Why does it seem like every new device has to have a new kind of charger cable? I have over 12 years of Apple products. I still have my original iPod. Over those 12 years Apple has used at least three different charging cables. This is only for my ‘I” products. My Kindle, Nook, Fitbit, Polar Watch (now my Apple Watch) use different kinds of cables. My husband and I have over 18 devices – and probably up to 50 cables.
I think we have at least 5 different kinds of charger cables. I don’t know the names of all of them so I call them fat, skinny, new iPad, really small, etc. My husband knows them as 30-pin, lightening cables, USB-C, and, mini-USBs and micro-USBs. it seems like there are variations on them. Some of the minis are ‘skinny’ (the opening is narrow) and some of them are fatter (the opening is wider).
It may not seem like that big of deal, but every time I want to charge something I have trouble finding the right cable. They are tangled together in a drawer like spaghetti or scattered somewhere around the house where a specific device was last charged. My husband gets frustrated when I can’t ask for the kind of cable I want. I ask, “have you seen the fat cable? You know the charger with the wide part that goes into my iPod?” He doesn’t understand that terminology. When I finally found it he said, “Oh, you mean the cable with the 30 pin connector.”
My husband and I try to sort the cables but within a day or two they are messed up and scattered again. When I can’t find a particular charger, I go to the backup supply of chargers: a paper grocery bag filled with chargers. That’s how many chargers we have. You’d say I should get rid of some of them, but it seems every time I have to charge a device, I can’t find the kind of charger I need. Last night I needed a 'fat' charger and only found two lightening cables and 2 mini (or micro) USBs. Now tonight when I need to charge my Kindle with a mini or micro-USB, I bet I’ll find two fat chargers and no mini or micro-USB.
To make matters worse when I am searching for a cable, I can’t always tell by looking which charger is going to work. It have to try to plug it into the device to see if it fits. The device charger hole, which is always a black hole, is so small I need my reading glasses to see it. Sometimes I end up having to try it both ways, turning it over if it doesn’t work one way.
I swore I’d do something about this. I thought about color coding the cables. But then I’d have to remember the color coding and that seemed to make the issue more complicated.
You might tell me to always keep the charger cable with the device. I’d respond, “it’s a mobile device. I carry it around. I put my iPad it in my purse when I go to the doctor to read while I’m waiting for my appointment.”
We have a wireless charger, but that doesn’t work on the devices with break-resistant covers. Plus, it doesn’t hold the bigger devices. Finally, we have too many smaller devices to fit on one charger.
Eventually I suppose all of the devices will be integrated and I won’t relay on separate devices and cables. But I like to read books or magazines on a larger device – the phone is too small. I’d have to flip pages every second. Also, I can’t imagine typing a blog on my iPhone or Apple Watch. You’ll say use dictation, but eventually I have to see what it looks like and edit the visual version.
Life was so simple when everything electrical used a two-prong plug. Younger people don’t even remember those days. You might not even remember the iPod, which Apple no longer sells, but I still find much more convenient when I’m exercising instead of carrying the phone.
Are we the only ones that struggle to manage our cables?
Has anyone solved this problem?
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