Here’s This is Apple’s new 8-pin Lightning connector, the replacement for the old 30-pin connector that you’ll be using to charge and sync new iDevices from now on. Older Apple gadgets can use it too — but only if you have the adaptor.
According to Apple, the Lightning connector is more durable, “adaptive”, and can be inserted with either side facing up. It’s 80 per cent smaller than the old 30-pin connector and costs $25 in Australia.
Before today, Apple had used a 30-pin connector with its iPhones and iPods since 2003, when the third-generation iPod switched over from FireWire.
The 30-pin connector was useful because it allowed Apple to use the connector to control accessories using only the iPod or iPhone in a way traditional USB connectors couldn’t. But over the years, all the old tech stuffed into it became too heavy and too spacious an anchor, so Apple tossed it all out.
And this is the adaptor you’ll need to buy for all of your deprecated gear. The iPhone 5 introduces a new, considerably smaller Lightning connector that’s incompatible with every single dock connector accessory Apple has ever released.
It’s available for pre-order for $35 starting today, and a 20cm cable version of the adaptor is available for those of you with iPhone docks at a cost of $45. But if you were hoping to use your new iPhone 5 with your old accessories next week, that’s apparently not going to happen because they won’t start shipping until October. [Apple Australia]
Image: GDGT