make the phone thinner with lightning?

You interested in owning any bridges or well known skyscrapers, by chance?