So the idea is that you leave the adapter plugged to the phone port at all times and then use the magnetic cable. You need one adapter per device, right?

(Sorry if questions are naive, I've never seen one of those).

Yes. I am using such adapter for many years now, every single device of mine are charged with the same cables. Headphones, keyboard, mouse, phones, portable speakers, iPad, android, simply everything. Quite convenient!

That's correct - I keep adapter plugged all the time (they are very slim) to my iphone 13 mini (but worked great even with my iphone xs) and another to airpods pro, micro-usb to my logitech mouse, and usb-c to my vape and android phone (I'm mobile dev). I just bought 2x such cables so that I have 2x lightning adapters and bought few to my family as gift so it's easy to share.

> If cable brakes [sic]…you just buy new one for 10$ instead of new phone for 1000$

Who is buying a whole new device if the cable breaks?? One still just buys a new cable…

I mean if connector brakes inside your phone - I had 2 iphones that was hard to charge even after cleaning the port. The idea is that you keep adapter inside the phone all the time so iphone female connector doesn't brake because of constantly plugging in and out charging cable.

Android pre USC-C had this problem bad since there was that little piece of metal in the middle of the port that had to make contact and it always got bent.

USB-C is less prone to this because the part that breaks is inside the cable now.

No it’s in the phone now, unlike how it was with lightning cables.

You could stick a toothpick inside a lightning port on a phone to remove pocket lint, you can’t do this with USB-C without a higher risk of damaging the phone.

USB-C on the phone side has a protrusion that slots inside the cable end the same as previous usb cables. This is the fragile part, but it’s still a big improvement over micro usb.

Before wireless charging/data xfer/debugging one had to physically plug the phones in for development in addition to wear and tear from charging so I’ve worn out the micro usb ports on many android devices.

I'm another voice for the "charging ports break all the time" brigade. I've replaced enough myself I'll look into this for me and my family.

You could also go the MagSafe/ Qi2 way, which is safer and officially supported.

It's worse for the battery though, because it heats up more while charging. Or rather, to compensate for that it has to charge slower to keep the battery safe.

And $60 per charger.

You don't have to buy the "official" one.

I've had (a different brand) of magnetic adapter break devices (it wasn't a cheap one either, it was the most expensive and highest rated at the time).

Something about the USB circuitry doesn't like how the magnetic adapters partially connect sometimes. I don't pretend to understand the failure mode but I have a very funky Valve Index controller now.

Hi, how long did you use it? I bought some knock-off version of magnetic adapter and it broke in a few weeks of active use, so I very curious about your expirience with it.

I have been using it for around 1.5 years. I'm iOS dev and nomad so I use it intensively every day. Definitely more often than typical user that plugs just 1-2 times a day - since I just don't like wireless Xcode debugging

I believe magsafe charges slower than the port, and I've also heard concerning things about the long term effects wireless charging has on battery health.

magsafe (the one apple call in iphone) is wireless charging and yeah it charges slower. But this magnetic charging with adapter is still wired connection and fast charges (20W) so it's faster and probably safer for battery. This more behaves as magsafe macbook connector (which is wired).

I’m sure there is plenty of anecdotal evidence out there that goes either way on this. I have an iPhone 11 Pro Max that’s almost 4 years now that I wirelessly change every night and the battery health is 83%. I think that’s pretty good for a device I constantly use every day. I’m still on the fence on getting a battery replacement from Apple while I still can, as this phone is still perfectly fine for my needs.

I'm in the same boat except that i bought one used. Battery health was also at 83% when i bought it, don't know what its now but lasting a full day so i dont care.

What do you mean "while you still can"? Will they discontinue battery replacements for the 11 at some point? At 80€ its a no brainer once the battery does start to deteriorate more

Actually I wasn’t aware that you can still get batteries officially replaced on older devices, it looks like they can go back as far as a 5S. I just assumed they cut off battery service once they stop updating iOS on a model.

Its fine for everybody's needs - unless youre shooting weddings or movies or something no one needs to spend 800+ USD on latest iphone, they can just buy one from a few gens back for less than half of that

I have similar anecdata. My iPhone X still has 88% battery capacity. It still easily lasts a full day of light/intermittent use and gets charged each night on a wireless charger. The battery life is now noticeably shorter in cold weather.

This is just buying into yet another new standard which seems ultimately wasteful.

I’m glad it works for you but I personally am glad we’re trending towards usb-c, at least for the next couple of years, across most devices.

I'm still glad they are moving to usb-c but not going to clap my hands to Apple for that - but will clap EU for that. (will clap even more if EU with clab Apple with baseball bat with new battery repair law).

However if still someone consider buying this new iphone only for usb-c it's a good alternative to keep old phone and save money (since there was almost no innovation since iPhone X especially in non-pro models).

I've tried similar devices and they're only good for charging. Try to push any data through it and there will be all sorts of slowdown and erratic data transfer issues.

I'm iOS dev - I use such cable for data transfer (programming via Xcode) every day. Also no problem with syncing images with photos.app. Also no problem with fast charging - I recommend some well known brands.

But if you need usb 3.0 speed then you will need new iphone 15 pro

I'm too scared of these slow and long charging things wrecking my battery life over two years of consistent use.

If anything, slow charging is better for the battery.

I loved my magnetic adapters, got them off of amazon for quite cheap. The same "brand" didn't produce tips that fit lighting AND usb-c, but by carefully looking at the product images I found two "brands" that seemingly used the same design and had compatible tips.

The problem was, though, that the magnets were too weak - they would constantly disconnect

Doesn't really matter. I would even argue that its more environmentally friendly to switch expensive phones more often.

(of course just a thought but!)

IF people can buy a cheap phone or an expensive but older phone, the older phone still works often better than a new cheap phone. So when he 'upgrades' the old phone gets reused and saves one cheap phone.

Do not use those cables under any circumstances. They're not safe. The USB spec is not designed to accommodate chargers like that and they're a fire hazard.

Hackernews comment that put it better than me. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35436727

Who buys a new phone if the cable breaks?

I wouldn't recommend this.

I bought into the 'Volta' ecosystem and the adapters started degrading within 6 months. I would only trust a product from a major electronics producer, not these random brands on Amazon. If none of the big players have this as a product, it smells of a reason why it isn't a thing. Otherwise, I really wanted it to be. I hate the damage plugging cables in and out of devices does to the phone's power sockets over time.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37485328.