User guide
Page 5
Six Useful Apple Accessories
by Josh Centers
T
here are endless mountains of accessories for
your Apple products, and, let’s be honest, most
are junk. If you’ve been in the Apple world for
any length of time, you’ve probably accumulated
a closet full of iPhone cases, adapter cables, key-
boards, screen protectors, and other bric-a-brac.
After over a year of being a professional technology
writer, I’ve amassed far more than my fair share of
crud, but I have found six gizmos that truly do im-
prove my everyday Apple experience.
Skiva USBLink Duo 2-in-1 Cable – The Lightning
port found in Apple’s newer iPhones, iPods, and
iPads is great,
providing quick
charging and uni-
directional inser-
tion. But as with
many things Apple,
it’s nonstandard.
Most devices from
other companies,
such as Amazon’s
Kindles and An-
droid phones, and
even iPhone battery packs and iPad keyboard cases,
charge using a micro USB plug.
If you’re primarily an Apple household, it might
not make much sense to keep a micro USB cable
plugged in all the time. That’s where Skiva’s inge-
nious USBLink Duo 2-in-1 Cable comes in handy.
On the surface, it appears to be a normal one-meter
Lightning cable, but when you remove the cap, a
micro USB plug is revealed underneath. The USBLink
Duo 2-in-1 retails for $15.99, but availability is lim-
ited.
MagCozy -- Speaking of proprietary Apple cables,
do you have one of those MagSafe to MagSafe 2
converters to use your older Apple power supplies
with newer MacBooks? That adapter is tiny, and eas-
ily lost, which is where MagCozy comes in.
Similar to the de-
sign of the afore-
mentioned Skiva
cable, the MagCozy
tethers the Mag-
Safe 2 adapter
to your MagSafe
cable, whether it’s
a T-style or L-style.
You can attach and
detach the adapter
at any time, but it
remains secured to your cable — and out of your
couch cushions. The MagCozy comes in seven colors
(including Glow in the Dark), and costs $9.99 for two.
Lenmar Meridian -- I wouldn’t want to use one all
the time, but a battery case for your iPhone is handy
to have when travel-
ing and in case of
emergency.
Before I left for Mac-
world/iWorld 2014,
I picked up the Len-
mar Meridian iPhone
5 Power Case ($89
list; $65 at Amazon),
which came recom-
mended by The Wire-
cutter. It’s about half the price of the popular Mophie
Juice Pack Plus, and has a beeer battery —2,300
mAh versus the Juice Pack’s 2,100 mAh.
The few times I’ve had to use it, the Lenmar Meridian
has served me well, giving me a full 24 hours of bat-
tery life without a full recharge, and without being
too obtrusive. Unfortunately, it doesn’t t the iPhone
5c.
iSlip Lite – The rst time I saw the iSlip Lite from
Cooper Product, I found myself asking, “What the
heck is this thing?” It’s an elastic band with micro-