The company talks big about a beautiful vision of multi-purpose cables, carrying power in one direction, data in both directions, etc. They provide one of those cables...but it turns out that it only carries power. So, imagine if your airline was talking about the benefits of brushing your teeth with good toothpaste, and their provided teeth-cleaning kit just has a toothbrush.

Since Apple's shipping a "random USB cable" anyhow, it would make sense for them to ship the version of it that actually does all the things they've been advertising.